Howard Zinn is an American historian,
political scientist, social critic, activist and
playwright. He is best known as author of the best-seller
'A People's History of the United States'. Zinn has been
active in the Civil Rights and the anti-war movements in
the United States. Zinn was raised in a working-class
family in Brooklyn, and flew bombing missions for the
United States in World War II, an experience he now
points to in shaping his opposition to war. In 1956, he
became a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, a
school for black women, where he soon became involved in
the Civil rights movement, which he participated in as an
adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
SNCC and chronicled, in his book SNCC The New
Abolitionists. Zinn collaborated with historian Staughton
Lynd and mentored a young student named Alice Walker.
When he was fired in 1963 for insubordination related to
his protest work, he moved to Boston University, where he
became a leading critic of the Vietnam War.
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome back to The Real
News Network, coming to you from Boston. We're talking to
Howard Zinn. Hi, Howard.
HOWARD ZINN, HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR: Thank you.
JAY: So the email we get most often is: "Why aren't
you guys doing the 9/11 story?" It can go anywhere
from "9/11 was an inside job. Why aren't you doing
that story?" I would say more often now the emails
are saying, "Will you report on those people who
support the idea of an independent inquiry around the
events of 9/11, who caused it, and the whole issue of
incompetence and negligence, or even criminal
involvement?" What do you make of this whole issue
of the need to investigate what really happened around
9/11?
ZINN: There are some issues which are interesting but
which are diversions from what we really have to do. This
is one of them. I doubt that an independent commission—and
I grant it, we don't know all the facts about 9/11, and
we could probably learn a lot more. And maybe there was a
conspiracy. Who knows? But I believe it's one of those
issues that can never be fully answered, like the
assassination of John F. Kennedy. It'll go on and on and
on. People will write books and talk about it. It will be
an enormous waste of good energy. So it's not that I
doubt any of the doubters; it's not that I doubt that
there are very troubling questions to be answered. I just
don't think that it leads anywhere.
JAY: Well, they would answer back that much of today's
foreign policy, not just Bush but Obama as well, talks
about, for example, the objective of the Afghan policy is
to make sure 9/11 doesn't happen again. We've got to make
sure it's not a base for terrorism. Like, a lot of the
underlying rationale or mythology, however you want to
describe it, still has its roots in 9/11 in terms of
today's policy, and that if in fact it turned out—if
you go, like, to this one end of the spectrum of what may
have been, if it turns out that the leaders of the
Republican administration, perhaps with some
collaboration of some of the leading Democrats, which is
possible, knew something was coming and decided not to do
something about it—or you can go to other ends of
the spectrum, which, you know, talk about bombs in the
buildings and so on—the one fact we do know is that
Condoleezza Rice did open up a document that said Osama
plans to attack America, and seems not to have done
anything about it, said at the 9/11 Commission that she
was going to task all the FBI offices, and then later the
9/11 Commission found out she didn't really task all the
FBI offices, and literally nothing was done in a summer
where her own national security czar was saying,
"Our hair was on fire." So on and so on and so
on. If it turns out there actually was a decision that an
attack ain't so bad, isn't that a rather important thing
to know for American people?
ZINN: You say "if it turns out."
JAY: And one would never be able to know.
ZINN: Nothing will never turn—it will never turn
out. That was—it will never be clear. It's one of
those situations where nobody will be able to prove
anything, and it will lead us nowhere. That doesn't mean
we shouldn't be concerned about 9/11. 9/11 is crucial. We
should talk about 9/11, but not about who knew in advance
what. We should talk about how 9/11 was used by the Bush
administration however it started, whoever was behind it.
The important thing about 9/11 is that 9/11 was used as
an excuse by the Bush administration to go to war, and
furthermore that they have not investigated why 9/11 took
place. This is something that should be asked. What
should be asked is: why are there people in the world who
want to blow up our buildings, who want to scare the
American people, who want to do terrorist—why are
there such people? If you start to ask that question,
then that would lead you into, well, is it possible that
there are people in the world, all over the world, who
are absolutely enraged by American foreign policy?
There's a lot of evidence for that. That's a lot easier
to prove, a lot easier to prove than who conspired to
plant bombs and so on and so forth. That's what we should
be concentrating on. We should be concentrating on in
what way is American foreign policy responsible for the
terrorism that exists in the minds and hearts of so many
people in the world, and which in a small number of them
results in violent acts.
JAY: And a lot of that conversation has been had. There's
been a lot of discussion about blowback. There's been a
lot of—and maybe not enough in the mainstream media,
but even in the mainstream media there's been some
conversation. Even Bush, at some point before his term
was over, talked a bit about how US foreign policy had
been connected to these events, even though at the time
they tried to close down that whole conversation
completely. But if one looks at the connection between
the Pakistani ISI, Saudi intelligence, some people
suggest Mossad, we know there were messages coming,
warning the United States that something was happening,
from other intelligence agencies. If in fact there was a
decision made—and you say, your point is,
"Maybe it was. But how do you prove it?" But
the fact that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of
Americans and people around the world still believe such
things, doesn't that actually suggest an inquiry, as much
as it could achieve, would be worthwhile?
ZINN: Yeah, I think it would divert our energy from the
real inquiry. The real inquiry is: in what way has
American foreign policy inflamed and antagonized people
all over the world to the point of creating terrorists?
That's the question that should be investigated. And the
other question about the conspiracy and who knew about it
and who didn't do anything about it, that to me is a dead
end. It's a diversion. And I think it leads us away from
what we should be doing.
JAY: Thanks very much for joining us. Thank you for
joining us on The Real News Network.
DISCLAIMER:
Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a
recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot
guarantee their complete accuracy.
Political
Leaders for 9/11 Truth Launched
March 2009 - New Initiative by Yukihisa Fujita
In 2009 under the leadershiip of Yukihisa
Fujita, a member of Parliament, Japan
and Karen S. Johnson, a former member of the Senate of
the State of Arizona, USA
a new initiative has been launched that calls for a new
independent investigation of 9/11 by political leaders.
45 Political Leaders so far have signed
the petition (April, 24, 2009)
Brae Antcliffe Elected Alderman to the
Council of The City of Sydney, Australia, early 1980s Berit Ås, former member of Parliament,
Norway Shirley Bianchi, 1999-2007 District Two
San Luis Obispo County Supervisor, California USA Eric Booth, elected Former Islands
Trustee, Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee
2002-2005, USA Dr. Robert M. Bowman, former, Director
Advanced Space Programs Development (U.S.A.F.) Ford &
Carter administrations Andreas v. Bülow, former State
Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defense, West
Germany; former Minister
of Research and Technology; frm. member of the German
Parliament Donald R. Bustion, former Assistant
Attorney General of Texas Giulietto Chiesa, Italian member of the
European Parliament; Gerard Chevrot, Municipal Councilor,
Saint-Sixt, France Matt Cole, Board of Trustees, Town of
Alma; Alma, Colorado, USA Wolfram Elsner, PhD, former head of the
Planning Division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs,
Bremen, Germany Douglas Nixon Everingham, Member, House
of Representatives, Australia, 1967-75 and 1977-84,
Minister for Health 1972-75, World Health Assembly 1975,
Parliamentary Adviser, UN delegation. Jeanette Fitzsimons, Co-leader New
Zealand Green Party since 1995, member House of
Representatives since 1999. Constance Fogal, Canadian Action Party
Leader, 2004-2008 Egon Frid, elected Member of Swedish
Parliament, 2006 . Member of Committee on Civil Affairs,
Deputy Member of the Committee on Transport and
Communications. Yukihisa Fujita, member of the House of
Councilors, National Diet of Japan; Chairman,
Special Committee on North Korean Abduction Issue and
Related Matters;
former member of the House of Representatives Ole Gerstrom, Member of Parliament,
Denmark, 1973-1975. Bill Goodacre, Smithers, BC, Town
Council (12 years);
elected Member of the British Columbia (Canada)
Legislature, 1996-2001 Senator Mike Gravel, United States
Senator (1969 - 1981) Dan Hamburg, former Californian member
of the US House of Representatives Joel S. Hirschhorn, Senior Staff Member,
Congressional Office of Technology Assessment 1978-1990 Barbara Honegger, former White House
Policy Analyst and Special Assistant
to the Assistant to President Ronald Reagan (1981 - 1983)
Ferdinando Imposimato, elected Italian
Senator, 1987-1992, and 1994-1996.
Elected to the Chamber of Deputies (Parliament),
1992-1994 Tadashi Inuzuka, member of the House of
Councilors, National Diet of Japan Karen S. Johnson, former member of the
Senate of the State of Arizona,
frm. chair of the Family Services Committee Scott Kennedy, former Mayor and City
Council Member, Santa Cruz, California Senator Prof. Muhammad Ibrahim Khan,
member of Pakistan's Senate since 2006;
member of Standing committee on Education and Science and
Technology;
member of Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human
Rights and Parliamentary Affairs;
Vice President of Jamaat e Islami (Pakistan) Paul Lannoye, former Belgian member of
the European Parliament,
vice chair of the Committee on Energy, Research, and
Technology Jon Paul McClellan, chief election judge
(appointed), Eastside Precinct, Orange County, North
Carolina;
former elected chair of the precinct organization. Cynthia McKinney, former Georgian member
of the US House of Representatives,
member of the Armed Services Committee and the
International Relations Committee Michael Meacher, Minister of the British
Parliament; former Minister of the Environment;
former Undersecretary for Industry (Charter Member of
PL911Truth) Per Mohn, deputy representative to the
Norwegian Parliament from Akershus, 1989–1993 Dr. Andrew J. Moulden, Leader of the
Canadian Action Party David Nelson, Hate Crimes Working Group
(appointed advisory commission),
U.S. Department of Justice, Utah, 1997-2001 Marty B. O'Malley, elected Democratic
member of Council, Forest Hills, PA USA Bruce Randall, elected Longmeadow
(Massachusetts) Water & Sewer Commissioner,
2002-2003, USA Senator Fernando Rossi, member of the
Itallian Parliament (Senator), 2006-2008 USA Val Scott, founding member of Canada's
New Democratic Party;
former Trustee and Vice Chairman of North York Board of
Education, Ontario, Canada Prof. David C. Smith, former Town
Councillor, Mont Saint Aignan, Normandy, France Simon C. Smith, elected to Sandwell
Metropolitan Borough Council,
Great Bridge Electoral Division, United Kingdom Joel Tyner, third term county legislator
for Clinton and Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York
State;
Environmental Committee Chair for Duchess County
Legislature. USA Gianni Vattimo, member of European
Parliament, 1999 - 2004 (Italy);
Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and
Home Affairs;
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs; Committee on
Culture,
Youth, Education, the Media and Sport Jesse Ventura, former Governor of
Minnesota USA Bruno Vézina, elected Mayor of Irlande,
Quebec, Canada, 2003 Terry Wachniak, elected to City Council,
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, from 1986 to 1989
Statements of numerous other
international politicians who questioned 9/11, without
explictly demanding a new nvestigation
can be found at the website www.patriotsquestion911.com
