Camilla Jessen
Explosive documents expose CIA officer’s role and reignite demands for transparency in Kennedy assassination case.
Freshly declassified documents have reignited one of the most enduring controversies in American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
A new trove of files released after pressure from President Donald Trump has revealed that the CIA actively concealed its connection to Lee Harvey Oswald, the man widely believed to have pulled the trigger in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
“This is big,” says journalist and JFK expert Jefferson Morley, who has studied the agency’s records for decades.
The CIA Agent with a False Identity
The documents specifically implicate CIA officer George Joannides, a high-ranking CIA officer who ran psychological operations out of the agency’s Miami office.
He operated covertly as a liaison to the Directorate of Revolutionary Activities (DRE), an anti-communist organization funded and directed by the agency.
Crucially, Oswald had contact with the DRE in the months leading up to the assassination. After Kennedy’s murder, the same group helped spread claims about Oswald’s supposed pro-Castro leanings.
What wasn’t known, until now, is that Joannides played a pivotal role in both the group’s activities and in managing its narrative.
According to the newly released files, Joannides used a false identity and carried a fake driver’s license during his involvement with the DRE.
Sabotaging the Investigation — Then Receiving Honors
Despite his prior connection to the DRE and Oswald, he was appointed as the CIA’s liaison to the congressional committee investigating the Kennedy assassination in the 1970s.
Rather than assist the probe, he reportedly withheld information and obstructed investigators, all while keeping his own background secret.
Two years after his covert role in stonewalling Congress, the CIA awarded Joannides one of its highest internal honors.
“This is classic CIA,” said journalist and author Gerald Posner, ac cited by TV4 Nyheterna. “They are never transparent. They lie, mislead and delay. And when the truth comes out, it looks very bad.”
Political Pressure Mounts
Among those demanding accountability is Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who is now helping to oversee the release and review of JFK-related documents.
“Joannides was one thousand percent involved in the CIA cover-up,” she told reporters, adding that the American people deserve the full truth about the events surrounding Kennedy’s murder.
The CIA insists that it has now released all relevant documents, without redactions, to the National Archives (NARA), calling the move a “historically open effort.”
But that hasn’t silenced critics.
Morley and other experts are calling for full transparency, with some praising former officials like John Ratcliffe and Tulsi Gabbard for their public support of continued declassification.
The JFK Records Act, passed in 1992, mandates the release of all government records related to the assassination.
