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This official response was e-mailed and mailed via the U.S. Post Office to Mark Weitzman (certified) and the noted individuals in the CC.
December 8, 2007 Mr. Mark Weitzman 50 East 42nd Street, Suite 1600 Via: Certified US Mail & Email: Re: SWC testimony 11/6/07 before the Homeland Security Dear Mr. Weitzman, Thank you for responding in your email form letter to a couple of the many important concerns raised recently by other members of the 9/11 Truth & Justice Movement to your presentation at the House Committee on Homeland Security - "Using The Web As A Weapon: The Internet As A Tool For Violent Radicalization And Homegrown Terrorism" on 11/6/07 before Representative Jane Harman. Your clarifications, however, offer no correction or retraction for the irresponsible and false statement "Incubator of 9/11 Conspiracies and Disinformation" the heading that you placed over our science-based website "AE911Truth.org" – Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, which bears my name, Richard Gage, AIA, an architect of 20 years. Also, you made no apology, explanation, or correction for your words which you stated precisely during the time in which you displayed the 911sharethetruth.com and AE911Truth.org websites: "And then finally we end with a site that literally talks about the bombing of – 'soon, soon, soon the attack on Manhattan'." This part of your presentation can be reviewed at the 45:50 mark in the video located at: http://homeland.edgeboss.net/wmedia/homeland/chs/internetterror.wvx The C-SPAN Archive version of the video is in two parts. The sentence above occurs at the 28:20 mark of the second portion of C-SPAN's version.i I am aware of no page on our site ever having contained this sentence or any sentence like it. Our staff has researched the matter, and the phrase appears nowhere on our site, nor was it found by an internet search. Curiously enough, we find the phrase only when you are being quoted. The clear implication is that our website promotes "conspiracies", "disinformation", and – since you sandwiched it between violent Jihad militant training type websites – "terrorism" too. A brief review of our website shows that it simply contains science-based facts and questions regarding the destruction of the WTC Twin Towers and Building 7 – as well as a petition listing over 800 signatories, including more than 230 well-respected architects and engineers who are demanding a real investigation of these building "collapses" based upon the clear evidence presented in our website. For your information, since you have obviously not taken the time to review the website before defaming it, this evidence of the controlled demolition of the three WTC high-rises includes careful documentation of these facts: • The destruction occurred with rapid onset, at virtually free-fall speed, and with radial symmetry.
These features are characteristic of controlled demolitions, and not office or jet fuel fires. Of course, the 47-story WTC Building 7 was not even hit by an airplane and yet its unnatural destruction exhibits all the same features – except it imploded into its own footprint in 6.5 seconds! Maybe now you understand why our membership of architects, engineers, and other building professionals, who are all calling for a science-based forensic investigation – which has yet to be performed – is growing exponentially! We ask SWC for nothing less than the tolerance it espouses so well. And yet you have made the egregiously false statements noted above in public, on television, and to Congress about us. These statements have the clear potential to inflict serious damage to my reputation, my standing in the community, and my career, as well as each of our 230 architects and engineers and other distinguished members. I and the members of AE911Truth.org therefore demand a retraction of these false, defamatory, outrageous and insulting statements that you made in the scope of your duties at the SWC. This retraction must be thorough and exculpatory, exceeding the scope of your original publication(s), lest it be ineffective and meaningless. We at AE911Truth.org demand a formal apology from SWC for having displayed our website at all in your Homeland Security presentation. Your timely apology must be sent to (and aired on) C-Span, to Rep. Jane Harman, and all congressional representatives and others in attendance. It must be posted on the SWC. And it must explain your motives in making the publication and the retraction. Our constitutional republic was founded upon the fundamental right to ask questions, demand answers, and to seek truth and justice. This is all that we in the 9/11 truth movement are seeking. Of all people and of all organizations, you and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who highlight the virtue of tolerance, should be honoring our right to ask these questions, not branding us as terrorists. Your behavior reeks of the McCarthyism of the 1950's, and is totally unacceptable to me, our members, and all Americans who cherish the first Amendment. Regarding the anti-Semitism noted in your email form letter: We, too, abhor bigotry in all its forms, and have distanced ourselves from those few who engage in it. But anti-Semitism has nothing to do with our website or the science of the destruction of the three WTC high-rise buildings on 9/11 to which it is dedicated. The scientific method is non-partisan, apolitical, and a transparent process. Scientists defend their positions in public based on accepted, defensible processes. While reports put forth by the government and others have labored in vain to explain away the massive scientific evidence for controlled demolition left behind in the rubble, the witness testimony, and the videos, we at AE911Truth.org have simply collected, assembled, and structured it in a way which enables everyone to understand it easily. Simon Wiesenthal was a paragon for seeking the truth, however hard and difficult it might be. The SWC should be honoring our right to publish technical information and encourage fact-based forensic inquiry into the three largest structural failures in U.S. history – not branding us inciters of terrorism. Tolerance arises from understanding, and understanding from direct experience. In this light we would like to meet with you and your board and staff to present to you the specific concerns documented on AE911Truth.org regarding the basic science of these "collapses". We would like to learn from you what you perceive as so threatening so as to deem it necessary to "warn" Congress about us. By understanding each other's concerns, we will strengthen our mutual resolve to work toward the creation of a more truthful and tolerant society. We reserve all rights, and communicate to you without any prejudice to any rights. We are ready to move forward. Please let us know the best time to meet. We can assemble in your New York or Los Angeles office. Sincerely, [signature] Richard Gage, AIA, Architect For the 800 members of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (signed copy to Commission) Jane Harman (CA-36)
Testimony and prepared statements for the hearing: From: Mark Weitzman To: [e-mail protected] Sent: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 6:54 am Dear Ms. F....., Over the past few days I have received a number of emails regarding my testimony to the House Committee on Homeland Security. Much of those emails appear to have been based on misapprehensions of my testimony. My testimony was about "the Internet as a tool for violent radicalization", and not about 9/11. My reference to 9/11 consisted of 1 sentence out of 6 pages of testimony, and in that sentence (with 2 out of 38 accompanying PowerPoint slides) I referenced "how 9/11 is viewed in some eyes, including those who applauded it as well as some conspiracy sites." I then continue by illustrating the types of conspiracy theories often found online, such as those based upon of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous antisemitic text, or that generally blame the US government in a pernicious manner (i.e. for intentionally spreading the AIDS virus), or that have the "entire Western World engaged in a conspiracy against Islam" Nowhere in there is there any mention of 9/11! In this regard our only concern with 9/11 is when the inquiries slide into incubators for hate (i.e. "This fake Hamas soldier wearing a "Star of David" is as much a Zionist as the 9-11 terrorists Chertoff covers for. Chertoff is the son of a terrorist himself. Don't let him off the hook!"). Finally, in my recommendations, I never urged any type of censorship. In fact, I specifically state that (#5) that any steps taken in regard to the Internet must be done legally, and over the course of a decade in dealing with this issue I have consistently stressed that the First Amendment must be maintained in the virtual as well as the real world. I have even argued that in conferences in Europe when attempts were being made to impose international controls on the Internet, saying, as I did last year in Berlin that we should "avoid getting bogged down in a useless debate on the First Amendment" because we (in the US) are not going to erase it, nor should we. Please feel free to share this with any interested parties. Sincerely, Mark Weitzman
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