Rep. McKinney's Opening Statement from July 22nd Briefing.

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Unofficial transcript of Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s opening statement at the July 22nd Congressional Briefing: The 9/11 Commission Report One Year Later: A Citizens’ Response – Did They Get It Right? Transcribed from audio capture.

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I want to thank everyone for coming today to this briefing, as we take a scrutinizing look at the 9/11 Commission Final Report on the anniversary of its publication, and ask the question, “Did the commissioners get it right?”

I especially want to thank all of the panelists here today, some of whom have traveled across the Atlantic to be here.

And I wish to point out that without the families of victims of 9/11, none of us would be here today to hear them, as we shall very shortly share their evaluation of the work of the 9/11 Commission. And that is because there would not have been any Commission were it not for the stubborn refusal of family members of the victims of 9/11 to accept the silence and obstruction of the White House and Congress, on this issue.

And with us today we have two of the Jersey Girls; Mindy Kleinberg and Laurie Van Auken, who lost their husbands Alan and Kenneth on 9/11, and who co-chaired the Family Steering Committee. Bob McIlvaine, who lost his son Bobby on September eleven, and who works with 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. And Marilyn Rosenthal, who lost her son, Josh on September eleven.

It is principally through the efforts of these and thousands more Americans whose families were touched by the tragedy of September eleven that this administration reluctantly agreed to establish the Commission. Yet, even once it was founded, the families had to fight to overcome underfunding, and to extend unreasonably short deadlines.

So when we talk of the 9/11 Commission, and its report, we must first thank the families for their perseverance in seeing to it that any commission was assembled at all.

We need to remind ourselves that this Commission’s task was to investigate the murder of nearly 3,000 persons. And while the Commission published a final report, there is today widespread skepticism, among the American public, about the Commission’s report. And many voices are calling for keeping the investigation alive.

Monica Gabriel, who lost her husband, and she is with us today, this morning, as a panelist.

Within days of the attacks, we were told that the perpetrators were from a terrorist network known as Al Qaeda. When reporters and members of the public asked for details, then Secretary of State Colin Powell promised that it would be made all clear to the world in a White Paper.

Nearly 4 years, and 2 wars later, we still have no official statement from the Bush administration on the specifics of who did it, who aided and financed them or what their origins are.

For the families who suffered so much loss this surely feels like adding insult to injury. They deserve to know everything that there is to be known about how their loved ones died. They fought for an investigation that would be non-partisan, independent, and that would get to the bottom of things. But, as work got underway, not only did the Commission run up against obstruction by the administration and non-cooperation from government agencies, many, if not most of the commissioners themselves had conflicts of interest.

And several commissioners spoke out about problems in the process; the lack of investigative rigor and heavy reliance on previous work the Joint-Commission Report, the drafting of recommendations before the investigative process got rolling, the failure to take testimony under oath or in many cases to even take transcripts.

As the original deadline approached, the Commission’s work was half done and only after the families fought for it was the deadline extended.

Then last year, we got the final report. An extensive, prosaically impressive report. But as some of us sat down to read it, the errors and omissions immediately jumped out at us.

How was it that it took over an hour after the first transponder went off before planes were scrambled to meet the threat? All of them too late.

What happened to those reports that surfaced within months of September 11th stating that 7 or more of the alleged hijackers had come forward and claimed that they were victims of stolen identities, they were alive and well, living in Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia? Why did the Commission choose not even to address this?

What about the terrorist Omar Said Sheikh? Now sitting in a Pakistani prison on charges of participating in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl. According to Indian intelligence, this man received orders from a Pakistani General to transfer $100,000 to Mohammed Atta. People all over the world are talking about this story. But not a word about it in the Report.

What about Osama bin Laden and his role in the Mujahadin backed by the CIA in the 1980’s to fight the Soviets? The Commission didn’t go there.

This morning, we will be hearing about these omissions, errors, and about the historical background of September 11th from the collection of experts we have assembled. In the afternoon we will be looking at the Report’s recommendations. And I think we will find very little in them that challenges the Bush administration’s foreign policy and its war on terrorism.

In fact, its recommendations for centralizing America’s intelligence networks seems designed to further that agenda.

And we will be hearing about how under the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act and the dual legal system that has been enacted to allow detainees to be held indefinitely without facing judge or jury, how our Civil Liberties are being eroded in the name of fighting the terrorists. As if the term ‘terrorist’ alone tells us all we need to know about our enemies.

We need to know about our enemies, if we’re going to reclaim a future free from the fear of terrorist attacks and weapons of mass destruction. We cannot afford to shy away from inconvenient truths. Many of you may find what you hear today to be inconvenient information. But Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but times of challenge and controversy.”

I encourage you to engage with the issues that are raised, and if you don’t agree, or don’t like what you hear, challenge it.

I believe that we should take in what every reasonable person has to say, to inform our decisions, because that’s the best way to find the truth.

And in our pursuit of the truth, I encourage you to emulate the courage and the determination of the September 11th families, in their struggle to know, what really happened.

Thank you very much, for being here today.

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