- Pacific
Cheney, Rumsfeld Told Investigators To Whitewash 9-11
Pat Shannan
A respected human rights organization has unearthed an
official document dating to the Bush administration, which proves that powerful figures in
the White House actively discouraged the official panel set up to investigate the 9-11
attacks from looking too deeply into the attack.
In March, through a FOIA request, the ACLU obtained 42 pages of illuminating documents
exposing further the Bush administration’s duplicity regarding the facts of the 9-11
attacks, Guantanamo detainees and other matters. Buried on page 26 of these is a letter
revealing that senior Bush administration officials sternly cautioned the 9-11 Commission
against probing too deeply into the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The notification came in a letter dated Jan. 16, 2004 that was addressed by Attorney
General John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and CIA Director George J.
Tenet. The key document indicates once more the behind-the-scenes charade that went
on—and continues to go on—with those high-ranking officials attempting to
cover-up the facts and truth of the 9-11 attacks. The ACLU described it as a fax sent by
David Addington, then-counsel to former Vice President Dick Cheney.
In the message, the officials denied the bipartisan commission’s request to question
terrorist detainees, informing its two senior-most members that doing so would “cross
a line” and obstruct the administration’s ability to protect the nation.
“In response to the commission’s expansive requests for access to secrets, the
executive branch has provided such access in full cooperation,” the letter read.
“There is, however, a line that the commission should not cross—the line
separating the commission’s proper inquiry into the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks from
interference with the government’s ability to safeguard the national security,
including protection of Americans from future terrorist attacks.”
The 9-11 Commission, officially called the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon
the United States, was formed by President Bush in November 2002 “to prepare a full
and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks” and to offer recommendations for preventing future attacks.
“The commission staff’s proposed participation in questioning of detainees would
cross that line,” the letter continued. “As the officers of the United States
responsible for the law enforcement, defense and intelligence functions of the government,
we urge your commission not to further pursue the proposed request to participate in the
questioning of detainees.”
The letter was obviously prompted by correspondence from the commission two days earlier
informing Rumsfeld and Tenet that the commission was zeroing in on seven of more than 100
suspects interviewed by the CIA in order to “form an independent evaluation of the
credibility of the suspects’ statements.”
The targeting of these “seven core conspirators,” named along with the others in
a previous letter, apparently frightened Rumsfeld and Tenet into worrying that the 9-11
Commission might learn more than they were supposed to know about these interrogations.
Some speculated that this was an attempt by the Bush administration to ensure its torture
of detainees, which has since been widely documented, remained secret.
Court watcher and political observer Marcy Wheeler wrote, “Whoever made these
annotations appears to have been most worried that commission staff members could make
independent judgments about the detainees and the interrogations.” The official
didn’t want anyone to “independently evaluate the interrogations conducted in
the torture program.”
Eventually, the commission’s co-chairs harshly criticized the administration for
having purportedly destroyed tapes of its interrogations with terror suspects. 9-11
Commission members Thomas Kean and Lee H. Hamilton wrote that although President George W.
Bush had ordered all executive branch agencies to cooperate with the probe, “recent
revelations that the CIA destroyed videotaped interrogations of al Qaeda operatives leads
us to conclude that the agency failed to respond to our lawful requests for information
about the 9-11 plot. . . . Those who knew about those videotapes— and did not tell us
about them—obstructed our investigation.
“There could have been absolutely no doubt in the mind of anyone at the CIA—or
the White House—of the commission’s interest in any and all information related
to al Qaeda detainees involved in the 9-11 plot. Yet no one in the administration ever
told the commission of the existence of videotapes of detainee interrogations.” http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/whitewash_9-11_218.html
"To Achieve World
Government it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism,
their loyalty to family traditions and national identification" Brock Chisholm - Director of the World Health Organization
"A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to
believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a
reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police
State Dictatorship it's going to
get." Ian Williams Goddard
The fact is that "political correctness" is all about creating uniformity. Individualism is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the New World Order. They want a public that is predictable and conditioned to do as it's told without asking questions.
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." Thomas Jefferson