In an interview with a Berkeley, California radio station, the congresswoman asked, “What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? ... What do they have to hide?” She pointed to the connection between the 2000 presidential election and the post-September 11 attacks on democratic rights, saying, “an administration of questionable legitimacy has been given unprecedented power.”
McKinney’s comments, which referred to only a portion of the evidence of US government involvement in September 11, provoked a hysterical reaction in the media and on Capitol Hill. She was denounced by both Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, after which a media blackout was imposed on the issues she raised.
However, in what appears to be a tacit attempt to answer allegations that the US government had extensive advance warning of the attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller gave a speech a week later to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. He declared that the FBI was still not in possession of any significant information about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, despite the mobilization of hundreds of agents, not only in the United States, but also in Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan, over the past eight months.
McKinney’s comments, which referred to only a portion of the evidence of US government involvement in September 11, provoked a hysterical reaction in the media and on Capitol Hill. She was denounced by both Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, after which a media blackout was imposed on the issues she raised.
However, in what appears to be a tacit attempt to answer allegations that the US government had extensive advance warning of the attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller gave a speech a week later to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. He declared that the FBI was still not in possession of any significant information about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, despite the mobilization of hundreds of agents, not only in the United States, but also in Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan, over the past eight months.