1) Email below Hellyer interview to 9/11 Commissioners:
info@9-11Commission.gov
Send a seperate email addressed to EACH of: Thomas H. Kean; Lee H. Hamilton;
Richard Ben-Veniste; Fred F. Fielding; Jamie S. Gorelick; Slade Gorton; Bob
Kerrey;
John F. Lehman; Timothy J. Roemer; James R. Thompson [FORWARD THIS ACTION
TO ALL YOU CAN!!]
2) JOIN US IN NYC FOR THE GOP "COUNTER CONVENTION" EVENTS IN NYC- including
911TRUTH.ORG'S Midwest District Director, Bill Douglas, speaking at the Nat'l
Green Party PRE-PROTEST RALLY IN MANHATTAN ON AUGUST 28TH (see bottom of email
for event details), where 911Truth.org will speak as well as Green Party
Presidential Candidate David Cobb, Medea Benjamin, etc.
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INTERVIEW TO EMAIL TO COMMISSIONERS:
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An interview with Paul Hellyer,
former Defense Minister of Canada
I think what did change over time were the consequences. When
President Bush decided to declare war on terrorism. Terrorism is
a terrible thing, but this was a police problem and an
intelligence
problem. What was wrong with your intelligence? Why didn't you
know this was going to happen? You spend billions and billions
with spooks all over the world and surely you should have known
what was going on. And, so I began to be concerned about that.
And then questions were raised by others. Why did the President
just sit in the schoolroom when he heard the news? Why did he not
acknowledge that he already knew what was going on? As a former
Minister of National Defense, when the news came out I had to
wonder.
Why did airplanes fly around for an hour and a half without
interceptors
being scrambled from Andrews [Air Force Base]? Is it Andrews
right
next to the capitol? . . . I think the inquiry has been very
shallow and
superficial. And I would like to see a much tougher more in-depth
inquiry. . . . I would like to ask the questions . . . or I would
like to see
someone in a position of authority ask these questions and insist
on
etting answers? At least to why some of the things happened [on
9/11]
that seem to be, for an ordinary person, inexplicable.
-- The Honourable Paul Hellyer,
former National Defense Minister of Canada
[The following interview was conducted by Kyle Hence of 911CitizensWatch.org
and Bill Douglas of 911Visibility.org, on May 27, 2004, at the International
9-11 Inquiry in Toronto, Canada. (Paul Hellyer held the Canadian office
equivalent to Secretary of Defense in the U.S., and was Deputy Prime Minister, the
Canadian equivalent to Vice President.)]
Kyle Hence: Hello. Thank you for taking time with us. Please introduce
yourself, with a little bit of your background, for our viewers.
Paul Hellyer: Hi, my name is Paul Hellyer. I'm a former Canadian politician,
a member of three administrations. I'm the former Minister of National
Defense, and rose to the rank of Deputy Prime Minister in the Trudeau Administration.
Kyle Hence: Where were you when 9-11 (11 September 2001) occurred? Share with
us some of your observations about how the world hinged on this event, and
some of your concerns about the policies that have been put in place after 9-11.
Paul Hellyer: I was in my office and one of the staff members herd something
on radio and I said, well let's turn on the TV and see what we can find out
and we did. And we watched as most people did, the terrible events unfold minute
by minute. And you have that feeling of sick horror . . . sort of . . . you
know, this has got to be some kind of surrealism . . . can't be real. But, the
longer the day went on the more evidence there was that this was no joke. This
was a real thing and that it was just so awful that it was beyond
description. And so I was one of the people that just felt . . . well, like most of the
world, and certainly most Canadians a deep grief and shared the loss of the
people whoíd lost friends, loved ones, as a result of the attack. And I did many
of the things that people did. I went to a special church service, and signed
the book and did the things I thought were appropriate for the circumstances.
Kyle Hence: There were many Canadians who died too.
Paul Hellyer: Yes, absolutely. It was not obvious at the time, but this came
later when the statistics were made public. So, my attitude never changed
about that aspect of things. But, I think what did change over time were the
consequences. When President Bush decided to declare war on terrorism. Terrorism is
a terrible thing, but this was a police problem and an intelligence problem.
What was wrong with your intelligence? Why didn't you know this was going to
happen? You spend billions and billions with spooks all over the world and
surely you should have known what was going on. And, so I began to be concerned
about that. And then questions were raised by others. Why did the President just
sit in the schoolroom when he heard the news? Why did he not acknowledge that
he already knew what was going on? As a former Minister of National Defense,
when the news came out I had to wonder. Why did airplanes fly around for an
hour and a half without interceptors being scrambled from Andrews [Air Force
Base]? Is it Andrews right next to the capitol?
Kyle Hence: Yes, that's correct.
Paul Hellyer: With a quick action alert they should have been there in five
minutes or ten minutes. If not, as the Minister of National Defense, which in
the United States is the Secretary of Defense, I would want to say "why not?"
Kyle Hence: Does it disturb you, or do you have concerns about your neighbors
to the south that there's been no inquiry at a defense level relative to the
specific failure to scramble jets?
Paul Hellyer: I think the inquiry has been very shallow and superficial. And
I would like to see a much tougher more in-depth inquiry. The evidence is that
some people were allowed to fly out of the United States after the attack
when American citizens were not allowed to fly in. And Canadians had the
pleasure, I guess in a sense, of the company of tens of thousands, several tens of
thousands of them [Americans] in Canada for a few days, especially in
Newfoundland where the people were most gracious in looking after them. But why were some
members of the Bin Laden family allowed to fly out of the United States? Why?
There are so many questions. What is going wrong here? Or was there something
going wrong? How much did they actually know? And you get into very deep
territory because it's the same kind of thing as we saw with Pearl Harbor. Did the
President know, or didn't he know? I don't know. But, it's a very good
question.
Kyle Hence: But, there's some evidence to suggest he may have.
Paul Hellyer: There is some evidence to suggest that he may have and it was a
deliberate decision on his part to let the attack happen because he wanted to
get the United States into World War II. And otherwise it was going to be
difficult to get Congressional approval.
Kyle Hence: So you can understand why perhaps people are asking the same
question about President Bush and the Bush Administration.
Paul Hellyer: Absolutely. I think it's a fair question. I don't know what the
answer is. But, I would like to ask the questions . . . or I would like to
see someone in a position of authority ask these questions and insist on getting
answers? At least to why some of the things happened that seem to be, for an
ordinary person, inexplicable.
Kyle Hence: It seems like there's a fundamental lack of accountability and
transparency, especially now in the wake of 9-11. Does that concern you in
regards to what's happening in America with the Patriot Act, and the projection of
American military power?
Paul Hellyer: Oh, very, very much so. I'm very disturbed about a lack of
transparency. Everyone talks about it, and no one is willing to come clean, as it
were. I just had lunch, interestingly enough with the designer of the Avro
Arrow which was cancelled more than 40 years ago and one of the things we were
discussing were the lies that people in government and the Air Force told at the
time. And I guess this makes me all the more suspicious. If they lied about
that, what else were they lying about? So, we were agreeing that you had to get
behind the superficial and the spin and try and get at the truth. It's very
difficult. It takes a lot of time. But, we have to try and get the truth.
Because unless we do, as the good book says, "seek the truth and the truth will set
you free." And I think that's what we've got to try to do and I hope that
somebody has the courage and the persistence to keep at it until we can get it.
Kyle Hence: Thank you very much. I'll be in touch with you.
Paul Hellyer: Good.
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JOIN US AT THE GOP "COUNTER-CONVENTION" PROTEST - AND ATTEND THE NYC NAT'L
GREEN PARTY EVENT IN LAFEYETTE PARK IN MIDTOWN MAHATTAN, ON AUGUST 28TH AT:
St. Vartan's Park, 35th St. and 2nd Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.
Saturday, August 28th 2004 - New York City
FEATURING
David Cobb & Pat LaMarche - Green Party Presidential/VP Candidates
Medea Benjamin - CodePink
Jason West - Mayor of New Paltz, NY
Charles Shaw - Co-Chair, National Peace Action Committee of the Green Party
Bill Douglas - 911Truth.org and the "Summer of Truth" National Campaign
