[{"_1":2,"_97":-5,"_98":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,75,87],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":72,"_74":72},"mediaId",6231310,"mediaKeyId","3432092-cc0e2ae8f905246f80bce7f425f33ae4","parentId",3432092,"title","Former investigators tell House panel CIA obstructed inquiries and ran operations tied to Lee Harvey Oswald","audioSeconds",5740,"startMs",2243000,"endMs",7983000,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=3432092-cc0e2ae8f905246f80bce7f425f33ae4&start=2243&end=7983","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/3432092-cc0e2ae8f905246f80bce7f425f33ae4/thumbnail_2243000.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6231310/Former-investigators-tell-House-panel-CIA-obstructed-inquiries-and-ran-operations-tied-to-Lee-Harvey-Oswald","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6231310-c7205d672c777f08e34caa37462643e1/orig.mp4?Expires=1771160285&Signature=EjenlQRQxY--Sj6QAH4O2Dbx52ONs2aPD6AkoXyOg-Nj9Kdb4aDSUDGBvR27mAOWvlc0zFvMGOm-8JJklhdVQvdZYUmknaqDrCnCyN95BKKORbDr1zTzq-KfEQ7izfTZF4UK18za8qzd3vmbbbmCUUWosxtmk397NeRusuWuBNRJWnKPRNAOSmw2nk~94dSpVOMAV0SHUteAtpvGIjJUK-9~FdPnM8k5F~jorv3zJ8LdBMU3n7atbkb7o-k~wX-YbYv30FYTqUN8Nnap2aBIug8gIuMlL8ogQqn9oEN5mil~CtMmEPYZ~Yw-b5S7K2xNFfWSH8r~CLBTT67Y2leD4w__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform","date","2025-05-22T00:16:23.567Z","article","Multiple witnesses who worked on past congressional investigations and the Assassination Records Review Board told a House task force March 18, 2025, that the Central Intelligence Agency obstructed inquiries into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, withheld material from investigators and conducted covert operations involving Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City in 1963.

Mister Hardway, a former investigator with the House Select Committee on Assassinations, testified that the CIA \"actively and continuously obstructed\" investigations and that an undercover officer assigned to the committee impeded staff efforts in 1978. He described the officer, identified in historical records as George Joannides, as having been presented to committee staff as unrelated to the Kennedy case, while his activities suggested otherwise. \"They assigned us a man who knew exactly how to keep us from finding what we were looking for,\" Hardway said.

Douglas Horn, a former ARRB staffer who later led the board’s military records team, and Judge John Tunheim, former ARRB chair, gave detailed accounts of missing or incomplete CIA records provided to congressional reviewers in the 1990s. Tunheim said the ARRB had the authority under the 1992 Assassination Records Collection Act to require agencies to present material and that the board was sometimes given incomplete files. \"We were told the documents were no longer maintained as a collection,\" Tunheim said, describing the agency response to requests for papers related to CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton.

Witnesses described a specific pattern of concern around Oswald’s activities in Mexico City. Hardway said documentary evidence shows Oswald was used in a CIA operation that the agency ran to discredit the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. He and others said the pattern of covert activity and selective disclosure explains agency reluctance to provide full records to investigators. \"They obviously had something that they were very desperate about hiding,\" Hardway testified.

Horn and Tunheim cataloged categories of records they said were missing or redacted, including files connected to Joannides and other CIA officers, autopsy photographs, and certain film and photographic materials. Horn urged the task force to press for disclosure of a Joannides personnel file and other materials he said the ARRB had requested but did not receive.

Members pressed witnesses on whether such obstruction proved agency complicity in the assassination; witnesses urged caution about drawing prosecutorial conclusions from documentation of operational use and obstruction. Hardway told the panel that while the evidence shows operational use of Oswald in Mexico City, \"it does not mean necessarily or even inferentially that they were involved in the actual assassination.\" Horn and others argued missing and altered materials make independent assessment more difficult and stressed the need for comprehensive access to records and original media like the Zapruder film.

The task force directed staff to pursue outstanding records with the National Archives and the CIA and to attempt to secure overseas holdings mentioned by witnesses. No judicial or prosecutorial actions were announced; the hearing was positioned as oversight and follow-up to the ARRB’s work and as a fact-finding step toward fuller public disclosure.","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","The JFK Files: Assessing 60+ Years of Federal Government Obstruction, Obfuscation, and Deception","oneSentenceSummary","Former House Select Committee investigators and Assassination Records Review Board staff testified that the CIA obstructed investigations into the Kennedy assassination, withheld documents and ran an operation that used Lee Harvey Oswald as an asset in Mexico City prior to the killing.","taxTitle","Oversight and Reform: House Committee, Standing Committees - House & Senate, Congressional Hearings Compilation, Legislative, Federal","taxId",1835,"location","","headline","shortSummary",{"_33":76,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":77,"_41":78,"_43":79,"_45":80,"_47":81,"_49":82,"_51":83,"_53":84,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":85,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":86,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":72,"_74":72},6231313,"Parkland physician testifies wounds inconsistent with lone-gunman theory, describes resuscitation efforts",4992,2780000,7772000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=3432092-cc0e2ae8f905246f80bce7f425f33ae4&start=2780&end=7772","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/3432092-cc0e2ae8f905246f80bce7f425f33ae4/thumbnail_2780000.jpg","/articles/6231313/Parkland-physician-testifies-wounds-inconsistent-with-lone-gunman-theory-describes-resuscitation-efforts","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6231313-d202f0bbb2c90cb2fefd318335533ae0/orig.mp4?Expires=1771143419&Signature=g9R72BS82GZdFtlG0Gg3h89v2VFgIyoQYy7HY3~kXZKzjXxKtj~k0gISYqtyeVMk3JvX-09hdm94~l~vP8W8tsIHZlyBf-0rhTBoB3y-6InCdeYKLE7M0Y3eHZpcljZLTb6a-mpARN3rM7ZjSQsTRWzIELt1Auuz6JUaPq9XiiABwH2zWycjxq0zosZBgQZe7M3GCzt7gsgbJTOqiMxGQzEBMrsyPwNoyO7lch0~DtSrwDXlyosqrKikMeD6IOSAqJ~4J3kZbtQ8ej4M8JJbLeI3LVcpf-v8O0qq4VPC7PmTGfNebyJQgCE-zeV430d7hASHqDMrM1Mzy2ZMLbz45g__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Dr. Don Curtis, a resident in oral and facial surgery at Parkland Memorial Hospital on Nov. 22, 1963, testified March 18, 2025, to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets about the resuscitation efforts and wounds he observed when President John F. Kennedy arrived at Parkland.

Curtis described being pulled into Trauma Room 1, where he saw President Kennedy on a gurney, an endotracheal tube in place and staff attempting respiratory support with a resuscitator. He testified that a tracheostomy was performed and that a separate procedure (a saphenous vein cutdown) was done to obtain rapid intravenous access. \"The president had heart had stopped or it wasn't running,\" Curtis testified in the hearing.

Curtis told the task force he observed two separate, fatal wounds: a throat wound that obstructed the trachea and a massive head wound that removed a substantial portion of the cranial vault. He said the throat wound would have prevented breathing and that the head wound \"would have killed him instantly.\" He rejected the Warren Commission's single-bullet interpretation as inconsistent with what he saw on the gurney and later in the autopsy-related documentation he described. \"The magic bullet was a product of the Warren Commission that... doesn't make any sense,\" Curtis said during his opening testimony.

Under questioning by members of the task force, Curtis said he never was deposed by the Warren Commission prior to that panel's report and described an uncomfortable encounter with a Warren Commission staff member during a later interview. He told the committee he felt pressure during that encounter and that the Warren Commission’s line of questioning emphasized the existence of an exit wound—which Curtis said he did not observe.

Curtis described the chaotic resuscitation scene in detail: use of an intermittent positive pressure respirator set at very high rates, placement of a tracheostomy by another physician, external cardiac massage, and a final assessment by surgical chiefs who concluded the wounds were not compatible with life. He said staff later warned him not to discuss the events among themselves.

Curtis's account aligns with other testimony taken before the Assassination Records Review Board and with depositions the ARRB later collected from treating physicians; however, he did not present any new forensic materials himself at the hearing. He and other witnesses cautioned that gaps in the documentary record and missing or redacted autopsy materials complicate any definitive medical reconstruction of the shooting.

The task force did not make any medical findings. Members said Curtis’s testimony would be entered into the hearing record and that staff would compare his account against the newly released records and other archived evidence. The task force accepted further written submissions from witnesses and invited additional material relevant to the medical evidence.","Dr. Don Curtis, a Parkland Hospital resident who assisted in treating President Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, testified to a House task force that the wounds he observed—specifically a throat injury and a massive head wound—did not comport with a single, lone shooter theory presented by the Warren Commission.",{"_33":88,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":89,"_41":90,"_43":44,"_45":91,"_47":92,"_49":50,"_51":93,"_53":94,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":95,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":96,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":72,"_74":72},6231318,"House task force presses agencies for remaining JFK files, requests Joannides material",8526,10769000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=3432092-cc0e2ae8f905246f80bce7f425f33ae4&start=2243&end=10769","/articles/6231318/House-task-force-presses-agencies-for-remaining-JFK-files-requests-Joannides-material","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6231318-717be5c77234881e408cd9a6d3ed7137/orig.mp4?Expires=1771160285&Signature=oWK78ZcGZkCSAeVBYLOkn7b7Wbt7AXkL0fp0BhgF09BNj8bBIUATcsybMzsZLv2pmnws27~MldWrrs~JQv5bNgpVS9iN2vvSmMTE4dL2wFGeeILkZJKRxcgFiNz2dHNU4SOSWuOCMzAlviDNeQw3BtJPMUCcsXOgUOs~yfy58XBhcyAJR-DJB996QCxf-c1dvb6KtaN-SktB3k2LZ99g9fo5zQShA~T2o748-rXxeSr9GgFVXn2Qk3S4bNMYxFmXtAYLTS7fO3LUHyKFgbvOjANqSqargtdKtE4goqBD-Cugeoj17313MyFJQpVF2EAB4fSFV95JaAGQs4GT-kRMfA__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","The Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a public hearing March 18, 2025, in Washington, pressing federal agencies to finish releasing records related to the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy and to locate at least one CIA personnel file the task force identified as missing.

Chairwoman Luna, Chair of the Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets, told witnesses the panel’s work is meant \"to root out the hidden pockets of federal government that has for too long remained in the shadows of our reach.\" She said the task force’s objective is “not to indulge in conspiracy theories, but to push forward the release of information so these theories can be put to bed and so the American people can finally have truth.”

The hearing brought former investigators, historians and medical personnel who took part in earlier reviews. Ranking Member Garcia argued the March 18 releases of more than 77,000 pages added “color” and accessibility to records and urged continued bipartisan work on declassification. Judge John Tunheim, who chaired the independent Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) in the 1990s, reminded the panel that the 1992 Assassination Records Collection Act created a presumption of immediate disclosure and that the ARRB issued more than 27,000 rulings during its mandate.

Witnesses and members identified several categories of documents and materials they said remain missing or inadequately disclosed. Chairwoman Luna and others specifically requested the CIA search for and produce the personnel file associated with George Joannides, the CIA case officer discussed during the ARRB era. Tunheim testified to the ARRB’s experience requesting Joannides-related material and said the board was given only a small file that later proved incomplete. \"We were deliberately misled by the CIA as to the nature of the Joannides files that were there,\" Tunheim said in his testimony to the task force.

Multiple witnesses and members also asked the National Archives and media organizations to review and provide additional archival material. Chairwoman Luna said the task force had requested footage from NBC and asked the network to reassess its archives after provided material did not include the specific footage the task force sought. Committee staff announced they would follow up on locating records housed overseas, including files in Belarus and Russia that witnesses said could shed further light on Lee Harvey Oswald’s activities.

Procedurally, the task force agreed without objection to enter into the record letters related to witness participation, and members were granted five legislative days to submit additional materials and written questions for the witnesses. Chairwoman Luna also said staff and agency contacts are pursuing leads on the Joannides file and other outstanding records, and she asked the National Archives for continued cooperation.

The hearing produced no formal adjudicative decisions; it was a fact-finding proceeding that combined public oral testimony with the pledge of follow-up document searches and written submissions. Witnesses emphasized the scale of previously released material—Tunheim noted nearly 5 million pages collected in the Archives under the 1992 act and argued that remaining redactions and missing records merit continued review.

Members on both sides of the dais framed the issue as one of public trust and transparency. Ranking Member Garcia said the task force should “follow the facts and provide transparency for the American people,” and several witnesses asked the task force to press agencies to comply with existing law and any applicable executive orders directing declassification.

The task force adjourned after notifying members and witnesses that it would accept further submissions for the record and pursue follow-up requests with agency partners and archivists.","A House Oversight and Reform task force held a public hearing March 18, 2025, pressing the National Archives, CIA and other agencies to finish declassifying documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and identifying at least one still-missing CIA personnel file connected to George Joannides.","actionData","errors"]

Article not found

Former investigators tell House panel CIA obstructed inquiries and ran operations tied to Lee Harvey Oswald

Parkland physician testifies wounds inconsistent with lone-gunman theory, describes resuscitation efforts

House task force presses agencies for remaining JFK files, requests Joannides material