– 9/11 and Aftermath: Tragedy and Deception (Families of Victims Speak Out)

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

PM Monday, September 8, 2003

9/11 and Aftermath: Tragedy and Deception
* Relatives of Sept. 11 Victims * Military Families

DAVID POTORTI, david@peacefultomorrows.org, http://www.peacefultomorrows.org
Potorti is the primary author of the new book “September 11th Families for
Peaceful Tomorrows: Turning Our Grief into Action for Peace.” His brother
was killed in the World Trade Center. He said today: “With the worst kind
of cynicism, George W. Bush continues the hallucinatory link of Iraq to the
deaths of our loved ones on Sept. 11…. Calling the invasion of Iraq ‘one
of the swiftest and most humane military campaigns in history’ is not just
a lie, but a damned lie. Between 6,000 and 10,000 civilians have been
killed — two to three times the number who died on 9/11. To deny the
reality of these deaths is not only dishonest to the innocent people of
Iraq, but to the Americans in whose name we are waging the ‘war on
terror.'” This week about 25 members of the Peaceful Tomorrows
organization, including Potorti, are in New York City, where they will
participate in a series of events.

RITA LASAR, rita@peacefultomorrows.org
Also a member of Peaceful Tomorrows, Lasar lost her brother at the World
Trade Center. She is available for a limited number of interviews. She said
today: “Bush says he’s doing this to avenge the victims of 9/11 and to make
us safer. But with the course he is taking us on, children are not yet born
who will be fighting over this. This isn’t about keeping us safe, but
because he wants to keep himself and his cronies rich.”

NANCY LESSIN, CANDANCE ROBISON, cmrobison@msn.com, http://www.mfso.org
Members of Military Families Speak Out, both Lessin and Robison are in
Washington, D.C., and will speak at a congressional briefing Tuesday
afternoon. With several other military families, they watched Bush’s speech
last night together.

WILLIAM HARTUNG, hartung@newschool.edu,
http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms
FRIDA BERRIGAN, BerrigaF@newschool.edu
Hartung is director of the World Policy Institute’s Arms Trade Resource
Center; Berrigan is senior researcher with the group. They said today:
“Former White House economic advisor Lawrence Lindsay was ridiculed for
estimating a year ago that the invasion would end up costing $200 billion.
It now looks like it will exceed that. Contrary to the impression given by
Bush, the bulk of the $87 billion will go to military-related activities,
much of which will profit companies close to his administration.”

NORMAN SOLOMON, norman@accuracy.org,
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/09/07/IN302705.DTL,
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0309/06/cst.01.html
Executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Solomon is
co-author of “Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You.” He wrote
in an essay published on Sunday by the San Francisco Chronicle: “In a
cauldron of media alchemy, the human suffering of Sept. 11 became
propaganda gold. Sorrow turned into political capital.”