Group presses for 9/11 investigation to be reopened

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=5392980&nav=9Tai

Tom Walker/Eyewitness News
9/11/2006

Do we know the real story of 911? Will we ever? Five years later, there are plenty of skeptics of the official investigation. Some say it should be re-opened. Former Hoosier Congressman Lee Hamilton helped head that investigation.

They are people like Donna Marsh O'Connor who lost her daughter in the collapse of the World Trade Towers, and Michelle Little, whose brother was a New York firefighter killed that day and who says she wants more answers. "To share the truth, to share the facts, not conspiracy theories. The facts," she said. "We are not crazy. We have questions," said O'Connor

They were in Washington to help promote an independently-produced documentary that questions gaps in official investigations.

"Why had the US military defenses failed to stop any of the four hijacked planes?"

That's a question former Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton says the 911 Commission he helped lead did look into and got conflicting answers.

"Were we lied to? I don't know that answer. We certainly were given bad information," said Hamilton.

The sister of a woman aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon wonders why more hasn't been done to make air travel safer. "Every time I go through an airport screening I can't help but be so angry over the whole process," said Christina Kminek.

Hamilton says he also worries about steps that haven't been taken. He told us he believes terrorists will strike again and it should get even higher priority.

"It's just a sense of passion, a sense of urgency that this job has to be done now, it has to be accelerated because the terrorists are not waiting," he said.

But Hamilton defends the 9/11 commission's work against those who charge a massive government cover up. He predicts its report will remain the starting point for whoever writes the final history of that day.