By Nik Green
'' hose who implicitly believe the official conspiracy theory of 9/11 can fall back on the 9/11 Commission to back up their arguments. However, was the 9/11 Commission the last word in uncovering the "who and how" of the operation?
Let's look at the 9/11 Commission and what various people within that inquiry have said:
First off, the Bush Administration refused to authorize any inquiry for 441 days (a most unexpected non-reaction to the worst ever attack on US soil), as well appointing Henry Kissinger as Commission chairman who stepped down rather than reveal his client list. Once the inquiry was authorized with extreme reluctance on the part of the Bush White House, they promised it would be the fullest investigation "no stones to be left unturned".
Unfortunately, according to the most senior Commissioners, this was far from the case.
*The Bush White House did everything in its power to derail an open inquiry. Then, when faced with its inevitability, the president and his aides sought to limit its scope, its access and its funding.
*John Farmer, the lead counsel to the Commission, claims that the greater part of the Commission's findings "are untrue". He also states: “The Commission's co-chairs said that the CIA (and likely the White House) "obstructed our investigation". Indeed, they said that the 9/11 Commissioners knew that military officials misrepresented the facts to the Commission, and the Commission considered recommending criminal charges for such false statements.
John Farmer also said: "I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described .... The tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public for two years.... This is not spin. This is not true."
*9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey said that "There are ample reasons to suspect that there may be some alternative to what we outlined in our version . . . We didn't have access . . . ."
*9/11 Commissioner Timothy Roemer said "We were extremely frustrated with the false statements we were getting".
*9/11 Commissioner Max Cleland resigned from the Commission, stating: "It is a national scandal"; "This investigation is now compromised"; and "One of these days we will have to get the full story because the 9-11 issue is so important to America. But this White House wants to cover it up",” and also “at some level of the government, at some point in time…there was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened.
*The intimidation of witnesses in a criminal trial is a very serious offense. Throughout the 9/11 Commission hearings, Government "minders" aggressively intimidated Commission witnesses on a wholesale basis, with impunity.
*CIA chief Tenet demonstrably lied to the Commissioners in closed session meetings.
*Despite the common awareness in the intelligence and law enforcement community that torture is a counterproductive method of obtaining worthwhile information, the huge majority of the Commission's "evidence" was extracted by torturing supposed suspects.
* Former VP Cheney provably lied to the 9/11 Commission regarding his movements and whereabouts in the critical period of time shortly after the attacks started.
* After both President Bush and VP Cheney initially refused to testify to the Commission under oath, their testimony was secret, behind closed doors, no cameras or transcripts allowed, and no questions by reporters. Does "executive privilege" extend to this degree of obfuscation?
*A document recently discovered in the National Archives shows that, in a memo to the 9/11 Commission’s chairman and vice-chairman on false statements made by NORAD and FAA officials about the failure of US air defenses, the commission’s Executive Director Philip Zelikow failed to mention the possibility of a criminal referral. This supports allegations that Zelikow “buried” the option of a criminal referral by the commission to the Justice Department for a perjury investigation.
* The overwhelming proportion of evidence, some 90% heard by the Commission was not included in the Commission's final report; this report has been described as a classic example of "dry labbing". In scientific circles this means "starting out with a theory, which you then prove by omitting all contrary material. The responsibility for this fiasco clearly fell with the Commission's executive director, Philip Zelikow, a Bush White House official, who determined which material was to be published, and which was to be ignored and erased.
*Both 9/11 Commission co-chairs Kean and Hamilton haves stated publicly that the 9/11 Commission was "deliberately set up to fail" by the Bush/Cheney White House. The 9/11 Commission Report is no better than a 571 page lie.
In the light of this information, the 9/11 Commission was clearly at the very best, severely hobbled; at the worst, it was bogus, a complete failure, its conclusions worthless garbage: a national disgrace with treasonous implications. According to the latest polls, the nation is divided about 50:50 on either supporting a new, real, no-holds barred investigation with full subpoena powers... or to let the matter rest and "move on". This latter group is clearly either unaware of the facts behind the 9/11 Commission's failure, or do not want to know. America and the world deserves far better than to let the matter rest; we are now in the insane situation that the worst crime of our lifetime remains uninvestigated, unsolved, and unpunished. Our alleged representatives in Washington DC appear to have closed ranks in keeping this nasty chapter in our history secret.
If all the people people asking the difficult questions are "conspiracy theorists", then the US Government should have no difficulty addressing these questions and evidence. In other words, lets have a real, no-holds-barred investigation with full subpoena power, to put this matter to rest once and for all. Common sense tells us that we should be suspicious of anyone in office who is against such an inquiry.''