The World Trade Center Towers, New York

The World Trade Center Towers, New York

In an interview with the Real News Network, Howard Zinn, a noted historian and professor at Boston University, said that a thorough investigation of what happened on September 11th, 2001 would be a ‘diversion’.

Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States, argues that Americans should concentrate efforts on investigating how Western foreign policies of the latter part of the 20th century are responsible for ‘breeding terrorists’ around the world, instead of investigating who was behind the 9/11 massacre and how it was orchestrated.

I grant that we don’t know all the facts about 9/11. We could probably learn alot more, and maybe there was a conspiracy. Who knows? But I believe it’s one of those issues that can never be fully answered, like the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

ZINN COMPARES 9/11 TO KENNEDY ASSASSINATION

Interestingly, Zinn mentioned the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, and 9/11, in the same breath.

The investigation into Kennedy’s assassination – conducted by what became known as the Warren Commission – was broadly criticized for ignoring evidence – eyewitness, audio & video – that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone. Four of the seven members of the commission later publicly expressed concern that their report was inaccurate. Over 80% of Americans polled believe that there was a conspiracy.

The 9/11 commission has also faced heavy criticism for its investigation of the events in September 2001. In violation of a court order, at least 92 recordings of CIA interrogations were destroyed. Senator Max Cleland resigned from the commission after it allegedly  cut a deal to accept highly limited access to CIA reports to the White House that may indicate advance knowledge of the attacks on the part of the Bush administration. Leading military experts, scientists and engineers have also complained that evidence – particularly involving the presence thermic explosives at the World Trade Center site and the absence of plane wreckage on the Pentagon site – was discarded or ignored.

Moving Forward – The Truth Dilemma

Few may argue that we would be best served to focus our attention on addressing the significant challenges that face humanity in the 21st century.  The dilemma seems to lie on whether to delegate the dissemination of the information surrounding events such as 9/11 and the Kennedy assassination – and any conclusions – to future generations.

What are the consequences either way? Suppose that the Warren and 9/11 commissions were flawed. Can the US populace, or the rest of humanity, trust a government that – willingly or unwillingly – deceives on a platform of transparency? And if our governments deceive us – willingly or unwillingly – on matters such as these, are not the tangents that our civilizations take on the back of these events, taken on illusory premises?

Zinn suggests that we focus our attention on investigating how US foreign policy over the last century may have fostered violent hatred toward the West.

However it started, whoever was behind it, the important thing about 9/11, is that 9/11 was used by the Bush administration to go to war. And that furthermore they have not investigated why 9/11 took place.

Surely, US foreign policy was influenced by the assassination of John and Robert Kennedy as well as that of Martin Luther King, and over 3,000 people on whose name NATO and the United States invaded Afghanistan and Iraq respectively?

Some Questions

In a ‘democratic’ society, the common expectation is that the following questions about events of such significance as 9/11 are answered truthfully and transparently:

  • Who orchestrated the event? Who conspired and what did they stand to gain?
  • Whose strategic interests were served by the way investigations were conducted? How can conflicts of interest be avoided in the future?
  • How has any government policy been influenced by the conclusions of such investigations?
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