A Republican congressman (Curt Weldon) has given strong words of praise for the video by Professor Steven E. Jones of BYU which accuses the Bush administration of deliberately allowing the 9/11 attacks to happen and placing explosives in three of the World Trade Center buildings to make sure they would be totally destroyed.
Here's a transcript of a Town Hall Meeting from April 2006 held with Representative Curt Weldon (PA 7th district):
Dave Slesinger: First, I want to praise you for your Able Danger efforts. Since you are the Congressman most sympathetic to firefighters, have you looked at the quotes from NYC firefighters at the World Trade Center on 9/11 about explosives? If you have, will you accept information on [this] for later comment?
Rep. Weldon: I will absolutely accept information, and I'm very close to the NYC firefighters because one of my best friends was killed there.
I talk to the fire department on a regular basis. When the Republican convention was held in New York in 2004, I went up a day early, I went down to the fire department headquarters. I spent the day with them. And when I finished the briefings, and getting their input, as to what happened on 9/11, which I had ongoing, I went up and spent two hours running with Engine 54 (inaudible) in midtown Manhattan. And I wanted to do that because on 9/11 all 15 firefighters on duty from that station were killed. And I wanted the firefighters to give me their views without going through any chiefs or other officers about what happened.
Now, there's a lot of theories out there about what occurred. And uh, I haven't gone into the structural elements of the building. The fact that there are reports on multiple explosions on other floors... I am open to that information. I'm willing to challenge the system. And uh, and don't automatically discount anything that's told to me because I've seen, I've seen too much. I mean, ya know, I hate to say that sometimes I don't trust my Government, but sometimes, I don't trust the Government. The bureaucracy. Ya know the best evidence of that is we had the, uh, Tillman, the football player. Joined the army, he was killed. We now find out that the army burned his clothing. So the family never got to get the real story about how Pat Tillman died. Now if it was an accident, so be it. You don't hide that information because somebody is going to be embarrassed.
That's the whole story with Tony Shaffer. It's the bureaucrats trying to hide information and facts, so they're not embarrassed. So, do I automatically accept what the Government tells me? No. And that's why I get myself in trouble. I challenge the CIA, I challenge the DIA. I'll challenge our Defense Department. That's why you send me there. If you want somebody to go there, and just go along, you would send a robot. That would vote the way the party wanted, and would go along with the current President. I won't do that. So I'm absolutely open to any information anyone has that challenges anything about the 9/11 Commission or the work there.
Dave Slesinger: Congressman, that was my question, I, wanna give out, anybody who wants this, this is a speech by a physics professor at BYU, Steven Jones.
Rep. Weldon: Yeah.
Dave Slesinger: It's the hottest thing happening on the 9/11 issue. In his speech, he praises Congressman Weldon, he's a conservative Republican [or was], he praises Reagan, he quotes St. Paul. I think I have [DVD copies] enough for everybody. Just ask me.
Rep. Weldon: It'll open your eyes, because his allegations are pretty strong.
