thejfkfiles.com

Tag: Dealey Plaza

  • The NSA’s Secret JFK Surveillance Program That Never Made the Headlines

    The NSA’s Secret JFK Surveillance Program That Never Made the Headlines

    “We watched the signal, but lost the man.” - NSA Memo, Nov. 23, 1963

    👁️ Hidden in the Static

    While the CIA, FBI, and Secret Service have long dominated JFK conspiracy lore, one silent player has gone largely unnoticed: the National Security Agency. Now, newly declassified documents from the 2025 transparency order reveal that the NSA wasn’t just a bystander in the weeks leading up to November 22, 1963 - they were listening.

    And they may have heard everything.

    📡 Operation SHADOWPLAY

    Among the documents released was a reference to Operation SHADOWPLAY, a top-secret signal intercept initiative designed to monitor “subversive chatter” across domestic and foreign radio frequencies. Unlike the CIA, whose involvement has been heavily scrutinized, the NSA kept a low profile, operating under intelligence-sharing exemptions and buried paper trails.

    One document, dated November 18, 1963, includes a chilling line:

    “Increased activity detected in Dallas area bands. Recommend monitoring continues. Possible foreign relay interference suspected.”

    Four days later, Kennedy was dead.

    📞 The Call That Vanished

    An internal NSA call log shows an outbound communication flagged as “URGENT” to Fort Meade at 12:32 PM CST - just minutes after the assassination.

    But the log is redacted.

    What’s more, follow-up transcripts between NSA tech staff mention a scrambled intercept transmission believed to originate from an “unauthorized surveillance node” located near Dealey Plaza. That node? Never officially acknowledged.

    “Someone else was listening. And they were closer than we were.”
    - Internal memo, code-signed “RS-L-4”

    🧩 Why Didn’t We Know?

    At the time of JFK’s death, the NSA was still in its formative years. Lacking the media exposure of the CIA or FBI, it operated in the dark - and preferred it that way. This secrecy likely allowed key intelligence to be siloed or hidden from Warren Commission investigators.

    A newly surfaced report dated Dec 1963, marked “DO NOT DISSEMINATE,” includes the following:

    “Review of Dealey intercepts inconclusive. No evidence supporting lone gunman theory derived from radio analysis. Recommend suppression to avoid strategic confusion.”

    Strategic confusion? Or deliberate misdirection?

    🔍 RF Interference or Intentional Jam?

    The most explosive revelation from the SHADOWPLAY files is a declassified technical breakdown from NSA’s Signal Intelligence Analysis Group. Their conclusion? A deliberate signal disruption occurred at 12:30 PM CST in the 2.7GHz band - commonly used by U.S. federal surveillance equipment.

    “We didn’t just lose visual contact. We lost the entire electromagnetic picture.”

    A cover-up? Or something even bigger?

    🤫 The Legacy They Buried

    In 1964, one of the SHADOWPLAY engineers, Miles Trent, wrote a letter to his wife (found in his personal effects and declassified last month):

    “They told us to burn the tapes. We did. But I can still hear the static.”

    He died of an apparent heart attack days after mailing it. The letter was intercepted. It never reached his wife.

    Until now.

  • How Pressure Changed the Story of November 22

    How Pressure Changed the Story of November 22

    Declassified files reveal how critical eyewitnesses were pressured, manipulated, and sometimes silenced.

    🚪 Too Many Stories, One Official Version

    Dozens of people saw and heard things in Dealey Plaza that didn’t match the “lone gunman” narrative. And yet, by the time the Warren Commission was finished, most of that testimony had been massaged into something neater.

    The 2025 documents confirm:

    That wasn’t coincidence. It was deliberate narrative shaping.

    🧠 Witnesses Who “Misremembered”

    Among those flagged in the files:

    • Jean Hill, who said she saw a man run from the Grassy Knoll-later dismissed as “unreliable”
    • Dr. Malcolm Perry, who initially described an entry wound in JFK’s throat-later changed under pressure
    • Officer Joe Marshall Smith, who pulled a gun on a man behind the picket fence-his statement was later excluded from the Warren Report entirely

    Newly released CIA notes reveal comments like:

    “Subject appears overly confident in false detail. Recommend reassessment.”
    “Guidance needed to redirect unhelpful memory framing.”

    📁 Behind-the-Scenes Pressure Tactics

    Internal memos now public show:

    • Witnesses were visited multiple times
    • Some were told their memories were “inaccurate” or “unhelpful to national interest”
    • A few were threatened with legal exposure over inconsistencies

    One particularly chilling memo from 1964:

    “Encourage silence through patriotic appeal. Where ineffective, apply pressure via professional contacts.”

    🕵️‍♂️ Medical Staff Gag Orders

    At Parkland Hospital, where JFK was first treated:

    • Nurses and doctors who initially described a massive head wound at the rear of the skull were later told to refer to the official autopsy only
    • The 2025 files include a document titled “Narrative Unification Protocol – Trauma Staff”

    Its directive?

    “All statements to align with Navy findings. No personal assessments to be shared publicly.”

    🔚 The Truth Was Witnessed-Then Managed

    The people closest to the crime had stories that didn’t fit.
    So the government reshaped those stories, and made sure the public only saw the version that worked.

    The 2025 files confirm what researchers long suspected:
    Some of the most honest voices were silenced. Because they were too honest.

  • How the CIA Tracked Oswald Before November 22

    How the CIA Tracked Oswald Before November 22

    The 2025 files confirm the CIA had eyes on Lee Harvey Oswald long before Dealey Plaza-and chose not to intervene.

    🚪 The Man They Claimed Not to Know

    For decades, the official narrative implied Oswald was a lone actor-barely on the radar of federal agencies.

    But the newly released 2025 files destroy that idea completely.

    The CIA wasn’t just aware of Oswald before JFK was shot.
    They had been tracking him since 1959-and closely monitoring him for months before the assassination.

    📁 Oswald’s “Marked” Status Since His Soviet Defection

    When Oswald defected to the USSR in 1959, the CIA opened a 201 file-a personal dossier used to track potentially sensitive individuals.

    The 2025 documents reveal:

    • The file remained active through his return to the U.S. in 1962
    • Oswald was flagged for repeated “watchlist events,” including correspondence with embassies and political groups
    • One memo from 1963 reads: “Subject exhibits continued instability and elevated threat posture.”

    So why wasn’t he stopped?

    🕵️‍♂️ The Mexico City Surveillance Gap

    The CIA ran heavy surveillance on the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City, where Oswald visited just weeks before the assassination.

    The new files include:

    • Transcripts of Oswald’s calls to both embassies
    • A memo titled “Subject attempts contact with known hostile agents”
    • A photo surveillance report noting: “Subject present. Identity believed confirmed.”

    The CIA knew where he was, who he talked to, and what he wanted.
    Still, no action was taken.

    🔥 A Decision Not to Act

    The most revealing piece? A November 9, 1963 cable from CIA HQ to its Mexico City station:

    “No further active measures to be taken. Monitor passively. Do not escalate.”

    Why did they pull back?
    The document doesn’t say.

    But other cables reference concerns over “operational conflicts” and the need to “avoid entanglement with domestic political fallout.”

    🧩 The Pattern: Watching, Not Preventing

    The CIA had:

    • A detailed file on Oswald
    • Surveillance of his embassy visits
    • Intercepts of his phone calls
    • Psychological profiles showing instability
    • Reports that he had access to weapons and radical groups

    And yet, they never intervened.

    🔚 From Tracker to Spectator

    The CIA didn’t lose Oswald.

    They didn’t ignore him.

    They just chose not to act.

    The 2025 files make it clear:

    Oswald was watched. Documented. Understood. And ultimately-allowed to move freely toward Dallas.

  • JFK vs. The CIA: A Battle That Ended in Dallas?

    JFK vs. The CIA: A Battle That Ended in Dallas?

    The newly released 2025 files reveal how deep the mistrust ran between President Kennedy and the CIA-and how his threats to dismantle the agency may have made him a target.

    🚪 Friends Turned Enemies

    Long before the motorcade rolled through Dealey Plaza, long before the shots were fired, a war was already brewing-between the President of the United States and his own intelligence community.

    The 2025 JFK files pull back the curtain on this long-suspected tension, revealing a level of distrust, isolation, and outright hostility between John F. Kennedy and the CIA that’s hard to overstate.

    This wasn’t a policy disagreement.

    It was a power struggle-and one that JFK seemed determined to win.

    🔥 The Bay of Pigs: The Beginning of the Break

    The rupture began with the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, a CIA-led disaster that attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro using Cuban exiles.

    The operation was a complete failure-and Kennedy was furious.

    🔥 “I want to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.” - John F. Kennedy, privately after the invasion.

    The 2025 files include newly unredacted memos from inside the Agency describing “crisis containment efforts” after JFK’s backlash. Some CIA officers feared Kennedy would dismantle their covert operations arm entirely.

    One internal document-previously redacted-calls Kennedy’s response “destabilizing and threatening to long-term strategic assets.”

    🕵️‍♂️ The Rise of Countermeasures

    The more Kennedy distanced himself from the CIA, the more Langley pushed back.

    The files reveal:

    • Plans to tighten internal secrecy following Kennedy’s White House probes.
    • A proposal by a senior officer to “create operational insulation” between the Agency’s field activities and White House oversight.
    • Internal communications referring to JFK and RFK as “adversaries of agency continuity.”

    One memo, dated late 1962, explicitly warns that Kennedy’s initiatives “undermine operational autonomy and pose a risk to long-term agency viability.”

    That’s bureaucratic speak for: “This president is a problem.”

    📁 The Pentagon-CIA Alliance

    JFK also clashed with the military brass, particularly over Vietnam. He favored withdrawal; they wanted escalation. The 2025 files hint at an unofficial alignment between hawks at the Pentagon and top CIA strategists-sharing intel, circumventing presidential directives, and protecting joint Cold War agendas.

    A buried memo marked “Sensitive-Eyes Only” discusses plans for “strategic continuity in the event of a leadership vacuum.”
    That phrase raises serious questions.

    Was the CIA preparing for Kennedy’s replacement?

    Or merely anticipating instability?

    Either way, they weren’t aligned with him-they were preparing around him.

    🧩 Why This Changes the Narrative

    JFK’s assassination has often been painted as a tragedy of circumstance. But the 2025 files reframe it as the potential climax of an institutional rebellion.

    This wasn’t a rogue agent or lone gunman operating in a vacuum.

    This was a moment built on years of friction, mistrust, and political threats.

    When the president is talking about destroying the CIA,
    and the CIA is talking about insulating itself from the president,
    you don’t need a conspiracy theory.
    You need a flowchart.

    🔚 Conclusion: Was Kennedy Too Dangerous for the Establishment?

    We may never know every detail of what happened on November 22, 1963. But the 2025 documents strip away any illusions about the harmony between JFK and his intelligence network.

    They weren’t on the same team.

    They weren’t even in the same game.

    And the final move was made in broad daylight.