I am Ed Asner. As you may know, I've dedicated much of my life to promoting peace & justice issues in America.

I would like to suggest to you emphatically that the 9-11 truth movement is the most pressing issue of the peace & justice movement today. Here is why. 9-11 has been used to justify "endless war" and a continual rollback in civil liberties that seems to have no end in sight. Yet, 9-11 remains the least examined tragedy in modern American history.

Americans would have never agreed to the last two wars and the Patriot Act's disturbing policy . . . had it not been for 9-11.

There are many disturbing issues around 9-11 that have yet to be examined in any meaningful way by our media, Congress, and even by the 9-11 Commission. These include accountability for the massive breakdown of air defense and plane intercept procedures as described in FAA and DOD regulations, which were violated on 9-11.

This breakdown and astounding unpreparedness by U.S. domestic defense agencies is puzzling to say the least, given the detailed reports our government had of the coming attacks, that were bizarrely suppressed by key officials.

For example, FBI Agent Coleen Rowley suggested that her offices' attempts to alert higher ups in the FBI of the pre 9-11 activities of Zacharias Moussaoui "seemed to have been consistently, almost DELIBERATELY thwart[ed] . . ." While George Tenet, Director of the CIA, had recieved a memo in August of 2001 (one month before the attacks of 9-11) on this report entitled, "Islamic Extermists Learn to Fly." Yet, Tenet took no action on this memo. The FBI agents responsible for the now famous "Phoenix Memo" regarding Osama Bin Laden sending students to the U.S. to attend civil aviation schools, also struggled to get their higher ups to act on this information.

To date, no one has been held accountable for the massive defense failures on 9-11, nor for the bizarre suppression of critical warnings prior to 9-11. Furthermore, we still have no explanation for why the head of Pakistani intelligence, who was meeting with top Bush Administration officials in Washington on 9-11-2001, had wired lead hijacker Mohammed Atta $100,000.00 weeks before 9-11. We still do not know who made the insider stock trades in weeks and days leading up to 9-11, by betting "against" United and American Airlines stocks (the aircraft used as missiles on 9-11).

What we DO KNOW is that $5 million of those insider stock trade "winnings" apparently by someone who had foreknowledge of the coming attacks, were made the day before 9-11 at AB Brown Trust. AB Brown Trust was headed until his induction into the CIA by Buzzy Krongard, who is now the Executive Director of the CIA. We also know that the current head of AB Brown Trust quietly resigned his position on 9-11, with no media scrutiny nor apparently government scrutiny.

Lastly, and perhaps most bizarre is the fact that $2.5 million of those stock "winnings" against these airlines made at AB Brown Trust . . . remain unclaimed.

We deserve to know why no one has been held accountable, and who made those insider stock trades. We also deserve to know why the Bush Administration allowed members of the Bin Laden family to quietly leave the U.S. after 9-11, with virtually no questioning by the FBI, and at a time when other Americans were not allowed to fly.

There are many other profound, and bizarrely "unasked" questions around 9-11. I urge all to read "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11" by David Ray Griffin, and introduced by Howard Zinn, and to view "The Great Deception" documentary by acclaimed Canadian television journalist Barry Zwicker. Peace & justice leaders and activists will find these works a great resource for getting current on the 9-11 truth issue, and can be great organizing tools to educate others.

I fear that if the underlying issues of 9-11 truth are not demanded, that Iraq may be but a flame on an ocean of gasoline that may be used to ignite war after war after war. We cannot, as a peace & justice movement only address the flames. We must look at the fuel being used to justify the flames of war and repression at home and abroad. We must look deeply at the events leading up to, on and since 9-11. We must demand full 9-11 truth.

I encourage all local and national peace & justice activists and organizations to join Philadelphia Peace Action and other peace & justice organizations nationwide who are now beginning to work with and becoming involved with the National 911Visibility.org Project at www.911Visibility.org and to list your local efforts contact information there, so 9-11 truth activists across the nation can get involved with you to demand full 9-11 truth.

National 911Visibility.org has worked with 9-11 family members, and become a media source conducting interviews and linking media with 9-11 family members, including BBC World Wide Radio Network, The O'Reilly Factor, and others. By listing your local contact information for your local 9-11 truth activities at www.911visibility.org media visiting the site can find your contact information as well as local activists who want to join your efforts.

Sincerely,

Ed Asner