A Summary of the film “911 Press for Truth”

 updated September 14, 2010


This article summarizes the documentary video “9/11 Press for Truth” by presenting video segments including written descriptions and transcripts where appropriate.

Topics include the “Jersey Widow’s” push for an investigation which the government was initially unwilling to do, specific issues concerning the 9/11 investigation itself, issues concerning the war in Afghanistan and evidence of Pakistani involvement including a money trail leading back to the United States Government.

This film has been created with information provided by Cooperative Research's Complete 9/11 Timeline— a project accumulating references to often overlooked mainstream news reports speaking about the subject of the 9/11 attacks.

Click to rent this video online from Netflix ..

View the official website for this film .. Help support the filmmakers, purchase this DVD for $14.95 from the official website .. From the official website: “Adapting Paul Thompson’s definitive Complete 9/11 Timeline, the filmmakers collaborate with documentary veterans Globalvision (‘WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception’, ‘Beyond JFK’) to stitch together rare overlooked news clips, buried stories, and government press conferences, revealing a pattern of official lies, deception and spin. As a result, a very different picture of 9/11 emerges, one that raises new and more pressing questions.” Running time: 1 hour 24 minutes This video may be purchased from the filmmakers, rented from NetFlix and well as played on this page in segments which are individually documented below.

This clip shows the push to create an investigation of the 9/11 attacks by Lorie Van Auken, Patricia Casazza, Mindy Klienberg, and Kristin Breitweiser, four woman who lost their husbands at the World Trade Center during the September 11 Attacks.

Some of their initial questions included: Why had the US military defenses failed to stop any of the planes? Why the lack of immediate response by the President and his security detail? Why were there no 9/11 trials?

“We felt that the country was at risk from terrorists an incompetence, and maybe worse,” says Laurie Van Auken. If soon became apparent that an independent investigation would be necessary to do what the Justice Department and News Media seemed unwilling to do.









This video clip examines troubling issues related to the 9/11 Commission, including conflicts of interest and questionable methods used by those conducting the investigation.

Following is a summary and partial transcript:

Henry Kissinger was initially placed in charge of the 9/11 Commission report investigation, and was forced to step down due to conflicts of interests, including having members of the Bin Laden Family as personal clients. Kissinger was soon replaced by Thomas Keane, a former New Jersey Governor. The remainder of the eight positions were filled by former Washington DC insiders and lawyers, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

Bob McIlvaine, who lost his son in the attacks: “They allocated 100 Million Dollars to the Clinton sexual exploits, and they first allocated only three million dollars to the murder of three thousand People!”

Narrator: “To monitor the Commission, leading victim relatives established The Family Steering Committee. The group supplied the Commission with hundreds of questions for which they expected answers.”

From the outset, many family members were concerned with how the investigation was being conducted. People initially were not put under oath, even though the family members specifically requested it. The questions the family members had created were not asked.

It was then uncovered that Phillip Zelikow, the Director of the 9/11 Commission had many conflicts of interests in relation to the Bush Administration, and when asked by the families to resign, he refused to step down.

Senator Max Cleveland who served on the 9/11 Commission: “..The President has said that only a minority of the Commission can see a minority of the Documents, and then they have to clear what they are going to say to the rest of the Commission with the White House. .. It’s a scam, it’s absolutely disgusting, this is important, we cannot do our responsibilities if we don’t all of us have access to all the documents we need, including what’s in the White House.”

The only two Commission members allowed direct access to the documents were Jamie Gorlic, the Deputy Attorney General under President Clinton, and Phillip Zelikow.

With the investigation nearing it’s deadline, the President, Vice President, and National Security Advisor were still refusing to publicly testify, yet few Americans were aware of such disturbing issues until the CBS News Show “60 Minutes” covered the story, which forced the Bush Administration to have key officials testify and meet with the Commission. George Bush and Dick Cheney then agreed to meet with the Commission, but insisted on meeting together, behind closed doors, and not under oath.









View a video clip from the film “9/11 Press for Truth,” speaking about independent investigator Paul Thompson's online collaborative project Cooperative Research, which accumulates references to often overlooked mainstream news stories and arranges them into timelines for any particular topic.

The media, who had started out by doing a good job of reporting issues related to 9/11, soon turned away from mainstream coverage of serious questions about those issues. Although many important stories are still reported by the media, they tend to become buried in an ocean of information.

Independent investigator Paul Thompson has pieced together much of this relevant information reported in the media by creating the “Complete 9/11Timeline,” which stitches together over 7,000 mainstream news stories.

This clip discusses many of the issues that the researcher Paul Thompson had discovered, including the Bush Administration receiving specific warnings of the 9/11 attacks. This clip also shows Condoleezza Rice testifying in front of the 9/11 Commission, and how her testimony does not correspond with the information in the 9/11 Timeline.

Narrator: “The Government first said there were no warnings [but] there were. Then the White House insisted the warnings were not specific as to where, when, or how. The 9/11 Families and the Timeline connected the dots where the media didn't. There were many warnings, most were detailed, some were urgent, and yet little or no defensive action was taken by responsible officials, except for their own personal protection .. Even as the first tower burned on every channel that morning, no one on the Federal Level who had received warnings all Summer called New York to order an evacuation of Tower Two..”









This video clip discusses why the initial conflict in Afghanistan ended as quickly as it did after the 9/11 attacks, and without the U.S. being able to capture any major Taliban Figures and only one Major Al-Qaeda figure.

As one of many examples shown, Paul Thompson explains how Osama Bin Laden and his closest advisors escaped in a late night convoy to Pakistan, with an eyewitness reporting that they couldn't understand how they were not detected as the convoy involved hundred cars and trucks driving in a line at night with their headlights on.

Gary Berntsen, a CIA agent who resigned and went public in 2005, explained how he with other Intelligence agents had tracked Bin Laden, and how at various times they knew Bin Laden’s specific location while the US Government did not do what was necessary to prevent him from escaping.

This clip also discusses how thousands of Al-Qaeda Officers and Soldiers as well some of Bin Laden’s Associates had been airlifted to Pakistan through a tightly controlled air corridor across Afghanistan unchallenged by the United States Military, and how on the eve of 9/11, Bin Laden was being treated at a US Military Hospital in Pakistan with Kidney Dialysis.









Following is a partial transcript of the information in this video clip which describes aspects of The United State’s involvement in the Middle East Region over the past decades, and how it had been discovered that funding for one of the key Hijackers on 9/11 was provided from General Mahmood Ahmed, the head of the Pakistani Intelligence Agency and a close associate of the U.S., who in fact was in Washington D.C. for a rare visit during the attacks. Also discussed is testimony from an undercover Operative linking Pakistan to the Attacks.

Narrator: “To better understand the ties between Bin Laden and Pakistan, Thompson followed a timeline thread that began with covert Pakistan involvement in the Soviet-Afghan war, two decades ago... Throughout the [1980’s], the Soviets Battled the Mujahideen, a group of anti-Soviet fighters that included Bin Laden. The Mujahideen were backed the the CIA, who hoped to give the Soviets their own costly Vietnam-type war. Rather than fund the Mujahideen directly, the CIA covertly channeled money through the Pakistani Intelligence Agency, the ISI.”

Len Downie, Executive Editor, Washington Post: “They helped create Bin Laden and the roots of Al-Queda during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, when the CIA and the intelligence services of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia created this group of people to fight the Russians in Afghanistan.”

Narrator: “Billions of dollars from the CIA and the Saudis were passed through the ISI to support the War. The strategy worked, and the Soviets were defeated.. Emboldened by their victory and the influx of weapons and cash, the ISI had helped to install the Taliban and deepen their ties to Bin Laden and his terror network.”

Paul Thompson: “.. There is really no difference between an ISI training camp for terrorism, and an Al-Queda training camp for terrorism. You would have some people working for Al-Queada and go out to an Al-Queda mission, and you would have other people working for the ISI and they would go out to Cashmere on one of their missions.”

Narrator: “Within Days of the Attacks, Pakistan was hailed as a major ally in the new war on terror. The White House seemed confident that Al-Queda alone was behind 9/11.”

Narrator: “.. On [October 1, 2001], the FBI discovered evidence linking the alleged Hijackers and Al-Queda by following a money trail that ended at Mohammed Atta in Florida.”

CNN Broadcast, 10/06/01: “The Suspected Hijacker Muhammad Alta received wire transfers via Pakistan, and then distributed the cash via money orders here in Florida. A senior law enforcement official tells CNN the man sending the money to Atta is believed to be Omar Saeed Sheikh. He reportedly is controlling certain aspects of the financial transactions of the Al-Queda Network. Once a stand-out student of the London School of Economics, the British born son of Pakistani parents speaks five languages.”

Narrator: “The story made news in every major newspaper. With a 9/11 paymaster identified as an alleged Al-Queda moneyman, it seemed that the US finally had it’s proof that Al-Queda was involved, and the US war on terror could now move ahead. But what most of his post-9/11 reports about Omar Saeed Sheikh had failed to mention was that at the same time Sheikh dropped out of the London School of Economics to presumably join Al-Queda, he had also joined the ISI.”

CNN International Broadcast, 10/28/01: “Arresting officer A.K. Jain says Omar Sheik admitted he was supported by the Pakistan Government’s intelligence service, the ISI.. After his release it was very clear that he was provided protection and safe haven in Pakistan, with the direct support, knowledge and obviously the Knivence of the Pakistani Intelligence.”



Narrator: “Only two days after the invasion of Afghanistan, the Times of India reported the FBI discovered credible evidence that $100,000 was wired to alleged Hijacker Muhammad Atta by 9/11 paymaster, Omar Saeed Sheikh on the orders of the ISI Director Gen. Mahmood Ahmed.”

Paul Thompson: “If that had been the head of the Iraqi Intelligence agency, do you think we would have heard about it?”

Dr. William Pepper, Consultant to the Pakistani Government: “You have to understand that General Mahmood Ahmed was a Key Player. Indian State Intelligence came upon this transfer. It was then that the Times of India was able to get this information. The FBI was got involved in the whole situation because it was becoming very public as a result of the Indian Investigation.”

Narrator: “Though the information was never publicly disclosed, Indian Intelligence claimed that the FBI had privately confirmed this story to them, and it soon made every major Indian Newspaper. In the US, only a single news outlet even mentioned the investigation. The information was reported as an internet-only story on the editorial section of the Wall Street Journal’s website.”

Paul Thompson: “It had this cutesy title, but it contained this completely explosive information... ”

Narrator: “After the Times of India story broke, paymaster Omar Saeed Sheikh was no longer that apparent proof that Al-Qaeda was the sole sponsor of the attacks. Instead, Saeed Sheik, acting on the orders of the ISI, appeared to be the smoking gun of Pakistani involvement in 9/11.”

Paul Thompson: “And instantly, within that day, basically, Saeed Sheikh becomes ‘persona-non-rata’, and then a whole bunch of other people are put forth as the Paymaster. ”

Narrator: “Over the next several months, authorities began confusing the news media with a bewildering variety of alternate names for the Paymaster, each sounding similar to Omar Saeed Sheikh.”

Paul Thompson: “No it’s this guy, no it’s this guy, they keep changing the story about who the guy is, and it becomes hard to keep track.”

Narrator: “By the one year anniversary of 9/11, Newsweek had concluded that the paymaster remains almost ‘a total mystery.’ The 9/11 Commission would ultimately conclude that the question of who financed the attacks is of ‘little practical significance.’”

Paul Thompson: “In my opinion it seems to be a bunch of smoke and mirrors to try to really hide the fact that there is money coming from the ISI, going to the Hijackers.”

Narrator: “And here the story took another unexpected turn. Several top news stories had already reported that the Pakistani ISI director had actually been in Washington for a rare visit during the week of September 11. L.A. Weekly reported that on the very evening of September 11, US State Department Officials began reporting the terms of the U.S. - Pakistani partnership with ISI Director Mahmood Ahmed, the very man who was alleged to have ordered the very transfer to Mohammed Atta. The talks continued over the next several days before the General returned to Pakistan on September 14.

Narrator: ”.. An undercover operative Randy Glass says that he can prove that USA Officials knew about the ISI role in 9/11 even as they chose to partner with Pakistan. The revelation came in another widely overlooked story, this one reported by dateline NBC.. “

The story reported by Dateline NBC spoke of Randy Glass, who was infiltrating a terrorist arms buying network in a two and a half year investigation by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. In the story, it explained how In a 1999 meeting in which Randy Glass was wearing a wire, he was introduced to individuals associated with Osama Bin Laden and the ISI, who were interested in purchasing weapons. The most important information ended up on the cutting room floor, however..

Randy Glass: ”During the course of the conversation, I asked him exactly what his intentions were. After Dinner, as we walked outside, he pointed at the direction of the World Trade Center and said ‘those towers are coming down.’“

Randy Glass: ”I had been threatened by FBI Agent Steve Bridouski that if I mentioned any of that, I would be charged with obstruction of justice.“

Paul Thompson: ”I'm not suggesting from this that Pakistan is the ‘solution’ to 9/11 because it’s not. Pakistan is one part in a very complicated story. The question to me is ‘Who else was involved with Al-Qaeda, was Al-Qaeda used as a tool, just as in the 1980’s as the Mujahideen was basically used by the US Government.“











This clip discusses some aspects of how the media is not adequately covering 9/11 issues, and shows why it is important for individuals outside the established media to help 'connect the dots.'










Paul Thompson and others discuss why many people would rather not speak about the issues of 9/11 because of the trail of evidence leading to a lot of disturbing places, and why it is important for the truth to be known.