(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

Can Ed Asner uncover the truth about September 11? An activist group funded by New York human-rights lawyer William Pepper, former Dallas Cowboy Mark Stepnoski, and California businessman Michael Davis is collecting signatures to place a referendum creating a new 9/11 commission on New York City’s November ballot. They’re calling for a privately funded investigative panel, empowered with subpoena authority by the City Council and staffed with their own slate, including former senators Lincoln Chafee and Mike Gravel, 9/11 widow Lorie Van Auken, and Asner. They’d redo the work of Tom Kean’s federal commission, which they call “seriously flawed.” “The original commission didn’t get to the bottom of anything,” says Gravel, who wants to put George Bush and Dick Cheney under oath. “We need to investigate from scratch.” The group must collect 30,000 signatures by September 4 to get the Council to consider their measure; they say they have around 25,000. “Once this matter is brought to the City Council, it will be referred to the appropriate committee,” says speaker Christine Quinn.

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