Dear Friends: 9/11 does not go away. It is with us on a daily basis, and it has changed our character as a nation. It has been the rationale for unending war, the sacrifice of civil liberties, the creation of a surveillance state, and a litany of radical changes in US behavior at home and abroad.
If 9/11 “changed everything,” as George Bush said, then it is extremely important that we “get it right.” What really happened that day? Can we uncritically accept the official spin? How can questioning what really happened be taboo? Some of the families of 9/11 victims did not accept the official spin. They felt a deep need to know what happened to their loved ones, and they sensed they were not being told the truth. They organized, and sparked what has become known as the “9/11 Truth Movement.” The term “truth movement” is not a claim to having absolute truth: it is a demand for truthfulness. Quakerism has been a “truth movement” from the beginning. Speaking truth to power is what we do.
Yet when we unquestioningly accept self-serving government reports that are used to justify endless war, where is our Peace Testimony? Where is our Testimony of Integrity? When we accept that the perpetrators of 9/11 were Arab terrorists, when the evidence says otherwise, we are condoning ethnic scapegoating. Where is our Testimony of Community?
A significant body of evidence has emerged that leads many independent scientists and engineers to believe that 9/11 had to have been orchestrated by powerful insiders, not Arab terrorists. I urge you to carefully consider the evidence for this perspective and not rely on a priori judgments. The implications are huge. As a starting point, I invite you to visit my website: 911speakout.org.
– David Chandler, Multnomah Monthly Meeting (NPYM)