After a whirlwind series of events in Washington, DC, working closely with Richard Gage, AIA, and the AE911Truth team, I was honored to be able to travel for the first time to New York City and attend an importantconference in Lower Manhattan entitled “How The World Changed After 9/11.” I was able to meet in person for the first time, two of my fellow co-authors on the so-called nanothermite paper, Niels Harrit and Kevin Ryan, as well as other courageous leaders in the 9/11 Truth movement, and witness, like anyone else on the street, the glow of the WTC 7 “Third Beam.” This article can only scratch the surface of the speakers I heard, the connections I made, and the welter of first impressions I got from Manhattan and Brooklyn. In no particular order—

♦  I met Dick Gregory, comedian of conscience, who announced at the conference the beginning of his direct support of AE911Truth and his liquid-fast hunger strike for 9/11 Truth.

♦  I was able to hear striking stories by Cynthia McKinney, six-term US congresswoman from Georgia, who has paid quite a price for her public support for 9/11 Truth. She served as a Commissioner in the Citizens’ Commission on 9-11, one of the most evidence-based such conferences. McKinney's gutsy passion and loving humor came through to me in person in a way that it had not done in videos.

♦  Don Siegelman, former Alabama governor falsely convicted and jailed in a Bush-era political prosecution, laid out for us how little it avails you to have powerful friends, if they decide to turn on you – and how, when that happens, other powerful friends might provide your only hope.

♦  I made an all-too-brief connection with the gracious Annie Machon, former British MI5 agent and whistleblower, who spoke of the unaccountable secret power wielded by intelligence agencies over both the media and individuals within governments who are supposed to keep the agencies in check.

♦  I was able to shake hands with Katherine Albrecht, consumer privacy advocate and author of the best-selling Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID.

♦  FBI whistleblower and 2002 TIME “Person of the Year” Coleen Rowley spoke of the agency’s failures to take actions that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks.

I was able to make new 9/11 truth friends and reconnect with old ones, over meals and on the little sightseeing I was able to do in my four-day visit. I never had time to go to the Statue of Liberty, but I did reach the top of the Empire State Building, with its amazing 360° view of a Matrix-like endless metropolis.

I am grateful to the event’s sponsors whom I met, Tom Kiely and Lenny Charles of INN World Report, who work tirelessly to keep open a significant channel of alternative news and live discussion in a world where all too many people are still choosing the blue pill.