A new trove of secret files related to the November 1963 assassination of US President John F. Kennedy was released on Thursday, but the White House held thousands of documents back, citing national security concerns, reported AFP.
The Warren Commission that investigated the shooting of the 46-year-old president determined that it was carried out by former Marine sharpshooter Lee Harvey Oswald, who it said acted alone.
That formal conclusion has done little, however, to quell speculation that a more sinister plot was behind Kennedy's November 22, 1963 murder in Dallas, Texas.
The National Archives said on Thursday that a total of 13,173 documents had been made public in the latest release, and that 97 percent of the Kennedy records -- which total approximately five million pages -- have now been made public.
President Joe Biden said that a "limited" number of documents would continue to be held back at the request of unspecified "agencies."
"Temporary continued postponement of public disclosure of such information is necessary to protect against an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations," Biden said.
In 2017, the National Archives and Records Administration released 2,891 documents related to the Kennedy assassination.
At the time, then-President Donald Trump said some of the documents would remain secret for the time being, following last-minute recommendations of his national security agencies that some of those records be redacted.
Kennedy scholars have said the documents still held by the archives are unlikely to contain any bombshell revelations or put to rest the rampant conspiracy theories about the assassination of the 35th US president.