Tomorrow Philip Shenon’s book, “The Commission” will be released. I forward the Comment
just released by September 11th Advocates (the leading 9/11 family members behind
the Commission) along with a comment of my own here:
Wire
target="_blank"> http://www.unansweredquestions.org/
.
*** OPEN
LETTER with attached Comment
from September 11th
Advocates (aka “9/11 widows”)***
From
Kyle F. Hence
Executive Producer –
target="_blank">http://www.911pressfortruth.com
Dear
9/11 Commissioners:
Tomorrow Philip Shenon’s book,
target="_blank">“The Commission” will be released. I
forward the Comment just released by September 11th
Advocates (the leading 9/11 family members behind the
Commission) along with a comment of my own here:
Some of
you have yourselves said the 9/11 Report is “not the last
word” on what happened. This is no doubt true. Horribly and
tragically true. The next question is of course: what are we
(or you) going to do about that? Will you address where you
fell short or seek to rectify the situation? For starters,
the record now shows that a few of you (you know who you
are) were responsible for leaving out details of the
target="_blank"> Tenet/Black meeting with Rice/Clark on July
10 ‘01 and another with Ashcroft on the 18th. And the
Commission left out details of the
target="_blank"> Global Guardian ‘air-war exercises
(normally scheduled for October but moved to Sept), Able
Danger ID of four of the future hijackers (per 5 credible
witnesses), and the revelations of FBI translator
Edmonds – http://www.justacitizen.com/, several of whose
allegations had been confirmed by the likes of senior
Senators (and others have confirmed more recent claims). And
now, thanks to the CIA and FBI IG Reports we know a whole
lot more about the extent, nature and timing of the CIA’s
withholding of key information about Hazmi and Mihdhar from
FBI investigators on the trail of those tied to the Cole and
Embassy bombings. [I could go on and on and not posit a
single theory or speculate].
I am willing to concede you
were dedicated and labored hard on a difficult task but I am
certainly not willing to let you all off the hook for hiring
or not firing Philip Zelikow, for avoiding the anthrax
attack, for producing an obviously compromised and
incomplete report, for not naming names, for not issuing
needed subpoenas, for ignoring important witnesses, for
giving too much credence to tortured co-conspirators, for
concluding that the question of who funded the attacks is of
‘little practical significance,” for softening the report to
protect the Bush administration, for the embargo on
Commissioner comment until after the election, for
overlooking the
target="_blank">missing trillions from the DoD (See…
target="_blank">http://www.solari.com/learn/articles_missingmoney.htm.)
In
the long run history will no doubt be harsh on your record
but less so, or quite the reverse, if you come forward with
candid admission of where you fell down and if you stand up
now, or when the time comes, to support a new investigation.
For God’s sake, admit that Philip Zelikow for all his
seeming intelligence, dedication and hard work had no
business running the Commission, if not for appearance’s
sake alone.
Many years after the Warren Commission issued
its own final report, the Permanent Select Committee on
Assassinations concluded there was a wider conspiracy behind
the killing of JFK. Let’s hope it we don’t have to wait as
long for a new investigation of 9/11 and let’s hope we don’t
get yet another unsatisfactory and incomplete finding should
one be convened. No doubt the families will not make the
same mistake twice and this time insist on a formal role in
an investigation. In case after case without the benefit of
classified material or ‘access’, the 9/11 families put the
government’s own investigators to shame. With your honest
help let’s hope the future writes a different story; for the
sake of all of us and our children.
Please join the now
millions of people around the world who have honestly and
thoroughly examined the findings of fact and circumstances
laid out in your Report and found them deceptive, or
incomplete, and call for a new investigation that reveals
the truth, that follows all the evidence trails, wherever
they might lead.
Regards,
Kyle F.
Hence
Executive Producer
target="_blank">http://www.911pressfortruth.com
STATEMENT FULL TEXT *********
Immediate Release February 4, 2008
*September 11th
Advocates Comment on the Impending Release of Philip Shenons
Book
The Commission: The Uncensored History of
the 9/11 Investigation February 4, 2008
Philip Shenons new book, “The
Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11Investigation,
serves to justify our suspicions and the concerns of
the Family Steering Committee, that we attempted to publicly
air during the course of the 9/11 Commissions tenure.
One
of the most egregious revelations put forth by Mr. Shenon is
the fact that Philip Zelikow was hired as the Executive
Director of the 9/11 Commission, despite his direct ties to
the Bush Administration. In 2000-2001 he served as a member
of Condoleezza Rices National Security Council (NSC)
transition team, where he was allegedly the architect of the
decision to demote Richard Clarke and his counter terrorism
team within the NSC. Furthermore he was a member of the
Presidents Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) from
2001-2003, where* *Zelikow drafted most of the 2002 National
Security Strategy of the United States, creating the
pre-emptive Iraq war strategy. These areas were within the
scope of the Commissions mandate and as such were of
critical importance to determine what, if any, impact they
had on the governments ability to prevent the 9/11
attacks.
As the Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission,
Philip Zelikow was given the responsibility for choosing the
entire direction of the Commissions investigation.
Essentially, Mr. Zelikow determined who was or was not
interviewed as a witness, and which information was or was
not looked at. He also influenced which documents would be
requested from the various agencies. It seemed to us, that
allowing an individual with this much involvement in the
Bush administration to run the investigation, might give the
appearance of impropriety and could ultimately taint the
Commissions findings.
In a statement issued by the Family
Steering Committee of March 20, 2004 we
wrote:
“It is apparent that Dr. Zelikow
should never have been permitted to be Executive Staff
Director of the Commission. As Executive Staff Director,
his job has been to steer the direction of the Commissions
investigation, an investigation whose mandate includes
understanding why the Bush Administration failed to
prioritize the Al Qaeda threat. “
In the
same statement we also called for:
“Zelikows
immediate resignation; Zelikows testimony in public and
under oath; and the subpoena of Zelikow’s notes from the
intelligence briefings he attended with Richard Clarke.
“
Commission Chairman Tom Kean and Vice-Chair
Lee Hamilton instead chose to have Mr. Zelikow recuse
himself from the areas of the investigation that dealt with
the transition period. However, they allowed Mr. Zelikow to
be one of only two people (Ms. Gorelick was the other) to
review the Presidential Daily Briefings (PDBs), reports that
went to the heart of what the White House and its National
Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, knew prior to 9/11.
While investigating the events that led up to the September
11th attacks, Philip Zelikow was called as a witness by the
9/11 Commission though transcripts of his testimony were
never made public.
Despite our vehement objections, Mr.
Zelikow was allowed to remain in his position as what seemed
to be the gatekeeper of the 9/11 Commission. Mr. Shenons
book illustrates just how deeply and insidiously the
Commission’s basic fact-finding work was compromised by
Zelikows conflicts. He recounts that even after his recusal,
Mr. Zelikow continued to insert himself into the work of
“Team 3,” of the Commission. This team was responsible for
examining the White House, and therefore, the conduct of
Condoleeza Rice and Richard Clarke during the months prior
to 9/11.
According to the author, Team 3 staffers would
come to believe that Mr. Zelikow prevented them from
submitting a report that would have depicted Ms. Rice’s
performance as “amount[ing] to incompetence, or something
not far from it.”
Evidence of the possible duplicitous
nature of Mr. Zelikows role on the 9/11 Commission was
further exemplified by his numerous conversations with Karl
Rove, President Bushs Senior Political Advisor. When
questioned about his contact with Rove, Zelikows response
was to tell his secretary to stop logging his
calls.
Contrary to former Commissioner John Lehmans recent
comment on MSNBC that Zelikows conversations with Rove are a
red herring, these contacts with Rove should have been /a
red flag/. Negotiating for or procuring of White House
documents for the Commission should have been done through
the Office of White House Counsel NOT the Presidents
political advisor. Consequently, knowing how this would
appear, one must ask why Zelikow was speaking with Rove?
It is abundantly clear that Philip Zelikow should have
immediately been replaced when the first rumblings of his
impropriety and conflicts of interest surfaced. When all of
this information became clear, the Commissioners and the
press should have called for Zelikows resignation. We did.
Shamefully, most were silent.
Further evidence of
political maneuvering came to light in the story of
Commissioner Max Cleland. Cleland was publicly critical of
the Commission and the Bush White House. According to
Shenons book, when it became obvious that Max Cleland would
continue to be loudly critical, Commission Chairman Tom Kean
and Vice-Chair Lee Hamilton sought the help of Senator Tom
Daschle to find Cleland a new job. Thus, Max Cleland was
quietly removed and silenced with a new job in the Bush
Administration.
Also revealed in Shenons book is the fact
that the Commissions staff never ventured to the National
Security Agency (NSA), the chief collector of intelligence
information, in order to review their voluminous treasure
trove of documents. At NSA Headquarters, 27 miles from the
Commissions offices, there was a gold mine of information
detailing terrorists threats and connections, including
those of al Qaeda. General Michael Hayden, who headed the
NSA at the time, was eager to cooperate and share what his
organization had with the 9/11 Commission, but Executive
Director Zelikow was not interested.
A lone staffer, who
understood the importance of these archives, had the
information moved to a reading room within walking distance
of the Commissions offices. Even then, she was the only
member of the Commission to take the time to read these
documents. By her own admission, this insightful staffer had
concerns as to how much she, on her own, would be able to
glean from these jargon filled documents. Why didnt Phil
Zelikow make reviewing these vital NSA documents a
Commission priority? It seems clear that not every fact and
lead was followed in this investigation compromising the
validity of the Commissions final report and its
findings.
Moreover, the Pre-9/11 story largely revolved
around second and third hand knowledge of interrogations of
tortured individuals, detainees that were being held in
secret locations.
According to many sources at the CIA and
deep within the government, confessions extracted from
individuals who are tortured are generally deemed useless. A
tortured detainee will say anything in order to make the
torture stop and therefore, the confession cannot be
trusted. One needs to look no further than the Army Field
Manual on Interrogation (FM 34-52), which states in Chapter
1:
“”Experience indicates that the use of
force is not necessary to gain the cooperation of sources
for interrogation. Therefore, the use of force is a poor
technique, as it yields unreliable results, may damage
subsequent collection efforts, and can induce the source to
say whatever he thinks the interrogator wants to hear.”
“
How could the Commission have based their
entire pre-9/11 narrative on these unreliable,
torture-induced confessions?
We believe that author Phil
Shenon has revealed information which only scratches the
surface as to what went on behind the scenes of this
investigation.
Why, when this Congressionally mandated
Commission could have done much to fix the fatal flaws in
our in government by conducting a real investigation and
making vital recommendations, would they instead allow it to
become a sham. This investigation was meant to fix the
loopholes that allowed our Country to be so vulnerable. Why
would they choose instead, to succumb to political
machinations? What would we find out if a real investigation
into September 11, 2001 were ever done?
The bottom line is
that the most deadly attack on American soil since Pearl
Harbor remains dangerously unexamined. This can only be
remedied with an investigation guided by the facts and
conducted outside the reach of those with a vested interest
in suppressing the truth.
*Patty Casazza*
*Monica
Gabrielle *
*Mindy Kleinberg *
*Lorie Van Auken *
*********
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