International Center for 9/11 Studies:

http://www.ic911studies.org

presents:

International Hearings on the Events of September 11, 2001

at Ryerson University in Toronto

8-11 September 2011

http://torontohearings.org/

September 11, 2011 will be the 10th anniversary of the events in New York and Washington that have played a dramatic role in modern history. These events have provided a pretext for a War on Terror that has replaced the Cold War as a global conflict framework within which military invasions and occupations have taken place, as well as violations of international law and human rights and a widespread assault on the civil rights crucial to democracies. Global military spending, which began a rapid downswing after the end of the Cold War, has, with the help of the official account of the 9/11 attacks, risen to Cold War levels and continues to rise. The focus on military solutions to complex human problems has sidetracked humanity at the very moment when international cooperation is most required to address climate change, energy scarcity and other genuine challenges that humanity faces.

In the meantime, skepticism about the official reports on the 9/11 attacks (by the 9/11 Commission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other government or government-appointed agencies) has risen to high levels in many countries. This skepticism, contrary to what is regularly asserted in mainstream media, has a factual basis and is not merely the result of delusional or conspiratorial thinking.

The International Center for 9/11 Studies has decided to sponsor four days of Citizen Hearings in the city of Toronto, Canada on the 10th anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001.

These Hearings will not be a mock trial or symbolic tribunal. They will involve the serious, careful and informed consideration of the best evidence that has been discovered in the ten years since the 9/11 events occurred.

Objectives of the Hearings:

(1) To present evidence that the U.S. government’s official investigation into the events of September 11, 2001, as pursued by various government and government-appointed agencies, is seriously flawed and has failed to describe and account for the 9/11 events.

(2) To single out the most weighty evidence of the inadequacy of the U.S. government’s investigation; to organize and classify that evidence; to preserve that evidence; to make that evidence widely known to the public and to governmental, non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations.

(3) To submit a record and a summary of the Hearings, together with signed Statutory Declarations by witnesses, to relevant governments, groups and international agencies with the request that a full and impartial investigation be launched into the events of September 11, 2001, which have been used to initiate military invasions and to restrict the rights of citizens.

(4) To engage the attention of the public and media through witness testimony as well as through public talks and media events during the four day event.

Location of the Hearings

The Hearings are international, and the location outside the U.S. is intended to give that message. At the same time, there are good reasons to choose a location reasonably close to the attacks of September 11, 2001 so that people directly associated with the events, such as victims’ families, can travel to the Hearings.  Toronto is a 9-hour drive from New York City.  Toronto’s Ryerson University has been chosen as the site of the actual hearings.

Participants

The key participants in the Hearings will be moderators, witnesses, and a citizens’ panel. Moderators will guide the witnesses and panel through the presentation and discussion of evidence. Witnesses (chiefly expert witnesses, but possibly eyewitnesses as well) will speak of their research findings or experiences and, where appropriate, will formally submit evidence to the panel. A four-member international panel of highly credible citizens will listen to the witnesses, examine their evidence, raise questions and engage in discussion, and submit a report after the conclusion of the Hearings.

Each day of the Hearings will have one or more themes. For example, day 3 of the Hearings (Sept 10, 2011) will focus on the destruction of the World Trade Center. The following individuals have agreed to participate as expert witnesses on this day: Niels Harrit, David Chandler, Richard Gage, Steven Jones and Jon Cole.

The Hearings will be moderated by Richard Lee, Michael Keefer and Matthew Witt and the final report will be edited by James Gourley. Themes on days 1, 2, and 4 will include: al-Qaeda, air defense failures, insider trading, anomalies of Flights 77 and 93, the nature of false flag terrorism, and psychological resistance to accounts that challenge the official one. Peter Dale Scott, David Ray Griffin, Laurie Manwell, Graeme MacQueen, Lance DeHaven-Smith, and Kevin Ryan are confirmed witnesses, and there is a list of other witnesses who will soon be asked to participate. There will also be addresses, during the day and in the evenings, by eyewitnesses and by members of 9/11 victims families.

Who is the Sponsor?

The lead sponsor of these Hearings is the International Center for 9/11 Studies. Established by U.S. attorney James Gourley, the Center is currently known best for its success in gaining the release of approximately four terabytes of video evidence held (and kept from the public) by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Organizing and Planning Structure

There will be a Steering Committee, an Advisory Committee and several Working Groups. The Steering Committee currently consists of Kevin Ryan, Laurie Manwell, Graeme MacQueen and Adnan Zuberi. The Advisory Committee will be an international group consisting of about a dozen experts, 9/11 family members, and people of influence.  Approximately half of those advisors have been identified and the remainder invited in the coming months. Working Groups will deal with video-conferencing and recording, publicity, media relations, fundraising, and so on.

The Evidence

Evidence presented at the Hearings will be chosen according to the following criteria: high degree of certainty; importance; and consensus. High degree of certainty means that the Hearings will concentrate not on speculation but on facts that can firmly be established. Importance means that the Hearings will concentrate on elements of the governmental explanation that are crucial to that explanation. Consensus means that evidence chosen will be that which is least controversial within the movement of dissent that is critical of the official explanation

Call for Support

The Toronto Hearings Steering Committee would like to make an appeal to all citizens around the world who are sincerely committed to discovering the truth about the attacks of September 11.  Let’s make 2011 the year of evidence-based research.  If you cannot spare the time to do your own research, or do not have the skills, please consider supporting a Toronto Hearings participant by contributing an amount toward paying for that participant’s travel and accommodation.

Moderators

The Toronto Hearings will be moderated by the following people.

Michael Keefer is Professor of English at the University of Guelph. A recipient of the Renaissance Society of America’s William Nelson Prize, he has served as President of the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English, and as Chair of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Research Grants Adjudication Committee in Literature.

Richard B. Lee is University Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Internationally recognized for his ethnographic studies, he has held academic appointments at Harvard, Rutgers and Columbia University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Lee has served as President of the Canadian Anthropology Society and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Alaska Faribanks and the University of Guelph.

Matthew Witt is Associate Professor of Public Adminstration at the University of LaVerne. He has published on matters of public administration theory, civic participation, and the persistent role race plays prefiguring American public administrative praxis. His published work appears in Public Administration Review, Administrative Theory & Praxis, Administration & Society, Public Integrity, and other scholarly venues.

Witnesses

Evidence will be presented by the following witnesses:

Note:  The witness list is not yet complete.

Lance DeHaven-Smith is a Professor in the Reubin O’D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University. A former President of the Florida Political Science Association, he is the author, coauthor, or editor of 15 books on topics ranging from religion and political philosophy to Florida government and politics.  Dr. deHaven-Smith’s articles on State Crimes Against Democracy have set the stage for widespread study in this important new field.

Steven Jones is a PhD physicist who is well-known for being the leader of the 9/11 scientific community.  Dr. Jones has authored numerous peer-reviewed papers that have been published in prestigious scientific journals, including Nature, Scientific American, and the Journal of Physical Chemistry. His interviews, presentations and articles have influenced countless people around the world, including many professionals and other scientific people.  He is the founder and co-editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies, and Professor Emeritus at Brigham Young University.

Born a Canadian, Peter Dale Scott is a former English professor at the University of California, Berkeley, a former diplomat and a poet.  He is known for his anti-war stance and his criticism of U.S. foreign policy dating back to the Vietnam War.  He spent four years with the Canadian diplomatic service. He retired from the UC Berkeley faculty in 1994.  He is the author of numerous books, and his books on deep politics, including ”The Road to 9/11,” have been highly influential among those investigating the events of September 11, 2001.

David Ray Griffin is an American retired professor of philosophy of religion and theology. Along with John B. Cobb, Jr., he founded the Center for Process Studies in 1973, a research center of Claremont School of Theology which seeks to promote the common good by means of the relational approach found in process thought.  More recently, Griffin has published a number of books on the subject of the September 11 attacks.  Dr. Griffin’s books and presentations have been among the most important contributions to the 9/11 truth movement.  Many people have begun seeking the truth about 9/11 due to his work.

Jonathan Cole is a professional engineer licensed in New Hampshire and Florida, with 28 years experience.  For more than 10 years he has been the head of a mid-sized engineering firm with some 25 employees. In addition to designing large-scale engineering projects, he has performed services as an expert witness in his field. He volunteers his services for Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, in his capacity as a board director.  Recently, his experiments related to the thermite theory of destruction for the WTC have become very influential among independent investigators.

David Chandler is known for his 9/11 vidoes and his success in getting NIST to admit free-fall acceleration for WTC building 7.  He is a graduate of Harvey Mudd College and has an MA from Claremont Graduate University, and an MS in mathematics from Cal Poly, Pomona.  David’s article, WTC7: NIST Admits Freefall focuses on significant errors and descepancies in the final NIST report on the collapse of tower 7 and includes exerpts from a tehnical briefing held by NIST on August 26, 2008. During this briefing, questions were put to the panel by Chandler.  David’s videos related to the destruction of the WTC have made significant inroads in educating the public about the problems with the official investigations.

Laurie Manwell  is a PhD candidate in Behavioral Neuroscience and Toxicology at the University of Guelph. She has published research on the effects of drugs on learning, memory, and behavior (Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior), information processing (Psychonomic Bulletin and Review), self-esteem, emotion, and motivation (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology),  and cellular and molecular biology (Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology), and most recently on political psychology and democracy (American Behavioral Scientist).  Her recent article was part of a special issue of six articles on State Crimes Against Democracy (SCADs) published in the February 2010 edition of American Behavioral Scientist.

After teaching Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen for forty years, Professor Niels Harrit retired to devote his time to seeking truth and justice.  He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in the best scientific journals available and his most recent paper, “Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the WTC Catastrophe” has become a topic of great interest in the international community.  Professor Harrit now gives presentations on 9/11 to enthusiastic audiences around the world.

Richard Gage, AIA, is a San Francisco Bay Area architect and a member of the American Institute of Architects. He has been an architect for over 23 years and has worked on most types of building construction, including numerous fire-proofed, steel-framed buildings. Since founding Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth) in 2006, Gage has presented Blueprint for Truth all over the world, and he has appeared on radio shows and television spots.  AE911Truth now includes nearly 1,500 licensed and degreed architects and engineers who are calling for a new investigation into the events at the World Trade Center on 9/11/01.

Graeme MacQueen received his Ph.D. in comparative religion from Harvard University and taught in the Religious Studies department of McMaster University for 30 years. He became founding Director of the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster, after which he co-directed peace-building projects in Sri Lanka, Gaza, Croatia and Afghanistan.  He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters as well as four books. He has written four research articles on 9/11 and is a recognized authority on the eyewitness testimony related to the destruction of the WTC.

Through his work at Underwriters Laboratories (UL), Kevin Ryan began to investigate the tragedy of September 11th, 2001.  He was fired by UL, in 2004, for publicly asking questions about the WTC investigation being conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).  Ryan has served as co-editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies, and a member and/or director of a number of 9/11 truth groups.  Additionally, Ryan has co-authored several books and peer-reviewed scientific articles on the subject.