Australia’s ABC on JFK Files: Meh ...

Down Under's national broadcaster rather poo-poos JFK transparency pursuit

In a Feb. 1 piece entitled “The unredacted truth about America’s conspiracy theory obsession,” the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) essentially throws cold water on the idea that President Donald Trump’s executive order to declassify remaining government files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy will reveal anything of value.

(Image from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation article; art by Lindsay Dunbar.)

Calling the JFK assassination “the mother of all conspiracy theories,” the Antipodean version of the BBC says ongoing interest in JFK’s death is but another instance in a long history of American susceptibility to suggestions that we’re not getting the real story.

ABC, which is the national broadcaster of Australia, notes that a percentage of Americans believe that COVID vaccinations secretly contained microchips and that Michelle Obama is really a trans woman born as Michael.

Australia has its own version of the JFK mystery, the article points out: When former Prime Minister Harold Holt vanished while swimming in 1967, suggestions emerged that he had been a Communist spy and was whisked away by a Chinese submarine.

Warren Commission Story: Insufficient Closure

The piece concludes that certain segments of the public just can’t be satisfied that Lee Harvey Oswald did the deed:

“A conspiracy theory thrives in times of uncertainty — political, social and economic upheaval are perfect — and will be more successful if it confirms what people want to believe or find offers a satisfying conclusion to a messy question …. The result is that the most straightforward answer in the case of JFK — that Oswald was the shooter — did not offer sufficient closure on a shocking event like a political assassination that is difficult to comprehend.”

One fact-quibble: The ABC article says that “some have argued that the CIA — who had Oswald under surveillance for six weeks before he assassinated JFK — should have (realized) how unstable he was when he returned to the US from Mexico.” The CIA actually had Oswald under some form of surveillance for four years leading up to the assassination.

In fact, six weeks before the Dallas ambush, CIA headquarters in Langley told its bureau in Mexico City, which had monitored his alleged visits to the Cuban and Soviet embassies, that the 24-year-old former Marine was nothing to worry about.

Crikey!