25 Years Later- Annual 9/11 Truth Film Festival and More

Reflections on the 9/11 Truth Movement, the birth, the growth, now, where we are going...

The Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance will be holding our 22^nd Annual 9/11 Truth Festival on Tuesday, September 8^th, 2026 from 3 pm to 10 pm at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, California. Nearly 25 years have passed since the tragic events of September 11^th, the largest 9/11 Truth gathering will be the Turning the Tide- 9/11 25 Years Later Conference in New York City from September 10^th through September 13^th which will feature a multitude of speakers, including me, on a panel about the early 9/11 Truth Movement.

From the beginning, people had doubts about the official 9/11 narrative. With hindsight it is easy to see that it was a psychological operation designed to terrorize the public into relinquishing their civil rights, to expand the police/surveillance state, and to justify wars of aggression. In the immediate aftermath, the scariest thing for me, was to hear the drumbeats for war.

2001 was a pivotal year, a global justice movement had sprung up to shut down the World Trade Center talks in Seattle, large international protests had taken place in Italy and Quebec City, a major protest was mobilizing against the IMF and the World Bank that September in Washington DC. That January, I had helped to mobilize North Americans to attend the first World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, a counter to the pro-corporate World Economic Forum held annually in Switzerland. The anti-corporate globalization movement was going strong. We joked about turning the IMF headquarters into day-care centers to meet human needs, not greed. That movement took a huge blow with the events of 9/11 and the new travel restrictions, and turned into a scattered anti-war movement.

The World Bank meetings and protests were cancelled, but my affinity group went anyway to protest an impending war, lobby against the PATRIOT Act, thank Barbara Lee for voting against giving Bush unlimited war powers. In DC, I realized that the war had nothing to do with fighting terrorism, but a lot to do with grabbing resources.

There was a flurry of articles on the internet that challenged the official narrative and raised serious questions. One of my great mentors, Bill Moyer authored the book Doing Democracy- The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements. I decided to “do something” and take to the streets. I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one; I began with a “Listening Project” in downtown Palo Alto. I simply asked people 3 questions- What do you think of the events of September 11^th and the US government’s response? How could we diffuse terrorism? How could we make a safer, better world for our children and all children? I wrote down people’s responses. I did this on a weekly basis, for over a decade. Some folks came and supported my efforts. I also organized marches on our Senators and my Congresswoman demanding an investigation of 9/11, and passed out worksheets on how social movements worked, pointing at Stage 1, to let folks know where we were. Bill Moyer was on that first march, as well as Grey Brechin, author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin.

I was a house-wife, a mom; I volunteered in the school library and my kid’s classrooms. My husband was the cub scout leader. I couldn’t be fired. I made friends online, in person, with kindred spirits. We were in the minority. I learned that over 2000 people had signed a petition calling for an investigation of 9/11 online; we had some conference calls under the banner of the “9/11 Truth Alliance.” When there was an anti-war rally, people would help me set up a 9/11 Truth table at the rallies. It was a slow, organic process of simply meeting people and talking with them, while tabling. The first “official meetings” were held one day in December 2002 by our “Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance” and by another group in New York City.

More groups popped up around the country, books were published, press conferences were held, speakers gave presentations, banners were made. I collaborated with Canadian artist, Blaine Machan to begin publishing “The Deception Dollars” which featured key websites challenging the official narrative. We distributed millions of them, mainly at the anti-war rallies, and they helped fund and grow the fledgling 9/11 Truth Movement. More websites popped up, as well as scholars, scientists, actors, pilots, firefighters, architects and engineers for 9/11 Truth.

The victims’ families’ efforts forced a Commission upon a reluctant White House, but along with the Joint Senate and House Inquiry, both “official investigations” were cover-ups, and they failed to investigate themselves. Evidence was destroyed, the stories twisted or used to further more wars, including the war on Iraq. The Official 9/11 Commission Report was based on tortured evidence, drafted by Philip Zelikow, the same guy who wrote a paper describing in detail how ”had the 93’ WTC bombings succeeded” the event could have been used to transform policy from a pre-event to a post-event world, as outlined infamously by the Project for a New American Century, and who wrote the Pre-emptive War Doctrine for the Bush Administration. Needless to say, the Report made no mention of WTC 7, and stated that who financed the operation “was of little or no importance. “ Clearly the official story was a giant lie.

I loved the people that I met. I loved their spirit, their courage, their generosity in giving whatever they could, their talents, time, resources, to further the cause, not only of truth, but peace, freedom, justice, in the face of such a brutal assault upon the public mind, and upon innocent people outside and within the USA. I organized many events, marches, protests, film showings in the early years, including the 2004 San Francisco International Inquiry into 9/11. It wasn’t easy. Certainly my worldview was not shared by the majority of people. I thought that the media was much to blame for selling the official story, and I became a “media activist,” attending “Media Reform Conferences” to champion taboo topics, such as 9/11 Truth, Impeachment, Stolen Elections. I was invited to host two radio shows and, for a while, I became “the media.”

In 2005, I remember sitting with the Editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian for two hours, giving him my best books and best arguments for questioning the official narrative, I also spent an hour with the publisher of the paper, and they did a lengthy article on the 9/11 Truth Movement, well they didn’t call it that, but they did poke fun at us, and bash us, and put forward much critical information. A New York Times writer did a similar “attack piece” upon our big conference in Chicago, slipping in some important information, but not overtly agreeing with us. Sometimes a journalist or a scientist or a person will come in direct contact with powerful truthful information that will transform the way that they see the world and they will stick their neck out to share their story or what they have learned.

I stopped watching television when I was 17 years old; I spent a couple of years sailing around the world and traveled extensively when I was in my 20’s. Before I became a mother, I was working in public relations and successful in getting stories into print, on the radio, television. After I became an activist, I realized how difficult it was to get critical information out to the public. I thought of the corporate press as agents of psychological warfare. It is well documented that the CIA has penetrated the media.

In preparation for our annual Film Festival, I was editing an interview with James Douglass who authored many important, insightful books, including Gandhi and the Unspeakable: His Final Experiment with Truth, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, and his latest- Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK. Douglass named the three men most responsible for JFK’s assassination including James Jesus Angleton, head of the CIA, the handler of Lee Harvey Oswald, who said, just before he died, that he and the other heads of the CIA all sought global domination, that they “all were liars,” and that they “all would be going to hell.” Angleton wrote the script for the Kennedy assassination. The media’s role was to follow that script, but Douglass noted that the real purpose of the media was to frighten people into submission and make them feel powerless.

In 1906, on September 11^th, Satyagraha was born in South Africa when three thousand people agreed to join forces in civil disobedience to challenge racist laws, led by Mohandas K. Gandhi. At that meeting, a Muslim merchant, Seth Haji Habib, declared that their resolution must be passed “with God as a witness.” Gandhi realized that including spirituality in a political struggle would change the nature of civil disobedience, but the idea was enthusiastically embraced by those gathered and “Satyagraha” has since inspired countless struggles against injustice. The term combines the Sanskrit words of satya ”love” with agraha “firmness” using love force, truth force, patience to counter injustice.. It does require courage, presence, persistence; it can be done alone, but is amplified when done in solidarity with others, for the benefit of all. James Douglass, when describing JFK, Malcolm, Martin and RFK in his recent book said that “the people were the real leaders,” their actions, spirit, allowed and energized those four to speak out, and become a genuine threat to a global power structure.

Those great leaders were all men of courage, who marched to a different drummer, a more powerful force, the arc of the moral Universe. They recognized and encouraged everyone to serve humanity, truth and Life which is why they posed such a threat and were martyred. Their words, their visions, and dreams live on, and we are inspired by them. I certainly was.

More and more people joined the truth movement, scholarly books were written, documentaries were made, large crowds came to events. A few of us ran for public office, simply to raise the issue. Neither the Republicans nor Democrats would touch 9/11, so when the Green Party asked me to run, I did. My campaign slogan was “Impeach the Terrorists!” The most challenging, bewildering, frustrating effort we faced was trying to work in coalition with the Peace Movement which, on the surface, seemed the easiest and most natural ally. Our success, however, was limited. 9/11 Truth terrified some people and broke apart some couples.

With the election of Obama, the wind was knocked out of the sails of the anti-war movement in California and it was increasingly difficult to convince the public of the relevance of the defining event of the century. Not unlike the Kennedy Assassination, the official narrative flooded the airwaves and most media outlets. However, truth does have power; the questions raised, key information brought to the surface did trigger more and more people to question the dominant narrative, the media, the government, the wars, the bailouts. Eventually “Occupy Wall Street” sparked a wave of protests across the country.

The Truth Movement broadened into the vast swath of people subjected to the assaults by giant corporations, financial institutions, media conglomerates, agribusiness, robbing and harming them on multiple fronts, recognizing that they were the 99%. The author of “Cognitive Infiltration,” Cass Sunstein, was appointed by the Obama Administration to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He suggested splintering the 9/11 Truth Movement through the use of conflicting narratives. The volume of attacks grew upon those who questioned the events of September 11^th, as well as the identities, and motivations of those behind the plot. The arguments over various aspects of 9/11 divided and destroyed many groups, but on the worldwide scale, the majority were not buying the official story and suspected that the CIA, or the Zionist “Project for a New American Century” within the US government played a key role in the attacks. The European Open Physics Chemistry Journal published, in 2009, a scientific article entitled ”Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe” which helped fuel the truth movement.

Deep truths can challenge one’s identity, one’s worldview, promote an uncomfortable sense of cognitive dissonance and challenge us to change, to speak out, to be the change we wish to see in the world. We are each confronted with issues, problems, concerns, demands for our attention, every day of our lives. Life is complicated, choosing which issues, problems to work on isn’t obvious. Each of us has to choose which hat to wear from moment to moment. Movements wax and wane, have successes and setbacks, become demoralized or take heart, depending on the actions of ourselves or other people.

I have devoted a huge chunk of my life to 9/11 Truth, but probably because my life changed dramatically after I saw the film JFK and began looking deeply into the Kennedy Assassination, the CIA, and was horrified by what I learned. I felt a deep sense of responsibility to do something about it, because my country was causing so much harm to innocent people in other countries. I felt that I should and could do something. I saw activism as humanity’s immune system tackling a deadly cancer. I am sure that gave me the energy and strength to keep going strong for decades.

In the book, Doing Democracy, Moyer writes about how social movements help pull one another along. The big social movements of the 60’s against militarism, racism, sexism clearly demonstrated that, but with new communications technologies, it is harder to discern real dissent from manufactured dissent and to gauge public opinion. An increasing number of people doubt that a lone gunman killed JFK, increasing numbers believe that the 9/11 Commission failed to investigate the key questions raised by the families and the critical evidence. 9/11 has been a third rail issue that most politicians don’t dare to touch.

With the drama of subsequent “terrorist attacks,” wars, regime changes, military incursions, and a global psyop, dwarfing 9/11, well articulated by James Corbett in his podcast Covid-911 From Homeland Security to Biosecurity, the public has been traumatized and splintered. The most visible current organized resistance to militarism, war, corruption are protests against the genocide of Gaza, and the “No Kings” demonstrations against Trump.

Depending on which country you look at, the abolition of “chattel” slavery took almost half a century to a full century. However, debt slavery and sex slavery are still a problem, today. The mission of the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance is simply “to seek and disseminate truths about the terrible crimes committed on September 11, 2001, exposing gaps and deceptions in the official story. Our goal is to inspire more eyewitness revelations, truthful media coverage, and a movement that will bring the responsible criminals to justice and eliminate governmental and corporate policies that enable criminal elements to commit such acts.” Will this take 50 or 100 years? Was 9/11 a State Crime Against Democracy, a SCAD? Will it, like the political assassinations of the 60s, be blamed on chosen patsies, while the real masterminds go free? How do we prevent a nuclear 9/11? Or the next bio-weapon attack? Is education enough? Social movements take time. The public needs to be convinced three times before they will support actions or changes that are less frightening then the status quo. Is humor the best tool in our arsenals? People, monstrous institutions, or threats aren’t as frightening, if you can laugh at them. Courageous, persistent, non-violent resistance, actions in which anyone can participate in support people power.

Last year, we were deeply honored to have retired Captain Raul Angulo speak at our Film Festival, his article Did World Trade Center 7 Really Collapse Due to Office Fires? in the International Fire and Safety Journal had garnered much attention, especially since he authored textbooks on fighting high rise fires. His work drew the attention of many politicians, including Senator Ron Johnson, chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations who spoke in favor of new hearings on 9/11. Senator Johnson, Dennis Kucinich, Curt Weldon, and other ex-Congressmen attended the 2025 Turning the Tide 9/11 Truth Conference that took place in Washington DC. There was also a push for a Presidential Commission on 9/11. Trumps slump in popularity reduced hopes for an “Independent Presidential Investigation into the 9/11 World Trade Center Destruction.”

Senator Ron Johnson has also pushed back hearings on 9/11. Washington DC has a long history of cover-ups. There is a push for “Disclosure,” and for the release of more documents. We do need to champion or encourage the declassification of crimes, especially those committed by government agencies! It does seem like whistleblowers generally wait until they retire before they speak out on what crimes that they have witnessed. However we have received tons of documents detailing all sorts of crimes, researchers do sift through them; they publish their findings; it takes a major effort, however, for the public to locate them and read them, and share that information.

We intend to show Corbett’s new 10/7 A Conspiracy Theory which vividly shows Israel’s complicity in their “9/11” to justify the genocide of Gaza. Both Jimmy Dore and James Corbett discussed the topic at length recently, perhaps that might put a halt to the marriage of US military and intelligence forces with Israel’s military and intelligence forces currently taking place in DC. Would that false flag be enough to wake up the US population?

Perhaps the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of the 9/11 Truth Movement is that we disagree on many aspects of what happened, who did it, how, and why. However, there is much that we can agree on. 9/11 was a crime against humanity; the official narrative defies the laws of physics, it was used to attack civil rights everywhere; it was used to launch wars of aggression; it enriched the few and impoverished and killed many; it was used to expand the police state/surveillance state: it laid the foundation for even worse attacks.

The Grand Strategy of all social movements is for the hearts, minds, support of the majority of people, and to get them to exercise the people power that resides within themselves. We can see how the perpetrators of 9-11 had a Grand Strategy, too. Their tools were violence, fear, and the corporate/government/media megaphone.

We have the advantage of being able to expose a giant societal secret that they need to sell their lies, and maintain power. Our job is to expose the lie and to recognize that the deeply held values, symbols, beliefs, sensibilities and traditions that are important to the public are being violated. All we need to do is prove to the public that the truth movement, not the powerholders, upholds these values and principles, to motivate and inspire the public to challenge the power holders and their policies.

We also need to honor, respect and join, in coalition with all the other movements which are part of this grander struggle against the concentrated power of an elite few; this includes all the movements, born out of the struggle for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is no wonder that many of the great researchers and advocates for truth have been theologians or “believers.” At the heart of most religions, is the most valuable lesson that I have learned in my lifetime- “ to forgive, to accept, to love” myself, people and the world. In activism, when we are working on life and death issues, there is a lot of stress, some danger, and risk. People are doing the work because they care deeply. Most are volunteers; it is important to remember not to be too hard on ourselves and others.

It is our genuine love of people and life which gives us our strength, power, and connects us all. Banish fear, laugh, let the journey we are on be our reward, enjoy the wonderful companions that we meet. Together we can do what we cannot do alone.