国家安全高层官员为争夺肯尼迪总统文件而展开的 24 小时争夺战
【中美创新时报2025 年 3 月 21 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）特朗普总统周一宣布，他将在 24 小时内公布与刺杀肯尼迪总统有关的 80,000 页文件，他的国家安全团队对此感到震惊，不得不仓促应对。据知情人士透露，中央情报局局长强调，一些文件与遇刺总统无关。《纽约时报》记者Tyler Pager 和 Maggie Haberman 对此作了下述报道。
自 1 月份特朗普签署行政命令以来，政府官员一直在努力公布这些记录。但周一下午，特朗普在访问约翰·肯尼迪表演艺术中心时表示，这些文件将于次日公布，但这一过程仍在进行中。
到周二晚上，大约有 64,000 份文件被公开——比特朗普估计的要少——一些国家高级国家安全官员在极端的最后期限压力下花了数小时试图评估任何可能的风险。
据四位了解讨论情况的人士称，中央情报局局长约翰·拉特克利夫一直在向高级政府官员强调，一些文件与肯尼迪无关，是在暗杀事件发生几十年后制作的。知情人士表示，特朗普希望确保其他官员充分了解这些文件的内容，不会措手不及，但他明确表示不会试图阻止任何文件的发布。由于涉及敏感的内部审议，这些知情人士要求匿名。
特朗普周一下午发表讲话后不久，国家安全委员会官员迅速召开电话会议，制定计划，盘点哪些文件仍需保留。此次发布必须与国家档案和记录管理局协调。知情人士说，一些官员担心匆忙发布这些文件会带来意想不到的后果，包括泄露敏感的个人信息，例如仍然在世的人的社会安全号码。
参与解密过程的官员表示，几十年来，文件数量大大增加，因为随着对肯尼迪相关材料的每次调查，与这位遇刺总统无关的信息都被纳入其中。据一位了解解密过程的人士称，在某些情况下，这些文件包括肯尼迪死后几十年创建的文件。
“特朗普总统承诺公布所有肯尼迪总统的文件——他正在履行这一承诺，”白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特在一份声明中表示。“任何对此感到惊讶的人要么没有注意，要么故意无知。”
周一，当被问及他是否知道这些文件的内容时，特朗普表示他“听说过”，但没有收到执行摘要。
“我没有做摘要，”他说。
国家安全委员会和中央情报局的发言人拒绝置评。国家档案馆的发言人没有回应置评请求。
几十年来，历史学家和阴谋论者都强烈要求提供有关肯尼迪之死的更多信息。1992 年的一项法律要求政府在 25 年内公布与刺杀事件有关的文件，但可能危害国家安全的文件除外。
2017 年，特朗普公布了一些额外的文件，但他也给了情报机构更多时间来评估这些文件并进行删减。前福克斯新闻主持人、特朗普的助手塔克·卡尔森 (Tucker Carlson) 表示，总统对这一决定感到后悔，特朗普将公布这些文件的努力视为对美国人民长期承诺的履行。
就在几年前，特朗普表示，他对这些文件没有太大兴趣，而历史学家和他的许多助手几十年来一直想看这些文件。2021 年 9 月，在接受《纽约时报》记者采访时，特朗普表示，他对这些文件“不那么好奇”。
“我这么做是因为我觉得这样做是合适的，”他解释了为什么他在第一任期内寻求解密这些文件。“当你拥有如此神圣的秘密时，这确实听起来很糟糕。我认为他们可能做对了，很可能做对了。让人们去检查吧。”
但特朗普身边的许多人，包括卡尔森和特朗普任职时间最长的政治顾问罗杰·斯通 (Roger J. Stone Jr.)，多年来一直游说总统下令公布所有文件。
“坐在办公桌前的那个人被谋杀了，之后的每一任总统都隐瞒了原因和凶手，”卡尔森在周二的一次采访中说。“你怎么能这样生活？”
肯尼迪的遇刺长期以来一直引发阴谋论，包括特朗普本人所纵容的一些阴谋论。他还利用了人们对暗杀的兴趣，因为这是政治上的权宜之计。
当罗伯特·F·肯尼迪二世（其父亲也遇刺身亡）于 8 月支持特朗普时，特朗普再次承诺公布与肯尼迪父子遇刺有关的所有文件，并成立一个独立委员会研究暗杀企图，包括去年在宾夕法尼亚州巴特勒刺杀特朗普的企图。
“这是对鲍比的致敬，”特朗普说。
他补充道：“从来没有这么多人问我，‘先生，请公布肯尼迪遇刺案的文件’，我们会这么做的。”
在 2016 年总统竞选期间，特朗普曾一度声称德克萨斯州参议员泰德·克鲁兹的父亲在肯尼迪总统遇刺前不久曾与李·哈维·奥斯瓦尔德在一起。
“你知道，在奥斯瓦尔德被枪杀之前，他的父亲和李·哈维·奥斯瓦尔德在一起，”特朗普在 2016 年 5 月接受福克斯新闻采访时表示，当时他正在与克鲁兹角逐共和党提名。“我的意思是，整个事情都很荒谬。这是怎么回事？在他被枪杀之前，没有人提起这件事。他们甚至不谈论这件事。这件事被报道了，但没有人谈论它。但我认为这太可怕了。”
周一，特朗普参加了肯尼迪中心的一次董事会会议，他通过任命自己为主席并安插忠诚分子来彻底改革这个机构，其中包括理查德·格雷内尔，他在特朗普第一任期的最后一年曾短暂担任国家情报局代理局长。在离开时，特朗普说他有一个“重大声明要宣布”。
“我们在这里，我认为这是合适的，”他说。“我们明天将宣布并提供所有肯尼迪档案。所以——人们已经等待了几十年。”
题图：一张约翰·肯尼迪总统坐在敞篷车里的黑白照片。几十年来，历史学家和阴谋论者都要求提供更多关于约翰·肯尼迪总统之死的信息。来源：美联社
附原英文报道：
Inside the 24-Hour Scramble Among Top National Security Officials Over the J.F.K. Documents
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency emphasized that some documents had nothing to do with the assassinated president, according to people familiar with the discussions.
A black-and-white photo of President John F. Kennedy sitting in an open-top convertible car.
For decades, historians and conspiracy theorists alike have clamored for more information on President John F. Kennedy’s death.Credit…Associated Press
By Tyler Pager and Maggie Haberman
March 18, 2025
President Trump’s national security team was stunned and forced to scramble after he announced on Monday that he would release 80,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy with only 24 hours’ notice.
Administration officials had been working on releasing the records since January, when Mr. Trump signed an executive order mandating it. But that process was still underway on Monday afternoon when Mr. Trump, during a visit to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, said the files would be made available the next day.
By Tuesday evening, when about 64,000 files were made public — fewer than Mr. Trump had estimated — some of the country’s top national security officials had spent hours trying to assess any possible hazards under extreme deadline pressure.
John Ratcliffe, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, had been emphasizing to senior administration officials that some documents had nothing to do with Mr. Kennedy and were developed decades after the assassination, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions. He wanted to make sure that other officials were fully aware of what the files contained and would not be caught off guard, but he was clear that he would not seek to impede any files from being released, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations.
Soon after Mr. Trump spoke on Monday afternoon, officials at the National Security Council quickly convened a call to map out a plan to take stock of which documents still needed to be unredacted. The release had to be coordinated with the National Archives and Records Administration. Some officials raised concerns about unintended consequences of rushing the release of the files, including the disclosure of sensitive personal information like the Social Security numbers of people who were still alive, the people said.
Officials involved in the process of declassification said the number of files had expanded greatly over many decades because, with each investigation into Kennedy-related material, information that had nothing to do with the assassinated president has come under that umbrella. In some cases, that includes documents created decades after his death, according to one person with knowledge of the process.
“President Trump made a promise to release all of the J.F.K. files — and he is delivering on that promise,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “Anyone surprised by this hasn’t been paying attention or has been willfully ignorant.”
When asked on Monday whether he knew what was in the files, Mr. Trump said that he had “heard about them” but that he had not received an executive summary.
“I’m not doing summaries,” he said.
Spokesmen for the N.S.C. and C.I.A. declined to comment. A National Archives spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
For decades, historians and conspiracy theorists alike have clamored for more information on Kennedy’s death. A 1992 law required the government to release documents related to the killing within 25 years, except documents that could harm national security.
In 2017, Mr. Trump released some additional documents, but he also gave the intelligence agencies more time to assess the files and include redactions. Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News personality and associate of Mr. Trump, said the president came to regret that decision, and Mr. Trump has cast his effort to release the documents as the fulfillment of a long-held promise to the American people.
Just a few years ago, Mr. Trump said he did not have much interest in the files, which historians and many of his associates have wanted to see for decades. In an interview with a New York Times reporter in September 2021, Mr. Trump said that he was “not that curious” about the papers.
“The reason I did that was because I thought it was appropriate,” he said, explaining why he sought to declassify the files during his first term. “When you have something that’s so sacredly secret, it really makes it sound very bad. I think they maybe got it right, probably got it right. Let people examine it.”
But many people in Mr. Trump’s orbit, including Mr. Carlson and Mr. Trump’s longest-serving political adviser, Roger J. Stone Jr., have lobbied the president for years to order the release of all the files.
“The guy who sat at his desk was murdered, and every subsequent president has hidden why and by whom,” Mr. Carlson said in an interview on Tuesday. “How could you live like that?”
Kennedy’s assassination has long fueled conspiracy theories, including some that Mr. Trump himself has indulged. He has also used the interest around the assassination when it was politically expedient.
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father was also assassinated, endorsed Mr. Trump in August, Mr. Trump renewed his promise to release all the documents related to the killings of both Kennedys and to set up an independent commission to study assassination attempts, including the one on Mr. Trump in Butler, Pa., last year.
“This is a tribute in honor of Bobby,” Mr. Trump said.
He added: “I have never had more people ask me, ‘Please sir, release the documents on the Kennedy assassination,’ and we’re going to do that.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump at one point alleged that the father of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas had been with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before President Kennedy was killed.
“You know, his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being — you know, shot,” Mr. Trump told Fox News in an interview in May 2016, as he was running against Mr. Cruz for the Republican nomination. “I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right? Prior to his being shot, and nobody brings it up. They don’t even talk about that. That was reported and nobody talks about it. But I think it’s horrible.”
On Monday, Mr. Trump attended a board meeting at the Kennedy Center, an institution he overhauled by making himself chairman and installing loyalists, including Richard Grenell, who briefly served as acting director of national intelligence in the final year of Mr. Trump’s first term. As he was leaving, Mr. Trump said that he had a “big announcement to make.”
“While we’re here, I thought it would be appropriate,” he said. “We are tomorrow announcing and giving all of the Kennedy files. So — people have been waiting for decades for this.”
