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http://globalresearch.ca/articles/FLO207A.html
Justice Department To Attempt Shut Down of 9/11 Evidence
by Tom Flocco
12 July 2002
On June 20, Bush Administration officials quietly informed a New York
judge of their intention to commence legal actions likely to be far-
reaching in their constitutional, political, and individual rights
implications pertaining to current lawsuits and government secrecy
related to the attacks on September 11, 2001. The moves were revealed
in a letter obtained from a confidential source, with two other
sources corroborating its existence, adding additional information.
U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division Robert D.
McCallum, Jr. and United States Attorney for the Southern District of
New York James B. Comey advised U.S. District Judge Alvin
Hellerstein, also of the Southern District of New York, that the
Department of Justice (DOJ) will intervene to control access to all
evidence and documents related to all private litigation before
Hellerstein's court regarding the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001 -- citing "grave national security concerns" as their motivation.
The McCallum and Comey correspondence advised Judge Hellerstein of
their intention to "seek [court] entry of a global discovery order
[effectively controlling evidence obtained from any country],"
requiring that 1) "Transportation Security Administration (TSA) be
served with [have prior access to] all requests for party and non-
party discovery," 2) "defendants and non-parties submit all proposed
discovery responses that may contain `sensitive security information'
(SSI) to the TSA prior to releasing such material to plaintiffs," and
3) "TSA have the necessary opportunity to review such material and to
withhold `sensitive security information' " [from victim-family
attorneys].
One victim family plaintiff -- speaking off the record -- told Scoop
Media that family members and their attorneys have not yet sought
internal memos, electronic mail, facsimiles, and documents which
would shed public light upon what had to be extraordinary legal
maneuverings. However, added high stakes related to the publicly
undisclosed contents of the controversial August 6, 2001 Presidential
intelligence briefing prior to the attacks, and a secret July, 2001
FBI memo -- said to be "50 times more significant than the August 6
briefing," by a Congressional investigator (New York Times, 5-18-
2002), will only serve to heighten the importance of the June 20
letter.
Will We Ever Know What Really Happened? The victim family source
complained to Scoop Media that "now the White House is trying to
control or block the evidence we need to prove our negligence cases
in court." The source then added that offices of United Airlines
defense firm Mayer-Brown and lead attorney Michael Feagley, TSA, Bush
Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department, Judge
Hellerstein's District Court, and the White House Counsel's office
were all likely involved in the legal machinations.
The resumes of TSA Director, John McGaw, and his personnel security
chief, David Holmes, are already controversial enough to draw probing
questions on many fronts; but plaintiff attorneys for the victim
families may find the Administration's TSA appointee attempts to
exert government control over their clients' private cases to be the
proverbial last straw.
The DOJ letter to Judge Hellerstein reveals that Bush Administration
officials at TSA have also been contacting witnesses already
subpoenaed by attorneys for the plaintiff families, telling them that
they should send all Plaintiff-subpoenaed evidence and documents to
the TSA for initial inspection, prior to directly cooperating with
family plaintiff attorneys and Judge Hellerstein's Court in New York.
Thus, constitutional questions arise as to why the New York District
Court is permitting Bush Administration bureaucratic appointees to
tamper with witnesses and evidence in the private civil actions of
American citizens.
Some 33 families have already chosen to forego financial awards from
the congressionally authorized victim compensation fund in favor of
seeking justice and accountability. Their lawsuits are attempting to
recover damages for negligence, ticket contract safeguards, and
failure to prevent the attacks, even as more evidence regarding prior
knowledge of the terrorism recently leaked out from Capitol Hill --
from congressmen and senators themselves.
The letter also disclosed that Ashcroft's Office will push for "the
appointment of lead counsel," effectively exerting a consolidated
supervisory role over all victim family attorneys, while
seeking "adoption of uniform [similarly controlled] discovery
requests to streamline litigation, reduce costs for all parties and
conserve judicial resources."
Informed sources close to the case told Scoop Media that actions
brought by the Justice Department will dilute and trivialize the more
clear-cut and important cases which seek answers to many of the
questions related to security, negligence, and prior knowledge of the
attacks.
Moreover, the legal moves will be seen by some to help Bush attorneys
shut down and cut off victim family access to important government
documents which would likely lead to the accountability and justice
their attorneys have sought through litigation. This, while other
victim families watch -- deciding whether or not to introduce their
own civil actions against airline companies or other government
entities.
RESPONSIBLE ACTIVISM
Some of the unknowing victim family members soon to be affected by
imminent but discreet Justice Department legal action [which
literally assumes total control over evidence gathering, depositions,
testimony, and government reports] were at the Capitol just last
month on June 10 and 11 to attend events related to calls for open
September 11 probes.
Some family members attended a Monday National Press Club media
conference sponsored by the 9/11 investigative organization
UnansweredQuestions.org, an independent, non-partisan online
community of concerned citizens, researchers, independent
investigators, and journalists asking and exploring the unanswered
questions of September 11. Believing in transparency, the group's
panel members told gathered TV, radio, and print media attendees that
good questions lead to answers and solutions.
On Tuesday, busloads of 9/11 victim families descended on Capitol
Hill to voice their concerns at a rally also attended by more media
and some congressmen and senators. The families were pleading for
open, aggressive, and complete investigations in Congress, but also
for a truly independent, non-partisan investigative commission with
lawyers and serious researchers totally in concert with the families'
goals of justice and accountability. Meanwhile, Bush attorneys were
moving to take control over needed evidence for their civil actions
against the airlines.
BUSH LAWYERS THREATEN VICTIM PLAINTIFFS
Curious indications of additional Administration political
machinations linked to Special Master Kenneth Feinberg and the
September 11th Victim Compensation Fund were also revealed in
Justice's letter to Hellerstein's court: "The Government has been
advised that the Court is developing a procedure by which all
Plaintiffs in the September 11 Tort Litigation must formally
acknowledge the ramifications of pursuing a lawsuit rather than
filing a claim with [the Fund]."
This action will permit Feinberg to force families to listen to his
attempts to convince them to give up their lawsuits -- accepting his
reduced financial offers, instead of taking their chances for fair
compensation in court, but also for justice and accountability.
However, Feinberg might be losing his battle, as only 10 families out
of 3,200 have thus far completed applications permitting him to
determine their financial futures, rather than a judge and jury,
according to wide press reports.
DOJ lawyers McCallum and Comey further advised Judge Hellerstein
that "In making their election, plaintiffs should be fully informed
of the risks that accompany litigation." However, the Administration
added that the "TSA's vigorous enforcement of the rules governing non-
disclosure of sensitive security information may present significant
litigation consequences for all plaintiffs, and the Government
respectfully requests that the Court include a statement to this
effect in any finalized protocol,"-- clearly the letter's most
controversial statement.
Some might consider the Administration's statement a veiled threat,
warning that any victim family continuing with or thinking about
suing either the airlines, security firms, or other government
entities would likely lose any civil action because the Government is
going to take complete control of their access to the very evidence
needed to prove their cases in court.
Moreover, these and other statements in the Justice Department's
correspondence to Hellerstein could well test the legal ire of many
of the families -- given the staggering individual, legal, and
constitutional implications.
"CONSOLIDATING" THE CONTROL
Constitutional separation of powers notwithstanding, the Executive
Branch is also attempting additional circumnavigation of treacherous
legal waters that some might consider blatant usurpation of judicial
branch authority in order to control access to evidence in legitimate
private lawsuits.
The Assistant Attorney General and U.S. Attorney advised that "the
Government will seek to intervene in these cases, and will move to
implement a consolidated litigation plan that would enable TSA to
enforce both statutory and regulatory aviation safety measures
effectively and efficiently."
On the heels of its strict enforcement intentions, Ashcroft's Office
requested "that the Court -- on its own motion [acting by itself] --
stay [suspend] all discovery in the September 11 Tort Litigation
pending the July conference." McCallum and Comey then asked the Judge
to "permit the Government to address these and other issues at the
upcoming July status conference," -- taking the unprecedented action
of halting legal evidence discovery in all September 11 tort
litigation. The undisclosed victim litigant told Scoop Media that the
conference will be held on Friday.
DOJ USING SSI TO CLOAK TSA AND FAA NEGLIGENCE IN USA
Bush Administration lawyers at Attorney General Ashcroft's Department
of Justice (DOJ) may be employing legerdemain in their efforts to
suppress useful court evidence, adding that "Congress charged TSA
with prohibiting the disclosure of SSI, an entire category of
information relating to transportation security."
They also said that [the Under Secretary of Transportation for
Security] "shall prescribe regulations prohibiting disclosure of
information obtained or developed in carrying out security or
research and development activities" the release of which would "be
detrimental to the safety of passengers in transportation." Justice
lawyers then said that "SSI includes, but is not limited to, any
approved, accepted, or standard security program; Security Directives
and Information Circulars; any selection criteria used in any
security screening process; and any security contingency plan."
Brian Sullivan, former Special Agent for the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) New England Region, pointed out to Scoop Media
in an interview that "the purpose of protecting information should be
in the interests of defending national security. SSI should not be
used as a shield to hide FAA and TSA negligence and incompetence."
Sullivan added that "the intent of the SSI designation was not to
hide the ineptitude of the failed FAA civil aviation security
apparatus; nor was it intended to preclude legitimate legal inquiry,
as government lawyers carry out White House orders to cloak
bureaucratic incompetence in a blanket of `sensitive security.' "
THE PRESIDENT'S PROTECTORS OF AIRPORT INSECURITY
Victim families will be relieved to know that the recent Bush-
appointed protector of the nation's airport security, TSA Director
John McGaw, is a 26-year Secret Service veteran. What the families
won't want to know is that wide reports cite McGaw as spearheading
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) investigations
into the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the 1996 crash of TWA Flight
800, the bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and the national
church-arson task force -- packing enough controversy into a couple
years to last a couple lifetimes.
McGaw was also criticized by Senator Arlen Specter at a recent Senate
Commerce Committee confirmation hearing for defending the actions of
BATF agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, where the government paid Randy
Weaver $3.5 million because the agents killed his wife and son in the
altercation.
And notwithstanding Bush appointee McGaw's controversial and
questionable new power to "prescribe regulations prohibiting
disclosure of information" [controlling evidence] and "security or
research and development activities" at the nation's airports, his
newly-recruited TSA personnel security chief David Holmes may be
America's worst security nightmare.
Former Commerce Department colleagues charge that, as favors for
politicians and friends, "David Holmes signed off on Commerce
applicants with criminal or other derogatory information in their
background files. One felon even got Top Secret clearance," according
to WorldNetDaily.com. (4-24-2002)
WorldNetDaily added that a senior Commerce official said "TSA is
under enormous pressure to meet that Nov.19 deadline [for hiring
30,000 new baggage screeners]." He then added: "And then you have a
guy, who's already predisposed to looking the other way, making
critical decisions on the people who are essentially our last line of
defense against armed hijackers. You do the math."
SEE YOU IN NOVEMBER
At this point, not knowing whether to laugh or cry over such bumbling
incompetence -- or worse, victim families and their attorneys will
now watch Bush Administration lawyers madly shuffling legal paperwork
over to the Southern District of New York, using every desperate and
unprecedented creative legal theory available in an attempt to steal
their constitutionally-given right to a fair civil trial in front of
a jury of American citizens.
The Ashcroft lawyers will try to pull it off by smothering access to
critical evidence required to win victim family cases, even as some
are forced to listen to their Special Master Kenneth Feinberg
reiterate the Justice Department's coming threats to their previously
filed litigation.
The letter Americans were not supposed to know about tells it all.
And implications for the U.S. rule of law will be seen by many as
truly astonishing. However, Fall elections will reveal whether
Americans will tolerate what one 9/11 victim plaintiff told Scoop
Media is nothing more than "slick government shenanigans."
Grieving families, on the whole, are still emotionally unable to
demand that Judge Hellerstein allow their attorneys the right of
legitimate legal inquiry and discovery of evidence. It will likely
take righteous outrage and responsible citizen activism to halt
taxpayer-funded DOJ lawyers attempting to innovatively cloak what
many will describe as inside-the-beltway negligence, ineptitude, and
abuse of power by Bush Administration appointees at TSA.
Moreover, the anguished victim litigants, their first-rate attorneys,
and other potential 9/11 plaintiff families closely watching the
lawsuits already filed, may now have to rethink their strategy: It
just might take a coterie of constitutional attorneys to prevent the
Administration's impending assaults upon the Constitution's
separation of powers.
This, while having waited nine months for sequestered congressional
hearings to commence behind closed doors in a sound-proof room at the
Capitol -- to all intents and purposes, placing a 9/11 evidence
blackout via a) the Legislative Branch's secret, soft, and un-
aggressive "hearings," and b) the Executive Branch's legal lapdogs
snapping at the heels of justice, fairness, and God-given rights. How
sad for the country that such are the "leaders" placed in power by
the citizenry -- corrupt and unresponsive. But Americans get to vote
again in November.
Tom Flocco is an independent US investigative journalist, having
previously written for Scoop.co.nz, AmericanFreePress.net.
WorldNetDaily.com, FromTheWilderness.com, NewsMax.com, NarcoNews.com,
and JudicialWatch.org. Tom Flocco is also a contributor to
www.globalresearch.ca Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Copyright � Tom
Flocco 2002. For fair use only
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