Edu Montesanti, a Brazilian journalist, began the interview in July, 2017 and corresponded by email with a series of questions. The interview is the result of that email exchange.
9/11Truth.Org’s Michael ‘Mike’ Berger says that, “The endless “War on Terror,” massive deficit spending, radical changes in domestic and foreign policies, including curtailing the civil liberties of Americans, have been justified by the 9/11 attacks. And yet, the story put forward by the government of how the attacks unfolded without a response from our trillion dollar defense establishment contains hundreds of contradictions and outright lies. If we truly wanted to protect and defend the country, we need to know how our government failed to protect us on 9/11 in order to make effective changes to defend the country from attack.”
“Our duty as Americans consists in protecting our rights and standing up for the values that make America special. We should not sacrifice our freedom and liberty for a false promise of security. We must examine how our government failed to defend the country on 9/11 if we are to secure the country from future attacks. Our Republic depends upon it.”
When liberty is taken away by force, it can be restored by force.
When it is relinquished voluntarily by default, it can never be recovered.Dorothy Thompson
In the following interview with Pravda Report, he comments on 16 years of the 9/11 attacks anniversary, no memory, no true, no justice. Lawyer Kenneth “Ken” Feinberg, chosen by the Bush regime to decide on the dollar value to be given to each family who lost a loved one, also has answered some questions:
Kenneth Feinberg: “The federal September 11th Compensation Fund of 2001 was a complete success. Approximately 5300 people were compensated and over $7 billion in taxpayer funds were distributed during a 33 month period established by federal statute. All civil lawsuits pertaining to the 9/11 attacks were resolved and settled in Federal Court in Manhattan about 5 years after the attacks. The principal claims that were asserted involved negligence on the part of the airplane manufacturer, the airlines, the World Trade Center, MassPort [Massachusetts Port Authority], and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, etc.”
In this interview, Mike speaks out on Dr. Feinberg’s observations. Dr. Feinberg has been invited to speak on Mike’s statements, but has not responded.
Mike Berger was born and raised about 20 minutes from Manhattan. He earned his degree in Sociology at Washington University with a focus on human motivation.
Nearly 18 months after the attacks, he began to question the official story when he read about significant purchases of put options, prior to 9/11, on companies directly affected by the attacks. These large financial wagers, placed on the world’s stock and option’s markets, implied that sophisticated investors profited from foreknowledge of the attacks. This initiated years of research regarding details of the attacks and how the public record is replete with credible facts that contradict many of the lies and omissions codified in the 9/11 Commission Report and sold to the American public by the mainstream media.
As the media coordinator for 911truth.org, he has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, CNN Showbiz Tonight, and Scarborough Country as well as dozens of radio appearances including a debate with Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive Magazine.
More than four years of investigation culminated in his first documentary, Improbable Collapse: The Demolition of our Republic, the first film to thoroughly review the evidence for World Trade Center demolitions from a scientific perspective.
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report: How do you evaluate the mainstream and alternative media performance on 9/11/2001, and through these sixteen years?
Mike Berger: Many mainstream newspapers, reporters and news agencies reported some facts accurately. However, that being said, others misrepresented and intentionally manipulated their reporting and the facts to promote the government’s conspiracy theory.
When we were interviewed after the Pentagon released the “video footage” of Flight 77hitting the Pentagon, both ABC News and the BBC asked us the same question over and over again. They would not accept our answer when they asked, why don’t you believe that a plane hit the Pentagon? Our responses were consistent: We have never denied that a plane or Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. We believe a key question regarding the Pentagon attack is how could anything attack the Pentagon, given Norma Mineta’s testimony [May 2003] that Cheney was receiving real-time updates on a “flight coming into DC?” Are we to believe that the Pentagon could not be defended? If so, this should raise many other alarming questions about where trillions in US taxpayer money has been going that has been spent on defending the US from attack.
Here is one of the few articles I wrote related to your question. I address some of the media experiences I have had as media coordinator in the Fairness Doctrine.
The New York Times, in covering the NIST press conference announcing the final findings to explain the collapse of Building 7, reported a quote from Shyam Sunder, NIST lead investigator. The team said that the smallest blast event capable of crippling the critical column would have produced a “sound level of 130 to 140 decibels at a distance of half a mile,” yet no noise this loud was reported by witnesses or recorded on videos.
The New York Times ignored/conveniently forgot its own lawsuit that forced the City of New York to make public the Oral Histories of the First Responders that contained dozens of eye witness reports comparing what they saw and heard to controlled demolitions. On the front page of the New York Times, they quoted the lead investigator, Shyam Sunder, as saying that there were no audio recordings of explosions and no eye witness reports.
Building 7 was not hit by a plane and reports by BBC and CNN announced that the building had collapsed before the actual collapse.
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report: What do you think of the version that says that Saudis and Qataris supported the supposed 9/11 hijackers? The Canadian economist, Professor Doctor Michel Chossudovsky, one of 9/11 world’s most respectful researchers, says that implicating Saudis and now Qataris just diverts truthers from the truth, that is, 9/11 was entirely an inside job. How do you respond to Professor Chossudovsky? Let us remember that the mainstream media, who opposes an independent investigation but supports the official story, largely approaches the supposed Saudi and Qatari complicit on 9/11 attacks. Doesn’t this fact, and evidences of the 9/11 attacks of an inside job, give reason to the Canadian economist?
Mike Berger: 9/11 is an intricately complex web of connections, some discernible and visible; others will remain forever hidden. We know the Saudi’s provided some funding for the hijackers. We know the Saudi’s were involved. Did they head the operation? Doubtful. However, simply because they may not have been at the lead does not mean they were not involved. To ignore Saudi or any other government involvement is to shape the facts to fit the theory.
Parties from many nations may have been involved. We know about some involvement by the Saudis, Israel, Germany, Pakistan, UAE, etc. Without subpoena power or a grand jury to issue warrants, we can’t get to discovery. There are many alternative theories. That it was an inside job seems very clean and neat. Life often is quite messy and complicated. As in life, understanding 9/11 requires the ability to accept the paradox and contradiction inherent to complex events. While we may never know exactly what happened, we do have an abundance of evidence that eviscerates the government story.
Could Bin Laden, the Saudis or the Qataris have crippled US air defenses? Could they have made the Chain of Command go AWOL on 9/11? Could they have successfully prevented the Air Force from scrambling jets or sending jets that were scrambled in directions away from the planes? Of course not. That was done by people within our own government. The conclusion that 9/11 was an inside job dismisses or minimizes many other countries’ involvement and the chain of evidence following those leads provides to the masterminds behind the attacks.
The Israeli Mossad, British, and German intelligence also were involved in hijacker surveillance. The Mossad was following the hijackers around the US for quite a long time, as reported on Fox News. Some people then immediately conclude that Israel / “the Jews” were responsible. I have always tried to follow facts, common sense and logic. I try not to leap to conclusions as so many seem to enjoy doing.
This speaks to the need to know. Some people are innately curious. They pay attention to what is going on in the world and try to make sense of it. However, with as many facts as we now have, unquestionable facts, it is a great challenge to put them together in any coherent manner. This does not mean that we do not know enough to say with confidence that there was obvious involvement by members of the US government, the military and intelligence agencies.
Also, the many specific warnings given to the Bush Administration prior to the attacks – from Russia, Britain, Israel, Germany, etc. – seem to indicate that there also were intelligence agents and agencies around the world that worked to prevent the attacks. This also includes many US intelligence agents, some of whom became whistleblowers because they were prevented from doing their jobs — to protect and defend the US.
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report:
How is the state of mind of Americans in general regarding the truth behind 9/11?
Mike Berger: I think I touched on this in my previous answer about the challenges we face. The psychology of denial makes it difficult to persuade the public to look at let alone evaluate the facts that contradict what they were told happened. It is easier to ignore facts and just leave it alone. “If it is true I just don’t want to know,” I have heard many times.
In regards to the lawsuits, you might find this article of interest about the 9/11 judge who “feels no regret that none ever went to trial.”
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report: What are the principal 9/11Truth.org claims about contradictions of the official story, regarding the 9/11 attacks?
Mike Berger: 911Truth.org does not in itself make claims but promotes investigative reporting, scholarly research and public education regarding the suppressed realities of September 11th, etc.
At this time in history, 911Truth.org is a repository for a body of research that exposes facts relatively unknown to most Americans to this day.
The biggest “claim” we made was in publishing the fact that contradicts the government claim that four indestructible black boxes from the two planes that struck the Towers were never recovered—according to the 9/11 Commission Report.
What happened to the four indestructible black boxes that should have been recovered from Ground Zero? We know at least three were recovered, but the 9/11 Commission Report states plainly in a footnote that none of these black boxes were recovered. We also followed up with a story from investigative journalist Dave Lindorff that confirmed that the FBI took possession of those recovered black boxes and that they were analyzed by the NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board].
A source at the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency that has the task of deciphering the date from the black boxes retrieved from crash sites-including those that are being handled as crimes and fall under the jurisdiction of the FBI-says the boxes were in fact recovered and were analyzed by the NTSB.
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report: What is the importance of clarifying these facts, and retelling the story?
Mike Berger: We believe it is important for anyone who wants to investigate or study the 9/11 murders that they have access to scholarly research and facts. Many of the articles we have posted over the years come from mainstream media sources.
The reason that we maintain and update the site is to inspire the public to overcome denial and understand the reality of our current situation. One must know and learn from the past in order to not repeat it.
The facts tell a different story from that told by official US government reports.
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report: What are the biggest challenges in America to set up an independent investigation, and to put the truth definitely into light?
Mike Berger: Kenneth Feinberg was the 9/11 Special Master. He is an attorney. The government chose him to evaluate and decide on the dollar value to be given to each family who lost a loved one. He was neither a government attorney or the attorney for the family members. The government appointed him to this role. The family members that accepted the settlement money from Kenneth Feinberg gave up their right to pursue a legal case against the government, the airlines, plane manufacturers, etc. Feinberg’s job was to get as many as possible to settle.
The main issue here as I see it is that the families that refused the hush money were never able to get justice through the courts, the Congress or any other avenue available to them.
That is not how our system is supposed to work.
If you can try to imagine what it would be like to have lost your husband. He made lots of money—in many cases. You have to support your kids and raise them alone. How can you choose between trying to move on and make your kid’s lives decent without money or take the government payout and move on? This had to have been an impossible choice for many families. But keep in mind, many families supported and helped “sell” the government story.
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report: So do you mean that the billions of dollars pay the families’ silence?
Mike Berger: Yes, the payments bought their eternal silence. Many 9/11 families never spoke out.
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report: Why so? Afraid? Pressions against them?
Mike Berger: Many, many reasons.
It required immense courage to stand up to the media, government, friends, etc. They (and we) were labelled conspiracy theorists. The families were expected to keep their mouths shut. Social pressure, financial pressure, media, etc. they had many reasons to be fearful and concerned.
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report: Continuing to the challenges America faces, Mike…
Mike Berger: This is not solely an American challenge. American foreign policy has been justified by the 9/11 attacks. Nearly 16 years after the unsolved murders of thousands of Americans and untold hundreds of thousands of casualties of the US “War on Terror,” who in the world can hold those accountable who are above the law?
There is no court, government or global institution that will shed light on the truth or pursue the truth regarding 9/11. All attempts that the family members made to get their day in court, to find out who failed to do their jobs that day and the days leading up to the attacks, those who covered up and even facilitated the attacks, every one of those legal cases was stopped before any meaningful discovery could take place. Kenneth Feinberg, the Special Master, pressured families to take the money and relinquish their legal rights to go to court. (He was very successful…as he bragged to you.)
While he stated the the lawsuits were resolved, that is not true depending on the definition of the word “resolved.” If “resolved” means, the courts thwarted the families’ legal cases, then what he said is accurate but we know he did not use the word in that sense. The US government went to extraordinary efforts to prevent legal discovery and to shield inconvenient facts from coming to light in a court of law. It seems significant then that the US Congress waited 15+ years to ALLOW the families to sue the Saudis. (Of course, many of the Saudis involved or connected to the crimes are now deceased so—from a government perspective—it is now “safe” for the families to pursue legal action. Additionally, many families would presume to put this behind them. Their kids have grown up. Their lives may have returned to a new normal so why would they put themselves back through the trauma?
I believe the greatest challenge to an investigation has as much to do with our ability to deny uncomfortable facts and inconvenient knowledge. The people of this country have been traumatized by 9/11 whether they are aware of it or not. Looking into this topic opens those wounds. We grow up wanting to believe what we are told about what America stands for and our place in the world. The psychological challenge of living with painful truths is likely the greatest challenge to uncovering what really happened.
What happens when good people are silent? All manner of atrocities. It takes courage to question when all around you believe what they are told to believe. It takes courage to question the powerful and to speak truth to power. I know how I felt in 2003 when I first came across “conspiracy theories” about 9/11. When I tried to refute the claim about insider trading on foreknowledge and found ample evidence to support the claim, from the financial press and actual trade data from the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE), I just kept digging. I was shocked to learn how many mainstream media articles raised very difficult questions.
Accumulating facts pointed at a different story than the government was selling. Educating ourselves with objective facts about what happened is only the beginning of a process. I want to make those facts available for anyone willing to take a look.
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report: How the US Constitution has been assaulted by 9/11, as mentioned on 9/11Truth.org website?
Mike Berger: We have a tag for “Disregarding the Constitution” which pulls a collection of articles from the last 13 years that document how the 9/11 murders were used to justify constitutional violations.
For example, the intelligence agencies in the US have been illegally surveilling (warrantless wiretapping) Americans in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The US violated the Geneva Conventions agreement against torture. Intelligence agencies have been caught aiding and in some instances, initiating terror attacks in the US. The US has engaged in extra-judicial (government sanctioned) murder of American citizens. The CIA was found guilty of kidnapping and torturing a Muslim cleric. Some have suggested that we no longer have a civilian government. (This particular article was written by a former Bush administration ambassador and deputy assistant secretary of state.) Secret, Illegal National Security Letters.
Most Americans are unaware of Continuity of Government. There is evidence that suggests that the US remains in a continual state of emergency. More on the 4th Amendment violations. The US under Obama–and continued by Trump administration—prosecute journalists and whistleblowers.
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report: How acted the Obama regime, and what can you say about the Trump regime regarding an independent commission for 9/11 truth?
Mike Berger: They both opposed any independent investigation as far as I am aware of. (With Trump, words don’t really mean anything. So candidate Trump may have said things like he would be open to a new investigation. But that guy is gone now. This guy will never actually do it.
Edu, these questions could be answered as books. The “story” of 9/11, the context required to understand what happened and what the consequences have been, seem to require an incredibly broad range of research to fully grasp the insidiousness of how we arrived at our present time and circumstance.
How could the Pentagon have not been defended more than an hour after knowing we were under attack?
Edu Montesanti/Pravda Report: What do you expect to the future regarding the investigation and consequently finding the truth, so making justice for 9/11?
Mike Berger: I do not believe the people who were directly responsible will ever see the inside of a court room before they die. Justice will not be served.
I hope for a truth and reconciliation commission—a public speaking of truths and of forgiveness. I do not see a way for that to happen in the near future but I still have hope.
Staff, 9/11 Truth.Org