|
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green
candidates and other members of the Green Party of the United States
repeated the call for Congress to authorize an independent investigation
into the attacks on September 11, in the wake of revelations that the
Bush Administration failed to inform Americans about indications that
Osama bin Laden was behind a plan to highjack airlines.
"The government of the United States owes this to the American
people, and especially to the victims and their relatives," said
Ted Glick, New Jersey Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate.
"It should be an independent investigation, with broad subpoena
power and access to classified information, conducted by a body of
citizens outside of Congress and the Ashcroft Justice Department."
"While the White House tries to downplay the news, it's becoming
clear that this is even more gravely serious than the Enron debacle,
which Congress refused to investigate as a political scandal and only as
corporate malfeasance. An investigation needs to be directed by those
whose only interest is in finding the truth, and who have the courage
and resolve to seek the truth regardless of political or criminal
implications. Relatives of the victims should play a major role in
the committee overseeing the investigation."
Other candidates seeking their states' Green Party nomination, including
Stanley Aronowitz (for Governor of New York) and Charles Pillsbury (for
Congress, Connecticut 3rd District) have also called for an independent
investigation. Like millions of other Americans and many of the
mainstream media, Greens are asking hard questions:
-
Why did the Bush
Administration fail for nine months after September 11th to disclose
its knowledge of intelligence warnings from as early as May, 2001?
Did top Republicans and Democrats, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi
(D-CA), in the House and Senate Intelligence Committees also conceal
such knowledge? Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has admitted that they
had received the same classified information as the President.
-
Why did President Bush and
Vice President Cheney, the latter repeatedly, contact Senate
Majority Leader Tom Daschle to urge the Senate not to conduct a full
investigation into September 11?
-
Will apologies be paid to
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), after the harsh criticism and derision
she received from Trent Lott (R-Ms), Zell Miller (D-GA), and others
last month for demanding an investigation into possible White House
foreknowledge of the attacks?
-
If suspicions of an attack
came in part from intelligence warnings about questionable
enrollments in flight training schools (August 6, 2001 secret memo
to the President, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in
U.S."), why does the White House say it expected a conventional
hijacking? Since when are years of pilot training part of the
preparation for what Press Secretary Ari Fleischer called a
"traditional" hijacking?
-
Did insider trading occur
on Wall Street based on knowledge of an impending attack? Did U.S.
intelligence, which tracks trading patterns, detect the jump in
United Airlines put options (90 times above normal) between
September 6 and 10, 2001, and 285 times higher than average on
September 7; or the jump in American Airlines put options (60 times
above normal) on September 10? (Put options are leveraged bets that
a stock's price will fall.) This was reported on CBS News on
September 26, 2001; no similar trading patterns occurred for other
airlines.
-
"The Attorney General
John Ashcroft stopped using ordinary commercial jets in early summer
after an internal security warning." (The Independent, May 17,
2001) Why did the FBI advise Ashcroft, as later reported by CBS News
on July 26, 2001, to avoid commercial flights for the remainder of
his term? Did it occur to Ashcroft (and Bush) to ask what the threat
was? Should other Americans have been warned?
-
Did plans for the
trans-Afghanistan pipeline to transport oil from Turkmenistan
motivate Bush to block intelligence gathering on al Qaeda in early
and mid 2001? According to CNN, this obstruction drove FBI Deputy
Director John O'Neill to resign two weeks before September 11.
(After leaving the FBI, O'Neill became security director at the
World Trade Center, where he died on September 11.) The revival of
pipeline plans after September 11 was denied by the White House in
late 2001, but confirmed in a February 8, 2002 joint declaration by
Afghan interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and more recently by World Bank chief James
Wolfensohn. What kind of influence did oil interests have over Bush
intelligence policy before and after September 11?
-
What elementary
precautions could airlines, the FAA, and the U.S. military have
taken to improve security on commercial flights and at major
landmarks known to be vulnerable? Why didn't U.S. intelligence
agencies compile, compare, and analyze numerous intelligence
reports, such as the e-mail from a Minneapolis FBI agent suggesting
that Zaccarias Moussaoui might fly a jumbo jet into the World Trade
Center? Could the attacks have been prevented?
Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, scottmclarty@yahoo.com
The Green Party of the United States
http://gpus.org
http://www.gp.org
National office:
1314 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Index of Green Party candidates in 2002
http://www.gp.org/patience.html
search:
s11, trr, dpol
|
