Chiesa was in Berlin at the weekend for a screening of his film
which features, among others, novelist Gore Vidal and playwright Dario
Fo as well as retired American professor of philosophy David Ray
Griffin who advances conspiracy theories that contradict mainstream
accounts of events of 11 September, 2001.
Federal Aviation Administration controllers, US Air Force pilots,
military commanders and physicists also appear in the critical
documentary, which the director hopes will create "political
awareness" of the "faulty" official investigation into
the events by the 9/11 Commission.
"Some of the individuals appearing in the film are former FBI and
CIA agents, people who have in a sense taken a very big risk in
speaking out. I am very grateful to them because they have done a big
job," said Chiesa.
"The film would not have been possible without them," he
said, adding that ZERO had been seen in France and Belgium at
individual screenings, and by more than 20,000 people in Italy. But
the film so far has not gained a distributor in Europe.
Pushing for an international tribunal
Chiesa, one of Italy's most respected journalists and a La Stampa foreign
correspondent for more than 20 years, told his Berlin audience an
9/11 international tribunal could serve a useful purpose.
Bildunterschrift:
Großansicht
des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Alternative theories
abound about what actually happened at the site of the twin towers
"If feelings were strong enough a positive result could be
obtained, but it would not happen immediately. So far it's been the US
administration that has won the information fight and obtained their
result -- unfortunately," Chiesa said. "Our task is to
inform millions of people of the true situation.
Everybody should be involved in this struggle with a tribunal or
commission helping once we win approval for the idea," he said.
In an interview with German news agency dpa, Chiesa, a European
parliamentary deputy, said Russian television is to give prime time
airing to his film on the eve of this week's seventh anniversary of
the attacks in New York and Washington.
"That means that some 30 million Russian citizens will learn the
truth about what happened, which is a very big result for me."
Chiesa, whose documentary was first screened to a large German
audience at the Goethe Institute in Munich in May, was clearly
delighted at his reception in Berlin. "It's important that so
many people have shown up," he said.
One of a panel of six experts debating the 9/11 topic in Berlin,
Chiesa said he was eager for his film to gain more public support and
become a "multiplicator" across Germany. "If that
happens it means we are making politics in the right sense of the
word."
Critics question government version of attacks
Andreas von Buelow, a controversial former German minister of
technology, and ex-state secretary in the Defense Ministry, was among
the Berlin participants who said further investigation was needed into
9/11.
He told dpa it was "one of life's characteristics that
governments are prone to lie in order to achieve their agendas. The
Americans told us that in Iraq, Saddam Hussein had something to do
with al-Qaeda, which was absolutely untrue. Even the CIA knew
this," he said.
Bildunterschrift:
Großansicht
des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Some say the US
invasion of Iraq on a false pretext is proof of government lies of
international events
"Then, they told us that Saddam Hussein was preparing weapons of
mass destruction, which was also untrue, so they have been lying all
over the place and are still fighting there. Meanwhile a million
people have been killed."
Asked if there was any prospect of a policy change once the next US
president was elected, he replied bluntly "No!"
Juergen Elsaesser, 51, a Berlin-based journalist and author whose
latest book is titled "Terror Target Europe: The Dangerous Double
Game of the Secret Services," spoke of the huge contradictions in
the official US version of the 9/11 events.
"Critics find themselves accused of conspiracy theories, but the
biggest conspiracy is to be found in the official 9/11 version of the
US government which maintains that Osama bin Laden, from a cave in
Afghanistan, along with 19 young Arabs, combined to carry out the most
perfidious attack in the history of mankind," he said.
"That just doesn't add up. For me the most important
contradiction is how the air defences of the greatest military power
on the planet failed to prevent such attacks occurring and that no
interceptor fighter planes or rocket