Tom Flocco
9-11 Panel Still Discussing Bush Subpoena
Wed Mar 17 02:08:43 2004
64.140.158.123

“Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people.” (George W. Bush, The White House Rose Garden, 5-17-2002)

9-11 Panel Still Discussing Bush Subpoena
by Tom Flocco
http://tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=43&mode=&order=0&thold=0

PHILADELPHIA -- March 16, 2000 -- (TomFlocco.com) -- Citizen reports last week that House, Senate and 9-11 Commission offices have been deluged with phone calls, faxes and emails from Americans--and those from other countries who lost loved ones--demanding to have President Bush, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers and other officials testify in public and under oath.


9-11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton take questions from the media at a recent hearing at Drew University where Kean is president of the college. A joint agreement by both men would be enough to compel public testimony under oath by President Bush regarding his actions before and during the attacks.
( Photo by Tom Flocco)

Citizens demanding to learn what the administration knew before the attacks, but also public explanations of curious actions during the attacks were bolstered by comments indicating that the panel is still listening to the court of public opinion regarding open testimony by officials at the very highest levels of government.


In a phone call last week to the panel’s office in Washington, DC, media spokesman Alvin S. Felzenberg said “the Commission is still talking about a presidential subpoena,” adding “the members have not decided yet, one way or the other,” when asked about the status of Kean’s discussions with fellow members regarding a subpoena for Bush’s testimony in front of the American people. Panel members have already warned of a possible confrontation with the White House in past reports.

Felzenberg also said “we have experienced prosecutors on our staff, including a former attorney general,” when asked if there was enough talent on his staff to prepare strong questions and follow-ups based on the list of questions submitted to the Commission by the 9-11 Family Steering Committee. Kean and Hamilton had already indicated in February letters to Bush’s White House lawyers that there was a “possibility” of public testimony by the President. It may become a reality if Americans continue calling for it.

The Commission hearings have yet to publicly address the actions of Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld and Myers--those with actual operating responsibility during the months prior to and on the day of September 11, but who failed to act for two hours while planes crashed one by one.

Astonishingly, ABC News and Dateline NBC reported that White House officials acknowledge that U.S. intelligence officials delivered a one-and-a-half page document to President Bush on August 6, 2001 that warned that “bin Laden’s terrorist network might try to hijack American planes.” (ABC News, 5-16-02) and (Dateline NBC, 9-10-02) Yet the Commission has failed to broach the subject at a public hearing.

These warnings came when top administration officials were being told to change their personal flight plans because of “threats.” Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped flying commercial airlines and instead began “traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines because of “what the Justice Department (DOJ) called a ‘threat assessment.” (CBS News, 7-26-01) However, the DOJ refuses to make the details of that threat assessment public and Kean’s panel refuses to call Ashcroft to testify in a public forum, affording internet fodder describing the panel as a “white-wash and cover-up.”

Newsweek Magazine reported that the day before the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks “a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning [September 11], apparently because of security concerns. (Newsweek, 9-24-01) This incredible revelation has thus far yielded no official mention at Kean’s hearings and no public testimony by the Pentagon officials who were luckier than the 9-11 victims, airline pilots and flight attendants -- not privy to secret White House and military “threat assessments.”

According to the congressional bill establishing the Commission, either a 6-4 vote in favor of a subpoena or a joint agreement by only the Chairman and Vice-Chairman would provide the power to compel Mr. Bush’s public testimony under oath regarding intelligence received before 9-11. Wide reports indicated warnings about young Arabs taking flight lessons in America and planes used as weapons to be flown into buildings.

Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney have agreed to meet privately with Kean and Hamilton, but they refuse to meet with all ten members and are steadfast against testifying in public under oath, almost daring the panel to muster the courage to issue subpoenas.

And many on the panel have questionable government agency conflicts or direct links to major fundraisers for the President, thus making it difficult to force a subpoena, save immense public pressure, phone calls and other direct contacts.

Thus far the Commission has held back from publicly mentioning subpoenas, realizing that certain constitutional issues of immunity similar to those invoked by Presidents Richard M. Nixon and William J. Clinton are likely to be raised. This, given the nature of the challenging questions the 9-11 families want answered by Bush. It is not known whether Kean’s staff lawyers even have the expertise to argue complex constitutional issues.

Clinton and former Vice-President Albert Gore have agreed to testify privately; but the Commission would of necessity have to subpoena their public testimony in the interests of fairness--unless both volunteer to testify publicly, which would set the stage for Bush and Cheney.

Thus far, the tough rhetoric is coming from just three panel members: Democrats Richard Ben-Veniste, Timothy J. Roemer and Bob Kerry, any or all of whom could be the first to go public to call for subpoenas. Citizens are calling legislative leaders, Kean and Democratic candidate John Kerry, demanding public testimony so that Kean’s final report contains nothing but uncensored and unedited truth.

For his part, Roemer remains focused upon the quality of the report, if only not to “inadvertently create a cottage industry of conspiracy theorists that question the thoroughness of this historically important commission report.” This, despite having the final document purportedly address accountability based upon a lopsided balance between closed-door interviews and mostly useless public hearings with soft questions and worse follow-up--and without the critical prosecutorial and hard-hitting approach needed

As one who has attended most of the hearings, they can be aptly described as similar to university history lessons, filled with boredom and lack of preparation or intensity--but tragically, also having the truth regarding the worst attack on U.S. soil in the country’s history hanging in the balance. And in a rather sad testimony to the families, the panel has rarely called a key player in charge of anything on 9-11 to testify.

Many feel that public testimony assures that evidence is not adjusted to protect key government officials from political or judicial accountability which private testimony can engender, i.e. “The Commission’s findings were so terrible that sharing the complete truth with the American people would bring down the government.”

Rumsfeld never entered the war room during the attacks

Former New Jersey Governor Kean’s commission spokesman, Alvin Felzenberg, who recently left the Rumsfeld Department of Defense after stints at the Heritage Foundation and in George H. W. Bush’s administration, will be publicly reunited on March 23-24 with his old boss who is due to testify under oath about pre-attack intelligence briefings and why he sat at his desk for one and a half hours until an explosion rocked the Pentagon.

Yes, Rumsfeld never got near the war room in the middle of a Pearl Harbor-like attack.

The Commission has not publicly discussed the enormous amount of photographic evidence or heard public testimony from hundreds of eyewitnesses who sat in Washington, DC rush hour traffic and watched events unfold at the Pentagon while Rumsfeld sat by himself in his office, forsaking his responsibilities in the National Military Command Center until it was too late.

Of particular significance is a report that a group of experienced commercial, military and civilian pilots spent three days discussing the Pentagon attack under the chairmanship of U.S. Army Colonel Donn de Grand-Pre.

[ STORY: http://www.infowars.com/transcripts/degranpres.htm  ]

After deliberating non-stop for 72-hours they concluded that the flight crews of the four passenger airliners involved in the September 11th tragedy had no control over the aircraft:

de Grand-Pre: “I wrote my 24-page report up and submitted it to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. And that report ultimately got into the hands of the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on 23 January, 2002. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs had 500 copies of this 24-page report made and sent out, including, to the White House. And I have to say it was including President Bush. So they got a copy of the report.”

Curiously, none of these pilots have been called to testify publicly by Kean, despite the astonishing charges by pilot professionals. This despite more than 900 private interviews having already been conducted behind closed doors, thus affording the Commission the opportunity to promulgate a document more suited to political and judicial ends--the public none the wiser.

Serious questions remain whether the panel will ask Rumsfeld why he remained in his Pentagon office “making phone calls” from about 8:20 am (more than 20 minutes before any plane crashed, and when Defense Department (DOD), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Secret Service, FBI and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) officials were first notified of the American 11 hijacking) until 9:43 am--one hour and 23 minutes later--when the Pentagon was attacked and the explosion drove Rumsfeld from his office.

Intensive research, conducted early on and immediately after the attacks by The Emporer’s New Clothes website, uncovered key documents dealing with FAA regulations concerning hijackings:

“The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hijack coordinator...on duty at Washington headquarters will request the military to provide an escort aircraft for a confirmed hijacked aircraft... The escort service will be requested by the FAA hijack coordinator by direct contact with the National Military Command Center.” (www.tenc.net)

Here are the military instructions issued by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on June 1, 2001 ordering quick, timely and immediate notification of any hijacking:

“In the event of a hijacking, the National Military Command Center will be notified by the most expeditious means by the FAA. The NMCC will...forward requests for Department of Defense assistance to the Secretary of Defense.” (www.tenc.net)

That notwithstanding, Commissioner Jamie Gorelick’s prior hearing references to “frantic intelligence warnings throughout the summer” raise important questions why Rumsfeld did not react decisively and immediately while there was still time. This, given pre-attack CIA intelligence briefs and reports (particularly July 5 and August 6) referencing young Arabs taking flight lessons in the U.S. and planes to be used as weapons.

Air traffic controller reports and American 11 flight attendant Amy Sweeney’s phone call indicated the first plane was considered hijacked between 8:10 am and 8:20 am at the very latest; and according to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke:

“Immediately the crisis management process started up. [Sometime after 8:20 am?] A couple of us had gone into the secretary's office, Secretary Rumsfeld's office, to alert him to that, tell him that the crisis management process was starting up. He wanted to make a few phone calls. So a few of us headed across the hallway to an area called the National Military Command Center. He (Rumsfeld) stayed in his office....” (9-15-2001, WBZ Boston radio interview, Asst. Sec. of Defense Victoria Clarke--interviewed by host Jim Mitchell, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2001/t09162001_t0915wbz.html ) [Rumsfeld left his office AFTER the Pentagon was attacked at 9:38 am., and also stayed away from the National Military Command Center for nearly an hour and a half during the attacks until three crashes had taken place.]

Zelikow’s major conflicts did not preclude his Commission power

Commission Executive Director Philip D. Zelikow worked in the State Department, Bush 2000 transition team, the National Security Council (NSA), and has co-authored a book with Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Bush’s National Security Advisor. Rice addressed the media during a “damage control” press conference on May 16, 2002 when the New York Daily News headline stated “Bush Knew.”

National Security Adviser Dr. Condoleezza Rice briefing reporters at the May 16, 2002 “damage-control” news conference in response to the “Bush Knew” headline in the New York Post. Afterward, the White House and CNN erased from the transcript the name of the Pakistani Intelligence General Mahmud Ahmad who had met with State Department officials just days prior to the attacks, and congressional intelligence leaders on the morning of the attacks, and shortly after sending a $100,000 check to lead hijacker Mohammed Atta. (Photo: 2002, Reuters Limited) At the press conference, Rice claimed “I don’t think anybody could have predicted that [al Qaeda] would try to use an airplane as a missile.”

Most Americans are unaware that the White House has allowed only staff member Zelikow and Commissioner and CIA Review Board member Jamie Gorelick to be afforded access to virtually all of the Presidential Daily Intelligence Briefs (PDB’s). It was Zelikow and Gorelick who chose which PDBs were important enough to refer to Chairman Kean and Vice-Chairman Hamilton for note-taking use in preparing the PDB report.

The 17-page PDB document was then edited by White House lawyers before the other eight commission members could read it--and only in a guarded room at the White House, thus affording a ready-made cloud over public knowledge regarding what Mr. Bush knew and when he knew it.

Zelikow exerts major control over who testifies or is interviewed, all scheduling, access to all testimony transcripts, and the content and strength of research and questions for officials such as his friend and co-author Condoleezza Rice--who refuses to testify in public under oath on the advice of White House lawyers.

However, even if Rice is subpoenaed, the public must rely upon the strength and thoroughness of the interrogation and the intensity of the follow-up by Commissioners, many of whom are without prosecutorial background. Interestingly, Kean and Hamilton have thus far declined to use their legal staff in the questioning process to beef up the strength and quality of the questioning. This, despite the lack of full-time veteran career prosecutors and a grand jury, all of which would be de rigueur for any 3,000-death mass murder investigation. This fact is not lost on the 9-11 family members.

1st hijacking began at 8:13 am; officials waited until all planes crashed

At issue are the actions of high government officials during the critical time period between 8:13 am and 10:05 am--when the last plane crashed, and within the context of the reported “frantic” [Commissioner Jamie Gorelick] summer-long pre-attack warnings in the form of briefings and reports. Remember, Gorelick saw ALL the PDBs.

All facts indicate that Washington officials were well aware of

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