ZGram - June 27, 2002 - "D.C. Press Conference Punches Big Holes in 9-11 Official Line"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

June 27, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

=46inally we get a bit of an update on what looked to be an aborted 
press conference on 9/11 scheduled for June 10 in Washington, DC.

As it turned out, it did take place, but it was not widely reported 
in the mainstream media.  Is anyone surprised?

[START]

As [From the Wilderness]  has documented in previous stories, major 
deployments of U.S. and British forces had taken place before the 
attacks. And the U.S. Army and the CIA had been active in Uzbekistan 
for several years. There is now evidence that what the world is 
witnessing is a cold and calculated war plan - at least four years in 
the making - and that, from reading Brzezinski's own words about 
Pearl Harbor, the World Trade Center attacks were just the trigger 
needed to set the final conquest in motion.

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D.C. Press Conference Punches Big Holes in 9-11 Official Line

by Michael Davidson and Joe Taglieri,
=46TW Staff Writers

[=A9 COPYRIGHT 2002, All Rights Reserved, Michael C. Ruppert and From 
The Wilderness Publications, www.fromthewilderness.com. May be copied 
and distributed for non-profit purposes only.]

June 20, 2002, 15:00 PDT (FTW) -- A new coalition of 9-11 
researchers, journalists, victims' families, and other truth seekers 
held an inaugural press conference June 10 at the National Press Club 
in Washington, D.C.

The goal of UnansweredQuestions.org's press event and public inquiry 
was "to pose pointed, as yet unanswered, questions regarding the 
failure of our national security infrastructure, and the response 
that has sacrificed civil liberties and rewarded failure as opposed 
to ensuring performance and guaranteeing freedoms, now and in the 
future," according to a press release put out by the group.

"UnansweredQuestions.org is being launched by an independent, 
non-partisan network of citizens concerned about the growing number 
of issues surrounding Sept. 11 that have yet to be addressed or 
resolved; and their related public safety and constitutional 
implications."

The event was moderated by Kyle Hence and former Assistant Secretary 
of Housing Catherine Austin Fitts, who have been at the helm of 
launching UnansweredQuestions.org. The day's two panels featured Mike 
Ruppert, FTW publisher/editor, as well as a host of researchers and 
activists focused on bringing out the truth regarding the U.S. 
government's actions, or lack thereof, relating to the 9-11 terrorist 
attacks.

Mary Schiavo is the lawyer for 32 victims' families. The former 
inspector general of the Department of Transportation and aviation 
expert was also a featured speaker at the press conference. Schiavo 
joined several of her colleagues who addressed the more than 300 in 
attendance in calling for an independent commission to investigate 
the events of Sept. 11.

"In every single aviation disaster, whether there was criminal 
activity or not, in every single one in the course of aviation 
history it has been followed -- not only where necessary a national 
criminal investigation -- but also a National Transportation Safety 
[Board] investigation into what went wrong in the aviation system so 
that it never happens again," said Schiavo. "This is the first time 
that families have been attempted to be silenced through a special 
fund, which I believe is about silence more than it is about money."

Another speaker, Lorna Brett of the Nolan Law Group, made a similar 
point, stating, "I live in the Midwest, and I feel like I'm doing 
focus groups when I'm out in my neighborhood and I ask people, 'What 
do you think about what happened on 9-11?' And it's amazing how many 
people say we couldn't have stopped it, it couldn't have happened, 
nobody could have known. And the truth is that a lot of people should 
have known."

Brett and Schiavo pointed out the cozy relationship that exists 
between the airline industry and the federal agencies designated to 
regulate it, particularly when it comes to security. Four federal 
investigations into airline security took place before Sept. 11, 
Schiavo said, "I know, I led up two of them. My successor has carried 
out more, including one investigation done after 9-11 that found 
security could be breached at will. Why?" Schiavo continued. "Is it 
business as usual? Is it cheaper to have lax security? One would 
think that when they heard the statements of the administration when 
they said, 'Well yes, we knew there might be hijackings. We knew that 
something was afoot, but we thought they'd be traditional 
hijackings.' Does that truly mean that they were willing to risk 
passengers and planes, and even compromise the aviation system, 
because it was cheaper to allow it to happen than to take the 
necessary steps to prevent it?"

Schiavo concluded her point saying, "That is what we will prove in 
court. But that isn't enough, because there are many more questions 
than the court can answer, and that can only be done with a 
government investigation."

Another speaker on the panel echoed the call for a non-partisan, full 
and open government investigation. Julie Sweeney lost her husband, 
Brian, on United Flight 175 and is one of the victims' family members 
pursuing litigation against the government. On why she declined "$2 
million" from the federal fund for 9-11 victims, Sweeney said, "I 
want the answers, and I want the answers to lead to accountability. 
And I want this accountability to be the catalyst for change in the 
airline industry and everything that goes along with that."

Sweeney expressed her dissatisfaction with the government's 
relationship with the airlines. "I will not sit back and be bought 
out in order to protect an industry that will never be destroyed 
because the American people depend on it too much," said Sweeney. 
"It's not going to go anywhere, planes will always be flying in the 
skies=8AHiding behind the truth is an embarrassment to this country, 
leading to mistakes and lax attitudes. First and foremost, we need to 
begin to heal, and we need to make sure that this cannot be repeated."

Derrill Bodley, the father of a 9-11 victim, was in attendance as 
well. He had this to add in response to a statement made May 16 by 
Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security advisor. "My biggest 
unanswered question today is this: Did my daughter, my 20-year-old 
daughter, my only child, have to die on Sept. 11 for the sake of the 
well-being of the civil aviation system? I have a big question in my 
mind whenever government officials denigrate the value of human life 
and well-being by comparing it to the value of a system." Responding 
to questions from the press about Bush Administration foreknowledge 
of 9-11, Rice said the government did nothing because "we would have 
risked shutting down the American civil aviation system with such 
generalized information."

Bodley also questioned Rice's statement from the same press 
conference that no one could have foreseen commercial jets being 
crashed into buildings, despite revelations in recent months from 
several whistleblowers that many in the U.S. intelligence community 
were warning of the likelihood of just such kinds of attacks from 
Islamic militants. "If the terrorists had envisioned it, if the U.S. 
government knew they had envisioned it, why didn't our intelligence 
community, including the NSA, envision it and compel=8Athe airlines and 
the airports to protect us, to keep my daughter from dying on Sept. 
11," said Bodley.

According to Brett, her law firm's suit on behalf of 9-11 victims has 
been prevented from really getting off the ground. The case's first 
status meeting, before the discovery phase starts, has not yet been 
scheduled. This, despite the fact the suit was filed in December.

"It's stunning to me that some of the people questioning some of our 
agencies are accused of being unpatriotic," Brett told the 
conference. "The world is watching us right now. If we can't examine 
our=8Afederal agencies, our government, the influence of lobbyists on 
politics,=8Aif we can't self-examine and cleanse that wound, reset that 
broken bone, what kind of example are we setting? Are we a super 
power, or are we super cowards?"

Steve Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration 
Studies, spoke on how the U.S. immigration system is unable to keep 
terrorists out of the country. His group recently issued a report 
that found 48 terrorists have entered the U.S. "by every conceivable 
means" since 1993, the year the World Trade Center was bombed. 
Camarota said virtually all of these 48 terrorists have since been 
linked to Osama bin Laden. He also stated the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service and the State Department are overwhelmed by 
the number of visa and citizenship requests. "Congress just doesn't 
give them enough resources," he said, which is largely due to 
pressure from interest groups in favor of lax enforcement of 
immigration laws.

Researcher and freelance writer Richard Ochs posed the notion that 
there was a specific political agenda in the timing of the anthrax 
attacks on government officials last year. He said the anthrax 
letters sent to Democrats on Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court, and 
members of the media coincided with efforts to ram the USA Patriot 
Act through Congress. The Patriot Act has been criticized by many, 
including another panelist [see below], as unconstitutional.

After all the questions (and some heart-wrenching statements) 
following the first panel, a much needed break was taken. When the 
press conference reconvened, the second panel was on the dais with 
some new faces and some carryovers from panel one.

Catherine Austin Fitts opened the proceedings by introducing FTW's 
Mike Ruppert, who was on a telephone hook-up from Vancouver, British 
Columbia where he was giving a 9-11 lecture during a 12-day speaking 
tour. Ruppert began with a heartfelt and passionate declaration of 
condolences for, and solidarity with, the families of the 9-11 
victims. He said they were "foremost in his heart." He then read a 
statement, published elsewhere in this issue, outlining the work FTW 
has been doing for the past nine months.

After Ruppert, Fitts introduced independent investigator and 
researcher John Judge. Judge is one of the co-founders of the 
National Coalition on Political Assassinations, which is responsible 
for getting the "JFK Records Act" passed. Judge's work has resulted 
in the release of over six million documents, the largest in U.S. 
history.

Judge began very simply, stating there most certainly was a point at 
which it was clear the United States, and particularly Washington, 
D.C., were under attack. That point was 9:05 a.m. on Sept. 11. That 
was the point at which a shoot-down order for Flight 77 was issued. 
Oddly, the plane continued unmolested towards the most restricted 
airspace in the world for 40 minutes before hitting the Pentagon. 
During this time Washington, D.C.'s Channel 8 broadcast that the 
plane was heading there and many government buildings were evacuated.

Judge quotes a Pentagon spokesman as saying that there was no 
mechanism to respond to this type of event. Yet Judge, a lifelong 
Washington, D.C. resident, says he is personally aware that fighters 
routinely intercept commercial planes that are only slightly 
off-course to escort them out of the area. No thinking person can 
believe that the largest, most powerful, and most sophisticated 
military in history has no way to protect its own headquarters.

Judge went further down this path in describing a march he organized 
in the late-1990s. The march, "A Day Without The Pentagon," was to 
end at the Pentagon, and Judge had to negotiate the physical 
movements of the marchers with, among others, Pentagon security. 
Judge was shown the absolute limit the marchers would be allowed to 
go to, explaining that the building was on "Delta Alert," the highest 
state of alert due to the constant threat of attack, especially by 
airplanes being flown into the building. Security explained that the 
threat was so serious the marchers' own safety required they be kept 
at a specific point on the grounds. Judge observed radar installed on 
the Pentagon roof, as well as anti-aircraft batteries on the grounds.

One of the questions Mike Ruppert posed in his opening was, "Why was 
the Andrews Air Force Base website changed after 9-11 to erase 
information about their combat readiness?" Judge went on to list the 
active military bases that had the ability to respond to Flight 77's 
approach to Washington, D.C. He listed the 121st Fighter Squadron of 
the 113th Fighter Wing, 321st Marine Fighter Squadron and the 49th 
Marine Air Guard. These three groups are based at Andrews, only 10 
miles from the Pentagon. Yet the fighters that were launched against 
=46light 77 were scrambled from Langley Air Force Base, 140 miles away. 
Doing the math, Judge said, shows the fighters flying at sub-sonic 
speeds. He also reminded the audience that Anacostia Naval Air 
Station, the home of the District of Columbia National Guard, is 
right near the Pentagon as well.

Another source of protection for Washington, D.C. could have been 
provided by the 177th Air National Guard stationed at Pomona, N.J. 
This base could have provided coverage for both Washington, D.C. and 
New York yet was instructed to cease routine sorties two weeks prior 
to 9-11. Judge also quoted a Pentagon official who referred him to a 
New York Times article stating that on Sept. 8 half of U.S. fighters 
were taken out of service. A personal friend, whose son is stationed 
at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, Mass., told Judge that fighter 
pilots who specifically requested permission to attempt the 
interception of Flight 77 were called back.

John Judge has the firm belief that a lot of the public's questions 
about the events of 9-11 will be answered when we find out what took 
place during the 40-minute period between the 9:05 shoot-down order 
and the impact at the Pentagon at 9:45.

The third speaker on the second panel was Tom Flocco, Philadelphia 
teacher and investigative journalist. Flocco is a good friend of FTW, 
and has done a great deal of work regarding the suspicious put option 
trading that took place prior to 9-11. At the UnansweredQuestions.org 
press conference, however, Flocco said he would go beyond that issue, 
lay out a series of new dots, and connect them.

One of his key points was that the investigation of financial 
activities surrounding 9-11 has produced a "control" list of 38 
stocks to be scrutinized. This list has never been made public, and 
much of the investigation has been conducted in a manner that seems 
designed more to protect the possibly guilty than to provide 
Americans with information.

One of his most damning dots was the fact that on Oct. 19 
investigators asked member firms of the National Association of 
Securities Dealers, which is every broker you can name, to 
"privately" share information with those "directly effected" by the 
inquiry. The government further requested that those handling the 
issue be "senior personnel who appreciate the sensitive nature of the 
case."

=46locco quoted a Boston Globe article reporting the National Security 
Agency (NSA) has been continuously destroying data since 9-11. The 
Globe reporter who wrote the article is unaware of any other 
information that's been published on this issue. NSA officials say 
the data is being destroyed because it involves Americans or American 
businesses, and they are not allowed to conduct such spying. Why they 
collected the information and saved it if it is illegal was not 
revealed.

But Flocco quotes the former head of FBI counter-terrorism as saying 
that the NSA's collection of data on Americans is perfectly 
legitimate if it involves either foreign espionage or terrorist 
activities. Whoever is correct on this issue is moot; the data is 
gone.

While not mentioning the put options directly, Flocco did discuss 
other anomalies that suggest foreknowledge. One of these is a surge 
in Treasury bill purchases. Treasury bills are the safest investment 
known, being backed by the full faith and credit of the United 
States. Just prior to 9-11 there was a single Treasury bill 
transaction of $5 billion.

Another reason to suspect foreknowledge is the recent indictments of 
two FBI agents who were apparently playing the stock market based on 
information derived from investigations. They were also passing this 
information on to others, and in one case an individual connected to 
the agents cashed out a $300,000 portfolio, telling the broker he 
expected the Dow Jones index to soon drop by about two-thirds.

Other issues covered by Flocco included the employment by Enron of 
former CIA agents, the employment by Enron of current CIA agents who 
were given leaves of absence from the agency to work for Enron, and 
the truly Byzantine entanglements of Deutschebank, the CIA's no. 3 
man A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, Bayer, United Air Lines, and former Bush I 
counselor John Schmitz.

=46locco ended his presentation with a stinging attack on C-SPAN. 
Despite repeated pleading and begging using C-SPAN's own policy of 
covering events at the National Press Club, C-SPAN chose to ignore 
the UnansweredQuestions.org press conference, instead airing reruns 
of Capitol Journal.

Next up was Michael Springmann, an attorney with 20 years of 
government service, who had been head of the visa section at the U.S. 
consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Springmann reported that at least 
100 visas he had denied were eventually issued by consular officials 
that were known CIA agents, or persons Springmann suspected were CIA 
agents.

He denied visas to two Pakistanis who wanted to go to a trade show, 
but didn't know what trade show they were going to, or even what city 
it was in. He denied visa approval for a Sudanese individual he felt 
had no legitimate reason for entering the U.S. but was overruled by a 
consular official, who said "we need him" for national security 
reasons.

While this was going on in the late-'80s Springmann thought he was 
witnessing "visa fraud," believing that people were paying bribes to 
officials to get visas they would otherwise be denied. He later found 
he was wrong. What Springmann actually saw was the CIA bringing 
terrorists into the United States for training against the Soviet 
Union's troops in Afghanistan. He believes this is still going on and 
points out that 15 of the 19 named 9-11 hijackers got their visas in 
Jeddah at, in one of the more amazing Freudian slips in history, what 
Springmann calls the "CIA consulate."

He points out that all of these visas were issued under the "visa 
express" program, a system under which questionable visa paperwork is 
mingled with large amounts of ordinary paperwork in the hope it will 
sail through unnoticed. Celerino Castillo, former Drug Enforcement 
Agency officer says the "visa express" program was commonly used for 
CIA assets in Central America. Springmann rattled off a long list of 
major mainstream media outlets he has approached with his story. Not 
one has expressed any interest.

While the events of 9-11 have sparked widespread skepticism of the 
official government story and an almost equally widespread belief 
that our government is a criminal enterprise, the reaction to that 
September day is having tremendous ramifications for every American. 
Speaking to that point was Jennifer Van Bergen. Van Bergen is an 
attorney, a faculty member at the New School for Social Research in 
New York, and a contributing editor to truthout.org. Van Bergen 
published a six-part series on the Patriot Act on truthout.org and 
spoke about it at the press conference.

She pointed out that the act, which at about 400 pages is not known 
to have been read in its entirety by a single legislator voting on 
it, nullifies several portions of the U.S. Constitution. It also 
significantly increases the burden on law enforcement, and shifts a 
huge amount of power to the president. She also pointed out that no 
one has said 9-11 would have been prevented had the new law been in 
effect.

Specifically, Van Bergen pointed out that Section 216 of the Patriot 
Act allows law enforcement agents to tap an individual's phone and 
computer without probable cause. All that's required for the rubber 
stamp warrant is an officer's statement that the tap will be 
"relevant" to an investigation. Section 218 allows secret searches of 
private homes and businesses if the search has a "significant foreign 
intelligence purpose."

Section 802 creates a new crime, "domestic terrorism," defined as 
"any act designed to intimidate or coerce change in government 
policy." Van Bergen said that under the act, all civil disobedience 
is now "domestic terrorism," and a crime. Section 411 states any 
organization endorsing the type of behavior criminalized in Section 
802 will be classified as a "terrorist organization." So conceivably 
under the Patriot Act, parents blocking an intersection to demand a 
traffic light be installed to protect their children going to and 
from school are criminals.

Despite being shutout by C-SPAN, the UnansweredQuestions.org press 
conference was well attended, with a great deal of domestic, as well 
as foreign, media present. It's obvious the mainstream media has a 
vested interest in following the Bush Administration's story blindly, 
and so the world will have to rely on the "alternative" press to get 
the information it needs. The press conference was the first event to 
bring people from different disciplines together to search for the 
truth. It signaled the beginning of a time in which, according to Tom 
=46locco, "People can no longer follow First Lady Laura Bush's advice 
when she says, 'Don't worry. Tell your children not to be afraid.'"

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(Source:  http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/062102_pressconf.html )