High-profile assassinations, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), and the truth about 9/11 are just a few of the long-kept federal secrets that a new House Oversight and Government Reform Committee task force intends to investigate and declassify.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), tapped to lead the panel, said at a Feb. 11 press conference that it would not be “a task force that makes bold promises only to fade into irrelevance or send strongly worded letters.”
She said the initiative would be “a relentless pursuit of truth and transparency, and we will not stop until the American people have the answers they deserve.”
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the oversight committee, said the new task force will build on the president’s directive.
“For far too long, the American people have had reasonable questions of what their government, which they fund every day, keeps hidden about certain issues,“ Comer said. ”And for far too long, the federal government has not answered these questions.
“This creates distrust in our institutions. That ends today.”
The bipartisan panel will work in coordination with the White House, intelligence agencies, the Justice Department, and the Defense Department to probe federal secrets that have mystified Americans for decades—such as UAPs and unidentified submerged objects—as well as a few more recent ones, including Jeffrey Epstein’s client list and the origins of COVID-19.
“Now, if I find that different entities in the various intelligence agencies are stonewalling us, I’m going to make that known to the American people,“ Luna said. ”But as of right now, we are cautiously optimistic.”
She noted that the panel’s first investigation will be the JFK assassination, with potential witnesses including attending physicians who examined the 35th president’s body and others who have investigated the shooting over the years.
The task force’s first public hearing is set for March.
“The date will be announced soon, and we’ve already initiated close to a dozen communications with various agencies, to include Pam Bondi at the Department of Justice and the secretary of state,” Luna said.
She advised that letters were sent to the appropriate agencies that morning. She also noted that the task force will be setting up a system to collect information from members of the public.
“We are going to get through as much as we can. We have a great team of attorneys. We have a great team of investigators looking into this, but it doesn’t mean that we won’t accept help from the public.”
As for what the task force is hoping to uncover about the 9/11 terror attacks, the congresswoman said members “just want the truth.”
“How much did the CIA know in advance?” Luna cited as an example. “But also, remember, when you have only certain information that’s shared with the American people, that’s when conspiracy theories happen. And it’s in my opinion that conspiracy theories can be detrimental.
“We have to know the full picture, and the American people deserve to know.”
