Guest Blogged by Coleen Rowley, FBI whistleblower, TIME’s 2002 ‘Person of the Year’
By late January/early February, 2003, I and other Americans were witnessing the Bush Administration’s final and intense push to launch their pre-emptive war on Iraq, based largely on (what are now well known as) two completely false pretexts: Iraq’s possession of WMD and its connections to Al Qaeda terrorists. My knowledge that Iraq’s WMD was being exaggerated was merely what anyone could gain from close reading of public sources: the McClatchy news articles by Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel (who later won Pulitzers for their reporting) as well as a few buried articles in the Washington Post and Newsweek debunking the “evidence” being educed by Bush-Cheney-Powell-Rice-Rumsfeld et al.
Due to the Minneapolis FBI’s pre-9/11 investigation of an Al Qaeda operative, however, I was in a better position to know more than J.Q. Average Citizen in regard to the non-existence of ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
I felt it my responsibility to speak out, and so I did — or tried to — to my bosses at the FBI, and to the media, including CBS’ 60 Minutes…
Deja Vu All Over Again
The Administration knew how important it was to cleverly fabricate this connection and, by February 2003, they had succeeded in misleading 76 percent of Americans to believe Saddam Hussein provided assistance to al-Qaeda. Cheney would lie about 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta meeting with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague, while the FBI Director would look down at his shoes, knowing the FBI had documentary proof that Atta was in the U.S. at the time (and not meeting Iraqi agents in Prague). I also knew the FBI Director was under enormous pressure to keep his mouth shut and go along with whatever the Administration wanted, in order to keep them from splitting the FBI in half. In addition to its pre-9/11 lapses, the FBI’s round-up of a thousand immigrants after 9/11, which they had touted for PR purposes, had turned out not to be terrorists while actions that did make sense: i.e. requests to interview terrorist suspects already in custody about second wave plots and threats, were declined.
Less than 18 months before, I’d witnessed one of the worst consequences; the 9/11 attacks unfolded after (what we were to learn was) a multitude of lapses, including Minneapolis agents’ legitimate concerns being dismissed by FBI Headquarters. Less than 9 months before, FBI Director Robert Mueller had advised me to contact him directly if I ever had concerns of any similar problem. And just 2 months prior, I had been featured as one of Time Magazine’s “Persons of the Year” for being a “whistleblower” whose disclosures led to investigation and numerous embarrassing findings that 9/11 might have been prevented.
The incompetence and dissembling about all the prior failures and mistakes had first shocked but then desensitized me. But the false info being sold to the American public that the 9/11 attacks were connected to Iraq was a whopper with potentially grave consequences.
The Media Go to War
Colin Powell’s presentation at the U.N., seemed to mark the point where the mainstream media caught “war fever” and swung solidly behind Bush’s plans. What few knew was that, in addition to Powell’s PR home-run, Rumsfeld’s assistant Victoria Clarke had leaked her 300 page plan of “Embedding the Media in Iraq” to U.S. media heads. The Pentagon Pundit Program was also established to insert retired pro-war military officers as talking heads on the TV News programs.
After some initial flurry, the word came back from the magazine heads that Iraq was essentially a done deal and they had no interest. It was a couple weeks after my op-ed was turned down that I remembered the FBI Director’s stated willingness to accept critical information from me about problems and dangers.
So on February 26, 2003, I took a deep breath and sent an e-mail to FBI Director Robert Mueller. It contained all the points I could think of that the FBI Director ought to be warning the President about — in a nutshell, how wrong and counterproductive the launching of war on Iraq would be to our efforts to reduce terrorism.
A week passed without any response from the FBI Director. I was starting to panic as, according to news reports, that first week of March, American troops were already in place, just waiting for orders from Bush to commence the attack. I could not watch another calamity unfold without trying, so at that point I called up reporters at two newspapers: the New York Times and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Philip Shenon of the NY Times and Greg Gordon at the Minneapolis Star Tribune (who now writes for McClatchy) were interested and both papers subsequently published front page stories about my warning to the FBI Director on March 6, 2003.
Although I had technically broken FBI policy by not seeking FBI “pre-publication review” and approval for sharing my letter with news outlets, nothing in my letter was classified or secret by law. It certainly was the kind of thing more suitable for a letter of resignation and way over my lowly (GS 14) pay grade but no one at the higher ranks was doing anything! They all seemed muzzled.
The morning the articles were published, the FBI’s “Office of Professional Responsibility” (internal discipline unit) as well as Headquarters Legal Counsel and Press Office quickly engaged with my field office boss (the “Special Agent in Charge”) to let me know I’d be facing disciplinary action for the unapproved media contact and publication. The reason I had not sought “pre-publication review” was due to time sensitivity. I was aware of the FBI using its “pre-publication review” policy to delay releasing other agents’ writings for years, not due to legal reasons (secrecy of the info) but just as a way of controlling employees’ speech, when it could prove embarrassing to the FBI. (In all fairness this rarely happened, as no employees in their right mind would go through the pre-publication rigmarole without some kind of monetary profit incentive.)
All of my colleagues in the Minneapolis FBI office were shocked at the news articles on March 6, 2003, at what they thought was a totally crazy action on my part. Given the war fever and sense of futility, even the few who were against the Iraq War disapproved of my attempt to engage the media. Some agents joined pundits in publicly denouncing me. Those in my office said they could no longer trust me and called on my boss to relieve me of my division legal counsel duties. (Only one, however, had the integrity to confront me directly and question me on the substantive facts and issues; the lack of justification for launching the new war on a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.)
Enter CBS’ 60 Minutes
Amongst the calls from the media that ensued from my warnings in the NY Times and Minneapolis Star Tribune on March 6, 2003 was a request for an exclusive interview from the celebrated CBS’s 60 Minutes investigative news program. One of correspondent Scott Pelley’s producers at the time had worked on prior news reports exposing the Moussaoui investigation and I had previously met him a couple times; the first occasion was in Senator Grassley’s office as I had waited to testify on June 6, 2002 to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Pelley and his producer flew in to the Twin Cities to interview me the next day. By that time, the FBI had reviewed my e-mail letter to Mueller (which had resulted in the articles) and they knew there was nothing in it that was secret or legally protected. The FBI, however, had initiated a potential disciplinary action against me for failure to seek “pre-publication review”.
At that point, I therefore asked for the FBI’s approval to accommodate the 60 Minutes request. After taking an additional day to respond, the FBI ended up saying they couldn’t stop me from repeating the points in my letter but also basically read me the ‘riot act’ in terms of warning me not to do it. Before that happened, Pelley and his producer already tried to convince me to do the interview without worrying about FBI approval.
On the morning of March 7th, while their cameras were being set up, and I was trading phone calls with my boss and FBI Headquarters, Pelley tried to convince me to just go ahead. It was then that he divulged how Colin Powell’s speech had been the thing that convinced him of the need for this new war on Iraq. He said he’d been very skeptical prior to hearing Powell but that Powell was persuasive and seemed to have swayed the bulk of the media. But, Pelley continued, that if there were solid arguments and information that weighed against precipitously launching this new war, the people of the country needed to hear it.
The FBI hadn’t responded to my request by 11 a.m. and so I told the 60 Minutes crew I couldn’t do the interview. Their camera team packed their equipment up and put our living room furniture back in place. It was almost noon and Pelley and his producer had given up and left when the FBI finally provided their weird response: half approval and half warning. Pelley had already returned to the airport, but when I called and said I could do the interview, they turned around and called their camera crew to come back and set up again. I had a prior commitment to give a two hour talk on “legal and law enforcement ethics” at a Twin Cities law school that afternoon but when I got home around 4 pm, 60 Minutes started filming the interview.
It was an interview from hell, quickly turning into an excruciatingly difficult and painful affair for everyone involved. Pelley asked the same or similar questions over and over, I suppose in an effort to get better or stronger responses.
I was trying to be careful and not stray from the FBI’s “permission” which was limited to what I’d already said in the letter to Mueller. Canister after canister of film was loaded, used and wasted, capturing the repeated questioning which continued almost until midnight. There were only a few short breaks, making for almost eight hours worth of (thoroughly repetitive) interview tape! By the end, judging from their faces going out the door, it was obvious that most if not all of the tape was destined for the cutting room floor.
Nothing from the interview aired that Sunday, March 9th. Pelley’s producer may have even been fired due to how much time and effort was wasted in the hours and hours of interview they conducted with me, especially since it occurred on a Friday night, less than 48 hours before Sunday night show time.
I never heard from anyone at 60 Minutes ever again.
The Cost of Speaking Up
Unsurprisingly, my career at the FBI was destroyed as a result of my speaking out against the war. It’s a much longer story but the group of agents with the worst case of ‘war fever’ pressured my boss to make me step down from the GS 14 legal position I’d had for 13 years. In a way they were right, as the attorney-client legal representation aspect of my division legal counsel position required the trust of all the employees. I made a quick decision that the better part of valor would be to give them their pound of flesh. My stepping down, along with volunteering for the various odd shifts, out of town and holiday assignments, all night surveillances, and odd jobs no one wanted like “informant coordinator”, got me through the next 22 months to retirement eligibility, albeit with a pension accordingly reduced for having given up one GS-level.
Over six years later, I find it’s still painful to remember and recount — like throwing oneself at a train would be. I’ve blocked a lot of it out. In all fairness, there were probably many reasons that nothing from the canisters and canisters of film produced from that painful interview ever aired on 60 Minutes that war-fevered week (which was about 10 days before Bush ordered the attacks to begin). But there are also lots of unanswered questions.
The significant investment of time and resources Pelley ended up wasting on my warnings about launching war on Iraq less than 48 hours from their Sunday night show time was itself evidence of the bit of open-mindedness the show’s producers obviously retained even at that late date.
It would be interesting, if the tapes of the interview still exist somewhere at 60 Minutes, to listen to them now. Maybe I just didn’t sound authoritative enough. A guy like Cheney not only had all the power but he always spoke in the most authoritative way, as if he knew everything for sure. How much was due to the fact I was a GS-14 “nobody” on a straight path to GS-13 “nobody”? But credibility isn’t exactly the same thing as power.
I had been proven correct about the mistakes leading to 9/11 and the fact that 9/11 might have been prevented. My concerns about invading Iraq would all prove pretty much correct too (unfortunately). It’s impossible to overstate how bad and how powerful the deception by those in control of the government could be. Certainly much of what I observed and disclosed was available for many others to see and say but almost nobody did. I probably wouldn’t have gone to these lengths either, had I not witnessed and suffered through what happened on 9/11 and reproached myself for not having done more, even if it meant acting above my pay grade.
Did the effort at “perception management” by those in power simply trump reality and substance?
The Iraq War lead-up presented an unusual situation because most of the mainstream media was duped, self-censoring or actively helping the Bush Administration sell the deception. The media had most of the facts or access to most of the facts themselves. But only a small segment, a really small segment of reporters were reporting the facts.
Bill Moyers has since interviewed a number of them, including the late Tim Russert, in a program called “Buying the War”. The stories by the small handful of news reporters who got it right were either buried or did not get wide circulation. Only a few people with credibility and the ability to get a bit of air time and/or get an op-ed published were speaking out: Scott Ritter, Joe Wilson, Jimmy Carter. So it was a classic “Emperor Has No Clothes” situation, but there was just no little boy who could yell loud enough. The 9/11 lapses had allowed Bush to wield more power over his entourage, including the FBI, CIA and other government agencies so they too were forced to applaud their naked emperor’s march.
What’s worse is that the trends towards ‘perception’ mattering more than substance; personal power and ‘info-tainment potential’ over accuracy; and ‘selling’ over objective insights did not end with Bush (and Karl Rove’s) departure. Powerful neo-con columnists like William Kristol at the NY Times and Charles Krauthammer at the Washington Post never looked back and still frame most of the leading national news coverage despite having been wrong on everything. Even Paul Wolfowitz is regularly published. In other words, they are still selling their invisible garments.
I think it would be good to ask, if nothing else, for 60 Minutes to keep the tapes, if they still have them, to contribute to efforts by historians who will try, at some future point, to figure out how such a naked emperor was able to continue despite some of us who tried to yell.
===
Coleen Rowley worked as an FBI Special Agent and legal counsel for more than 20 years until retiring in 2004. Following 9/11, after blowing the whistle on failures at the FBI which led up to the attacks, she testified to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about endemic problems facing the both the agency and the intelligence community. In 2002 she was one of three whistleblowers named TIME magazine’s “Persons of the Year.”
I called in tonight but wasn’t lucky enough to get to talk to you, Ms Rowley.
First of all I was so excited when you ran for congress and so sorry when your opponent was elected. You would have been outstanding in congress.
Your blog entry above contains such great insight. It is an ‘oral’ history in the very best sense of the phrase.
The people who did speak with you on the show have a similar frame of mind as I do. I believe that Bush/Cheney Let It Happen On Purpose and in my darkest moments I tend toward Made It Happen On Purpose.
As one caller mentioned the now infamous Project for a New American Century with it’s mention of the need for a new Pearl Harbor to carry out the full ambitious extent of the vision.
But I’m sure you get far too much of that kind of talk. Your own personal sacrifice for telling the truth is so much more important to recognize.
Do you foresee another run for office? I hope so and I hope for success. But whatever you do next, where ever your path leads, Thank You, Good Luck!
Dave
Hey Dave in Iowa!
As I said, there’s no doubt about the PNAC, “Unitary Executive”, expanding privatization, securing sources of oil and other agendas that the Bush-Cheney Administration had in mind when they came to power. And as Naomi Klein has explained in her “shock doctrine”, they needed an actual disaster or some other shocking event (i.e. Pearl Harbor) to serve as a catalyst but it’s also true that, if 9-11 had not happened, they could and probably would have used other events as their casus belli. It’s amazing when you think about it they they got 76% of the American people to believe that Iraq had something to do with the 9-11 attacks when that was the exact opposite (Osama Bin Laden and Saddam were enemies).
Unfortunately, unless I win the lottery or the country enacts campaign finance reform, I can’t run again. The big money special interest-legalized corruption is at the root of most of our problems in the United States. A congressional seat goes for a minimum of a couple million dollars. A representative who has loyally and fully served corporate interests as well as our district’s congressman (John Kline), a favorite of big pharma, big oil, and the military industrial contractors would be able to snap his fingers and get a lot more than that–perhaps as much as $3 or $4 million if he needed to. The only candidate having a chance of defeating such a moneyed congressman would be a self-funding multi-millionaire.
Thank you for your courage, Ms. Rowley. I think it’s fair to say, though, that to blame the event of 911 on “Islamic extremists” is another case of the “naked emperor”, because the mammoth amount of data, from science, and hundreds of witnesses to the numerous explosions, the less than 10 seconds collapses of all thre (WTCs 1, 2, and 7), regarding 911 and the nano-thermite in the multiple inches, layers of dust all around NYC, besides scores of other substantial pieces of evidence (at least 40) contrary to the official government story, makes plain the naked truth, and all else, the crimes against humanity perpetuated by Bush, Cheney, and the rest, all based on that event. Incidentally nano-thermite could only be accessed through the Pentagon. These facts have all been proven. This is not speculation. Over 700 architects and structural engineers have signed on, declaring the absurdity of the government story. Add to that numerous government intelligence officials, and firefighters, and many many more significant observers, with relevant credentials to assess the circumstances. Yes, we now have to think the unthinkable. With any objective, honest observation, all these things cannot be denied.
Ms. Rowley: Thank you for being a true American who cares. “A voice crying in the wilderness” would be the correct definition of your attempts. Surely, it must have been agonizing.
Credit for cleverness should not go to the Bush/Cheney cronies of war. My belief is they simply took a page from Nazi propaganda methods. You were victimized by this propaganda method. The following quote demonstrates the Bush/Cheney orchestration for war:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
–Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister
The sad thing is I see the exact same crap happening again now with Iran; only this time all the Colleen Rowleys have been weeded out, and the media and even alternative media are following the bullshit in lockstep. How is it after 8 years of Bush, the people believe ANYTHING coming out of Washington? The entire Iran election debacle reeks of a CIA op, starting with Obama’s false rhetoric of a new ‘openness’ towards Iran — while refusing to return Ahmandijehad’s phone calls. Who’s the real bad guy here?
Indeed, what was now clearly the Neocon plan of putting forward Obama as an agent of ‘change’ while really being exactly the opposite was pure brilliance, and may well be insurmountable. The world fell for it hook, line and stinker. At least McCain would have had LOTS of opposition both in Congress and the world. But with no significant opposition and even the Air America hosts and many liberal blogs (inexplicably) still supporting Obama, what “hope” do any of us have?
A goddamn tactical masterstroke.
Ms. Rowley, I, too, applaud your courage. But Blubonnet is absolutely right. The science is now clear and indisputable on 9-11. AE911Truth founder Richard Gage (http://www.ae911truth.org) hits DC in July to try to meet with as many reps as possible. Blowing away the 9/11 bullshit may be the only way to expose the whole phony war on terror and force reform (and stop Obama’s escalation of the wars.) Let’s hope there’s one exceedingly ambitious politician out there seeking to be Prez in 2012 who will seize on this gravy-train issue and ride it into the White House. Someone like former senator Chuck Hagel, a well-respected moderate who knows the political game and all about e-voting issues…
Too bad but I think Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister, never got to hear (his contemporary) Malvina Reynolds’ song, “God Bless the Grass“. It’s one of my favorites:
God bless the grass that grows thru the crack.
They roll the concrete over it to try and keep it back.
The concrete gets tired of what it has to do,
It breaks and it buckles and the grass grows thru,
And God bless the grass.
God bless the truth that fights toward the sun,
They roll the lies over it and think that it is done.
It moves through the ground and reaches for the air,
And after a while it is growing everywhere,
And God bless the grass.
God bless the grass that grows through cement.
It’s green and it’s tender and it’s easily bent.
But after a while it lifts up its head,
For the grass is living and the stone is dead,
And God bless the grass.
God bless the grass that’s gentle and low,
Its roots they are deep and its will is to grow.
And God bless the truth, the friend of the poor,
And the wild grass growing at the poor man’s door,
And God bless the grass.
And God bless you, Coleen Rowley.
Reality has become a nightmare that I cannot wake up from, orthogonal to what the news media and our national leaders seem to be about. Thank you for your courage. Keep complaining about the emperor’s nakedness
There was no warning that would have prevented 9/11 or the Iraq colonial occupation – the planners would have invented other scenarios and jammed them down the throats of the media to reach the population. The MSM have never questioned Building 7 – or the eyewitnesses at the Pentagon that never saw a plane enter and never found evidence of a plane or passengers in their space but did see evidence of explosions.
Half of NYC disbelieved the government story of 9-11-01, and that was a few years ago. Awareness has only grown since then. I wonder how they(MSM/government) are going to keep the naked emperor, and his imaginary clothes still marching in front of the parade? Sooner or later the entire population is going to have to taken a better look a the nakedness, slap themselves on the forehead, and it won’t be because they wished they’d had a V-8. I’m really wondering how it’s all going to come down. How can we not? That which is so obvious, without being in psychotic denial, the duping of the public, and the most ghastly unthinkable truth, that not thinking seems to be the public reaction, til you wake up,, that event which is the cornerstone of all the aggressive foreign policy, making dirty billionaires, yet more billions. It’s a pimple waiting to pop. The facts are in neon lights.
Coleen,
Sorry you were not successful in your run for office. You are exactly the kind of person this nation needs to lead it back from the abyss we stand before.
When Congress refuses to support a public health care option desired by 76% of the people, how long will it take before the people start seeing these large campaign contributions as the thinly disguised bribes they are and refuses to vote for any candidate who accepts them? Sounds like a pipe dream but the Internet may just be able to make it reality. Keep yourself fit for what the future may hold.
You paid a great price for speaking out as you have. But any regret you might feel should immediately be followed by the realization of just how many thousands of your fellow citizens working in the government knew about the lies which were being pushed in the lead up to war. And that you, Coleen Rowley, were the only one with the moral rectitude and courage to speak out. For what it may be worth, that has urned for you my undying respect.
Best wishes,
John Gunn
Coronado, CA
Coleen Rowley wrote:
Campaign financing is THE most important thing we should be working on (election integrity the second). Any real progress on health care, the environment, trade agreements, war, etc will not happen until the people own the election process of their representatives. Everyone interested in good government should deemphasize their current political policy interest and work on full public funding of election campaigns. At the present, our best bet is the Clean Money style of funding.
Hey Ms. Rowley:
Thank you so much for speaking truth to power! You are a true American. I want to share a poem I wrote right before we went to war in Iraq:
The Greatest Rogue Nation – part deux
the buzzing of the dying
babble in the thick syrup
of death
day after day after day
yes its damnable empty
our souls
the screech of eagles
resonates in echo chambers
maybe one day there
will be room
for starlight and dancing
on the streets of Iraq
our soldiers suffer
at the minds of tyrants
that call them to battle
that call us to prattle
on and on and on
of links nonexistent
but uninformed transformed transfixed
our Great Leader’s
uneven gaze hypnotizes
some stare doe-eyed
mumble dogma
mindlessly content
recite mantras
to Corporate Gods
believe anything
God save us from
THE TRUTH:
“We the People” no longer exist
except in the lines of our Constitution
We’ve become slaves to a Halliburton God
IT steals our souls with no retribution
Bechtel gets richer
while teachers get poorer
with no regard to mother earth
our oceans warn us with their fury
we pause
we smile
we stake out more turf
hear AIDS babies cry in Africa
feel the throbbing pangs of hunger
hear drums of war begin to pound
lightning flash bombs
and brutal thunder
pound the ground with your fists
and implore the sky
scream out your anger
and question why
march in the street
and wave your flag
let us live for peace
not body bags
do it for JUSTICE
and our freedom’s flame
will guide us in shouting
NOT IN OUR NAME!
don’t let the few
shrink from salvation
and let us be known
as the greatest rogue nation
don’t let warnings
go unheeded
peace prevail
greed defeated
-Timothy Beauchamp
dedicated to the truth tellers
Thank you Colleen !!!
I think about what you did often !
Lee
San Diego
“Jimmy Walters, who appeared at St Marks church at a 9/11 Truth event and showed a film focusing on the sexual habits, homosexuality, beastiality and sexual perversions (in detail) of members of the Bush administration. Many of those in attendance left, appalled at the content being presented at a Les Jamieson promoted 9/11 event.â€
“I firmly believe that many of the alleged passengers on the alleged aircraft are still alive, and quite frankly, I think they were all working for the government.â€
(Jimmy Walters)
Les Jamieson
National Coordinator
NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative / NYCCAN
Please Donate…?
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Here les jamiesons last “get rich— scam.
Can we please have a RICO investigation, dammit?
Quote:
16.. The Commissioners and the NYCAG are not required to devote 100% or substantially all of their time to the work of the
Commission or NYCAG, and it is expected that Commissioners and the NYCAG will be able to continue with non-conflicting
activities including teaching, writing, consulting, Internet activities, and other.
http://nyc911initiative.org/PetitionFinal-01.pdf
Commission members will be paid a base annual salary of $112,500, plus up to $20,000 per year in expenses.
[ed note: Comment spammed and spammed again across all cyber space deleted. –99]
les [jamieson] founded this initiative in nyc and personally led the effort to collect over 30,000 petitioners.. and then handed it over to stop the scape goating.. and asked ted walter to be the director with a board of family-survivors-responders proving where les jamieson was coming from in spearheading this project..
(Jonathon Marks Flybynews)
16.. The Commissioners and the NYCAG are not required to devote 100% or substantially all of their time to the work of the Commission or NYCAG, and it is expected that Commissioners and the NYCAG will be able to continue with non-conflicting activities including teaching, writing, consulting, Internet activities, and other.
http://nyc911initiative.org/PetitionFinal-01.pdf
Commission members will be paid a base annual salary of $112,500, plus up to $20,000 per year in expenses.
NYC CAN Vote For Answers | Facebook (NYCCAN.org) and consider donating only $25 to become a member. Together we can reach our goal of 1 million members ..
http://www.facebook.com/group.php - Options
The reasons given [by the city clerk for rejecting the initiative] were:
First, the federal government has jurisdiction over an investigation into the attacks that took place on September 11 as well as the causes of those attacks. Establishing a local commission to conduct such an investigation far exceeds the proper scope and purpose of the petition process of the MHRL. Second, the petition fails to provide an adequate financing plan for the Commission as required by section 37 of the MHRL. Third, the petition’s method of designating Commissioners conflicts with state laws relating to the election or appointment of public officers and the residency of public officers. Fourth, the petition overrearches in its attempt to confer a range of law enforcement and prosecutorial powers on the Commission. Fifth, the subject of this proposed amendment to the Charter does not relate to an existing Charter provision as is required by section 37.
16.. The Commissioners and the NYCAG are not required to devote 100% or substantially all of their time to the work of the Commission or NYCAG, and it is expected that Commissioners and the NYCAG will be able to continue with non-conflicting activities including teaching, writing, consulting, Internet activities, and other.http://nyc911initiative.org/PetitionFinal-01.pdf Commission members will be paid a base annual salary of $112,500, plus up to $20,000 per year in expenses.
Please send a donation to our Ballot Initiative here in NYC. (NYCCAN.ORG).We have reconfigured our structure with the illustrious Ted Walter manning the helm and controlling all finances and petitioner scheduling (who says being GM and Head Coach is impossible?!) Some men say Ted Who?,others choose to say Why Not? Onward,Les 4.13.09
Les Jamieson has seized the NY 911 Truth bank account of approximately $6000 intended to fund weekly street actions that have been going on since 2003 before Les ever came around where we pass out DVD’s and leaflets. He also has possession of equipment including several expensive DVD burners, as well as a projector also bought with money donated to the group.
(Luke Rudowski WAC Inc.)
They illegally indicated people could have a tax write-off for donations to a political cause putting St Mark’s 501c3 at legal risk when raising money for the 9/11 Ballot initiative designed by Carl Person. This initiative had the all important Office of City Attorney General included so that the required funding plan could be included; without it it would never fly. Whoever wanted a real investigation to NOT happen realized the danger that Office of City Attorney General presented for not only 911 Truth but many other urgent wrongs, including our financial crisis.Â
(Paula Gloria)
P.S. If you dare,copies of the Urantia  Book can be purchased through the website NYCCAN.ORG. Les Jamieson | 06.01.09 .
Is this the new director of NYCCAN ?
This was located at Jerusalem Post / Posner blog
11Â | Â Ted Walters, Tuesday May 26, 2009
Amalek killed the old and the weak who traveled at the rear of Isreal. They have no mercy. We see examples of this over and over. I have never seen a Jew run into a Arab wedding and blow everyone up. On 9/11 everyone watched as Iran, the palestinians and all of the other arab nations celebrated the murder of over 3000 Americans who have been supplying money and food to the UN to distribute to the arab people. And they celebrated that murder. They are Amalek. When they are not killing Jews and the rest of the world they are happy to kill each other as shiites and sunis. GO SMITE AMELEK
12Â | Â Ted Walters USA, Tuesday May 26, 2009
It never ceases to amaze me when Palestinians or muslims is general accuse Isreal of mass murder. We see evidence of thier violence in every country in the world. Riots and killing all over Europe, Asia, Russia and the US. And every time you see it muslims are there. They even kill each other over sunni and shiite opinions. Moderate muslims have proven themselves unable or unwilling to stand against Islam and by proxy become baby producers for future radical Islamists. Isreal my brothers we are to prepare to defend ourselves. The time is short. We recognize who you are AMELEK !!
The new NYCCAN Director ???