New Film Takes a Look at Mysterious Death of Senator Paul Wellstone

By MARC MCDONALD

"Authorizing the pre-emptive, go-it-alone use of force now, right in the midst of continuing efforts to enlist the world community to back a tough new disarmament resolution on Iraq, could be a costly mistake for our country."
--Sen. Paul Wellstone, in October, 2002, speaking against the resolution to authorize the Iraq War

Something has always bothered me about the tragic 2002 death of the great Paul Wellstone. And the more I read about Wellstone's death in a supposedly "accidental" small plane crash, the more doubts I have about the official story.

Now, a new documentary examines Wellstone and aims to raise funds for a new investigation. Wellstone: They Killed Him raises troubling questions about Wellstone's death that have never been properly explained.

At this site you can watch a fascinating 15-minute preview of this film. You can order order a copy of the DVD at the site.

As the site notes, on Oct. 25, 2002:

"At 10:18, the plane is disabled, seven miles from the airport. The King Air A-100 turbo prop flies treetop level over shocked witnesses, five miles out: no lights, crabbed cockeyed, engines spooling down, so low witnesses are amazed it stays airborn. Three more miles and the plane stalls, dropping into the woods, killing all eight on board: Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Mn), his wife Sheila, daughter Marcia, aides Mary McEvoy, Tom Lapic, Will McLaughlin, pilot Richard Conry and co-pilot Michael Guess. How to account for the experienced pilots' behavior, unless they had been disabled? But why would anyone go to such trouble to so publicly kill the senior senator from Minnesota? Cui bono? Who benefits? That’s the question VFW veterans in Willmar, Minnesota have. They heard the Senator tell of the threat Vice President Cheney made to Wellstone shortly after the Senator's No vote on the Iraq War. ‘Go along with the program, if you know what’s good for you and Minnesota. Stop sticking your nose into 9/11.’

Intimidation was one tactic used by the FBI on witnesses who had been directed to the FBI (local cops were frozen out) which then suppressed their testimony, just as the FBI sanitized the crash site eight hours before the NTSB came on the scene. The national media began the cover-up right away: bad weather, icing; that scenario didn’t work so the NTSB blamed it on the pilots. Though a high profile crash that many in Minnesota were skeptical about, the NTSB couldn’t afford to hold a public hearing; the truth would quickly become evident. This film, begun the day after the crash, gives voice to the people of the Iron Range: witnesses, first-responders, citizens, assassination experts such as Prof. James Fetzer and Four Arrows."