- An internal CIA report, naming individuals who may have
been responsible for intelligence failures leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks,
has been kept secret despite public outcries and congressional demands
to release the incriminating evidence. The delays began last July on orders
from CIA's acting director, John McLaughlin, and have continued since Porter
Goss took charge last September. Critics claim President George W. Bush
has personally directed Goss, a Republican partisan, to keep the names
from "prying eyes" in order to hide the truth exposing either
government incompetence or outright complicity.
-
- Ever since 9-11, the public has called for government
accountability, but the Bush administration has been trying to block truth-seeking
efforts at every corner. The lack of government cooperation began with
obstructing justice at ground zero by FEMA's quick removal of hard evidence
and continues now by keeping the CIA report secret.
-
- In between, critics have compiled a laundry list of government
cover-ups concerning 9-11, but answers have been slow in coming due to
a complacent media and lack of government cooperation. The public clamor
still remains hidden on cyberspace conspiracy web sites and in alternative
publications, but recently two federal lawsuits surfaced, one concerning
FBI whistleblower, Sybil Edmonds, and the other a RICO conspiracy action
filed against Bush and 56 other defendants.
-
- The Edmonds lawsuit has been dismissed by a partisan
federal judge appointed by Bush, and the RICO action is still in the pretrial
discovery stage.
-
- "We are in the process of serving all the defendants,
including President Bush, his father and many others. It's not going to
be easy; expect a long hard fight," said Phillip Berg, the attorney
who filed the federal action on behalf of William Rodriguez, a World Trade
Center maintenance worker who claims to have evidence showing government
complicity.
-
- Besides the two lawsuits, a citizens petition has also
been handed over to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer last November,
demanding criminal action be taken against Bush and his cronies for complicity
in 9-11.
-
- An official spokesman for the attorney general's office
said no action on the petition has been taken.
-
- And regarding the recent CIA internal report kept secret
from congressional leaders and the public, this week a CIA spokesman would
not comment about the status of the report or when it would be released.
-
- To date the names in the report remain unknown. They
were compiled by the CIA's inspector general, who began an independent
investigation in December 2002 after a joint 9-11 congressional task force
sought answers for obvious intelligence irregularities surrounding the
attacks.
-
- The purpose of the report was to get the bottom of the
intelligence breakdowns and to determine who should be held accountable
for mistakes made. To date no one has been publicly held accountable or
even reprimanded openly for obvious intelligence breakdowns.
-
- Further, the CIA has not provided a reason for its reluctance
to turn over the report, even after a letter was directly sent by top House
leaders on the Intelligence Committee to former director McLaughlin, demanding
accountability.
-
- The letter, sent last September, has not been made public
and has essentially been ignored by CIA officials.
-
- Last October, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence
Committee, John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va), personally asked Goss to turn
over names in the report, but his demand has also been ignored by the CIA.
-
- Members of Congress expressed concern over the CIA's
failure to cooperate, saying it was a "definite departure from normal
procedure." House and Senate members are expected to further prod
the CIA in turning over the sensitive report when the 109th Congress convenes.
-
- This time help is expected to come from an outspoken
critic, Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), who returns to the House after being
ousted two years ago.
-
- McKinney is one of the few elected officials who publicly
claimed the Bush administration had prior knowledge of the events leading
up to 9-11, saying the administration allowed the events to occur in order
to reap huge profits from the invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
-
- Political insiders claim McKinney, who was the first
black woman ever elected to Congress from Georgia in 1992, was then targeted
by the GOP for defeat in 2002 due to her anti-administration public expressions.
-
- McKinney recently won re-election and is expected to
fight hard for those involved in the 9-11 truth movement despite its unpopularity
on Capitol Hill.
-
- Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to
redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press -
645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003
-
- http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/cia_chiefs_quash.html
|
