SCHOLARS AFFIRM CHENEY COMPLICITY IN 9/11

Experts conclude Vice President possessed foreknowledge and suggest Moussaoui trial a "distraction"

(I-Newswire) - Duluth, MN: March 13, 2006 -- A society of experts and scholars contends that the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui--for willfully concealing advance knowledge of the events of 9/11 -- has the status of a Soviet-style "show trial" and functions as a diversion from the real culprits. The nonpartisan group, Scholars for 9/11 Truth, asserts that the evidence implicating Vice President Dick Cheney of that very offense is more obvious and compelling. If they are even remotely correct, then the alleged terrorists appear to have been cast in the role of "patsies."

The experts base their conclusion on testimony presented to the 9/11 Commission by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta on May 23, 2003, which was omitted from its final report, and on related events at the Pentagon. Members of the society will present their findings during a press conference to be held at 1 PM on Tuesday at the United States Courthouse in Alexandria, VA, the location of a hearing to determine whether Moussaoui, who is called "the 20th hijacker", should serve a life term or receive the death sentence.

"Mineta's testimony is devastating," observed James H. Fetzer, Ph.D., McKnight Professor at the University of Minnesota. Fetzer is the founder and co-chair of the scholars' society, which recently joined with Judicial Watch in calling for release of documents, films and videos, and physical evidence withheld from the public by the administration. "It pulls the plug on the Commission's contention there was no advance warning that the Pentagon was going to be hit."

According to Secretary Mineta's testimony, which is in the public domain, when he ( Mineta ) arrived at an underground bunker at the White House ( known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center ), the Vice President was in charge. "During the time that the airplane was coming in to the Pentagon", he stated, "there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President, 'The plane is 50 miles out.' 'The plane is 30 miles out.'

"And when it got down to, 'The plane is 10 miles out,'" Mineta continued, "the young man also said to the Vice President, 'Do the orders still stand?' And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said, 'Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?'"

"The only reasonable interpretation of the orders," Fetzer observed, "is that the incoming aircraft should not be shot down".

Philip J. Berg, Esq., Former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania, added, "Those who made it happen were obviously in the position to know that it was going to happen and therefore could have sounded a warning alarm. The case against Cheney is more powerful than the case against Moussaoui. No one is more culpable than the perpetrators. If Moussaoui deserves the death penalty, what does our Vice President deserve?"

Other members of the society include Robert Bowman, head of the "Star Wars" program in both Democratic and Republican administrations; Morgan Reynolds, former Chief Economist for the Department of Labor in the Bush administration; Andreas von Buelow, former assistant defense minister of Germany; Steven E. Jones, a professor of physics from Brigham Young University and the society's co-chair; and Griffin, a noted theologian and author of The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions.

Documentary support for the conclusions reported here may be found at the Scholars for 9/11 Truth web site at www.st911.org.