" ... Seizing upon the comments by Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, co-chairpersons of the original 9/11 Commission, that their investigation was 'set up to fail,' NYC CAN argues that the original 9/11 Commission was a flawed investigation marred by reticent government agencies and inconsistent testimony. ... "
By Will Glovinsky
The Villager
Volume 79, Number 8 | July 29 - August 4, 2009
Supporters of a ballot initiative that would create a second, independent 9/11 investigative commission are awaiting the City Clerk’s certification of 52,000 signatures submitted on June 24 by the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now, or NYC CAN. The decision could bring the measure to the City Council for a vote and, if approved, the referendum would appear on this November’s ballot.
“This could be one of the most important ballot referendums ever put to city voters because of what happened, the nature of the event, the scale of it — and because so many questions were unanswered,” said Kyle Hence, a spokesperson for NYC CAN.
Before the initiative reaches voters, however, it still faces a series of hurdles, the certification decision being only the first. The City Clerk must certify that at least 30,000 signatures belong to registered New York City voters, although NYC CAN’s leaders are confidant that they can supply enough additional signatures if necessary. Another 15,000 signatures may also be needed to override a veto by City Council.
Seizing upon the comments by Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, co-chairpersons of the original 9/11 Commission, that their investigation was “set up to fail,” NYC CAN argues that the original 9/11 Commission was a flawed investigation marred by reticent government agencies and inconsistent testimony. The group proposes a new subpoena-powered commission of mostly private citizens (the list in the petition does include former Senators Lincoln Chafee and Mike Gravel), which proponents say would pursue the remaining questions aggressively and independently.
The new commission would try to find answers for all of the questions initially posed by the Family Steering Committee, the group of victims’ family members that lobbied for the creation of the original 9/11 Commission. However, Ted Walters, executive director of NYC CAN, said that the terrorists’ funding and the military’s failure to intercept the hijacked jetliners were especially high priorities for a new investigation.
“We’re talking about a serious failure to comply with protocols,” he said, referring to the failure of military interceptors.
The new commission would also investigate the illnesses that have afflicted survivors, first responders and local residents and workers in the eight years since the attacks. On its Web site, NYC CAN says that first responders have been unable to draw benefits from the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company, which was set up by the government to underwrite medical costs for injured parties.
The Coalition for Accountability Now reflects an effort to unify and legitimize a broad spectrum of interests that have questioned the government’s ability to investigate itself. Working with an issue that has fostered a bevy of conspiracy theorists, NYC CAN takes pains to clarify on its Web site that its commission would be impartial and start with zero assumptions.
Walters did say that the new commission would follow a more aggressive investigative strategy than the first commission, which issued subpoenas for Pentagon and White House documents only after it encountered stiff resistance from government officials.
“The first step, on Day One, would be to draw up a list of everybody they want to interview, and issue the subpoenas at the beginning,” Walters said. He added that, in addition to mandating testimony from tight-lipped government officials, subpoenas would also provide a legal green light for people who want to share information but cannot without an explicit order to do so.
William Pepper, legal counsel for NYC CAN and a slated commissioner if the referendum is approved, said that despite the municipal mandate of the commission, its subpoena power would, in effect, range far beyond the city line.
“Subpoenas are honored by other districts,” said Pepper. “If a witness refuses to appear, the subpoena could be converted to another court. There may well be challenges, but I think legally they can be overcome.”
Walters explained that if the commission were to meet the same kind of resistance that the original investigation encountered, attention could be directed at the persons or agencies that were not forthcoming.
“There will be a dichotomy of those who want to testify and those who don’t,” he said.
Regarding the work of the original 9/11 Commission, Walters said that one of his major concerns was its refusal to hold any entity accountable for failing to fulfill its duty.
“There were structural failures,” he said, referring to the tangled bureaucracy that slowed the military’s immediate response to the attack, “but there were also individual failures.”
Although Walters insisted that the new commission would not be a witch hunt, he said he would be surprised if it did not ultimately hold anyone responsible. He noted that the petition’s language charges the commission to “seek indictments” where prudent, meaning the commission could work in tandem with prosecutors’ offices.
“Ultimately, what our justice system does with the findings of the commission is beyond our control,” Walters said. “Changes will be made through political pressure rather than legal obligation.”
The “set up to fail” comment by Kean and Hamilton is from their 2006 book, “Without Precedent,” which details the internal workings of the 9/11 Commission and criticizes the Federal Aviation Administration, the military command and House Republicans for obstructing the commission’s investigation.
Another 9/11 Commission member, Bob Kerrey, former Nebraska senator and current president of The New School, has also spoken out about the commission’s work, specifically the difficulty of discerning the truth from information obtained through terrorism suspects who were subjected to “enhanced interrogation.” Kerrey, who could not be reached for this article, was quoted in a March Newsweek essay saying that it might take “a permanent 9/11 commission” to answer remaining questions.
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_326/8yearlater.html
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
GOP Disses 9/11 Responders
NY Daily News
July 28, 2009
WASHINGTON — First responders from 9/11 can accept if Republicans don’t vote for a bill to help ailing Ground Zero workers, but they say rudeness is another matter. Several victims of the terror attacks who have become advocates on behalf of other ill responders say they were treated poorly when they called some Capitol Hill Republicans in hopes of getting them to back a measure coming up for a committee vote Wednesday.
"One office said, ‘Why do you people keep calling us? Leave us alone,’" said Charlie Giles, 41, from Barnegat, N.J. "‘You people?’ That is a disgrace from a congressman’s office."
Giles, a Republican, said his rounds of calls — and GOP opposition to a bill to reopen the Sept. 11 Victims’ Compensation Fund — left him so angry he’s ready to denounce his party when he and other responders take a bus to the Capitol Wednesday.
"I’ll bring my Republican card, and show it to them," he said. "If I have to tear it into a million pieces in front of them, I will."
Giles, who was an EMT on Sept. 11, 2001, singled out the offices of Reps. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) and Thomas Rooney (R-Fla.), as did other angry responders. They said their reactions from other members of the GOP was better. Spokespeople for both congressmen said they were not aware of any problems with callers, and insisted they provide unfailingly polite and helpful service. In one instance, a spokesperson for Forbes thought an intern may have annoyed someone by offering to take their name and see if an appointment could be arranged.
“If someone felt they were mistreated, we apologize,” said Rooney spokesman Jeff Ostermayer. “Our office treats everyone who calls with courtesy and respect.”
Daily News calls to their offices were answered politely, but a worker in Rooney’s office said she couldn’t answer a question about the bill, and transferred the call to a Democratic committee office without saying that’s what she was doing.
"They were just cold," said Glen Klein, 50, a retired city detective, "like you’re interrupting their lunch or something like that." Klein, of Centereach, L.I., spent nine months working at Ground Zero and is collecting Social Security disability.
James O’Connell, 50, an ex-Army man who recently survived a suicide attempt he blames on his 9/11 suffering, said he couldn’t understand the reception he got.
“They were at the very least, conduct unprofessional,” he said. “I don’t get politicians. I thought 9/11 was something that affected all Americans. I thought it was nonpartisan. I’m just baffled by the conduct of all these people,” he said, adding that it wasn’t just about his treatment on the phone that bothers him. “There was such great unity in the country after 9/11 and I don’t understand why in 2009 people are dying and nobody cares,” he said.
- Michael McAuliff
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2009/07/gop-disses-911-responders.html#ixzz0MgqAfAEm
July 28, 2009
WASHINGTON — First responders from 9/11 can accept if Republicans don’t vote for a bill to help ailing Ground Zero workers, but they say rudeness is another matter. Several victims of the terror attacks who have become advocates on behalf of other ill responders say they were treated poorly when they called some Capitol Hill Republicans in hopes of getting them to back a measure coming up for a committee vote Wednesday.
"One office said, ‘Why do you people keep calling us? Leave us alone,’" said Charlie Giles, 41, from Barnegat, N.J. "‘You people?’ That is a disgrace from a congressman’s office."
Giles, a Republican, said his rounds of calls — and GOP opposition to a bill to reopen the Sept. 11 Victims’ Compensation Fund — left him so angry he’s ready to denounce his party when he and other responders take a bus to the Capitol Wednesday.
"I’ll bring my Republican card, and show it to them," he said. "If I have to tear it into a million pieces in front of them, I will."
Giles, who was an EMT on Sept. 11, 2001, singled out the offices of Reps. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) and Thomas Rooney (R-Fla.), as did other angry responders. They said their reactions from other members of the GOP was better. Spokespeople for both congressmen said they were not aware of any problems with callers, and insisted they provide unfailingly polite and helpful service. In one instance, a spokesperson for Forbes thought an intern may have annoyed someone by offering to take their name and see if an appointment could be arranged.
“If someone felt they were mistreated, we apologize,” said Rooney spokesman Jeff Ostermayer. “Our office treats everyone who calls with courtesy and respect.”
Daily News calls to their offices were answered politely, but a worker in Rooney’s office said she couldn’t answer a question about the bill, and transferred the call to a Democratic committee office without saying that’s what she was doing.
"They were just cold," said Glen Klein, 50, a retired city detective, "like you’re interrupting their lunch or something like that." Klein, of Centereach, L.I., spent nine months working at Ground Zero and is collecting Social Security disability.
James O’Connell, 50, an ex-Army man who recently survived a suicide attempt he blames on his 9/11 suffering, said he couldn’t understand the reception he got.
“They were at the very least, conduct unprofessional,” he said. “I don’t get politicians. I thought 9/11 was something that affected all Americans. I thought it was nonpartisan. I’m just baffled by the conduct of all these people,” he said, adding that it wasn’t just about his treatment on the phone that bothers him. “There was such great unity in the country after 9/11 and I don’t understand why in 2009 people are dying and nobody cares,” he said.
- Michael McAuliff
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2009/07/gop-disses-911-responders.html#ixzz0MgqAfAEm
Monday, July 27, 2009
Top Mafia Figure, Tony Gambino, Implicates Vatican And Bush in Prior Knowledge And Complicity in 9/11 Mass Murder
The grandson of Lucky Luciano, Gambino, 63, just released from prison also sets the record straight about the JFK and Hoffa assassinations.
By Greg Szymanski
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/articles/26-Sept-2007.html
Sept. 26, 2007
Tony Gambino of the infamous Gambino New York crime family said besides
Mob Bosses, the outfits that benefit most from organized crime are the
corrupt Vatican and U.S. government.
The grandson of Lucky Luciano, Gambino made a guest appearance Tuesday on
Greg Szymanski's radio show, The Investigative Journal on Liberty Radio
at www.libertyradiolive.com The entire interview can be heard at
www.arcticbeacon.com as well as Liberty Radio.
The high-level former mobster talked openly for an hour, indicting top
Vatican and U.S. government officials with complicity in high crimes,
treason and assassinations as they worked together "like a tight-knit
happy family" with the Gambino and other Mafia families.
With America's fascination of the Mafia, Gambino's statements should
shake the halls of St. Peter's Basilica, as well as Capitol Hill, since
he talked about his first hand knowledge of George Bush, the Pope and
other high level Jesuits complicity and knowledge of 9/11.
"When you grow up in "The Family" like I did, you learn right off the bat
that protection comes from everywhere, including the CIA, FBI and
blessings from the Vatican who are at the top of the ladder when it comes
to benefiting from Mafia street crime," said Gambino, who became a "Made
Man" at the age of five, a Mafia term used for their top street captains.
"The Vatican officials, federal judges, top politicians all used to get
regular pay-offs from the Gambino Family and, in fact, the Vatican and
U.S. government make more money off the illegal drug trade then we did.
"That is why I am talking after just getting out of jail after 20 years.
I am talking because people need to know the U.S. government and the
Vatican are more dangerous and corrupt then the Mafia ever was.
"For example, I know for a fact the Cardinal in Palermo runs the Sicilian
mob and former Cardinal Spellman of New York was considered the Vatican's
American Godfather since he pulled the strings and had his hands deep
into organized crime.
"I know for a fact Bush, the Pope and other top Vatican and U.S.
government leaders had prior knowledge and help organize 9/11. They did
it for many obvious reason, one being instigating the war in Iraq. But
they also did it to get their hands on all the gold that was hidden below
in the Twin Towers.
"My grandfather's construction company built the Twin Towers and after it
was completed, I know they went in and put in big underground vaults to
house an enormous amount of gold which is now in Bush's and Vatican hands
in order to fund the war."
Besides implicating the Vatican and Bush in 9/11, Gambino set the record
straight about the JFK assassination, saying he was in Dallas when
Kennedy was shot and the fatal bullet came from a shooter located in an
underground storm drain.
"I was there when he was shot and I know for a fact Rosselli was in the
storm drain doing the shooting and Frank Sturgiss was also part of the
hit team," said Gambino. "The same group of guys we have talked about in
the Vatican and U.S. government gave the orders and asked the Mafia
families for help in taking down Kennedy."
Growing up on the streets of New York in one of the top crime families,
Gambino recalls getting his first lesson of Mafia life at the age of 13.
"My grandfather was Lucky Luciano so I had it made," said Gambino, now 63
and living on the East Coast with a probation stipulation that he can't
associate or talk with any organized crime figures. "Lucky had all the
politicians and even the Vatican heads in his pocket. He was making $55
to $100 million a week and when Vegas opened the money really started to
roll in.
"He got Frank Sinatra and many others like Marylin Monroe, Tony Bennett,
Dean Martin, Clint Eastwood, Sammy Davis started in Hollywood. He then
would take a percentage of their earnings and this went on for their
entire careers.
"Remember, the horse's head being cut-off in Godfather I and then put in
the Hollywood producer's bed? That really happened and it had to do with
forcing a Hollywood producer to star Sinatra in one of his movies."
Gambino also had inside information about how union boss Jimmy Hoffa was
really killed, saying his time ran out when a huge Mafia debt wasn;t
repaid.
"Hoffa was working behind the scenes with crack head and truck hi-jacker,
John Gotti," recalls Gambino. "That's all Gotti was good at and when they
brought in a $5 million drug truckload, Hoffa got deeper in debt to the
other Mafia bosses.
"He never gave his courtesy calls to the bosses for repayment and finally
his time ran out so he was killed. They picked him up, put him in a body
bag alive and then dumped his body in one of the concrete abutments at
the George Washington Bridge while the concrete was being poured. All
they did was pay the concrete man $150,000 and the whole thing has been
covered up. But that is where Hoffa's body is today and I know that for a
fact."
Although Gambino knows he's crossing a sensitive line for going public
about the inner-workings of the Mafia and its complicity with the Vatican
and U.S. government, he added that it's important for Americans to
finally understand how things "really work on the streets" and how
Church, State and big business are working together to destroy America.
And if there remains any doubters that the Vatican and Jesuit Order have
had its dirty hands in organized crime in order to destroy the moral and
financial fabric of the U.S., Gambino's confessions should lay that to
rest.
"If you don't believe the hard facts and the hundreds of researchers who
have implicated the Vatican to the demise of America, then believe
Gambino because he learned it first hand from being on the streets and
working with the top crime bosses. He has nothing to gain from lying
since he has already served his time and wants to set the record straight
once and for all regarding who are the real controllers of the New World
Order," said one patriot close studying and alerting America of Vatican
and Jesuit intrigue.
By Greg Szymanski
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/articles/26-Sept-2007.html
Sept. 26, 2007
Tony Gambino of the infamous Gambino New York crime family said besides
Mob Bosses, the outfits that benefit most from organized crime are the
corrupt Vatican and U.S. government.
The grandson of Lucky Luciano, Gambino made a guest appearance Tuesday on
Greg Szymanski's radio show, The Investigative Journal on Liberty Radio
at www.libertyradiolive.com The entire interview can be heard at
www.arcticbeacon.com as well as Liberty Radio.
The high-level former mobster talked openly for an hour, indicting top
Vatican and U.S. government officials with complicity in high crimes,
treason and assassinations as they worked together "like a tight-knit
happy family" with the Gambino and other Mafia families.
With America's fascination of the Mafia, Gambino's statements should
shake the halls of St. Peter's Basilica, as well as Capitol Hill, since
he talked about his first hand knowledge of George Bush, the Pope and
other high level Jesuits complicity and knowledge of 9/11.
"When you grow up in "The Family" like I did, you learn right off the bat
that protection comes from everywhere, including the CIA, FBI and
blessings from the Vatican who are at the top of the ladder when it comes
to benefiting from Mafia street crime," said Gambino, who became a "Made
Man" at the age of five, a Mafia term used for their top street captains.
"The Vatican officials, federal judges, top politicians all used to get
regular pay-offs from the Gambino Family and, in fact, the Vatican and
U.S. government make more money off the illegal drug trade then we did.
"That is why I am talking after just getting out of jail after 20 years.
I am talking because people need to know the U.S. government and the
Vatican are more dangerous and corrupt then the Mafia ever was.
"For example, I know for a fact the Cardinal in Palermo runs the Sicilian
mob and former Cardinal Spellman of New York was considered the Vatican's
American Godfather since he pulled the strings and had his hands deep
into organized crime.
"I know for a fact Bush, the Pope and other top Vatican and U.S.
government leaders had prior knowledge and help organize 9/11. They did
it for many obvious reason, one being instigating the war in Iraq. But
they also did it to get their hands on all the gold that was hidden below
in the Twin Towers.
"My grandfather's construction company built the Twin Towers and after it
was completed, I know they went in and put in big underground vaults to
house an enormous amount of gold which is now in Bush's and Vatican hands
in order to fund the war."
Besides implicating the Vatican and Bush in 9/11, Gambino set the record
straight about the JFK assassination, saying he was in Dallas when
Kennedy was shot and the fatal bullet came from a shooter located in an
underground storm drain.
"I was there when he was shot and I know for a fact Rosselli was in the
storm drain doing the shooting and Frank Sturgiss was also part of the
hit team," said Gambino. "The same group of guys we have talked about in
the Vatican and U.S. government gave the orders and asked the Mafia
families for help in taking down Kennedy."
Growing up on the streets of New York in one of the top crime families,
Gambino recalls getting his first lesson of Mafia life at the age of 13.
"My grandfather was Lucky Luciano so I had it made," said Gambino, now 63
and living on the East Coast with a probation stipulation that he can't
associate or talk with any organized crime figures. "Lucky had all the
politicians and even the Vatican heads in his pocket. He was making $55
to $100 million a week and when Vegas opened the money really started to
roll in.
"He got Frank Sinatra and many others like Marylin Monroe, Tony Bennett,
Dean Martin, Clint Eastwood, Sammy Davis started in Hollywood. He then
would take a percentage of their earnings and this went on for their
entire careers.
"Remember, the horse's head being cut-off in Godfather I and then put in
the Hollywood producer's bed? That really happened and it had to do with
forcing a Hollywood producer to star Sinatra in one of his movies."
Gambino also had inside information about how union boss Jimmy Hoffa was
really killed, saying his time ran out when a huge Mafia debt wasn;t
repaid.
"Hoffa was working behind the scenes with crack head and truck hi-jacker,
John Gotti," recalls Gambino. "That's all Gotti was good at and when they
brought in a $5 million drug truckload, Hoffa got deeper in debt to the
other Mafia bosses.
"He never gave his courtesy calls to the bosses for repayment and finally
his time ran out so he was killed. They picked him up, put him in a body
bag alive and then dumped his body in one of the concrete abutments at
the George Washington Bridge while the concrete was being poured. All
they did was pay the concrete man $150,000 and the whole thing has been
covered up. But that is where Hoffa's body is today and I know that for a
fact."
Although Gambino knows he's crossing a sensitive line for going public
about the inner-workings of the Mafia and its complicity with the Vatican
and U.S. government, he added that it's important for Americans to
finally understand how things "really work on the streets" and how
Church, State and big business are working together to destroy America.
And if there remains any doubters that the Vatican and Jesuit Order have
had its dirty hands in organized crime in order to destroy the moral and
financial fabric of the U.S., Gambino's confessions should lay that to
rest.
"If you don't believe the hard facts and the hundreds of researchers who
have implicated the Vatican to the demise of America, then believe
Gambino because he learned it first hand from being on the streets and
working with the top crime bosses. He has nothing to gain from lying
since he has already served his time and wants to set the record straight
once and for all regarding who are the real controllers of the New World
Order," said one patriot close studying and alerting America of Vatican
and Jesuit intrigue.
Friday, July 24, 2009
International Calls for a 9/11 Investigation
September 11 Investigation
July 24, 2009
http://www.daily.pk/7367/september-11-investigation/
Europarlementarian Guilietto Chiesa invited his colleagues and the press to attend the screening and debate of the Italian-produced documentary named ‘ZERO, an investigation into the events of 9/11’. Object of the screening was to create political awareness of the faulty official investigation into the events by the 9/11 Commission.
Besides Mr Chiesa, the panel consisted of Japanese parlementarian Fujita, Dr David Ray Griffin, film distributor Tim Sparke & the director and producers of the film.
After his opening statements, Mr Chiesa welcomed his guest speakers, including the producers, director and distributor of the documentary. Mr Chiesa pointed out that he was unable to find any distributor in his native country of Italy and was happy to find a company in the UK, led by Mr Tim Sparke, to handle worldwide distribution of this important film.
‘It is important to realize,’ he emphasized ‘that the movie was made thanks to contribution and donations of hundreds of citizens who feel a new investigation is more than warranted.’ No less than 450 people worked on this documentary on a voluntary basis. They never received any kind of payment. Their reward is the movie itself, which they feel is an instrument to create awareness and a means to provoke a political debate in Europe
Since the movie projector didn’t work, Mr Chiesa invited the public to ask questions until the technical problems were solved and we could start watching the movie
Question: ‘Why did you make this film?’
Chiesa: ‘It is obvious that we are now cast in an infinite war, based on lies. And as long as there is no new and independent investigation, we will never have security. There are too many lies for the official narrative to be true. Our film is an instrument to request the re-opening of the 9/11 investigation.’
Question: ‘How do you propose to reopen the investigation?’
Chiesa: ‘The film is the primary instrument to get the debate going. It is a collection of discoveries, by many respected researches from around the globe (the film features, among others, Gore Vidal, Sibel Edmonds, Dario Fo, David Ray Griffin, Dr Steven Jones, Dr Kevin Ryan, Webster Tarpley, Barbara Honegger, FAA-controllers, USAF pilots, military commanders, physicists ~ ed. note). But they are still questions. The movie doesn’t provide the answers. It only lays bare the questions that remain, that were left unanswered by the official investigation and need to be answered by the US government.’
Question: ‘Mr Fujita, how did you become involved?’
Fujita: ‘I work for several Japanese NGO’s and one of those people showed me some videos and books. At first I couldn’t believe it. So I saw Loose Change and read Dr Griffin’s books. And last year a good friend of mine who has a very high position at the German national bank told me about the put options that were placed on American Airlines and United Airlines. I believed him.
And reading Dr Griffin’s book, looking at his reputation, I have every reason to believe him. That’s when I realised that every truth finding effort has to be continued. So I gave a presentation in the Japanese parliament (which is extensively covered on YouTube ~ ed. note). But I feel the truthers find their information mostly by internet. The truth should not only go by internet. It should now go political! Networking is very important. We must all work together.’
Question: ‘But what can we, regular citizens who go about their daily lives, trying to make a living for them and their families, what can we do?’
Griffin: ‘As in any movement, the 9/11 Truth Movement is a minority movement. We must continue to use our networks to make this minority into a majority. We have the upper hand to find the truth, for we have the conscience of the people. And I know that’s not an easy feat. I have now written six books on the subject, which is getting good reviews ~ go check it on Amazon. I had a good reputation as an author before as well and now I’ve just written my sixth book on the subject. But I have yet to get a review in any mainstream publication.’
Question: ‘Do you, in your new book, take the same stance, saying that 9/11 was an inside job?’
Griffin: ‘My new book is called 9/11 Contradictions. In this book I do not take any position, actually. Reporters have hidden in the past saying either the books were too technical and they’re not engineers, so they couldn’t comment on the book. In other cases they felt the official story was the only story they could report about, for the risk of being labeled a conspiracy theorist or even worse, getting fired. But with my new book, reporters will not be able to hide behind these excuses. These are only contradictions that they can verify and ask questions about.’
Question: ‘What kind of contradictions?’
Griffin: ‘Well, one very important one is the alleged Barbara Olsen phone call. Ted Olsen at the time claimed he had been called by his wife twice on 9/11, thus establishing the fact that American Airlines 77 was in fact hijacked by men with Middle Eastern looks. First he claimed it was a cell phone call. Later he changed his story to seatback phone.
But when a German journalist got Boeing to confirm that on this type of flight there were no seatback phones, Olsen changed his story back to call phone. Now, you might think ‘oh, so he got it right the first time’, but… At the Moussaoui trial an FBI-report showed that there was never any connection between Barbara Olsen and her husband.
No cell phone calls were ever made from that flight (Dr Griffin gave three more examples, contradiction with regards to the whereabouts of General Meyers, the highest ranking military officer on 9/11, the timeline of Dick Cheney’s activities and the question about why the Pentagon was not evacuated when the Doomsday plane, shown on CNN, was actually in the air over Washington ~ ed. note)
Question: ‘Many people, even today, are still baffled about WTC-7. When can we expect NIST to publish its final report on this collapse?’
Griffin: ‘NIST has delayed the publication time after time. In 2004 they said it would be released in 2005, in 2005 they said it would be released in 2006 and so on. Now we are expecting the report in August 2008, but I feel we may yet get another delay.
At this point, people start joking about the fact that the US-government has probably sabotaged the screening of the documentary, since the projector cannot be fixed. We change rooms a few minutes later and the screening of the film begins.
The documentary is probably the most important film made so far on 9/11 as it is very accessible; it is obviously created for ‘9/11 newbies’. If you want to get a crash course into the 9/11 event and the failures of the commission’s investigation, this is the movie you need to see. Some of the highlights for me were the interviews with an FAA-air controller who explained how the hijacking procedures were changed on 1st June 2001, slowing down response, only to be changed back on 12th September 2001.
And the very important discovery that the CCTV-images that were released by the FBI of Atta and his companion boarding Flight AA11 in Boston were actually taken by a CCTV at the airport in Portland, where they took a plane to arrive in Boston! It has also a lot of footage that I had never seen before, including videos taken at the Pentagon shortly after the attack. A must see and clearly a labour of love. Impressive.
After the film, after the several minute long applause finally died away, Chiesa re-opened the debate.
Question: ‘Why do we put op with this? Surely the United States are not all that powerful?’
Chiesa: ‘But they are. The fact that this group of about 300 people has only 6 Europarlementarians and 2 journalists among them shows that the US is controlling everything. They are all powerful. No politician in the European Parliament can ignore the power ~ or wrath! ~ of the US.’
(True to form, the Belgian media didn’t publish or broadcast any of this debate on this or the following day, even thought this debate took place inside the European Parliament ~ ed. note)
Tim Sparke: ‘But it’s up to you now, the general public. You have to help the politicians to by telling people about this film and talking to your local cinema’s and TV-stations. Get the word out. Only then can we create the momentum to get the debate to the political level.’
Question (from myself) : ‘In the aftermath of 9/11 and in the period leading up to the war in the Middle East, the Bush administration; President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and particularly Vice President Dick Cheney; have repeatedly lied to the American people and, by extension, to the world. The crimes they have committed are much worse than those in the Watergate scandal. So why are the American people not in an uproar? Why are these people still in power and not in jail? Is it a lack of political will?
Griffin: ‘Many people simply are misinformed and kept misinformed by the government and the mainstream media. As for political will, we live in a plutocracy, not a democracy.’
Chiesa: ‘For many people 9/11 is simply too controversial. There is a very strong psychological opposition to 9/11 truth. For most people, considering a conspiracy theory…’ ‘…other than the official theory, which is ~ obviously ~ also a conspiracy theory.’
Chiesa: ‘Yes, indeed ~ so considering another conspiracy theory about 9/11 is taboo. We must overcome this taboo and we must overcome this total lack of information. We must break this wall of silence. We must break free from the web and fight the mainstream media.
This film is an instrument to do that. We need voices of different levels of society. We need not convince them that we are right. We need to convince them there is a problem that must be investigated… re-investigated. But you have to show them what happened. You cannot convince people by telling them about 9/11. They need to see it ~ hence the film.
At this moment, there is one person in the room who gives criticism on the film, claiming that he feels there are incorrect theories in the documentary. He feels the wing damage in the Pentagon is clearly visible and that Steven Jones’ claims about the thermite/thermate are not proven. He also claims that a response by jet fighters during the attack was in fact ordered.
He gave no explanation as to where he got his information. He said he was a Muslim and at the European Parliament as an independent, ready to defend himself against the reaction of the public who had started ‘boo’ing. One person’s behaviour was unbecoming in my opinion when she shouted ‘Who paid you?’ While I do not agree with the person’s assertions, I do respect his opinion.
The director of the movie went on to explain that in the movie they were not able to show everything in detail (the movie would become too long) and that ~ again ~ it was an instrument to provoke action on the part of the viewer. A few more ~ and rather interesting questions and remarks ~ came from the audience and were addressed by the panel.
By now it was getting very late (partly because of the delay of the movie screening) and Mr Chiesa wanted to wrap up the event by making a closing statement.
Chiesa: ‘A new American commission is inconceivable. But a European commission is inconceivable too. We have no jurisdiction. The US-government would never allow it. It would have to be an international group of ‘Wise Men & Women’ such as previous heads of state, engineers, artists, scholars, first responders, survivors, witnesses and so forth. We realize we still have a long road ahead. But we can create change!’
Griffin: ‘I’ve always said that the truth will come out of friendly countries. If Iran or Korea were to tell us 9/11 was an inside job, we would not believe it. They’re just saying that, because they’re our enemies. But if Japan, Europe or even an individual European country would say ‘We have examined the evidence… The war on terror is a hoax!’, then the American press would no longer be able to ignore it. They would have to publish it and then the US-government would be forced to respond.’
July 24, 2009
http://www.daily.pk/7367/september-11-investigation/
Europarlementarian Guilietto Chiesa invited his colleagues and the press to attend the screening and debate of the Italian-produced documentary named ‘ZERO, an investigation into the events of 9/11’. Object of the screening was to create political awareness of the faulty official investigation into the events by the 9/11 Commission.
Besides Mr Chiesa, the panel consisted of Japanese parlementarian Fujita, Dr David Ray Griffin, film distributor Tim Sparke & the director and producers of the film.
After his opening statements, Mr Chiesa welcomed his guest speakers, including the producers, director and distributor of the documentary. Mr Chiesa pointed out that he was unable to find any distributor in his native country of Italy and was happy to find a company in the UK, led by Mr Tim Sparke, to handle worldwide distribution of this important film.
‘It is important to realize,’ he emphasized ‘that the movie was made thanks to contribution and donations of hundreds of citizens who feel a new investigation is more than warranted.’ No less than 450 people worked on this documentary on a voluntary basis. They never received any kind of payment. Their reward is the movie itself, which they feel is an instrument to create awareness and a means to provoke a political debate in Europe
Since the movie projector didn’t work, Mr Chiesa invited the public to ask questions until the technical problems were solved and we could start watching the movie
Question: ‘Why did you make this film?’
Chiesa: ‘It is obvious that we are now cast in an infinite war, based on lies. And as long as there is no new and independent investigation, we will never have security. There are too many lies for the official narrative to be true. Our film is an instrument to request the re-opening of the 9/11 investigation.’
Question: ‘How do you propose to reopen the investigation?’
Chiesa: ‘The film is the primary instrument to get the debate going. It is a collection of discoveries, by many respected researches from around the globe (the film features, among others, Gore Vidal, Sibel Edmonds, Dario Fo, David Ray Griffin, Dr Steven Jones, Dr Kevin Ryan, Webster Tarpley, Barbara Honegger, FAA-controllers, USAF pilots, military commanders, physicists ~ ed. note). But they are still questions. The movie doesn’t provide the answers. It only lays bare the questions that remain, that were left unanswered by the official investigation and need to be answered by the US government.’
Question: ‘Mr Fujita, how did you become involved?’
Fujita: ‘I work for several Japanese NGO’s and one of those people showed me some videos and books. At first I couldn’t believe it. So I saw Loose Change and read Dr Griffin’s books. And last year a good friend of mine who has a very high position at the German national bank told me about the put options that were placed on American Airlines and United Airlines. I believed him.
And reading Dr Griffin’s book, looking at his reputation, I have every reason to believe him. That’s when I realised that every truth finding effort has to be continued. So I gave a presentation in the Japanese parliament (which is extensively covered on YouTube ~ ed. note). But I feel the truthers find their information mostly by internet. The truth should not only go by internet. It should now go political! Networking is very important. We must all work together.’
Question: ‘But what can we, regular citizens who go about their daily lives, trying to make a living for them and their families, what can we do?’
Griffin: ‘As in any movement, the 9/11 Truth Movement is a minority movement. We must continue to use our networks to make this minority into a majority. We have the upper hand to find the truth, for we have the conscience of the people. And I know that’s not an easy feat. I have now written six books on the subject, which is getting good reviews ~ go check it on Amazon. I had a good reputation as an author before as well and now I’ve just written my sixth book on the subject. But I have yet to get a review in any mainstream publication.’
Question: ‘Do you, in your new book, take the same stance, saying that 9/11 was an inside job?’
Griffin: ‘My new book is called 9/11 Contradictions. In this book I do not take any position, actually. Reporters have hidden in the past saying either the books were too technical and they’re not engineers, so they couldn’t comment on the book. In other cases they felt the official story was the only story they could report about, for the risk of being labeled a conspiracy theorist or even worse, getting fired. But with my new book, reporters will not be able to hide behind these excuses. These are only contradictions that they can verify and ask questions about.’
Question: ‘What kind of contradictions?’
Griffin: ‘Well, one very important one is the alleged Barbara Olsen phone call. Ted Olsen at the time claimed he had been called by his wife twice on 9/11, thus establishing the fact that American Airlines 77 was in fact hijacked by men with Middle Eastern looks. First he claimed it was a cell phone call. Later he changed his story to seatback phone.
But when a German journalist got Boeing to confirm that on this type of flight there were no seatback phones, Olsen changed his story back to call phone. Now, you might think ‘oh, so he got it right the first time’, but… At the Moussaoui trial an FBI-report showed that there was never any connection between Barbara Olsen and her husband.
No cell phone calls were ever made from that flight (Dr Griffin gave three more examples, contradiction with regards to the whereabouts of General Meyers, the highest ranking military officer on 9/11, the timeline of Dick Cheney’s activities and the question about why the Pentagon was not evacuated when the Doomsday plane, shown on CNN, was actually in the air over Washington ~ ed. note)
Question: ‘Many people, even today, are still baffled about WTC-7. When can we expect NIST to publish its final report on this collapse?’
Griffin: ‘NIST has delayed the publication time after time. In 2004 they said it would be released in 2005, in 2005 they said it would be released in 2006 and so on. Now we are expecting the report in August 2008, but I feel we may yet get another delay.
At this point, people start joking about the fact that the US-government has probably sabotaged the screening of the documentary, since the projector cannot be fixed. We change rooms a few minutes later and the screening of the film begins.
The documentary is probably the most important film made so far on 9/11 as it is very accessible; it is obviously created for ‘9/11 newbies’. If you want to get a crash course into the 9/11 event and the failures of the commission’s investigation, this is the movie you need to see. Some of the highlights for me were the interviews with an FAA-air controller who explained how the hijacking procedures were changed on 1st June 2001, slowing down response, only to be changed back on 12th September 2001.
And the very important discovery that the CCTV-images that were released by the FBI of Atta and his companion boarding Flight AA11 in Boston were actually taken by a CCTV at the airport in Portland, where they took a plane to arrive in Boston! It has also a lot of footage that I had never seen before, including videos taken at the Pentagon shortly after the attack. A must see and clearly a labour of love. Impressive.
After the film, after the several minute long applause finally died away, Chiesa re-opened the debate.
Question: ‘Why do we put op with this? Surely the United States are not all that powerful?’
Chiesa: ‘But they are. The fact that this group of about 300 people has only 6 Europarlementarians and 2 journalists among them shows that the US is controlling everything. They are all powerful. No politician in the European Parliament can ignore the power ~ or wrath! ~ of the US.’
(True to form, the Belgian media didn’t publish or broadcast any of this debate on this or the following day, even thought this debate took place inside the European Parliament ~ ed. note)
Tim Sparke: ‘But it’s up to you now, the general public. You have to help the politicians to by telling people about this film and talking to your local cinema’s and TV-stations. Get the word out. Only then can we create the momentum to get the debate to the political level.’
Question (from myself) : ‘In the aftermath of 9/11 and in the period leading up to the war in the Middle East, the Bush administration; President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and particularly Vice President Dick Cheney; have repeatedly lied to the American people and, by extension, to the world. The crimes they have committed are much worse than those in the Watergate scandal. So why are the American people not in an uproar? Why are these people still in power and not in jail? Is it a lack of political will?
Griffin: ‘Many people simply are misinformed and kept misinformed by the government and the mainstream media. As for political will, we live in a plutocracy, not a democracy.’
Chiesa: ‘For many people 9/11 is simply too controversial. There is a very strong psychological opposition to 9/11 truth. For most people, considering a conspiracy theory…’ ‘…other than the official theory, which is ~ obviously ~ also a conspiracy theory.’
Chiesa: ‘Yes, indeed ~ so considering another conspiracy theory about 9/11 is taboo. We must overcome this taboo and we must overcome this total lack of information. We must break this wall of silence. We must break free from the web and fight the mainstream media.
This film is an instrument to do that. We need voices of different levels of society. We need not convince them that we are right. We need to convince them there is a problem that must be investigated… re-investigated. But you have to show them what happened. You cannot convince people by telling them about 9/11. They need to see it ~ hence the film.
At this moment, there is one person in the room who gives criticism on the film, claiming that he feels there are incorrect theories in the documentary. He feels the wing damage in the Pentagon is clearly visible and that Steven Jones’ claims about the thermite/thermate are not proven. He also claims that a response by jet fighters during the attack was in fact ordered.
He gave no explanation as to where he got his information. He said he was a Muslim and at the European Parliament as an independent, ready to defend himself against the reaction of the public who had started ‘boo’ing. One person’s behaviour was unbecoming in my opinion when she shouted ‘Who paid you?’ While I do not agree with the person’s assertions, I do respect his opinion.
The director of the movie went on to explain that in the movie they were not able to show everything in detail (the movie would become too long) and that ~ again ~ it was an instrument to provoke action on the part of the viewer. A few more ~ and rather interesting questions and remarks ~ came from the audience and were addressed by the panel.
By now it was getting very late (partly because of the delay of the movie screening) and Mr Chiesa wanted to wrap up the event by making a closing statement.
Chiesa: ‘A new American commission is inconceivable. But a European commission is inconceivable too. We have no jurisdiction. The US-government would never allow it. It would have to be an international group of ‘Wise Men & Women’ such as previous heads of state, engineers, artists, scholars, first responders, survivors, witnesses and so forth. We realize we still have a long road ahead. But we can create change!’
Griffin: ‘I’ve always said that the truth will come out of friendly countries. If Iran or Korea were to tell us 9/11 was an inside job, we would not believe it. They’re just saying that, because they’re our enemies. But if Japan, Europe or even an individual European country would say ‘We have examined the evidence… The war on terror is a hoax!’, then the American press would no longer be able to ignore it. They would have to publish it and then the US-government would be forced to respond.’
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Humor Section: "Tom Kean wants to Develop Generation of Leaders who Trust Each Other"
This one - about the author of the UnitedHealth stock swindle cover-up ... oh, and the fictional paperback published by the ersatz 9/11 Commission - cracks me up. Tom Kean has a refreshing sense of humor and is indulging in a good laugh at our expense. Now, let's frog-march him to jail and show him that we do have a sense of humor, too - because he's a joke.
Amusing, this one ... what a kidder ... lock 'im up ...
- AC
Amusing, this one ... what a kidder ... lock 'im up ...
- AC
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Why a 9/11 "Plotter" Deserves a Re-Trial
By Bruce Crumley
Time Magazine
Jul. 19, 2009
Zacarias Moussaoui is set to spend the rest of his life in total seclusion in Colorado's ADX Supermax prison for a range of charges relating to conspiring to commit acts of terrorism.
It isn't easy to have sympathy for Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in connection with the September 11 terror attacks. During his trial, Moussaoui pledged his allegiance to Osama bin Laden and prayed that al-Qaeda succeeds in its violent jihad against the U.S; he also mocked the families of 9/11 victims and dared the court to inflict the harshest punishment for the crimes which, after veering erratically between denial and advocacy, he finally took responsibility for. In May 2006, a jury decided against the death penalty but sent Moussaoui, now 41, to life imprisonment and near total isolation in Colorado's ADX Supermax prison.
Now Moussaoui says he regrets pleading guilty. But, he has a problem: U.S. law does not allow those who have taken that route to appeal their cases. His only shot at winning a lighter sentence is the July 14 decision by a federal appeals court in Virginia to re-hear arguments that the government had failed to turn over key evidence to Moussaoui and his lawyer that might have helped in his defense. As politically untenable as it may seem, President Barack Obama should support Moussaoui's efforts to win another trial.
Why? Because justice and sympathy are different issues. Moussaoui's courtroom antics and declarations were outrageous but the prosecution of his trial was a farce nonetheless. Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema repeatedly criticized certain aspects of the prosecutors' efforts to win a guilty verdict as both underhanded and illegal. At one point in the trial, Brinkema rebuked prosecutors for illegally coaching a witness from a federal agency. She called that tampering "an egregious" and a "significant error by the government affecting the... integrity of the criminal justice system of the United States."
On one occasion Brinkema backed Moussaoui's call to cite testimony from Guantanamo prisoners and 9/11 masterminds Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh for his defense. Prosecutors resisted that demand, claiming the information was classified. (Moussaoui would win the right to use parts of statements by the 9/11 puppet masters, who described the Frenchman as too erratic and unreliable to be let in on the plot.)
However, Moussaoui continued to make himself the ever-ready scapegoat in the pursuit of 9/11 justice that seemed to provide no other perpetrators to prosecute. He was, indeed, a dream come true for the prosecution. First, he fired his defense team, zigged and zagged between pleading innocent and guilty, and ranted in ways that had some observers questioning his sanity. And the circumstantial evidence against him didn't make Moussaoui look any better: he was arrested in August, 2001 while attending a Minnesota flight school. When investigators took a closer look at him after 9/11, they discovered jihadist literature and plane flying information on his computer. Further inquiry led to the discovery that Binalshibh had wired him $14,000 from Germany; a check with French officials showed that he'd long been under watch as a suspected jihadist who'd made the de rigeur trip to al-Qaeda's Afghan haven.
But Moussaoui had been in jail nearly a month when the attack occurred, meaning he couldn't have been directly responsible for it. Moussaoui was also a lousy student who flunked out of several flight schools. And, most importantly, the statements by Sheikh Mohammed and Binalshibh confirmed what anyone watching his trial already knew: Moussaoui was too big a loud-mouth and hot-head to let anywhere near a plot like 9/11. In the end, Moussaoui's conviction relied almost entirely on his own guilty plea and inconsistent admissions to having wanted to carry out terror attacks in the U.S.
His mother Aicha el-Wafi, told TIME that Moussaoui informed her that he pleaded guilty in the fatalistic belief the process had to be rigged, that no American court would ever give a sworn enemy a fair chance. American values include respecting the rights of even those who attack them. That's been a key consideration in Obama's moves to roll back many Bush administration policies in the war on terror. During a recent speech in Cairo, the U.S. President explained his decision to close the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison as part of a wider push to reverse extra-legal Bush administration security measures that stomped on long-standing principles of American civil liberty. Seeking to defend fundamental American ideas from attack in that way, Obama noted, "led us to act contrary to our ideals."
Thanks to the Virginia appeals court ruling, Obama has an opportunity to demonstrate his commitment to those ideals, as unpalatable as Moussaoui may be. The Frenchman should be re-tried for what he actually did, rather than what he says.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1911560,00.html
Time Magazine
Jul. 19, 2009
Zacarias Moussaoui is set to spend the rest of his life in total seclusion in Colorado's ADX Supermax prison for a range of charges relating to conspiring to commit acts of terrorism.
It isn't easy to have sympathy for Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in connection with the September 11 terror attacks. During his trial, Moussaoui pledged his allegiance to Osama bin Laden and prayed that al-Qaeda succeeds in its violent jihad against the U.S; he also mocked the families of 9/11 victims and dared the court to inflict the harshest punishment for the crimes which, after veering erratically between denial and advocacy, he finally took responsibility for. In May 2006, a jury decided against the death penalty but sent Moussaoui, now 41, to life imprisonment and near total isolation in Colorado's ADX Supermax prison.
Now Moussaoui says he regrets pleading guilty. But, he has a problem: U.S. law does not allow those who have taken that route to appeal their cases. His only shot at winning a lighter sentence is the July 14 decision by a federal appeals court in Virginia to re-hear arguments that the government had failed to turn over key evidence to Moussaoui and his lawyer that might have helped in his defense. As politically untenable as it may seem, President Barack Obama should support Moussaoui's efforts to win another trial.
Why? Because justice and sympathy are different issues. Moussaoui's courtroom antics and declarations were outrageous but the prosecution of his trial was a farce nonetheless. Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema repeatedly criticized certain aspects of the prosecutors' efforts to win a guilty verdict as both underhanded and illegal. At one point in the trial, Brinkema rebuked prosecutors for illegally coaching a witness from a federal agency. She called that tampering "an egregious" and a "significant error by the government affecting the... integrity of the criminal justice system of the United States."
On one occasion Brinkema backed Moussaoui's call to cite testimony from Guantanamo prisoners and 9/11 masterminds Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh for his defense. Prosecutors resisted that demand, claiming the information was classified. (Moussaoui would win the right to use parts of statements by the 9/11 puppet masters, who described the Frenchman as too erratic and unreliable to be let in on the plot.)
However, Moussaoui continued to make himself the ever-ready scapegoat in the pursuit of 9/11 justice that seemed to provide no other perpetrators to prosecute. He was, indeed, a dream come true for the prosecution. First, he fired his defense team, zigged and zagged between pleading innocent and guilty, and ranted in ways that had some observers questioning his sanity. And the circumstantial evidence against him didn't make Moussaoui look any better: he was arrested in August, 2001 while attending a Minnesota flight school. When investigators took a closer look at him after 9/11, they discovered jihadist literature and plane flying information on his computer. Further inquiry led to the discovery that Binalshibh had wired him $14,000 from Germany; a check with French officials showed that he'd long been under watch as a suspected jihadist who'd made the de rigeur trip to al-Qaeda's Afghan haven.
But Moussaoui had been in jail nearly a month when the attack occurred, meaning he couldn't have been directly responsible for it. Moussaoui was also a lousy student who flunked out of several flight schools. And, most importantly, the statements by Sheikh Mohammed and Binalshibh confirmed what anyone watching his trial already knew: Moussaoui was too big a loud-mouth and hot-head to let anywhere near a plot like 9/11. In the end, Moussaoui's conviction relied almost entirely on his own guilty plea and inconsistent admissions to having wanted to carry out terror attacks in the U.S.
His mother Aicha el-Wafi, told TIME that Moussaoui informed her that he pleaded guilty in the fatalistic belief the process had to be rigged, that no American court would ever give a sworn enemy a fair chance. American values include respecting the rights of even those who attack them. That's been a key consideration in Obama's moves to roll back many Bush administration policies in the war on terror. During a recent speech in Cairo, the U.S. President explained his decision to close the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison as part of a wider push to reverse extra-legal Bush administration security measures that stomped on long-standing principles of American civil liberty. Seeking to defend fundamental American ideas from attack in that way, Obama noted, "led us to act contrary to our ideals."
Thanks to the Virginia appeals court ruling, Obama has an opportunity to demonstrate his commitment to those ideals, as unpalatable as Moussaoui may be. The Frenchman should be re-tried for what he actually did, rather than what he says.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1911560,00.html
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Who was Involved in 9/11? Italian Documentary Reveals Shocking Facts
www.russiatoday.com
September, 2008, 15:38
On the anniversary of 9/11, an Italian-produced documentary called ZERO, investigating the tragedy, is opening in Russia. The authors believe that the U.S. official version of events surrounding the attacks can't be true. U.S. networks have rejected the film.
The events of September 11 2001 sent shockwaves around the world as hijacked aircraft crashed into the World Trade Centre, bringing the landmark buildings down, the Pentagon, and into a Pennsylvania field in the wake of a failed attempt by passengers to regain control.
The Empty space at Ground Zero in Manhattan stands as a memorial to the collapse of the towers, which killed nearly 3000 occupants and rescuers.
The makers of the documentary claim that the report of the official U.S. commission into the tragedy of September 11, 2001 is false.
One of the films authors, Giulietto Chiesa, who's also an Italian member of the European Parliament, says some of the facts concerning the tragedy remain very suspicious and that a lot of questions are still unanswered.
“The people who organised 9/11 are people who knew the geopolitical and energy situation in the world very well. They knew exactly how the attack will change the future of the world,” Chiesa said.
The film claims the reason for the collapse of the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York was not the planes crashing into them but a controlled detonation of explosives planted inside the buildings. Referring to witness corroborations, they pose the question of how two of the worlds largest buildings collapsed on their own footprint, and without significantly affecting nearby buildings.
Chiesa says he was shocked by the absence of U.S. air defense on the day of the attack, which allowed the hijacked planes reach the World Trade Centre.
He also finds it strange that, just three days after 9/11, U.S. officials were able to name all 19 terrorist involved. The film presents evidence that CIA specialists not only new about the planned terrorist attack but assisted them in gaining U.S. visas.
The documentary also raises questions about whether the aircraft involved in the Pentagon attack was a Boeing-757. Adding to these questions is the absence of any footage from the many cameras installed around the U.S. Defense HQ, any wreckage from the aircraft, or passenger bodies.
The documentary also raises doubts, not only about Osama Bin Laden’s involvement in the attack, but also the existence of the Al-Quaeda terrorist organisation.
9/11 victims remembered in Moscow
A requiem service has been held in Moscow to remember those who died in the 9/11 terror attacks in New York seven years ago.
The requiem service was lead at St. Catherine's Church by U.S. born archimandrite Zahkey (Richard Wood). The ceremony was held both in Russian and English.
The U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle attended the service along with his international counterparts and Russian officials.
Beyrle said it was a day for people to mourn not only the victims of the 9/11 attacks, but for innocent people who have died in any terrorist attack.
http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2008-09-11/Who_was_involved_in_911_Documentary_reveals_shocking_facts.html?gclid=COCPiO-n4JsCFRMUagodpV-v_A
September, 2008, 15:38
On the anniversary of 9/11, an Italian-produced documentary called ZERO, investigating the tragedy, is opening in Russia. The authors believe that the U.S. official version of events surrounding the attacks can't be true. U.S. networks have rejected the film.
The events of September 11 2001 sent shockwaves around the world as hijacked aircraft crashed into the World Trade Centre, bringing the landmark buildings down, the Pentagon, and into a Pennsylvania field in the wake of a failed attempt by passengers to regain control.
The Empty space at Ground Zero in Manhattan stands as a memorial to the collapse of the towers, which killed nearly 3000 occupants and rescuers.
The makers of the documentary claim that the report of the official U.S. commission into the tragedy of September 11, 2001 is false.
One of the films authors, Giulietto Chiesa, who's also an Italian member of the European Parliament, says some of the facts concerning the tragedy remain very suspicious and that a lot of questions are still unanswered.
“The people who organised 9/11 are people who knew the geopolitical and energy situation in the world very well. They knew exactly how the attack will change the future of the world,” Chiesa said.
The film claims the reason for the collapse of the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York was not the planes crashing into them but a controlled detonation of explosives planted inside the buildings. Referring to witness corroborations, they pose the question of how two of the worlds largest buildings collapsed on their own footprint, and without significantly affecting nearby buildings.
Chiesa says he was shocked by the absence of U.S. air defense on the day of the attack, which allowed the hijacked planes reach the World Trade Centre.
He also finds it strange that, just three days after 9/11, U.S. officials were able to name all 19 terrorist involved. The film presents evidence that CIA specialists not only new about the planned terrorist attack but assisted them in gaining U.S. visas.
The documentary also raises questions about whether the aircraft involved in the Pentagon attack was a Boeing-757. Adding to these questions is the absence of any footage from the many cameras installed around the U.S. Defense HQ, any wreckage from the aircraft, or passenger bodies.
The documentary also raises doubts, not only about Osama Bin Laden’s involvement in the attack, but also the existence of the Al-Quaeda terrorist organisation.
9/11 victims remembered in Moscow
A requiem service has been held in Moscow to remember those who died in the 9/11 terror attacks in New York seven years ago.
The requiem service was lead at St. Catherine's Church by U.S. born archimandrite Zahkey (Richard Wood). The ceremony was held both in Russian and English.
The U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle attended the service along with his international counterparts and Russian officials.
Beyrle said it was a day for people to mourn not only the victims of the 9/11 attacks, but for innocent people who have died in any terrorist attack.
http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2008-09-11/Who_was_involved_in_911_Documentary_reveals_shocking_facts.html?gclid=COCPiO-n4JsCFRMUagodpV-v_A
Friday, July 17, 2009
GOP TIES TO THREE 911 HIJACKERS
By Alex Constantine
Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman al-Hussayen was in the thick of it, all right. On Sept. 10, 2001, three of the 911 hijackers stayed in same hotel as the Saudi "Minister for the Holy Places," England's Telegraph reported three years after the event: "A senior Saudi Arabian official stayed at the same hotel as three September 11 hijackers the night before the suicide attacks. American investigators are trying to make sense of the disclosure that Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman al-Hussayen, who returned to Saudi Arabia shortly after the attacks, stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn in Herndon, Virginia."
David Nevin, his nephew's American attorney, denied "any sinister aspects to the older man's travels.... Mr Hussayen became president of the affairs of the Holy Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the two most sacred sites in Islam, five months after the attacks. Sources said he was already a prominent figure in the world of Saudi-funded charities." Hussayen was questioned by the FBI after the air commando operations that levelled the World Trade Center ... and he "feigned a seizure," quaking and choking and "prompting the agents to take him to a hospital, where the attending physicians found nothing wrong with him..."1
The agents suggested that the Saudi "epileptic" should be detained and questioned, but "as soon as flights resumed on Sept 19, Mr Hussayen and his wife flew home." Oops. The FBI later learned that while touring in the States, Sheikh Hussayen "visited or contacted several Saudi-sponsored charities now accused of links to terrorist groups."
Prosecutors later maintained that Hussayen had financed the Islamic Assembly of North America, accused of distributing "the teachings of two Saudi clerics who advocate violence against the United States."
Sami Omar Hussayen, nephew of Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman Hussayen
His nephew, Sami Omar Hussayen, a computer student, is in federal detention in Idaho on charges of visa fraud, accused of failing to disclose his role as an internet webmaster for IANA." Federal court filings alleged that the son "administered an internet site for IANA that expressly advocated suicide attacks and using airliners as weapons. IANA received about £2 million from abroad since 1995, court papers allege, including £60,000 from Saleh al-Hussayen."
Kim Lindquist, an assistant federal attorney assigned to the investigation of Hussayen in Boise, Idaho, said: "We're investigating the IANA. We have the money flowing to the IANA through the nephew from the uncle. We have the uncle visiting the United States just prior to September 11, and upon his return to the East Coast he's in the same hotel as the hijackers. According to FBI agents he feigns a seizure. It is something that we cannot ignore."
Lindquist wanted to "take the extra step" of connecting Saudi rulers to the events of September 11, because the Sheik's journeys and contacts are seen as a road map' of how Saudi money has poured into the United States in support of Wahhabism, the puritanical and intolerant form of Islam backed by the Saudi royal family."2
A couple of weeks after this belated story on Hussayen appeared, the wire services reported that recently unsealed court documents exposed "a secretive group of Muslim charities and businesses in Northern Virginia [that] funneled millions of dollars to foreign terrorists - and the network was set up with donations from a wealthy (unnamed) Saudi family." An affidavit from Homeland Security's David Kane charged that the Safa Group in Herndon had pipelined "more than $26 million in untraceable money overseas and that leaders of the organization have committed and conspired to . . . provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations.' The probe of the Herndon groups is the largest federal investigation of terrorism financing in the world." There was no innocent explanation "for the use of layers and layers of transactions between Safa Group companies and charities other than to throw law enforcement authorities off the trail," Kane said.
Now, the express purpose of the Safa Group, "set up primarily with donations from a wealthy Saudi family, was to fund terrorism and hide millions of dollars." Kane insisted that the dizzying nature of "the myriad financial transactions and the fact that much of the money was sent to tax havens with bank secrecy laws make it impossible to trace the final destination of much of the money."3
But, once again, the trail going the other way, back to the source of terrorist funding, led to the District of Columbia. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:
• "GOP heavyweight Grover Norquist, a former board member of the foundation," was a Safa apologist. Norquist "said the group is not political; rather it is focused on educational issues..."
• "The men have given more than $84,000 since 1990 to a variety of federal candidates and political groups, including $5,500 to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, a Michigan Republican, and $4,000 to former Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a political watchdog group."
• "The main leaders of the Safa Group of companies include ... Taha Alalwani, a naturalized American citizen who runs an Islamic graduate school where nine of the 12 Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military have been trained."
• "Khaled Saffuri, chairman of the Washington-based Islamic Free Market Institute Foundation, was at the April 4 luncheon with the former treasury secretary.... Saffuri, who has met with many top-level administration officials in recent years, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and FBI Director Robert Mueller, is also listed in Federal Election Committee reports as the treasurer of National Muslims for a Greater America, a defunct political action committee that received $5,200 from people connected to the Safa Group investigation..."
• " ... the affidavit ties the Safa Group to Abdurahman M. Alamoudi, a politically connected Muslim activist, who was welcomed at the White House by former President Bill Clinton and President Bush for his work on behalf of Muslim causes. Alamoudi recently pleaded not guilty to an 18-count federal indictment alleging that he laundered money and violated immigration and customs laws by accepting $340,000 from the Libyan government, which the government considers a state sponsor of terrorism. The $84,000 in contributions came from several of the alleged principals of the Safa Group and Alamoudi..."4
On March 25, 2002, the Guardian provided details of more "embarrassing" domestic political connections, offering this insight into the "epileptic" Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman al-Hussayen, the Safra Trust and 911:
ALL OF THIS devolves back to mysterious Sheik al-Hussayen, the "epileptic" holy man and his room at the Marriott Residence Inn in Herndon, Virginia on December 10, 2001 ... and those three hijackers down the hall. Some would find this certain evidence of Saudi sponsorship of the 911 air assaults, and have (National Review and David Horowitz).
But not so fast ...
Grover Norquist
A little history of these particular Middle Eastern connections is enlightening. The Wall Street Journal reported: "Mr. Norquist started the nonprofit Islamic Free Market Institute. In collaboration with Mr. [Karl] Rove, now Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, he and other institute leaders courted Muslim voters for the Bush 2000 presidential campaign. Mr. Norquist even credits gains among Muslims with putting Mr. Bush in a position to win the critical Florida contest . . . To run the nonprofit's day-to-day operations, Mr. Norquist turned to Khalid Saffuri, a Palestinian-American raised in Kuwait who had been an official of the American Muslim Council, a political group in Washington. The institute's founding chairman was a Palestinian American, Talat Othman, who had served with Mr. Bush on the board of Harken Energy Corp. and later visited the president in the White House, according to records obtained by the National Security News Service."5
Talit Othman, we find in the same WSJ report, has been "a longtime associate and supporter of President Bush's family [who] gave a benediction at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in August 2000 . . . But he also serves [with Barzinji] on the board of Amana Mutual funds Trust, an investment firm founded by M. Yacub Mirza, the Northern Virginia businessman who set up most of the entities targeted by the Treasury and whose tax records were sought in the raid. Two nonprofits affiliated with Mr. Mirza and named in the search warrant, the SAAR Foundation Inc. [another title for Safa] and the Heritage Education Trust Inc., held large blocks of shares in Amana's mutual funds in 1997, according to SEC records.
The SEC documents and other records detailing connections between Mr. Othman and the Islamic Institute [on the board of which Mr. Othman serves] and the raided groups were compiled by the National Security News Service, a Washington based nonprofit research group. Mr. Othman also is on the board of Mr. Saffuri's [and Norquist's] Islamic Institute, the GOP-leaning group that received $20,000.00 from the Safa Trust, one of the raid's targets. The president of the Safa Trust, Jamal Barzinji, is a former business associate of Switzerland based investor Youssef Nada [See Khashoggi, part XV], whose assets were frozen last fall after the Treasury designated him a person suspected of giving aid to terrorists."
A few words on these financial connections: Yousef Nada, Richard Lebeviere informs, was a Nazi collaborator during WW II: "... known to the Egyptian [intelligence] services, who have evidence of his membership in the armed branch of the fraternity of the Muslim Brothers in the 1940's. At that time, according to the same sources, he was working for the Abwehr under Admiral Canaris and took part in a plot against King Farouk ..."6
Talit Othman also had a history, as reported by the Chicago Tribune on August 10, 2003: "In 1990, media reports implied that Othman was a front man for [Abdullah Taha] Bakhsh, who had acquired a 17.6 percent stake in Harken Energy Corp. in the 1980s. Serving alongside Othman as a Harken corporate officer: then-presidential son George W. Bush."7
This, then, is the "shadowy network" behind the 911 hijackers and the "mysterious" Sheik at the Marriott Hotel in Herndon, VA. From one end of the terror pipeline to the other.
Speaking of where the hijackers spent the night on September 10, 2001, five others deserve mention: "One of the most bizarre ironies of all this is that five of the hijackers lived in a motel right outside the gates of the NSA ..." - BBC News, June 8, 2002.
As for the dangling connections to BCCI mentioned in the cites above ...
In December 1992, Senator John Kerry published a report - it's a virtual primal scream if you read between the lines - in the form of an interim statement on BCCI submitted to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and in it Kerry complained bitterly that the CIA had refused to cooperate with his investigation. Former CIA officials, including Richard Helms, and foreign intelligence officials, including Kamal Adham and Abdul Raouf Khalil, dragged their feet. Principal foreign agents, "such as Adnan Khashoggi and Manucher Ghorbanifar, float in and out of BCCI at critical times in its history, and participate simultaneously in the making of key episodes in U.S. foreign policy, ranging from the Camp David peace talks to the arming of Iran as part of the Iran/Contra affair."
Agency officials claimed that they had no information on file regarding contact with the above, "raising questions about ... its candor with the Subcommittee. The CIA's professions of total ignorance about their respective roles in BCCI are out of character with the Agency's early knowledge of many critical aspects of the bank's operations, structure, personnel, and history."
Some of the information given to Kerry's subcommittee early on, he said, "was untrue." Subsequent information turned over by the CIA "was incomplete." And the Agency "resisted providing a full' account about its knowledge of BCCI until almost a year after the initial requests for the information.... The relationships among former CIA personnel and BCCI front men and nominees, including [Khashoggi partner] Kamal Adham, Abdul Khalil, and Mohammed Irvani, require further investigation..."
NOTES
1) See Telegraph, October 3, 2003.
http://www.unknownnews.net/031003911.html
2) Ibid.
3) "Terror Probe Points to Va. Muslims," October 17, 2003.
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=8593
4) Eunice Moscoso and Rebecca Carr, "Targets of terror financing probe had political clout," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 2, 2003.
5) Tom Hamburger and Glenn R. Simpson, "In Difficult Times, Muslims Count On Unlikely Advocate" Wall Street Journal, undated.
http://www.spitfirelist.com/f415.html
6) Richard Labeviere, Dollars for Terror: The United States and Islam, Algora, 2000, pp. 140-141.
7) Brian Grow, "Muslim financier pushes peace effort," Chicago Tribune, August 10, 2003, p. 1.
By Alex ConstantineSaleh Ibn Abdul Rahman al-Hussayen was in the thick of it, all right. On Sept. 10, 2001, three of the 911 hijackers stayed in same hotel as the Saudi "Minister for the Holy Places," England's Telegraph reported three years after the event: "A senior Saudi Arabian official stayed at the same hotel as three September 11 hijackers the night before the suicide attacks. American investigators are trying to make sense of the disclosure that Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman al-Hussayen, who returned to Saudi Arabia shortly after the attacks, stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn in Herndon, Virginia."
David Nevin, his nephew's American attorney, denied "any sinister aspects to the older man's travels.... Mr Hussayen became president of the affairs of the Holy Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the two most sacred sites in Islam, five months after the attacks. Sources said he was already a prominent figure in the world of Saudi-funded charities." Hussayen was questioned by the FBI after the air commando operations that levelled the World Trade Center ... and he "feigned a seizure," quaking and choking and "prompting the agents to take him to a hospital, where the attending physicians found nothing wrong with him..."1
The agents suggested that the Saudi "epileptic" should be detained and questioned, but "as soon as flights resumed on Sept 19, Mr Hussayen and his wife flew home." Oops. The FBI later learned that while touring in the States, Sheikh Hussayen "visited or contacted several Saudi-sponsored charities now accused of links to terrorist groups."
Prosecutors later maintained that Hussayen had financed the Islamic Assembly of North America, accused of distributing "the teachings of two Saudi clerics who advocate violence against the United States."
Sami Omar Hussayen, nephew of Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman HussayenHis nephew, Sami Omar Hussayen, a computer student, is in federal detention in Idaho on charges of visa fraud, accused of failing to disclose his role as an internet webmaster for IANA." Federal court filings alleged that the son "administered an internet site for IANA that expressly advocated suicide attacks and using airliners as weapons. IANA received about £2 million from abroad since 1995, court papers allege, including £60,000 from Saleh al-Hussayen."
Kim Lindquist, an assistant federal attorney assigned to the investigation of Hussayen in Boise, Idaho, said: "We're investigating the IANA. We have the money flowing to the IANA through the nephew from the uncle. We have the uncle visiting the United States just prior to September 11, and upon his return to the East Coast he's in the same hotel as the hijackers. According to FBI agents he feigns a seizure. It is something that we cannot ignore."
Lindquist wanted to "take the extra step" of connecting Saudi rulers to the events of September 11, because the Sheik's journeys and contacts are seen as a road map' of how Saudi money has poured into the United States in support of Wahhabism, the puritanical and intolerant form of Islam backed by the Saudi royal family."2
A couple of weeks after this belated story on Hussayen appeared, the wire services reported that recently unsealed court documents exposed "a secretive group of Muslim charities and businesses in Northern Virginia [that] funneled millions of dollars to foreign terrorists - and the network was set up with donations from a wealthy (unnamed) Saudi family." An affidavit from Homeland Security's David Kane charged that the Safa Group in Herndon had pipelined "more than $26 million in untraceable money overseas and that leaders of the organization have committed and conspired to . . . provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations.' The probe of the Herndon groups is the largest federal investigation of terrorism financing in the world." There was no innocent explanation "for the use of layers and layers of transactions between Safa Group companies and charities other than to throw law enforcement authorities off the trail," Kane said.Now, the express purpose of the Safa Group, "set up primarily with donations from a wealthy Saudi family, was to fund terrorism and hide millions of dollars." Kane insisted that the dizzying nature of "the myriad financial transactions and the fact that much of the money was sent to tax havens with bank secrecy laws make it impossible to trace the final destination of much of the money."3
But, once again, the trail going the other way, back to the source of terrorist funding, led to the District of Columbia. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:
• "GOP heavyweight Grover Norquist, a former board member of the foundation," was a Safa apologist. Norquist "said the group is not political; rather it is focused on educational issues..."
• "The men have given more than $84,000 since 1990 to a variety of federal candidates and political groups, including $5,500 to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, a Michigan Republican, and $4,000 to former Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a political watchdog group."
• "The main leaders of the Safa Group of companies include ... Taha Alalwani, a naturalized American citizen who runs an Islamic graduate school where nine of the 12 Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military have been trained."
• "Khaled Saffuri, chairman of the Washington-based Islamic Free Market Institute Foundation, was at the April 4 luncheon with the former treasury secretary.... Saffuri, who has met with many top-level administration officials in recent years, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and FBI Director Robert Mueller, is also listed in Federal Election Committee reports as the treasurer of National Muslims for a Greater America, a defunct political action committee that received $5,200 from people connected to the Safa Group investigation..."
• " ... the affidavit ties the Safa Group to Abdurahman M. Alamoudi, a politically connected Muslim activist, who was welcomed at the White House by former President Bill Clinton and President Bush for his work on behalf of Muslim causes. Alamoudi recently pleaded not guilty to an 18-count federal indictment alleging that he laundered money and violated immigration and customs laws by accepting $340,000 from the Libyan government, which the government considers a state sponsor of terrorism. The $84,000 in contributions came from several of the alleged principals of the Safa Group and Alamoudi..."4
On March 25, 2002, the Guardian provided details of more "embarrassing" domestic political connections, offering this insight into the "epileptic" Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman al-Hussayen, the Safra Trust and 911:
FBI raids pro-Republicans
Guardian
Duncan Campbell
March 25, 2002
The target of an anti-terrorist raid in the United States last week provided funds for an Islamic group with close ties to the Republican party and the White House. The Safa trust, a Saudi-backed charity, has provided funds for a political group called the Islamic Institute, which was set up to mobilise support for the Republican party. It shares an office in Washington with the Republican activist Grover Norquist.
The institute, founded in 1999 to win influence in the Republican party, has helped to arrange meetings between senior Bush officials and Islamic leaders, according to the report in Newsweek magazine. Its s chairman, Khaled Saffuri, and Mr Norquist cooperated to arrange the meetings.
The trust gave $20,000 (£14,000) to the institute, which also received $20,000 from a board member of the Success Foundation, according to the report. The institute has also received money from abroad, including$200,000 from Qatar and $55,000 from Kuwait. The institute says that none of the money came with strings attached.
Mr Norquist, who is a member of the institute's board, said that it existed "to promote democracy and free markets. Any effort to imply guilt by association is incompetent McCarthyism".
ALL OF THIS devolves back to mysterious Sheik al-Hussayen, the "epileptic" holy man and his room at the Marriott Residence Inn in Herndon, Virginia on December 10, 2001 ... and those three hijackers down the hall. Some would find this certain evidence of Saudi sponsorship of the 911 air assaults, and have (National Review and David Horowitz).
But not so fast ...
Grover NorquistA little history of these particular Middle Eastern connections is enlightening. The Wall Street Journal reported: "Mr. Norquist started the nonprofit Islamic Free Market Institute. In collaboration with Mr. [Karl] Rove, now Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, he and other institute leaders courted Muslim voters for the Bush 2000 presidential campaign. Mr. Norquist even credits gains among Muslims with putting Mr. Bush in a position to win the critical Florida contest . . . To run the nonprofit's day-to-day operations, Mr. Norquist turned to Khalid Saffuri, a Palestinian-American raised in Kuwait who had been an official of the American Muslim Council, a political group in Washington. The institute's founding chairman was a Palestinian American, Talat Othman, who had served with Mr. Bush on the board of Harken Energy Corp. and later visited the president in the White House, according to records obtained by the National Security News Service."5
Talit Othman, we find in the same WSJ report, has been "a longtime associate and supporter of President Bush's family [who] gave a benediction at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in August 2000 . . . But he also serves [with Barzinji] on the board of Amana Mutual funds Trust, an investment firm founded by M. Yacub Mirza, the Northern Virginia businessman who set up most of the entities targeted by the Treasury and whose tax records were sought in the raid. Two nonprofits affiliated with Mr. Mirza and named in the search warrant, the SAAR Foundation Inc. [another title for Safa] and the Heritage Education Trust Inc., held large blocks of shares in Amana's mutual funds in 1997, according to SEC records.
The SEC documents and other records detailing connections between Mr. Othman and the Islamic Institute [on the board of which Mr. Othman serves] and the raided groups were compiled by the National Security News Service, a Washington based nonprofit research group. Mr. Othman also is on the board of Mr. Saffuri's [and Norquist's] Islamic Institute, the GOP-leaning group that received $20,000.00 from the Safa Trust, one of the raid's targets. The president of the Safa Trust, Jamal Barzinji, is a former business associate of Switzerland based investor Youssef Nada [See Khashoggi, part XV], whose assets were frozen last fall after the Treasury designated him a person suspected of giving aid to terrorists."
A few words on these financial connections: Yousef Nada, Richard Lebeviere informs, was a Nazi collaborator during WW II: "... known to the Egyptian [intelligence] services, who have evidence of his membership in the armed branch of the fraternity of the Muslim Brothers in the 1940's. At that time, according to the same sources, he was working for the Abwehr under Admiral Canaris and took part in a plot against King Farouk ..."6
Talit Othman also had a history, as reported by the Chicago Tribune on August 10, 2003: "In 1990, media reports implied that Othman was a front man for [Abdullah Taha] Bakhsh, who had acquired a 17.6 percent stake in Harken Energy Corp. in the 1980s. Serving alongside Othman as a Harken corporate officer: then-presidential son George W. Bush."7
This, then, is the "shadowy network" behind the 911 hijackers and the "mysterious" Sheik at the Marriott Hotel in Herndon, VA. From one end of the terror pipeline to the other.
Speaking of where the hijackers spent the night on September 10, 2001, five others deserve mention: "One of the most bizarre ironies of all this is that five of the hijackers lived in a motel right outside the gates of the NSA ..." - BBC News, June 8, 2002.
As for the dangling connections to BCCI mentioned in the cites above ...
In December 1992, Senator John Kerry published a report - it's a virtual primal scream if you read between the lines - in the form of an interim statement on BCCI submitted to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and in it Kerry complained bitterly that the CIA had refused to cooperate with his investigation. Former CIA officials, including Richard Helms, and foreign intelligence officials, including Kamal Adham and Abdul Raouf Khalil, dragged their feet. Principal foreign agents, "such as Adnan Khashoggi and Manucher Ghorbanifar, float in and out of BCCI at critical times in its history, and participate simultaneously in the making of key episodes in U.S. foreign policy, ranging from the Camp David peace talks to the arming of Iran as part of the Iran/Contra affair."
Agency officials claimed that they had no information on file regarding contact with the above, "raising questions about ... its candor with the Subcommittee. The CIA's professions of total ignorance about their respective roles in BCCI are out of character with the Agency's early knowledge of many critical aspects of the bank's operations, structure, personnel, and history."Some of the information given to Kerry's subcommittee early on, he said, "was untrue." Subsequent information turned over by the CIA "was incomplete." And the Agency "resisted providing a full' account about its knowledge of BCCI until almost a year after the initial requests for the information.... The relationships among former CIA personnel and BCCI front men and nominees, including [Khashoggi partner] Kamal Adham, Abdul Khalil, and Mohammed Irvani, require further investigation..."
NOTES
1) See Telegraph, October 3, 2003.
http://www.unknownnews.net/031003911.html
2) Ibid.
3) "Terror Probe Points to Va. Muslims," October 17, 2003.
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=8593
4) Eunice Moscoso and Rebecca Carr, "Targets of terror financing probe had political clout," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 2, 2003.
5) Tom Hamburger and Glenn R. Simpson, "In Difficult Times, Muslims Count On Unlikely Advocate" Wall Street Journal, undated.
http://www.spitfirelist.com/f415.html
6) Richard Labeviere, Dollars for Terror: The United States and Islam, Algora, 2000, pp. 140-141.
7) Brian Grow, "Muslim financier pushes peace effort," Chicago Tribune, August 10, 2003, p. 1.
9/11 Suspects Boycott Hearing at Guantánamo
" .... A court security officer three times hit a censor's button to prevent victims and media from hearing portions of the presentation by Lachelier, bin al Shibh's Pentagon-appointed defense counsel. The $12 million courtroom was designed for such episodes. Media and other observers are sequestered in a soundproof booth and hear the participants' words on a 40-second delay, giving the government censor time to broadcast static when he believes someone might be divulging classified information. The same censor has hit the button in earlier hearings, specifically when Mohammed made reference to his torture, presumably by waterboarding, and when bin al Shibh discussed his U.S. military diagnosed mental illness. ... "
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1144151.html
By CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com
07.16.09
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- All five alleged co-conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks boycotted a pretrial hearing Thursday morning, frustrating prosecutors and denying kin of victims a chance to see the men in the flesh.
Prosecutor Robert Swann, a retired Army colonel, argued that no hearing should go forward without the presence of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four alleged co-conspirators. Three of the men are acting as their own attorneys.
The hearing was meant to hash out what information would be made available to military defense lawyers for two of the accused -- Ramzi bin al Shibh and Mustafa al Hawsawi -- as part of an ongoing sanity board to determine their competency to stand trial.
Both men have asked to serve as their own attorneys. Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, assigned to defend bin al Shibh, says the Yemeni, who has been accused of helping the 9/11 hijackers find flight schools in America, has been prescribed psychotropic medications given to patients who are schizophrenic or bipolar.
It was not known why Hawsawi may not be competent. His attorney, Army Maj. Jon Jackson, has filed sealed motions in his client's case.
Defense lawyers said the accused men were notified on the eve of the hearing that they would be prohibited from speaking in court.
Nine relatives of Americans killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon watched the proceedings from a special victims' section inside a glass-enclosed and soundproofed booth at the back of the court.
One observer, Judy Reiss of Bucks County, Pa., had a photo of her 23-year-old son pinned to her blouse for the hearing. Joshua Reiss, a bond trader at Cantor-Fitzgerald in New York City, perished in the attack while working on the 105th floor of the Trade Center's North Tower.
With none of the accused present, Judge Stephen Henley heard arguments on whether to fund experts to test bin al Shibh's mental competency.
"Whether or not it is reflective of his delusional disorder," said Lachelier, "the government can't hide the fact that they used sleep deprivation."
A court security officer three times hit a censor's button to prevent victims and media from hearing portions of the presentation by Lachelier, bin al Shibh's Pentagon-appointed defense counsel.
The $12 million courtroom was designed for such episodes. Media and other observers are sequestered in a soundproof booth and hear the participants' words on a 40-second delay, giving the government censor time to broadcast static when he believes someone might be divulging classified information.
The same censor has hit the button in earlier hearings, specifically when Mohammed made reference to his torture, presumably by waterboarding, and when bin al Shibh discussed his U.S. military diagnosed mental illness.
Thursday, Judge Henley, an Army colonel, told Lachelier she was forbidden to speak in open court about the Yemeni's treatment in CIA custody, before President George W. Bush ordered him and the other accused moved from secret sites to Guantánamo for trial.
Lachelier has sought to hire experts in sleep and psychiatric neuroimaging as part of an analysis of whether bin al Shibh's psychological disorder interferes with either his ability to function as his own attorney or makes him incompetent for trial.
Military escorts said another observer on the base this week was Janet Roy of Pompano Beach, whose firefighter brother William F. Burke Jr., 46, died at the World Trade Center.
The terror suspects could face military execution if they are convicted of conspiracy in the mass murder of 2,973 people on Sept. 11. They allegely plotted, financed and helped the 19 hijackers reach U.S. soil -- and they have collectively submitted a written admission to the court that says they welcome martyrdom.
The Pentagon has cast the hearing as an incremental administrative move while the Obama administration examines each of the proposed Guantánamo war crimes cases. A Justice Department-led task force is still deciding which cases should go before military tribunals and which to civilian juries.
Meantime, the prisoners are segregated as high-value detainees from the rest of the 220 or so war on terror captives at Guantánamo, confined to a secret prison called Camp 7 so they cannot describe the details of their CIA interrogations to fellow detainees.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1144151.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1144151.html
By CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com
07.16.09
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- All five alleged co-conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks boycotted a pretrial hearing Thursday morning, frustrating prosecutors and denying kin of victims a chance to see the men in the flesh.
Prosecutor Robert Swann, a retired Army colonel, argued that no hearing should go forward without the presence of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four alleged co-conspirators. Three of the men are acting as their own attorneys.
The hearing was meant to hash out what information would be made available to military defense lawyers for two of the accused -- Ramzi bin al Shibh and Mustafa al Hawsawi -- as part of an ongoing sanity board to determine their competency to stand trial.
Both men have asked to serve as their own attorneys. Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, assigned to defend bin al Shibh, says the Yemeni, who has been accused of helping the 9/11 hijackers find flight schools in America, has been prescribed psychotropic medications given to patients who are schizophrenic or bipolar.
It was not known why Hawsawi may not be competent. His attorney, Army Maj. Jon Jackson, has filed sealed motions in his client's case.
Defense lawyers said the accused men were notified on the eve of the hearing that they would be prohibited from speaking in court.
Nine relatives of Americans killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon watched the proceedings from a special victims' section inside a glass-enclosed and soundproofed booth at the back of the court.
One observer, Judy Reiss of Bucks County, Pa., had a photo of her 23-year-old son pinned to her blouse for the hearing. Joshua Reiss, a bond trader at Cantor-Fitzgerald in New York City, perished in the attack while working on the 105th floor of the Trade Center's North Tower.
With none of the accused present, Judge Stephen Henley heard arguments on whether to fund experts to test bin al Shibh's mental competency.
"Whether or not it is reflective of his delusional disorder," said Lachelier, "the government can't hide the fact that they used sleep deprivation."
A court security officer three times hit a censor's button to prevent victims and media from hearing portions of the presentation by Lachelier, bin al Shibh's Pentagon-appointed defense counsel.
The $12 million courtroom was designed for such episodes. Media and other observers are sequestered in a soundproof booth and hear the participants' words on a 40-second delay, giving the government censor time to broadcast static when he believes someone might be divulging classified information.
The same censor has hit the button in earlier hearings, specifically when Mohammed made reference to his torture, presumably by waterboarding, and when bin al Shibh discussed his U.S. military diagnosed mental illness.
Thursday, Judge Henley, an Army colonel, told Lachelier she was forbidden to speak in open court about the Yemeni's treatment in CIA custody, before President George W. Bush ordered him and the other accused moved from secret sites to Guantánamo for trial.
Lachelier has sought to hire experts in sleep and psychiatric neuroimaging as part of an analysis of whether bin al Shibh's psychological disorder interferes with either his ability to function as his own attorney or makes him incompetent for trial.
Military escorts said another observer on the base this week was Janet Roy of Pompano Beach, whose firefighter brother William F. Burke Jr., 46, died at the World Trade Center.
The terror suspects could face military execution if they are convicted of conspiracy in the mass murder of 2,973 people on Sept. 11. They allegely plotted, financed and helped the 19 hijackers reach U.S. soil -- and they have collectively submitted a written admission to the court that says they welcome martyrdom.
The Pentagon has cast the hearing as an incremental administrative move while the Obama administration examines each of the proposed Guantánamo war crimes cases. A Justice Department-led task force is still deciding which cases should go before military tribunals and which to civilian juries.
Meantime, the prisoners are segregated as high-value detainees from the rest of the 220 or so war on terror captives at Guantánamo, confined to a secret prison called Camp 7 so they cannot describe the details of their CIA interrogations to fellow detainees.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1144151.html
Thursday, July 16, 2009
9/11 Families, First Responders and Survivors Gather at City Hall to Endorse 2009 Ballot Referendum to Establish New Official 9/11 Investigation in NY
July 15, 2009*
*New York* - Outside City Hall today relatives of 9/11 victims, first responders and survivors of the September 11th attacks gathered to endorse a November ballot initiative to establish a new 9/11 investigation under the auspices of the city government of New York. Support on the street is high, the group says, and polls indicate a majority of New Yorkers wants a new investigation.
On June 24, the group leading the ballot initiative, the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN) filed a petition containing 52,000 signatures with the office of the City Clerk. The official filing initiated a 60-day period specified in Section 37 of the New York Municipal Home Rule Law in which the City Council is asked to review the petition and approve its placement on the upcoming November ballot.
Since this milestone filing, the group has gathered an additional 15,000 signatures and received several endorsements from prominent leaders. Renowned whistleblower and former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, who TIME magazine selected as one of three "Persons of the Year" in 2002, endorsed a new investigation yesterday, as reported by RAWSTORY
Manny Badillo, who lost his uncle Thomas, and who serves NYC CAN as Director of Outreach, said in an opening statement "Thomas Keane and Lee Hamilton, the Chairmen of the 9/11 Commission, after issuing their report, both admitted that the Commission was unsuccessful. In their own words, the Commission was 'Set Up To Fail'." Sen Cleland called it a national scandal.
Badillo was joined by 9/11 victim family members Donna Marsh O'Connor and Bob McIlvaine, and survivor Janette MacKinlay, all members of the NYCCAN Executive Council who also made impassioned statements of support. Eileen Coles, an US Air Force Desert Storm veteran and former intelligence officer, stated, "Our only way forward to restore our national honor is to answer the questions and demand accountability. This will not happen without a truly impartial and scientific examination of the evidence."
NYC CAN is non-partisan organization comprised of 9/11 Families, First Responders, Survivors and proud, concerned citizens committed to bringing about an independent, impartial investigation into the events of September 11. For more info: http://www.nyccan.org
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Coalition-calling-for-a-ne-by-Press-Release-090716-898.html
*New York* - Outside City Hall today relatives of 9/11 victims, first responders and survivors of the September 11th attacks gathered to endorse a November ballot initiative to establish a new 9/11 investigation under the auspices of the city government of New York. Support on the street is high, the group says, and polls indicate a majority of New Yorkers wants a new investigation.
On June 24, the group leading the ballot initiative, the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN) filed a petition containing 52,000 signatures with the office of the City Clerk. The official filing initiated a 60-day period specified in Section 37 of the New York Municipal Home Rule Law in which the City Council is asked to review the petition and approve its placement on the upcoming November ballot.
Since this milestone filing, the group has gathered an additional 15,000 signatures and received several endorsements from prominent leaders. Renowned whistleblower and former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, who TIME magazine selected as one of three "Persons of the Year" in 2002, endorsed a new investigation yesterday, as reported by RAWSTORY
Manny Badillo, who lost his uncle Thomas, and who serves NYC CAN as Director of Outreach, said in an opening statement "Thomas Keane and Lee Hamilton, the Chairmen of the 9/11 Commission, after issuing their report, both admitted that the Commission was unsuccessful. In their own words, the Commission was 'Set Up To Fail'." Sen Cleland called it a national scandal.
Badillo was joined by 9/11 victim family members Donna Marsh O'Connor and Bob McIlvaine, and survivor Janette MacKinlay, all members of the NYCCAN Executive Council who also made impassioned statements of support. Eileen Coles, an US Air Force Desert Storm veteran and former intelligence officer, stated, "Our only way forward to restore our national honor is to answer the questions and demand accountability. This will not happen without a truly impartial and scientific examination of the evidence."
NYC CAN is non-partisan organization comprised of 9/11 Families, First Responders, Survivors and proud, concerned citizens committed to bringing about an independent, impartial investigation into the events of September 11. For more info: http://www.nyccan.org
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Coalition-calling-for-a-ne-by-Press-Release-090716-898.html
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
9/11 Commission Reconvenes as Bipartisan Policy Center's National Security Preparedness Group
Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton Lead Center's Newest Project
WASHINGTON, July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Building on the highly acclaimed work of the 9/11 Commission, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) today announced the launch of a new project called the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) to further examine the changing threats to the United States. Under the leadership of 9/11 Commission Chair, Thomas H. Kean, and Vice Chair, Lee H. Hamilton, the NSPG will focus its efforts on national intelligence, terrorism, and security issues, continuing the work of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission) and its successor, the 9/11 Public Discourse Project.
The NSPG is composed of a distinguished bipartisan group of experts including former U.S. Secretary of Energy and U.S. Senator E. Spencer Abraham; Peter Bergen; Dr. Stephen Flynn; Dr. John Gannon; Dr. Bruce Hoffman; former Congressman Dave McCurdy; former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III; former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge; Frances Townsend; former U.S. Attorney General Richard L. Thornburgh; former Congressman Jim Turner; and Lawrence Wright.
"We look forward to furthering the achievements of the 9/11 Commission and its recommendations through our work with the Bipartisan Policy Center," said Governor Kean. "We believe it is critical that we continue to assess security threats to the United States. The success of the 9/11 Commission was largely a result of our commitment to bipartisanship, and we will continue to foster that spirit throughout this process."
Yesterday's meeting was the first gathering of the group at the BPC. Admiral Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, spoke to the group about threats to the United States and the state of intelligence reform.
"The creation of a Director of National Intelligence was the signature recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, and we are very pleased that Admiral Blair came to meet with the National Security Preparedness Group," said Congressman Hamilton. "Our bipartisan group of members believes strongly that we must continue to improve information sharing and unity of effort within the intelligence community. Through our work, we hope to make America safer and more secure."
"Governor Kean and Congressman Hamilton bring unmatched depth and knowledge to the Bipartisan Policy Center," said Jason Grumet, founder and president of the BPC. "Their efforts complement our ongoing projects across energy, transportation, and health care, as well as our national security and cyber simulation initiatives. We are honored to partner with such a distinguished group."
Michael Allen, formerly of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, is the Executive Director of the NSPG (National Security Preparedness Group).
Former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell established the BPC in 2007. The BPC's goal is to develop and promote bipartisan solutions to the nation's most pressing public policy challenges. Currently, the BPC conducts projects in the areas of national security, health care, transportation, energy and climate change, and science policy.
National Security Preparedness Group Members:
The Honorable Thomas H. Kean, Co-Chairman
Former Governor of New Jersey, THK Consulting
The Honorable Lee H. Hamilton, Co-Chairman
Former Congressman from Indiana, President and Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Honorable E. Spencer Abraham
Former U.S. Secretary of Energy and U.S. Senator from Michigan, The Abraham Group
Mr. Peter Bergen
CNN National Security Analyst and Author, Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation
Dr. Stephen Flynn
Ira A. Lipman Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
Dr. John Gannon
BAE Systems, former CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence, Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, and U.S. House Homeland Security Staff Director
Dr. Bruce Hoffman
Georgetown University terrorism specialist and former Vice President for External Affairs at RAND Corporation
The Honorable Dave McCurdy
Former Congressman from Oklahoma and Chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, President of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers
The Honorable Edwin Meese III
Former U.S. Attorney General, Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy and Chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation
The Honorable Tom Ridge
Former Governor of Pennsylvania and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Senior Advisor at Deloitte Global LLP, Ridge Global
The Honorable Frances Townsend
Former Homeland Security Advisor and former Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism under President George W. Bush
The Honorable Richard L. Thornburgh
Former U.S. Attorney General, Of Counsel at K&L Gates
The Honorable Jim Turner
Former Congressman from Texas and Ranking Member of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, Arnold and Porter, LLP
Mr. Lawrence Wright
New Yorker Columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
About the Bipartisan Policy Center: In 2007, former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell formed the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) to develop and promote solutions that can attract the public support and political momentum to achieve real progress. The BPC acts as an incubator for policy efforts that engage top political figures, advocates, academics, and business leaders in the art of principled compromise. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/.
SOURCE Bipartisan Policy Center
WASHINGTON, July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Building on the highly acclaimed work of the 9/11 Commission, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) today announced the launch of a new project called the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) to further examine the changing threats to the United States. Under the leadership of 9/11 Commission Chair, Thomas H. Kean, and Vice Chair, Lee H. Hamilton, the NSPG will focus its efforts on national intelligence, terrorism, and security issues, continuing the work of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission) and its successor, the 9/11 Public Discourse Project.
The NSPG is composed of a distinguished bipartisan group of experts including former U.S. Secretary of Energy and U.S. Senator E. Spencer Abraham; Peter Bergen; Dr. Stephen Flynn; Dr. John Gannon; Dr. Bruce Hoffman; former Congressman Dave McCurdy; former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III; former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge; Frances Townsend; former U.S. Attorney General Richard L. Thornburgh; former Congressman Jim Turner; and Lawrence Wright.
"We look forward to furthering the achievements of the 9/11 Commission and its recommendations through our work with the Bipartisan Policy Center," said Governor Kean. "We believe it is critical that we continue to assess security threats to the United States. The success of the 9/11 Commission was largely a result of our commitment to bipartisanship, and we will continue to foster that spirit throughout this process."
Yesterday's meeting was the first gathering of the group at the BPC. Admiral Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, spoke to the group about threats to the United States and the state of intelligence reform.
"The creation of a Director of National Intelligence was the signature recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, and we are very pleased that Admiral Blair came to meet with the National Security Preparedness Group," said Congressman Hamilton. "Our bipartisan group of members believes strongly that we must continue to improve information sharing and unity of effort within the intelligence community. Through our work, we hope to make America safer and more secure."
"Governor Kean and Congressman Hamilton bring unmatched depth and knowledge to the Bipartisan Policy Center," said Jason Grumet, founder and president of the BPC. "Their efforts complement our ongoing projects across energy, transportation, and health care, as well as our national security and cyber simulation initiatives. We are honored to partner with such a distinguished group."
Michael Allen, formerly of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, is the Executive Director of the NSPG (National Security Preparedness Group).
Former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell established the BPC in 2007. The BPC's goal is to develop and promote bipartisan solutions to the nation's most pressing public policy challenges. Currently, the BPC conducts projects in the areas of national security, health care, transportation, energy and climate change, and science policy.
National Security Preparedness Group Members:
The Honorable Thomas H. Kean, Co-Chairman
Former Governor of New Jersey, THK Consulting
The Honorable Lee H. Hamilton, Co-Chairman
Former Congressman from Indiana, President and Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Honorable E. Spencer Abraham
Former U.S. Secretary of Energy and U.S. Senator from Michigan, The Abraham Group
Mr. Peter Bergen
CNN National Security Analyst and Author, Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation
Dr. Stephen Flynn
Ira A. Lipman Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
Dr. John Gannon
BAE Systems, former CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence, Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, and U.S. House Homeland Security Staff Director
Dr. Bruce Hoffman
Georgetown University terrorism specialist and former Vice President for External Affairs at RAND Corporation
The Honorable Dave McCurdy
Former Congressman from Oklahoma and Chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, President of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers
The Honorable Edwin Meese III
Former U.S. Attorney General, Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy and Chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation
The Honorable Tom Ridge
Former Governor of Pennsylvania and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Senior Advisor at Deloitte Global LLP, Ridge Global
The Honorable Frances Townsend
Former Homeland Security Advisor and former Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism under President George W. Bush
The Honorable Richard L. Thornburgh
Former U.S. Attorney General, Of Counsel at K&L Gates
The Honorable Jim Turner
Former Congressman from Texas and Ranking Member of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, Arnold and Porter, LLP
Mr. Lawrence Wright
New Yorker Columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
About the Bipartisan Policy Center: In 2007, former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell formed the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) to develop and promote solutions that can attract the public support and political momentum to achieve real progress. The BPC acts as an incubator for policy efforts that engage top political figures, advocates, academics, and business leaders in the art of principled compromise. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/.
SOURCE Bipartisan Policy Center
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The Tom Kean UnitedHealth Stock Backdating Cover-Up
1) Thomas Kean is a director at UnitedHealth Group Inc.
http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/invest/2001/ar2001_leaders_p58.pdf#search=%22thomas%20kean%20and%20unitedhealth%22
Thomas H. Kean
President
Drew University
Compensation and Human
Resources Committee
-----------------------
2) Thomas kean covers up the company stock option backdating scandal:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2006/8/11/195638/195
Backdating stock options: The plot thickens
by PsiFighter37 Fri Aug 11th, 2006 at 07:56:38 PM EST
... The board of UnitedHealth Group Inc. met on May 1 to deal with questions about unusually well-timed stock-option grants to top executives such as Chief Executive William McGuire. The gathering heard a briefing from a lawyer who was running UnitedHealth's internal probe of how the options were dated.
One director whose recollections would be important to the investigation was THOMAS H. KEAN, a former New Jersey governor who had served on the compensation committee that approved options grants.
The same day as the board meeting, some UnitedHealth directors and executives were supporting a campaign by Mr. Kean's son for a U.S. Senate seat from New Jersey. Some of them attended a fund-raiser for Tom Kean Jr. that day, in UnitedHealth's home state of Minnesota. It isn't clear whether Dr. McGuire and his wife attended, but each donated $2,000 to the cause. So did Richard T. Burke, who sits on a special board committee that is overseeing the options investigation. All told, UnitedHealth-affiliated donors have contributed $25,000 to the campaign.
[...]
When the donations to the Kean Senate campaign were described to former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, he said they struck him as "ill-advised and strange" and something that could be seen as an attempt to influence a witness because of the senior Mr. Kean's role on the compensation committee. A spokeswoman for the Kean campaign said the fund raising came at a "UnitedHealth breakfast" hosted by Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, and there was absolutely no effort to curry favor with the elder Mr. Kean. The former New Jersey governor didn't return calls seeking comment.
http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/invest/2001/ar2001_leaders_p58.pdf#search=%22thomas%20kean%20and%20unitedhealth%22
Thomas H. Kean
President
Drew University
Compensation and Human
Resources Committee
-----------------------
2) Thomas kean covers up the company stock option backdating scandal:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2006/8/11/195638/195
Backdating stock options: The plot thickens
by PsiFighter37 Fri Aug 11th, 2006 at 07:56:38 PM EST
... The board of UnitedHealth Group Inc. met on May 1 to deal with questions about unusually well-timed stock-option grants to top executives such as Chief Executive William McGuire. The gathering heard a briefing from a lawyer who was running UnitedHealth's internal probe of how the options were dated.
One director whose recollections would be important to the investigation was THOMAS H. KEAN, a former New Jersey governor who had served on the compensation committee that approved options grants.
The same day as the board meeting, some UnitedHealth directors and executives were supporting a campaign by Mr. Kean's son for a U.S. Senate seat from New Jersey. Some of them attended a fund-raiser for Tom Kean Jr. that day, in UnitedHealth's home state of Minnesota. It isn't clear whether Dr. McGuire and his wife attended, but each donated $2,000 to the cause. So did Richard T. Burke, who sits on a special board committee that is overseeing the options investigation. All told, UnitedHealth-affiliated donors have contributed $25,000 to the campaign.
[...]
When the donations to the Kean Senate campaign were described to former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, he said they struck him as "ill-advised and strange" and something that could be seen as an attempt to influence a witness because of the senior Mr. Kean's role on the compensation committee. A spokeswoman for the Kean campaign said the fund raising came at a "UnitedHealth breakfast" hosted by Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, and there was absolutely no effort to curry favor with the elder Mr. Kean. The former New Jersey governor didn't return calls seeking comment.
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