Het Witte Huis is bereid tot het uiterste te gaan: '[...] NEWSWEEK has learned, President Bush’s chief lawyer [Alberto Gonzales] has privately signaled that the White House may seek to invoke executive privilege over key documents relating to the attacks in order to keep them out of the hands of investigators for the National Commission on Terror Attacks Upon the United States—the independent panel created by Congress to probe all aspects of 9-11.'
[...]
Philip Zelikow, the executive director for the commission [...] 'says he is still hopeful an accommodation can be reached with administration lawyers and that the issue is now in the hands of senior officials in the White House. But he made it clear that the 9-11 panel has no intention of backing down from its insistence that it receive full access to a wide range of material that has never been reviewed by any outside body—much less made public. “We expect to get what we need,” Zelikow says. “We’re not going to go quietly into that good night.”
[...]
Among the most sensitive documents the commission is known to be interested in reviewing are internal National Security Council minutes from the spring and summer of 2001 when the CIA and other intelligence agencies were warning that an attack by Al Qaeda could well be imminent.'

Achtergebleven familieleden strijden terug tegen Witte Huis
'We, the 9-11 Victims' Family Members, urgently ask everyone who receives this to either call or fax a letter to the White House letting them know that they are outraged, as we are, by the possibility of the Bush Administration trying to block pertinent information from getting to the Independent 9-11 Commission. Preventing the truth from coming out will cause this country to remain in peril.
Sincerely, Mindy Kleinberg
The White House Phone Numbers are:
COMMENTS LINE: 202-456-1111
TELEPHONE SWITCHBOARD: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461', aldus een email die de ronde doet.

Kapers hadden erg veel mazzel
Kleinberg heeft haar man verloren bij de aanslag op 11 september. Ze heeft een statement gegeven aan de commissie dat er niet om liegt. Het belangrijkste deel leidt ze in met de zin: '[...] the 9/11 terrorists were not just lucky once: they were lucky over and over again. Allow me to illustrate.' Ze noemt de handel op de beurs met voorkennis (lees hierover en over soortgelijke voorbeelden in ons uitgebreide 911-voorkennisartikel) en geeft andere voorbeelden: 'I am holding in my hand the applications of the terrorists who killed my husband. All of these forms are incomplete and incorrect. [...] Had the INS or State Department followed the law, at least 15 of the hijackers would have been denied visas and would not have been in the United States on September 11th, 2001.' De reden dat de kapers toch de VS binnen zijn gekomen staat in het genoemde 911-voorkennisartikel.

Luchtverdediging bleef aan de grond
Kleinberg vervolgt haar statement en geeft voorbeelden van de ongelooflijke aaneenschakelingen van mazzel die de kapers hadden. Een van de voorbeelden betreft de toevalligheden met betrekking tot de verdediging van het luchtruim: 'Tragically the fighter jets were not deployed until 8:52 a.m. -- a full 32 minutes after the loss of contact with flight 11. Why was there a delay in the FAA notifying NORAD? Why was there a delay in NORAD scrambling fighter jets? How is this possible when NEADS was fully staffed with planes at the ready and monitoring our Northeast airspace? Flight's 175, 77 and 93 all had this same repeat pattern of delays in notification and delays in scrambling fighter jets. Delays that are unimaginable considering a plane had, by this time, already hit the WTC [.] Even more baffling for us is the fact that the fighter jets were not scrambled from the closest air force bases.'

Hoe was het allemaal mogelijk?
Daarna vertelt ze wat 'Joint Chief of staff Myers', Donald Rumsfeld en George W. Bush die ochtend deden en vooral niet deden. Al met al heeft ze veel vragen: 'Is it luck that aberrant stock trades were not monitored? Is it luck when 15 visas are awarded based on incomplete forms? Is it luck when Airline Security screenings allow hijackers to board planes with box cutters and pepper spray? Is it luck when Emergency FAA and NORAD protocols are not followed? Is it luck when a national emergency is not reported to top government officials on a timely basis?'.

Met dank aan
We kwamen bij het Newsweek-artikel terecht, dankzij een email van Webster Tarpley (die we nog kennen van onze interviews met hem voor onze documentaire over Skull & Bones). Hij is co-auteur van het uitstekende boek (gratis online) 'George Bush, The Unauthorized Biography'. Hij weet als geen ander hoe gevaarlijk het is om een Bush in het Witte Huis te hebben.

DaanSpeak
Meld je aan via email voor de gratis mailing list.