Last Thursday and Friday, The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) slowly released thousands of files from the mysterious President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records. This comes in accordance with the JFK Records Act of 1992 that called for the records’ release 25 years after October 26, 1992. The released records contain some interesting information. For example, they suggest it is unlikely there was Russian or Cuban involvement in the assassination. They suggests that Russian officials believed Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone and had evidence that Lyndon B. Johnson was responsible for the assassination. They even contain a log of Hitler sightings in Argentina after the war, including a photo (though it was likely a hoax). The NARA released much more interesting information, and I suggest browsing through this collection of finds by Reddit users.

However, it is not the information that was released that troubles me most (though there is some very troubling information). What troubles me are the files that weren’t released. On Friday, President Trump tweeted this assurance:

#JFKFiles pic.twitter.com/AnPBSJFh3J
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 28, 2017

Soon after, from Trump’s memorandum:

“Executive departments and agencies (agencies) have proposed to me that certain information should continue to be redacted because of national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns. I have no choice — today — but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our nation’s security.”

By “executive departments and agencies” he means the CIA. When he announced he would be releasing ALL JFK files, they quickly intervened and extended the redaction on a huge chunk of the files. Many released documents are simply the cover pages of files up to 1,000 pages long. The most intriguing exclusion to me can be found in lines 17-25 of the last page of this file. The deposition cuts off after the interviewer asks Richard Helms, who was the CIA director at the time, about possible CIA involvement in the plot to assassinate JFK. I find it interesting that the released JFK files rule out Russian involvement and Cuban involvement, but on the subject of the CIA’s involvement, they are silent.

People like to joke about conspiracy nuts thinking the CIA is behind everything, secretly running society from the shadows. But history has shown the CIA repeatedly secretly funding wars to influence governments abroad and performing human experiments on unwilling American and Canadian citizens. Even today, when these secret projects are out in the open, the damage control is visible. I, for one, was never taught about MKUltra, and were it not for the internet, wouldn’t even know it existed. The CIA still has the ability to withhold any information at all by branding it a “threat to national security.” Its members are unelected and are subject to a much more relaxed set of rules than other American citizens. So while the released JFK files are definitely a step in the right direction and reveal some critical information, remember that the released files conform to the CIA’s carefully censored narrative.

For the first time in my life, I agree with Donald Trump on something. Regarding the increased redactions, a White House official said Trump believed “the agencies” were “not meeting the spirit of the law.” If the JFK Records Act and the time-capsule regulations on classified documents can’t stop the CIA from keeping secrets, nothing can. The released JFK files answer some questions, but they also raise so much more.