Monday, May 4, 2009

Memo: 9/11 Commission Witnesses Were Intimidated By Government “Minders”

Memo: 9/11 Commission Witnesses Were Intimidated By Government Minders 290409CommissionSomewhat lost within the flu pandemic media hype this week is an important new revelation concerning the cover up of the events of 9/11.

A recently uncovered 9/11 Commission memo dating from October 2003, half way through the panel’s investigation, addresses concerns that government “minders” were intimidating witnesses and shaping their testimonies.

The document was drafted by Kevin Scheid, a senior staffer who led the commission’s Team 2, which was responsible for reviewing the overarching structure of the US intelligence community.

Names also appearing on the memo are those of staffers Lorry Fenner, an air force intelligence officer, and lawyer Gordon Lederman.

The memo, entitled “Executive Branch Minders’ Intimidation of Witnesses,” states the following:

* Minders “answer[ed] questions directed at witnesses;”

* Minders acted as “monitors, reporting to their respective agencies on Commission staffs lines of inquiry and witnesses’ verbatim responses.” The staff thought this “conveys to witnesses that their superiors will review their statements and may engage in retribution;”

* Minders’ notetaking “facilitates agencies in alerting future witnesses to the Commission’s lines of inquiry and permits agencies to prepare future witnesses either explicitly or implicitly.”

* Minders “positioned themselves physically and have conducted themselves in a manner that we believe intimidates witnesses from giving full and candid responses to our questions.”

The staffers make it clear that intimidation by minders was widespread and had not only occurred with their team’s witnesses.

The memo was discovered by an independent researcher in the National Archives, to which it was added earlier this year.

via Memo: 9/11 Commission Witnesses Were Intimidated By Government “Minders”.

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