Trump orders release of thousands of JFK files but blocks hundreds more

The John F. Kennedy assassination files reveal how the CIA and FBI spied on Cubans and agents from the Soviet Union looking for links to assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

But instead of finding some plot, in one bugged conversation, the Soviets were heard saying they weren't involved and Oswald was a "neurotic maniac”.

The US intelligence services were also watching the Cubans.

One Cuban agent speaking to another said for Oswald to have killed the president from up high in that Dallas building, "he must have been a good shot”.

The other indicated he was. "I knew him,” he said.

That no doubt will again feed into conspiracy theories.

That is certainly what happened back in 1991 when the Kevin Costner film ‘JFK’ fuelled so much speculation that Congress acted, voting to release all the documents by today.

The release also revealed an FBI document quoting a source inside the Soviet Union that said the Soviets believed the assassination was linked to some "well-organised conspiracy on behalf of the ultra-right in the United States to affect a coup" and the killing of Kennedy "involved several people”.

There was never any proof of that being true. According to Gerald Posner, author of bestseller ‘Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK,’ the many conspiracy theorists won't be satisfied.

"I would like to think that these documents would be a final answer where Americans could look at this case and say, okay, this is what happened," he said.

"But realistically, that's not going to happen."

At the last moment today came a surprise decision, with President Trump agreeing to withhold hold certain documents for national security reasons.

Only yesterday he was a strong proponent of getting all the information out.

"The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow. So interesting!" he tweeted. B

ut what is more interesting now is, why the dramatic last-minute change?

It appears US intelligence services say informants, identified in the files, should never be named.