In March 2025, a bombshell surfaced from the latest JFK assassination records: the CIA had not only compiled a dossier of its most illegal activities - the infamous “Family Jewels” - but both John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert were fully briefed on at least one domestic spy operation targeting the French Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The revelations, detailed in FBI reports from the mid-1970s, shed light on how deeply intertwined the CIA, FBI, and the highest levels of the Kennedy administration were in covert surveillance - even against diplomatic allies on American soil.
🗝️ A Presidential Green Light
In 1962, CIA agents broke into the French Embassy in Washington and removed sensitive documents.
It wasn’t a rogue operation.
According to Top Secret FBI memoranda, President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy were not only briefed beforehand - they approved it.
The FBI report quotes Robert Kennedy as saying the operation should not be disclosed to the Bureau unless the FBI initiated its own inquiry.
In effect, the top law enforcement officer in the U.S. authorized a break-in on U.S. soil and explicitly requested no paper trail.
📂 Operation “Family Jewels”
These shocking details came from the CIA’s 693-page “Family Jewels” dossier - an internal accounting of activities where the agency believed it may have “exceeded its mandate.”
The documents, written in 1975, were part of an FBI review after the CIA turned over 190 pages in response to questions from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - the “Church Committee.”
One section described CIA-FBI cooperation that included surveillance of foreign embassies, illegal break-ins, and installation of wiretaps - with the cooperation of top federal officials.
🎙️ Operation WUDOOR: The Chilean Embassy Bug
Another key operation revealed was WUDOOR, a joint FBI-CIA espionage program that began shortly after Salvador Allende became president of Chile in 1971.
The goal?
To penetrate the Chilean Embassy in Washington, compromise encrypted diplomatic communications, and plant listening devices.
When the FBI initially refused, Attorney General John Mitchell personally intervened to approve the operation.
The operation was activated in July 1971 and ran in secret - including a break-in to adjust or retrieve equipment - until February 1973.
🔍 The Watergate Connection
WUDOOR didn’t remain secret forever.
In May 1973, news of a Chilean Embassy break-in leaked to the press.
Investigators for the Senate Watergate Committee began probing whether the same team of “plumbers” behind the DNC break-in were also responsible for the embassy operation.
President Richard Nixon himself can be heard on Oval Office tapes referencing the event as a potential CIA cover story:
“Those [expletive] were trying to have a cover-or a CIA cover.”
🌐 Beyond Chile and France
The Family Jewels report includes references to espionage operations targeting the Israeli Embassy, the United Nations, and at least seven other foreign diplomatic missions.
- The FBI and CIA collaborated on surveillance of Israeli officials, including technical bugging operations.
- In mid-1967, the CIA temporarily took over an FBI surveillance post in New York City, targeting the UN, under the codename Operation SALVAGE.
- By fall, the post was handed back to the Bureau.
In all, these operations illustrate a pattern: high-level authorization of illegal domestic surveillance, justified by national security, and protected by interagency secrecy.
📛 Operation PLMPLODESTAR and Others
The FBI documents cite several CIA operations by codename - many of which remained unknown until now:
- MHDOZEN
- MOHAWK
- WUGRAVEL
- ORKID
- SPROINTER
- PLMPLODESTAR – a CIA initiative to infiltrate “leftist and communist milieus” around the globe - including inside the U.S.
Each operation reflected an era in which ideological warfare blurred into domestic intelligence - where foreign and domestic “threats” became virtually indistinguishable in the eyes of Langley and the Hoover Building.
🧾 How the Family Jewels Were Compiled
In May 1973, CIA Director James Schlesinger ordered a full review of any activities that “might be construed to be outside the legislative charter.”
This order came in the wake of mounting revelations tying the CIA to illegal wiretaps, surveillance of antiwar activists, and possible links to the Watergate scandal.
All senior CIA officers were instructed to report “any activities outside the CIA’s charter,” and even former officers were asked to submit reports.
The resulting 693-page document would take 15 years and a legal war to partially declassify.
🗂️ A Gift to History, Still Redacted
The National Security Archive first requested the “Family Jewels” in 1992.
It took until 2007 for the CIA to release a redacted version.
Even now, dozens of pages remain withheld in full.
But the 2025 release of the JFK papers has pulled back another curtain - revealing presidential knowledge and support for domestic spy ops that until now were only whispered about in conspiracy forums.
“The JFK files are a gift to history that just keeps on giving,” said NSA analyst Peter Kornbluh.
“There’s no longer any reason for the CIA to keep the rest of the Family Jewels secret.”