Today marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and the Pentagon. On this occasion, peace leader, former CIA analyst, and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), Ray McGovern, gave an absolute bombshell exposé to the 171st consecutive meeting of the International Peace Coalition.
He began by outlining his personal experience while questioning former Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta 5 years after the 9/11 attacks, following an examination of his testimony to the 9/11 Commission. McGovern called this commission a “political commission.”
McGovern described Mineta’s testimony: Mineta said that Vice President Dick Cheney was already in the PEOC (President’s Emergency Operations Center) when Mineta arrived at approximately 9:25 am, conflicting with the officially reported arrival of 9:58 am, after the Pentagon attack. Mineta described a young man repeatedly entering the room and informing Cheney about an incoming plane, later thought to be American Airlines Flight 77, which was approaching Washington and was presumed to be flown by hijackers: 50 miles away, 30 miles away, then 10 miles away.
Mineta said the young man eventually asked Cheney whether “the orders still stand?” to which VP Cheney whipped his head around, barking: “Of course it still stands, have you heard anything to the contrary?”
Mineta even remarked years later at an event in Seattle that his testimony of this account was left out of the 9/11 commission report.
In 2006, McGovern had the opportunity to corner Mineta on this very account at Constitution Day at Georgetown University, where they were both honorary Constitution readers. McGovern asked:
“Who was the young man? Was he in uniform? Did VP Cheney issue an order to stand down?” Mineta could not recall the young man, nor whether he was in uniform.
When asked about what Cheney said following the question from the young man—"if the orders still stand?"—Mineta began to behave very bizarrely. McGovern described Mineta saying: “‘Minutes later,’ that’s why the difference in the timing is so important. ‘Minutes later’, according to Mineta, ‘the Pentagon was hit.’ I asked Mineta if he would agree that the timing suggested the logic that Cheney had issued a stand-down order of some kind?”
“Well, what happened?” Mineta closed his eyes momentarily. It was as if a warning had been etched on the inside of his eyelids: Speak only of the plane in Pennsylvania!
“It was bizarre,” McGovern continued. “It was as if a robot took over. For the next eight minutes, Mineta refused to move beyond those parameters. As I said, the 9/11 Commission simply ignored Mineta’s formal testimony—hardly a surprise since it totally ignored other inconvenient facts, like the collapse of the World Trade Center Building Seven without an airplane to blame it on. But the very revealing questioning by Mineta, by Lee Hamilton, is available for all to see on YouTube.”
Ray continued, calling the 9/11 commission a joke, and pointing out that the part of the Pentagon that was hit held important financial records, which were all destroyed.
Ray praised the work and grit of the “Jersey Girls,” who are the widows of the men killed during the 9/11 attack, demanding a real commission.
He concluded by saying, “We have to act as our forefathers and mothers did 250 years ago, get a hold of ourselves, get a hold of the truth, and meanwhile, let’s not get depressed. Let’s go to Beethoven’s 9th.”