Friday, January 12, 2007

Burlington Free Press: 9/11 ballot question meets signature quota

The Burlington 9/11 group gathering signatures
for a ballot question asking whether a new investigation into
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon have met their quota.

Director of Elections Jo Lamarche said the group on Friday
submitted the last of the 1,348 signatures of registered voters
necessary to put the question before voters on Town Meeting
Day.

The number is 5 percent of the 26,966 registered voters in
the city. Lamarche said supporters of the question submitted
a few more signatures than were required.

The question asks whether Vermont’s congressional delegation
should be advised “to demand a new, thorough and truly
independent forensic investigation” of the events of Sept.
11.

Marc Estrin, spokesman for the group which circulated the petition,
said that so far as he knows the Burlington ballot question
will be the first of its sort in the country. He and other supporters
of the question say the official 9/11 Commission Report, released
in 2004, failed to address numerous questions raised by members
of the intelligence community, victims’ families, law enforcement
and fire officials and others.

E-mails about the ballot question have flowed into the Free
Press from around the country since late December. Virtually
all of the e-mails have supported reopening the investigation.

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