9/11 TRUTH LOUISVILLE & KENTUCKIANA WE ARE CHANGE CONFRONT 9/11 COMMISSION VICE-CHAIRMAN LEE HAMILTON
ARTICLE BY ABEL ASHES
On Thursday March 13th 2008 activists from 9/11 Truth Louisville and Kentuckiana We Are Change waited outside The Grand Convention Center in downtown New Albany, Indiana for 9/11 Commission Vice-Chairman Lee Hamilton who was the guest speaker at the Floyd County Democratic Party’s 2008 Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.
We brought fliers on insider trading, 9/11 financing, thwarted FBI investigations, and WTC demolition issues and gave them to guests as they arrived. Most people were very nice and I only had two people refuse a flier. Many of them asked questions and seemed very concerned about the unanswered questions and lack of a criminal investigation. I personally handed out at least 50 fliers to the crowd of mostly middle to upper class Southern Indiana Democrats many of whom hold political office and/or are running for office.
I spoke with a Democratic Precinct Leader who was very concerned about the 9/11 cover-up and shortly after she went inside the theater she came back out and handed me a ticket to get in! Tickets were $45! She said if her friend didn’t show up I could have the ticket and then she handed it to me. So I asked “what if your friend does show up?” She said, “Then I’ll buy her another ticket.”
So I grabbed my copies of Triple Cross and The Terror Timeline from the car and Lego loaned me his copy of the 9/11 Commission Report and I went inside sat down and waited. I had some cordial conversation with the people at my table, a couple of whom were running for office.
Before the preliminary speeches everyone stood for The Pledge of Allegiance and a very Christian prayer with lots of mentions of “The Lord”. I didn’t participate in the prayer since I am an atheist and hence don’t believe in “God” and I am an American and hence advocate separation of church and state.
Lego called me on my cell phone to let me know that Lee Hamilton was on his way in. Lego and Potato were waiting outside by the red carpet with video camera ready and were distracted by conversation with an attendee when Lee Hamilton appeared out of nowhere and introduced himself to them very quickly and went inside before they could get a word with him.
Mr. Hamilton walked quickly to the front of the room then slowly made his way toward the back where the food was, shaking people’s hands and chatting along the way. When he got to me he noticed my copy of Triple Cross by Peter Lance and said, “Triple Cross?” I asked, “Have you read it?” He said, “No” He said, “Peter Lance?” I said, “Yeah, I believe you met him during the 9/11 Commission. He gave behind-closed-doors testimony.” He said “I don’t recall” I said “Well you met a lot of people so I understand.”
Then I told Lee Hamilton that I’m working on a book about 9/11 and would be honored to ask him one or two questions since he was on the 9/11 Commission after all. He said, “Well, I’ll be around afterwards, maybe then.” I thanked him and he walked on to get his dinner. Shortly thereafter a couple of party members came over and in an aggressive tone demanded to know if I was handing out fliers inside the event. I let them know that I was not and they seemed satisfied and left me alone.
One of the women at my table started asking me questions about 9/11. I was explaining to her that in 1995 the Philippine National Police gave both the CIA and the FBI computer files from Ramzi Yousef’s laptop and Colonel Rodolpho Mendoza’s reports on the results of his interrogation of Abdul Hakim Murad, which spelled out plainly that Ramzi Yousef and his uncle Khalid Sheik Mohammed had a plan to hijack commercial planes and fly them into the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, CIA Headquarters, The Sears Tower in Chicago, The Transamerica Building in San Francisco, The John Hancock Tower in Boston, The White House, and The Capital Building.
All of a sudden the Mayor of New Albany, Douglas B. England, was in my face angrily telling me that I was not allowed to talk about my “philosophy” with anyone in the theater! I asked him what I had done wrong and he said I was “harassing” Lee Hamilton and making some of the guests “nervous”. He said he’d have me kicked out if I talked to anyone else about my “ideas”. We argued for quite a while and both of our voices were raised a few decibels. I demanded to know what I had done wrong and explained that I had politely asked Lee Hamilton if he minded answering a question or two and that Mr. Hamilton sounded happy to oblige. Mayor England told me that he is a Vietnam Vet and probably agrees with me more than not, but that a Democratic Party fundraiser was not the place for “politics”. He told me that it is his job as Mayor to keep the people of New Albany “quiet” and that he’s “tired” because he’s “getting old”.
I told him that I had not initiated any “political” conversations or conversations about 9/11 with anyone and had only spoken about those topics when someone else brought them up and that I hadn’t handed out fliers inside. I also told him that the topic of “9/11″ is not a matter of “philosophy” but a matter for criminal investigation. He bizarrely insisted that 9/11 is a philosophical subject. I guess I didn’t realize that counterterrorism, law enforcement, and civic activism were just trivial cerebral exercises in pointlessly pondering existentialist conundrums but according to the Mayor of New Albany, Indiana they are.
He told me that I had “no right” to talk about such things even if someone else asked me about them. I told him that I not only had a “right” but that it was in fact my responsibility. He said “it is not your responsibility” I said “yes it is my responsibility and it’s your responsibility too.” I told him that as a poor person I do not have access to my So-called “representatives” and that when I try to contact them they brush me off and act condescending and so if a political figure makes a public appearance I’m going to be there to have my say.
The next thing I knew the Floyd County Chief of Police, Ted Heavlin, was in my face saying “Mr. Hamilton doesn’t want you bothering him.” And “If you ask him any questions I’ll arrest you. I’m the Chief of Police and I know what kind of power I’ve got.” I let him know that I hadn’t done anything wrong and I would not tolerate his attempts to bully me. I told him the Lee Hamilton and I had a brief, cordial conversation and that Mr. Hamilton said that he didn’t mind answering a question or two “afterwards” if he had time. Police Chief Heavlin told me that Lee Hamilton told him that I was bothering him and that he didn’t want to talk to me. This nonsense ended with the Mayor and the Chief of Police telling me that I should eat dinner and have a good time and listen to the speeches but not talk to anyone especially Lee Hamilton because I was “making people nervous” And that if I tried to talk to Hamilton I’d be arrested.
Meanwhile outside my friends from Kentuckiana We Are Change were given tickets by other good hearted Democrats in attendance. When they came in I told them about the strange behavior of the Mayor and Chief of Police and how what the Chief of Police had told me that Lee Hamilton had said to him directly contradicted what Lee Hamilton told me. In other words either Lee Hamilton lied to me or the Chief of Police did. They told me that they had been talking with a very high profile attorney outside who had been the defense attorney in one of the biggest murder trials in recent Southern Indiana history. They decided to go back outside and ask his advice.
He not only said that it was unlawful for us to be arrested for simply asking Lee Hamilton a question, but that if we were arrested he’d sue on our behalf, pro-bono! He gave my friends all his contact info and said he’d give us legal advice and help us out if we were ever wrongfully arrested, assaulted, et cetera. Apparently he also remarked that he didn’t care what most of the people in attendance thought of him since he knew that most of them already didn’t like him since he’s “sued most of them.”
Lee Hamilton gave a long speech about supporting civil liberties, fiscal responsibility, ending the war in Iraq, electing a Democrat to the Presidency, and electing Democrats in general. He also spoke about eliminating poverty in America. When the speech ended he shook hands with people up front near the stage.
As Police Chief Heavlin was walking out the door he spotted me and pointed at me and said, “Remember what I told you!” I asked him why it was that Lee Hamilton said he didn’t mind answering my questions while he had threatened to arrest me because Hamilton didn’t want to be “bothered” He said that it was okay to ask Mr. Hamilton if he had time to answer my questions, but that if Hamilton said “no” I should leave him alone. I asked the Sherriff if he had lied to me earlier. He just smiled and walked on.
When Lee Hamilton started to pass me I asked him again if he could answer a couple of questions about the 9/11 Commission for my book. He said, “I don’t want to get into it” And proceeded to walk into the lobby. I went outside and positioned myself with my video camera to capture Lego asking him a question. Lego asked him why the 9/11 Commission thought that the issue of who financed the 9/11 attacks was “of little practical significance”. Mr. Hamilton responded that “there was some funding, but…mumble, mumble”. Then Lego asked Mr. Hamilton about his role in rejecting Sudan’s offer to give the US Government information on Osama Bin Laden. Hamilton did not respond and seemed very eager to get in his car and drive away. I approached the car and shouted that Mahmud Ahmed of the ISI should have been arrested for his role in financing 9/11 and that Mr. Hamilton should join us in supporting a criminal investigation into 9/11. He quickly got into the passenger side of his car and I held up two books to his window, Triple Cross by Peter Lance and The Terror Timeline by Paul Thompson and the Center for Cooperative Research, while Lego and I shouted that the 9/11 Truth Movement was doing the real 9/11 investigation. He rode off looking right at the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth postcard stuck under the windshield wiper of his car directly in front of his face.
We spoke briefly with the attorney again and thanked him. We joked that we should have shouted “9/11! Dick and Don did it!” in reference to Lee Hamilton’s two close personal friends, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
It was a very successful night! We got quality 9/11 information into the hands of at least one hundred prominent Southern Indiana Democrats. We let Lee Hamilton know that the whitewash of 9/11 will not stand. We made the acquaintance of an attorney who will give our local movement legal advice and representation if any of our civil rights are violated.
We got video on two different cameras and will be posting separately and hopefully will have time to edit both videos together in the next couple of weeks. I’ll post some stills soon.
abelashes