Free Republic

<p>President Obama is caught smack in the middle of a family feud among 9/11 relatives of a financier killed at Ground Zero, The Post has learned.</p> <p>The brothers of Adam Arias went ballistic when they learned that their aunt, Valerie Lucznikowska, was among the 9/11 relatives invited to last week's White House meeting with Obama. The brothers were not invited.</p>

Relatives of the Sept. 11 victims ripped into Condoleezza Rice yesterday after she insisted the Bush administration had no clue the U.S. would be attacked. "Shame," Terry McGovern, a New Yorker whose mother was killed, yelled at the national security adviser during Rice's testimony before the 9/11 commission. Other relatives ridiculed Rice's assertion that she had no idea that Osama Bin Laden's men would hijack planes and crash them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. "How could she not know that?" asked Kristen Breitweiser, who lost her husband in the attacks. She noted that several similar threats were made,...

A flowchart, based on what we know to date, courtesy of FrontPage Magazine's Jennifer Verner: Of course these will need to be updated as more information surfaces.

THE al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui called the US “the head of the snake” as he justified the September 11 attacks yesterday. Moussaoui lambasted US support for Israel, which he said was little more than an American colony, in testimony as part of the defence’s attempt to avoid the death penalty. “You [Americans] are the head of the snake for me. If we want to destroy the Jewish state . . . we have to destroy you first,” he said. The 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan origin has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with the September 11, 2001, attacks. The jury...

Washington, DC, Sep. 13 (UPI) -- Five widows whose husbands were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks will endorse John Kerry for president on Tuesday, United Press International has learned. [snip]Breitweiser and the others have become increasingly outspoken critics of the administration recently, especially since the launch of the war in Iraq. "That was not about making the country safer," she said of the war. The five have been criticized as partisan opponents of President Bush, after speaking out earlier this year against his use of imagery from Ground Zero in election ads.

Five outspoken Sept. 11 widows on Tuesday will publicly endorse John Kerry

Nearly three years ago, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows was born out of a shared belief that America’s military response to the 9/11 attacks which took our loved ones’ lives would result in the deaths of countless innocent civilians and increase recruitment for terrorist causes, making the United States, and the world, less safe and less free for generations to come. Today, as we commemorate September 11, 2004, we find that our worst fears have been realized. The terrorism of September 11th has been neither neutralized, nor ended, by the terrorism of war. Since our bombing and military action...

Presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry has pledged to refuse all "special interest" contributions. But Kerry and his wealthy wife--ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry--found a way to bypass campaign finance laws that limit her personal contributions to $2,000. Their conduit: a network of left-wing foundations and nonprofits that channel donations from the Heinz fortune to anti-Bush advocacy groups. Eyebrows rose when the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the environmentalist political lobby, jumped on the Kerry bandwagon with an early primary endorsement. Why Kerry? "A clue may be found in grants the Heinz Endowments of Pittsburgh made to environmental groups whose leaders...

Was listening to Bill O'Reilly's Radio Factor. He did a story on the left-leaning groups behind some of the "9/11 families". He then interviewed Matthew Continetti who wrote the article (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/854qqwpu.asp) leading to O'Reilly's investigation. My point, if I ever get to it, is that on tonight's O'Reilly Factor there'll be a segment on which will include discussions of groups such as Peaceful Tomorrows, The Tides Foundation, etc.

There are a lot of stories around right now, about how surviving relatives of 9/11 victims are complaining about Bush's first round of campaign ads, featuring 9/11-related footage. As it turns out, this is a fun game for warbloggers. First you find one of these stories. Then you google each interviewee, and almost invariably it turns out to be a serious activist or political foot-soldier. Of course, there's no reason why the relatives of 9/11 victims should refrain from political activism. They have opinions, and as they stand metaphorically on the front line of our war, they deserve a hearing....

Heinz Seeks to Disavow Kerry Connection By CHARLES SHEEHAN, AP Business Writer PITTSBURGH - H.J. Heinz Co. has launched an election-year campaign of its own, this one to distance the ketchup maker from what is shaping up to be an acrimonious presidential race. The company has sent nearly 50 letters to radio and television talk shows nationwide to tamp down chatter on the airwaves and Internet suggesting revenue from ketchup sales will benefit the campaign of pending Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites). His wife is Teresa Heinz Kerry, heiress to the $500 million family ketchup fortune....

<p>PITTSBURGH (AP) -- H.J. Heinz Co. has launched an election-year campaign of its own, this one to distance the ketchup maker from what is shaping up to be an acrimonious presidential race.</p> <p>The company has sent nearly 50 letters to radio and television talk shows nationwide to tamp down chatter on the airwaves and Internet suggesting revenue from ketchup sales will benefit the campaign of pending Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.</p>

A flood of anti-Bush headlines poured across the news outlets last week like a tidal wave: “Sept. 11 Families Disgusted By Bush Campaign Ads;” “Bush Ads Using 9/11 Images Stir Anger;” “Bush Exploiting 9/11;” and “Has Bush No Shame?” Morning and evening editions of national newspapers led with the story, and the major news television networks revisited the debate every half an hour like clockwork. The controversy arose from Bush’s presidential ad campaign, which depicts brief images of the World Trade Center after the tragedy of 9/11. Colleen Kelly, who lost her brother Bill Kelly Jr. in the attacks on...

Call it "three green suitcase" journalism. Let's say a feature writer thinks green luggage is becoming popular. So the reporter taps out a story citing three people in different states who have given up black suitcases and bought green ones. The second paragraph begins: "All across America, people are switching to green suitcases." This creates a media trend that might be real, but is probably bogus and certainly isn't established by three sales. The uproar over President Bush's 9/11 ads was a classic three-green-suitcase story. The New York Daily News broke the story on March 4th, with a huge headline:...

The outrageous attack on President Bush's television commercials was the work of an extreme left-wing group that has been in the forefront of the battle against the War on Terrorism for years, but you'd never know it from the coverage it has received in the establishment news media. By picking up the charge, rather than reporting on its dubious source, the media have done major damage to the President's campaign, which compounded the problem by "defending" the ads, rather than exposing the hateful anti-Americanism of those who attacked them. The President's actions in the immediate wake of 9/11 were nothing...

Dover to D.C. Memorial Procession A trail of mourning and truth to honor those killed and wounded in Iraq Sunday, March 14 - Monday, March 15, 2004 The Bush Administration refuses to acknowledge the toll of this war – including those who are killed and wounded. We call on this administration to start telling the truth, and stop hiding the toll. We will begin this two-day event at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the U.S. war dead arrive. This memorial procession will honor our fallen brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers and friends, along...

Bush Campaign Urged to End TV Advertisements by Sept . 11 Victims ... Bloomberg  - 2 hours ago ... McIlvane was joined at the press conference by Rita Lasar , 72, who lost her brother, Abraham Zelmanowitz, 52. The computer programmer ... 'Dubya is trampling graves of 9/11 victims' Independent Online, South Africa  - 3 hours ago ... Ground Zero is a sacred site," said Rita Lasar , a steering committee member of the group, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. ... Bush urged to pull 9/11 ads News24, South Africa  - 4 hours ago ... Rita Lasar , member of the group steering committee...

... Now I'm going to pick on the worst habits of certain anti-Times critics lurking on the Web. Last Sunday, an item appeared on FreeRepublic.com under the headline "FReeper Call to Action! Help make N.Y. Times correct the phony setup outrage story of Bush ads." Posted by "Doug from Upland," it exhorted readers of the self-described "Premier Conservative News Forum" to call Washington correspondent Richard W. Stevenson and demand that he "correct the record." Stevenson's apparent offense was a March 5 story he and Jim Rutenberg had written about negative reactions to Republican ads invoking the events of 9/11. Stevenson's...

Now I'm going to pick on the worst habits of certain anti-Times critics lurking on the Web. Last Sunday, an item appeared on FreeRepublic.com under the headline "FReeper Call to Action! Help make N.Y. Times correct the phony setup outrage story of Bush ads." Posted by "Doug from Upland," it exhorted readers of the self-described "Premier Conservative News Forum" to call Washington correspondent Richard W. Stevenson and demand that he "correct the record." Stevenson's apparent offense was a March 5 story he and Jim Rutenberg had written about negative reactions to Republican ads invoking the events of 9/11. Stevenson's...

The Teresa Heinz connection to the Tides Foundation and the left-wing activist group Families for Peaceful Tomorrows is the cover story on The Weekly Standard. I heard on Fox that it uncovers the phony orchestrated outrage of Bush's 9/11 ads. It's on newstands now. I can't access the article online, but I'm hoping someone has it. Thanks.