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"Mr. Chairman, I have a question" On-the-Record: Representative Cynthia McKinney Rocks Rumsfeld on War Games By Michael Kane <snip>
Having lost her seniority after a successful 2002 Israeli-funded and Republican Party-managed campaign to unseat her, McKinney's chance to question Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers was pushed aside until the hearings were about to be closed. It appears the bears knew what was coming and had neatly dodged a bullet.
Not quite.
Although the American people were deprived of an on-the-record answer about who was running the wargames which paralyzed official response on 9/11, Cynthia McKinney let it be known (on the record) that we knew and would not forget. As she found a way to get her question on the record, she gave us all a priceless Kodak moment: one that ranks right up there with the reaction I evoked in public from then CIA Director John Deutch in 1996.
The point here is not that 9/11 is suddenly back on the table, somehow available for resolution and justice. It’s a long way from a question from a junior member of the minority party to an impeachment, conviction and imprisonment. The election is still over. The compromised Keane Commission has still closed its doors. No further investigations or legal proceedings are pending. The media has still moved on and the court system and congress are still willfully impotent.
But courage endures. And as long as there is someone like Cynthia McKinney on Capitol Hill there will be moments - wonderful moments like the one captured on the attached video - which prove that we have not gone away or forgotten and that we still have the will to speak.
For those of us who spent years investigating 9/11, the research and evidence we have compiled will always be within arm's reach, awaiting these golden moments. As new threats and challenges overtake us and demand our focus in "the now" we stand ready to jump on any miracle that presents us with an opportunity to remind the world that murderers still walk free, still in power. Like blades of grass growing steadfastly up through the sidewalk we will never surrender our ability to speak truth to power.
God bless Cynthia McKinney. - MCR]
March 1, 2005, PST 1200 (FTW): On February 16, 2005, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard B. Myers the same question this reporter asked General Ralph "Ed" Eberhart at the final 9/11 commission hearing:
What about the war games?
The Full House Armed Services Committee met to receive testimony on the Fiscal Year 2006 National Defense Authorization budget request from the Department of Defense. As the meeting wound down to its expected end, Secretary Rumsfeld prepared to leave. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who chaired the hearing, asked the Secretary to commit to a breakfast with Representatives who had not yet asked their questions. Secretary Rumsfeld happily agreed to do so.
At that moment Cynthia McKinney made sure to get the following vital question into the Congressional Record.
Transcript, February 16, Rumsfeld and Myers questioned by Cynthia McKinney:
Cynthia McKinney: Mr. Chairman, I have a question.
Duncan Hunter: The Gentle-lady is recognized.
McKinney: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Would that breakfast with the Secretary be open to the public?
Hunter: Well, if you want to bring all the omelets it might be, but ah -
McKinney: Well Mr. Chairman, the problem is - and I appreciate your adherence to the five-minute rule - however there are many of us who have important questions and my question in particular is about the four war games that were taking place on September 11th and how they may have impaired our ability to respond to those attacks.
Mr. Hunter: Well let me say the gentle lady...
McKinney: I would like that question to be answered in public Mr. Chairman.
Hunter: Let me say to the gentle lady we're going to have other opportunities to have the Secretary in front of us and what we will do beyond having questions, if you want a question for the record, be able to put that to the record and have the answer on the record, but additionally at the next event where the Secretary testifies - we'll try to make sure that happens - we will start with the folks who did not get their question answered so you will have an opportunity.
McKinney: Thank you so much Mr. Chairman, and I hope the record is still open so that even that portion of my comment will be on this record.
Hunter: It will be so ordered.
McKinney: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
-- end of transcript
At this point Representative Skelton (D-MO) asked a visibly flustered Donald Rumsfeld if in the future a classified briefing could occur on the recommendations given by General Luck and his team to the Secretary.
This helped to bury McKinney's question (and by necessity, the process continues: DoD has posted a peculiar "transcript" of the meeting's final moments, from which Representative McKinney's question has been thoroughly deleted), giving Rumsfeld a way to divert attention from the issue she had skillfully placed on the record. Rumsfeld responded to Skelton's question without addressing McKinney's at all. The only response to her question came in the form of both Rumsfeld and Myers' rapid hand movements and off-microphone murmurs. The issue seemed to knock Rumsfeld off-balance, affecting him as it had affected Ralph "Ed" Eberhart at the final 9/11 Commission hearing.
It's unlikely that "No comment" will be an acceptable reply to Representative McKinney's question. Eberhart got away with that when responding to this reporter, and has since retired from his post heading both NORTHERN COMMAND and NORAD. His retirement came immediately after the 2004 presidential election. It appears "no comment" will be his final word on the matter, but that will not be the case for Secretary Rumsfeld and General Myers.
Who was in charge of coordinating the multiple war games running on 9/11? Crossing the Rubicon has already answered this question in spades. But maybe, just maybe, with her return to Capitol Hill Cynthia McKinney has kept alive a flicker of hope that the crimes of 9/11 may yet shake up the US government.
The courage and directness of this fearless woman never cease to amaze us. She has let it be known that she will be a perpetual thorn in the side of the administration for at least the next two years.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/cgi-bin/MasterPFP.cgi?doc=http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/030105_mckinney_question.shtml#0 |
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