400 of the families of Sept. 11 victims have sued Bush for 9-11 complicity.
They seek $7 billion.
SF EXAMINER ARTICLE:
Publication date: 06/11/2002
Stanley Hilton now figures his case is stronger because
of a coalition
of attorneys, victims' families and bipartisan legislators who gathered
in
Washington on Monday to condemn the government's lack of action in
preventing the Sept. 11 attacks.
Hilton is the San Francisco attorney who filed a
$7 billion lawsuit in
U.S. District Court on June 3 against President Bush and other government
officials for "allowing" the terrorist attacks to occur.
Among Hilton's allegations: Bush conspired to create
the Sept. 11
attacks for his own political gain and has been using Osama bin Laden
as a
scapegoat.
Hilton said he has information that bin Laden died
several years ago of
kidney failure.
"I hope it will expose the fact that there are numbers
of people in the
government, including Bush and his top assistants, who wanted this
to
happen," Hilton said.
His class-action suit named 10 defendants, including
Vice President Dick
Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld, and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Hilton
said he
represents the families of 14 victims and that 400 plaintiffs are involved
nationwide.
White House spokesman Ken Macias and Department
of Justice public
affairs officer Charles Miller each said their departments were unaware
of
the lawsuit.
Hilton, Sen. Bob Dole's former aide, has been publicly
critical of
conservatives in books he has written about Dole and the Clinton sex
scandal. Hilton, who said he has sources within the FBI, CIA, the National
Security Agency and Naval intelligence, demands Bush's impeachment
and
believes the truth will come out in trial.
Hilton claims the Bush administration ignored intelligence
information,
refused to round up suspected terrorists beforehand, and during the
hijackings refused to disable pilot controls and switch to a ground-based
remote system.
He claims the government benefited from installing
a puppet Afghan
government friendly to U.S. oil interests.
Hilton also says Bush used bin Laden's antagonist
image to create a
public frenzy, which allowed the Bush administration to tighten its
political grip.
E-mail: dkiefer@sfexaminer.com