by Cynthia McKinney
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Seven years ago, criminal terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon
were carried out on September 11th by hijacked planes leading to the deaths of thousands
of people. A month later, key figures in the print and broadcast media and members
of Congress were sent envelopes containing very lethal and highly weaponized
anthrax, which led to the deaths of journalists and postal employees. After
the initial shock diminished, there were calls for explanations, investigations,
accountability and a reasoned response that did not include war. The administration
ignored or openly opposed them. Instead we went into a call for permanent wars
that would last beyond our lifetime, changes in civil liberties both overt and
covert, a takeover of state power by the executive branch, and the creation
of a national security emergency state that would somehow protect us.
Cynthia McKinney was one of the few voices of reason during that time in the
Congress. Long an opponent of militarism and wars abroad, she also called for
explanations and accountability when information began to come to light about
multiple advance warnings and apparent foreknowledge of the imminence and methods
of the attack inside government intelligence agencies that still failed to prevent
it. She supported calls by the families of the 9/11 victims for an official
investigation in what was being termed a “failure of intelligence”
even though it more closely resembled a failure of response, of standard operating
procedures, and of government officials and agencies to respond and prepare
for, or even comprehend the source of these attacks.
With the formation of the 9/11 Commission at the insistence of the families
and the public, press attention and investigative journalism began to reveal
much more about the historical relationship of our CIA and Pentagon with the
same terrorists who were allegedly behind the attacks, about the role the US
has played in the history and international relations in the Middle East since
WWII, about illegal covert operations that were hidden from the people and the
Congress and funded by profits from illegal drugs, about the obstruction of
investigations into the hijackers prior to the events, and about the inexplicable
failure of defenses during the attacks. When the official 9/11 Commission Final
Report was released, it got wide attention and acclaim from the press, but the
families said that 70% of their questions remained unanswered by this flawed
investigation, and called for more hearings to get at the truth and to establish
oversight and accountability.
Vilified and misquoted in the press at the time, McKinney had raised the first
of many serious questions about the events and accountability in an atmosphere
of denial. But she was vindicated when others began to ask the same questions
in light of the evidence. Unable to get the Republican controlled Congress to
allow further hearings, she organized a day-long briefing on the remaining questions
and the flawed assumptions, investigation, conclusions and recommendations of
the 9/11 Commission drawing on experts from across the country. A full transcript
of that briefing appears at:
http://archives.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/mckinney.house.gov/20050722transcript.pdf
Long an opponent of government secrecy and an advocate of transparency in democracy,
McKinney introduced legislation to release all the government classified files
on Dr. Martin Luther King’s life and death. When she discovered at another public
examination of the 9/11 Commission findings, held in New York City as a Citizens
Commission, that every footnote at the end of the official report refers to
interviews, documents and forensic materials that were sealed from public view
by the Commission until 2009, she began to call for release of the records and
evidence that are the only way to verify the conclusions of the official investigation.
Most of these files were not classified or secret to start with. An effort to
use the Freedom of Information Act to file requests of all the agencies involved
for each document failed to release a single record to date. She continues to
push for a release of all pertinent records in the case.
At this point, Cynthia McKinney stands in full support of the 9/11 families
groups and the public who are seeking to establish a fully independent and transparent
public investigation into the historical background, the events, the official
response and aftermath of 9/11. The full truth is not yet known or established
in this critical event that has shaped American domestic and foreign policy
in the last seven years and may for decades to come.
McKinney is featured in a new British award-winning documentary called The
Elephant in the Room (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4701757632630708538)
about the public efforts to understand 9/11 and the Truth Movement. She will
be speaking out on these issues in New York City on the anniversary of the attack.
In the Truth TV section on this site there are videos of her earlier comments
about 9/11.
Source URL: http://votetruth08.com/