Green Party of New York State
http://www.gpnys.org/
Hawkins for US Senate
Media Release
For More Information:
Howie Hawkins 315-425-1019, hhawkins@igc.org
Sally Kim, (518) 364-2968, green_sallyk@yahoo.com
www.hawkinsforsenate.org
May 25, 2006
For More Information: Howie Hawkins 315-425-1019, hhawkins@igc.org
Sally Kim Sally Kim, (518) 364-2968, green_sallyk@yahoo.com
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for US Senate, today called for a new, independent investigation of the 9/11 attacks.
Hawkins cited a new poll by Zogby International of Utica that found that "42% believe there has indeed been a cover up" (with 10% unsure) and 45% think "Congress or an International Tribunal should re-investigate the attacks, including whether any US government officials consciously allowed or helped facilitate their success" (with 8% unsure).
An August 2004 Zogby poll of New Yorkers showed nearly half believe certain U.S. officials 'consciously' allowed the attacks to happen and 66% want a fresh investigation.
"Four years ago thousands of innocent people were murdered. in our state's largest city: and yet no one has been held criminally accountable for those actions. Why hasn't the terrorist support network who helped hijack the airplanes been uncovered and prosecuted? Why hasn't Governor Pataki and Senator Clinton demanded to know who financed these attacks, a question the 9/11 Commission dismissed as unimportant? Why did the Bush administration fail to heed numerous warnings about a pending attack from our own intelligence agents and foreign governments including Israel, Germany and Russia?" asked Hawkins. "We need a real investigation to answer the basic questions."
"The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were a crime against humanity.
Unfortunately, these events were callously seized upon the Bush administration, with the support of the Democrats like Clinton in Congress, to launch illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq instead of apprehending the perpetrators These invasions launched by the neoconservative hardliners of the Bush administration were intended to further tighten their control of oil in the Middle East and expand their global empire of foreign military bases. As they had previously stated in their Project for a New American Century policy documents, they were looking for a new Pearl Harbor and they found it in 9/11," noted Hawkins.
The Bush administration and Congress have resisted a full and open investigation into 9/11. While the family members of the 9/11 victims were finally able to force Congress to convene a panel, it became a bipartisan effort at damage control in protecting the foreign policy establishment. All of the members of the 9/11 Commission admitted they had conflicts of interests.
"We need an independent investigation of 9/11, including both what happened and why it was able to occur. Family members of the victims and others without an interest in protecting the President, Congress, or military and intelligence leaders should be in charge," added Hawkins.
"We don't know if 9/11 happened because the Bush administration
was asleep at the wheel, inept or looking for an excuse to launch invasions for oil. We do know that the system failed. For example, under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, the Federal Aviation Administration refused under pressure from the airline companies to implement security measures recommended after the Lockerbie air disaster in 1988 that would have prevented the 9/11 airline takeovers. And given the US support for the repressive regimes in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, it is not surprising that the intelligence community leadership ignored Pakistani support for the Taliban and Saudi funding of Al-Qaeda in the lead-up to 9/11. An independent investigation may or may not find a conspiracy, but it surely will find systemic problems in our country's regulatory and intelligence structures."
