The Secret JFK Files: How Australia and the CIA Hid Assassination Warnings About Soviet Ties

Declassified Documents Reveal a 60-Year Cover-Up of Australia’s Role in Suppressing Key JFK Assassination Leads

For decades, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) played a largely unknown role in suppressing critical evidence related to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Newly analyzed declassified documents confirm that ASIO’s chief, Sir Charles Spry, personally lobbied the CIA to keep Warren Commission Document CD-971 hidden from public view. This document detailed anonymous phone calls to the U.S. Embassy in Canberra warning of Soviet financial involvement in JFK’s murder.

These revelations, combined with the fact that portions of ASIO’s correspondence remained classified until 2023, suggest that Australian intelligence agencies were more deeply entangled in the cover-up than previously known. Even though CD-971 was partially declassified in 1976, intelligence agencies on both sides of the Pacific continued redacting and withholding critical details about the Canberra calls for six decades.

CD-971: The Assassination Warnings Intelligence Agencies Buried

CD-971 is a CIA memorandum from November 29, 1963, documenting two key anonymous phone calls made to the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, Australia:

• October 15, 1962: A caller warned of a plot to assassinate President Kennedy.
• November 23, 1963: Hours after JFK’s murder, a second call suggested that the Soviet Union had financed the assassination.

The caller, claiming to be a Polish chauffeur working for the Soviet Embassy in Canberra, provided specific intelligence that was forwarded to U.S. Naval Intelligence and later to the CIA. However, the CIA only became fully aware of these warnings on November 24, 1963—one day after Kennedy’s death.

While mainstream news reports have framed these calls as “crank calls,” intelligence memos from the time suggest otherwise. If the CIA and ASIO truly believed these were hoaxes, why did they fight for six decades to keep CD-971 suppressed?

ASIO and the CIA’s Coordinated Cover-Up

Newly released records confirm that Sir Charles Spry, head of ASIO, personally wrote to CIA Director Richard Helms in October 1968, urging him not to declassify CD-971 despite increasing pressure for transparency. A memo from the CIA’s Far East Division Chief, William Nelson, also supported Spry’s position, marking this as a coordinated international effort.

According to a recently unsealed letter from Helms to Spry, dated November 1968:

“There is not, at the present time, any intention to release [CD-971].”

Helms further assured Spry that if the issue arose again, ASIO’s objections provided enough justification to keep the document secret indefinitely.

This wasn’t just a routine classification issue—it was a deliberate, high-level suppression of intelligence that could have altered the official narrative of JFK’s murder.

Even After 1976, the Cover-Up Continued

While CD-971 was partially declassified in 1976, it has now been revealed that significant portions of ASIO’s correspondence with the CIA remained classified until 2023. A News.com.au investigation found that ASIO and the CIA fought for nearly 60 years to prevent public access to the full unredacted records.

This raises disturbing questions:

• What exactly was redacted or withheld in the 1976 release?
• Why did intelligence agencies continue suppressing these records decades later?
• Did ASIO have deeper knowledge of Soviet connections to the assassination than publicly acknowledged?

ASIO’s Role Was Likely Stronger Than the CIA’s

A 1968 Naval Investigative Service memo, previously overlooked in news reports, states that U.S. Naval Intelligence had no objections to declassifying CD-971—but still required clearance from ASIO.

This means that ASIO wasn’t just consulted as a courtesy—it had an active veto over whether U.S. intelligence could disclose the document. This revelation places Australia’s intelligence agencies at the center of the decades-long suppression effort.

What Was the Real Purpose of the Canberra Calls?

The most explosive claim in CD-971 is the assertion that the Soviet Union may have put up $100,000 to finance Kennedy’s assassination.

This raises two possibilities:

1. Genuine Intelligence: The calls contained real information about Soviet involvement, which intelligence agencies later suppressed to avoid Cold War escalation.
2. Disinformation Operation: The calls were part of an effort to shift blame to the Soviets, muddying the waters in the immediate aftermath of the assassination.

Regardless of which scenario is true, the fact remains that ASIO and the CIA actively buried this intelligence for decades.

A 60-Year Suppression Finally Exposed

For over 60 years, ASIO and the CIA worked together to keep critical JFK assassination warnings from public view. The newly uncovered files confirm that Australian intelligence played a far greater role in hiding key leads about Soviet connections than previously known.

Even after CD-971 was declassified in 1976, Australian and U.S. intelligence agencies continued redacting and withholding key documents—only fully releasing them in 2023.

Key Unanswered Questions:

1. Why did ASIO fight so aggressively to keep CD-971 classified?
2. What exactly was removed or altered before its 1976 release?
3. Did ASIO have direct knowledge of Soviet financing for JFK’s assassination?
4. What other intelligence records remain hidden?

With today’s JFK files shedding light on one of the biggest cover-ups in Cold War history, it is time for researchers and historians to demand the full, unredacted truth.

Sources:

• Declassified U.S. National Archives Files (2025 JFK and earlier Release Batches)
• 2025 Release: 104-10009-10222 OCR
• Earlier Releases: 104-10012-10081 OCR / 104-10320-10035 OCR (Contains CD-971)
• ABC News Report: Australian Spy Boss Wanted CIA to Keep Canberra Link to JFK Murder Probe Secret
• News.com.au Report: Huge Batch of JFK Files Reveals Shocking Australian Link

NOTE: Artificial Intelligence (a.i.) Used to Develop this Article

This article by Donald Best was developed with extensive assistance from ChatGPT-4o (paid version) over the course of several hours and multiple revisions. While AI played a significant role in structuring and refining the content, the final article is the result of independent research, fact-checking, and verification by Donald Best.

Early AI-generated drafts contained serious inaccuracies and outright falsehoods. For example, ChatGPT initially claimed that Warren Commission Document CD-971 had never been released, when in fact, a quick online search confirmed it was declassified in 1976 and widely available for download.

This serves as yet another reminder that AI is a powerful tool but must never be relied upon without human verification.

Readers are encouraged to fact-check, provide feedback, and share insights in the comments or via email at [email protected].