9-11 Skeptics Abound

From SF Examiner- http://www.examiner.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.conspiracy.0912w

Publication date: 09/12/2002

9/11 skeptics abound

BY J.K. DINEEN

Of The Examiner Staff

So you wanna know what really happened on 9/11?

If the Bay Area is a center of political dissent, it is also a place where alternative conspiracy theories flourish -- especially variations of a little one involving 9/11, President Bush, Dick Cheney, oil, insider trading, Enron, opium, the CIA, Saddam Hussein, the Bin Laden family, anthrax, the Carlyle Group, President Bush's father, insider trading ... and so on.

In a nation that loves a conspiracy, it's a monster theory that makes the JFK assassination scenario seem simple.

"I became an activist about 10 years ago after seeing the movie 'JFK,' and doing research on the CIA," said Gina Gallo of the Guerrilla Management Coalition, who was on her way to a "Bush Did It" rally Tuesday in downtown Oakland. "In this case, there is no doubt there was complicity at the highest level of the United States government."

While different theorists focus on different aspects of the attacks, what they seem to have in common is they would like an independent investigation into 9/11.

"We're not getting answers from the administration," said East Bay theorist Tarnel Abbott.

While different groups are obsessed with different aspects of 9/11, there are some that seem to pop up everywhere. One is the CIA-Mohammad Atta connection. That theory focuses on the fact that the head of Pakistani intelligence, who happened to wire head hijacker Mohammad Atta $100,000, was in Washington on Sept. 11 having breakfast with the head of the House Intelligence Oversight Committee.

Others point to the fact that the hijacked planes were not intercepted, and that the extended Bin Laden family, who have strong connections to former President George Bush, were whisked out of the country right after the attacks. Another point theorists would like to see investigated is the proliferation of airline stocks that were "shorted" right before the attacks. Some say they have evidence proving that seven of the hijackers actually are still alive and that another one was actually dead a year before 9/11.

"The biggest thing for me is that the planes were not intercepted," said Gallo. "It was as if both the Defense Department and the Air Force were out to lunch that day."

At the Richmond Public Library, Tarnel Abbott and Kate Connelly, who run a group called Librarians for Intellectual Freedom, have been showing independent films looking at the war on terror from a different perspective.

"Do I think it's a coverup? Well, yeah. I think there too many unanswered questions," said Connelly.

Claudia Hernandez, who is part of a group called the All People's Coalition, said investigators need to follow the money.

"The United States government had oil interests in the area. There's a clear connection between the oil economy, the Bush administration and the war. The connections are out there. People need to connect the dots."

My Response to the SF Examiner-

Correction!!!!

I received a phone message from J.K. Dineen yesterday, who was writing an article, (published today as "9-11 skeptics abound") and had a 5 p.m. deadline. I returned his call, and we spoke for about half an hour; I was "between demonstrations," my weekly downtown Palo Alto- "Listening For a Change" demo and the "Bush Did It!" March and Rally in front of the Federal Building in Oakland; I also spoke at a San Francisco event last night entitled "THE WAR ON FREEDOM - Approaching the Truth about 9-11- Who was responsible? Who benefited? Who should be held accountable? Exposing the Big Lie" with Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, author of the best book documenting the role of the U.S. government and the C.I.A. in the 9/11/01 attacks. However, I was misidentified in the article as "Gina Gallo," who organized the "4th Annual 9-11 Power to the Peaceful Concert" which drew over 20,000 people last Saturday in Golden Gate Park.

My name is Carol Brouillet; I am a member of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and a recent member of the All People's Coalition which organized the two "Bush Did It!" Rallies and Marches, (The first one was from the Panhandle, up Haight Street to the big concert/social justice rally last Saturday) and three public forums on 9-11...

The Other Corrections/Mistakes in the article- J.K. lists- "President Bush, Dick Cheney, oil, insider trading, Enron, opium, the CIA, Saddam Hussein, the Bin Laden family, anthrax, the Carlyle Group, President Bush's father, insider trading ... and so on." as part of the conspiracy. Saddam Hussein's name should be omitted, much as the Bush cabal would love to find a reason to attack him- no one has found any remotely plausible way of connecting him with the attacks.

Dineen also wrote "the head of Pakistani intelligence, who happened to wire head hijacker Mohammad Atta $100,000, was in Washington on Sept. 11 having breakfast with the head of the House Intelligence Oversight Committee." Actually, Pakistani ISI's Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad arrived in the US on the 4th of September, a full week before the attacks. He had meetings at the State Department "after" the attacks on the WTC. But he also had "a regular visit of consultations" with his US counterparts at the CIA and the Pentagon during the week prior to September 11. He also had breakfast with the heads of both the Senate and House Intelligence Oversight Committee on the morning of September 11th.(currently in charge of the only official 9-11 investigation which is extremely limited, being held in secret, and reeks of a gross whitewash). Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad also was sent by Bush to Afghanistan to demand that the Taliban hand over Bin Laden, when the Administration was far more interested in a war, that they had been planning for years, than in "getting Bin Laden." Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad ordered Ahmad Umar Sheikh to wire the $100,000 to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta. When this information was revealed publicly, General Mahmoud Ahmad was quietly urged to resign by the U.S. government, which made no effort to "question or apprehend him" for his key role in the attacks.

Whatever part Al Qaeda played in 9-11, it was with the assistance, funding, training, help of the C.I.A. and top U.S. officials, and has served to "justify" the U.S.'s geopolitical ambiitions in waging a "War of Terrorism" upon Afghanistan and much of the world, including the people of the United States.

If J.K. Dineen had had more time, he might have been able to clarify rather than muddy the facts, my website, http://www.communitycurrency.org/9-11.html has links to what I believe to be the key articles, books, videos, magazines which have helped my understanding of 9-11.

I do hope you will make the effort to correct these errors, and apologize to Gina Gallo, for attributing my statements to her.

Carol Brouillet
Palo Alto, California