Relatives of some of the Sept. 11 victims

June 11, 2002 10:32 PM

Relatives of some of the Sept. 11 victims held a rally in Washington D.C. today, seeking the creation of an independent commission to investigate the terrorist attacks. Though supported by some lawmakers, the commission is opposed by President Bush. I thought the rally received surprisingly little attention from the media, having been overshadowed by the 'dirty bomber' story. The two questions on my mind are, would an independent commission really jeopardize national security as some charge? And, more cynically, was the timing of yesterday's announcement intended to obscure today's rally?
posted by homunculus (9 comments total)

No, it was intended to coincide with Bush's push for a Department of Homeland Security.
posted by rschram at 1:01 AM on June 12, 2002

"Until now, it has been a largely Democratic chorus calling for the establishment of a blue-ribbon panel, much like the commissions that dissected the attack on Pearl Harbor, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the explosion of TWA Flight 800."

[snarkasm] and we all know how thoroughly those investigations cleared up any controversy. [/snarkasm]

Seriously, why are they asking the GOVERNMENT to investigate if they don't trust the GOVERNMENT to investigate. Independent MY BUTT.
posted by planetkyoto at 1:18 AM on June 12, 2002

Do we really want to live like this? Why must our enemies be predefined for us? What say in it do we have, now that "we are the target" of these predefined enemies? Why do we *just think* that politicians care more for us than their careers and the power they can exact? How about, we make up our own minds, like the Trade Center Widows, and say enough is enough? America's prominence and imperialistic control over the world isn't as important as the those we love and are by virtue of our deep love for one another, impermanent. We find fear and seek security in uncertain times. But the only certainty, regardless of slant, is that we are all humans that succumb to the most uncomfortable facts that nature is what nature is.

Fuck that shit too, that the policies of the pro corporate US government and down and out greed lo these many years, hasn't had everything to do with the pickle the world's in now.
posted by crasspastor at 2:26 AM on June 12, 2002

here here crasspastor.


i've been skeptical of this news from the beginning - so far it looks like our billions of dollar war effort and intelligence efforts have captured a ragtag band of "terrorists" and a couple disaffected punks from the US. It seems like the "terror" is being generated by this administration and their lackeys in the media jumping all over well timed releases of info like capture this screwball from chicago without real questions into how much of a threat he actually was...

It sounds like british security officials are skeptical as well.

I think we are starting see an issue for this falls campaigns... agree?
posted by specialk420 at 7:42 AM on June 12, 2002

Great post, crasspastor.

As for I thought the rally received surprisingly little attention from the media, having been overshadowed by the 'dirty bomber' story., yeah, there seems to be a lot of those funny media story-trump coincidences these days. Funny, that.
posted by holycola at 8:11 AM on June 12, 2002

crasspastor: America's prominence and imperialistic control over the world isn't as important as the those we love

I agree with you (and Buchanan!) to a point, and I think changing much of our foreign policy would save us a lot of unnecessary pain in the long term. But in the short term, there is a real threat that we do need to worry about and confront. If the Sept. 11 attacks were revenge for Clinton's cruise missile attack on bin Laden's camps, Al Qaeda will undoubtedly seek revenge for Afghanistan, and some experts insist that Al Qaeda's intentions and capabilities are undiminished. But, back to my two questions, investigating our intelligence failures in the most efficient way possible (which may require an independent commision) and not spinning events for political gain (which may have happened Monday and certainly happened last week) are both necessary towards that aim.
posted by homunculus at 4:47 PM on June 12, 2002

Can anyone point to a good website that collects all the known information against Al Qaeda as the perpetrators of the crime? It seems there is scant actual evidence that has been leaked to the public (presumably for National Security reasons), however I would really like to know more.

For example, have all the men who hijkacked the plane been accounted for? Do we know they were on the plane because of their flight register, their tickets, etc, or do we have independent confirmation from other sources that those men are indeed the ones whose names were on the tickets. Is there video footage of all of the hijackers as they entered the airports? Was Atta's passport recovered?

It's such a massive case, the biggest mass-murder in history as far as I know, and it would be great to get the cold, hard, facts about exactly what happened from all angles. So, again, does anyone know of a site or article which collects all that is known? Thanks!
posted by cell divide at 4:54 PM on June 12, 2002

A Closer Look
posted by homunculus at 8:57 PM on June 12, 2002

Oops, that link wasn't meant as an answer to your request, cell divide. It's just a good op-ed piece about the issues in this post.
posted by homunculus at 9:16 PM on June 12, 2002