Controversial Actions Trump 9/11 Skyscraper Safety Hearing

Controversial Actions Trump 9/11 Skyscraper Safety Hearing

by Tom Flocco

9-11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice-Chairman Lee Hamilton respond to questions at a press conference following Wednesday’s hearing.
(Photo by Tom Flocco).

MADISON, NEW JERSEY-- November 21, 2003 (TomFlocco.com) -- Victim family members Sally Regenhard and Monica Gabrielle testified yesterday, passionately expressing their Skyscraper Safety Campaign concerns at the fifth 9-11 Commission hearing on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States at Drew University’s Baldwin Gymnasium where former New Jersey Governor and Commission chairman Thomas Kean is also the school’s president.

However, additional news was made prior to and during Kean and Hamilton’s press conference after Wednesday’s proceedings--but also after a closed-door commission meeting held Thursday morning. Some 9-11 family members privately expressed concern regarding which two individuals would review key presidential documents. This, as past revelations about conflicts of interest may again become a bone of contention with the families--given close administration links to the only two commission members selected to exclusively review and summarize virtually all Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) documents.

Commission member Fred Fielding told TomFlocco.com “we will seek everything that’s relevant,” when we asked him if the panel would also subpoena National Security Counsel (NSC) meeting minutes and briefings, along with Director Richard Clarke’s July 5, 2001 Counter-terrorism Security Group (CSG) meeting minutes and directives. However, Kean and Hamilton would not discuss their intentions regarding the key NSC and CSG documents and whether they would also be subpoenaed in the 3,000-death murder investigation, as commission conflicts of interest regained the spotlight.

Commission member Fred Fielding promised that “We will seek everything that’s relevant.” (photo by Tom Flocco).

EVIDENCE IN A MASS-MURDER INVESTIGATION?

Deputy Communications Director Al Felzenberg announced Thursday afternoon that Kean’s Commission has selected four representatives as its review team to “examine the core group of Presidential Daily Brief articles made up of those that are plainly critical to the Commission’s investigation, including PDB articles involving threats to the U.S. homeland.” Thus, the commission obtains partial but not full document access--hardly acceptable in a mass murder investigation.

Felzenberg said Chairman Kean, Vice Chairman and former Congressman Lee Hamilton, Commissioner Jamie Gorelick, and Staff Executive Director Philip Zelikow will review Bush’s sensitive PDBs. The extent of secrecy involved is exhibited by the fact that only notes are permitted, and notes taken exclusively by the four will be stored and guarded at the White House, but their notes may be “reviewed at any time by the representatives.”
This means that only Kean, Hamilton, Gorelick, and staff member Zelikow may view their own notes--and only at the White House.

The other seven commission members without access to Bush’s sensitive documents will only be able to read a “summary for all Commissioners and designated staff. That summary is subject to limited White House review before it is shared with the full Commission. The four representatives will have ‘wide latitude’ in preparing the summary and briefing the full Commission,” according to Communications Deputy Felzenberg.

The 9/11 Family Steering Committee said Thursday that “This Agreement [regarding PDB partial access] is replete with varying levels of ‘editing’ by the White House. It shows a lack of cooperation by the White House in facilitating this Commission’s investigation. The Agreement is laden with restrictions and legal maneuvers that will frustrate the Commission’s ability to produce a timely and thorough final report. While we wait, the nation remains at risk.”

It is also instructive to understand that President Bush previously directed his lawyers to withhold key prior-knowledge information even from Senate Intelligence Chairman Bob Graham, as previously the Florida senator had been unclear about the redaction issue during his 2002 hearings. Bush sent Graham PDBs with sections blacked-out.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

An examination of the 9-11 Commission website revealed that Jamie Gorelick currently serves as a Bush Administration Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) National Security Advisory panel member and also as a member of President Bush’s Review of Intelligence panel, thus providing the CIA with a direct or circuitous liaison on the Commission while also affording the Bush Administration with a direct link to the Commission and its flow of evidence procurement.

And just as the Commission hearings heated up, Gorelick left her position at Fannie Mae in July, 2003 to join the Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering law firm, which has its own curious link to the 9-11 saga. Gorelick will be able to provide individuals with administration ties with a liaison via informal channels to future and current Commission witness testimony, document access and investigation plans.

Philip Zelikow is a Bush Administration Foreign Intelligence Advisory board member--mandated to "provide advice to the President concerning the quality and adequacy of intelligence collection," having been appointed on October 5, 2001--two days before the war in Afghanistan and just 30 days after the September 11 attacks.

Thus, Zelikow is charged with supervising a murder investigation linked to friends and professional CIA associates who failed to properly handle intelligence briefings about Arab terrorists using planes as weapons to be flown into American buildings.

Zelikow forgot to list in his Commission website biography that he helped to reorganize George W.’s National Security Council (NSC) as a member of the Bush 2001 transition team while he continues to converse with White House officials as a Presidential Scholar.

Executive Director Zelikow’s close professional relationship with President Bush’s National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice--with whom he collaborated in writing a book, should have hoisted multiple red flags to Kean and Hamilton, in and of itself. It is 9-11 national security failures that are under investigation; but Zelikow is permitted to probe his friend Condi Rice’s 9-11 actions--and those of the President who appointed him.

Most Americans do not understand that Zelikow retains the power to hire all Commission staff and coordinate the flow of Kean’s investigation; but he also has access to all testimony--past and present, and manages all upcoming witnesses, document requests and subpoenas--and has now been chosen as one of just two persons permitted total access to all sensitive administration documents. This, while maintaining both professional and informal ties to the Administration he is charged with investigating.

Tragically, 9-11 family members have no legal standing to change what would seem to be gross conflicts of interest, although at 6:30 pm Thursday, the Family Steering Committee did call for University of Virginia Professor Zelikow to recuse himself from the document review team. But regardless of the outcome, they still have to accept the fact that Zelikow and Gorelick will likely remain with the Commission--conflicted baggage notwithstanding.

Given the clash of interests, Gorelick and Zelikow were still selected to be the only individuals in a 3,000-death murder investigation “to review the entire group of several hundred responsive PDB articles to determine whether there are any that are demonstrably critical to the Commission’s mandate and should therefore be added to the core group and summarized for the full commission.”

Astonishingly, no Department of Justice prosecutors or United States Attorneys will ever have access to evidence that has already been reported by Newsweek Magazine internal administration source leaks as prior-knowledge confirmation of the attacks, linked to what none dare call a mass murder case--effectively placing the entire White House and its national security and intelligence apparatus above the law, and in a position never afforded the average American citizen.

Until now, no one has ever been immune from a full and unfettered probe by civil and federal prosecutors in any United States murder case, especially when evidence of prior knowledge and forewarning of mass murders is placed adjacent to indefensible and incontrovertible time-line actions by administration officials.

VICTIM FAMILY MEMBERS TESTIFY

Acquitting themselves with amazing composure, Skyscraper Safety Campaign Founder and Chairperson Sally Regenhard--who lost her son Christian, and Co-Chairperson Monica Gabrielle--who lost her husband Richard, called for new regulations, enforcement and accountability regarding the construction, emergency and evacuation procedures of tall buildings:

“No reformed codes, and no method of enforcement will be of any value to safeguard the American public unless there is a system of accountability and responsibility in place,” Regenhard told the Commission, adding “the dead are speaking to us....I hope that you will listen to them.”

Victim family members Sally Regenhard (left) and Monica Gabrielle said their advocacy group, Skyscraper Safety Campaign, is monitoring a federal study of building materials and fireproofing in the twin towers and has even filed a lawsuit to ensure the next building at the trade center site will be subject to New York City building codes.
(Photos by Tom Flocco).

Hearing attendees sat in stunned silence as Monica Gabrielle’s haunting testimony spoke for itself:

“Untold numbers were instantly killed because they were in the direct path of the planes. Those at and above the point of impact in Tower I endured unimaginable conditions as is evident by the number who chose to leap to their deaths. Others tried frantically to escape only to learn that every potential access to safety was closed to them. The stairways were gone and the elevators were gone. Unable to go down, the soon-to-be victims went up. Up to the roof, where they encountered locked doors. No one had bothered to tell them that roof top rescue was no longer an option. Their only escape, and chance a survival, would have been a roof top rescue. They waited for help that would never come--a quarter mile above ground level. These innocent souls stood at windows waving whatever they could to attract attention, hoping and praying that someone would reach them in time. Last calls were made, final messages were sent--too smoky, can’t breathe, should we break a window? What should we do? Where should we go?”

“In Tower II, similar events were occurring. The difference--Tower II had a critical 15-minute window of opportunity to evacuate--a missed opportunity to minimize the casualties. Instead, occupants were told to stay, to go back. Many, already in the process of leaving the building turned around, trusting the announcement that the building was secure. That decision would cost them their lives....Again, final messages went out: too smoky, can’t breathe, the ceiling is falling in, the stairwells are blocked , the stairwells are gone. Some of these soon-to-be victims were on phones with loved ones pleading for information and options. No communication from the Port Authority was forthcoming. Innocent victims, sitting in offices, waiting for instructions on what to do. All of them perished, many while still on the phone with loved ones. Those memories will haunt them forever.”

PRESS CONFERENCE

At the close of the hearing, Chairman Kean and Vice-Chairman Hamilton sat at a table and took questions from a gathered media. Of particular notice to this writer was the tenor and sharpness of the questions. Many of the queries dealt with how the Commission was going to respond to White House reluctance to allow Americans to view intelligence evidence which would potentially implicate government officials in having prior knowledge of the attacks. [Previous news reports via administration leaks confirm that the administration had forewarnings that Arabs were planning to use planes as weapons and fly them into American buildings, and that attack preparations had been made and were designed to inflict mass casualties.]

Commission member and former congressman Tim Roemer revealed on a C-Span Washington Journal broadcast on Monday that the Commission had started to take testimony under oath behind closed doors, but not at the public hearings, indicating that the Commission was interviewing key players--requiring sworn testimony as opposed to current public hearings involving individuals unconnected to the actual attacks.

Commission member and former Congressman Tim Roemer

Commission member and former Congressman Tim Roemer

Commission member Tim Roemer told TomFlocco.com that “9-11 insider trading is on our list of issues to be covered and we plan to deal with it.” This, when we asked whether the commission would investigate the billions in pre-attack profits of death via criminal insider trading in world-wide securities markets.

Kean also said the commission was facing a large number of government officials who are going to be interviewed behind closed doors.

We specifically asked Kean and Roemer whether President Bush’s lawyers would be sitting in on the testimony by those officials and whether all testimony would be under oath; but Vice-Chairman Hamilton declined to discuss that scenario “at this time,” adding however, that “no final judgments had been made” even though “some testimony was under oath.” Kean added that no one would be supervising the note-taking by the four commission representatives.

When we asked who would examine the PDB notes taken by the Commission members that would be stored at the White House, Hamilton shook his head, and thoughtfully answered, “I don’t think we’ll get into that right now.”

Interestingly, Kean and Hamilton also revealed that staff members have already started writing the narrative for the May, 2003 final commission report. Kean can be assured that administration officials do not want the September 11 attacks to become a presidential campaign issue--thus the necessity to quickly finish the report prior to the 2004 election.

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE HEARING

While Regenhard, Gabrielle and other witnesses were addressing the issues of skyscraper safety, there was much conversation among victim family members who were buzzing about the recent compromise agreement reached by the 10-member independent commission with the White House last week. But more complete information was not revealed until Thursday, after everyone had left town.

William Doyle, whose son died with his fellow Cantor-Fitzgerald employees in the implosion collapse of the World Trade Center, told a group of us that “virtually 100 % of the victim family members” with whom he has contact via his huge data base “do not believe the official administration 9/11 story,” feeling there was prior knowledge.

9/11 Citizens Watch Co-Founder Kyle Hence, independent 9/11 investigator Allen Duncan and Global Free Press researcher-reporter Nico Haupt were all on hand at the hearing, holding the corporate-controlled media’s feet to the investigative fire. Hence said that “NSA ‘minders’ have been allowed to sit in on interviews and testimony taken by Commission staff; and Chairman Kean has been unwilling or unable to refuse this potential intimidation of witnesses. And the Commission has also displayed a lack of investigative rigor in the public hearings to date...,” while adding that “key administration figures, Pentagon officials and elected representatives were given forewarnings to avoid using commercial aircraft on or around September 11, 2001. It is critical to discover who received or gave such warnings and what action was or was not taken regarding them.”

Former Georgia Senator and Commission member Max Cleland did not attend the hearing. Speculation by more than a few surrounded whether the Vietnam War hero was asked to stay home for remarking on CNN that “President Bush was scamming America” by denying public access to sensitive 9/11 intelligence documents in what amounts to a murder investigation. Cleland’s remarks were the subject of a worldwide call to action by the internet’s 9/11 Visibility Project. Some wondered if he was boycotting the hearing.

Victim family candidate with the most conflicts of interest on the 9/11 Commission: Executive Director Philip Zelikow. This according to several conversations with family members attending; and it became public when the Family Steering Committee called for Zelikow to resign from the Commission Thursday. 9/11 grief is turning to frustration and anger over obvious conflicts of interest within the Commission--some yet publicly unspoken.

Some wonder if the families will reach the end of the rope when Commissioner Jamie Gorelick shortly joins staffer Zelikow in reviewing and selecting which of George W.’s PDB documents are “plainly critical to the Commission’s investigation, including PDB articles involving threats to the U.S. homeland.” [i.e. the “prior-knowledge” evidence]
And no one seems to acknowledge key National Security Council meeting minutes/briefings and the July 5, 2001 Counter-terrorism Security Group meeting minutes and directives.

Former five-time Emmy Award-winning ABC investigative reporter Peter Lance attended Wednesday‘s hearing. Lance told us that his next book is entitled “Cover-up--14 Unanswered Questions About 9/11, Iraq and the War on Terror.”

The testimony became so tedious after Sally Regenhard and Monica Gabrielle concluded their dramatic presentations that only a smattering of reporters remained to the end. And 80 % of the victim families and the public left after lunch, passing up the entire afternoon of testimony by “experts” not involved in the events on the day of the attacks, but who detailed various methods for disaster response “so the tragedy of 9/11 will never happen again.”

Since the second hearing on May 22-23, 2003 in Washington, DC, virtually no government official who was directly involved in the actual decision-making responses, activities and events on the day of the attacks has testified publicly, or been subject to news media questioning--let alone interrogation by legitimate civil and federal prosecutors. This, after five hearings have been completed. The families know they are reaching the end of the line, as Chairman Kean is not planning to extend the life of the Commission.

Two family members we talked to said it is going to take something very dramatic--perhaps involving 3,000 victim families converging on specific congressional offices with world-wide cameras rolling--before Congress or the courts mandate a real murder investigation with real prosecutors instead of a commission-oriented “full and complete account of the ‘circumstances’ surrounding the attacks.”

WARREN COMMISSION--PART II ?

Mass capital murder requires accountability, justice and possible financial restitution, with no one--even government officials--immune from complete and thorough public scrutiny. Current commission revelations indicate that numerous investigative stones will be left unturned or half-probed and witness testimony is being kept secret and unpublicized. All this, along with colossal conflicts of interests inherent in what seems on the surface to be a very soft investigation that remains compliant to each White House request.

It will indeed be unfortunate, even a tragedy, if the urbanely affable and soft-spoken Chairman Tom Kean--who this writer has known and respected as a former governor for over 20 years--proceeds into the history books with his namesake Kean Commission essentially becoming a Part II version of the highly dubious and contentious Warren Commission--the Kennedy assassination cover-up.

Current public commission testimony has essentially deteriorated to “everyone but those actually involved on 9/11,” setting a poor example for the rest of the world, where obvious conflicts of interest are allowed to fester, and gross negligence or worse may remain unpunished--politically and/or legally.
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But there is still time to clean out the conflicts of interest, stop acceding to every White House lawyer’s whim, request Congress to extend the life of the Commission, get tough with a hard probe, and follow it up with recommendations for criminal referrals if the evidence warrants. It will take incredible courage; but American history, victim family members, and the God who many are trying to delete from our pledge of allegiance--will honor Kean forever if he can pull it off.