Last year, the month of November marked the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, as well as the 50th birthday of one of the greatest conspiracy theories of all time. On November 22nd, 1963, a photogenic, charismatic, beloved president had half of his head blown off in broad daylight in front of a roaring crowd in Dallas. Almost from the get-go, conspiracy theorists critiqued the official version of events issued by the Warren Commission, saying it simply wouldn’t have been possible for a single man, Lee Harvey Oswald, to have made the hit from the Book Depository overlooking the Dealey Plaza.

The conspiracy theories proffered over the subsequent 50 years include a veritable who’s who of global power players: the CIA, the mafia, anti-Castro Cuban exile groups, agents of the military industrial complex, sitting Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Cuban President Fidel Castro, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, the Federal Reserve, the KGB and, of course, Zionists. In fact, at this point it’s probably better to ask who didn’t kill Kennedy. The motives are as equally diverse: escalation of the Vietnam War, defense contractor profits, appeasement policies toward Cuba and the Soviet Union, political animus, restrictions on the Federal Reserve, the Cuban Missile Crisis, etc. Conspiracy theorists often pair these groups and motives in clusters of two and three, as if ordering off a Chinese menu.

A more recent theory posits a new motive for Kennedy’s killing: his knowledge of UFOs. Recent documents turned over to the public under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Kennedy had requested to see all CIA files regarding UFOs. In his letter to the Director of the CIA, dated November 12th, 1963 (ten days before his assassination), Kennedy states that it is essential that all documents related to UFOs be turned over.

A second letter, sent to NASA on the same day, requested that the organization assume responsibility for working with the Soviet Union on matters related to outer space. It seems Kennedy wanted to prove to the USSR that recent unidentified flying objects were not provocation on the part of the U.S.

This wasn’t the first time Kennedy had requested disclosure of highly classified information. In 1961, he gave a now-famous speech in which he called for an end to ‘secret societies’ and government coverups. More specifically, Kennedy said:

“We are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.”

There are more than a few government operatives who feel this speech rubbed the wrong people the run wrong way. And when you really think about it, what the hell could have been the point of these provocative statements other than to warn the American press and people about who’s really running global affairs? Listen to the whole speech, and ask yourself what Kennedy is really trying to say, what are the specifics he is leaving out here? Why did he make this speech?

Was Kennedy assassinated for knowing too much, or at least wanting to know too much?

There is another declassified document relevant here that may answer this question. In 1999, an unnamed former counterintelligence operative sent a mysterious file to UFO researcher Timothy Cooper. Previously, Cooper had been responsible for leaking a variety of MJ-12 documents. The memo sent in ’99, nicknamed the “burned memo”, was supposedly rescued from a heap of highly confidential records being burned by former CIA Counterintelligence Chief James Angleton. Oddly, the authenticity of the memo has neither been verified nor debunked. According to analysts:

“[The ‘burned memo’] is an original carbon with an Eagle watermark characteristic of government work, but so far forensic laboratories have been unable to trace it… Although no dated is given, its content directly suggests the month of September. The year is estimated to be in the early 1960s and is still under investigation.”

The 9-page memo is a treasure trove of conspiracy fodder as well as an unprecedented look inside classified CIA correspondence. There are 8 tabs in the document, which read as such:

(A) President’s EYES ONLY

(B) “NEED-TO-KNOW”

(C) DoD 5200.1

(D) Project BLUE BOOK

(E) Freedom of Information

(F) PSYOP

(G) BW (biological weapons)

(H) Project ENVIRONMENT

The memo contains an utterly heart-freezing Bioweapons Directive that states: “Designated MJ projects should be held in readiness to perform SPIKE and HOUSE CLEANING operations in major population centers in the event conventional methods are not satisfactory. Specialists from MK-ULTRA and ARTICHOKE are hereby activated to conduct DOMESTIC.”

UFO researchers believe this protocol refers to UFO retrieval missions–in case an alien biotechnological weapon or technology gets loose in a population center. Even if you don’t read this as relating to UFOs, it certainly doesn’t sound innocuous. Notably, why are the words ‘PSYOP’ and ‘MK-ULTRA’ involved here? What does covert psychological operations and mind control (the confirmed purposes of MK-ULTRA) have to do with bioweapons and ‘house cleaning’? CHILLING…

But for our purposes here, the most important part of the ‘burned memo’ is its reference to President Kennedy. It reads: “As you must know LANCER [code word for JFK] has made some inquiries regarding our activities WHICH WE CANNOT ALLOW (our emphasis). Please submit your views no later than October. Your action to this matter is critical to the continuance of the group.”

Was this the directive that sealed Kennedy’s fate? After requesting UFO documentation from the CIA, potentially jeopardizing top secret evidence of extraterrestrial life as well as the ‘continuance’ of the MJ-12, was JFK killed for asking too many questions, for prying just a bit too deep into the shadow government’s most top secret files? We may never know, but this month, on the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, it’s our duty to ask the question again.