Voltaire Network: Your
autobiographical book titled "El Perseguido" (the persecuted) was
recently published in Argentina where you live in exile since 2003. Tell
us who is persecuting you.
Kurt Sonnenfeld: Although it is autobiographical, it is not my
life story. Rather it is a history of the extraordinary events that have
happened to me and my family at the hands of U.S. authorities over the
course of more than seven years, spanning two hemispheres, after my tour
of duty at Ground Zero and becoming an inconvenient witness.
VN: You explained that your request for refugee status
within the terms of the Geneva 1951 Convention is still being considered
by the Argentinean Senate, while in 2005 you were granted political
asylum, albeit, on a provisional basis.
That probably makes you the
first U.S. citizen in that situation! And no doubt the first U.S.
Government official with direct exposure to the events surrounding
September 11, 2001 who has “blown the whistle”.
Is this what drove you
into exile?
With wife Paula, testifying before Senate
KS: A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave (or
stay away from) his or her country for reasons of persecution. It’s
undeniable that many people have been persecuted unfairly as a result of
the quasi-fascist laws and policies brought about by the shock of
September 11, 2001, and they deserve refugee status.
But the fact is,
requesting refugee status is a risky and dangerous step to take. America
is the world’s only remaining “superpower”, and dissent has been
effectively repressed. Any person who requests refugee status on
political grounds is by nature making an extreme statement of dissent.
And if your request is denied, what do you do? Once you make the
request, there can be no going back.
Personally, I wasn’t forced to leave the United States, and I certainly
did not “flee”. At the time I was still fairly oblivious to what was
actually brewing against me. I hadn’t connected the dots yet; so that
when I left in early 2003 I had every intention of returning.
I came to
Argentina for a short respite; to try to recuperate after all that had
happened to me.
I traveled here freely, with my own passport, using my
own credit cards. But because of an incredible series of events, I have
since been forced into exile, and I haven’t been back.
VN: What type of events are you referring to?
KS: I’ve suffered false accusations for “crimes” that
demonstrably did not happen, abusive imprisonment and torture as a
result of those accusations, as well as outrageous calumnies against my
reputation, death threats, kidnap attempts and several other violations
of civil and human rights as denounced by numerous international
accords.
My return to the United States would not only be a continuation
of those violations, but would be aggregated by the separation - perhaps
permanent - from my wife and three-year old twin daughters, the only
thing remaining that I have to live for.
And then, after the
impossibility of receiving a fair trial for a crime that did not happen,
I could be subject to the death penalty.
VN: In 2005, the U.S. Government lodged a request to have
you extradited, which was turned down by a Federal Judge. Then, in 2007,
the Argentinean Supreme Court – in a show of integrity and independence
- turned down the U.S. appeal, but your Government persisted. Can you
shed some light on the situation ?
KS: In 2008, the US government appealed again, this time
with absolutely no legal foundation, to the Supreme Court, which will
surely uphold the two already unassailable rulings made by the Federal
Judge.
In one of those rulings, it was also noted that there were too many “sombras”,
or shadows, surrounding my case. There were many, many obvious
fabrications in the extradition order sent here by US authorities, and,
thankfully, we were able prove that.
The fact that there were so many
fabrications has actually served to support my request for asylum. We
were also able to show that we had been subject to a prolonged campaign
of harassment and intimidation from US intelligence services. As a
result, since my family has been assigned round-the-clock police
protection.
As one senator has noted about my case:
“It is their
behavior that belies their true motivations”.
Sonnenfeld and his family are frequently harassed, followed, and
photographed, as shown in this photo.
VN: They want you pretty badly for a “crime that did not
happen”! How do you account for such doggedness? As a FEMA official, you
must have been trusted by your government. At what point did the
situation capsize?
KS: In hindsight, I realize now that the situation had
capsized some time before I actually became aware that it had capsized.
Initially, the false accusation against me was completely irrational,
and I was totally destroyed by it. It is incredibly difficult to have
suffered the loss of someone you love to suicide, but to then be accused
of it is too much to bear.
The case was dismissed based on a mountain of
evidence that overwhelmingly absolved me (Nancy, my wife, had left
behind a suicide note and a journal of suicidal writings; she had a
family history of suicide; etc.). The prosecution was 100% sure of my
innocence before requesting the dismissal of charge.
But the sustained incarceration even AFTER it was indicated that I was
to be freed was what proved to me that something was happening under the
surface. I was held in jail for FOUR MONTHS after my lawyers were
informed that the case was to be dismissed and was finally released in
June 2002.
During that time, an amazing series of strange events began
to occur. While still being held, I had a telephone conversation with FEMA officials in an effort to resolve the issue, but I realized that I
was considered “compromised”. I was told it had been agreed that “the
agency had to be protected”, especially in light of the upheaval that
was threatening with the implementation of the “Patriot Act” and the
expected usurpation that would come with the new Department of Homeland
Security.
After all the dangers I had risked, all hardship and
difficulties I had endured for them for almost 10 years, I felt
betrayed. It left a void in my soul.
Because of their abandonment, I told them I didn’t have the tapes, that
I gave them to “some bureaucrat” in New York, and that they would have
to wait until I was released to retrieve any other documents in my
possession. Soon after that conversation, my house was “seized”, the
locks were changed, and men were observed by neighbors entering my
house, though there is no record in the court of their entry, as would
be required.
When I was finally released, I discovered that my office
had been ransacked, my computer was missing, and that my tape library in
my basement had been dug through and several were missing. Men were
constantly parked on the street near my house, my security system was
“hacked” more than once, outdoor security lights were unscrewed, etc.,
to the point that I went to stay with some friends at their condo in the
mountains, which was then ALSO broken into.
Anyone who looks for the truth recognizes that there has been an amazing
series of irregularities in this case and that an appalling injustice is
being carried out on me and my loved ones.
This intense campaign to
return me to American soil is a false pretext for other darker motives.
VN: You have suggested that you observed things at Ground
Zero that did not tally with the official account. Did you do or say
anything to arouse suspicion in this respect?
KS: In that same telephone call I said that I would “go
public”, not only with my suspicions about the events surrounding
September 11, 2001, but about several contracts I had worked on in the
past.
Sonnenfeld at Ground Zero, investigating a “void” beneath fallen steel
beams.
VN: What are your suspicions based on?
KS: There were many things, in hindsight, that were
disturbing at Ground Zero. It was odd to me that I was dispatched to go
to New York even before the second plane hit the South Tower, while the
media was still reporting only that a “small plane” had collided with
the North Tower - far too small of a catastrophe at that point to
involve FEMA.
FEMA was mobilized within minutes, whereas it took ten
days for it to deploy to New Orleans to respond to Hurricane Katrina,
even with abundant advance warning!
It was odd to me that all cameras
were so fiercely prohibited within the secured perimeter of Ground Zero,
that the entire area was declared a crime scene and yet the “evidence”
within that crime scene was so rapidly removed and destroyed.
And then
it was very odd to me when I learned that FEMA and several other federal
agencies had already moved into position at their command center at Pier
92 on September 10th, one day before the attacks!
Rubber landing-gear tyres visible in evidence container marked “FBI
Plane Parts Only.”
We are asked to believe that all four of the “indestructible” black
boxes of the two jets that struck the twin towers were never found
because they were completely vaporized, yet I have footage of the rubber
wheels of the landing gear nearly undamaged, as well as the seats, parts
of the fuselage and a jet turbine that were absolutely not vaporized.
This being said, I do find it rather odd that such objects could have
survived fairly intact the type of destruction that turned most of the
Twin Towers into thin dust.
And I definitely harbor some doubts about
the authenticity of the “jet” turbine, far too small to have come from
one of the Boeings!
“Boeing” jet turbine at Fresh Kills island landfill.
What happened with Building 7 is incredibly suspicious.
I have video
that shows how curiously small the rubble pile was, and how the
buildings to either side were untouched by Building Seven when it
collapsed. It had not been hit by an airplane; it had suffered only
minor injuries when the Twin Towers collapsed, and there were only small
fires on a couple of floors. There’s no way that building could have
imploded the way it did without controlled demolition.
Yet the
collapse
of Building 7 was hardly mentioned by the mainstream media and
suspiciously ignored by the 911 Commission.
VN: Reportedly, the underground levels of WTC-7 contained
sensitive and undoubtedly compromising archival material. Did you come
across any of it?
KS: The Secret Service, the Department of Defense, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the
Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of Emergency
Management’s “Crisis Center” occupied huge amounts of space there,
spanning several floors of the building.
Other federal agencies had
offices there as well.
After September 11, it was discovered that
concealed within Building Seven was the largest clandestine domestic
station of the Central Intelligence Agency outside of Washington DC, a
base of operations from which to spy on diplomats of the United Nations
and to conduct counterterrorism and counterintelligence missions.
There was no underground parking level at Seven World Trade Center. And
there was no underground vault. Instead, the federal agencies at
Building Seven stored their vehicles, documents and evidence in the
building of their associates across the street.
Beneath the plaza level
of US Customs House (Building 6) was a large underground garage,
separated off from the rest of the complex’s underground area and
guarded under tight security. This was where the various government
services parked their bomb-proofed cars and armored limousines,
counterfeit taxi cabs and telephone company trucks used for undercover
surveillance and covert operations, specialized vans and other vehicles.
Also within that secured parking area was access to the sub-level vault
of Building 6.
Approaching the entrance to the sub-level areas of Building 6
When the North Tower fell, the US Customs House (Building 6) was crushed
and totally incinerated.
Much of the underground levels beneath it were
also destroyed. But there were voids. And it was into one of those
voids, recently uncovered, that I descended with a special Task Force to
investigate. It was there we found the security antechamber to the
vault, badly damaged. At the far end of the security office was the wide
steel door to the vault, a combination code keypad in the cinderblock
wall beside it.
But the wall was cracked and partially crumbled, and the
door was sprung partially open. So we checked inside with our
flashlights. Except for several rows of empty shelves, there was nothing
in the vault but dust and debris. It had been emptied.
Why was it empty?
And when could it have been emptied?
VN: Is this what set alarm bells ringing for you?
KS: Yes, but not immediately. With so much chaos, it was
difficult to think. It was only after digesting everything that the
“alarm bells” went off.
Building Six was evacuated within twelve minutes after the first
airplane struck the North Tower. The streets were immediately clogged
with fire trucks, police cars and blocked traffic, and the vault was
large enough, 15 meters by 15 meters by my estimate, to necessitate at
least a big truck to carry out its contents.
And after the towers fell
and destroyed most of the parking level, a mission to recover the
contents of the vault would have been impossible. The vault had to have
been emptied before the attack.
I’ve described all of this extensively in my book, and it’s apparent
that things of importance were taken out of harm’s way before the
attacks. For example, the CIA didn’t seem too concerned about their
losses. After the existence of their clandestine office in Building
Seven was discovered, an agency spokesman told the newspapers that a
special team had been dispatched to scour the rubble in search of secret
documents and intelligence reports, though there were millions, if not
billions of pages floating in the streets.
Nevertheless, the spokesman
was confident.
“There shouldn’t be too much paper around,” he said.
The bizarre hollowed-out vestiges of The US Customs House (Building Six)
And Customs at first claimed that everything was destroyed.
That the
heat was so intense that everything in the evidence safe had been baked
to ash. But some months later, they announced that they had broken up a
huge Colombian narco-trafficking and money-laundering ring after
miraculously recovering crucial evidence from the safe, including
surveillance photos and heat-sensitive cassette tapes of monitored
calls.
And when they moved in to their new building at 1 Penn Plaza in
Manhattan, they proudly hung on the lobby wall their Commissioner’s
Citation Plaque and their big round US Customs Service ensign, also
miraculously recovered, in pristine condition, from their crushed and
cremated former office building at the World Trade Center.
VN: You weren’t alone on the Ground Zero assignment. Did
the others notice the same anomalies? Do you know whether they have they
also been harassed?
KS: Actually there were a few people on two different
excursions that I know about. Some of us even discussed it afterwards.
They know who they are and I hope that they will come forward, but I’m
sure they have strong apprehensions as to what will happen to them if
they do.
I will leave it to them to decide, but there is strength in
numbers.
VN: With the publication of your book, you have become a
"whistleblower" - yet another step on which there is no going back!
There must be many people with inside knowledge about what really
happened or did not happen on that fateful day. Yet, hardly any have
stepped up to the plate and certainly no one who was directly involved
in an official capacity. This is what makes your case so compelling.
Judging from your ordeal, it is not difficult to imagine what is holding
such people back.
KS: Actually, there are several other very smart and
credible people blowing whistles, too. And they are being discredited
and ignored. Some are being harassed and persecuted, as I am.
People are gripped by fear. Everybody knows that if you question US
authority you will have problems in some way or another. At minimum you
will be discredited and dehumanized. Most likely you’ll find yourself
indicted for something completely unrelated, like tax evasion — or
something even worse, as in my case. Look at what happened to Secret
Service whistle-blower Abraham Bolden, for example, or to chess master
Bobby Fischer after he showed his disdain for the US. There are
countless other examples.
In the past I asked friends and associates to
speak out for me to counter all the lies being planted in the media, and
all of them were terrified as to the ramifications to themselves and
their families.
VN: To what degree would your discoveries at Ground Zero
expose the government’s involvement in those events? Are you familiar
with the investigations that have been carried out by numerous
scientists and qualified professionals which not only corroborate your
own findings but, in some instances, far exceed them? Do you regard such
people as "conspiracy nuts"?
KS: At the highest levels in Washington, DC, someone knew
what was going to happen. They wanted a war so badly that they at least
let it happen and most likely even helped it happen.
Sometimes it seems to me that the “nuts” are those who hold to what
they’ve been told with an almost religious fervor despite all of the
evidence to the contrary — the ones who won’t even consider that there
was a conspiracy. There are so many anomalies to the “official”
investigation that you can’t blame it on oversight or incompetence.
I am
familiar with the scientists and qualified professionals to whom you
refer, and their findings are convincing, credible, and presented
according to scientific protocol - in stark contrast to the findings of
the “official” investigation. In addition, numerous intelligence agents
and government officials have now come forward with their very informed
opinions that the 9-11 Commission was a farce at best or a cover-up at
worst.
My experience at Ground Zero is but one more piece of the puzzle.
VN: Those events are nearly 8 years behind us. Do you
consider that uncovering the truth about 9/11 continues to be an
important objective? Why?
KS: It is of absolute importance. And it will be equally as
important in 10 years, or even 50 years if the truth still has not been
exposed. It is an important objective because, at this point in history,
many people are too credulous to whatever “authority” tells them and too
willing to follow.
People in a state of shock seek guidance. People who
are afraid are manipulable. And being able to manipulate the masses
results in unimaginable benefits to a lot of very rich and very powerful
people. War is incredibly expensive, but the money has to go somewhere.
War is very profitable for the very few. And somehow
their sons always
end up in Washington DC, making the decisions and writing the budgets,
while the sons of the poor and the poorly-connected always end up on the
enemy lines, taking their orders and fighting their battles.
The
enormous
black-budget of the US Department of Defense represents an
unlimited money machine for the military-industrial complex, figuring in
the multi-trillions of dollars, and it will continue to be so until the
masses wake up, recuperate their skepticism and demand accountability.
Wars (and false pretexts for war) will not cease until the people
realize the true motive of war and stop believing “official”
explanations.
VN: What is referred to as the 9/11 Truth Movement, has
been asking for a new, independent investigation into those events. Do
you think that the
Obama Administration holds out some hope in this
respect?
KS: I really hope so, but I’m skeptical. Why would the
leadership of any established government willingly undertake any action
that would result in a serious compromise to their authority? They will
prefer to maintain the status quo and leave the things the way they are.
The conductor of the train has been changed, but has the train changed
its course? I doubt it.
The push has to come from the public, not only
domestically, but internationally, like your group is doing.
VN: A number of human rights and activist groups are
supporting your plight, not least Peace Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez
Esquivel. How have the Argentinean people in general responded to your
situation?
KS: With an incredible outpouring of support.
The military
dictatorship is still fresh in the collective memory of most of the
people here, along with the knowledge that the dictatorship (along with
the other South American dictatorships at the time) was backed by the
CIA, directed at the time by
George Bush Senior.
They remember well the
torture centers, the secret prisons, the thousands of people
“disappeared” for their opinions, the living in daily fear.
They know
that the United States today will do the same thing if they consider it
beneficial, that they will invade a country to achieve their political
and economic interests and then manipulate the media with fabricated
“causus belli” to justify their conquests.
Kurt Sonnenfeld with
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize 1980
My family and I are honored to have Adolfo Pérez Esquiveland his
advisors at Servicio de Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ) among our dearest
friends.
We have worked together on many causes, including the rights of
refugees, the rights of women, for children without families and
children with HIV/AIDS.
We are also honored to have the support of:
-
Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo
-
Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Línea Fundadora
-
Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS)
-
Asamblea Permanente de
Derechos Humanos (APDH)
-
Familiares de Detenidos y Desaparecidos por
Razones Políticas
-
Asociación de Mujeres, Migrantes y Refugiados
Argentina (AMUMRA)
-
Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la Honorable Cámara
de Diputados de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
-
Secretaría de Derechos
Humanos de la Nación
-
Programa Nacional Anti-Impunidad
On an
international level, Amicus Curiae have been presented in our favor by
REPRIEVE of Great Britain, along with the collaboration of NIZKOR of
Spain and Belgium.
In addition, my wife, Paula, and I have been received
in the Congress by La Comisión de Derechos Humanos y Garantías de la
Honorable Cámara de Diputados de La Nación.
VN: As we said, deciding to write this book and to go
public was a huge step. What pushed you to do it?
KS: To save my family. And to let the world know that
things are not what they seem.
VN: Last but not least: what will you do with your tapes?
KS: I am convinced that my tapes reveal many more anomalies
than I am capable of recognizing given my limited qualifications. I will
therefore cooperate in any way that I can with serious and reliable
experts in a common endeavor to expose the truth.
