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CIA had ‘secret bases’ in Kolkata, Delhi? What JFK assassination files reveal
These secret facilities, also known as "black sites," are used by the CIA for various clandestine operations
A post by a Russian media outlet on the recently uncovered files related to the assassination of President John F Kennedy in 1963 shed light on the covert operations of the CIA during the Cold War era.
One of the key findings in this document, shared by Russian-backed international news television network RT on X, was the presence of secret bases in two of India's major cities - New Delhi and Kolkata.
These bases were identified in newly declassified files related to the 1963 assassination of US President John F Kennedy, posted on the website of the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), The Week reported.
These secret facilities, also known as "black sites," are used by the CIA for various clandestine operations, including interrogation and detention of suspected terrorists.
Also Read | What do JFK files say? Mafia connections to second shooter, here's a look at the most explosive revelations
Apart from Kolkata and New Delhi, the list includes cities such as Rawalpindi in Pakistan, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Tehran in Iran, Seoul in South Korea, and Tokyo in Japan.
Notably, India has a history with the CIA. In 2013, a PTI report said a declassified official document revealed that India granted permission to the US to use one of its air bases— Charbatia, an abandoned World War II base in Odisha—for refuelling the CIA's U-2 spy planes to target Chinese territories in 1962.
The JFK Assassination files were released by Donald Trump
The files were released by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday to honour his campaign promise to provide more transparency about the shock event in Texas.
An initial tranche of electronic copies of papers flooded into the National Archives website in the evening with a total of more than 80,000 expected to be published after Justice Department lawyers spent hours scouring them.
Also Read | What do the JFK files reveal about Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby?
The digital documents, including PDFs of previously classified memos, offer a window into the climate of fear at the time surrounding US relations with the Soviet Union shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 nearly led to a nuclear war.
Trump signed an order shortly after taking office in January related to the release of the documents, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to find thousands of new documents related to the Kennedy assassination in Dallas.
