The Hamilton-Times: A Guest Column Never Submitted…

The Hamilton-Times: A Guest Column Never Submitted to Editors That Never Show Up

Three years ago, the 9/11 Working Group of Bloomington sponsored a presentation by a visiting architect, and a physics professor, at the Buskirk Chumley theater. The response from the public was very favorable, as seen by the standing room only crowd and a poll in the Herald-Times that showed a majority agreeing that many 9/11 questions have gone unanswered. Although they did not come to the presentation, the H–T editorial board responded by writing that the 9/11 Commission’s co-chairman, Lee Hamilton, is trusted by the newspaper. They wrote — “We trust his motivation, integrity and findings more than those of the local group.“

Mr. Hamilton is trusted implicitly by the H-T, as indicted by the fact that he has a couple of guest columns in the paper every month. One of the columns Hamilton wrote this year was about the public’s growing distrust of government. What that column did not discuss were some of the perfectly good reasons that many Americans no longer trust their government, and some of the ways in which Mr. Hamilton has helped to foster that distrust.

In the mid-eighties, Hamilton led the Iran-Contra investigation into the arming of the Contras in Nicaragua by way of covert arms sales to Iran, which was in direct violation of several US laws. Dick Cheney worked closely with Hamilton at the time, as the ranking House Republican in the investigation. Although it was clear that Reagan Administration officials had broken the law, and that Vice President George H.W. Bush was likely behind some of it, indictments of Bush and Reagan did not occur because Hamilton said it — “would not be good for the country” — to have another impeachment.

In the early 1990s, Hamilton led another investigation into wrongdoing that centered on George H.W. Bush. This was the October Surprise investigation into the holding of US hostages by Iran until just after Reagan’s inauguration in January 1981. But again, despite substantial evidence that Bush and friends made a deal with Iranian officials to delay the release of the hostages for political gain, Hamilton found no wrongdoing whatsoever.

Hamilton also served as co-chairman, with Bush insider James Baker, in George W. Bush’s Iraq Study Group, whose conclusions Iraqi President Jalal Talabani called “very dangerous” to Iraq’s sovereignty and constitution. Of course, if Hamilton’s earlier investigations had been conducted in a more forthright manner, George W. Bush might never have been president and there would have been no Iraq War.

It is, however, the 9/11 Commission for which Hamilton is most famous. Hamilton himself has claimed that the 9/11 Commission was “set up to fail,” and that failure is recognized by many people today. From the discovery that the CIA interrogation tapes – on which the commission story is largely built – were destroyed, to the evidence that Saudi royal family members (and Bush family friends) financed al Qaeda, people are now questioning all aspects of the official version of events.

Many professional people are calling for a new investigation into 9/11. These include more than 1,200 licensed architects and engineers, and other groups representing hundreds of religious leaders, firefighters, lawyers, medical professionals, scientists, and intelligence officers.

Two such people will join us this year at the Buskirk Chumley, for another free presentation at 7 PM on September 4th. Buddhist scholar Graeme MacQueen and behavioral neuroscientist Laurie Manwell will speak on the topic of “Peace through Truth: 9/11 and State Crimes Against Democracy.” [See coverage of this event here – ed.]

We hope that the H-T editorial board and Lee Hamilton can make it this time.