From the November 2004 Idaho Observer:

Hero-turned whistleblower names president and 55 others in 9/11-related RICO lawsuit

First we were under attack. Then we were shown photos of 19 Arab terrorists who attacked us. Then we were told Osama bin Laden masterminded the attacks. As details of this scenario became available, the story began to sound as if it were based on pure fantasy and not good police work. Some began to suspect government prior knowledge; today we have enough evidence to claim that the highest levels of the Bush administration planned and carried out the 9/11 attacks. Now, three years later, we have private individuals attempting to bring the guilty parties in government to justice through the government’s courts.

by Greg Syzmanski

A maintenance worker on duty at the World Trade Center on 9/11 has filed a federal lawsuit against President George W. Bush and others in government, alleging they had prior knowledge or actively planned the attacks in order to launch wars against Afghanistan and Iraq.

The 237-page civil complaint was filed October 22, 2004, under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of William Rodriguez by Philadelphia attorney Phillip J. Berg. Plaintiffs claim President Bush and others engaged in racketeering activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 1962c.

The complaint seeks relief for Rodriguez based on 13 counts, including Misprision of Felony, Misprision of Treason, relief under the Anti Terrorism Act, relief under the War Crimes Act and relief for and from Crimes Against Humanity.

Berg said Tuesday from his Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, law office that "once my client, Mr. Rodriguez, has had his day in court, President Bush and the other 55 named defendants will finally be held accountable for the deaths of 2,993 persons from 83 countries.

"My client is enthusiastic, articulate and was a hero on 9/11, rescuing more than 15 people before being one of the last persons to exit the North Tower before it collapsed," said Berg. "He will testify that he distinctly heard explosions prior to the airplanes striking the towers, providing further credibility to the theory that explosives were strategically placed in the buildings in order to bring about their collapse.

"My client will also testify that approximately three weeks prior to 9/11, he saw one of the hijackers walking through the basement area of the Towers."

Berg admits that Rodriguez’s complaint will "shock and offend" many Americans, but he urges critics to first read the compelling allegations contained in the RICO complaint posted on his website at www.911forthetruth.com.

Berg, a former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania for eight years and long-time civil rights activist, previously filed a RICO claim against Bush and his cronies on behalf of 9/11 widow Ellen Mariani. Mariani has recently dropped her suit citing health concerns.

"The official story of what took place on 9/11 is a boldface lie," Berg strongly maintains. "Mr. Rodriguez does not pretend to have complete knowledge of the full and definitive account of how and by whom the attacks were carried out. But the information reported by independent investigators and viewed in the light of common sense, as well as the law of physics, demonstrates that the ‘Official Story,’ examined closely, is not credible."

Berg is alarmed that the government’s story contains glaring inconsistencies, implausibilities and inaccuracies. He also contends that the mainstream media has "dropped the ball" and purposely ignored studious analysis because to do so would reveal that the government is lying to us.

Berg claims he has sent out 2,600 press releases regarding the Rodriguez action and to date has not received one phone call from any major media outlet.

"They are basically ignoring the most important story in American history. It’s a cover-up at all the highest levels, including the media conglomerates," said Berg. "However, it is interesting that I was recently contacted by Al Jazeera and will be doing an extensive interview on November 27 for an upcoming March 2005 special they are doing on our government’s 9/11 cover-up."

Under special pleading rules for a federal RICO action, Berg is allowed to specifically plead facts showing a conspiracy among the defendants in the events before, during and after 9/11.

The detailed complaint shows a web of government conspiracy dating back to the late 1970s when Osama bin Laden was first put on the government payroll as a CIA operative to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.

Berg claims this web of government deceit and financial backing continues all the way up to days just preceding 9/11. As witnesses will testify and records will reveal, the alleged hijackers were actually on the government payroll. The complaint goes on to say that the defendants deliberately concealed the fact that they had ample warnings of terrorist attacks and failed to act on them in order to carry out a full-blown war on terrorism as a means to justify their neo-conservative political goals.

Regarding 9/11 itself, the Rodriguez action aims to prove the following main points:

1. The World Trade Center, as well as WTC Building #7, were destroyed by a controlled demolition, as clearly proven by the laws of physics and that this demolition could have only been an "inside job."

2. An unprecedented nationwide "ground stop" order and stand down of NORAD must have had White House approval since it prevented even the military from flying, allowing the 9/11 attacks to proceed without interruption.

3. The defendants conspired to and did allow the attacks to happen by delaying military interceptions of the hijacked planes in the following manner: Flight 11 (North Tower) and Flight 175 (South Tower) could have been intercepted by fighter jets before collision, but were not due to an ordered "stand down" of NORAD defense systems on the morning in question.

4. Evidence will also show that the flight patterns taken and the manner in which the sophisticated jets were handled could not have been accomplished by untrained, novice pilots with only box cutters.

5. The evidence will further show that Flight 11 and Flight 175s transponders may have been dismantled by government insiders, making them both invisible on radar screens and thus allowing for the airplanes to be guided by a remote control into the WTC by a government system called Global Hawk.

6. Flight 77 not only could have been intercepted by fighter jets but was allowed to fly uncontested a full 50 minutes before striking the Pentagon.

7. Evidence will further show that the object that hit the Pentagon was not a commercial airliner but in fact a government guided missile.

8. The crash of Flight 93 in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, raises serious additional questions which will show that it was actually shot down by government fighter jets and not brought down due to a terrorist struggle in the cockpit.

9. FEMA, which quickly removed the WTC, Pentagon and Flight 93 debris before it could be independently examined, maintains a "Black-Op" shadow government designed to replace the elected government of the United States.

10. The "insider trading" on American Airlines and other 9/11 affected stocks was subject to an ongoing cover-up to conceal the identities of those who had actual prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks.

The "Enterprise"

In Rodriguez’s complaint, this "Black-Op" shadow government is referred to as the "Enterprise."

According to Berg, facts will eventually show the Enterprise and the named defendants are now engaged in an orchestrated dismantling of the American government resulting in martial law with those resisters placed in secret internment camps now under construction through the authority granted to FEMA. Camps have supposedly been constructed in 13 different locations under the Bush administration, including locations in Tooley Lake and Avon Lake, California.

Since RICO allows for pleadings to show a conspiracy after-the-fact, the Rodriguez action further cites the 11th hour passage of the Patriot Act, Election Fraud in 2000 and 2004 as further evidence of the Enterprise’s intentions to legally by-pass the U.S. Constitution and silence its critics.

"I am now on my way to Ohio and will be looking into the legal issues for the initiation of an election’s fraud lawsuit there," said Berg. "It’s the same people doing the same thing in order to satisfy their neo-conservative agenda.

"Some facts cannot be denied," continued Berg. "Clearly 9/11 was carried out by more than one person. Therefore, by definition there was a conspiracy. It’s just a matter of proving who all the players involved really are. What we are arguing is that the true conspirators have abused their enormous power and the trust of the American people to concoct and sell to the world a false conspiracy theory, to justify war and mass murder for economic and political gain.

"Since the neocons, allied with the president, said in almost so many words that they wished for a New Pearl Harbor,’ why then should we just categorically dismiss without proper investigation that they actually brought it about by planning 9/11?"

"Why has there been no full and transparent investigation? Isn’t it shocking that the federal government grabbed up all the evidence—not a trace of Flight 93 and the others—and that no police authority has conducted a true criminal investigation into 3,000 homicides? Instead of due process of law, government officials and the mass media have convicted Osama bin Laden and had names and photos of his 19 accomplices on the Internet, literally within hours of the attacks.

"The truth is that there has been no definitive evidence that there were any Arabs on those planes and even less proof concerning the supposed identities of the alleged hijackers."

Berg notes that the recent 9/11 Commission report failed to include statements made by Rodriguez when he recently testified before the Commission. He said they simply rubber-stamped the "Official Story" put out by the government.

"The Commission is a collection of government and intelligence insiders," added Berg. "They failed to even mention the great body of evidence that suggests the "Official Story" cannot be true. From the facts, many contained in this complaint, it ought to be obvious that there is a cover-up, but they simply admitted only to bureaucratic mistakes, for which no one to date is being held accountable."

Rodriguez, proclaimed a hero in the media for risking his life to save many others after the 9/11 attacks, said he feels a "personal responsibility to find out the truth" no matter what it takes.

"Somebody has to take action to reveal the truth, " he said. "If suing President Bush is what I have to do to accomplish that, so be it."

Rodriguez added that the events of 9/11 are directly related to the deaths of thousands of people in two ongoing wars, attacks on Constitutional liberties in the United States, the abuse and torture of detainees around the world and the use by the United States of depleted uranium and other weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Berg said he has just completed serving notice on all the defendants listed in the lawsuit and is awaiting an Answer to be filed in federal court.

"I expect them to seek a Motion to Dismiss and block discovery and deposition testimony any way they can," said Berg.

Some of the other defendants in the lawsuit besides President Bush include the President’s father, George H. Bush, Gov. Jeb Bush, Neil Mallon Bush, Marvin Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security

Advisor Condoleeza Rice, resigned Attorney General John Ashcroft, Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz.

Editor’s note: Members of the Bush administration have now been named as defendants in at least two lawsuits claiming prior knowledge and complicity in the tragic events of 9/11. While it is not likely that ordinary citizens will ever see government courts convicting government officials for 9/11-related charges or be granted relief for damages those officials have caused, these efforts will not be wasted.

When individuals and their attorneys prepare an important case for court, they commonly spend hundreds of hours researching and preparing documentation for court. People who demand $150-$450 an hour for their time then file their professionally-prepared complaints and briefs with the courts. This work product is then in the public domain where it can be used as a foundation for further research and to corroborate other evidence. It can also be cited in other court documents or quoted in published articles.

In essence, the best of our best can accumulate and, one day, with or without the help of the court system, the truth will become common knowledge. Though we would all like to see those guilty of the crimes mentioned in the article above be tried by a jury of our peers and sentenced in accordance to the severity of their transgressions, we must accept the possibility that may never happen. However, the truth is we all pay for our actions. It’s just that some of us are reserved for judgment in a higher court. (DWH)