Massachusetts
Initiative Campaign Launch!
Posted on August 18, 2011
by Byron Belitsos
September 7, 2011
[updated]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Rich Aucoin •
781-956-6013 • RichAucoin@comcast.net
Unprecedented effort for new investigation to be launched on 9/11
anniversary
U.S. SENATOR LEADS
MASSACHUSETTS
INITIATIVE CAMPAIGN FOR A NEW 9/11 COMMISSION
(Boston, MA) Senator
Mike Gravel announced today the inauguration of a citizens’ campaign to
authorize a new investigation of the events of September 11, 2001 after his
proposed ballot measure was certified today by the Attorney General of
Massachusetts, Martha Coakley. [The text of the initiative is posted below
or is available as a PDF: Initiative
Petition for a Massachesetts Law.] If adopted by the voters, the new
law would create an independent, citizen-led investigatory commission that
would be seated in
M
assachusetts and be vested
with subpoena power and the power to take testimony under oath. “I personally
initiated this effort to create a new 9/11 commission,” stated Gravel, “in
response to the outpouring of calls for a new investigation—in the light of new
evidence—from Americans across the political spectrum. Because our gridlocked
Congress is obviously incapable of taking up this issue, I believe that state
initiatives are our best alternative approach. Massachusetts is an optimal
state in which to begin this work.”
Gravel is a former
two-term Senator from Alaska and a 2008 presidential candidate who is also
considering a run for the presidency in 2012 at the urging of grassroots
groups. The Senator is currently chair and founder of the Citizens 9/11
Commission Campaign (911cc.org), a California-based citizen’s group that is
filing similar ballot measures in other states, notably Oregon and Alaska.
Gravel pointed out that
hundreds of prominent Americans have lent their names to the call for a new
investigation, including over 220 senior military, intelligence, and other
government officials; over 1,500
engineers and architects; over 250 pilots and aviation
professionals; and over 400 professors (see PatriotsQuestion911.com.) Scholars are also writing peer-reviewed
articles. “Polls have
also repeatedly shown that millions of Americans seriously doubt the official
story about 9/11,” Gravel stated. “On the tenth anniversary of these events, it
is obvious that we urgently need citizen action to get a new investigation.”
Senator Gravel traces his
interest in the issue to the charge leveled by the co-chairs that the original
9/11 Commission, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, that the Commission they led was
“set up to fail,” as stated in their 2006 book, Without Precedent.
Gravel pointed out that, according to an Associated Press review article
(August 4, 2006), “the Sept. 11 commission was so frustrated with repeated
misstatements by the Pentagon and FAA about their response to the 2001 terror
attacks that it considered an investigation into possible deception.” Co-chair
Kean stated: “We to this day don’t know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace
Command] told us what they told us. It was just so far from the truth. It’s one
of those loose ends that never got tied.” Gravel also noted that the Senior
Counsel to the 9/11 Commission, John Farmer, openly stated that “At some level
of the government, at some point in time . . . there was an agreement not to
tell the truth about what happened.”
Statewide Ballot Initiative Campaign for a New 9/11 Commission
Senator Gravel—a native of
Massachusetts—will kick off the ballot initiative campaign on the occasion of
the tenth anniversary of 9/11 with a major press conference, followed by a
12-day tour of the state. The press conference will be held on September 13,
2011 at 11:00 am on the steps of the Massachusetts state house on Beacon Hill.
(While in Boston, the Senator will also make a private visit to the Boston
Logan International Airport 9/11 Memorial. The new memorial commemorates the
206 victims of the 9/11 attacks who had ties to Massachusetts.)
Rich Aucion
Senator Gravel will be
supported in the state by a coalition of Massachusetts 9/11 advocacy groups and
local concerned citizens led by Rich McCampbell, a Cambridge-based biotech
engineer, and Rich Aucoin, former Libertarian candidate for lieutenant governor
who has worked in senior positions in three previous initiative campaigns.
Working with Gravel, the statewide alliance will create awareness and raise the
funds needed for running a petition campaign. The group’s slogan is “9/11—Never
Forget.”
Rich McCampbell
In cooperation with
Senator Gravel, McCampbell, Aucoin, and a group of 20 Massachusetts voters
submitted the proposed initiative law on August 3. Its formal certification by
the Attorney General’s office of Massachusetts is due no later than September
7. In his public appearances in key cities and towns through the state, Gravel
will explain the intent of the proposed law to voters, who will then be asked
to support the petition campaign, the first step in the group’s work. According
to the Massachusetts initiative law, supporters must collect a minimum of
nearly 70,000 valid signatures from registered voters by early December of
2011.
Proposed Powers of the New 9/11 Commission
If Gravel’s petition
campaign succeeds in getting its measure on the ballot, and if it is approved
by Massachusetts voters in November of 2012, the primary work of the “Citizens’
9/11 Investigation Commission,” once it is funded and seated, will be to engage
in a fair and impartial investigation of the circumstances of the alleged
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Commission, supported
by its staff, will call or subpoena witnesses and hold evidentiary hearings
under oath. It will also be empowered to inquire into events leading up to
9/11, as well as those occurring in its aftermath, and will re-examine the
findings of any previous investigations.
The Commission established
by the initiative law will consist of at least 15 members. Commissioners will
be selected by the Citizens’ 9/11 Commission Campaign steering committee from a
screened list of nominations submitted by the public and also from among its
own internally compiled list of distinguished citizens. The newly seated
commissioners will then elect an executive director who will hire staff. The
final report on the Commission’s findings, due no later than January 1, 2015,
can be used by a state or federal prosecutor to issue indictments if and when
appropriate.
“The previous 9/11
Commission report,” noted Aucoin, “did not hold any U.S. government officials
responsible for possible negligence or for intended or unintended missteps that
led to the events of 9/11. Well-established rules of evidence were never
applied to the original commission’s finding which alleged that Osama bin Laden
and a list of co-conspirators committed the crime. The intent of our approach,
by contrast, is to hold all parties to this tragedy accountable under the
criminal laws of the state of Massachusetts or the laws of any other state that
joins our effort.”
Notably, other states may
enter into a so-called joint-powers agreement with Massachusetts if the
initiative law passes. The authorized powers of the new commission can be
extended to any state that enters into this agreement for cooperation. “The
Citizens’ 9/11 Investigation Commission created by the Massachusetts law may
exercise all investigatory powers of each state that has entered into the joint
powers agreement,” explained Gravel, “including but not limited to the power of
subpoena in that state and the power to take testimony under oath.”
Using several different
state initiative laws to create one citizens’ commission, thereby creating a de
facto national effort, is without precedent, but has already been legally
accepted in principle by the offices of legislative counsel of the states of
California and Oregon. “The law now submitted to Massachusetts,” said Gravel,
“was in fact drafted by me in cooperation with Oregon’s State Office of
Legislative Counsel. I then slightly altered it for introduction in
Massachusetts. We will file the Oregon document shortly. Our intent is to
keep the Oregon and Massachusetts texts—and that of any other state initiative
that we file—as similar as possible.”
Massachusetts State Requirements for Initiative Laws
Rich McCampbell pointed
out that there are several key steps to bear in mind. “If and when our
initiative passes in November 2012, funding for the measure will be a separate
matter. Under Massachusetts law, the issue of financing of the provisions of an
initiative law, once passed, is an exclusive prerogative of the state
legislature; funding provisions cannot be included in any Massachusetts
initiative.”
Such a requirement is,
however, not the case in Oregon initiative law, where funding for the creation
of the new commission is built into the proposed initiative legislation.
In
Massachusetts, signatures collected by the December 2011 deadline must equal
three percent of the votes cast for governor in the last election, or
approximately 70,000 signatures. Massachusetts has a distribution requirement
that mandates that no more than one-quarter of the certified signatures may
come from any one county. By law, after petition signatures are collected and
certified, the state legislature is required to consider whether it will adopt
the proposed law without the need for a statewide vote of the people. If the
state legislature declines to act, supporters of the measure are required to
collect a second round of signatures, totaling 0.5 percent of the vote cast for
governor in the most recent election. ###
Media Contact: Rich Aucoin 781-956-6013
RichAucoin@comcast.net
REFERENCES
Frequently Asked Questions
about the Citizens 9/11 Commission Campaign:
http://9-11cc.org/index.php/about-us/faqs/
Government officials and
multiple professions question 9/11 Commission Report:
http://patriotsquestion911.com/
Hope Yen, Associated
Press (August 4, 2006) “Book: Sept. 11 Panel Doubted Officials”:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/AR2006080401026.html
Commissioner Kean: NORAD
testimony “far from the truth”:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080101300.html
Omissions and distortions
in the 911 Commission Report compiled by scholar David Ray Griffin:
http://911research.wtc7.net/post911/commission/report.html
Dan Fletcher, Time
(Sept. 11, 2009), “A New Look at the 9/11 Commission” “It’s
almost a culture of concealment, for lack of a better word. There were
interviews made at the FAA’s New York center the night of 9/11 and those tapes
were destroyed. The CIA tapes of the interrogations were destroyed. The story
of 9/11 itself, to put it mildly, was distorted and was completely different
from the way things happened.” [John Farmer, senior counsel to the 9/11
Commission]
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1921659,00.html
Senior Counsel to the 9/11
Commission shocked at deceptions:
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080101300.html
Laws governing the
initiative process in Massachusetts:
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Laws_governing_the_initiative_process_in_Massachusetts
****************************************************************
Initiative
Petition for a Law to Create a
Citizens’ 9/11 Investigation Commission
Be it Enacted by the
People, and by their authority:
SECTION 1.
Sections 2 to 6 of this 2012 Act shall be known and may be cited as the
Citizens’ 9/11 Investigation Commission Act.
SECTION
2. (1) The Citizens’ 9/11 Investigation Commission is established as an
independent commission for the purpose of investigating events that relate to
September 11, 2001.
(2) The commission shall
investigate in a fair and impartial manner the circumstances of September 11,
2001, including the events leading up to and the events that occurred in the
aftermath of September 11, 2001. The commission shall investigate:
(a) The destruction of the
World Trade Center Towers: WTC 1, WTC 2, WTC 7 in New York City;
(b) The attack on the Pentagon
in Arlington, Virginia;
(c) The crash of United
Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania;
(d) The invasions of
Afghanistan and Iraq by the United States;
(e) The Global War on
Terror; and
(f) Any other issue the
commission deems relevant and necessary to its duties, functions and powers.
(3) The commission
shall consider the findings, and the shortcomings of the findings, of any
previous investigations of the events of September 11, 2001, and the events
leading up to and occurring in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, including
but not limited to:
(a) The National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States; and
(b) The Joint Inquiry into
Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of
September 11, 2001, by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and
the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
(4) The commission shall
produce a written report detailing the commission’s investigation and
findings. The report shall describe:
(a) Any criminal activity,
including a war crime or a crime against humanity;
(b) Any individual or
corporation that unduly profited from the events investigated by the
commission;
(c) Any other malfeasance
and any perpetrators of the malfeasance; and
(d) Any other findings
made by the commission.
(5) The commission shall
deliver the report to the following persons or entities in this state and the
analogous persons or entities in any state that has entered the joint powers
agreement as described in section 3 of this 2012 Act:
(a) The Governor;
(b) The Chief Justice of
the Supreme Judicial Court; and
(c) The Legislature.
(6) The commission shall
complete all of the commission’s duties, functions and powers conclude its
investigation and complete the delivery of the written report no later than
January 1, 2015. The commission shall be dissolved no later than February
1, 2015.
SECTION 3. (1) The
Citizens’ 9/11 Investigation Commission established under section 2 of this
2012 Act may enter into a joint powers agreement with another state in the
manner described in this section. The commission may enter into a joint
powers agreement with another state that has enacted a law similar to this 2012
Act or a law that expresses a clear intent to enter a joint powers
agreement. The joint powers of the commission shall extend to any state
that enters into a joint powers agreement under this section.
(2) The Citizens’ 9/11
Investigation Commission shall have and may exercise all investigatory powers
of each state that has entered the joint powers agreement, including but not
limited to the power of subpoena in that state and the power to take testimony
under oath.
(3) Any state or local government
or other public entity may, as an alternative to entering into a joint powers
agreement, endorse the investigation by the Citizens’ 9/11 Investigation
Commission by passing, adopting or otherwise submitting to the commission a
resolution expressing endorsement of the commission.
SECTION 4.
(1) The Citizens’ 9/11 Investigation Commission shall consist of at least 15
members and shall consist of an odd number of members.
(2) The Citizens 9/11
Investigation Commission Campaign Steering Committee, incorporated in the State
of California, shall select 15 or more persons to serve as the initial members
of the commission. The initial members shall appoint an executive
director to serve at the pleasure of the commission.
(3) The executive director
may appoint additional members from among candidates nominated by any citizen
of the United States.
(4) Membership preference
shall be given to persons who have expertise in specific areas or subjects that
would assist the commission in carrying out the commission’s duties and
objectives.
(5) The executive director
shall appoint a special prosecutor to serve at the pleasure of the
commission. The special prosecutor shall conduct the investigation and
compile the written report described in section 2 (4) of this 2012 Act and
shall report to the commission.
(6) The executive
director, special prosecutor and any member of the commission may be removed
from the commission by a two-thirds vote of the commission. The
commission shall replace members of the commission by majority vote.
(7) Each member of the
commission shall execute the following oath or affirmation of office as a
condition of service, “I, (name), hereby swear or affirm that I will, to the
best of my ability, defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States and
the principle of truth in governance in investigating the circumstances of
September 11, 2001, including the events leading up to and the events that
occurred in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.”
(8) The commission may
enter into contracts and hire any staff the commission deems necessary.
(9) The commission shall
adopt rules and procedures necessary to carry out the commission’s duties under
sections 2 to 6 of this 2012 Act.
SECTION 5.
(1) The 9/11 Citizens Investigation Fund is established in the State Treasury,
separate and distinct from the General Fund. Interest earned by the
Citizens’ 9/11 Investigation Fund shall be credited to the fund. All
moneys in the fund shall, subject to appropriation by the state legislature, be
used by the Citizens’ 9/11 Investigation Commission to carry out the duties,
functions and powers of the commission.
(2) The Citizens’ 9/11
Investigation Commission may accept contributions of moneys and assistance from
the United States Government or its agencies or from any other source, public
or private, and agree to conditions placed on the moneys that are not
inconsistent with the duties of the commission. All moneys received by
the commission under this subsection shall be deposited into the Citizens’ 9/11
Investigation Fund established under subsection (1) of this section.
(3) The Commonwealth of
Massachusetts shall contractually agree to be a party to the interstate
Citizens’ 9/11 Investigation Commission, established under section 3 of this
2012 Act, subject to appropriation.
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Name of Initial Signer
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Address [Street No./Town/Zip]
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Signature
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Rich Aucoin
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Barton Bruce
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Greg Flynn
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Ted Guertin
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Dr. John Hiebert
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Ralph Lopez
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Joe Lopisi
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Al Magaletta
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Rich McCampbell
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Jane Millikan
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Bob O’Teri
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Martha Nalband
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Paul Payne
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Allan Rubin
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Susan Serpa
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Al Skane
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