[Nettime-nl] Ultimatum aan president W. Bluff

["H S" <persgal@wanadoo.nl>]

Hallo Nettime,

nu, 16 maanden na 9-11 weet nog steeds bijna niemand waarom de Luchtdefensie
van de VS op de dag van de kapingen NIET in actie is gekomen.
Uren vliegen gekaapte vliegtuigen boven Washington terwijl ze op de radar
worden gevolgd> hetzelfde bij de WTC vliegtuigen.
Als er voor deze feiten geen verklaring wordt gegeven, zijn de
vervolgacties, Afghanistan, Homeland Security, Iraq  mogelijk onwettig, want
deze acties zijn gebaseerd op de schuldaanname van OBL etc voor de tragische
gebeurtenissen op 9-11?
Ook de Nederlandse regering kan bijdragen aan het ophelderen van de lancunen
van deze dag, de basis van de vanzelfsprekendheid van onze reflexen na 9-11
en samen met de EU en VN een ultimatum stellen aan president Bush om
onmiddelijk met een verklaring te komen, waarom ,bijv, de Luchtdefensie van
de VS niet heeft ingegrepen.
Bijgevoegd de stand van zaken mbt de onafhankelijke commissie 9-11:

Reacties aan: persgalerie persgal@wanadoo.nl

Thursday, 19 December, 2002

George W. Bush has tapped Thomas Kean to chair the independent
investigation into the attacks of September 11th. This nomination comes in
the wake of the choice of Henry Kissinger for that post, and his sudden
departure. Kissinger, considered a master of secrets and a war criminal to
boot, was an odd pick for the post to say the least. He resigned rather
than give up the list of clients he has served since leaving public life,
as the 9/11 victims families had demanded and the protocols of security
clearance had required. One wonders what manner of Kissinger clients could
have caused a 'conflict of interest' in a terrorism investigation, but that
question will have to wait.

In a perfect world, Kean would be a standard-issue Republican. He is
President of Drew University. He served from 1982 through 1990 as Governor
of New Jersey, enjoying high popularity among his constituents and warm
relations with labor groups. He is the former chairman of the National
Environmental Education and Training Foundation; he is a board member of
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the World Wildlife Fund, the National
Center for Learning Disabilities, and the National Endowment for Democracy.

Kean led the U.S. delegation to the World Conference on Education for All
in Thailand in 1990; he was vice chairman for the U.S. delegation to the
Fourth U.N. World Conference on Women in 1995; he served on the advisory
board to the President's Initiative on Race from 1997 to 1998; he is
currently chairman of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy; he
served as a board member of America's Promise, a foundation for improving
America's youth created by Presidents Clinton, Bush, Carter, Ford and
Reagan (who was represented at the group's inception by his wife, Nancy).

That is an impressive record.

Kean is also a director for the petroleum giant Amerada Hess, the food
services corporation Amarak, and the Pepsi Bottling Group. Kean is likewise
a board member of the Fiduciary Trust Company International. He is a former
board member for the CIT Group and UnitedHealth Group.

It is his association with Hess that has drawn concern from 9/11 victims
groups, because Hess has business agreements with Saudi Arabia and oil
exploration facilities in Indonesia and Malaysia. The latter countries are
widely believed to be home to al Qaeda terrorists, while the former has
become notorious for its association with Wahabbi fundamentalism, Osama bin
Laden, and a majority of the 9/11 hijackers. Kristen Breitweister, the
co-chairman of Sept. 11 Advocates who lost her husband in the World Trade
Center attacks, said of Kean's nomination: "I'm collecting all the
information so when we meet with all the commissioners we'll be able to
properly ask all the questions. I'm not even at a point where I'm
considering whether or not he would be good at it."

There can be no question that Kean's nomination is a quantum improvement
over Kissinger. However, it was a curious choice. Kean has been out of
politics since 1990, and is a virtual unknown on the national stage. It is
clear that he enjoys philanthropic work, but it is also clear that he has
strong ties to some heavy hitters in the business community and the
petroleum industry. He has not the massive ego of Kissinger, nor
aspirations to high office, having gotten out twelve years ago after
deciding that the political rat race had become distasteful. He has
virtually no experience in foreign policy, intelligence, or national
security matters.

In many ways, this was a non-nomination. Kean has much to lose and little
to gain from chairing this investigation. In the final analysis, it appears
that Bush has nominated someone who will be easily controlled by the
administration. Kean does not possess, by dint of experience, the
wherewithal to ask the difficult questions that must be pressed if this
investigation is to be successful. His is not, and never has been, the kind
of boat-rocker that will be necessary to pry the truth from the
administration, the CIA, the FBI, the NSA and the Department of Defense.

It is vital in this to remember that the Bush administration thwarted this
independent investigation for 18 months, until they got the two things they
wanted. What they wanted was a requirement that any subpoenas would be
issued only after six of the ten people on the commission voted for it. The
commission is comprised of five Democrats and five Republicans. If a
particular subpoena seems to cut too close to the political bone, the
Republicans on the committee need only stand shoulder to shoulder to stop
it.

The other requirement the Bush administration demanded was the right to
pick the chairman of the commission. One need look no further than the
first choice, Henry Kissinger, to see the reasons for this. Ostensibly,
this investigation has been proposed so that nothing like 9/11 ever happens
again. The Bush administration chose Kissinger to see this mission through,
demonstrating that they are far more interested in keeping secrets than
they are in getting to the bottom of this.

Now, we have Thomas Kane, a man with no training or background in any of
the areas necessary to the investigation, a man who does not appear capable
of taking on the intelligence community and the administration, much less
the five other Republicans who will have veto power over the issuance of
subpoenas. It is difficult to imagine Thomas Kean pushing hard for answers
to questions like these:

* Why did George W. Bush order the dismantling of the Bin Laden Task Force
prior to 9/11?

* Was the Bush administration involved in negotiations with the Taliban
prior to 9/11 regarding a pipeline project to be undertaken in Afghanistan
by Unocal Petroleum and a consortium of other corporations and nations,
including Saudi Arabia?

* Why were fighter interceptors not scrambled after it became clear that
commercial aircraft had been hijacked?

* Who made the decision to stop FBI Deputy Director John O'Neill from
investigation al Qaeda financial accounts? What did Barbara Bodine, U.S.
ambassador to Yemen, have to do with pulling O'Neill off the case?

* Why were the Black Boxes and flight data recorders from the hijacked
aircraft never recovered?

* What was Saudi Arabia's involvement with the hijackers and the 9/11 plot?

* Why were pointed warnings received from Israel, Egypt, Germany and
Russia, which detailed a plot to hijack aircraft and use them to attack
prominent American targets, virtually ignored? Again, why were fighter jets
not scrambled since this warning was already in hand?

* What corporations are currently profiting from the War on Terror? In
particular, how much does the multinational corporation The Carlyle Group,
an entity steeped in petroleum production and weapons sales, stand to make
from the conflict?

Yet these are the questions that must be answered. By nominating Thomas
Kean for this duty, George W. Bush has basically nominated himself. Kean
holds every appearance of being a good and decent man. One hopes the puppet
strings will not pain him too much.

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