Australia wanted CIA to keep 'Canberra link' to JFK assassination secret

KARACHI, Pakistan

Documents newly declassified by the Trump administration show that Australia's former intelligence chief lobbied to keep secret an investigation of anonymous phone calls to the US Embassy in Canberra around the time of the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The documents show that Charles Spry, then-head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, wrote to CIA Director Richard Helms in October 1968 recommending against public disclosure of the investigation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday.

Following an executive order by Trump, the US National Archives released 80,000 pages of declassified records on Tuesday related to the 1963 assassination.

The CIA had investigated several anonymous phone calls made to the US Embassy in Canberra just before and after the killing, which shocked the world.

The Warren Commission, the inquiry ordered by Kennedy’s successor Lyndon Johnson, contained a document referring to the CIA probe of a Canberra link to the plot against Kennedy.

"Sir Charles' letter to you recommends against declassification of the Warren Commission document … which refers to our investigation of anonymous phone calls to the Canberra Embassy before and after the assassination of President Kennedy," said a memo to Helms in November 1968.

Days later, Helms wrote to Spry reassuring him that there was "not, at the present time, any intention to release (the document)."

The Australian Security Intelligence Organization had been consulted by the CIA months earlier, in what Helms described as "anticipation of further pressure for the release of Warren Commission papers, a pressure which has not materialized."

Kennedy’s murder has been surrounded by conspiracy theories, despite official organizations, including the Warren Commission, concluding that it was the work of lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the late president’s nephew, now serving as Trump’s secretary of health and human services, has alleged CIA involvement in the assassination.

The documents, uploaded to a portal maintained by the National Archives, are part of a long-awaited effort to disclose all government records related to the assassination. Trump’s executive order, signed on Jan. 23, directed the full release of the remaining files, calling it a matter of public interest.

Several analysts studying the JFK assassination told US media outlets that the new documents are unlikely to reveal anything groundbreaking.

The FBI recently uncovered 2,400 previously undisclosed records related to the assassination found within 14,000 pages of documents during a review triggered by Trump’s executive order. These records may contain critical details about the investigation that were kept secret for decades.