A Missing Scene from Fahrenheit 9/11

The Silence of the Domes

Tonight I went to a lecture given by a member of the government's 9/11 Committee. He didn't say too much because as he focused on questions from the audience (victims' family members also attended) but he did give a clear and concise summary of the Commission's findings, namely that there needed to be a federal intelligence chief and other administrative reforms. What disturbed me was what I perceived to be the influence of--sorry to mention Jon Stewart again--"partisan hackery" on the undergraduates. Perhaps they really do believe everything they see on TV. No less than four times did students ask about Iraq, even after the speaker specifically said they found no connection between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein leading to the 2001 attacks. Logically, then, a member of the 9/11 Commission probably did not research anything else involving the second Gulf War of 2003, a point that had to be continually reiterated. Similarly, another student inquired--inarticulately--about the connections between Osama bin Laden and multinational corporations. There are none, though I can think of some propaganda that proposed such a conspiracy theory. Former Rep. John LaFalce introduced the speaker and took advantage of the microphone to reference Bob Woodward's book about Bush's planning to attack Iraq even on 12 September 2001. That much is probably true, but again has nothing to do with a lecture about 9/11, even if it is two weeks from the election. Still it was nice to see that intelligent, thoughtful and patient officials work for the federal government, and that citizens of a similar caliber, even after the deaths of loved ones, could group together and put those officials in line for the public welfare.