Secret files on JFK assassination released
WASHINGTON: The US National Archives on Thursday released a long-awaited trove of secret files on the killing of president John F. Kennedy on orders of President Donald Trump.
Though some files were withheld on the advice of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), those released offered new insights into events surrounding the infamous assassination, AFP reported.
While many of the 2,891 records released are raw intelligence and uncorroborated, they are almost certain to reinvigorate rampant conspiracy theories about the Nov 22, 1963, slaying of Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.
One file said a British newspaper received an anonymous call about "big news" in the US - 25 minutes before the assassination, Sky News reported.
A memo to the FBI read: "The caller said only that the Cambridge News reporter should call the American Embassy in London for some big news and then hung up."
Details of the call were later given to police and British intelligence agency MI5.
One document from 1975 detailed how in the early days of Kennedy's presidency, the CIA offered US$150,000 to Italian-American mob boss Sam Giancana to organise the killing of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Another document included a transcript of a Nov 24, 1963, conversation with then FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
He said his agency informed police of a threat against the life of Kennedy's killer Lee Harvey Oswald the night before Oswald was murdered.
Police, however, failed to act, reported Reuters.
Mr Trump said in a memorandum he had agreed to hold back for further review some records relating to the killing following pushback from intelligence agencies.
He gave agencies six months - until April 26 next year - to make their case for why the remaining documents should not be made public.
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