UKRAINIAN PAPER SUING US EMBASSY

Ukrainian weekly newspaper 2000 is suing the US Embassy in Kiev, US Press Attaché Brent Byers and Minister for External Relations of the Ukraine Boris Tarasiuk. The paper feels that a press release issued by the Embassy offends its dignity and damages its reputation. The press release was an indirect to a publication about a American group Scholars for 9/11 Truth. It was drawn up in the Ukrainian language and, as the weekly thinks, contained erroneous and insulting statements. The paper published a response and sent a letter to the Scholars for 9/11 Truth’s web site enclosing the translation of the press release:

Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:05:16 +0200
From: "Editorial office of the "2000" newspaper "
To: jfetzer@d.umn.edu
Subject:
TO: Scholars for 9/11 Truth

ATTN: Steven E. Jones

James H. Fetzer

FROM: 2000 Weekly Newspaper (www.news2000.com.ua), Kyiv, Ukraine

SUBJECT: Publication of review of activities of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth in Ukrainian newspaper and reaction to it of US embassy in Kyiv (Ukraine)

Dear Gentlemen,

We believe that the subject of this letter may be of interest for the Scholars for 9/11 Truth. Our weekly “2000” (www.news2000.com.ua) - is one of the leading independent newspapers in Ukraine with a circulation of 101 000 copies distributed all through Ukraine. We provide our readers with accurate and non-partisan news coverage on social, cultural, political and economic aspects on both domestic and international matters. After learning about your view of what had happened on September 11, 2001, and scientific reasoning behind your position we decided to share it, as well as information about your society and its' activities with our readers in a series of articles.

“9/11 Terrorist Attack Orchestrated by President Bush's Entourage - An Opinion of US Scholars”was published on Feb. 10, 2006. The Russian version of the article can be found at news2000.com.ua/print/derzhava/teraktsentyabryaorganizov.html. We structured this article around possible involvement of President's Bush administration in 9/11 tragedy, introduced in it the goals and aims of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth as well as included the list of the society's members (translation of section of your website's sections Who Are We) and 20 reasons to question the official story of 9/11. We see unbiased presentation of different positions on these tragic events and possible causes of 9/11 as our responsibility, and believe that our readers have a right to hear not only official interpretation.

Our readers have shown an immense interest in the description of your society's activities, your scientific analyses of the 9/11 facts and what these analyses indicate.

Yet we have to admit, that until we have seen a reaction of the US embassy in Kyiv to our publication, we had considered the statement on your website “among the potential benefits of joining this society, you may become the subject of government surveillance and might even be placed on various lists of "potential terrorists» as a joke. On February 14, 2006 the US embassy in Kyiv issued a statement in which U.S. Embassy Press Attaché Brent Byers claimed that our publication of February 10, 2006 was written to mislead the people of Ukraine about the tragic events of 9/11, that publication of such articles falls in the same category as denial of Holocaust and Holodomor, Mr. Byers also accused our newspaper of acting on somebody's orders and publishing this article because somebody has told us to do so. The embassy went to the extent of forwarding this press-release to all major mass-media outlets in Ukraine. The full text of the embassy's statement as well as a link to the embassy's site you can find at the bottom of this letter.

Despite US Embassy attempts to hush down voices of those who does not agree with the official interpretation of the 9/11 tragedy, we are continuing with the publication of the series. Our next issue will contain a detailed account of how US senior governmental officials have covered up crucial facts about what really happened on 9/11.

We would be honored if you agree to share your understanding of the 9/11 tragedy with our readers on the pages of our newspaper. We would welcome your input in any form: a report, an open letter, an appeal, an investigative story, etc. We would be grateful as well for your comments of the situation mentioned above. We will appreciate a prompt reply, since our newspaper goes to print on Wednesdays.

Let's work together on exposing this cover-up of the real events.

Sincerely,

Sergey Kichigin

Editor-in-chief and owner of the weekly newspaper “2000”

___________________________________

Statement by the U.S. Embassy

Source: http://kiev.usembassy.gov/press/060214_bbyers_statement_eng.html

Press and Information
- February 14, 2006

TEMNYKY CREATORS STILL AT WORK IN UKRAINE
Statement by the U.S. Embassy Press Attaché Brent Byers

The February 10 article in 2000, a publication closely aligned with the SDPU (O), that claims that the United States Government was secretly behind and benefited from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 is evidence that the people who introduced the word “temnyky” to the world are still hard at work trying to mislead the Ukrainian people. Such outrageous claims are in the league of statements that there was no Holocaust or Holodomor. Fortunately, as the political polls show, most Ukrainians do not take these political lies or the people who try to spread them seriously.

----- Forwarded message from jfetzer@d.umn.edu -----
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 22:13:53 -0600
From: jfetzer@d.umn.edu
Reply-To: jfetzer@d.umn.edu
Subject: Letter to the Editor (revised)
To: vitaemo@news2000.com.ua
To the Editor:

On behalf of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, I express our profound gratitude to you for publishing an informative article about our efforts to expose the false and reveal the truth about the events of 9/11. We are not surprised that the American Embassy would strike out at those who are willing to stand up for the truth about the corrupt acts of 9/11, which this administration has used to manipulate the people of the United States through a combination of acts of violence and threats of further acts of violence, ones that it appears to have orchestrated! It is typical of this administration that the only parties who are held accountable for their actions are the "whistle-blowers", who have the courage and the integrity to speak truth to power. So it comes as no surprise to us that representatives of this government would attempt to discredit us.

The laws of physics and engineering cannot be violated and cannot be changed, alas!, and are therefore not so amenable to manipulation as the minds of those who know no better. Americans are peculiarly susceptible to being taken in by their government because, as good and decent people, they would never tell such monstrous lies! Just as the official scenario of the shooting of his hunting companion by Vice President Cheney is amenable to scientific refutation, the grotesque charade that passes for the "official account" of the events of 9/11 has been subjected to scientific refutation, including by studies that may be found at our web site, scholarsfor911truth.org (st911.org). It turns out that what the government has told us about 9/11 is perfectly fine for those who are willing to believe impossible things. But scholars don't traffic in nonsense.

It is rather ironic that the government would attempt to assail critics of its position on the ground that they are "conspiracy theorists", since a scenario in which some nineteen Islamic fanatics hijack four commercial airliners and use them as weapons to attack prominent buildings under the direction of Osama bin Laden from a cave in the wilds of Afghanistan clearly counts as a "conspiracy theory". We therefore qualify as critics of a conspiracy theory, namely, the conspiracy theory advanced by a corrupt government intent upon controlling the American people through the use of violence and threats of violence to instill them with fear and make them amenable to political manipulation. Should anyone bother to check, that is the definition of "terrorism", which suggests that the Bush administration has been employing terrorism to control the American people.

With appreciation,

James H. Fetzer, Ph.D.
Founder and Co-Chair
Scholars for 9/11 Truth
jfetzer@d.umn.edu
http://www.st911.org
http://www.d.umn.edu/~jfetzer/