NEW YORK (Sputnik) – The terror attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 have served as an excuse for the US government to justify a wide range of constitutional and civil rights violations, 9/11 Truth spokesman Mike Berger told Sputnik.
Monday marks the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington. As a result of the attacks, nearly 3,000 people were killed and another 6,000 were injured.
"[9/11] basically gave all branches of government an out," Berger said. "All you have to do is cite national security to hide crimes."
"They are using this legislation, which was passed after 9/11, that under the guise of potential terrorism those companies don't have to release those documents," Berger said. "In other words, allegedly out of concerns of national security, they have legal means to deprive the public of public information."
The 9/11 Truth movement started as a grassroots coalition in 2002. It was an alliance of activists who came together to support the families of the September 11 terror attack victims.
Although Berger argues that the group doesn't have an agenda, its goal was to expose the role the US government played in orchestrating terror attacks.
Throughout the years, the group has filed multiple lawsuits, all of which were shut down, including the filed petition with New York's Attorney General to investigate the role of the US government in the attack.
"The Attorney General of New York, who had the ability and legal right to go and investigate — did nothing," Berger said.
At this point, 9/11 Truthers see the movement and its resources, mainly the website, as a historic record of research that "exposed the role of the US government in the 9/11 attacks."
Berger argues that 9/11 is a symptom that never goes away, and the understanding of its underlying causes and consequences may help explain numerous trends in recent US history.
On September 11, 2011, Islamist gunmen seized four passenger planes, crashing two into the World Trade Center in New York, which led to the collapse of the twin towers, and another into the Pentagon. The fourth jet came down in a field in Pennsylvania after being initially directed toward Washington D.C. Some 3,000 people lost their lives in the terrorist attack. Putin was one of the first world leaders to call then-US President George Bush to offer his condolences.
