If we hadn't been cognizant by October 2002 that 9/11 was an 'inside job,' we probably wouldn't have been quite as skeptical about the official story of Senator Paul Wellstone's death. On the evening of October 25, 2002, we were pulling into the Washington D.C. area when we heard the news on the car radio: Paul Wellstone was dead. Within just six hours of the crash, the FBI was saying it wasn't due to terrorism, no foul play involved. A highly suspicious statement (and so soon!) when the FBI and John Ashcroft were hell-bent on creating 'terrorism' hysteria. The next day, we filmed the big anti-war demonstration that marched by the White House. Judging by the banners and signs there wasn't much concern, hardly any recognition of the loss of country's foremost critic in the Senate of the neo-con push for war on Iraq. But we could have hardly been surprised at the lack of suspicion about the official story (8 dead: 'icing, bad weather,' so radio and TV reports said), because the overwhelming bulk of this 'anti-war' movement went along with the official story about 9/11. We subsequently followed the stories skeptical of the official account as they appeared on the Internet: Prof Michael Niman in Buffalo on Alternet, Christopher Bollyn in the American Free Press; Michael Ruppert, Dave McGowan. And Prof Jim Fetzer in Minnesota, not 60 miles from the crash site. Clearly, from their reporting, the official story was a pack of lies. We thought, surely some professional film crew would be all over this. What a film, properly told. Finally, in late 2003, we contacted Fetzer in Duluth. There had been no film crews, nobody, really, asking questions. He and Four Arrows were finishing up their book on the subject.
EVELETH, MINNESOTA
When we knocked on the door of his walk-up apartment in Eveleth, Rod Allen met us with a sense of relief. His wife had long since told him that nobody cared, there was no follow-up by any sort of media. He'd stuck out his neck for nothing. After his testimony, local law enforcement began to harass him, pulling him over whenever they recognized his car; the Allen family were subsequently driven from the area, relocating in another state. In the case of witness Mike Zupetz, we also made no phone call, driving up cold, fearing he could too easily say no to an interview; after all, his rural home, we knew, had been the target of a slow intimidation fly-over by a black helicopter). Zupetz wanted to know how we knew about him. When we told him, 'Representative Rukavina,' he and his wife welcomed us. It was now nearly two years after the assassination. Zupetz by now realized the FBI's role was to cover up information, at least in his case. Whatever the high-powered shots were that Zupetz described, they should have been front page news somewhere! But the FBI had suppressed it. But how do we explain the sounds that Mike Zupetz described as possibly a 50 caliber gun, in telling his story to Mn State Rep. Tom Rukavina, and to us? The FBI most likely could have explained that the shots Zupetz heard were the effects of the electromagnetic weapon on the target, 41 Bravo Echo. Rod Allen heard similar sounds from a greater distance. He said he thought they'd come from inside the plane.
THE WILLMAR STORY
Wellstone wasn't going to give in to the neo-con demand for war, but he was only one of 23 brave Senators who on October 11 2002 voted no on going to war with Iraq. Was that enough for the threat from Cheney? We hoped to talk to somebody who was at the famous meeting in Willmar, in western Minnesota, where Wellstone spoke of the threat. The Willmar story was pretty well known but hadn't been fleshed out. What exactly had Cheney said to Wellstone? When we learned of witness O'Reilly's whereabouts, we were informed he was about to undergo heart surgery in a hospital in South Dakota.
SOUTH DAKOTA
We set up cameras, amazed the nurses didn't chase us out. O'Reilly's story was explosive: Paul Wellstone was "poking his nose" into the 9/11 hoax; he was determined to 'get to the bottom of it', and he told maybe 10 veterans standing around himself and O'Reilly, an old colleague, that the Vice President had called him in to threaten him about his asking questions about 9/11. This was the story O'Reilly told us. When Wellstone's plane crashed just 10 days later, O'Reilly knew "they killed him". There are more people who know this part of the story than a few veterans in Willmar, Minnesota. Wellstone's murder was a public execution, meant not just to silence the Senator but squelch Congressional interest in questioning the official 9/11 story.
PLEASE NOTE: We will delete the first-draft of Wellstone: They Killed Him, when we complete our next edit.

snowshoefilms producer