Perhaps the most compelling direct testimony regarding the harrowing events of Sept. 11, 2001 comes from survivor and former Army Spec. April Gallop, who—with her two-month-old child, Elisha, in tow—arrived at the Pentagon just minutes before a powerful explosion rocked the building that Tuesday morning. Ms. Gallop spoke out on her experience at conferences where this AFP writer heard her story—which has never wavered.
Ms. Gallop wants justice. So, in coordination with the Center for 911 Justice, she filed a federal lawsuit and is staying the course, whatever the odds. The defendants are former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Gen. Richard Myers (USAF, retired), former acting Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman.
Transportation Secretary and eyewitness Norman Mineta testified to the now disbanded 911 Commission that Cheney, on duty during the attacks, urgently spoke of an approaching hostile attack against the Pentagon but, incredibly, ordered a military stand down. Since the World Trade Center in Manhattan had already been hit, Ms. Gallop continues to ask why neither air defenses nor alarm warnings were implemented in and around the Pentagon.
The moment she turned on her work computer on Sept. 11, 2001, a powerful blast knocked her unconscious. Injured, she soon awoke with debris on her, even while reaching around and pulling her child, also injured, who survived, from the debris pile.
When Ms. Gallop exited the building through the hole made by the explosion, she saw no sign of plane wreckage. Yet the world is still told 10 years later that American Airlines Flight 77 rammed into history’s most sophisticated command center without any attempted interception and vaporized, which various researchers say is absurd.
Ms. Gallop also maintains that federal officials repeatedly preached to her that a large commercial airliner hit the Pentagon and that she was strongly advised not to state otherwise.
“I could have very early given up,” Ms. Gallop told AFP March 29. “My efforts are much larger than many people think they are.” She now is fighting to obtain subpoena power, with the help of attorney William Veale and support through Centerfor911Justice.org.
Talking with AFP, she asked: “Do we want certain people in a position where they cannot ever be brought to justice?”
Federal District Judge Denny Chin dismissed Ms. Gallop’s lawsuit in a lower court, claiming that the complaint was based on “cynical delusion and fantasy.” But Ms. Gallop won’t buckle. Her appeal, as AFP went to press, was slated to go before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit on April 5 in New Haven, Conn. She is citing a “violation of civil rights, conspiracy and other wrongs,” the complaint states.
“This case . . . is premised on an allegation of broad complicity in the attack on the part of key U.S. government officials,” the complainant said.
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