Shock Australian link as Trump releases JFK assassination files
Thousands of pages of previously classified documents relating to the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy have revealed a shock Australian link.
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Declassified top secret documents have revealed the US Embassy in Canberra received warnings about an assassination plot against President John F Kennedy in the months before he was killed.
The shock Australian link to the case was revealed as thousands of previously classified documents relating to the 1963 assassination of Mr Kennedy were released by the Trump administration.
A series of cables released reference anonymous calls made from a man purporting to be a Polish chauffeur for the Soviet Embassy in Canberra.
They also show parts of communications between ASIO boss Sir Charles Spry and the CIA Director in 1968 in which Mr Spry requests the information relating to the Canberra calls be kept secret.
“Sir Charles’ letter to you recommends against declassification of the Warren Commission document CD-371, which makes reference to our investigation of anonymous telephone calls to the Canberra Embassy before and after the assassination of President Kennedy,” one memo to the CIA director reads.
“I consider the points made by Sir Charles in his letter to be valid and accordingly recommend against the declassification of CD-971 in the foreseeable future”.
The documents reference calls made from a man purporting to be a Polish chauffeur for the Soviet Embassy in Canberra to the US Naval Attache in Canberra.
The man first called the embassy in Australia in 1962, a year before Mr Kennedy’s assassination, reporting a Soviet submarine carrying 400-500 soldiers was on its way to Cuba.
“He added there was a plot to pay one hundred thousand dollars to kill President Kennedy,” the memo stated.
“Behind the plot, he said, was the ‘Iron Curtain Countries’ and ‘Communist men in England, Hong Kong and probably some other countries”.
A day after Mr Kennedy was killed, the same man reportedly called back claiming the USSR had paid $100,000 for the president to be murdered.
The caller claimed two weeks prior to the assassination, he was present when an Australian man aged between 35 and 40 was handed a case, and went by the codename Vasyl Two.
A summary of the investigation into the caller stated Australian authorities came to the conclusion the man was “a crank”, saying their information suggested Soviet officers in Australia only used Soviet chauffeurs.
However, in another report titled “top secret”, the investigator concluded “while some aspects indicate individual a crank others seem more authentic. All parties, including ambassador feel matter should be investigated until additional facts are developed or existing leads have been exhausted”.
Historians hoping to uncover secrets about the decades-old case began poring over the tens of thousands of pages as they were uploaded to the National Archives but have warned it could be days before they know if they contain any startling new revelations.
While multiple investigations have concluded shooter Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, the assassination committed at the height of the Cold War has spawned dozens of conspiracy theories including allegations of involvement by the Mafia, Cuban operatives and even then Vice President Lyndon Johnson and the CIA.
Oswald shot Mr Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository on November 22, 1963, as he travelled in the Presidential motorcade alongside wife Jackie in Dallas.
Polling of the American public in the 60 years since the assassination has repeatedly shown the majority of people do not believe Oswald acted alone.
Throughout his election campaign, Donald Trump promised to release the remaining JFK files. More than six million pages have previously been released and only about one per cent had not been disclosed on national security grounds.
Historians who have studied the assassination for decades said it could be days before they know if the files hold any new information, warning the release was unlikely to uncover any new bombshell evidence.
More than 1100 PDF files were uploaded to the archives, including memos, letters and investigation statements, many labelled “top secret” and “eyes only”.
“We have a tremendous amount of paper,” Mr Trump said a day before the documents were released.
“You’ve got a lot of reading.
“I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything.”
Many of the new documents refer to previously known information about Oswald’s defection to the Soviet Union, his subsequent attempt to defect to Cuba and surveillance conducted on him by the US government.
Experts who have trawled the Kennedy assassination archives described the latest tranche as more “impenetrable” than previous document releases due to a lack of annotations, their age and how they had been copied.
Mr Trump issued an executive order in January ordering the JFK files, along with those relating to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr and former attorney general Robert F Kennedy, be made public.
“President Trump is ushering in a new era of maximum transparency,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said as the documents went online.
“Today, per his direction, previously redacted JFK Assassination Files are being released to the public with no redactions.
“Promises made, promises kept.”
Oswald never faced trial and was shot dead by club owner Jack Ruby on live television two days after the Kennedy assassination.
His death and the delayed release of documents relating to the investigation have long fuelled conspiracy theories that Oswald was part of a wider conspiracy.
Historians hope the latest tranche of documents can shed light on the assassin’s movements prior to the killing, who he was in contact with, and how much the CIA and FBI knew about the danger he posed to the President.
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Originally published as Shock Australian link as Trump releases JFK assassination files
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