For An Independent International Truth Commission On 9-11

We propose the creation of an Independent International Truth Commission on the events of September 11, 2001 to hear evidence from witnesses and experts, deliberate on this material, and issue findings to the broadest possible spectrum of world public opinion. Our approximate model would be the Bertrand Russell War Crimes Tribunal held in Sweden and Denmark in 1967 (see BertrandRussellTribunal).

At every turn in its drive for war with Iraq, the Bush Administration claimed that the 9-11 events marked a qualitative turning point in world history, abrogating accepted notions of international law and authorizing a new regime of pre-emptive attacks, including nuclear attacks, on states branded as terrorist. These same events have been seized upon as a pretext for US campaigns of racial defamation against Arabs and Moslems, and for sweeping police state measures, and for war. However, the Bush administration has never offered a detailed and documented account of its claims about the events of 9-11 which have allegedly revolutionized human affairs. Nor has it explained obvious and serious discrepancies in its own statements and actions. No systematic proof has ever been published or offered as to who the terrorists were, how they operated, where they came from, and why they were not stopped. Tony Blair’s release of fake dossiers and Colin Powell’s discredited claims before the UN Security Council about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have once more heightened public skepticism about US-UK intelligence methods.

Colin Powell promised a white book on 9-11, but none has been forthcoming. The Bush administration blocked the formation of a board of inquiry to establish the facts in this case until late 2002, and the senator who called most insistently for such a board in the months after 9-11 (Torricelli of New Jersey) was driven from public life by scandals. By contrast, a board of inquiry on the recent space shuttle disaster was up and running within days. The Bush administration fended off calls from the victims’ families for a timely independent investigation by citing the alleged danger of interfering with urgent anti-terror efforts. The 2002 Congressional investigations into 9-11 have yielded a very meager result. The current National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (originally Kissinger-Mitchell, now Kean-Hamilton) Commission, because of the circumscribed nature of its mandate, its limited budget, and the appearance of conflicts of interest among its staff, seems to be a very dubious vehicle, although we would hope to cooperate with it in any way possible. The Kean-Hamilton panel’s limited funding from Congress makes a mockery of the tragedy of 9-11, considering that it is only a small fraction of the huge sums spent to investigate Bill Clinton. The Warren Commission report on the Kennedy assassination was of course deeply flawed, but this time it appears that there will not even be a Warren Commission-style compendium of US government allegations.

We note that both the US Congress and the Kean-Hamilton Commission have protested the Bush administration’s lack of cooperation with their inquiries into 9-11. We call upon the United States Government to declassify and make generally available in full and unredacted form all files, documents, and other data germane to the events of 9-11. We further invite the United States Government to send its representatives to appear as witnesses before the Commission, and freely to allow federal officials to answer the questions of Commission members.

We are left with an attempt to establish an entire world system based on unsubstantiated allegations and accusations. If we are to preserve the peace of the world, we must necessarily challenge the myths purveyed by the Bush administration about 9-11. We therefore call upon statesmen, thinkers, journalists, investigators, artists, scientists, jurists, academics, humanitarians, religious leaders, activists and other eminent personalities from around the world to form an Independent International Truth Commission dedicated to preventing unproven assertions about 9-11 from setting the stage for a new world conflagration.

We, the undersigned, are committed to the early convocation of this Independent International Truth Commission. We hope to announce the names of the Commissioners during the first quarter of 2004, and to issue a call to experts and witnesses from around the world who wish to report to the Commission as soon as possible thereafter. We welcome the assistance of volunteers and activists, and we look forward to cooperating with parallel initiatives as they emerge.

Signed:

• Dr. Nick Begich, author of Earth Rising: The Revolution (2000), Angels Don’t Play This HAARP (1995), and Earth Rising II: The Betrayal of Science, Society and the Soul (2003), Alaska USA.

• Dr. Andreas von Bülow, former Social Democratic Member of the German Parliament (1969-1994), State Secretary for Defense (1976-1980), and Research and Technology Minister (1980-82) in the German Government, lawyer, and author of Im Namen des Staates and Die CIA und der 11. September: Internationaler Terror und die Rolle der Geheimdienste (2003), Bonn, Germany.

• Thomas Meyer, writer and biographer of D.N. Dunlop, founder of the World Power Conference (now World Energy Congress); founder of Perseus Verlag and editor of the current affairs monthly Der Europaer, lecturer. Basel, Switzerland

• Mike Ruppert, journalist and investigator, www.fromthewilderness.com and www.copvcia.com, California USA.

• Prof. Peter Dale Scott, Professor Emeritus of English, University of California at Berkeley; author of Crime and Cover-Up: The CIA, the Mafia, and the Dallas-Watergate Connection (1977, 1993); The Iran-Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations of the Reagan Era (1987); Cocaine Politics (1991), Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (1993), and Drugs, Oil and War (2003), www.peterdalescott.net, California USA.

• Webster Griffin Tarpley, author of Chi ha ucciso Aldo Moro? (Rome, 1978), George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992), Against Oligarchy (1996), and Surviving the Cataclysm (1998), www.tarpley.net, Maryland USA.

• Gerhard Wisnewski, political scientist M.A., journalist and filmmaker, author of "Operation 9/11 - Angriff auf den Globus" (2003), and co-author (with Willy Brunner) of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk telecast "Aktenzei chen 11.9. ungeloest" (2003). www.operation911.de Munich, Germany.

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• Tony Benn, former Labour Party MP, British House of Commons, London, UK.

• Prof. Michael Chossudovsky, University of Ottawa, globalresearch.ca Canada.

• Prof. John Mc Murtry, University of Guelph, Canada.

• Dr. Michael Elliott, Physicist and Researcher, www.911review.org, Canada.

• Cynthia Mc Kinney, former Democratic Congresswoman, US House of Representatives, Georgia USA.

• Thierry Meyssan. Director, Reseau Voltaire, www.reseauvoltaire.net Paris, France. See Thierry Meyssan.

• Steven Marshall www.gnn.com Guerilla News Network.

• Michael Springman, Attorney. Former head, consular section, United States Embassyin Jeddah Saudi Arabia; see Springman Interview. Washington DC USA

• Prof. Douglas Sturm of Bucknell University in Pennsuvlania

• John B. Cobb Jr. Ermetis Professor of Theology at Claremont

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