The 9/11 investigation was originally given a budget of $3-million, later increased to $12-million. Some reports say the budget is now $14-million.
By comparison, when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated during its descent in February 2003, $50-million was budgeted for an investigation, which began about an hour and a half after the disaster. Another $305-million was spent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), searching for shuttle debris.
The investigation into the shuttle accident began publicly releasing its findings within several weeks, and concluded its work with an exhaustive report about six months later.
Even the Warren Commission, the U.S. government's widely-disbelieved investigation of Pres. Kennedy's 1963 assassination, was budgeted at $5.5-million — in 1963 funds. Adjusted for inflation, that's more than $32-million in 2003 dollars.
You might think it would cost substantially more to thoroughly investigate a complicated event — nineteen foreign hijackers commandeering four passenger jets and obliterating the World Trade Center, damaging the Pentagon, and killing thousands of Americans — than to investigate the shooting of the president in a parade.
The Bush Administration seems to disagree. They think it should cost substantially less.
|
Two years of lies about Sept. 11 | |
The new Warren Commission
by Helen & Harry Highwater,
Unknown News Sept. 17, 2003
Reliable sources have repeatedly reported that the Bush Administration was expecting a terrorist attack in the autumn of 2001.What does that mean?
We'd like to know what it means ... and we probably never will.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, instead of coming back to the White House, Bush criss-crossed the country in Air Force One. When critics asked why, "White House sources" said a mysterious phone call had threatened Air Force One. But a few weeks later, White House officials said there had never been such a phone call. The non-existent threat got widespread media coverage, and the retraction got almost none.What's the significance of that?
We don't know — except that while the rest of the nation was in shock and mourning on Sept. 12, 2001, the Bush Administration was already lying about what had happened the day before.
When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) voiced concern about toxins in the smoke after the World Trade Center collapsed, the White House re-wrote the EPA's concerns and reassured New Yorkers that there was nothing to worry about in the air.What does that lie mean?
It might mean plenty to your long-term health, if you were living in the New York area in autumn of 2001.
For the rest of the country, it just shows that the Bush Administration was more concerned with calming the public than with telling the truth.
While all private and commercial planes were grounded for days, the White House granted special permission for a huge entourage of the bin Laden family and their employees to fly home to Saudi Arabia.And what does that mean?
Again, we don't know what it means.
But an investigation would seem like a good idea, wouldn't it?
The Bush Administration worked hard for a year and a half after the attack, to limit, control, or effectively block any meaningful investigation of the 9/11 attacks.
Incredibly, Bush even named Henry Kissinger to 'handle' the investigation of Sept. 11. When Kissinger's name proved too controversial, Bush picked Thomas Kean to chair the investigation, and Kean is the man running the investigation now.
|
Background information —
Sept. 11, 2001
Disastrous things
by H&HH, Unknown News Sept. 11, 2003Several readers have asked us to republish this essay, which originally appeared on our news page on Sept. 11, 2003.
Something disastrous happened two years ago today, in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Disastrous things have been happening ever since.
In alleged vengeance for the 2001 attack on America, the US has gone to war against Afghanistan and Iraq. For every American killed on September 11, 2001, more than ten innocent people have been killed by American bombs and bullets in those countries. And the bloodshed continues.
America's leaders have announced that the Constitution does not apply to US citizens they say are terrorists; that the rules of the Geneva Convention do not apply to prisoners captured in the Bush Administration's wars; that anyone who opposes such actions must be aiding and abetting terrorists.
We oppose such actions. We ask, what kind of "leadership" would use the disastrous events of September 11, 2001 to such ends?
So instead of presenting new headlines today, we're going to pause for a moment and remember some relatively "unknown news" of September 11, 2001 — what came before and what's happened since, according to reliable, mainstream journalistic sources.
We invite you to click that link and review some of the record.
We're not going to "connect the dots" and make any dramatic accusations. That's impossible, while so much remains un-investigated, unknown.
There's plenty of evidence, however, to draw one unavoidable conclusion from the record. You'd have to be almost willfully oblivious not to reach this conclusion:
It adds up to something different than the stories we've been told.
—H&HH
|
Kean is an ex-business partner of Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law. Under ordinary circumstances, you might think that's a conflict of interest, and you might think mainstream journalists would point it out. The circumstances, however, are far from ordinary. President Bush, after all, got his start in the oil business in a partnership with Osama's brother.
What does that really mean?
In reality, Kean's conflict of interest probably means nothing — the bin Laden family is very, very big, and very, very wealthy. It just shows, again, that Bush doesn't care about the appearance of impropriety in this investigation.
At least, though, there finally is an investigation. The government's 9/11 Commission moved into an office a few months ago, and they're hoping to have a report ready by mid-2004 (about 2½ years after the attacks).
The 9/11 Commission was originally given a budget of $3-million. That's a little less than one-fifth of one percent of one percent — about zero-point-zero-zero-18% — of the $166-billion already spent, committed, and requested just for this year's occupation and 'reconstruction' of Iraq.
The investigation's budget was later increased, after much complaining from the Commission itself, to $12-million. Some reports say the budget is now $14-million.
By comparison, when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated during its descent in February 2003, $50-million was budgeted for an investigation, which began about an hour and a half after the disaster. Another $305-million was spent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), searching for shuttle debris. The investigation into the shuttle accident began publicly releasing its findings within several weeks, and concluded its work with an exhaustive report about six months later.
Even the Warren Commission, the U.S. government's widely-disbelieved investigation of Pres. Kennedy's 1963 assassination, was budgeted at $5.5-million — in 1963 funds. Adjusted for inflation, that's more than $32-million in 2003 dollars.
You might think it would cost substantially more to thoroughly investigate a complicated event — nineteen foreign hijackers commandeering four passenger jets and obliterating the World Trade Center, damaging the Pentagon, and killing thousands of Americans — than to investigate the shooting of the president in a parade.
The Bush Administration seems to disagree. They think it should cost substantially less.
The Warren Commission provides an appropriate comparison for another reason. 40 years after Kennedy's assassination, people still whisper misunderstood half-truths and harbor suspicions about who was really behind the events of November 22, 1963. The only thing that's widely agreed is that the Warren Commission's report was a sham, more concerned with calming the public than with telling the truth.
And now, they've done it again. The Bush Administration has blocked any meaningful investigation of Sept. 11, 2001 — and given us instead an investigation that will be remembered, much like the Warren Commission, for raising more questions than it answers.And what does it all mean?
It means we'll never know what it means.
Sources: Salon, June 18, 2003; CNN's inflation adjustment tool.
© 2003, by the author.
Comments? newsuneed@yahoo.com
| |
There's much more than this at Unknown News.
|
|
| |
We try not to whine too much or too loudly, but we are poor and this site eats a lot of money and time.
We couldn't do it without the help of our volunteers. And for those who can't afford the time, giving just a buck or two can make all the difference and keep Unknown News alive.
|
Talk
to Us |
Archives |
| If you have something to say, we'd love to hear from you. |
Click here for archives of recent editions of Unknown News |
|
|
