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Mark Dunlea Publishes Madame President: The Unauthorized Biography of the First Green Party President

For More Information: Mark Dunlea, 518 286-3411

Long time community organizer and political activist Mark Dunlea of Poestenkill has published his first novel, Madame President: The Unauthorized Biography of the First Green Party President, (nys.greens.org/rachel, 441 pages, Big Toad Books).

A major focus of the novel is the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The disputed 2000 Presidential election is decided by the Electoral College, with a Green being selected as vice-President in exchange for giving the Democrats their ten electoral votes for president. The President dies in late August 2001 following the use of a genetically-engineered sex drug. The Green's Rachel Moreno becomes president.

The novel imagines how America would have responded to 9/11 if a Green had been president. Moreno orders one of the hijacked planes shot down and pursues bin Laden as a criminal fugitive. The novel also explores how 9/11 occurred, outlining why the Bush administration has fought so hard to block the investigation of 9/11.

The novel outlines the philosophy of the international green movement. The Greens are the third largest political party in the US and are active in more than 80 countries worldwide. More than 200 Greeens hold elected office in the US, include a majority of the Village of New Paltz. The Greens are part of the national or state governments in two dozen countries. The Green Party will hold its national convention June 23-28 in Milwaukee to select its presidential candidate for 2004.

"A fast-paced mixture of politics, sex and the counterculture. A must read for anyone interested in third-party politics. If you liked Stupid White Men, you'll love MADAME PRESIDENT," says (Grandpa) Al Lewis, the Green's 1998 candidate for Governor.

"This book provides hope to those who want to build a world based on peace and justice. Another World is Possible," said Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Code Pink and Global Exchange.

Rachel Moreno, a nurse and single mother active in the movement for universal health care and against corporate globalization, becomes Madame President. Her efforts to build a more just world are confronted by an angry Congress determined to go to war and CEOs outraged about her Justice Department's prosecution of corporate crime. Forced to confront the pressing social issues of our time, Rachel puts into practice a Green vision for the environment, health care, feminism, racism, energy and foreign policy.

The book also explores the key social, environmental and culture challenges of the last two decades: global warming, globalization, same-sex marriages, apartheid, Redwood Summer, health care, AIDS, pesticides, Ecofeminism, nuclear power, welfare, water, corporate crime, campaign finance reform, Israel-Palestine, childcare, Colombia, solar power, civil disobedience, music, Indy Media, anarchism, pay equality. A Forrest Gump of the counterculture.

Dunlea is the former chair of the Green Party of New York State and the long time Director of the Hunger Action Network of New York State.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Dunlea has been an activist since he was a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1972, helping to found the New York Public Interest Research Group. As a student, he was active on a range on environmental and consumer issues, including the bottle bill and solar power. His lawsuit, Dunlea v. Goldmark, is the landmark Freedom of Information case in New York.

Upon graduating from Albany Law School, he became a community organizer for ACORN in the South and Southwest working on utility, health care and neighborhood issues. In 1979, he helped organize the 200,000-person No Nukes rally in NYC.

Upon returning to Albany, he became active in the Citizens Party, running for Congress in 1982. His report, "The Financial and Environmental Dangers of Garbage Incineration," helped convince environmentalists nationally to reverse their position and oppose garbage incineration. Mark became active in the peace movement, convincing Albany County to declare itself a nuclear free zone. He helped found the Albany chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

Mark helped managed the 1984 Citizens Party presidential campaign for Sonia Johnson, who became the first independent candidate to qualify for federal primary matching funds. In 1985, he and his wife, Judith Enck, built their own passive solar home in the hills of Poestenkill in an intentional ecological community with six other families. That is where they live with their son, Reed.

Also in 1985, Mark became the Executive Director of the Hunger Action Network of New York State, a statewide economic justice group working with food pantries and soup kitchens. He has worked through HANNYS on issues such as raising the minimum wage, corporate accountability, welfare rights and sustainable agriculture.

In 1991, Mark organized the first statewide meeting of the Green Party of New York State. Later that year, he was elected as a Green to the Poestenkill Town Board. In 1998, the Green Party obtained official ballot status in New York through the Gubernatorial candidacy of (Grandpa) Al Lewis.

Working with Ralph Nader, he helped stopped the $1.1 billion corporate welfare giveaway to the New York Stock Exchange in 2001.

Mark is active in the community media movement, helping to found the Hudson-Mohawk Independent Media Center. He also hosts a weekly public affairs radio show on WRPI, Troy NY.

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The 9/11 Commission Avoids the Hard Questions

by Mark A. Dunlea

Two and one half years after 3,000 people were killed in the World Trade Center in New York City, not only do most questions remained unanswered about 9/11, they remain unasked.

President Bush aggressively lobbied Congress against a full-scale investigation. When Bush reluctantly agreed to the creation of the National Commission on Terrorists Attacks, he insisted it be limited to representatives of the two major political parties, with each party having a veto over what the Commission investigated.

Noticeably absent from the Commission are representatives of the family members of the victims, whose only interest would be to determine who was responsible for the murder of their loved ones. Instead, the Commission members are entrenched members of the very foreign policy establishment they are supposed to be investigating.

Family members have called for the resignation of Philip D Zelikow, Executive Director of the Commission. In addition to co-authoring a book on foreign policy with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, as a member of Bush's foreign policy transition team Zelikow participated in the January 2001 meeting where counter-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke briefed the president's national security team on the al-Qaeda threat. Zelikow is thus leading an investigation of his own response.

Commission Chairman Thomas Kean is partners with two of the Saudi billionaires sued by 9/11 families for their roles in the attacks. Khalid bin Mahfouz, who is Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law, and Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, are both key financial players allegedly tied to al-Qaeda. Commissioner Fred Fielding is a former White House counsel during Reagan's time, at the time of the Iran-Contra scandal. Commissioner John Lehman was navy secretary under Reagan.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay recently called for the removal of Commissioner Jamie S Gorelick, deputy Attorney General under Clinton, after Ashcroft attacked her for authoring a memo reminding the Justice Department to keep counterintelligence separate from criminal investigations. DeLay however doesn't seem bothered that Gorelick is also very close to current CIA director George Tenet and is a member of the CIA's National Security Advisory Panel.

The Commission members are there for damage control, not to find the truth. It was appalling to watch commission members like former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson implement the White House playbook in attacking the credibility of Clarke.

Even with the cursory job done so far by the 9/11 Commission, it is evident that the Bush administration failed to take seriously the threat posed by terrorism and then manipulated the tragedy of 9/11 to pursue its pre-existing agenda to invade Iraq.

The US received explicit warnings shortly before 9/11 from the governments of Russia, France, Israel, Germany and Israel. Russian leader Putin said his warning was delivered "in the strongest possible terms." Despite the claims of the Bush administration that no one ever thought that terrorist would use hijacked planes as missiles, NORAD conducted numerous training exercises under exactly that scenario.

But there are many other key questions that family members have been pressing the Commission on, starting with the role of Saudi Arabia.

Most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi Arabian. The Saudi ruling family has been a major source of funding for terrorists. Both the Clinton and Bush administration impeded FBI investigations into Saudi Arabia. No President has ever had such a close relation with a foreign government as the Bushes have with Saudi Arabia. More than $1.4 billion in investments and contracts went from the House of Saud over the past two decades to companies associated with the Bush family.

As John O'Neill, the FBI's former top bin Laden investigator, said shortly before his death in the World Trade Center, "all the answers, everything needed to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organization can be found in Saudi Arabia." O'Neill also said that America's failure to stop bin Laden could be traced to one word - oil.

Some other key questions include: 

1.  What was the role of the Pakistani Intelligence Service with the 9/11 hijackers? Why did Mahmood Ahmed, Director of Pakistan's secret service, order $100,000 to be wired to lead hijacker Momahmed Atta?

2. What role did the CIA play in training and arming of terrorists before 9/11, including bin Laden and other members of al Qaida? What role did Pakistan and the US play in allowing the Taliban to come to power? Bin Laden worked closely with the CIA when the US during the Carter administration organized "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan to go to war with the Soviet Union.

3. What negotiations took place between the US government and the Taliban before 9/11 relating to the construction of a pipeline through Afghanistan?

4. What surveillance did the FBI and CIA have on the alleged hijackers before 9/11? Several of the hijackers were apparently closely monitored, particularly Mohammed Atta

5. What terrorist organizations and/or governments were responsible for the 9/11 attacks? Saying that "bin Laden" did it is like saying the "Mob" is responsible for organized crime. The NY Times reported the CIA believed that the hijacking may primarily been the idea of Atta, an Egyptian citizen. Other media reports indicate some hijackers thought that their goal was to exchange hijacked passengers for the release of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, a cleric serving a life sentence for masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

If America is ever to find the truth about 9/11, it needs a truly independent commission, one which includes several relatives of those killed on September 11, 2001. Rather than state lawmakers engaging in name calling over "fighting terrorism", the Governor and legislators should be demanding real answers as to why so many people were killed at the World Trade Center.

Mark Dunlea's new novel, Madame President: The Unauthorized Biography of the First Green Party President, provides an alternative history to September 11.