FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 8, 2003
World's Leading Progressives Gather to Rethink 9/11
New York Churches to Host Largest Forum Ever on 9/11 Questions
and Alternatives to Corporate Rule, Repression and War
Contacts:
9/12-9/14, Main Forum Events: Prem Dixit, 212.209.2885; prem.dixit@verizon.net9/11 Film Program/Panel - Kyle Hence, 401.935.7715, kylehence@earthlink.net
Schedule, bios, pre-registration: www.wbai.org/about/wbai_events.php#911_9-11-03
New York
: Marking the second anniversary of September 11, 2001, more than forty leading figures from independent media, the anti-war, human-rights, labor and alternative-economics movements, the 9/11 research community and victim family groups will gather with the public to consider the covert truths and brutal consequences of 9/11, and what citizens concerned about war, repression and escalating inequality should know and do today.From September 11 to 14, 2003, New York's Riverside Church and St. John the Divine will host the largest forum ever held on the still unanswered questions of 9/11; its exploitation to promote fear, war & corporate supremacy; and emerging grassroots strategies for peace, economic justice and democratic rights.
Entitled "
Reframing 9/11: Alternatives to Endless War," the conference will address what many see as a virtual corporate coup d'état in American governance, and use 9/11 as a lens to review recent US policy, worsening social disparities, media dysfunction, and the dawning security state.Participants (partial): Medea Benjamin, Kelly Campbell, Mike Ferner, Catherine Austin Fitts
, Amy Goodman, John Judge, Rev. Peter Laarman, Wayne Madsen, Rania Masri, Cynthia McKinney, Hibaaq Osman, Ray McGovern, Greg Palast, William Rivers Pitt, Virginia Rasmussen, Michael Ratner, Michael Ruppert, Danny Schechter, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Steve Staples, Susan Witt…Different visions: In his long, fact-driven commentary "This War on Terrorism is Bogus,"
longtime UK Environment Minister MP Michael Meacher concluded, "It is not surprising that some have seen the US failure to avert the 9/11 attacks as creating an invaluable pretext for attacking Afghanistan in a war that had clearly been well planned in advance…The "global war on terrorism" has the hallmarks of a political myth propagated to pave the way for a wholly different agenda - the US goal of world hegemony." (Guardian/UK, 9/6/03)Many progressives, populists, and libertarians in the US also believe the Bush Administration has exploited the nation’s outrage, grief and ignorance about 9/11 to lead us down a perilous preplanned path. They point to the way it has been used to demonize dissent, launch foreign invasions, elect a compliant congress, divert attention from corporate crimes, gut civil liberties, bankrupt social services, fan racism & xenophobia, and prepare the public for a generation of imperial war and proxy rule in oil-rich lands abroad. .
The task of the conference is both to provide a clearer understanding of the true facts and history of 9/11, whose interests it has served and whose it has sacrificed; and to foster strategies to subordinate corporate/military power to life-affirming democratic control. The event will also offer an exhibition of powerful 9/11 films, dramatic performances, and free discussion space.
Admission
: $25 for 3 days ($15 for students, seniors, low-income). Films, $5; forums $10/day. Organizers: Pacifica Radio's WBAI 99.5 FM/NYC & Big Medicine's "Ain't that Good News" Project.Reframing 9/11
Schedule OutlineThursday, Sept 11
, 6:00 -10:30 PM Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive, NY 212-870-6700Reframing 9/11: An Evening of Investigative Films and Roundtable Discussion. Featuring: "Aftermath: Unanswered Questions From 911"; "The Great Deception: The War on Terror – An Alternative View"; "Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death" and "We Are Family." Plus panel discussion including Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, John Judge (Founder, Committee on Political Assassination) , CIA analyst Ray McGovern, and "From the Wilderness" founder Michael Ruppert. Session organizers: 9/11 Citizens Watch/Guerrilla News Network
Friday,
Sept 12, 6.30 – 10.30 PM, Riverside Church9-11 Unleashes The New American Century "Perpetual War" Project
– Response of the Peace Movement
Panel: Amy Goodman, Arjun Makhijani, William Rivers Pitt,
Wayne Madsen, David Bookbinder, Cynthia Mckinney, Kelly Campbell, Max Uhlenbeck:Performance
: I Will Bear Witness: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1933-1938by Obie Award
winning actor, George Bartenieff..Saturday,
Sept 13,: Riverside Church9-11 Fortifies the Corporate Coup, War on (some) Terror and WTO Globalization
– Fighting Back with Economic Democracy
AM Panel 10.00 am -1 pm: Outing the Governing Corporate-Military-Media Complex
Panel:
Hibaaq Osman, Virginia Rasmussen, Danny Schechter, Walter A. DavisPM
Panel 2:00.pm - 5.30 am: Axing Martial Economics & the Roots of Corporate RulePanel:
David Kubiak, Seymour Melman, Rania Masri, Mike FernerEvening Plenary 6.30 PM – 10.30 PM:
From the Agricultural/Industrial/Information Revolutions to an Ecological Renaissance – Peace, Justice & Sustainable Development
Panel
: Ethan Miller, David Morris, Susan Witt, Catherine Austin FittsSunday
, Sept 14, Synod Hall of St. John the Divine 110 Amsterdam Ave. 212-316-75409-11 Imposes The Patriot Act: Self-Inflicted Homeland Insecurity
– Building a Winning Grassroots Resistance
AM Panel 10 am –1 pm Halting Corporatist Attacks on Liberty, Labor & Democracy
Panel:
Mary Lou Greenberg, Bob Fitrakis, Michael Ratner, Michael Letwin, Udi Ofer, Ellen SchreckerPM Panel 2 PM –4.30 PM Confronting Lawless Government and Intolerable Law
Panel:
Rev. Peter Laarman, Alice Slater, Steven Staples, Sarah ZaidiClosing Evening Plenary 6 PM – 9 PM
Reclaiming the 21st.Century and Retiring the Global Corporate State
– Accelerating the Triumph of Human Rights, Peace and Democracy
Panel:
Medea Benjamin, C. William Michaels, Greg Palast, Dr. Vandana Shiva[ end ]