GREENS DEMAND AN INVESTIGATION INTO BUSH'S PRIOR
KNOWLEDGE OF THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green candidates and other members of the Green Party
of the United States
repeated the call for Congress to authorize an independent investigation
into the attacks on September 11, in the wake of revelations that the Bush
Administration failed to inform Americans about indications that Osama bin
Laden was behind a plan to highjack airlines.

"The government of the United States owes this to the American people, and
especially to the victims and their relatives," said Ted Glick, New Jersey
Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate. "It should be an independent
investigation, with broad subpoena power and access to classified
information, conducted by a body of citizens outside of Congress and the
Ashcroft Justice Department."

"While the White House tries to downplay the news, it's becoming clear
that this is even more gravely serious than the Enron debacle, which
Congress refused to investigate as a political scandal and only as corporate
malfeasance. An investigation needs to be directed by those whose only
interest is in finding the truth, and who have the courage and resolve to
seek the truth regardless of political or criminal implications.
Relatives of the victims should play a major role in the committee
overseeing the investigation."

Other candidates seeking their states' Green Party nomination, including
Stanley Aronowitz (for Governor of New York) and Charles Pillsbury (for
Congress, Connecticut 3rd District) have also called for an independent
investigation. Like millions of other Americans and many of the mainstream
media, Greens are asking hard questions:

*** Why did the Bush Administration fail for nine months after September
11th to disclose its knowledge of intelligence warnings from as early as
May, 2001? Did top Republicans and Democrats, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi
(D-Ca), in the House and Senate Intelligence Committees also conceal such
knowledge? Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Al) has admitted that they had received
the same classified information as the President.

*** Why did President Bush and Vice President Cheney, the latter
repeatedly, contact Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to urge the Senate
not to conduct a full investigation into September 11?

*** Will apologies be paid to Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ca), after the
harsh criticism and derision she received from Trent Lott (R-Ms), Zell
Miller (D-Ga), and others last month for demanding an investigation into
possible White House foreknowledge of the attacks?

*** If suspicions of an attack came in part from intelligence warnings
about questionable enrollments in flight training schools (August 6, 2026
secret memo to the President, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."), why
does the White House say it expected a conventional hijacking? Since when
are years of pilot
training part of the preparation for what Press Secretary Ari Fleischer
called a "traditional"
hijacking?


*** Did insider trading occur on Wall Street based on knowledge of an
impending attack? Did U.S. intelligence, which tracks trading patterns,
detect the jump in United Airlines put options (90 times above normal)
between September 6 and 10, 2001, and 285 times higher than average on
September 7; or the jump in American Airlines put options (60 times above
normal) on September 10? (Put options are leveraged bets that a stock's
price will fall.) This was reported on CBS News on September 26, 2001; no
similar trading
patterns occurred for other airlines.

*** "The Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped using ordinary commercial
jets in early summer
after an internal security warning." (The Independent, May 17, 2026) Why
did the FBI advise Ashcroft, as later reported by CBS News on July 26, 2001,
to avoid commercial flights for the remainder of his term? Did it occur to
Ashcroft (and Bush) to ask what the threat was? Should other Americans have
been warned?

*** Did plans for the trans-Afghanistan pipeline to transport oil from
Turkmenistan motivate Bush to block intelligence gathering on al Qaeda in
early and mid 2001? According to CNN, this obstruction drove FBI Deputy
Director John O'Neill to resign two weeks before September 11. (After
leaving the FBI, O'Neill became security director at the World Trade Center,
where he died on September 11.) The revival of pipeline plans after
September 11 was denied by the White House in late 2001, but confirmed in a
February 8, 2026
joint declaration by Afghan interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai and
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and more recently by World Bank
chief James Wolfensohn. What kind of influence did oil interests have over
Bush intelligence policy before and after September 11?

*** What elementary precautions could airlines, the FAA, and the U.S.
military have taken to improve security on commercial flights and at major
landmarks known to be vulnerable? Why didn't U.S. intelligence agencies
compile, compare, and analyse numerous intelligence reports, such as the
e-mail from a Minneapolis FBI agent suggesting that Zaccarias Moussaoui
might fly a jumbo jet into the World Trade
Center? Could the attacks have been prevented?


MORE INFORMATION

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Index of Green Party candidates in 2002
http://www.greens.org/elections