Collateral picks up Shreveport/9-11 story

A Philadelphia weekly internet news show Collateral, picked up the story I reported with colleague Sander Hicks about Shreveport, La. dentist Dr. David M. Graham, who alerted the FBI to a Pakistani national who was later identified by the US government as a candidate for prosecution for crimes related to the 9-11 attacks. Preceding Graham’s mysterious and untimely death, the dentist-investigator butted heads with the agency.

I’m happy to say that Collateral does a fine job with this segment. It holds back from speculation where the facts are lacking, but asks the important questions about why FBI agents attempted to discredit Graham after his sudden illness and death, and why the nation’s top law enforcement agency declined to investigate the death of a citizen who appears to have provided it with credible information and whose research clearly pertained to important national security matters.

I hadn’t been apprised about the making of this segment, although it draws heavily on my research and I was involved in some of the filming – which is fine. Hicks and I collaborated on framing questions for interview subjects and took turns holding the camera. We also filmed each other talking about the story as our reporting took us around the Mississippi delta and the Gulf Coast. I agreed to this for one particular reason: Since the subject is so controversial, I wanted to leave a record for posterity so that future researchers can assess my mindset, judge my reasoning and determine whether I’m sufficiently independent and skeptical in my handling of the subject matter.

This segment adds significant depth to the story by utilizing videotape Graham filmed of himself talking about his research and conversing with his Pakistani acquaintance, Mohammad Jamal Khan. The videotape was given to Hicks by Graham’s friend, Richard Wilkes.

I appear briefly in the segment, in a scene behind the wheel of Hicks’ car in which I’m merging lanes on west-bound Interstate 20 as we approach the Mississippi River bridge on the outskirts of Vicksburg, Miss. (It’s brief, so it probably won’t provide the promised insight into my state of mind.) I’m also holding the camera as Hicks discusses our interview with FBI Agent Steve Hayes. I’m flattered to receive public thanks, along with Hicks, from Collateral at the end of the segment.

I’m still pursuing some leads on this story, but it’s a gradual process. As news editor and one of three full-time staff writers at YES! Weekly, my primary obligation is to meet the demands of readers in North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad area whose interests are typically more local. As time allows, I’ll continue to pull thread together to try to present a clearer picture of what happened to Graham and what implications his life and death might hold for American national security.