We're In a Lot of Trouble

“This Government has made me a victim of Conspiracy Theories, because they haven’t answered fully, or allowed anyone to ask the true questions of September 11th, and that’s what I’m asking from you today. For exposure. We are not crazy. We have questions. We demand answers.” […] “We’re asking for a new investigation into the events of September 11th, and this time, a truly bipartisan, global, with families invested from the beginning, middle, and throughout the end.” – 9/11 Family Member Donna Marsh O’Connor at the National Press Club on September 11, 2006.

On June 13, 2011, reporter Jason Leopold, along with Jeffrey Kaye, broke a story about 9/11 that was released on truthout.org. The story appears “to cast further doubt on the official narrative and suggests high-level military and intelligence officials withheld key evidence from Congressional lawmakers probing the attacks.”

According to the report, “DoD officials held discussions about DO5’s intelligence activities between the summer of 2000 and June 2001 revolving around al-Qaeda’s interest in striking the Pentagon, the World Trade Center (WTC), and other targets. In other words, the Bush administration was fully aware the terrorist organization had set its sights on those structures prior to 9/11 and, apparently, government officials failed to act on those warnings.”

If true, this would further show that the multitude of statements made by Bush Administration officials and others after the attacks about not having “any inkling” about what was to come, was a lie. It would further show that the idea of a “failure of imagination” was also a lie (please also watch this).

How did the “9/11 Truth Movement” respond to this report? Unfortunately, truthout has removed the comments from the article. If you had the chance to read them, you would have seen people criticize the report as “Disinfo to sustain the bogus cover story.” You would have seen multiple statements about how this story doesn’t go far enough. That it doesn’t cover this theory or that theory. You would have even seen accusations against Jason Leopold. On other sites, people said this was “SLICK PROPAGANDA from Jason Leopold at Truncated TRUTHOUT.”

On truthout, I left a comment that said, “Thanks Jason for this article. This will help out your readers,” and I linked to my “Official 9/11 Justice Start-Up Kit.” Someone that is supposedly a member of the “9/11 Truth Movement” responded by saying, “nope, that’s just more racist limited hangout BS.”

Basically, it was a mess.

Over the years, I have spoken to many journalists that have written about discrepancies in the 9/11 narrative. I would show them this story, and that story, and hope that they would still have an interest in reporting on 9/11. The response I often got went like this: “Jon, I would, but every time I write about 9/11, I get bombarded by so-called members of the “9/11 Truth Movement” accusing me of this or that because I didn’t cover this or that. It’s become a circus now, and nobody wants to touch it.”

One thing people need to understand is that the media has not done its job with regards to 9/11. For the most part, it has attacked anyone that has questions about that day, and also not given many stories the attention that they deserve. This, in turn, has been very frustrating to many. I, myself, have gone “toe to toe” with journalists over the years, so I am not completely without fault. However, I have since learned from my mistakes, and no longer approach journalists with anger.

As I wrote in my facts piece, everyone has theories. Everyone has theories because those who should be able to answer our questions about that day, refuse to do so. It is human nature to theorize about what happened that day. However, and this is something I came to terms with long ago… We don’t know the truth about what happened that day. We don’t know who was ultimately responsible for what happened that day. This is a hard truth I’ve come to accept. I think because I’ve accepted this hard truth, I have become a better advocate for 9/11 Justice.

Many people in the “9/11 Truth Movement” think they know what happened that day and who was responsible. They don’t. I have read more than most on the subject, and I can honestly say that I don’t know. 9/11 was a crime, and as with every crime, there are suspects for that crime. If you look at ALL of the available information, you will see that elements within our Government and others have MORE THAN EARNED the title of suspect for the crime of 9/11. Along with people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Osama Bin laden. However, without having had a real investigation, we don’t know the full truth.

Veterans of this cause have tried to give advice before on how best to reach people. I have written countless “pointers” over the years to try and help people. It seems as though these attempts at giving advice have fallen on deaf ears.

This kind of behavior is unacceptable. It doesn’t help, and instead, pushes people away. They don’t want to participate, and I can honestly understand why. We are a movement that is desperately trying to get reporters to report on what some of us are saying, and the very people that may be able to help us are being pushed away. How sad is that?

Jason Leopold and Jeffrey Kaye wrote a story that exposed a lie. If we ignore the easy lies, which incidentally help to give credibility to the idea that we were lied to about that day and need real justice and accountability, then we are doomed to fail as a cause.

The 2,973 people that were brutally murdered that day, their family members, and the people of the world deserve better.