411 on 911 Demanding 9/11 Truth and Impeachment

While the morning rain and the threat of afternoon rain prevented “Annie and the Vets” from providing music at the 4/11/2007 Impeach Bush/Cheney rally, a substantial crowd gathered in the last-minute sunshine on Lytton Plaza in downtown Palo Alto, amidst a giant replica of the flawed 9/11 Commission Report, two smoking towers labeled Constitution and Bill of Rights, many colorful banners calling for impeachment, and a huge “Deception Dollar” banner.

The first marches demanding a Congressional Investigation into 9/11 were held in Palo Alto in January 2002, followed by further marches in January of 2003 demanding “Pre-Emptive Impeachment.” Marches for impeachment are now a monthly occurrence and converged yesterday with a monthly 9/11 Truth action. The rally began with a bit of history and Congresswoman Eshoo’s response to the previous rally on March 14th. Eshoo wrote:

“I've lived through an impeachment process and witnessed firsthand how it tears the country apart. The election in November was a resounding rejection of the President's policies and the policies of his party. I think it's time to bring the country together and move forward. In my view, impeachment will heavily distract from the important work of reversing the disastrous course this Administration has set and will virtually bring to a halt progress on important issues including healthcare and global warming.”

The primary organizer of the rally, Carol Brouillet, read her response to Eshoo:

There is a tremendous difference between the charges leveled against Bill Clinton and those that are being directed towards Bush and Cheney. We are concerned with war crimes, treasonable offenses, and the attacks upon the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and habeas corpus. We are concerned with the Military Commissions Act, the construction of a police state, and the institutionalization of torture.

Many others share my concerns. According to a New York Times/CBS poll, only 16% continue to believe the official story. Fifty-three percent believe that the Bush Administration is hiding something, and 28% believe that the Administration is lying about “what they knew prior to September 11th.” The 9/11 Truth movement has grown substantially in the US and in other countries as 9/11 continues to be used to justify the “war on terrorism” and the imperial conquest of other nations, as well as the crackdown on those who question or challenge government or corporate policy here or abroad. Fear has been used to silence dissent, but we refuse to be silent, especially in the face of blatant lies and malicious policies that threaten Americans and the world.

I agree with you that the election in November was a resounding rejection of the President’s policies and the policies of his party. I do not agree with you that impeachment would be a distraction. On the contrary, impeachment would focus the country’s attention on the lies behind government policy and would be an effective means to stop the militaristic agenda and reverse it. Other issues pale in comparison to the drain on our country’s resources from a costly, criminal, illegal, immoral, devastating, and endless war based upon lies and treasonous behavior at the highest levels of government.

We are joined in our demands for impeachment by 26 national groups, launching a national shopping boycott from Tax Day to Earth Day ( http://www.wearenotbuyingit.org) and working towards a national day of impeachment (http://www.a28.org) on April 28th. We are joined in our demands for 9/11 Truth by a national campaign of 9/11 Truth Visibility actions on the 11th of every month (which has already spread to Australia and could go international as well). We demand a real investigation of 9/11, not a cover-up commission that fails to raise or address key areas of concern.

The 9/11 Commission ignored the fact that the Government lied and falsified scientific data about the quality of the air and water in the wake of 9/11, thereby compounding the disaster, endangering the health of unprotected first responders and citizens, sacrificing them in the interests of re-opening Wall Street, and later fighting the victims in court to deny them health benefits....

The 9/11 Commission was directed by Dr. Philip Zelikow, author of Bush’s “pre-emptive war doctrine,” whose tenure as a member of the Bush National Security transition team caused him to appear as a witness before the Commission, which constituted such an outrageous conflict of interest that the 9/11 Family Steering Committee demanded his resignation, to no avail. Dr. Zelikow's expertise is the creation and maintenance of, in his words, “public myths,” which he defines as “beliefs…thought to be true (although not necessarily known to be true with certainty),” and in what he calls “‘searing’ or ‘molding’ events [that] take on ‘transcendent’ importance and retain their power” across generations.”

The 9/11 Commission failed to investigate members of the Administration who also were members of the Project for the New American Century and wrote the September 2000 document "Creating Tomorrow's Dominant Force," which stated the need for the Department of Defense to "move more aggressively to experiment with new technologies and operational concepts,” and that "further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event--like a new Pearl Harbor.”

The 9/11 Commission failed to investigate numerous Air Force war games conducted on September 11, 2001 that severely crippled our highly competent aircraft interception capability.

The 9/11 Commission failed to investigate or even mention the demolition of the 47-story World Trade Center Building 7, which was not struck by a plane, but went down at near freefall speed at 5:20 p.m. on 9/11.

The 9/11 Commission failed to mention that fire has never caused steel-frame high-rise buildings to collapse, and that the pulverization of the towers shared the distinctive features of controlled demolitions. They mischaracterized the core structure of each tower as “a hollow steel shaft,” ignoring the 47 massive steel support columns as large as 22 inches by 54 inches.

The 9/11 Commission failed to investigate and explain how the Pentagon, within the most guarded airspace on the planet, including its own missile defense system, was penetrated on 9/11/2001.

The 9/11 Commission decided that who financed 9/11 was “of little practical significance,” ignoring evidence that top ISI General Mahmoud Ahmad had $100,000 wired to alleged lead pilot Mohammed Atta, and ignoring evidence that top Al Qaeda operative Ali Mohammed, who was involved in the ’93 WTC bombings, the African Embassy attacks and 9/11, was employed and protected by the FBI, CIA and the US military.

The 9/11 Commission failed so utterly in its stated mission “to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks,” that Dr. David Ray Griffin, author of The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, deemed the Commission’s effort “a 571-page lie,” after chronicling 115 of its “errors.”

In view of all the above, we reject the findings contained in the Report of the Kean-Hamilton Commission to Investigate Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, we demand the release of documents and evidence withheld by the government, and we demand an immediate, genuinely independent 9/11 investigation with subpoena powers, objective 9/11 researchers, and oversight by 9/11 families and concerned citizens.”

We are gathered in support of the Impeachment of Bush and Cheney, believing that they must be stopped and held accountable for their actions and crimes if we are to redeem our country in the eyes of the world and reverse the disastrous course that they have embarked upon, dragging the country and the world with them, in the wake of September 11th.”

Janette MacKinlay, a survivor of the WTC attacks, addressed the crowd-

“The journey for explanations and accountability for the horrific events that occurred that morning began for me that very morning as I watched in horror and disbelief, as the towers burned, out the window of my apartment which was located directly across the street from the World Trade Center complex.

“The American people were under attack! By Who? Why? As history unfolded in front of my eyes, I kept asking myself, Who? Why?

“Any sense of security I had about my life disappeared at the moment Tower Two collapsed, bursting in our windows and covering us with dust, while creating total darkness. The terror of being in that cloud of darkness, wondering if each breath would be my last, haunts me to this very day.

“While it haunts me, it also drives me. I was being attacked! The American people were being attacked. The desire to fight back overwhelmed me! I wanted to fight for America. I wanted to fight back against those who had attacked me.

“These feelings of patriotism , revenge and terror bring me here today. The questions of Who? Why? And now, What to do about it remain, and motivate me in my quest, as painful and disturbing as it has proven to be.

“The interior of my home looked like a bomb had exploded. The interior of my mind and being also felt the effects of that explosion. To this day, I suffer.

“After five weeks of staying in a hotel I returned to my home in Oakland, where I immediately joined the Commonwealth Club, hoping through going to lectures and by reading books I could find the answers to my questions, Who? Why? What to do about it?

“The pursuit of answers only opened my eyes to more unanswered questions, and the shock and realization that our administration was not being truthful in their accounts. I reached this conclusion in the summer of 2004, upon the release of the official, long awaited, 9/11 Commission Report. Two of the commissioners spoke at a Commonwealth Club-sponsored event at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

“Their answers were all the same: classified information, national security concerns, and White House mandates. All the unanswered questions were classified! Why all the secrets? The commissioners themselves convinced me of a cover-up! …

“As an American, I need to stand up and put a stop to the ongoing violence that the events of September 11th unleashed. My heart and sympathy goes out to those affected by those events and by the violence and death that have been its aftermath.

“The events of September 11th have proven to be the tip of the iceberg to what was to follow. Witnessing the lies, deceits and corruption of the Bush/Cheney administration has been equally as painful as my firsthand experiences of the day.

“As Americans we have continued to be attacked! First on 9/11, then the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the war on our rights, and the economic stranglehold we now feel as we see the high gasoline prices, high medical costs, and high heating bills. We as Americans are truly under attack.

“We need to stop the corrupt Bush Regime.”

David Kubiak, International Campaign Advisor for 911Truth.org; Gabriel Day, organizer of the “9/11- Revealing the Truth, Reclaiming the Future” conference; Ken Jenkins, film-maker, with the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance and 911TV.org; and Riva Enteen of the National Lawyers Guild and the National Coalition to Impeach Bush/Cheney also spoke eloquently about the growing 9/11 Truth movement, our challenges to the corporate press, and the necessity to become the media.

Riva Enteen laid out a strong historical argument for impeachment as the best, most logical and nonviolent remedy for tyranny and the abuse of power, advocated not by modern left radicals but by the more conservative Founding Fathers of this nation.

Everyone was encouraged to also participate in the “Show It Off!” campaign (http://showitoffnow.blogspot.com/) --to wear the impeachment message on their sleeves and don impeachment garb in the run up to the national impeachment day, to circumvent the mainstream press’s silence on an issue supported by 58% of the American people. The rally then turned into a march, as the crowd gathered materials to pass out to the public, picked up signs, shouldered banners, and wheeled the giant replica of the 9/11 Commission Report onto University Avenue, with music playing impeachment and 9/11 Truth songs. They marched up University Avenue and down Hamilton to Anna Eshoo’s Emerson Street office to deliver the message of 9/11 Truth and Impeachment to the public and to Congress.