Who's Who On 911 Commission ( Part 2 of 2))
Michel Chossudofsky | 21.12.2003 22:12 | Globalisation | Indymedia | Repression | World
Deputy Executive Director
Christopher Kojm served from 1998 until February, 2003 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence Policy and Coordination in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He served previously in the Congress on the staff of the House International Relations Committee, under Ranking Member Lee Hamilton as Deputy Director of the Democratic staff (1997–98), as Coordinator for Regional Issues (1993–1997) and under Chairman Hamilton on the Europe and Middle East subcommittee staff (1984–92).
Christopher Kojm worked closely with Hamilton.
Daniel Marcus
General Counsel
Daniel Marcus, General Counsel of the commission, was for many years a partner in the Washington law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, serving on the firm's Management Committee from 1995 to 1998. During the Carter Administration Mr. Marcus was Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture. He returned to Government service in 1998 as Senior Counsel in the White House Counsel's office. From 1999 to 2001 he held several senior positions at the Department of Justice, including Associate Attorney General. Last year he was a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Marcus is a graduate of Brandeis University and Yale Law School, and was a law clerk for Judge Harold Leventhal of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Daniel Marcus belonged to a law firm which counts among its clients Prince Mohammed al Faisal, identified as one of the top three alleged "financiers" of the 9/11 attacks listed in the 1 trillion dollar lawsuit. Confirmed by CBS "Those listed include Prince Mohammed al-Faisal, former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan, Khalid bin Salim bin Mahfouz of the National Commercial Bank and the Faisal Islamic Bank. " Bear in mind that at the time Daniel Marcus belonged to the firm, Prince Prince Mohammed al-Faisal was among its most wealthiest clients.
Conflict of Interest: Marcus' law firm provided legal counsel to one of the alleged financiers of 9/11: Prince Mohammed al Faisal
3. Commissioners
Richard Ben-Veniste
Commissioner
Richard Ben-Veniste is a partner in the Washington law firm of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. He served as assistant U.S. attorney, Southern District New York, from 1968 to 1973, which included service as chief of the Special Prosecution Section from 1971 to 1973. Mr. Ben-Veniste was chief of the Watergate Task Force of the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office from 1973 to 1975 and Special Outside Counsel Senate Committee on Government Operations from 1976 to 1977.
Before joining Mayer, Brown Rowe and Maw, (February 2003), Richard Ben-Veniste was partner in Weil, Gotshal, and Manges, which played a key role in the Enron scandal. .
According to the NY Post:
Weil, Gotshal, and Manges. among the biggest bankruptcy firms in the world - famously received a $3 million retainer from Enron when the energy company filed in 2001. When all is said and done the law firm expects to squeeze more than $200 million out of the bankrupt energy company in fees that are secured by a court ( http://www.nypost.com/wealth/63212.htm.)
Ben Veniste has other dubious links. He was Democratic counsel of the Senate Whitewater Committee. (Jim Rarey, 911 Commission - Forgedda Boudit Medium Rare)
Max Cleland
Commissioner
Max Cleland is a distinguished adjunct professor at American University's Washington Semester Program, where he also serves as a fellow in the Center for Congressional & Presidential Studies. A former senator from Georgia, he began his public service as an officer in the U.S. Army, volunteering for duty in Vietnam in 1967, where he served until he was very seriously wounded in April 1968. Cleland was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 where he served as chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee, and was a member of the Senate Veteran's Affairs Committee. While in the Senate, he earned enormous respect for his work in such areas as health care and education reform, bio-terrorism preparedness, homeland security, and fiscal responsibility.
Fred F. Fielding
Commissioner
Fred Fielding is senior partner and head of Wiley, Rein, & Fielding's Government Affairs, Business & Finance, Litigation and Crisis Management/White Collar Crime Practices. From 1981–1986, he served as Counsel to the President of the United States, as deputy counsel from 1972–1974 and as Associate Counsel from 1970–1972. He also served as clearance counsel during the Bush-Cheney Presidential Transition.
Conflict of interest: Fielding is a former White House Counsel during the Reagan administration at the time of the Iran Contra scandal, closely connected through personal ties to several members of the current Bush team. He was also counsel during the Bush-Cheney presidential transition.
Jamie S. Gorelick
Commissioner
Jamie Gorelick is vice chair of Fannie Mae. As part of the four-person Office of the Chairman, she shares responsibility for overall management of the company, directs its efforts to reach underserved markets and oversees Fannie Mae's external relationships, legal and regulatory affairs. Prior to joining Fannie Mae in May 1997, Gorelick was deputy attorney general of the United States, a position she assumed in March 1994. From May 1993 until she joined the Justice Department, Gorelick served as general counsel of the Department of Defense. From 1979 to 1980 she was assistant to the secretary and counselor to the deputy secretary of energy. In the private sector, from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1980 to 1993, Gorelick was a litigator in Washington, D.C., representing major U.S. companies on a broad range of legal and business matters. . . . She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Law Institute. Gorelick co-chaired, with Senator Sam Nunn, the Advisory Committee of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, and currently serves on the Central Intelligence Agency's National Security Advisory Panel as well as the President's Review of Intelligence.
Jamie S. Gorelick serves on the CIA's National Security Advisory Panel as well as the President's Review of Intelligence. .She is also a Member of the Council of Foreign Relations, which plays a behind the scenes role in the formulation of US foreign policy and intelligence operations:
"In May 1995, the Intelligence Community Law Enforcement Policy Board was established to meet quarterly and discuss mutual concerns of the Attorney General and Director of Central Intelligence. The board was co-chaired by Gorelick and DCI George Tenet. Other members included all of the law enforcement agencies, the Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research and the Defense Department General Counsel."(911 Commission - Forgedda Boudit Medium Rare By Jim Rarey)
Conflict of interest: Visibly this is a CIA appointment to the commission. Gorelick has a close personal relationship with CIA Director George Tenet.
Slade Gorton
Commissioner
Slade Gorton is a counsel at Preston Gates & Ellis LLP. Prior to joining the firm, he represented Washington State in the United States Senate for 18 years, from 1982–2000. While in the Senate, Gorton served on the Appropriations, Budget, Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Energy and Natural Resources Committees. He served as chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee (1995–2001), the Commerce Subcommittees on Consumer Affairs (1995–99), and Aviation (1999–2000). He was also a member of the Republican leadership as counsel to the Majority Leader (1996–2000) . . .
This is typically an appointment of the Republican Party and the Republican caucus in the Senate. "Gorton served two years on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He says that experience and his personal friendship with Trent Lott were responsible for his appointment by Lott." (Ibid)
John F. Lehman
Commissioner
John Lehman is chairman of J.F. Lehman & Company, a private equity investment firm. . . . He served 25 years in the naval reserve. Lehman was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Reagan in 1981 and served until 1987. During his tenure as Secretary of the Navy, Lehman was responsible for building a 600 ship Navy, establishing a strategy of maritime supremacy, and reforming ship and aircraft procurement. He has served as staff member to Henry Kissinger on the National Security Council, as delegate to the Force Reductions Negotiations in Vienna and as deputy director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. . . .
Lehman is a former Secretary of the Navy under the Reagan administration, with close personal ties to members of the current Bush administration. J.F. Lehman & Company is a firm specialising in leveraged buyouts. Lehman, who is a member of Council on Foreign relations (CFR) has close personal ties to Henry Kissinger, who recruited him during the Nixon administration.
Timothy J. Roemer
Commissioner
Tim Roemer is a partner at Johnston and Associates and a distinguished scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a non-profit research and educational institution dedicated to improving public policy outcomes. From 1991–2003, Roemer represented the Third District of Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Science. He was appointed to the Intelligence Committee's Task Force on Homeland Security and Terrorism and served on the bipartisan Joint Inquiry which issued a report on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He was the key author of the legislation in the House of Representatives to establish the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States.
As a former member of the Task Force of the Intelligence Committee's Task Force on Homeland Security and Terrorism and the Joint Inquiry of the Senate and House, Roemer is a go-between the commission, Homeland Security and the members of the intelligence committees of the House and Senate. He has ties to Rep. Porter Goss and Senator Bob Graham, who headed the join inquiry. Graham and Goss have suspicious links to former Pakistani (ISI) Intelligence Chief General Mahmoud Ahmad. Pakistan's ISI is known to support Islamic terrorism in liaison with the CIA.
James R. Thompson
Commissioner
James Thompson, Illinois' longest-serving governor (1977–1991), is chairman of the law firm of Winston & Strawn, headquartered in Chicago. He first joined Winston & Strawn in 1975 and then rejoined the firm as a partner when he left the governor's office in 1991.
James R. Thompson is still part of the Republican Party machine. His law firm Winston & Strawn specializes in "defending corporations and individuals accused of wrongdoing, including some big name corporations, like Philip Morris, McDonald's, Microsoft, and General Electric."
W and S defended tobacco giant Philip Morris against plaintiffs in class action lawsuits as well as Montsanto, and lobbied government on behalf of its clients.
W and S was also involved in 2001 in a high profile conflict of interest case pertaining to a contract with the Energy Department "on license preparations for a nuclear waste repository in Nevada" . for further details see, http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2001/Dec-01-Sat-2001/new s/17573270.html . The firm was also being paid by the nuclear industry to lobby Congress.
"Representation" on the Commission:
Pentagon John F. Lehman, CIA Jamie S. Gorelick, Homeland Security, Timothy J. Roemer, White House and NSC, Fred F. Fielding and Philip Zelikow, Senate and House Intelligence Committees, Timothy J. Roemer , Council on Foreign Relations, Thomas Kean, Lee H. Hamilton, Jamie S. Gorelick, John F. Lehman, Henry Kissinger: John F. Lehman
Republicans: Former Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, former Illinois Governor James Thompson, former White House Counsel Fred Fielding, former Washington state Senator Slade Gorton and former Navy Secretary John Lehman.
Democrats: Indiana congressmen, Lee Hamilton and Tim Roemer, former Georgia Senator Max Cleland, Attorney Richard Ben-Veniste, Jamie Gorelick, a Justice Department official in the Clinton administration.
?A summary of financial disclosure reports?of the 9/11 Commission members and Staff, click here?
See also
Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Foreknowledge of 9/11 :A Compilation of CRG articles and documents in support of a 9/11 Investigation
Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), 9/11 Reader and Archive
Nic Levis, The 9/11 Truth Movement Selected Resources for Researchers and Activists
Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), George W. Bush Financial Scams: CRG selection of articles
Propaganda Matrix Archive on Prior knowledge.
Centre for Cooperative Research, The Complete 9/11 Timeline.
Michel Chossudovsky is the author of "War and? Globalisation, The Truth behind September 11" . He is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG).
Copyright © 2003 Michel Chossudovsky. For fair use only/ pour usage équitable seulement.
Michel Chossudovsky is the author of the international best seller, War and Globalization, The Truth behind September 11. To order the book online, click here.
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Michel Chossudofsky