KEAN COMMISSION HEARINGS IN NYC
[Note: I just received this via email. Some extraneous material has been deleted.]
From: Nicholas Levis <trahila@earthlink.de> Add Address
Subject: THE 9/11 COVER-UP - NEXT WEEK IN NEW YORK
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 09:45:48 -0400
To: <newyorkcity@snafu.de>
Reply-To: trahila@snafu.de
THE 9/11 COVER-UP & THE SEPT. 11 WIDOW
May 18-19, May 22 in New York City
Rudy Giuliani, Tom Ridge and former New York City terror adviser Jerome Hauer will be among those testifying to the official 9/11 Commission during two days of hearings on "Emergency Response" at The New School University in New York City next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Hundreds of New Yorkers and Sept. 11 family members will crowd into the Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12th Street) from early in the morning to watch the proceedings. Many of them will be thinking that the commission is engaging in a whitewash of what really happened on Sept. 11th, 2001. The following "Guide to The 9/11 Cover-up" (Part 1) explains why.
Also coming to town next week is Ellen Mariani, the Sept. 11 widow who refused the government's hush-money settlement (average award: $1.8 million) so that she can sue members of the Bush administration for, as she says, intentionally allowing the 9/11 attacks to happen for their own political gain. She will be presenting her case along with her counsel Phil Berg, the former deputy attorney general of Pennsylvania, on May 22nd at the Riverside Church in New York City (doors open 6PM). Also speaking will be 9/11 researcher and truth movement activist Sander Hicks.
A very special guest who will be speaking on the Iraq war and the Project for a New American Century, Scott Ritter is the former UN chief weapons inspector for Iraq. He has been an outspoken leader against the Iraq war and in defense of our endangered constitution.
NY 9/11 Truth invites Sept. 11 families and all New Yorkers to come hear the facts about 9/11 that the Kean Commission has refused to acknowledge. For details go to ny911truth.org
Details about the hearings in New York follow the article. The commission's last public sessions will be held June 8-9 in Washington, DC. It is due to submit its final report to the White House for security clearance and "redaction" on July 26.
Nicholas Levis
Correspondent, International Community, Berlin.
(& on behalf of NY 9/11 TRUTH & 911Truth.org)
osamaskidneys@snafu.de
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This message cleared for forwarding & publication. (c) 2004 Nicholas Levis
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A Guide to The 9/11 Cover-up
Part 1, May 13, 2004
(Part 2 will be published on Monday, May 17)
The Kean Commission and the Sept. 11th Families
NEW YORK CITY — The Kean Commission was called to life in Nov. 2002, when the White House dropped its objections to an independent 9/11 investigation, after many months of persistent lobbying by Sept. 11th families. At the time, this was seen as a victory for the relatives of those killed on Sept. 11th, and for their allies in the fight for open government and accountability.
As the Kean Commission nears the end of its work, it is informative to ask what those families are saying today.
23 Questions to Bush
"Mr. Bush, who approved the flight of the bin Laden family out of the United States, when all commercial flights were grounded?"
That is one of 23 explosive questions that George W. Bush and his subordinates must face in public testimony, under oath and pain of perjury - that is, if the leaders of Sept. 11 family groups get their way.
The question refers to private flights for Saudi royalty, cleared by the White House during the otherwise total civilian flight ban in the days immediately after Sept. 11. Members of the Bin Laden clan, including two of Osama Bin Laden's many brothers, were allowed to leave the United States before federal investigators had a chance to question them.*
Despite confirmed reports dating back to Sept. 2001, the story of the Bin Laden family airlift was denigrated as urban legend until April, when former White House terror adviser Richard Clarke and Secretary of State Colin Powell both confirmed it.
How many other confirmations of "urban legend" are still in store?
Accountability and the Theory of Luck
"Why has no one in any level of our government been held accountable for the countless failures leading up to and on 9/11?"
The 23 questions are from the Family Steering Commitee, twelve Sept. 11 relatives who represent many other 9/11 family groups. Since Nov. 2002, they have monitored the 9/11 Commission headed by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean.
Members of the FSC were key lobbyists in gaining an independent investigation of Sept. 11. Mindy Kleinberg, known as one of the four "Jersey Wives," testified to the Kean Commission during its first public proceedings in early 2003. She alerted the panel to disturbing gaps and contradictions in the government's story of what happened on Sept. 11. Her comments challenged the idea that all anomalies in the official story are due to incompetence or coincidence. She called that "the theory of luck."
"Is it luck that aberrant stock trades were not monitored?" Kleinberg asked. She was referring to the widespread reports of possible insider trading in the week leading up to Sept. 11 indicating specific prior knowledge of the attacks.*
Kleinberg: "Is it luck when 15 visas are awarded based on incomplete forms? Is it luck when Airline Security screenings allow hijackers to board planes with box cutters and pepper spray? Is it luck when Emergency FAA and NORAD protocols are not followed? Is it luck when a national emergency is not reported to top government officials on a timely basis?
"To me luck is something that happens once. When you have this repeated pattern of broken protocols, broken laws, broken communication, one cannot still call it luck. If at some point we don't look to hold the individuals accountable for not doing their jobs properly then how can we ever expect for terrorists not to get lucky again?"
Since Kleinberg's testimony the commission has avoided almost any public treatment of the issues she raised.
For a transcript of Kleinberg's comments, see
www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing1/witness_kleinberg.htm
A Lesson in Reading
The families threw down their challenge to Bush last February, following reports that the Kean Commission had asked Bush and Bill Clinton to testify. Only in May did Bush finally appear before the panel, in a closed session at the Oval Office. No transcript was taken. Bush assented to the hearing on the condition that he testify together with Dick Cheney, who apparently did most of the talking. Based on the handful of public statements about their joint appearance, it seems doubtful that the panel confronted Bush with this question:
"Please explain why you remained at the Sarasota, Florida, Elementary School for a press conference after you had finished listening to the children read, when as a terrorist target, your presence potentially jeopardized the lives of the children?"
Bush, his staff and his Secret Service entourage did indeed pay a visit to the Booker Elementary School, as carried on live television until 9:34 a.m. This was fifty minutes after the first plane hit the World Trade Center and 29 minutes after 9:05, when Bush was informed of the second plane crash and told, "America is under attack." After that well-known moment, when his chief of staff whispered into his ear, Bush continued listening to the children read. He remained in the classroom for about 13 minutes. He then prepared and delivered a brief speech to the nation from the school, calling for a moment of silence for the WTC victims at 9:31.
The Pentagon was hit at 9:38.
The White House has never explained this anomaly. Instead, Bush has twice claimed, in speeches made available on the White House website, that he thought the first plane crash (at 8:46 a.m.) was an accident. On hearing news of the crash at 8:55, he says he thought, "That's one lousy pilot." Yet the Federal Aviation Administration was aware, since 8:20 at the latest, that American Airlines Flight 11 had been hijacked. The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) was also informed of the hijacking.
And by 8:55 a.m. or shortly after, two additional hijackings were known to be in progress. In the White House, Dick Cheney is known to have by then been on an open line connecting FAA, NORAD and the Secret Service. Yet as the attacks went on, the reaction times of U.S. air defense apparently became worse.
Was no one telling the president all this? Who was acting as commander-in-chief, while Bush listened to "A Girl and Her Pet Goat"? Was there no concern that the school itself would be a target, since it was public knowledge, days in advance, that the president would be there?
Courage to Ask the Obvious
The family leaders have released a series of strongly worded statements blasting the Bush administration for stonewalling the 9/11 investigation. But they have been equally harsh in chastising the Kean Commission for its refusal to examine key evidence. They have called for the immediate resignation of Philip Zelikow, executive director of the commission, pointing to his various conflicts of interest. (Coming in Part 2.)
The relatives have shown no reluctance to pursue controversial lines of inquiry in public. It is hard to imagine the commission asking if the Bush administration tried to cut a deal with Osama Bin Laden in advance of the 9/11 attacks, as reported in the European press back in the autumn of 2001.
But the families want an answer: "Did you or any agent of the United States government carry out any negotiations or talks with UBL, an agent of UBL, or al-Qaeda?" ("UBL" is government speak for Osama Bin Laden.)
The Commission has shown no inclination to follow the trail of the Cheney "energy policy meetings" of early 2001, or the Bush administration's oil-pipeline talks with the Taliban up to July 2001. These touchy subjects might arise if they ever considered this question: "During that same period, did you or any agent of the United States government carry out any negotiations or talks with any foreign government, its agents, or officials regarding UBL?"
Would the Kean Commission ever wonder out loud if anyone other than Al-Qaeda (or other foreigners) gained anything from the attacks? The families are not afraid to confront this obvious concern: "Which individuals, governments, agencies, institutions, or groups may have benefited from the attacks of 9/11?"
Although the Kean Commission accepted a deal strictly limiting its access to White House documents concerning advance warnings of a possible terror attack, Kean claimed repeatedly that there is "no smoking gun" to indicate Bush had specific prior knowledge of the attacks. At least, not in the "parts of the documents" Kean has actually been allowed to see.
The families don't buy that on faith, or on partial evidence. They want specifics: "As Commander-in-Chief, from May 1, 2001 until September 11, 2001, did you receive any information from any intelligence agency official or agent that UBL was planning to attack this nation on its own soil using airplanes as weapons, targeting New York City landmarks during the week of September 11, 2001 or on the actual day of September 11, 2001?"
Carefully researched, the families' questions reflect concerns that have caused millions to doubt the official story - and to call for a truly independent investigation: One with subpeona power, testimony under oath, no self-imposed restrictions on allowable lines of inquiry, and a published, uncensored final report.
"Even now we are dealing with the idea of how the [commission] report is going to be, when it's released," says Beverly Eckert of the FSC. "The classification process is done by the White House and the intelligence agencies. They are the ones. They are a subject of this report. How can they not have a conflict in classifying and editing it? They can edit at will."
Conspiracy Theory?
It is hard to dismiss these concerns as "conspiracy theory" when many Bush administration officials used the most outrageous conspiracy theory of all - the legend that Saddam backed the 9/11 attacks - as pretext for invading Iraq. In that matter as well, the families want government held accountable:
"Do you continue to maintain that Saddam Hussein was linked to al-Qaeda? What proof do you have of any connection between al-Qaeda and the Hussein regime?"
Bush in the meantime has admitted there was no such connection. But Cheney and members of his circle still say there was.
The FSC questions show that, though their grief and tragedy is great, the families have understood the stakes in the 9/11 disclosure issue are even greater. Getting the truth of 9/11 means more than justice for the victims, and well-deserved closure for their relatives.
9/11 was used as a lever to shift the globe. All Americans - and, given the global impact, the people of the world - need to learn the answers that the families demand.
The Sept. 11 family statements, and their lists of questions to a variety of administration members, have been published at the FSC's website:
www.911independentcommission.org
*NOTE: In the days before 9/11, unknown traders bought unusually high "put options" in the stock of United Airlines, American Airlines, and the WTC tenants and re-insurers. This meant that the traders expected the prices of these equities to plunge in the short term. The volumes of the purchases may have activated a known CIA real-time tracing program designed to discover suspicious trades (PROMIS). The FBI later claimed it had determined the identities of the traders in the U.S., but says they are in the clear and declines to name them. Many of the known trades were transacted through A.B. Brown. The chairman of that bank, Mayo Shattuck, resigned suddenly on Sept. 12. In the case of one trade, the buyer left $2.5 million uncollected for months after the attacks. Financial authorities in Frankfurt and Tokyo and an intelligence bureau in Israel also reported suspicious trades and initially characterized these as smoking guns that would lead back to the masterminds of 9/11. To our knowledge there has been no public follow-up to these statements since. In London, authorities said they traced the trades back to an unnamed "small airline" that was pursuing a "hedging strategy" (IHT, 9/20/01).
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NY 9/11 TRUTH
ny911truth.org
info@ny911truth.org
"Bush is scamming America."
"As each day goes by, we learn that this government knew a whole lot more about these terrorists before Sept. 11 than it has ever admitted."
"Let's chase this rabbit into the ground here. They had a plan to go to war and when 9/11 happened that's what they did; they went to war."
Former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland
Resigned from the Kean Commission in Nov. 2003
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About the Commission Hearings - Details as published on 911commission.gov
(© 2004 U.S. Government - Used under Fair-Use Provisions for Information Purposes Only.)
Eleventh public hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States will hold its eleventh public hearing on May 18-19, 2004, at New School University in New York City. The two-day hearing will examine the response of local and federal emergency response departments on September 11, 2001, and will consider how to improve these critical functions in the event of future terrorist attacks.
Beginning at 8:45 a.m. at the New School University’s John L. Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12th Street), the Commission will hear from the current and former top-level officials in the fire, police, and emergency management departments of New York City, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Arlington County, Virginia. Secretary of Homeland Security Thomas J. Ridge and former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani will also testify. Three staff statements will be presented during the course of the hearing. The hearing will resume at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 19.
"At this hearing, the Commission turns its attention to the day of September 11, 2001. We will focus on what confronted civilians and first responders during the attacks, how they made decisions under adverse conditions, and what first responders communicated to civilians and to each other,“ said Commission Chair Thomas H. Kean.
"The Commission also will explore the state of the emergency preparedness and response today,“ said Commission Vice Chair Lee H. Hamilton. „We will examine what steps have been taken since 9-11 to improve our preparedness against terrorist attacks and other emergencies, and whether we need national standards of preparedness.“
If you plan to attend, view, listen to, or broadcast the proceedings, please be aware that information presented at this hearing is sensitive and may be upsetting in nature. Actual events at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, will be described in detail and, in some cases, accompanied by visual presentations.
The hearing will be open to the public and members of the media. As with previous hearings, the Commission will reserve a large number of seats for 9-11 families. These seats, as well as seating for the general public, will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors will open at 7:45 a.m. on May 18, and at 7:00 a.m. on May 19.
Members of the media must register by the close of business on May 13, 2004. The Commission will admit only those whose registration has been confirmed. A more complete list of press guidelines may be found on the media registration page.
HEARING AGENDA
"Emergency Response"
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
8:45 - 9:00 AM
STAFF STATEMENT NO. 13
Plans
9:00 - 10:00 AM
STAFF STATEMENT NO. 14
Emergency Response
10:00 - 11:15 AM
PANEL ONE
Alan Reiss
Former Director, World Trade Department, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Joseph Morris
Former Chief, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department
11:15 - 1:00 PM
PANEL TWO
Bernard B. Kerik
Former Commissioner, New York Police Department (NYPD)
Thomas Von Essen
Former Commissioner, Fire Department of New York (FDNY)
Richard Sheirer
Former Director, New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
1:00 - 2:00 PM
BREAK
2:00 - 3:45 PM
PANEL THREE
Raymond W. Kelly
Commissioner, New York Police Department (NYPD)
Nicholas Scoppetta
Commissioner, Fire Department of New York (FDNY)
Joseph F. Bruno
Commissioner, New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
8:00 - 8:30 AM
STAFF STATEMENT NO. 15
Crisis Management
8:30 - 10:00 AM
The Honorable Rudolph W. Giuliani
Former Mayor, City of New York
10:00 - 11:15 AM
PANEL FOUR
Dennis Smith
Author, „Report from Ground Zero“
Jerome M. Hauer
Former Director, New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
Edward P. Plaugher
Chief, Arlington County Fire Department
11:15 - 12:45 PM
The Honorable Thomas J. Ridge
Secretary of Homeland Security
12:45 PM
Hearing Concludes. Press Availability to Follow
LOCATION
The hearing will be held at New School University’s John L. Tishman Auditorium, which is located at 66 West 12th Street (between Fifth and Sixth Avenues) in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan. A campus map appears below.
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National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
Tel: 202-331-4060 <info@9-11Commission.gov> Fax: 202-296-5545 |
