Monday, October 24, 2005

Campaign: New York Times and 9/11

Dear 9/11 Activists,

Join the nationwide campaign to pressure the New York Times to print the truth about 9/11 NOW. The Times is under fire for letting Judith Miller work as a member of the White House Iraq Group to spread disinformation, and then covering up Miller's role and refusing to fire her. It has become obvious to fair-minded observers that the Times has been part of the Iraq disinformation campaign.

NOW is the time to contact the Times, to urge the Times to "step up to the plate" on 9/11 as part of its need to "repair its reputation" after the Miller scandal.

Please copy the letter below (you're welcome to embellish on it if you want, and anger is ok – but please remain respectful).

Fax it to the Times at (212) 556-7614, and please also email the letter to public@nytimes.com.

* * *

Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Publisher
Janet L. Robinson, CEO
Leonard P. Forman, CFO
Scott Heekin-Canedy, President
Bill Keller, Executive Editor
Jill Abramson, Managing Editor
John M. Geddes, Managing Editor
RW Apple, Chief Correspondent
Bernard Gwertzman, Editor (Times on Web)
Carl Lavin, News Editor
Gustave Niebuhr, Religion Reporter
Ray Bonner, Investigative Correspondent
Byron Calame, Public Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036-3959
SENT VIA FACSIMILE: (212) 556-7614

RE: Judith Miller and 9/11

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As the nation’s leading paper, the New York Times has the resources and talent to investigate stories of significance. Executive editor Bill Keller's October 21, 2005, email, stated that the Jayson Blair mini-scandal caused the Times to delay for a year its addressing the paper's faulty coverage concerning Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. See http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1152AP_Keller_Text.html. I understand the political pressures facing the Times. However, the Jayson Blair issue was only an internal issue affecting solely the Times, while WMD coverage is of worldwide national security, military, and political significance.

More importantly, the Blair incident occurred long after September 11, 2001, and yet the times has NEVER run a SINGLE story accurately reporting what happened on that terrible day.

Mr. Keller also stated “it is excruciating to withhold information of value to our readers”. While this statement applied to WMD and Iraq, it is equally true of 9/11.

On October 15th, renowned theologian Dr. David Ray Griffin called on the Times to disclose previously withheld information about 9/11. Dr. Griffin stated:

"In light of this situation and the facts discussed in this lecture---as well as dozens of more problems in the official account of 9/11 discussed elsewhere---I call on the New York Times to take the lead in finally exposing to the American people and the world the truth about 9/11. Taking the lead on such a story will, of course, involve enormous risks. But if there is any news organization with the power, the prestige, and the credibility to break this story, it is the Times. It performed yeoman service in getting the 9/11 oral histories released. But now the welfare of our republic and perhaps even the survival of our civilization depend on getting the truth about 9/11 exposed. I am calling on the Times to rise to the occasion."

See http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20051021&articleId=1129

Dr. Griffin is not the only religious leader calling for accurate and full reporting on 9/11. Other endorsers include, for example:

Rev. George Pixley, retired Baptist minister and Professor of Biblical Studies (Ph.D. University of Chicago);

Rev. David E. Roy, Ph.D.;

Rosemary Radford Ruether, Carpenter Professor of Theology, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA;

Kent Mayfield, Unitarian Minister;

Amir Salih Erschen, Madison Muslim Dawa Circle; and

Dr. James Goulding, Adjunct Member of Religious Studies Faculty at Edgewood College and Professor of Religion Emeritus at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois.

See http://mujca.com/endorsers.htm.

And lest you think this is a religious issue, the following high-ranking current and former U.S. Government officials have also called for the truth about 9/11 to be disclosed:

Current U.S. congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney;

Former chief economist for the Department of Labor under George W. Bush, who was also director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis, Morgan Reynolds;

Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan, listed by Who’s Who in America as one of the 1,000 most influential political thinkers in the world, Paul Craig Roberts;

Former director of the U.S. "Star Wars" space defense program in both Republican and Democratic administrations, who was a senior air force colonel who flew 101 combat missions (who is also a Catholic Archbishop), Dr. Robert M. Bowman;

Former senior CIA analyst, who prepared and presented Presidential Daily Briefs and served as a high-level analyst for several presidents, Ray McGovern;

Former Deputy Secretary for Intelligence and Warning under Nixon, Ford, and Carter, Morton Goulder;

Former US Ambassador and Chief of Mission to Iraq, and Former US Department of State Foreign Service Officer, Edward L. Peck;

Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson; and

Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, as well as a who's who of liberals, conservatives and independents.

See http://911proof.com/

Clearly, 9/11 is a story of national significance and importance.

But perhaps the Times thought that its readers would not be INTERESTED in learning the true facts of 9/11? This argument is belittled by the fact that a poll by Zogby International, the well-known polling organization, found that HALF of New Yorkers believe that U.S. leaders "had foreknowledge of impending 9-11 attacks and 'Consciously Failed' to act" and that 66% of respondents wanted a new probe of unanswered questions concerning 9/11. See http://www.zogby.com/search/ReadNews.dbm?ID=855

We would like to thank the Times for successfully fighting to make the transcripts from 9/11 emergency responders public, and congratulate the Times on its court victory which secured such document release.

However, we would strongly caution the Times to consider that its non-coverage of the true facts of what occurred on 9/11 may dwarf the fallout from the WMD issue.

The Times is losing readers every day to weblogs (or "blogs") because the best blogs are not “withhold[ing] information of value to [their] readers,” but are double checking sources and putting all of the credible information out, oftentimes YEARS in advance of the Times. As just two examples, www.WhatReallyHappened.com and www.Truthout.com ran now-verified stories showing that the Niger yellowcake document was a forgery and that there were no WMDs in Iraq months BEFORE the war started.

If the TIMES does not immediately run articles discussing the truth of 9/11, as called for by Dr. Griffin and a multitude of other religious and political leaders, the Times will never recover the credibility it lost through the Judith Miller affair.

Thank you for thoughtfully considering the demand contained in this letter. If you investigate the truth about 9/11 and Iraq now, the Times may have a chance to recover its credibility. If not, the Times will no longer be the nation's "paper of record", but may instead end up as a footnote in history.

Thank You in Advance,

{Your name here}




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