Second 9/11 Investigation Petition Moves Toward NYC November Ballot

By Barbara G. Ellis for Portland 9/11 Legislative Alliance, Thursday, Aug. 20

A second 9/11 investigation about the destruction of the World Trade Center and attack on the Pentagon—this one independent of the U.S. government—may start late this year if legal debris is cleared away for approval as a referendum issue on November 3 in New York City.

The debris involves settling the credibility of 52,000 signatures on a petition for a new probe that were gathered over an 18-month period by canvassers for a Manhattan group—NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative—replaced last year by the NYC CAN organization. To qualify for a special election, New York City requires 30,000 petition signatures. The volunteers met that requirement on the June 24 filing deadline, holding back 22,000 extra signatures in case the City Clerk’s office ruled some signatures were invalid.

On July 24, the Clerk rejected the petition, chiefly on grounds that 3997 signatures of the 30,000 were invalid. In addition, the Clerk indicated the petition’s language was not in compliance with New York’s Municipal Home Rule law and other election laws. That set off the group’s immediate filing of as how-cause challenge to the Clerk’s rejection.

New York Supreme Court’s Justice Edward H. Lehner issued a ruling August 3 permitting the challenge and appointed an independent referee to oversee a review of signatures the Clerk’s office rejected. The subsequent August 6 hearing involved drawing up a review schedule and procedures for signature recount and review.
The NYC CAN volunteers are now checking each signature against the city’s database of registered voters. They will then put the disputed 3997 signatures into a Bill of Particulars for the referee to review.

If the 30,000 signatures are declared valid, attorneys for the city and NYC CAN then will argue questions regarding the petition’s language. If the court validates the petition, the City Council must rule on whether to permit the November referendum. If members reject that election, NYC CAN has an additional 15,000 signatures—it now has reached more than 70,000—that its leaders are confident will override a rejection and move the issue to the November election.

The city’s last two ballot initiatives on other issues failed. The City Clerk rejected the petitions and though the petitioners also filed an action, the court ruled against it. The group’s view is that a 9/11 investigation by a 25-member commission is a departure from other ballot measures, however. That they have collected more than 70,000 signatures of residents is a harbinger of how New Yorkers will vote on a new investigation.

Its spokesperson outlined the procedures following a successful referendum. First would be the appointment of 15 commissioners from a non-partisan pool who would be independent of government control. Its initial list of eight commissioners include former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee from Rhode Island, television actor and activist Ed Asner, Jersey Girl Lorie Van Auken, Martin Luther King attorney and biographer Dr. William Pepper, Native-American activist Splitting the Sky, the activist Catholic bishop the Rt. Rev. Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, and Executive Director of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation Ralph Schoenman. Plans call for other commissioners drawn from the science and engineering fields, according to Executive Director Ted Walter.

The commission would have subpoena powers extending to all governmental agencies, and if defied, would use federal courts to attain enforcement orders. It will publish reports and, where necessary, seek indictments because the aim is to achieve justice for 9/11 events. Funding will be independent from governmental influence, the spokesperson said, yet donors will not be able to exert influence either over the investigation or the commission’s conclusions.