Report on 3/26-28 SF 911 Confab; ANSWER too seeking answers...

Note: V Sauve followed this by posting an exchange of letters with R Becker of the ANSWER Coalition, who suggested the two movements should open discussions about prospects for increased cooperation in the near future. (dhe)

Vince Sauve posts:

Theorists share their views of 9/11; Alternative press and activists discuss conspiracy in the World Trade Center attacks

By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER

SAN FRANCISCO -- Days after current and former
government officials testified before the official
panel probing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, dozens
of activists, independent journalists and others from
around the world convened Friday for their own
inquiry.

These are people who believe the government is lying
on a grand scale, and that the Bush administration at
least passively let -- and at most, actively helped --
the attacks happen.

They believe that the independent commission now
probing the matter is in no way independent, and that
neither it nor the corporate-owned,
government-beholden mass media can be trusted to ask
the right questions to get at the truth.

"The truth is not going to come out unless we demand
it," said Bill Douglas of Kansas, the founder of
http://www.911visibility.org

New York City activist Nicholas Levis said this
weekend's International Inquiry into 9-11 is all about
"making the connections that the mainstream media
refuse to make," lest any real consideration expose
"the complicity of the United States government" in
the attacks.

Said attorney Phil Berg, representing 9-11 widow Ellen
Mariani of New Hampshire in her racketeering lawsuit
against the federal government: "The American citizens
don't want to believe that our government would do
something like this."

Continuing today and Sunday at the Herbst Theater on
Van Ness Avenue, the conference features films,
seminars, discussion forums and plenary sessions for
advancing any and all ideas about the attacks.

Some attendees believe the manner in which the World
Trade Center towers collapsed can be explained only by
explosives within the buildings, although
architectural engineers have said burning jet fuel
weakened the towers' supporting steel, finally letting
the towers' floors "pancake" to the ground.

Some dispute government accounts that military jets
were scrambled but didn't intercept the hijacked
airplanes in time, instead believing the jets were
intentionally kept grounded.

Some draw dire conclusions from the fact that Marvin
P. Bush, the president's brother, from 1993 to 2000
was on the board of directors of a company that
provided some electronic security for the World Trade
Center, Dulles International Airport and United
Airlines; the same company was backed by a Kuwaiti
investment firm with links to the Bush family.

Some note the government let relatives of Osama bin
Laden fly out of the United States on a chartered jet
in the hours after the attacks, even while all other
commercial jets remained grounded. FBI officials have
said they had access to those people before they
departed that day, and were satisfied they had no
information about the attacks.

Some liken the Sept. 11 attacks to Operation
Northwoods, a plan developed by U.S. military leaders
in the early 1960s -- and reported in 2001 by major
media including the Baltimore Sun and ABC News -- to
attack U.S. civilian and military targets and blame it
on Cuba as a pretext to invade that Communist nation.
Some say it's more like the January 1933 arson of the
German Reichstag, which many historians believe was
staged by the Nazi Party and blamed upon Communists in
order to consolidate Adolf Hitler's power.

Mike Ruppert of Los Angeles, publisher and editor of
the newsletter From The Wilderness, said the attacks
are "so straightforward in terms of its criminality
that even a 6-year-old could understand what
happened."

The "systemic shutdown" of air defenses that day;
pre-attack insider trading involving airlines,
insurers and banks affected by the attacks; a history
of business dealings between the Bush and bin Laden
families -- all these and other things paint a clear
picture of government complicity, he claimed.

This weekend's conference is a sign, Ruppert said,
that regardless of what the government, the media, big
business and other forces at play in this matter want,
"we will not let 9/11 go."

Contact Josh Richman at jrichman [at] angnewspapers.com