"The UN can play a vital role in promoting the administration of justice, democracy and the rule of law around the globe." Those are the words from Hillel Neuer's address at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on August 11, 2004. Neuer is the director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO based in Geneva.
After reading that bold and hopeful sentence you would think that Neuer is a friend of justice, democracy, and the rule of law, but he's not. It's where he stands on the issues of the day, not what he says that counts, and on the issue of 9/11 - the defining event of our "global security" era - he does not support a new investigation, and bringing justice to the nearly 3,000 victims who died on that day and their families. Instead, he's doing everything he can to suppress the voices calling for justice, democracy, and the rule of law.
Last month, Neuer used his organization's influence to demonize Richard Falk, a retired professor from Princeton University and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, for raising doubts about the official 9/11 story. He pressed the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to "condemn Richard Falk, the U.N. Human Rights Council's permanent investigator on "Israel's violations of the principles of international law," for his latest remarks suggesting that the U.S. government -- and not Al Qaeda terrorists -- destroyed the World Trade Center." Five days later, on January 25, the ever-compliant figurehead of the UN issued a statement, saying: "Recently, there was a Special Rapporteur who suggested there was an 'apparent cover-up' in the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. I want to tell you, clearly and directly. I condemn this sort of inflammatory rhetoric. It is preposterous – an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in that tragic terrorist attack.”
Ban Ki-moon's remarks were echoed by Susan Rice, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, who called for the removal of Falk from his position at the UN. Here is the full statement from Rice, also released on January 25, 2011:
I am appalled by the recent personal blog written by Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on “the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.”Rice's demonization of Falk came as no surprise. Falk's courage and boldness is obviously rattling the power elite in the United States who are profiting from the country's illegal terrorist regime which saw its big opening on September 11, 2001, after being secretly built-up behind the scenes for many decades.
In this blog post, dated January 11, 2011, Mr. Falk endorses the slurs of conspiracy theorists who allege that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were perpetrated and then covered up by the U.S. government and media.
Mr. Falk’s comments are despicable and deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the strongest terms. I have registered a strong protest with the UN on behalf of the United States. The United States has in the past been critical of Mr. Falk’s one-sided and politicized approach to his work for the UN, including his failure to condemn deliberate human rights abuses by Hamas, but these blog comments are in another category altogether.
In my view, Mr. Falk’s latest commentary is so noxious that it should finally be plain to all that he should no longer continue in his position on behalf of the UN. I would note that U.S. and many other diplomats walked out in protest in September 2010 when Iranian President Ahmadinejad made similarly slanderous remarks before the UN General Assembly.
The United States is deeply committed to the cause of human rights and believes that cause will be better advanced without Mr. Falk and the distasteful sideshow he has chosen to create.
It also not surprising that Rice is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, a who's who of U.S. war criminals and corrupt leaders of government, academia, and media, including, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Robert Gates, Robert Zoellick, Condoleezza Rice, Al Gore, Brent Scowcroft, Joseph Nye, Judith Miller, and Philip D. Zelikow.
The director of the 9/11 Commission, which blocked all avenues of justice for 9/11 victims and reaffirmed the official lie, was none other than Zelikow, who took over for Henry Kissinger after he resigned. And most of us remember Judith Miller's lies and misinformation in her New York Times columns about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which helped make the case for war. If this is the company that Rice keeps, then it is apparent why she was so quick in condemning Falk for his comments about 9/11.
If you have not read Falk's 9/11 comments, which were posted on his blog on January 11, here is a sample:
The arguments swirling around the 9/11 attacks are emblematic of these issues. What fuels suspicions of conspiracy is the reluctance to address the sort of awkward gaps and contradictions in the official explanations that David Ray Griffin (and other devoted scholars of high integrity) have been documenting in book after book ever since 2001. What may be more distressing than the apparent cover up is the eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events: an al Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by government officials. Is this silence a manifestation of fear or cooption, or part of an equally disturbing filter of self-censorship? Whatever it is, the result is the withering away of a participatory citizenry and the erosion of legitimate constitutional government. (Richard Falk, January 11, 2001).There are many reasons why the mainstream media and the alternative/progressive media is silent on the need for a new 9/11 investigation. As I wrote in a previous article, I think the silence is partly because journalists and reporters feel guilty and ashamed for not fulfilling their roles as informers of the public and investigators of corruption. We should all try to help each other, especially those in the media, to overcome these feelings, or at least use them for positive outcomes. There is no reason to be ashamed. What matters is that journalists lend their support behind a new investigation into the 9/11 attacks. A new investigation, if given full authority and subpoena powers, would expose the previous investigation as a cover-up, and identify the real plotters, planners and coordinators behind the 9/11 attacks. As Falk writes:
Let us remember that what seems most disturbing about the 9/11 controversy is the widespread aversion by government and media to the evidence that suggests, at the very least, the need for an independent investigation that proceeds with no holds barred.Such an investigation would contrast with the official ‘9/11 Commission’ that proceeded with most holds barred.
Falk's continued call for a new 9/11 investigation is a great source for hope. He is one of the few moral and intellectual champions of our day, joined by some others like David Ray Griffin, and Noam Chomsky. Falk's leadership, and overall American leadership on issues of truth, justice, peace, and freedom is proof that there is a wellspring of goodness and righteousness in America, and in the hearts of the American people. Susan Rice, Barack Obama, George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and others who speak for the U.S. terrorist regime don't speak for America. They are usurpers, and villainous tricksters who are thwarting democracy and the rule of law in America, and other countries around the world.
Moreover, for people who naively believe that any version of 9/11 but the official version is a "conspiracy theory," Falk has this to say:
Don’t connect dots without evidence. Don’t turn away as soon as the words ‘conspiracy theory’ are uttered, especially if the evidence does point away from what the power-wielders want us to believe.
The fact that critics of Falk and others who advocate anti-establishment views about 9/11 resort to labels like "conspiracy theorist" and "9/11 truther" reveals their immaturity and lack of understanding. But, in some cases, like Susan Rice's condemnation of Falk, a more sinister reason is at play. The real ticking time bomb that worries the state terrorists in the United States is the truth bomb. It is only a matter of time before the peaceful 9/11 truth movement reaches critical mass. And we can thank brave individuals with impeccable reputations like Richard Falk when we witness the day of judgment.
Falk's support for a new 9/11 investigation, along with his valuable work on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, may well pave the road to Nuremberg II, and a new era of international law and global relations.
Go here to read Falk's response to the attacks on his character by Ban Ki-moon and Susan Rice, and give him a thank you because he is a great man.
