New York State and Massachusetts are divided by a line of low hills running roughly north-south, the Taconic Range. U.S. Route 20 traverses a gap in them and the actual NYS-MA border at US20 runs close to the ridge on the west slope. On Monday, May 14, Mark and I walked up and over the gap to the state line, thus completing the trans-Massachusetts 9/11 Truth Walk.

True to form, on the final leg we were stopped twice by curious motorists: first by young Brady Hanford who lives hard by Hancock Shaker Village right on US20; later by videographer Jason Velazquez, who interviewed us with his smartphone for a blog post or a podcast on The Greylock Glass. Before Velazquez we were passed by two friends,Christopher Gruener and Al Magaletta from Boston 9/11 Truth, who wanted to witness the end of the walk and were driving ahead to the border. My wife Ellen Gillespie and Velazquez also met us there.

Ample photographs and videos were recorded on smart phones. An agreeable surprise was a bottle of Brut (like Champagne) brought by Al and Chris, duly quaffed at the state line.

Walk completed, documented (endpoint), and celebrated, and Al and Chisneeding to get back to eastern Mass, a Honda Civic and a Toyota Prius Cwith a total of five people headed a few miles east. Velazguez headed elsewhere.

The party stopped for a hearty lunch at Hancock Shaker Village then split in the HSV parking lot; Al and Chris bound for Boston and north; Mark, Bruce, and Ellen to Pittsfield and home, agreeing to meet anon to discuss how to follow up The Walk.

— Bruce H.

Orion, an increasingly known magazine published Great Barrington here in Berkshire County, concentrates “on nature, the environment, and culture, addressing environmental and social issues,” according to its official website.

The latest issue carries a long article by Melanie Challenger entitled “Fear Itself.” Here’s  a passage from it:

“When there is a well of anxiety under the surface of human life, the stories we tell matter deeply because, when it comes to our fears, we have always been poor storytellers of fact. Stories occupy the working core of our outlook and rationality. We can tell stories that trigger our biases or we can tell stories that steady our arm.”

The whole article is at https://orionmagazine.org/article/fear-itself/ . With permission from the people at Orion, we may cite other passages in “Fear Itself” in the future.

— Mark

We had decided arbitrarily (but not without tacit approval by spouses) to telephone home for pickup daily once we had crossed the Connecticut River.

Wanting to visit Olive Branch Press in Northampton, publisher of David Ray Griffin’s 9/11 books, we stayed an extra night at a motel in Hadley in order to cross the river into Hamp on a weekday, Monday May 07. Arriving after 9:00 AM, we found the Olive Branch warehouse not yet open.

Proceding through “metro” Northampton we visited a bookstore in Thornes Marketplace (formerly a department store), which had two copies of DRG’s latest opus.

Outside, we spoke in succession to: 1) octogenarian who was not too sure but generally with us, then 2) college freshman or sophomore Ethan on the same page as we, who estimated 40% to 60% of his age cohort think likewise.

Moving uphill out of Northampton, we gained the village of Florence and stopped for lunch at the Miss Florence Diner, where a pair of workers in another booth indicated approval of our signs and a “Why the Truth about 9/11 Still Matters” folder and thanked us.

On into the Leeds section of Williamsburg … where a woman from a hilltown further west approached us, apparently starved for 9/11 conversation. We jawed with her for a half hour, then had to break away. I referred her to Jonathan Mark, a Valleyite, and his FlybyNews.

The chat touched on the Bonnie Prudden Institute (of which she is an alumna), which I am proud to have honored with a limerick from circa 1968 and recited it:

There was a young woman called Tina
Who loved to eat creamed wheat farina [Andrea Shalit]
She blew up like a blimp,
Took a look and went limp,
Bonnie Prudden gave her a subpoena. [B. Henry]

In metropolitan Williamsburg a pair of high school students stopped us briefly looking for our perspective on 2001-09-11, when they were toddlers.

The Brewmaster’s Tavern at the upper end of downtown Williamsburg provided a welcome beer-and-sandwich stop and we telephoned Ellen, who soon enough rolled up in the Gillespie-Henry Honda Civic to wing us to Pittsfield for the night, marking the end of our walking with heavy backpacks.

Dropped off there by Ellen the next morning (T, MY 08), we met two post office patrons successively: a knowledgeable man and a woman identifying herself as the wife of a third-generation ironworker who had said the World Trade Center demolitions could not have happened as in the official account.

MA route 9 runs between Pittsfield and Boston. Milage from the center of Pittsfield is posted every half mile much of the way. The marker near the pick-up point in Williamsburg read 35.0 miles (to Pittsfield). Two days’ march? Three?

We started the climb to the summit in Goshen … then (after three separate conversations) down into Cummington where (after two conversations) we “ran out of gas” at mile 19 from Pittsfield.

Having picked us up there, Ellen delivered us back Wednesday morning to the 19-mile mark, and we began the climb out of West Cummington and over into Windsor (and a bite and a beer at a picnic table outside Friendly Fred’s Citgo), thence down into and through Dalton and into Pittsfield.

The western terminus of MA9 is Park Square, about two miles west of our respective houses, so our milages MY 09 were on the order of 17-18 miles, covered gratefully leaving for another day undetermined to reassemble at intersection of South Street and US route 20 for a final ~10 mile leg to the New York State line.

— Bruce

A supporter of the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry wrote the following letter to all members of the Senate Intelligence Committee as the confirmation hearings for President Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel, got under way:

*   *   *

Dear Senator _______:

Thank you for your service to our country.

I am writing to inform you of evidence regarding 9/11 events that has just been presented to U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman of the Southern District Court of New York.

On April 10, 2018, the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry presented a 54 page Petition requesting that a Special Grand Jury be convened to investigate the scientific forensic evidence that pre-placed explosives caused the freefall symetrical global collapses of World Trade Center Buildings 1, 2, and 7.

The entire Petition and Index of Exhibits is available online at www.lcfor911.org

I am providing to you the Committee’s Executive Summary of this Petition in the attached file.

I am an independent advocate for a new investigation of the 9/11 events.  The truth is becoming known now.

Would you please ask Ms. Haspel if she had knowledge of those pre-placed explosives?

Thank you, Senator.

Ann Hendricks

*   *   *

Ms. Hendricks is a resident of Grand Portage, Minnesota.

Deputy Director of the CIA since February2017, Ms. Haspel is currently the agency’s Acting Director.

Bill Jacoby of the 9/11 Truth Action Project (https://www.911tap.org/) commented yesterday:

“Regardless of whether her request gets any traction among the senators, I think this is stunning example of an American citizen standing up to power–something not one of those senators will do as courageously.”

(See the entry below, for May 7, for an article about the Lawyers’ petition to the Justice Department.)

*   *   *

We realized recently that our names, Bruce Henry and Mark Miller, haven’t appeared in this blog recently as earlier entries no longer appear.

Hi David, Chris, and Terri,

In the last two days we have spoken with at least 15 people in four towns in conversations ranging from a minute to half an hour. They ranged from an 85-year-old fixer of stringed instruments to three high schoolers (one in one town, two in the next). They included a local police chief in his cruiser who couldn’t have been nicer, a general store clerk who sold us a sandwich which she cut in half and a Coke, a man raking in his front yard, a woman who had seen us hours before and had parked her car and walked from it to talk with us, and a man and a woman (separately) exiting from the same post office each with a parcel.

Two were a pair of Seventh Day Adventists with their tracts (though they could have been FBI agents) who asked us nicely what we were doing. We told them, and I added that if I weren’t a follower of Jesus I wouldn’t be doing it. True. They continued smiling. This was the one-minute conversation.

One was a Cuban-American whose first birthday on U.S. soil was on Sept. 11, 2001, which ruined everything.

Another was a construction worker who stopped in his pickup after a day’s work.

Most of these people have researched 9/11 online and elsewhere, some much further than either of us have. If they’re FBI agents they’re really good at pretending to be something they’re not — earnest citizens relieved to talk with someone as concerned about the mass murders of September 2001, the wars they enabled warmongers to wage, the apparent gagging of the news media that might otherwise not be parroting the government line or doing nothing … and so on.

As on previous days, all them got “Why the Truth about 9/11 Still Matters” brochures on which one of us had written our blog’s address in a margin. As on previous days, we suggested to them, when we remembered, that they go to www.911TAP.org and sign the petition:

 I hereby petition for, and demand, an independent, comprehensive investigation, satisfying all standards specified by the 9/11 Truth Action Project, including subpoena power, testimony under oath, and study of all relevant evidence, leading to transparency and accountability for the crimes of September 11, 2001 and justice for its victims. My name, city, and state will be publicly presented to Congress at www.911TAP.org. My other information will remain private and not released to third parties.

By the way … motorists’ toots, waves, smiles and thumbs-up continue to outnumber negative reactions to seeing us walking along by about 20 to 1.

— Mark

Among the many organizations working for truth and justice in matters pertaining to the attacks of September 2001 is the Lawyers Committee for 9/11 Inquiry.

What follows is a slightly edited report on the Committee’s petition to the U.S. Department of Justice for a Special Grand Jury Investigation of the collapse of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers and Building 7.

–   –   –

On the morning of April 10  attorneys from the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, together with more than a dozen family members of 9/11 victims, filed a petition with the interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey S. Berman, demanding that he present evidence of unprosecuted federal crimes at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, to a special grand jury.

According to the 52-page petition, which is accompanied by 57 exhibits, federal statute requires the U.S. Department of Justice to relay citizen reports of federal crimes to a special grand jury. The unprosecuted crime alleged to have taken place on 9/11 is the bombing of a place of public use or a government facility — as prohibited under the federal bombing statute or 18 U.S.C. § 2332f — as well as a conspiracy to commit, or the aiding and abetting of, said offense.

The petition states,

“The Lawyers’ Committee has reviewed the relevant available evidence . . . and has reached a consensus that there is not just substantial or persuasive evidence of yet-to-be-prosecuted crimes related to the use of pre-planted explosives and/or incendiaries . . . on 9/11, but there is actually conclusive evidence that such federal crimes were committed.”

A federal grand jury has broad powers to investigate the alleged crimes and to return an indictment for signature and prosecution by the U.S. Attorney. The petition notes,

“If any crime ever warranted a full special grand jury inquiry, the mass murder of thousands on our nation’s soil on 9/11 clearly does.”

Lawyers’ Committee Executive Director Mick Harrison expressed “cautious optimism” that the U.S. Attorney would fulfill his mandatory duty to present the reported evidence to a grand jury, his optimism based on the fact that the law offers the U.S. Attorney no discretion in whether to do so. However, in the event the U.S. Attorney does not bring forth the evidence to a grand jury, Harrison said, the petitioners reserve the option of bringing a mandamus action in federal court. A mandamus action, if successful, would compel the U.S. Attorney to fulfill his legal obligation.

For the time being, the Lawyers’ Committee will let the process run its course.

“We intend to step back now for a reasonable time and be respectful of the confidential nature of the grand jury proceedings, although we have offered to assist in the presentation of this evidence to a special grand jury,” Harrison commented.

We take a break from more routine entries to bring word of an exceptional free concert on Sunday, June 3, 2018, at 4 p.m., at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church.

“The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight Motets.” Composed by Neely Bruce (b. 1940), adapting music by William Billings (1746-1800). Performed by the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church Choir, directed by Lila M. Farrar, on Sunday, June 3, 2018, at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church.

–   –   –

The entire Bill of Rights will be performed in four-part harmony. The words of the Amendments to be sung in their entirety will be read between the motets.

The 16-member choir has been rehearsing “The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight Motets” since last November. Last Thursday, 12 members practiced the motets for Amendments Two, Three, Six and Ten in the church basement with director Farrar. Local truther Wendy Newhall sings soprano.

Composer Neely Bruce plans to attend. William Billings is sometimes described as America’s first native-born composer, a friend of Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, and a staunch patriot.

The gray stone church is located at 19 River St. (Route 148) on the Brookfield Common.

Sorry to all of you who have been hanging on every entry at this site. Both of you. It’s been crazy.

Briefly, bused to Worcester from Pittsfield on Wednesday the 2nd, were picked up by the estimable Dennis and Timothy, ferried to the Westboro Shopping Plaza where we feasted on the buffet at the Mayuri Indian Restaurant. They do it right. It’s one of three in a Boston-area Mayuri chain. Across the parking lot to a Big Y to get me some sun block before Tim and Dennis left with our backpacks in the trunk. Much faster and easier without the packs.

On the 12-mile stretch with “9/11 TRUTH” signs fore and aft, we counted roughly 20 positive signals from motorists for the one or (possibly) two against, the latter vulgar of course.

Approaching Worcester we were informed by an Ocean State Job Lot sign that it was 87 degrees F. at 4:06, and by a Herb Chambers Ford place that it was 90 degrees F. at 4:20. Two lads working there walked across the parking lot of a Lexus dealership to hand us bottles of Maine springwater labeled Lexus Elite something or other.

We were sitting in the shade resting near the entrance of a pizza place when up drives a Hispanic couple with two small kids, Alexander and Annie. The father asked us about the signs. He had researched the Dallas JFK murder in 1963 and 9/11 in 2001 was entirely with us on the latter. We were with him that the Warren Commission report was complete hooey. We agreed it was a coup d’état.

On the way stopped at a business run by a former student of Bruce’s, doubled recently in size. He took down several website addresses including this one and we were on our way, each with a free pad promoting the business. The proprietor not surprised at our take on 9/11, but like millions of Americans he has been so immersed on matters closer to home that have kept him from researching it.

Good discussion on many topics Wednesday evening at Tim’s house in Worcester outside in the driveway over several varieties of Berkshire Beer and chili Tim made from his mother’s recipe.

Up and out of the house with our packs before 8 the next morning and breakfast at Nu Kitchen in a repurposed manufacturing plant on Chandler Street before heading west toward Brookfield and other friends of Bruce’s, both way better versed on matters 9/11 than I.

Every block or three getting out of Worcester and up, up, up into Leicester on Route 9 elicited memories of when Bruce taught at Worcester State and ate here with these people or knew a student who did this or that there.

With all sorts of detail left out, this account arrives to around midday yesterday, Thursday the 3rd. It’s time for bed.

– Mark

Osneyda picked out “The Pirates of Somalia” yesterday at East Street Variety & Video and we watched it after supper. In its own way (screenwriter and director Bryan Buckley’s), it traces the offbeat early career of real-life Canadian journalist Jay Bahadur as he, with zero conventional reporting experience, finds out what makes the Somalian pirates tick and becomes a best-selling author and sought-after authority on them.

If half a dozen reporters like Bahadur (at least the character in the movie) were on the case, would the truths of the September 2001 attacks be common knowledge and justice in this atrocity be under way? That’s hard to say, because every news outlet you can name with the kind of budget to put reporters on it simply won’t — at least that we know about. It’s been nearly 17 years, what are they waiting for?

Barrie Zwicker, in his 2006 book, Towers of Deception: The Media Coverup of 9/11 (which I’ve read only bits of), nails the reason why. Bruce’s copy is somewhere on Cape Cod, part of an offloading from our backpacks in Wellfleet to make them lighter. Interestingly but perhaps not surprisingly, Towers of Deception is not mentioned in Zwicker’s Wikipedia entry.

Maybe Seymour Hersh, who turned 81 this month, is working on the needed exposé. I was reminded of the possibility by the first name Buckley gives the fictional Seymour Tobin, played flavorfully by Al Pacino in “The Pirates of Somalia” as a retired but celebrated Canadian reporter. (The movie’s working title was “Where the White Man Runs Away,” a fitting description of the U.S. media and 9/11 truth.)

Recommended: Hersch’s 10,000-word article published three years ago by The London Review of Books: “The Killing of Osama bin Laden,” available online for free. Also see the New York Times Magazine article by Jonathan Mahler, “What Do We Really Know About Osama bin Laden’s Death?

– Mark