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Local Activist Seeks AnswersTo Questions About 9/11

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Local Activist Seeks Answers

To Questions About 9/11

By Kaaren Valenta

James Allen is by nature a quiet, introspective, almost shy man, a private music teacher who feels uncomfortable in the spotlight.

But when he read an article published in the New York Observer about the efforts of four young widows to learn the truth of what happened on September 11, 2001, he felt compelled to do something.

“The article galvanized me,” he said. “The four widows spearheaded efforts that led to the creation of the Independent 9/11 Commission. They are demanding to know what our government knew before and after the terrorist attacks, and what’s being done to protect us today.

“There are many charges in this article that are serious,” he said, “and there is more information coming out that needs some serious fact-checking. These questions need to be heard in our community. Are the charges fair? Are they true?”

To start a dialogue on the local level, he helped organize a meeting that was held at the Newtown Meeting House last week. The discussion is set to continue on Wednesday, September 24, at 8 pm, at the Meeting House. All area residents are invited to attend.

“I did not lose anyone in September 11 and I don’t presume to speak for the victims’ families,” Mr Allen, 39, said. “I also do not want to politicize this subject. Some Republicans and some Democrats are not satisfied with the decision not to release 28 pages of the 9/11 congressional report made public in July,” pages that detail how financial networks in Saudi Arabia may have funded terrorism.

The meeting on September 24 will begin with a 15-minute video clip of an interview with the four 9/11 widows that aired on PBS on September 13, Mr Allen said. An open format discussion will take place after the video on 15 questions that the widows say remain unanswered.

The questions range from activities before 9/11 –– “In what ways might the US government’s policies toward Saudi Arabia have contributed to September 11?” –– to those afterward –– “Since September 11, has our government developed specific policies regarding individual sponsors of terrorism?’

Mr Allen said the discussion will be a quest for truth, “not an attack on our President or government.”

Besides the discussion, those in attendance will be asked to vote on approving language for a resolution to be placed before the public, addressing this entire issue and calling for fundamental changes in the independent 9/11 Commission’s mandate to investigate.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was formed last fall to analyze worldwide terrorist danger as well as to investigate American national security and sensitive policy and intelligence issues across the federal government. The commission is scheduled to report its findings by May 2004, but commission members have complained that they are being hampered in their investigation by roadblocks set up by some members of the Bush administration.

The four widows –– Patty Casazza, Mindy Kleinberg, Kristen Breitweiser, and Lori Van Auken ––are members of the Family Steering Committee of the 9/11 Commission. All live in New Jersey. The husbands of Mindy Kleinberg and Patty Casazza worked for the Cantor Fitzgerald Group, which lost 658 employees. Lori Van Auken’s husband was a securities trader. Kristen Breitweiser’s husband was a vice president at Fiduciary Trust.

Kristen Breitweiser, often a spokesperson for the group, echoed their concerns when she said recently, “I have lost my hope that something like September 11 will not happen again.”

Mr Allen said he strongly believes that people in small towns across America need to join together to call for the same type of investigation that these four women are asking for.

“The problem is that these questions remain insufficiently answered,” he said at the meeting on September 11 at the Meeting House. “If we cannot come to the aid of women and orphans, then it is pathetic,” he said. “It is right, it is proper, it is American, and it is patriotic to do it.”

A resident of Newtown since 1972, Mr Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Northeastern University and calls himself “a proud conservative in many ways and a proud liberal in others.”

“I do not want this to focus on me,” he said. “And I don’t want this to turn into a political issue. And I certainly don’t want to have all the conspiracy theories floating around. Conspiracy theories are offensive. They are spawned in a vacuum of information and an atmosphere of confusion and secrecy. I don’t want to go to the movies ten years from now and watch Oliver Stone’s theory of the 9/11 conspiracy.”

Mr Allen said he knows that some people want to put 9/11 behind them, but the American people will never know if they are safe until the unanswered questions are answered.

“This is very much a local issue,” he said. “It affects our day-to-day life. The discussion needs to be opened at the local level. Let’s show how a community of people who share a mutual respect for each other’s opinions can come together to make a statement on this issue.

“I would be very proud of this town if it passed a resolution calling for on open, transparent investigation of 9/11,” he said.

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