DOWNSIZEDC.ORG ANNOUNCEMENT
2007-Jun-09
The Jersey Girls Deserve Answers
It has been said that the intelligence agencies have to be right 100% of the time. And the terrorists only have to get lucky once. This explanation for the devastating attacks of September 11th, simple on its face, is wrong in its value,” because the 9-11 terrorists were not just lucky once. They were lucky over and over again. When you have this repeated pattern of broken protocols, broken laws, broken communication,” one cannot still call it luck. If at some point, we don’t look to hold the individuals accountable for not doing their jobs, properly, then how can we ever expect for terrorists to not get lucky again?
–Mindy Kleinberg, one of the Jersey Girls
September 11, 2001 is a day etched in our memories. No more so than for the victims’ families, including the Jersey Girls–four widows of men who died in the Twin Towers.
Mindy Kleinberg, along with Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, and Lorie Van Auken did what you might do under similar circumstances–they asked questions. They began collecting information and following news accounts. They began seeing several things that troubled them. Before long, they had made contact with each other. They worked together, publicly, to get answers. Somewhere along the line they became known as “the Jersey Girls.”
Their story is told in 9/11 Press for Truth.
It’s been said that, “Our quality of life is determined in large part by the quality of the questions we ask ourselves.” Well, the quality and size of our government is determined by the questions we ask when things like the 9-11 attacks happen.
The Jersey Girls, along with other 9-11 victims’ families, formed the “Family Steering Committee” (FSC). FSC made it their objective to push for an investigation.
According to a new and powerful film documentary, 9-11 Press for Truth, the Bush administration first blocked, then stalled, then hamstrung, and only then, stubbornly cooperated (if you can call it that) with an investigation. But as a result of their efforts, the 9-11 Commission was, finally, formed.
Then the FSC made it their objective to serve as a watchdog and prod to the Commission–to get the Commission to ask the right questions and pursue the details with vigor. They understood that . . .
It’s about the questions.
What they got was largely betrayal–at the hands of their own government.
“The purpose of a government investigatory commission is to place blame where it does the least harm politically.”
–Paul Craig Roberts
The 9-11 Commission was little more than a conflict of interest, glad-handing parade of vacuity. Only about 30% of the FSC’s questions were answered.
And we too were betrayed because no one was held accountable.
Instead our Monopoly Government was rewarded with vast new size and powers. The administration, with the full backing and cooperation of Congress, suspended habeas corpus, employed warrantless wiretapping, created a national ID card, propagated invasive searches at airports, banned liquids and nail files on planes, launched a military action in one country, and a bloody, unprovoked war in another.
And that’s just a partial list.
Even with a change in ruling parties, these side effects remain.
Why? Good question! Because the right questions weren’t answered, and in many cases weren’t even asked, and when asked, weren’t answered under oath. Secrecy abounded.
And accountability went right out the window. Government doesn’t have to succeed because its failure is always rewarded.
On our Background Page, you can find and read a long list of questions that were never asked, and even more that were never answered.
We deserve answers. And there should be accountability. Commissions are insufficient. There should be either firings or prosecutions–not promotions and expansions of power. The government could do a better job if it was smaller, and more focused. In fact, as 9/11 Press for Truth profoundly demonstrates, the federal government had all the power necessary to stop and prevent the events of that day. Moreover, if everything wasn’t such a damned secret, perhaps a thousand lives could’ve been saved even if the government failed to prevent the terrorist attack.
Secrecy kills. And failure shouldn’t be rewarded!
There will be those who will be tempted to say, “Oh, now DownsizeDC.org has joined the ranks of conspiracy theorists.” That would be wrong! It’s about the questions. But we address the conspiracy concerns on the Background Page.
9/11 Press for Truth presents the story of these women and other families, their emotional struggle to get the truth, the obstructions they faced, and their failure to get all-too-many of their questions answered. We heartily recommend this movie, and we’re making it available to new donors. Check out our Contribution page.
These grieving families deserve an answer–the Jersey Girls Deserve Answers.
The way we get answers starts with a groundswell of demand to our representatives in Congress. DownsizeDC.org will be working with the producers of 9/11 Press for Truth and Brave New Theaters to create that groundswell. You can help by sending a message using our easy to use Congressional Contact System . . . And then by sending a Press for Truth Pack to your representatives as well as telling your friends about this campaign.
[Please see the DownsizeDC website for this Congressional Contact System and more great tools.]
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Ed: Following the publication of this campaign, DownsizeDC sent out an email Monday June 9 clarifying their position:
Subject: Our Position on 9-11 Truth
Given the subject of our latest campaign it seems incumbent upon us to state where we stand on the subject of 9-11 Truth.
We feel there is sufficient evidence to assert that the federal government had all the powers and resources it needed to prevent the 9-11 attacks.
- It knew that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack the United States.
- It knew that Al Queda agents were operating in the country.
- It knew that suicide attacks with airplanes were a real possibility.
- It knew that suspicious person were learning how to fly airplanes, with, in at least one case, an alarming disinterest in learning how to land them.
The federal government had the power, without the PATRIOT Act, or torture, or REAL ID, or illegal wiretaps, to learn everything it needed to know to stop the 9-11 attacks.
If the federal government had simply used the powers and resources it already had the 9-11 attacks would have failed, and many thousands of people who are now dead would still be alive and in the arms of their families.
9-11 is a textbook case of the government’s congenital institutional inability to focus and perform competently.
If the federal government had simply done its job, using what it already had, then there would have been no . . .
- Disastrous war in Iraq,
- Bloated Department of Homeland Security,
- Overbearing TSA,
- Invasive PATRIOT Act,
- Dangerous REAL ID Act,
- Unconscionable Torture-Tribunal law,
- Illegal spying on American citizens,
- Or a whole host of other government transgressions.
Here is the truth, with a little “t,” about 9-11: It was a day of massive government failure.
Here is another truth about 9-11: No one in government, and no institution of the government, was held accountable, or paid any price, for this failure.
Here is another truth about 9-11: The federal government, and the people who run it, were actually rewarded for their failure on 9-11, instead of being held accountable.
The federal government failed on 9-11, but the President and the Congress did NOT hold themselves accountable for this failure. Instead, they exploited their own incompetence to grant themselves massive new powers and recources, at your expense.
Worse still, Congress and the President have used these massive new powers and resources to commit even larger failures, such as the war in Iraq. These new failures have made YOU LESS SECURE, rather than more secure.
Government fails consistently, because the institution of government, and the people in government, NEVER PAY ANY PRICE for failure. Government fails consistently, because the people in government are CONSISTENTLY REWARDED FOR FAILURE by gaining greater power and greater access to your wallet.
The incentives by which our government operates are completely backward: Government is always rewarded for its failures, so its incentive is to constantly fail.
This is the fundamental truth about 9-11.
Are there others truths that also matter and that have been neglected? Perhaps. But the idea that the Bush administration somehow conspired with Al Queda to bring about the attacks, is almost certainly not among them.
It makes zero sense that the Bush administration would have been capable of such a massive crime, but incapable, a few months later, of planting WMD’s in Iraq. On this basis alone, most of the 9-11 conspiracy theories are non-starters.
This does not mean that the Bush administration did not exploit 9-11 to do things it wanted to do anyway. Of course it did.
Neither does it rule out that some members of the administration may have been intentionally incompetent in order to permit the inciting “Pearl Harbor incident” they were on record as hoping for in advance.
But both of these things are a far cry from most of the conspiracy theories that parade under the banner of “9-11 Truth.”
Sadly, the focus on wild theories has tarnished the words “9-11 Truth,” and made it harder to actually get at the truth.
We have been inundated with films and books and articles about 9-11. We have heard all the claims and studied all the supposed evidence.
Big claims require big evidence and many “9-11 Truth” claims fail this test. This is why we recommend a documentary film called “9/11 Press for Truth.”
“9/11 Press for Truth” is different. It makes few claims, but presents a lot of big evidence. Seeing this movie has prompted us to take action to compel the federal government to re-investigate its own performance on 9-11, and to assume a responsibility equal to its great powers.
The proper federal response to 9-11 should have been to downsize, streamline, and focus. Instead, it used its own failures to upsize, complicate, and thrash about in all directions.
We want Congress to take another look at 9-11, and this time attribute blame, impose penalties, and adopt policies that will enable government to better overcome its innate incompetence.
If you share these goals, then please send a message to Congress calling on them to take another look at 9-11. You can do so here.
Please, also consider sending your elected representatives a copy of “9/11 Press for Truth” as part of the Press for Truth Pack. There will be instructions on how to do this, and how you can get your own copy of this film, after you send your message to Congress.
Please, also consider making a contribution or starting a monthly pledge to further our work. This Friday is the deadline for getting listed on the website roster for the “One Subject at a Time Act.” The minimum contribution to be listed is a $5 monthly pledge, or a $60 one time contribution. Contribute more if you can because the names will be listed by the size of the contribution.
You can make your contribution here.
Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.
Jim Babka & Perry Willis
President & Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
