Seven CIA Veterans Challenge 9/11 Commission Re****t
By Alan Miller
Official Account of 9/11 a "Joke" and a "Cover-up"
September 23, 2007 - Seven CIA veterans have severely criticized the
official account of 9/11 and have called for a new investigation. "I
think at simplest terms, there's a cover-up. The 9/11 Re****t is a
joke," said Raymond McGovern, 27-year veteran of the CIA, who chaired
National Intelligence Estimates during the seventies. "There are a
whole bunch of unanswered questions. And the reason they're unanswered
is because this administration will not answer the questions," he
said. McGovern, who is also the founder of VIPS (Veteran Intelligence
Professionals for Sanity), is one of many signers of a petition to
reinvestigate 9/11.[1]
Raymond McGovern
During his 27-year CIA career, McGovern personally delivered
intelligence briefings to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W.
Bush, their Vice Presidents, Secretaries of State, the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, and many other senior government officials. Upon retirement in
1990, McGovern was awarded the CIA's Intelligence Commendation
Medallion and received a letter of appreciation from then President
George H. W. Bush. However, McGovern returned the award[2] in 2006 in
protest of the current George W. Bush Administration's advocacy and
use of torture.
In his blurb for 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out,"
edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott, McGovern wrote[3]:
"It has long been clear that the Bush-Cheney administration cynically
exploited the attacks of 9/11 to promote its imperial designs. But the
present volume confronts us with evidence for an even more disturbing
conclusion: that the 9/11 attacks were themselves orchestrated by this
administration precisely so they could be thus exploited. If this is
true, it is not merely the case, as the Downing Street memos show,
that the stated reason for attacking Iraq was a lie. It is also the
case that the whole "war on terror" was based on a prior deception.
This book hence confronts the American people---indeed the people of
the world as a whole---with an issue second to none in im****tance and
urgency. I give this book, which in no way can be dismissed as the
ravings of 'paranoid conspiracy theorists,' my highest possible
recommendation."
William Christison, a 29-year CIA veteran, former National
Intelligence Officer (NIO) and former Director of the CIA's Office of
Regional and Political Analysis also describes the 9/11 Commission
Re****t as a "joke" and offers even more outspoken criticism. In a 2006
audio interview[4] he said, "We very seriously need an entirely new
very high level and truly independent investigation of the events of
9/11. I think you almost have to look at the 9/11 Commission Re****t as
a joke and not a serious piece of analysis at all."
William Christison
Earlier this year, in an endorsement of David Ray Griffin's book,
Debunking 9/11 Debunking, Christison wrote[5], "[There's] a strong
body of evidence showing the official U.S. Government story of what
happened on September 11, 2001 to be almost certainly a monstrous
series of lies." And in an online essay[6] in late 2006, he wrote, "I
now think there is persuasive evidence that the events of September
did not unfold as the Bush administration and the 9/11 Commission
would have us believe. ... An airliner almost certainly did not hit The
Pentagon. ... The North and South Towers of the World Trade Center
almost certainly did not collapse and fall to earth because hijacked
aircraft hit them."
Prior to his retirement from the CIA in 1979, Christison served as
Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political Analysis,
overseeing 200 analysts who collected intelligence and provided
analysis on all regions and every country in the world. Prior to that,
he served as one of only a handful of NIO's in the intelligence
community. NIO's are responsible for the intelligence community
efforts in a particular area and are the principal advisors to the
Director of Central Intelligence. Christison was NIO for Southeast
Asia, South Asia, and Africa.
Melvin Goodman, PhD, is another former senior CIA official who calls
the 9/11 Commission Re****t a "coverup" and who signed the petition to
reinvestigate 9/11.[7] Goodman was the Division Chief of the CIA's
Office of Soviet Affairs and served as Senior Analyst from 1966 -
1990. He also served as Professor of International Security at the
National War College from 1986 - 2004.
Melvin Goodman, PhD
In testimony before a 2005 Congressional briefing on the 9/11
Commission Re****t[8], Goodman said, "I want to talk about the [9/11]
Commission itself, about the flawed process of the Commission and
finally about the conflict of interest within the Commission that is
extremely im****tant to understand the failure of the Commission. ... The
final re****t is ultimately a coverup. I don't know how else to
describe it." Goodman is currently Senior Fellow at the Center for
International Policy and Adjunct Professor of Government at Johns
Hopkins University.
Robert Baer is another well known CIA veteran who has questioned the
official account of 9/11. A 21-year CIA veteran and specialist in the
Middle East, Baer was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal upon his
retirement in 1997. After retirement, he wrote two best-selling non-
fiction books about the CIA, See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil,
the former of which was the basis for the Academy Award-winning movie
Syriana, starring George Clooney. Baer was also the writer and on-
camera commentator for the Emmy Award-nominated do***entary Cult of
the Suicide Bomber.
Robert Baer
Baer has repeatedly questioned whether al-Qaida could have
accomplished 9/11 alone. The 9/11 Commission Re****t categorically
found al-Qaida to be entirely responsible for 9/11, stating,
"Similarly, we have seen no evidence that any foreign government -- or
government official -- supplied any funding." However, this 9/11
Commission finding directly contradicts the earlier finding of the
Joint House-Senate Select Intelligence Committee's 2002 Re****t[9] (p.
415) of "sources of foreign sup****t for some of the September 11
hijackers."
In a 2002 essay[10] for The Guardian, Baer wrote, "Did bin Laden act
alone, through his own al-Qaida network, in launching the attacks?
About that I'm far more certain and emphatic: no." In subsequent
interviews, Baer has suggested that sup****t for the attacks could have
come from Saudi Arabia and Iran.
In 2006, during an interview by Thom Hartmann[11], Baer, after
commenting on the financial profits being made from 9/11, was asked:
"What about political profit? There are those who suggest that ...
someone in that chain of command ... had pretty good knowledge that
9/11 was going to happen -- and really didn't do much to stop it -- or
even obstructed efforts to stop it because they thought it would lend
legitimacy to Bush's ... failing presidency." Baer replied:
"Absolutely." Hartmann then asked, "So you are personally of the
opinion ... that there was an aspect of 'inside job' to 9/11 within
the U.S. government?" To which Baer replied, "There is that
possibility, the evidence points at it." When Hartmann continued, "And
why is it not being investigated?" Baer replied, "Why isn't the WMD
story being investigated? Why hasn't anybody been held accountable for
9/11? We held people accountable after Pearl Harbor. Why has there
been no change in command? Why have there been no political
repercussions? Why has there been no -- any sort of exposure on this?
It really makes you wonder."
In his blurb for the revised and updated edition of David Ray
Griffin's Debunking 9/11 Debunking, Baer wrote[12]: "Until we get a
complete, honest, transparent investigation ..., we will never know what
happened on 9/11."
"I am forced to conclude that 9/11 was at a minimum allowed to happen
as a pretext for war," wrote well-known intelligence analyst Robert
David Steele in 2006 in a review of the book, 9/11 Synthetic Terror by
Webster Tarpley[13]. Steele is the author of numerous books on the
intelligence services and is currently the CEO of OSS.net, a proponent
of Open Source Intelligence. Steele has 25 years of combined service
in the CIA and the U.S. Marine Corps. He also served as the second
ranking civilian (GS-14) in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence from 1988 -
1992 and was a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Marine Corps
University. Steele continued, "I have to tell anyone who cares to read
this: I believe it. I believe it enough to want a full investigation
that p***** the smell test of the 9/11 families as well as objective
outside observers."
Robert David Steele
In a subsequent interview on the Alex Jones Show[14], Steele said,
"The U.S. government did not properly investigate this [9/11] and
there are more rocks to be turned over," and added, "I'm absolutely
certain that WTC 7 was brought down by controlled demolition and that,
as far as I'm concerned, means that this case has not been properly
investigated. There's no way that building could have come down
without controlled demolition."
In late 2004, a group of 25 intelligence service and law enforcement
veterans sent a joint letter to Congress[15] expressing their concerns
about "serious shortcomings," "omissions," and "major flaws" in the
9/11 Commission Re****t and offering their services for a new
investigation. Their letter was apparently entirely ignored. Among the
signers were four CIA veterans; Raymond McGovern and Melvin Goodman
(both mentioned above) and Lynne Larkin and David MacMichael.
Lynne Larkin was a CIA Operations Officer who served in several CIA
foreign stations before being assigned to the CIA's Counter-
Intelligence Center. There, she co-chaired a multi-agency task force,
which, among other functions, provided direction to other federal
agencies for coordinating intelligence efforts among the many
intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Lynne Larkin
David MacMichael, PhD, is a former Senior Estimates Officer at the CIA
with special responsibility for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the
CIA's National Intelligence Council. Prior to joining the CIA, he
served as a U.S. Marine Corps officer for ten years and for four years
as a counter-insurgency advisor to the government.
David MacMichael
Their letter read:
"[W]e the undersigned wish to bring to the attention of the Congress
and the people of the United States what we believe are serious
shortcomings in the re****t and its recommendations. ...
Omission is one of the major flaws in the Commission's re****t. We are
aware of significant issues and cases that were duly re****ted to the
commission by those of us with direct knowledge, but somehow escaped
attention. ...
The omission of such serious and applicable issues and information by
itself renders the re****t flawed, and casts doubt on the validity of
many of its recommendations. ...
The Commission, with its incomplete re****t of "facts and
cir***stances", intentional avoidance of assigning accountability, and
disregard for the knowledge, expertise and experience of those who
actually do the job, has now set about pressuring our Congress and our
nation to hastily implement all its recommendations. ...
We the undersigned, who have worked within various government agencies
(FBI, CIA, FAA, DIA, Customs) responsible for national security and
public safety, call upon you in Congress to include the voices of
those with first-hand knowledge and expertise in the im****tant issues
at hand. We stand ready to do our part."
And they and thousands of dedicated, loyal, and experienced military
officers, intelligence service and law enforcement veterans, and
government officials still stand ready to provide assistance for a
thorough, impartial, and honest investigation into the terrible acts
of 9/11.
Statements questioning the official account of 9/11 and calls for a
new investigation by hundreds of credible individuals can be found at
http://PatriotsQuestion911.com
[1] Petition to Reinvestigate 9/11. Oct. 26, 2004
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20041026093059633
[2] I Do Not Wish to be Associated with Torture by Ray McGovern March
2, 2006 http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/58/18096
[3] Ray McGovern's blurb for 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals
Speak Out," edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott. March,
2007
http://www.interlinkbooks.com/product_info.php?products_id=1545&osCsid=5a22b94fffd724962a118f454c5d7194
[4] William Christison interviewed by George Kenney on Electric
Politics. Sept. 29, 2006
http://www.electricpolitics.com/podcast/2006/09/the_case_for_intellectual_inte.html
[5] William Christison's blurb for David Ray Griffin's book, Debunking
9/11 Debunking March 2007
http://www.amazon.com/Debunking-11-Mechanics-Defenders-Conspiracy/dp/product-description/156656686X
[6] Stop Belittling the Theories About September 11 by William
Christison Aug. 16, 2006
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug06/Christison14.htm
[7] Petition to Reinvestigate 9/11. Oct. 26, 2004
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20041026093059633
[8] The 911 Commission Re****t - One Year Later, a Congressional
Briefing July 22, 2005
http://www.vt911.org/McKinneyRe****t20050722transcript.pdf
[9] Congressional Re****ts: Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community
Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11,
2001 December, 2002 http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/cre****ts/911.html
[10] See No Evil (part 2) by Robert Baer in The Guardian January 12,
2002 http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,631434,00.html
[11] Robert Baer interviewed on The Thom Hartmann Show June 9, 2006
http://www.911blogger.com/2006/06/former-cia-member-robert-baer-comments.html
[12] Robert Baer's blurb for the revised and updated edition of David
Ray Griffin's Debunking 9/11 Debunking March 2007
http://www.amazon.com/Debunking-11-Mechanics-Defenders-Conspiracy/dp/product-description/156656686X
[13] Robert David Steele's review of the book, 9/11 Synthetic Terror
by Webster Tarpley Oct. 7, 2006 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0930852370
[14] Robet David Steele interviewed on The Alex Jones Show Oct. 27,
2006 http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2006/271006googlecia.htm
[15] Letter to Congress signed by 25 intelligence service and law
enforcement Sept. 13, 2004
http://www.pogo.org/m/hsp/hsp-911commission-040913.pdf
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