Lee Hamilton denies Michael Mukasey's claim about 9/11
Lee Hamilton denies Michael Mukasey's claim about 9/11
"I am unfamiliar with the telephone call that Attorney General Mukasey cited in his appearance in San Francisco on March 27. The 9/11 Commission did not receive any information pertaining to its occurrence."
Glenn Greenwald
Apr. 08, 2008 | I just received the following statement from the Vice Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Rep. Lee Hamilton, in response to my inquiries last week (and numerous follow-up inquiries from readers here) about Attorney General Michael Mukasey's claims about the 9/11 attack and, specifically, about Mukasey's story that there was a pre-9/11 telephone call from an "Afghan safe house" into the U.S. that the Bush administration failed to intercept or investigate:
I am unfamiliar with the telephone call that Attorney General Mukasey cited in his appearance in San Francisco on March 27. The 9/11 Commission did not receive any information pertaining to its occurrence.
That's the statement in its entirety, and it's hard to imagine how it could be any clearer. Hamilton's statement is consistent with the statement of 9/11 Commission Executive Director Philip Zelikow, as well as the letter sent to Mukasey by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and two Subcommittee Chairs, none of whom have any idea what Mukasey was talking about.
In light of Hamilton's amazing comment, could journalists possibly now report on this story? One of two things is true about Mukasey's extraordinary claim about how and why the 9/11 attacks occurred. Either:
(1) The Bush administration concealed this obviously vital episode from the 9/11 Commission and from everyone else, until Mukasey tearfully trotted it out last week; or,
(2) Mukasey, the nation's highest law enforcement officer, made this story up in order to scare and manipulate Americans into believing that FISA and other surveillance safeguards caused the 9/11 attacks and therefore the Government should be given more unchecked spying powers.
Either way, isn't it rather self-evidently a huge story? Kudos to Hamilton, who originally refused to comment and obviously changed his mind as a result of the numerous civil though impassioned entreaties he received from readers here. If the Attorney General says that the 9/11 attacks occurred because of Episode X, and the 9/11 Vice Chair, the 9/11 Executive Director and the House Judiciary Committee Chairman all have never heard of any such episode, isn't it rather urgent that this be resolved?
* * * * *
I've sent a request to the Justice Department for a comment from the Attorney General on Hamilton's statement. I sent it to the Public Affairs Deputy Director who sent me the DOJ's incoherent response to my story last week. The email I sent today is here.
-- Glenn Greenwald
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They're all garbling it
Greenwald says some smart things, but they are all garbling it, him included. Does he want to get to the bottom of this or use it as a stick to beat Mukasey?
Hamilton is lying through his back teeth. This is in the Joint Inquiry report (in ungarbled form) and we know that Hamilton read that report. The calls were from/to Yemen, not Afghanistan. They are also mentioned in two cryptic passages in the 9/11 Commission report, on pages 87-88 and 222.
Because the WTC buildings fell at the speed of gravity
explosives were used
because the explosives/demolitions had to have been carefully placed . . .it was an inside job (who the perps are isn't important to opening a new investigation)
not acknowledging this fact in any article about the attacks of 9/11 instantly discredits it
someone say this better than I
:>)
(how will all of these well credentialed journalists explain missing what can be seen with the naked eye? How can they explain the bbc reporter reporting on wtc7 falling when it is standing behind her during the report)
run jesse run!