Complete Timeline Presentation To 911 Presser

The 9/11 Citizens Watch [ http://www.911citizenswatch.org] held a press conference at the U.S. Customs House in lower Manhattan on March 31, 2003. It coincided with the first public hearings of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. I was asked to speak about Paul Thompson's "9/11 Timeline" [ http://complete911timeline.org].

Representatives from the Washington Post, New York Daily News, New York Post, Newark Star-Ledger, Staten Island Advance, El Diario, Hoy, Fox5 TV, WPIX (Channel 11), UPN (Channel 9/NYC), NY1, WWOR-TV, Telemundo, and radio stations WBAI, WNBC and WNYC attended the press conference.

Kyle F. Hence (who founded the group, as well as Unanswered Questions [ http://www.unansweredquestions.org]) spoke about the goals of Citizens Watch and John Judge presented the Top 10 Unanswered Questions [ http://www.unansweredquestions.net/911citizenswatch/unanswered_questions.shtml]. There was 15 minutes of questions after our presentations.

Twenty-five copies of the Timeline were given to the media. I saw brief clips on NY1 (which included a snippet of John Judge's comments) and WPIX. I have found no mention of the press conference in the print media, however.

Here are the comments I made at the press conference:

"I’ve been asked to talk about Paul Thompson’s 9/11 Timeline – which can be found at complete911timeline.org.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Timeline – currently at 200 pages and soon to be published as a book – is the most comprehensive collection of information on the September 11th attacks anywhere in the world.

The Timeline is made up of thousands of articles from hundreds of sources. It is absolutely essential that it becomes part of the National Commission’s investigation.

The Timeline was conceived of, and is guided and shaped by Mr. Thompson, but it includes the work of many volunteers (myself included) at both the Center for Cooperative Research and Unanswered Questions.Net.

The Timeline uses only mainstream media – what an average reader would think of as non-partisan -- with either a link to the original article or to a copy at the main website. There are so many intriguing, contradictory, bizarre stories that have not reached a wide audience, were never followed up or never put into context.

Of course, a mainstream source is no guarantee of accuracy. But with such a wealth of material, even allowing for some red herrings, you can detect overall patterns.

While working on the Timeline, we strive for neutrality. The Timeline demands full disclosure and accountability. No matter who might be implicated –Republicans, Democrats, American civilians – that evidence must be reported.

After a sober reading of the Timeline, one must seriously consider the possibility that some government or intelligence officials may have had prior knowledge of the attacks and did not take appropriate actions to stop them or were deliberately slow to respond on 9/11.

We understand that this is shocking, even earth-shattering. Many people don’t want to hear anything like this. And it’s easy to dismiss anything that seems so unbelievable and uncomfortable as a conspiracy theory – but we all know history is full of improbable and incredible events that seemed beyond imaging, but were all too real.

The Timeline does not leap to conclusions. It simply gives you a place to start – to pull facts together - to begin seriously examining what we have been told happened – and what might really have happened.

Last November, Mr. Bush told the Washington Post: “That’s the interesting thing about being the President. … I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.”
We respectfully disagree. And we urge the Commission to call both George Bush and Dick Cheney to testify what they knew about terrorist threats during the summer of 2001.

Ever since 9/12, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney have consistently and aggressively thwarted any attempt at investigation. This Commission has 14 months remaining and a total of $3 million to do its work.

By comparison, investigations into the recent space shuttle crash will cost about $50 million. The many investigations of President Clinton ran close to $100 million. Even a 1996 federal commission to study legalized gambling was given two years and $5 million. Chairman Thomas Kean says the panel will run out of money by August. Last week, the Bush administration denied a request for an additional $11 million. This is a disgrace.

Last fall, a joint Congressional Committee investigated the performance of government intelligence agencies before September 11th. Senator and Committee Chairman Bob Graham was quite candid about evidence of foreign governments assisting the hijackers. He told Newsweek that Americans have been given a ‘distorted” picture and “there’s been a cover-up ...” Graham added that this information “will become public ... when it’s turned over to the archives, but that’s 20 or 30 years from now.”

We shouldn’t have to wait that long. The ten members of the Commission must free themselves of the financial and logistical straightjacket placed on them by the Bush administration. We urge the Commission to read The Complete 9/11 Timeline. In the words of Thomas Paine: “[S] uch is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.”

STANDARD DISCLAIMER FROM UQ.ORG: UnansweredQuestions.org does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in the above article. We present this in the interests of research -for the relevant information we believe it contains. We hope that the reader finds in it inspiration to work with us further, in helping to build bridges between our various investigative communities, towards a greater, common understanding of the unanswered questions which now lie before us.

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