(Headline USA) Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, whose 1991 film “JFK” portrayed President John F. Kennedy’s assassination as the work of a shadowy government conspiracy, called Tuesday for a new congressional investigation of the killing during a hearing into the matter.
The hearing of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets followed last month’s release of thousands of pages of government documents related to the assassination. The task force’s Republican chair opened the proceedings by questioning the Warren Commission investigation’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in fatally shooting Kennedy as his motorcade finished a parade route in downtown Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
Stone’s “JFK” was nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture, and won two. It grossed more than $200 million but was also dogged by questions about its historical accuracy. Stone told the committee that he believes decades of delays in releasing unredacted records had prevented “clarity” about who killed JFK.
Stone also said a new investigation “outside all political considerations” should begin “at the scene of the crime” and reexamine all of the evidence from the day of the assassination.
“Can we return to a world where we can trust our government to level with us, the people for which this government exists?” Stone said. “This is our democracy. This is our presidency. It belongs to us.”
The task force’s chair, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, said she thinks the federal government under previous administrations had engaged in “stonewalling.”
For Tuesday’s hearing, the task force also invited Jefferson Morley and James DiEugenio, who have written books about the assassination. Morley is editor of the JFK Facts blog and vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a repository for files related to the assassination.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
