Supporters of fired Liberal candidate Lesley Hughes have declared in an open letter that the U.S. knew of the 9/11 attacks in advance.
"It's now been well-established that the U.S. had advance warning of a plan by Osama bin Laden to crash planes into the World Trade Center," says an open letter supporting Hughes, signed by 56 Manitobans.
The letter also says that it is "widely accepted as self-evidently true" that the U.S. used the terrorist attacks to strengthen its hold on oil in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The letter released Saturday refutes claims that Hughes has ever written anything anti-Semitic, and urges Canadians to read what Hughes wrote about 9/11, before making up their minds about her.
The Liberals fired Hughes as their candidate in Kildonan-St. Paul, after a blog posting by Hughes came to light in which she expressed opinions of a conspiracy on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
However, her name is still on the ballot, and Hughes continues to campaign.
But at least a few of the people who signed the letter say they don't agree with some of its contents.
Journalist Frances Russell said Saturday that she regrets having skimmed the letter too quickly.
"I would not agree that Americans knew that the World Trade Center was the target. Everything else in the letter, I agree with," Russell said. "I signed it. She asked me. I think she's been done dirt."
Roz Usiskin, president of the United Jewish People's Order, said she agreed to have her name put on the letter after getting an e-mail from a friend. "I couldn't see that accusation against (Hughes) was plausible -- she's the last person you'd think was anti-Semitic."
But Usiskin said she "was a little vague" about what she signed, and said she doesn't know what the Americans knew prior to the 9/11 attacks.
Lenore Berscheid's name is on the letter, but Berscheid, the wife of Lt.-Gov. John Harvard, said repeatedly on Saturday that, "I'm not going to comment.
"As the wife of the lieutenant governor, I don't participate in politics," she said.
Daniel McIntyre city Coun. Harvey Smith said by e-mail Saturday that he signed the letter because he believes the charges against Hughes are not true, but added he doesn't support her in her bid for office.
The open letter was sent by RDA Consulting, a consulting practice run by Bob Axworthy of Winnipeg.
Axworthy said he received the letter by e-mail and signed it to show support for an "outstanding individual" who is neither a conspiracy theorist nor an anti-Semite. He did not write the letter, he said, and was not sure who the author was.
Axworthy would not discuss the letter's political statements. "This isn't about me or my interpretation, so I won't comment on that," he said.
The letter concludes by telling Hughes's critics that Watergate and Manitoba's vote-rigging scandal were dismissed as conspiracy theories, until journalists proved them to be true.
-- with files from Lindsey Wiebe
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
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