Top 9/11 lawyer: we heard a pack of lies

The 9/11 commission was handed a pack of lies by high-level government officials, the commission's former counsel says.

John Farmer, the panel's ex-counsel who is now dean of Rutgers University law school, said that "at some level of the government, at some point in time, there was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened," according to a Rutgers press release announcing his new book "The Ground Truth: the story of America's defense of 9/11."

Farmer, one of the masterminds of the 9/11 account given by the commission in 2004, is quoted: "I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described."

Specifically, he was referring to the discrepancy between NORAD tapes and what military officers told the commission.

The book is slated for release early next year.

One cannot come away thinking that Farmer has entirely retracted the government's essential story: that al Qaeda -- and not Pentagon or CIA puppet-masters -- arranged the attacks.

However, his concession in the law school press release and the fact that much of what the panel was told came from captives subjected to extreme duress should be enough to raise red flags.

It's certainly true that he joins a number of other 9/11 panel officials who have disavowed key parts of the report because of severe problems with government credibility that have surfaced since the 9/11 report was issued.

In a related matter, seven former CIA chiefs have signed a petition urging President Obama to block a criminal probe of CIA torture activity. Morale would be badly affected, they allege.

Conant comment: Of course, a real criminal probe would almost certainly turn up evidence of treason concerning 9/11. Maybe one or two of these spooks, such as James Schlesinger, are so doddering they don't see that. But the others should all be put on the short list of candidates for "persons of interest" in mole hunts.