C-SPAN Covers McKinney 9/11 and Bush Implicated 8 Hour Hearing

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Fri, 29 Jul 2005 16:33:10 -0700 (PDT)

C-SPAN Covers McKinney " 9/11 and Bush Implicated " 8 Hour Hearing

 

 

 

 

McKinney reopens 9/11

Conspiracy theories implicating president aired at 8-hour hearing

 

By BOB KEMPER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 07/23/05

 

Washington — Revisiting the issue that helped spur her ouster from

Congress three years ago, Rep. Cynthia Mc­Kinney led a Capitol Hill

hearing Friday on whether the Bush administration was involved in the

terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

 

The eight-hour hearing, timed to mark the first anniversary of the

release of the Sept. 11 commission's report on the attacks, drew

dozens of contrarians and conspiracy theorists who suggest President

Bush purposely ignored warnings or may even have had a hand in the

attack — claims participants said the commission ignored.

 

" The commission's report was not a rush to judgment, it was a rush to

exoneration, " said John Judge, a member of Mc­Kinney's staff and a

representative of a Web site dedicated to raising questions about the

Sept. 11 commission's report.

 

The White House and the commission have dismissed such questions as

unfounded conspiracy theories.

 

McKinney first raised questions about Bush's involvement shortly after

the attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, generating a

furious response from fellow Democrats in Washington and voters in

Georgia, who ousted her in 2002.

 

" What we are doing is asking the unanswered questions of the 9/11

families, " McKinney, a DeKalb County Democrat who won back her seat in

2004, said during the proceedings.

 

She rebuffed a reporter's repeated attempts to ask her why she would

so boldly embrace the same claims that led to her downfall.

 

" Congresswoman McKinney is viewed as a contrarian, " panelist Melvin

Goodman, a former CIA official, said. " And I hope someday her views

will be considered conventional wisdom. "

 

Though she left the testimony and questioning of panelists to others,

McKinney was the main attraction, presiding over more than two dozen

participants, including the author of a book that claims the U.S.

government had advance knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack and

allowed it to happen, and Peter Dale Scott, who wrote three books on

President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

 

Georgia peanuts, Cokes and coffee were available to more than 50

attendees, whose casual dress was a decided change from the gangs of

blue-suited lobbyists who usually crowd Capitol Hill hearings.

 

McKinney herself offered witnesses bottled water and found additional

trash cans to place around the room.

 

Nearly a dozen 9/11 enthusiasts lined one side of the room, camcorders

at the ready, broadcasting the hearing live over the Internet or

recording it for later release. C-SPAN cameras documented the hearing,

and a DVD recording of the proceedings will soon be available.

 

Ten people sat in a section reserved for family members of 9/11 victims.

 

" Nine-eleven could have been prevented, " said Marilyn Rosenthal, a

University of Michigan professor who lost a son in the attacks,

echoing the premise of the hearing.

 

Panelists maintained that Bush ignored numerous warnings from the CIA,

the Federal Aviation Administration, foreign governments and others

who told him before 9/11 that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack

the United States and that terrorists were likely to use hijacked

airliners as weapons.

 

But why would the president or his administration want the 9/11

attacks to occur? Power, the panelists agreed.

 

In the wake of the attacks, the administration was able to greatly

expand the president's power and the reach of the federal government,

they said, but whistle-blowers and other potential witnesses who could

have testified to the Sept. 11 commission about such things were

either prevented from speaking or ignored in the commission's final

report. Panelists called the commission's report " a cover-up. "

 

" The American people have been seriously misled, " said Scott.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/0705/23natmckinney.html

[Guest guest]

There is nothing so frustrating in common discourse these days, as the

set-in-stone notions people have developed about so-called " conspiracy

theories. " Conspircacy theories are theories. There's nothing unusual about

them. A conspiracy theory differs from other theories only to the extent that

there must be 2 or more individuals involved, and they are usually expected to

be engaged in illegal activities, especially illegal, political activities.

These are the only characteristics that set conspriacy theories apart from

theories in general. Why have conspiracy theories developed such a bad

reputation? I believe it's because most conspiracy theories are political, and

therefore most likely committed by the gangsters to be found in most political

administrations in most countries. Such criminal, political organizations,

typically control media and other institutions that shape popular opinion, and

benefit from popularizing the delusion that conspiracy theories are basically

flawed, for the obvious reason that the people most opposed to conspiracy

theories are the conspirators.

 

In the theory expressed in the " 9/11, Bush implicated " story below, those

advancing the theory are called, predictibly, " conspiracy theorists, " and also

" contrarians; " the implication being that these contrarians are fundamentally

wrong in their theorizing. It isn't just the rightwingers that believe this

rot. Have you ever heard anyone call people that support Darwinian

Evolutionism, conspiracy theorists? Of course not. This is because the

propaganda of the Creationists and other anti-Darwinians, have lost their

argument sufficiently, that their conspiracy to outlaw or substantially reduce

the influence of Darwinism in public education has, for all practical purposes,

failed. With regard to such notorious events as the " Kennedy assassination, " or

" 9/11, " we should be talking about the " official " theory, and an " opposition "

theory. You don't hear people call the theories developed hourly, among the

police, about murders committed hourly, by 2 or more suspects, conspiracy

theories; but that's exactly what they are. These theories become factual, as

the evidence supporting them becomes progressively factual. Can you imagine

newspaper headliines using such language as that " 'Conspiracy Theories'

developed by the L. A. Police, concerning the involvement of the Manson family

in multiple murders, will be aired tonight at 8 p.m(?) "

 

During Clinton's tenure, the " conspiracy theorists " were the ones that took

issue with whatever garbage media and the Republicans were broadcasting to the

public about Clinton. Clinton conspired (with Monica, arguably) to conceal his

sexual trysts with the intern. Was there any evidence of a steadfast refusal to

look into, or consume the resources necessary to examine, " that " conspiracy?

The first question with the " 9/11 " conspiracy theory, is whether there are

grounds to examine the evidence, for or against. Undoubtedly there are. The

next question is a more serious one; whether there is a willingness and

readiness to examine the evidence. The response we're getting to Ms McKinney's

charges, is itself evidence of an additional conspiracy; a " conspiracy of

silence. " In a sane world, the Bush administration would be frantically pushing

a thorough investigation, in an effort to quell the tiniest suspicion that they

were involved.

 

JP

-

califpacific

C-SPAN Covers McKinney " 9/11 and Bush

Implicated " 8 Hour Hearing

 

 

By BOB KEMPER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Washington - Revisiting the issue that helped spur her ouster from

Congress three years ago, Rep. Cynthia Mc­Kinney led a Capitol Hill

hearing Friday on whether the Bush administration was involved in the

terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

 

" The American people have been seriously misled, " said Scott.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/0705/23natmckinney.html