US fury over UN expert's 9/11 'cover-up' claims

(AFP) – Jan 25, 2011

UNITED NATIONS — The United States on Tuesday demanded the sacking of a UN human
rights expert for "noxious" comments claiming there had been a US cover-up over the September
11 attacks.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the comments by Richard Falk, UN special
rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, as "an affront" to the victims of the
2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, called Falk's views "despicable and
deeply offensive" and said she had registered a protest and called for his dismissal.
Falk wrote in his personal blog on January 11 that there are "awkward gaps and contradictions in
the official explanations" given for the attacks when hijacked jets crashed into the World Trade
Center towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.
He said there was "an apparent cover-up" by the US government over its knowledge of the
attacks masterminded by Osama bin Laden.
Falk said mainstream US media had been "unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts
about the official version of the events: an Al-Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by
government officials."
The US ambassador said she was "appalled" and joined calls by other groups for his dismissal.
"Mr Falk endorses the slurs of conspiracy theorists who allege that the September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks were perpetrated and then covered up by the US government and media," she
said in a statement.
"Mr Falk?s comments are despicable and deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the strongest
terms. I have registered a strong protest with the UN on behalf of the United States."
"In my view, Mr Falk?s latest commentary is so noxious that it should finally be plain to all that
he should no longer continue in his position on behalf of the UN," Rice said.
"The United States is deeply committed to the cause of human rights and believes that cause will
be better advanced without Mr Falk and the distasteful sideshow he has chosen to create."
UN officials said that Falk is not appointed by Ban, but by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights
Council. The council must decide Falk's future, they said.
Speaking in Geneva, the UN leader expressed shock over the comments in a speech to the UN
Human Rights Council.
"I want to tell you clearly and directly. I condemn this sort of inflammatory rhetoric. It is
preposterous -- an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in that tragic
attack," Ban said.
The US ambassador said the United States had already criticized what she called "Mr Falk?s
one-sided and politicized approach to his work for the UN, including his failure to condemn
deliberate human rights abuses by Hamas, but these blog comments are in another category
altogether.
"I would note that US and many other diplomats walked out in protest in September 2010 when
Iranian President Ahmadinejad made similarly slanderous remarks before the UN General
Assembly."
The Iranian leader also appeared to cast doubt on the causes of the September 11 attacks in his
speech to the General Assembly last year.
It turns out that "Palestine expert" on the UN Human Rights Council, the law professor Richard
Falk, is something of a 9/11 Truther (sorry, Troofer). Here is what Falk had to say about 9/11 on
his blog:
The arguments swirling around the 9/11 attacks are emblematic of these issues. What
fuels suspicions of conspiracy is the reluctance to address the sort of awkward gaps and
contradictions in the official explanations that David Ray Griffin (and other devoted
scholars of high integrity) have been documenting in book after book ever since his
authoritative The New Pearl Harbor in 2004 (updated in 2008). What may be more
distressing than the apparent cover up is the eerie silence of the mainstream media,
unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the
events: an al Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by government officials. Is this
silence a manifestation of fear or cooption, or part of an equally disturbing filter of self-
censorship? Whatever it is, the result is the withering away of a participatory citizenry
and the erosion of legitimate constitutional government. The forms persist, but the
content is missing.
This has brought forth a strong condemnation from Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations:
I am appalled by the recent personal blog written by Richard Falk, the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories
occupied since 1967."

In this blog post, dated January 11, 2011, Mr. Falk endorses the slurs of conspiracy
theorists who allege that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were perpetrated and
then covered up by the U.S. government and media.

Mr. Falk's comments are despicable and deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the
strongest terms. I have registered a strong protest with the UN on behalf of the United
States. The United States has in the past been critical of Mr. Falk's one-sided and
politicized approach to his work for the UN, including his failure to condemn deliberate
human rights abuses by Hamas, but these blog comments are in another category
altogether.

In my view, Mr. Falk's latest commentary is so noxious that it should finally be plain to
all that he should no longer continue in his position on behalf of the UN. I would note
that U.S. and many other diplomats walked out in protest in September 2010 when
Iranian President Ahmadinejad made similarly slanderous remarks before the UN
General Assembly.

The United States is deeply committed to the cause of human rights and believes that
cause will be better advanced without Mr. Falk and the distasteful sideshow he has
chosen to create.