Was The 9/11 Commission Bribed?

Jon Gold
8/27/2008

Recently, Mike Berger from 911Truth.org was interviewed by the "Conscience of Kansas" Conservative Paul Ibbetson. During the interview, Mike mentioned the alleged bribery of the 9/11 Commission by Pakistan to omit any incriminating information about them. I figured a lot of people weren't familiar with this story, so I was inspired to write this "recap."

Over the years, there have been many allegations of Pakistani involvement in the 9/11 attacks. Apparently, Lt. General Mahmood Ahmed, the head of the Pakistani ISI, someone who met with U.S. elected and appointed officials in the weeks before 9/11, on the day of 9/11, and in the days after 9/11, ordered possible MI6 Agent Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to wire transfer $100,000 to Mohammad Atta. The 9/11 Families' submitted a question to the 9/11 Commission about this incident.

Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, John S. Pistole stated that their investigation "has traced the origin of the funding of 9/11 back to financial accounts in Pakistan, where high-ranking and well-known al-Qaeda operatives played a major role in moving the money forward, eventually into the hands of the hijackers located in the US."

In January 2002, during a visit to India, FBI Director Robert Mueller was told about Saeed Sheikh's involvement in the 9/11 attacks by Indian Investigators.

Apparently, "on the eve of the publication of its report, the 9/11 Commission was given a stunning document from Pakistan, claiming that Pakistani intelligence officers knew in advance of the 9/11 attacks."

None of this information was mentioned in the 9/11 Report.

On March 3rd, 2006, the Friday Times reported that "Pakistan gave tens of thousands of dollars through its lobbyists in the United States to members of the 9/11 inquiry commission to ‘convince’ them to drop some anti-Pakistan findings in the report." This according to FO Official Sadiq.

According to the Pakistan paper Daily Times, this story about bribery "triggered" U.S. media interest. I don't remember seeing any mention of this story at all. If you know of an American media outlet that investigated this story, and reported on the results of that investigation, please let me know.

On April 10th, 2006, Pakistan officially denied the allegations of bribery. “Pakistan has never indulged in the illegal activity of bribing or buying influence anywhere in the world,” said a statement issued by the FO spokesperson here on Sunday.

As it stands right now, we are at a "he said/she said" stand still. So the question remains, were members of the 9/11 Commission bribed to omit any Pakistani involvement from their report? The Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow, someone the families' called for the resignation of during the time of the 9/11 Commission, someone who tried to insert false information into the 9/11 Report, someone who may have taken direction from Karl Rove, someone who was given a nice cushy job with his old friend Condoleezza Rice, met with the Pakistani ISI in March 2003. Whether or not they talked about "a possible ISI role in the 9/11 plot remains unclear."

The fact remains, allegations of Pakistani involvement was not mentioned in the 9/11 Report, yet, a lot of information suggests they were involved. What do you think... do you think Phil is the type of person to take a bribe?