50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: CIA's `Oswald Papers' Were Still Classified In 1990s

Although most members of the Love Generation were curious about Lee Oswald's possible relationship to the CIA, in the early 1990s the Clinton Administration was stilll not willing to de-classify the CIA's "Oswald Papers." According to the early 1990s book Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba And The Garrison Case by James DiEugenio:

"In 1976, a CIA document was releaased that noted Agency interest in recruiting Oswald. The document suggested that interviews should be held with him through the Domestic Contacts Division. Later, the Agency revealed it has a `201' (or personnel) file on Oswald...A 201 file would strongly suggest that Oswald was an agent...The file the agency had on Oswald was voluminous. It began with documents from 1959...The file itself contains 1,196 documents, some of them hundreds of pages long. Of these, more than 200 are still classified , almost 30 years [in early 1990s] after his death. Many of those released are heavily censored..."

Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald And U.S. Intelligence by Philip Melanson also noted in the early 1990s:

"Approximately 5 percent of the Warren Commission's papers remain secret after nearly 3 decades [in the early 1990s]...Numerous CIA documents are among the still-classified Commission records [in the early 1990s]. The Agency also refused [in the early 1990s] to release most of the data it provided to the House Assassinations Committee between 1976 and 1978."

Professor of Political Science Malanson also stated the following in the early 1990s:

"In 1984 I initated a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain Rockefeller Commission documents dealing with CIA activities in Dallas in 1963. The Commission papers are held by the Ford Presidential Library in Ann Aror, Michigan. Don W. Wilson, then director of the library, denied my request."

(Downtown 7/7/93)

CIA Put U.S. Writer Under Surveillance In 1990

When a Cincinnati alternative newspaper, East Side Weekend, published an article that revealed the CIA's apparent role in the elimination of President Kennedy, the author of the article--Robert Morrow--was apparently put under illegal CIA domestic surveillance. As Morrow noted in First Hand Knowledge: How I Participated In The CIA-Mafia Murder Of President Kennedy:

"...In 1990, I was asked by one of the alternative newspapers, called East Side Weekend, to write a story on why John F. Kennedy was really killed.

"The story came out on August 16, 1990, entitled `Did The CIA Kill Kennedy?' and...shook most of the midwestern community who read it. It also shook the CIA. Within days, I was under surveillance...The CIA even approached one of my friends, an ex-homicide detective, identified themselves as ex-CIA agents and queried him with regard to my activities."

(Downtown 7/7/93)