The crime and background of Sept. 11, 2001, the
"day that changed everything," has
not been investigated seriously although it
has been exploited to justify the Bush
government's radical policies of domestic
repression and foreign aggression.
The White House has even forwarded an
unsubstantiated link between al-Qaeda and
the Iraqi regime as a reason for the
invasion of Iraq - alongside the story about
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. How does
it avenge the crime of 9/11 or help to
protect the American people, when the U.S.
responds by invading a country that had
nothing to do with the attacks?
The Bush administration apparently
intends to continue using 9/11 for political
gain, for example by holding the next
Republican convention in New York City in
early Sept. 2004 (in violation of the
traditional convention among the parties to
hold conventions by August.)
A sober look into the disturbing oddities
and background of the Sept. 11 attacks
raises countless legitimate
questions that demand answers. Questions
about accountability and the possible degree
of foreknowledge among responsible officials
- about the background to the intelligence
and law enforcement failures that preceded
the attacks - and about the failure of
response by U.S. defenses on the day of
Sept. 11.
In a democracy, any disaster on this
scale calls out for a fully-funded,
independent investigation, with subpoena
power and testimony under oath. Yet for two
years the White House has blocked all
independent efforts to investigate.
After many delays, the two houses of
Congress held a joint inquiry into Sept. 11.
This was subjected to stonewalling and
sabotage by the executive branch. The FBI,
which was a subject of the investigation,
demanded that U.S. Senators take lie
detector tests to discover the source of an
alleged leak. The report that was finally
published has been heavily censored.
(Read about how the Congressional
investigation into 9/11 was sabotaged in The
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists:
www.thebulletin.org/issues/2003/ma03/ma03prados.html)
The ongoing inquiry of the national
commission on Sept. 11 (Kean Commission)
possesses only limited subpoena power and
does not take testimony under oath.
Witnesses testify under the supervision of
government-appointed "minders."
The New York Times wrote that this
procedure recalls the practices of the
Soviet Kremlin. Members of the Kean
Commission are locked in a conflict with the
White House over the release of documents
previously released to the Congress, which
the White House is now attempting to
"reclassify."
Taxpayers put out $65 million to
investigate Bill Clinton's sex life and $30
million to investigate the Columbia Shuttle
disaster - why has the Kean Commission
received a mere $3 million?
No administration has been more
secretive, in all matters. Example: For
nearly three years, this government has been
illegally withholding the 1980s Reagan White
House papers, in violation of the
Presidential Records Act. And no
administration in modern times has been as
abusive of the U.S. constitution as the
present government.
Disclosure is pro-American...
The posing of questions about what
happened on Sept. 11 and why is currently
under attack in Germany, among other places.
Reasonable doubt about the official story
has been vilified as the low-minded
speculation of German "conspiracy
theorists" who "hate
America." This ignores that the
movement for disclosure is a primarily
American, international phenomenon. It has
been led among others by relatives of 9/11
victims in New York, who are demanding the
information that should be the subject of
democratic debate. Relatives of the
Sept. 11 victims have fought the U.S.
government for two years in pursuit of
independent investigation.
(See "Four 9/11 Moms Battle
Bush"
www.nyobserver.com/pages/frontpage3.asp)
No less a figure than Bob Graham, the
Senator from Florida who headed the
Congressional investigation into 9/11, has
said that the most important information
relating to Sept. 11 has yet to be
publicized. (See
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/july-dec02/intelligence_12-11.html)
Among those organizing the 9/11 Truth
Alliance events - not just in Berlin but
also in New York, San Francisco, and across
the United States and Canada - are many
proud New Yorkers and Americans who still
believe in democracy - as against the Bush
government's divine right to keep any secret
they like.
Among the first to pose questions about
what the U.S. government may have known in
advance of 9/11, and when, was the Hon.
Cynthia McKinney, congresswoman from the 6th
District of Georgia for ten years (1992 to
2002). For raising that and other issues,
she was vilified, attacked, and finally
driven out of office by a flood of
Republican money from outside her district.
But her voice has not been silenced, she
continues to speak out for peace and the
need to take back democracy. She will be
answering questions from the press and
delivering the keynote speech at the
international symposium on Sept. 7th, 2003,
in Berlin.
Also traveling from the United States for
this event are Michael Ruppert, publisher of
the FROM THE WILDERNESS newsletter, and
Daniel Hopsicker, who has researched the
backgrounds and actions of the alleged
hijackers prior to Sept. 11 in his
newsletter, The Mad Cow Morning News.
They will be joined by leading German and
European researchers in a series of seminars
on the latest research on Sept. 11, the
strategic concept behind the U.S. war
strategy, the history of state backing for
domestic terrorism in Italy, the role of the
media, the search for answers in the United
States, and the human rights and
international situation following Sept. 11.
The demand for 9/11 disclosure is a
legitimate German and European issue.
Germany was the previous residence of the
"Hamburg Cell," the alleged
leaders of the 9/11 plot. It is the only
country where anyone has been convicted by a
court of law (in the Motassadeq case) for
supporting the attacks, largely on the basis
of still-classified intelligence information
collected by the CIA and its German
counterpart, the BND. Germany was also among
the countries that issued warnings to the
United States of impending terror attacks by
means of hijacked airliners, in advance of
Sept. 11, 2001. And like many countries,
Germany followed the American lead in
tightening up laws, restricting rights and
engaging in international interventions
within the framework of the post-9/11
"War on Terrorism."
The conference will produce a set of
unanswered questions and a list of evidence
that the public in a democracy has a right
to demand of its elected officials. On Sept.
11, we will ask to present these documents
to the U.S. ambassador and to the offices of
the European Union in Berlin, and to the
Chancellery of the Federal German Republic.
www.911truth.org 
