An international symposium on the open questions of Sept. 11, 2001

Berlin, Germany, 7 September 2002

The Bush administration has insinuated an outrageous conspiracy theory, that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was linked to the attacks. This entirely unsubstantiated claim was used to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq, with disastrous consequences for the Iraqi and American people. What did this have to do with defending against new terrorist attacks? The first victims of Sept. 11, the people of New York City, overwhelmingly opposed the invasion.

Sept. 11th is still "the day that changed the world." The tragedy of the victims was exploited as a pretext to drum up support for wars - to stifle dissent at home - to push through repressive and unconstitutional legislation like the USA PATRIOT Act - to reorganize American society and shift hundreds of billion-dollars in spending priorities from butter to guns - to inspire fear among the American people.

We are against all forms of terrorism, we are for the American people, we are pro-New York, pro-truth, pro-freedom and pro-world. We do not support disinformation or ideology, and we resist all efforts to exploit the aftermath and oddities of Sept. 11th by the purveyors of propaganda, paranoia, racism and mystification. We condemn the attempts by German neo-Nazis to take possesion of this issue, and we resist efforts to associate the questioning of Sept. 11 with their hateful ideology.

We do not share one line on all questions. There are issues on which we disagree. This conference is an opportunity for debate. We ask that you take each speaker as an individual, and especially that you attribute quotes and views accurately to the individuals who state them, and not to the group as a whole.

That should be self-evident, but we have seen that some voices unfairly tar all who question 9/11 with the same brush. Those who question the official Sept. 11 story are routinely misrepresented, misquoted and subjected to labels and ad hominem attacks. The real issues are lost in distractions and side-stories.

In Germany at the moment, 9/11 skepticism is treated as a peculiarly German phenomenon, when in fact the movement for 9/11 truth disclosure is international and primarily American. We ask the German press and media to examine the evidence presented by the English-language researchers who have also questioned Sept. 11. Among the many available resources the book, The War On Freedom by Nafeez Ahmed and the " 9/11 Timeline" by Paul Thompson provide excellent overviews of the real issues of Sept. 11th.

9/11 Truth Alliance - German 9/11 Research Network - Speakers of the Conference

As we prepared for this conference, we considered questions about Sept. 11 that we would all like to see answered.

We also picked a few of the officials and other people that a truly independent investigation would call as witnesses to answer these questions.

We agreed on the following seven sets of witnesses and "starter questions." 

On Sept. 11, we intend to deliver this list to the U.S. ambassador, the German Chancellery and the offices of the European Union in Berlin:

1. To Richard Myers and Ralph Eberhard, the military generals responsible for United States air defense on Sept. 11, 2001: Why did the U.S. air defense system fail to follow the standard operating procedures for dealing with errant aircraft, such as were long in place before Sept. 11? Under these automatic procedures, the U.S. air defense system sent jet fighters to intercept errant planes on 67 occasions in the year prior to 2001, and on 129 occasions in the year 2000. What were the average response times of these routine intercept actions?

2. To Kay Nehm, Attorney General of the German Federal Republic, George Tenet, director CIA and Robert Mueller III, head of the FBI: Please tell us about your agencies' surveillance of the "Hamburg Cell" that started in Germany before moving to Florida and allegedly masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks. When and where did this surveillance begin? When, if ever, did it end? What did you discover about the cell's members and associates and their plans in advance of Sept. 11?

3. To David Frasca, FBI official responsible for the anti-terror investigations (al-Qaeda) unit prior to Sept. 11, and to Robert Mueller III, head of the FBI: Why were five separate investigations into suspected al-Qaeda terrorists (and specifically into potential hijackers at U.S. flight schools) suspended by your offices, at a time when there was a crescendo of warnings of an imminent attack involving hijackings in the U.S., and despite the urgent protests of FBI case officers like Colleen Rowley and Robert Wright?

4. To Harvey Pitt, head of the SEC (on Sept. 11), Ernst Welteke of the German Bundesbank, and financial investigators in Tokyo, London, Hongkong, Frankfurt, Chicago and San Francisco: In the days immediately following Sept. 11, your offices all issued statements that you had located cases of massive insider trading suggesting specific foreknowledge of the attacks, their location, and the way in which they were carried out. Mr. Welteke called this evidence unmistakable and said it would ultimately lead back to the perpetrators. Investigations were supposedly started. After a few days, this story was never heard from again. Where did the investigations lead?

5. To Major General Mahmud Ahmad, chief of the Pakistani intelligence service ISI as of Sept. 11, 2001 (when he was on an official visit to Washington): Why did your agency wire $100,000 to Mohamed Atta? Please describe ISI connections to the Hamburg Cell, al-Qaeda, and the 9/11 plot. Was your counterpart at the CIA, George Tenet, whom you met in Washington during the week of the attacks, unaware of these connections?

(* or spring 2000, depending on which official timeline you care to use.)

7. To leading members of the Bush administration (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Rice): What was the content of the Presidential Daily Briefing of Aug. 6, 2001, entitled "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN U.S.?" What prompted the Pentagon to twice rehearse the scenario of a passenger plane crashing into its headquarters? What prompted the CIA's wargaming of a kamikaze hijacker scenario on Sept. 11 itself? How specific were the warnings of imminent attacks received from Russian President Putin, the Israeli Mossad, the Echelon system, the German BND, French and British intelligence, Morrocco, Egypt and Jordan? Which of these warnings reached which of you? What did you know and when did you know it?

The disclosure of the following records could help in settling certain unanswered questions about September 11, 2001:

• The recorded audio communications between air traffic control stations, the four flights and other responsible authorities on the day of Sept. 11, 2001.

• The original passenger manifests of the four hijacked flights.

• Full, uncensored data from any undamaged cockpit voice recorders and flight "black boxes," as well as all records of phone calls from the four flights.

• Primary and secondary radar records of the four flight paths.

• Video footage from the airports from which the alleged hijackers boarded their flights (boarding areas, parking lots, check-in).

• Video footage of the Pentagon attack as taken from the Sheraton Hotel across from the Pentagon (impounded on Sept. 11 by the FBI) and from video cameras on Pentagon grounds.

• Deployment and readiness plans in effect on Sept. 11, 2001 at the bases responsible for air defense procedures, including Otis AFB, Langley AFB, Andrews AFB and others in the Northeastern United States.

• The content of the Presidential Daily Briefing of Aug. 6, 2001, entitled "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE U.S."

• The content of the redacted passages from the Congressional Joint Inquiry Report on the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as of relevant documents relating to these and other passages.

• Records of surveillance by CIA, BND and other German and U.S. agencies in the cases of Mohamed Atta, Ramzi Binalshibh, Marwan Alshehhi, Ziad Jarrah and other reputed members of the "Hamburg Cell" during their time in Germany up to summer 2000, and of their movements and actions in Florida and the United States up to the Sept. 11 attacks.

• The documents said to prove the involvement of Osama Bin Laden in the attacks, which the German government reported receiving from the United States after Sept. 11, 2001.