9/11 was one of the most pivotal events in world history. Its impact will be felt for years to come. Millions of people have been misled regarding the causes and consequences of September 11. When people across the US and around the World find out that Al Qaeda is not an outside enemy but a creation of US foreign policy and the CIA, the legitimacy of the bipartisan war agenda will tumble like a deck of cards. You owe it to yourself to go beyond the sound bites and the simplified official story. This is an extremely complicated story with numerous players and motives.
I am limiting my sources on this 9/11 facts summary to those one might call "mainstream." My goal is to use mainstream sources to generally open eyes to new possibilities. Upon careful review of countless documents and press reports, there is sufficient evidence to meet the prosecutorial standard necessary to appoint a special council.
There are plenty of crackpot conspiracy theories out there. Most helping conceal real news stories, such as the Pentagon's Missing Trillions; Halliburton-Dyncorp-US Government Sex-Slave-Trade; 9/11 being a convenient excuse to invade Iraq as the Downing Street Memo shows; the Iraq War lies, such as the False Link between Al-Qaeda & S. Hussein and the Missing WMDs; Government Spying on Americans; US use of Torture; Government lies about Katrina response; selling the War with Iran using fake Muhammad cartoons, and so on. We get hoax stories poured onto the net to be used by the media to attack the credibility of anyone who dares question the official story and divert attention from the real crimes. [AlJazeera; BBC News; WA Post; National Archives; Univ. Illinois; CommonDreams; Memory Hole; Rolling Stong; Rotten.com]
But the way to approach this issue is as a criminal prosecutor. And as such many believe that a case can be made for criminal negligence just based on the public record. As for the case of complicity, it is extremely strong and contains all of the essential ingredients: motive, means, and opportunity.
It is a matter of public record that the government did not always voluntarily tell the truth about 9-11.
September 11, 2001 was an environmental disaster of epic proportions. However in the first days after the tragedy, the EPA said the air around ground zero was safe. EPA Adminstrator Christie Whitman stated, "I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C. that their air is safe to breath and their water is safe to drink." [EPA Press Release, 9/18/01; EPA Evaluation Report PDF- HTML] This was ordered by the White House, considering the "desire to reopen Wall Street." The EPA states, "the White House Council on Environmental Quality... convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones." [CBS News, 8/23/03; SF Chronicle; MSNBC, 9/11/05; CBS News, 8/22/03; Kansas City Star; Associated Press; CBS News, 2/2/06; CBS News, 3/17/03; MSNBC, 10/5/01; People's Weekly; The Memory Hole; CommonDreams; Newsday] Asbestos, benzene, dioxin, PCBs and other contaminants have been detected in the twin towers' ruins. [CBS News; MSNBC, 10/5/01; Asbestos Net.; NRDC] Sickness and a "9/11 caugh" soon appeared. [NewScientist; Associated Press; NCRR] Residents and workers in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn sued the EPA for claiming false safety. [CBS News] Workers filed a multi-billion dollar lawsuit. [PR News Hour; CBS/KCAL 9; AOL News; WGEN; Lower Manhattan; Yale] Pat Arcese, now dying of cancer, sued the city of New York. [Arctic Beacon] At least 14 Rescue Dogs died from exposure. [NY Daily News, 8/22/04] At this time, Bush Advocates Limiting Asbestos Cases and ignored sick firefighters. [Associated Press; Public Services International] Bush later blocked funds for 9/11 workers. [Peoples Weekly]
Following the attacks of September 11, the Bush Administration resisted investigation and began what seems to be a major cover up.
A congressional inquiry was prevented from discussing information the intelligence community provided to the White House. White House and CIA kept key portions of 9/11 report classified dealing with Saudi Arabia and reject Saudi requests to declassify. [UPI; WA Post; truthout; WA Post; CNN; Newsmax]
The White House resisted forming an independent commission. President Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to limit the congressional investigation into the events of September 11. [CNN; CBS; WA Post; truthout; Intervention Mag.; Newsday]
President Bush and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) later opposed granting more time to the 9/11 Commission investigation. [WA Post; CNN; Center for American Progress]
The White House first refused to release the 900-page Sept. 11 congressional report. The Bush administration refused to declassify several key passages from the 900-page report, including a 28-page section that outlines the role played by Riyadh, removed from the final version. [Miami Herald; truthout] Delaying for seven months before doing so. [USA Today]
Senator Bob Graham, who supervised the inquiry, maintains that the U.S. administration was "protecting a foreign government," according to Newsweek. An attorney for victims of the attacks who are suing a group of suspected financiers of Al-Qaeda, Jean-Charles Brisard, said the report shows that "at each stage in the preparation of the attacks" Saudi Arabia operated as an effective financial and logistical "patron" to the terrorists. []
The CIA was criticized for failing to pass along crucial information about Almihdhar and Alhazmi at a terrorists' summit in Malaysia. "A few months after al-Bayoumi took them to San Diego, Almihdhar and Alhazmi moved into the house of a local professor who was a longtime FBI "asset."� And had earlier contact with another hijacker, Hani Hanjour." [; ] An FBI informant claimed that three years before Sept. 11, he began providing the FBI with information about a young Saudi who later flew a hijacked passenger plane into the Pentagon. Aukai Collins, the informant, said he worked for the FBI for four years in Phoenix, monitoring the Arab and Islamic communities there. Hani Hanjour was the hijacker Collins claimed to have told the FBI about while Hanjour was in flight training in Phoenix. [; ] Aukai Collins was also a CIA operative, who fought for the CIA in Chechnya & Kosovo. [TIME]
Newsweek had earlier claimed in another report that money was sent, via the bank account of Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, wife of Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar bin Sultan, to two college students in southern California who closely aided the two September 11 airplane hijackers. [; Islam Online]
The White House delayed in allowing Condoleezza Rice to testify in public. A major complaint was Bush's refusal to let Rice testify publicly and under oath, which he said would violate a president's right to confidential exchanges with his advisers. [USA Today, 4/4/04; USA Today; CBS News; CNN; MSNBC; TIME; WSWS]
The White House agreed to let the president meet with the commission only on the conditions that there be no oath administered, no formal transcript made, and that Vice President Dick Cheney be at his side. [CNN, 4/29/04; UPI/WA Times; FOX News, 4/29/04; MSNBC; CommonDreams; White House]
Several members of the commission including its head, Henry Kissinger, resign or recuse themselves from parts of the probe, because their government or private-sector careers posed conflicts. [FOX News; CNN; National Review; National Debate]
Two of the 9/11 Commission's own senior officials, Philip Zelikow and Jamie S. Gorelick, were so closely involved in the events under investigation that they were interviewed as part of the inquiry. [UPI; WA Post; GovExec]
In its final report, the 9/11 Commission Faults the US Government. [CNN; ABC News; PBS; WA Post; People's Daily; Boston Globe] However, in the report, the commission punted on such questions as where the money for the attacks originated, claiming, "Ultimately the question is of little practical significance." [MSNBC; Front Page Mag.; 9/11 Commission Report; Village Voice]
India helped the FBI trace ISI's terrorist links to the director of Pakistani intelligence (ISI), Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad, who authorized a $100,000 wire transfer to alleged lead 9/11 hijacker, Mohamed Atta. [Times of India, 10/9/01]
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) and Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL), the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, along with Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) and some other members of the House Intelligence Committee are in a meeting at the Capital building with Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad, who authorized the $100,000 wire transfer. [Wall Street Journal; WA Post, 5/18/02; Salon, 9/14/01; CNN; Times of India; WA Post, 7/11/02; WA Post; UPI; Daily Excelsior; Sunday Herald; WorldNetDaily]
Umar Sheikh [Omar Sheikh] was a CIA-ISI trainee, who fought for the CIA in Bosnia. He was a member of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM). [World Net Daily; SAAG]
Between 6,000 and 10,000 Muslims, the majority of them Arabs, went and fought against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan, with Saudi Arabia funding them, the ISI training and motivating them and the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies equipping them. [World Net Daily; SAAG]
A number of new pan-Islamic organisations of Wahabi-Deobandi-Ahle Hadith orientation sprang up in Pakistani soil and these were given the leadership role by the US for leading the mercenary brigade to battle. The most important amongst them were the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-Al-Islami (HUJI) and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET). [World Net Daily; SAAG]
The CIA arranged for HUM guerrillas to fight in Bosnia & Kosovo. [SAAG] The U.S. then protects their Al-Qaeda terrorists in Kosovo. [EIR] The CIA & Bin Laden worked hand-in-glove in KLA operations. [iSPEC]
The Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) was formed in the beginning of 2000 by a split in the HUM. The CIA asked the ISI to divert part of the dregs of the HUM and the HUJI to Bosnia to assist the Muslims there in their fight against the Serbs. The transfer to Bosnia was funded by the Saudi Intelligence, the arms and ammunition were given by the Iranian Intelligence and the leadership and motivation were provided by serving and retired officers of the ISI and the Turkish intelligence. [World Net Daily; SAAG]
Omar Sheikh, who masterminded the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl of the "Wall Street Journal", had his jihadi inoculation in Bosnia just as bin Laden had his in Afghanistan. From Bosnia, they were diverted to Kosovo by the CIA. [World Net Daily; SAAG]
America used Islamists to arm the Bosnian Muslims. [Senate.gov; Guardian] Bosnian Muslims with connections to Al Qaeda. [Serbianna; Wall Street Journal; Balkan Peace; Jihad Watch] Where was the "Concern" about "al-Qaida Operating in Iran" during the War in Bosnia?
There were repeated and catastrophic failures of the leaders in charge, and the other people responsible, to do their jobs. To follow established procedures. To follow direct orders from civilian and military commanders. And then they failed to tell us the truth later.
The official story is that indecisive employees, both civilian and military, stood around and dithered, wondering what to do, thereby creating an unprecedented systemic failure. [PBS: Online NewsHour] The 9/11 Commission blamed the attacks on "slow alerts" [CBS News; WA Post], "lack of preparation" [CBS News; WA Post; BBC NEWS], and an "overwhelmed" US Air Defense. [Military News CBS News] Claiming the US was "unprepared in every aspect." [CNN, 6/18/04; CNN, 12/5/05]
According to the 9/11 Commission's report the first of the four airliner hijackings occurred on September 11th at 8:14 Eastern time. At 10:03 AM, almost two hours later, one hour and forty-nine minutes to be exact, the fourth and last plane crashed in Pennsylvania before reaching its intended target, the U.S. Capitol. During those entire 109 minutes this country and its citizens were completely undefended. [9/11 Commission Report]
"I think it's a failure of the effectiveness of our entire intelligence apparatus. It's broken. It's dysfunctional." - John Lehman, 9/11 Commissioner [Online NewsHour]
The evidence, however, does not always back this official account...
Contradictory to statements made by senior members of the Bush administration following 9/11, it is clear that there was ample warning that an attack was imminent and that that attack would involve using planes as missiles against American symbols such as the World Trade Center. In fact, there were so many warnings coming from so many different countries (Afghanistan, Argentina, Britain, Cayman Islands, Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, and Russia) that it is more striking who didn't warn us: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Even the Taleban warned the US of a large threat.
Also contradicting statements made by senior members of the Bush administration following 9/11, we now know that the Bush administration knew of these warnings.
In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders drafted plans to commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba. [ABC News; National Archives; Baltimore Sun]
9/11/01: US intel agency planned exercise to simulate plane crash into government building the morning of 9/11. In what the government describes as a "bizarre coincidence," a US intelligence agency, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), was all set for an exercise at 9 AM on September 11th in which an aircraft would crash into one of its government buildings near Washington, DC. [Boston Globe, 8/22/02; USA Today; SFGate, 8/21/02; Yahoo! News]
1999-2001: North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) conducted exercises simulating hijacked airliners used as weapons to crash into targets and cause mass casualties. One of the imagined targets was the World Trade Center. In a third scenario, the target was the Pentagon..." [USA Today, 4/18/04; CNN, 4/19/04; WA Times; Military District of Washington; MDW.Army; DoD] [WMV video]
August 6, 2001: President Bush's Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) read, "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US". The White House resisted the 9/11 commission for months on the question of their access to the Brief. The entire memo focuses on the possibility of terrorist attacks inside the US. National Security Advisor Rice later claims the memo was "fuzzy and thin" and only one and a half pages long (his normal daily security briefings run two or three pages) but other accounts state it was 11 pages long. [WA Post, 4/10/04; MSNBC; Guardian, 5/19/02; FOX/AP; New York Times, 5/16/02; Free Press] By the time a CIA briefer gave President Bush the PDB, the President, Vice President Cheney and Bush's top national security team, had seen a stream of alarming reports on al Qaeda's intentions. [MSNBC] The contents have never been made public. Incredibly, the New York Times later reports that Bush "broke off from work early and spent most of the day fishing." [New York Times, 5/25/02] The existence of this memo is kept secret until May 2002.
April, 2001: Five months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, military officials wanted to train for the possibility that hijacked planes would be slammed into the Pentagon. Over a dozen government agencies, including NORAD, are invited to participate. It was rejected as being "too unrealistic." [Boston Herald; Guardian; Boston Globe; POGO Press Release; Air Force Times; The Provider; Global Security.mil; CJCSI; PBS: Online News Hour]
Sept. 1999: A US Intelligence Report states Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda terrorists could crash an aircraft into the Pentagon. The Bush administration claims not to have heard of this report until May 2002, though it was widely shared within the government, and asserted that no one in government had envisioned a suicide hijacking before it happened. [AP/Salt Lake Tribune; CNN; Guardian; CBS News; CNN; CBS, 05/17/02; NY Times]
The CIA was Warned of such Attacks as Early as 1995. [CNN; NewsMax; USA Today; CBS News; Boston Globe]
However, after Sept. 11, aviation and security officials say they are shocked that terrorists could have hijacked airliners and crashed them into landmark buildings.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice claimed, "I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." [CBS; CNN; CBS; White House]
President Bush stated, "Never did anybody's thought process about how to protect America did we ever think that the evil-doers would fly not one, but four commercial aircraft into precious US targets - never." [White House, 9/2001] On June 7, 2002, President Bush stated, "Based on everything I've seen, I do not believe anyone could have prevented the horror of September the 11th." [Sydney Morning Herald, 6/8/02]
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers stated, "You hate to admit it, but we hadn't thought about this." [DoD, 10/23/01]
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said, "I was not aware of any information about (planes) being used as weapons that was credible." [UPI]
"We've been focusing on this perpetrator Osama bin Laden for 3 years, and yet we didn’t see this one coming," said Vincent Cannistraro, former chief of CIA counter-terrorism operations. [American Free Press]
A U.S. Air Force General described the attack as "something we had never seen before, something we had never even thought of." [WA Post, 9/16/01]
FBI Director Robert Mueller declared that "there were no warning signs that I'm aware of." [CNN, 9/18/01; American Free Press]
Senior FBI officials insisted that in terms of intelligence warnings received prior to 11th September: "The notion of flying a plane into a building or using it as a bomb never came up." [Washington Post, 1/2/02]
According to this official version of events, no one in the Bush administration had the slightest idea of the identities of those who orchestrated the 11th September attacks, the nature of their plans, or their targets.
The Chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks publicly states that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented. [CBS News]
The above examples are just the tip of the iceberg. The actual body of evidence of foreknowledge can fill a large book. And it is in this context of a massive threat alert status that makes the failure to defend the skies that day all the more alarming.
The official claim of an intelligence failure is far from substantiated. The number of warnings coming from US Intelligence prior to September 11, 2001 was substansial and, at times, supressed and squashed. There is even more evidence that US Intelligence was informed of such threats via the use of wiretaps.
US Intelligence had been monitoring Al-Qaeda for three years prior to 9/11.
An al-Qaeda operative involved in the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi is captured and interrogated by the FBI. The FBI learns the telephone number of a safe house in Yemen. Al-Qaeda operatives around the world, including Osama bin Laden and other top leaders, used the phone line regularly to pass on information. The NSA and CIA jointly plant bugs inside the house, tap the phones, and monitor visitors with spy satellites. [Mirror, 6/9/02; Die Zeit, 10/1/02; Newsweek, 6/2/02] It appears al-Qaeda continues to use this phone line until the safe house is raided by the Yemeni government in February 2002. [CBS News, 2/13/02; PBS: Frontline] [ALHAZMI AND ALMIHDHAR]
It is known that from 1996 to 1998, the two years bin Laden had a traced satellite phone, he called the phone number of the safe house dozens of times. [Sunday Times, 3/24/02, The New Yorker; TIME; Lebanon Wire; Los Angeles Times, 9/1/02] Records of Osama bin Laden's calls from his satellite phone were being tracked by the US. Records show "Britain was at the heart of the terrorist's planning for his worldwide campaign of murder and destruction." [Lebanon Wire; Sunday Times, 3/24/02; ]
The US Had Agents Inside Al-Qaeda, and US Intelligence could monitor private communications of al-Qaeda on 9/11. [USA Today] Senator Orrin Hatch says the US was monitoring bin Laden supporters and overheard them discussing the attack. [AP, 9/12/01; Dow Jones Interactive, 9/12/01]
* July 26, 2001: Attorney General John Ashcroft stops flying commercial aircrafts due to a threat assessment. The Justice Department cited a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it. [CBS, 7/26/01; San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3/02; FOX News, 5/16/02] He later walks out of his office rather than answer questions about this. [FOX News, 5/16/02] The San Francisco Chronicle concludes, "The FBI obviously knew something was in the wind... The FBI did advise Ashcroft to stay off commercial aircraft. The rest of us just had to take our chances." [San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3/02] CBS's Dan Rather later says of this warning: "Why wasn't it shared with the public at large?" [Washington Post, 5/27/02] However, Ashcroft had flown commercially at least twice that summer. According to his testimony, Aschcroft's wife had flown to Germany in August. [NY Times, 6/20/04; Star Ledger: Ashcroft Testimony]
The FBI was conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considered Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI were investigating a call to the US Embassy in UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives. [911 Report; CNN, 4/10/04 (PDF)]
In January, 2001, Chicago FBI Field Agent Robert Wright saw his three year investigation of a terrorist cell abruptly haulted. Three months later he wrote a stinging memo charging that the FBI was not interested in preventing a terrorits attack but instead were merely "gathering intelligence so they would know who to arrest when a terrorist attack occurred." After 9/11 Wright wrote a 500 page book detailing his experience, but to this day the FBI has prevented him from releasing it in full.
Most of Marine Aviation had just the weekend before 9/11 been moved to the "Butler building," an extension of the Pentagon and about 200 yards from where the impact occurred. "Instincts Told Them to Flee..." [MCA-Marines]
The NSA intercepted two messages on September 10, 2001 which indicated an event was planned the following day, but the communications were reportedly "not translated" until Sept. 12. [Free Press; USA Today; CNN; New York Times] The FBI later asked members of the House and Senate intelligence committees to take lie-detector tests as investigators try to determine who leaked the information to CNN. [truthout]
The evening before September 11th, 2001, the National Security Agency intercepted a communication between Khalid Shaikh Muhammad and the alleged ringleader of the 9/11 attacks, Mohammed Atta. The communication stated, "The match is about to begin." [] It is known that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed fought for the CIA in Afghanistan. Shaikh Muhammad is not the only suspected "terrorist" involved who has ties to the CIA. Zacarias Moussaoui fought for the CIA in Chechnya. Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman fought for the CIA in Afghanistan. USS Cole Bomber Jamal al-Badawi, and Head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad Ayman al Zawahiri, fought for the CIA in Bosnia.
September 10, 2001: One day before the attacks, a group of top Pentagon Officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns. [Newsweek, 9/13/01; Free Press; Newsweek, 9/24/01]
Sibel Edmonds is a former FBI translator. She was hired as a translator of Turkish and other Middle Eastern languages by the FBI after the Sept. 11 attack. Edmonds, a translator who worked at the FBI's language division, says the FBI neglected no translate documents that detailed what the FBI heard on wiretaps and learned during interrogations of suspected terrorists before and after the Sept. 11 attacks because the division was riddled with incompetence and corruption..
FBI translator Sibel Edmonds heard the names of ten prominent American politicians and heads of federal agencies involved in drug money laundering and financing the 9.11 attacks. She later states, "I Saw Papers That Show US Knew al-Qaida Would Attack Cities With Airplanes." Hundreds, if not thousands, of foreign language documents that the FBI neglected to translate before and after the Sept. 11 attacks detailed what the FBI heard on wiretaps and learned during interrogations of suspected terrorists. Sibel Edmonds, a translator who worked at the FBI's language division, says the documents weren't translated because the division was riddled with incompetence and corruption. Sibel Edmonds and Behrooz Sarshar, beginning in December of 2001, began filing reports to their superiors at the FBI. [Baltimore Chronicle; CBS News; Baltimore Chronicle; Independent/UK; truthout; ACLU; Flocco]
FBI translators Sibel Edmonds and Behrooz Sarshar will later claim to know of an important warning given to the FBI at this time. In their accounts, a reliable informant on the FBI's payroll for at least ten years, tells two FBI agents that sources in Afghanistan have heard of an al-Qaeda plot to attack the US and Europe in a suicide mission involving airplanes. Al-Qaeda agents, already in place inside the US, are being trained as pilots. By some accounts, the names of prominent US cities are mentioned. It is unclear if this warning reaches FBI headquarters or beyond. The two translators later privately testify to the 9/11 Commission. [World Net Daily, 4/6/04; Village Voice, 4/14/04; Salon, 3/26/04]
Sarshar's notes of the interview indicate that the informant claimed his information came from Iran, Afghanistan, and Hamburg, Germany (the location of the primary 9/11 al-Qaeda cell). However, anonymous FBI officials claim the warning was very vague and doubtful. [Chicago Tribune, 7/21/04]
In reference to this warning and apparently others, Edmonds says, "President Bush said they had no specific information about September 11, and that's accurate. However, there was specific information about use of airplanes, that an attack was on the way two or three months beforehand, and that several people were already in the country by May of 2001. They should've alerted the people to the threat we were facing." [Salon, 3/26/04] She adds: "There was general information about the time-frame, about methods to be used but not specifically about how they would be used and about people being in place and who was ordering these sorts of terror attacks. There were other cities that were mentioned. Major cities with skyscrapers." [Independent, 4/2/04]
Bush Administration gags Sibel Edmonds from speaking to 9/11 Commission about attack foreknowledge and Alqaeda groups under wiretap surveillance. [Baltimore Chronicle; Village Voice; Baltimore Chronicle; GovExec; BRAD BLOG; Democracy Now]
A report issued by the US Justice Department has boosted the credibility of Sibel Edmonds, who blew the whistle on the cover-up of intelligence that names some of the culprits who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. These culprits are protected by the Justice Department, the State Department, the FBI, the White House and the Senate Judiciary Committee. They are foreign nationals and Americans. Sibel Edmonds is under two gag orders that forbid her to testify in court or mention the names of the people or the countries involved. [[
"If they were to do real investigations we would see several significant high level criminal prosecutions in this country. And that is something that they are not going to let out. And, believe me; they will do everything to cover this up." - Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator [Baltimore Chronicle]
More Headlines to the story... [Washington Post; WA Times; CBS News, 8/8/04; CNN; CBS News; ACLU; INDY UK; Baltimore Chronicle; Village Voice; The Memory Hole; truthout]
July, 2001, Ken Williams of the Pheonix FBI office wrote a now famous memo that theorized Middle Eastern students at an Arizona flight school could be al Qaeda agents in training for hijackings. [CNN, 5/24/02] Agent Ken Williams sent bureau brass in Washington and New York warning that a cadre of Osama bin Laden disciples might be training at U.S. flight schools in preparation for future "terror activity against civil aviation targets." Here Michael Maltbie, Marion Bowman and Unit-Head David Frasca all had access to it.
Williams suggested a nationwide FBI review to determine whether such a "coordinated effort" could be seen in other localities. The Williams Memo was roundly ignored, of course, until after the World Trade Center was leveled.
Shortly after, in August, 2001, the Minneapolis FBI field office questioned Zacarias Moussaou, later said to be the 20th hijacker. As the investigation intensified in the weeks before September 11, one Minneapolis investigator claimed he suspected Moussaoui might fly a hijacked airliner into the World Trade Center , but that the investigation was "severely hampered by officials at FBI headquarters, who resisted seeking search warrants and admonished agents for seeking help from the CIA." Efforts were so greatly blocked that agents joked that Osama Bin Laden must have a mole at FBI headquarters. In a letter to bureau chief Robert Mueller, an FBI agent speaks out against what she calls a "climate of fear" that prevented agents from doing their jobs. Once again, it was Michael Maltbie, Marion Bowman, and David Frasca who played a role in the obstruction. All three were aware of the "Pheonix Memo" prior to 9/11, but none of them informed the Pentagon. [TIME]
In June 2002, Michael Maltbie was promoted to Filed Supervisor in the FBI's Cleveland Office. In December 2002, Marion Bowman received the "Presidential Rank of Meritorious Service" and a cash bonus of 20% of his salary. Late in 2002, David Frasca was promoted to the FBI's third ranking position in charge of domestic terrorism.
The actions, and inactions, on September 11 by those who are assigned the task of protecting America's skies are probably the most disturbing aspect of the case for complicity. Failure to follow standard operating procedures and then lying about what those procedures were by senior administration officials and the Pentagon are serious red flags that something is amiss.
Ellen Mariani's RICO Lawsuit asserts indictment of GWB and all Defendants who failed to protect our nation on "911" was the failure of Defendants DOD/NORAD to follow normal military protocol to be followed as standard procedure. [Village Voice; Seacoast Online; Project Censored; Village Voice; Appeal Affidavit of Philip J. Berg] [WMV Video (86 MB)]
Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN) claims NORAD lied, pointing out that if the timeline of air defense response as promoted in the 9/11 Kean Commission's best-selling book is correct, then the timeline presented repeatedly by NORAD during the last two years was completely wrong. [C-Span Video: WMV (1.6M); Streaming; Transcript] [Star Tribune, 7/31/04, 9/11 Citizens Watch] Sen. Dayton Temporarily Closing Office due to Threat. [Fox News; CNN; CBS News; Dayton Press Release]
The response timeline according to NORAD is based on its September 18, 2001 press release which contradicted earlier statements by officials that there had been no scrambles of interceptors to chase the commandeered jetliners. The response timeline according to the 9/11 Commission provides a third version of the events, contradicting both of the earlier versions. [NORAD Timeline; NORAD Response Times Chart; NORAD Official Timeline; 9/11 Commission Timeline]
The scrambling (sending into the air) of fighter aircraft at the first sign of trouble is a routine phenomenon. During the year 2000, there are 425 "unknowns" - pilots who didn't file or diverted from flight plans or used the wrong frequency. Fighters are scrambled in response 129 times in cases where problems are not immediately resolved. After 9/11, such scrambles go from about twice a week to three or four times a day. [Calgary Herald, 10/13/01] Between September 2000 and June 2001, fighters are scrambled 67 times. [AP, 8/13/02] General Ralph E. Eberhart, NORAD Commander in Chief, says that before 9/11, "Normally, our units fly 4-6 sorties a month in support of the NORAD air defense mission." [Yale.edu; FNS, 10/25/01] Statistics on how many minutes fighters take to scramble before 9/11 apparently are not released.
"Consider that an aircraft emergency exists... when: ... There is unexpected loss of radar contact and radio communications with any... aircraft." [FAA regulations]
"If... you are in doubt that a situation constitutes an emergency or potential emergency, handle it as though it were an emergency." [FAA regulations]
If a plane deviates by 15 degrees, or two miles from that course, the flight controllers will hit the panic button. [MSNBC, 9/12/01] NORAD fighters routinely intercept aircraft. When planes are intercepted, they typically are handled with a "graduated response." [Boston Globe, 9/15/01; ]
Authorities abstained from standard operating procedures to respond to hijackings for a crucial 80 minutes. Shootdown authorization was not communicated to NORAD until 28 minutes after Flight 93 crashed. [9/11 Commission; Seattle Post]
"In October [2002], Gen. Eberhart told Congress that 'now it takes about one minute' from the time that the FAA senses something is amiss before it notifies NORAD. And around the same time, a NORAD spokesofficer told the Associated Press that the military can now scramble fighters 'within a matter of minutes to anywhere in the United States.'" [Slate, 1/16/02]
The commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force, Anatoli Kornukov, says the day after 9/11: "Generally it is impossible to carry out an act of terror on the scenario which was used in the USA yesterday.... As soon as something like that happens here, I am reported about that right away and in a minute we are all up." [Pravda, 9/12/01]
Many researchers have assembled a detailed timeline of the FAA and NORAD's response to the hijackings that day and there is incontrovertible evidence that, at the very least, Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, should have been averted. In fact, based on detailed analysis of times and distances, it is quite possible that at least one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center could have been averted. But Flight 77 is the clincher. There is simply no excuse for letting Flight 77 crash into the Pentagon. [Bill St. Clair: 911 Timeline]
This failure of any fighter jets to scramble to intercept Flight 77, in which they had at least 40 minutes to do so, or to just follow standard procedures, becomes even more suspect when taken in the context of the extreme state of alert we were in.
As was the decision to change these procedures on June 1, 2001 in a document called, "Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction J-3 CJCSI 3610.01A" (Dated June 1, 2001). [Dept. of Defense Doc. - (PDF); SF Indy Media]
There were standing orders to the military as to how to respond to hijackings over United States territory. They were to be scrambled immediately upon notification from the FAA. The June 1, 2001 document changed those policies:
"b. Support. When notified that military assistance is needed in conjunction with an aircraft piracy (hijacking) emergency, the DDO, NMCC, will:
(1) Determine whether or not the assistance needed is reasonably available from police or commercial sources. If not, the DDO, NMCC, will notify the appropriate unified command or NORAD to determine if suitable assets are available and will forward the request to the Secretary of Defense for approval in accordance with DODD 3025.15, paragraph D.7 (reference d)."
Why, during the summer of 2001, amidst the most widespread flood of intelligence on immanent terrorist hijackings in US history, did Donald Rumsfeld suddenly require his approval to scramble fighters in the event of a hijacking?
The 9-11 Commission Report does not explain why, on the morning of September 11, 2001, President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and other top officials (who could have made this request) were essentially missing in action. [BELLACIAO; WhatReallyHappened; FTW; Emperors Clothes; FTW - Cheney's Cover Story; Mother Jones]
It is reported that Cheney directed the U.S. government's response from an emergency bunker. [CNN; 9/11 Commission; Commission Hearing] But administration's response is called slow and uninformed. [SF Chronicle, 6/18/04]
By Donald Rumsfeld's own admission, he was unaware of any threats to the Pentagon, the building where he was located during the attacks, until an aircraft crashed into the side of it. He ran out "into the smoke" to see if it might be a "A bomb? I had no idea." [DoD News, 9/16/01; DoD News, 9/8/02; Washington Post, 9/16/01; CBS News, 9/8/02]
So, if during the most extreme hijacking event in US history, for which intelligence existed that these planes would be used as missiles, Donald Rumsfeld's approval was required to scramble fighter jets to intercept these planes, why was he not notified in the almost 2 hours that these hijackings occurred?
CNN Reports military pilots must have "permission from the White House because only the president has the authority to order a civilian aircraft shot down." [CNN, 10/26/99] The pilot of one of the planes flying to catch Flight 175 later noted that it wouldn't have mattered if he caught up with it, because only Bush could order a shootdown, and Bush could not be reached in the classroom. [Cape Cod Times, 8/21/02]
Additionally, Air Traffic Services Cell (ATSC), an office designed to facilitate communications between the FAA and the military, had just been given a secure Internet (Siprnet) terminal and other hardware six weeks earlier, "greatly enhancing the movement of vital information." [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/10/02]
Multiple War Games Training Exercises were in operation in the days leading up to and on the morning of 9/11. In what the government describes as a bizarre coincidence, one U.S. intelligence agency, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), was planning an exercise last Sept. 11 in which an errant aircraft would crash into one of its buildings. Adding to the coincidence, American Airlines Flight 77 -- the Boeing 767 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon -- took off from Dulles at 8:10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 50 minutes before the exercise was to begin. [Boston Globe; SF Gate, 8/21/02; Yahoo! News; The Memory Hole]
All of NORAD was involved in the war game, "Vigilant Guardian." It included radar injects, or false blips. This meant that NORAD radar screens showed as many as 22 hijacked airliners at the same time. NORAD had been briefed that this was part of the exercise drill and therefore normal reactive procedure was forestalled and delayed. Flight controllers, commanders and pilots were unable to distinguish real world events from exercise scenarios. By the end of the day, 21 aircraft had been identified as tracks of interest, including a "phantom flight 11" on FAA radar well after the plane struck the WTC. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02; Utica Observer-Dispatch, 8/5/04; Bergen Record, 12/5/03; ABC News, 9/11/02; Newhouse News; National Archives; FAA Summary (PDF)]
Lt. Col. Dawne Deskins, regional Mission Crew Chief for the Vigilant Guardian exercise, said that everyone at NEADS initially thought the first call about the real 9/11 hijackings was part of the wargames scenario. [Newhouse News, 1/25/02; MSNBC; ABC News, 9/11/02; 9/11 Commission Report 7/04, pp 458] Air Force Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold, who was at a command center at the Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, first thought it was an exercise. [ABC News, 9/14/02] When a NORAD Flight Controller was told of the hijacking, he asked, "Is this real world or exercise?" [CBS News; PBS Online] [BBC News: (WMV 95k)]
Several other intelligence sources who spoke to longtime federal whistleblower Stewart Webb, alleged that the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers and WTC 7 was called "Operation Code Angel," also known as Tripod II, a U.S. Department of Justice "war games" exercise involving the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), which Webb alleges was run by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s Police Chief Bernard Kerik at Pier 29 on the New York City waterfront, according to Webb’s intelligence sources who asked not to be named until subpoenas and testimony commence.
Tripod II was interrupted and not fully implemented. However in preparation for it FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and OEM (the New York City Office of Emergency Management) had moved out of their offices in World Trade Center 7 and into what New York magazine, "Man Behind The Mayor," by Amanda Griscom (10/15/01) called "a cavernous commercial warehouse" on Pier 92. As a result FEMA (which reports to Cheney) and OEM were not in their New York offices of WTC-7 when the building was evacuated on 9/11, and subsequently collapsed. [Canada Free Press; FTW; Dark Stream; "Crossing the Rubicon" by M. Ruppert] As a result, an equipped and fully staffed FEMA, New York City and Department of Justice command center was conveniently ready to go into operation when the attacks occurred. [9/11 Commission; Volataire.net]
A number of public officials, at the national and New York City levels, including then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, were aware that Flight 175 was en route to lower Manhattan for 20 minutes and did nothing to order the evacuation of or warn the occupants of the South Tower. One military officer was forced to leave his post in the middle of the attacks and place a private call to his brother, who worked at the WTC, warning him to get out. That was because no other part of the system was taking action.
A former Chief Economist in the Labor Department during President Bush’s first term now believes the official story about the collapse of the WTC is ’bogus,’ saying it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7.
On the day of the attacks Dick Cheney was running a completely separate Command, Control and Communications system which was superceding any orders being issued by the National Military Command Center (NMCC), or the White House Situation Room. The Secret Service has the technology to see the same radar screens the FAA sees in real time. They also have the legal authority and technological capability to take supreme command in cases of national emergency. Dick Cheney was the acting Commander in Chief on 9/11. [; FTW]
May 8, 2001: Four months prior to 9/11 the president placed Dick Cheney in charge of "all federal programs dealing with weapons of mass destruction consequence management within the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Justice, and Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal agencies…" This included all "training, [and] planning" which needed to be "seamlessly integrated, harmonious and comprehensive" in order to "maximize effectiveness." This mandate created the Office of National Preparedness in FEMA, overseen by Dick Cheney. This also extended to all of the conflicting and overlapping NORAD drills on 9/11. The TRIPOD II exercise being set up on Sept. 10th in Manhattan was directly connected to Cheney's role. [White House; FEMA; NCS]
Many attach considerable importance to the role of FEMA on 9/11, because of its responsibility for Continuity of Government (COG) operations, the so-called "shadow government" which is to designed to supersede constitutional authority in event of crisis. Key congressional leaders say they didn’t know President Bush had established such a “shadow government.” [CBS News, 3/1/02; CNN, 3/1/02; WA Post, 2/28/02; CNN, 3/1/01; New American; FEMA; Fathom; Con. Ron Paul; FAS; FEDERAL PREPAREDNESS CIRCULAR; New York Times, 11/18/91; Village Voice, 3/13-19/02]. Cheney and Rumsfeld have been actively associated with COG for two decades, even in the 1980s when Cheney was a Congressman and Rumsfeld the CEO of a drug company. [PBS: Frontline; Daily Kos; The Atlantic; Final Call; James Mann, The Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet, New York: Viking, 2004).
The evening before September 11th, 2001, the National Security Agency intercepted a communication between Khalid Shaikh Muhammad and the alleged ringleader of the 9/11 attacks, Mohammed Atta. The communication stated, "The match is about to begin." [PBS: Frontline] Were they "matching" their activities to the war games? Was the attack a rigged "match" between the defenders on one side, and the attackers with their accomplices on the other? The Whitehouse was so infuriated when this communication leaked from the Senate Intelligence Committee that they threatened Senators with polygraphs and office searches for disclosing classified information. [Associated Press, 8/29/02; San Francisco Chronicle; The Tribune; ]
Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers confirmed there were a total of four wargames on 9/11. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney asked Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers about the War Games taking place the morning of September 11, 2001, in addition to the Dyncorp slave-trade operation. At a Congressional hearing, Pentagon Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard Myers acknowledged the wargames, but claims the military did not have overall responsibility for responding to the attacks. CMK: "The question was... whether or not the activities of the four wargames going on on September 11th actually impaired our ability to respond to the attacks." [Transcript; Atlanta Journal; FTW; Oil Empire; Open Letter To Richard Clarke; News Clip]
Rep. McKinney later states, "The American people might have a criminal syndicate running their government." "What is undeniable, is that corporations close to the administration have directly benefited from the increased defense spending arising from the aftermath of September 11th." [Front Page; Weekly Standard] McKinney later added, "persons close to this administration are poised to make huge profits off America's new war." [Jewish Press]
And let us not forget who created these "terrorists" in the first place.
Is Al-Qaeda just a US Boogie Man? Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the center of a vast and well-organized international terrorist conspiracy, does not exist? [The Nation; Guardian; BBC News; Common Dreams] The London Times states, "If we didn't have al-Qaeda, we would have to invent it." "Soon it will be possible to link al-Qaeda with disaffection and violence of a broadly anti-Western kind anywhere in the world, including in our own countries. The very act of linkage � by us � serves to build links where none existed." [Times of London] The BBC will continue to ask whether the "threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion." "[I]s it simply a phantom menace being used to stop society from falling apart?" [BBC News; BBC News; BBC News] A major new TV documentary claims that the perceived threat is a politically driven fantasy - and al-Qaida a dark illusion. [; BBC; The Nation; CommonDreams]
Lost in the barrage of recent history, the role of the CIA in supporting and developing international terrorist organisations during the Cold war and its aftermath is casually ignored or downplayed by the Western media. "Yes, We did support Him," but "He Went Against Us!" [Guardian, GreenLeft]
A blatant example of media distortion is the so-called "blowback" thesis: "intelligence assets" are said to "have gone against their sponsors"; "what we've created blows back in our face." [In These Times; CNN; CS Monitor; Story of Pakistan, ] In a twisted logic, the US government and the CIA are portrayed as the ill-fated victims: "The sophisticated methods taught to the Mujahideen, and the thousands of tons of arms supplied to them by the US - and Britain - are now tormenting the West in the phenomenon known as `blowback', whereby a policy strategy rebounds on its own devisers." [Guardian, 9/15/01; New America Foundation; OSAMAGATE]
The US media, nonetheless, concedes that "the Taliban's coming to power [in 1995] is partly the outcome of the U.S. support of the Mujahideen, the radical Islamic group, in the 1980s in the war against the Soviet Union". But it also readily dismisses its own factual statements and concludes in chorus, that the CIA had been tricked by a deceitful Osama. It's like "a son going against his father". [WA Times/UPI, 6/9/04; Atlantic Monthly; UPI; The Independent; EIR; CRG, Demokratizatsiya, ] The government, of course, denies this. [US State Department]
There is a history of over two decades of joint covert operations between the CIA & Saudi intelligence through the Bin Laden organization. All through the Soviet Afghan invasion of the 1980s, Casey of the CIA, Prince Turki of Saudi intellience, and the ISI worked together to create a Foreign Legion of so-called "Arab Afghans" (who in fact were never Afghans and not always Arabs) in Afghanistan. Bin Laden came to Afghanistan to represent Prince Turki in this endeavor. The foreigners were supported by the Services Center (Makhtab al-Khidmat) of the Jordanian Palestinian Abdullah Azzam. [Berkeley.edu] Abdullah Azzam was "one of the ideological founders of Hamas whom the CIA used as a recruiter for the Afghan jihad in the US." [Strategic]
The evidence amply confirms that the CIA never severed its ties to the "Islamic Militant Network". Since the end of the Cold War, these covert intelligence links have not only been maintained, they have in become increasingly sophisticated. [NY Times; Halifax Herald; Chronicles; Bin Laden in the Balkans; BalkanPeace] A CIA agent met with Bin Laden at a Dubai hospital just two months after the 9/11 attacks. [Guardian]
How the United States trained Al-Qaeda. [Information Clearing House; RFERL; CRG; 1998 Congressional Hearing; ]
The CIA worked in tandem with Pakistan to create Taleban. [Times of India; How the CIA created Osama bin Laden] Could this be they the Taleban warned the US of coming attacks? [BBC News] Bin Laden's 'Freedom Fighters' were Funded, Trained, and Armed by the CIA. [American Free Press]
A Time article, published June 2001, details the "hype" surrounding Osama bin Laden. [TIME, 6/01] Many researchers claim the name al-Qaeda was made up in middle '90s by a variety of American functionaries (I.E. Richard Clarke) as an all-purpose villain the U.S. could blame as a convenient reason for its military adventurism. [Pravda; Guardian, 7/13/03; Al Jazeera; Common Dreams; truthout; NY Times; spiked; Al-Qaeda-Ally; Profiling terror] Additionaly, several al-Qaeda cels and members, including "one of al-Qaeda�s most dangerous figures," have been exposed to be "fakes" and/or government agents. [London Times, 3/25/04; EIR, 12/20/02; LA Times; Middle East Online; ICH; Ha'Aretz; Federal Observer]
Bin Laden's Ties to the CIA are well documented. Since the early 1990s, Osama bin Laden, heir to a Saudi construction fortune, has financed attacks on interests of U.S. and its Arab allies. CIA money and weapons reached the Afghan Arabs and bin Laden indirectly through the ISI (mentioned before). [MSNBC; Idaho Observer; Washington Times; CounterPunch; 100777; Counterpunch]
"Tim Osman" was the name assigned to Osama Bin Ladin by the CIA for his tour of the U.S. and U.S. military bases, in search of political support and armaments. "Tim Osman" toured some U.S. military bases, even receiving special demonstrations of the latest equipment, and possibly visited the White House. [OrlinGrabbe; Document]
The CIA has repetedly let Bin Laden slip through their fingers, and some have called the US' counter-terrorism a "myth." [Newsweek; Al Jazeera; The Atlantic] At times they have even claimed he is better off at large. [, World Net Daily, 1/9/05; Sunday Times] A CIA Agent Met Bin Laden in July, 2001, at a Dubai hospital. [Guardian; Ananova; WA Times/UPI; WA Times; Le Figaro; This Is London; FTW] U.S. officials turned down a Sudanese offer of Bin Laden's extradition. 'The Washington Post' article that reported this goes into some length quoting U.S. officials attempting to explain exactly why they turned down the offer. [Washington Post] Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf possibly struck a deal with the US not to capture Osama bin Laden. [Sify News, 8/24/03]
According to an internal memo sent to Vice President Richard Cheney from former U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Leo Wanta, an FBI special agent-in-charge and a CIA intelligence contractor met with an associate of Osama bin Laden (OBL) in Manila, Philippines 30 days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. [, White House Memo; TomFlocco; AFPN, APFN, APFN - Whistleblower] Another hand-written memo to Cheney from Leo Wanta, indicates the White House knew that boxes containing large amounts of U.S. currency were moved from the Philippines seven weeks after the 9/11 attacks. [, Printed Memo; TomFlocco] [FLOCCO - 9/11 Cash]
The Bin Laden family has many business ties to the Bush family. [American Free Press; CBC; Village Voice; The Observer, Wall St. Journal; MSNBC; CuckBalwinLive; BushLaden Network; PARANOIA; UPI; The Observer; FTW] An Al Gore event was actually funded in part by the Laden family. [Newsmax] Perhaps more suspicious is the fact that President Bush took FBI agents off the Laden family trail. [Times of India, 11/8/01; BBC, 6/11/01; Ananova, 11/7/01; CBSNews; Fairfax Digital; Hindustan Times, 11/7/01; ]
A two-year probe into the Madrid Train Bombings concludes the Islamic terrorists who carried out the synchronized, timed bombings were homegrown radicals acting on their own rather than at the behest of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. [Yahoo! News; Houston Chronicle, 3/9/06; LA Times; Asia Times; BBC News; Toronto Star; CNN, 3/11/05; More] Of course, Al Qaeda and Osama had served as an easy patsy for the bombings. News sources stated Al Qaeda claimed credit the next day. [FOX News, 3/12/04; PBS TV Frontline; FOX News, 3/12/04; BBC News, 3/14/04; CBS News, 3/15/04; NPR]
The London Bombings occurred exactly 911 days after 9/11. [Al Jazeera; CNN, 3/12/04; Discovery Channel; Snopes] The Washington Post reports all four bombers were killed in blast. Then BBC reports that only one of the bombers definitely blew himself up. [WA Post; BBC News]
Amazingly, there was a Terror Drill running the morning of the bombings, March 11, 2004. [Canada Free Press; CBC/ITN News Clip] Peter Power, former Scotland Yard official, stated that at the exact same time that the London bombings were taking place, his company was running a 1,000 person strong exercise which drilled the London Underground being bombed at the exact same locations, at the exact same times, as happened in real life. Power said the drill focused around "simultaneous bombings." [, , ] [BBC Radio MP3 Clip; MP3 Clip (long)] The BBC reported that the bombings were in fact simultaneous.
The London terror alert level was lowered before the bombings took place. This gave the purpotrators extra cover to plan and execute the attack without having to evade the most stringent security. [London Times] In both the ITN TV interview and the BBC Radio interview Peter Power makes it clear that the team of crisis managers who were overseeing the drill quickly switched from exercise planning to real time management of the actual bombing itself.
The Spanish government claimed to have smashed the terrorist cell responsible for the Madrid train bombings after the suspected masterminds blew themselves up as their hideout was raided. [UK Telegraph] It was later revealed that the so called mastermind of the 7/7 London Bombings, Haroon Rashid Aswat, was a British Intelligence Asset. [CNN; Global Research; Team8] [Aswat News Clip (wmv)]
The bombers were found to be police informants with close links to the Spanish security services. They had access to the most secure areas of the Madrid train system. [BBC News; London Times] The Spanish government initially tried to blaim the Basque group ETA for the blast in the hope that the people would rally behind the government and get them re-elected. After ETA denied involvement and the people started saying the government was involved, the Spanish government had to blame Al-Qaeda and kill some patsies by claiming they blew themselves up during a raid. The London Underground exercises were used as the fallback cover to carry out the attack.
British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday's explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city. Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had planned to attend an economic conference in a hotel over the subway stop where one of the blasts occurred, and the warning prompted him to stay in his hotel room instead. [Yahoo! News; ]
This is precisely what happened on the morning of 9/11/2001. The CIA was conductin drills of flying hijacked planes into the WTC and Pentagon at 8:30 in the morning. [Associated Press] In both cases there were prior warnings and officials changing plans just prior. What are the odds of both human tragedies having coincidental "drills" going on at the exact same time real life was taking so many human lives in two terrorist attacks?
Sept. 2000: The think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC) writes the blueprint for a global Pax Americana. Written for the Bush team before the 2000 election, the report "Rebuilding America's Defenses" is a plan for maintaining global US preeminence and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests. The plan shows Bush intends to take control of the Persian Gulf whether or not Saddam Hussein is in power. [Guardian; Sunday Herald, 9/7/02; PNAC Report; PNAC: Defense & National Security]
White House officials say the Sept. 11 attacks was the main reason for the war in Iraq. [ABC News] Bush says U.S. is in Iraq because of 9/11 attacks. [CNN; American Free Press; White House]
Former Bush aide claims US plotted Iraq invasion long before 9/11. [Sunday Herald] Bush had pre-9/11 Iraq war plan according to Treasury Dept memo. A Treasury Department memo for Secretary Paul O'Neill contains a summary of a "military plan" for a "post-Saddam Iraq" marked secret. [CNN; Memo: Paperless Archives]
No Evidence Connecting Iraq to Al Qaeda, 9/11 Panel Says. [Washington Post] The secret British "Downing Street memo" warns British officials that Saddam Hussein was not a threat and that President Bush was determined to invade Iraq, and U.S. officials were fixing their intelligence and facts around their policy to go to war. [London Times, 5/1/05; Washington Post; London Times] CIA report later concludes no WMD's in Iraq as Bush used to help justify war. The CIA report concludes that Saddam Hussein did not possess stockpiles of WMD's as the Bush Administration claimed. [CNN; BBC) A poll later finds 70% of Americans still believe Saddam and 9/11 link. [USA Today; WA Post; Boston Globe)
The 9/11 attacks gave the US an ideal pretext to use force to secure its global domination. Michael Meacher MP, an environment minister from May 1997 to June 2003, claims the "war on terrorism is bogus." [Guardian, 9/6/03]
The Carlyle Group defines the next phase of power: a Washington-based private equity fund with a difference. It is headed by Frank Carlucci, former CIA director and defense secretary under Ronald Reagan and lifelong friend of George Bush Sr. Bush (also once director of the CIA) sits next to Carlucci on the board with a portfolio specialising in Asia and does not hesitate to communicate with his son on concerns of regional relevance to Carlyle such as Afghanistan or the Pacific Rim. Bush Jr was once chairman of a Carlyle subsidiary making in-flight food.
On Carlucci's other flank is the ubiquitous James Baker III. Chairman of Carlyle Europe is John Major. The group's new asset management is headed by Afsaneh Beschloss, former treasurer of the World Bank. Carlyle has grown quickly to be worth some $12 Billion, specialising in energy and defence, with particular attention to the oil-producing Gulf states. Among its most eager investors is Prince Bandar, Saudi ambassador to Washington and his father Prince Sultan, the kingdom's defence minister. [Guardian]
September 5, 2001: Rumsfeld asks the Senate to approve new '02 defense budget which has largest spending increase since the mid 80's. [DoD, 9/6/01; DoD, 9/7/01]
Sept. 14, 2001: Council on Foreign Relation member Gary Hart says 9/11 attacks is chance for Bush to carry out a "new world order." [MP3] [Council on Foreign Relations]
Oct 2, 2001: The Patriot Act is introduced in Congress. Only a month and a half after 9/11, the 342 page USA Patriot Act of 2001 is signed into law in which civil liberty groups say it violates the Constitution and fear it will endanger civil liberties. [White House; WA Post] The Patriot Act was protested against by citizens, students and city officials including Librarian trustees, police chiefs, the ACLU, and others. [SF Chronicle; Daily Pennsylvanian; FOX News; WA Post; TCPL News; People's Weekly World; Associated Press; CBS News] The administration does not need Congress to extend the USA Patriot Act in order to keep using the law's investigative powers against terror suspects. [Boston Globe]
U.S. plans to invade Afghanistan for an attack on Osama bin Laden and the Taliban by October 2001. [BBC; Guardian] Democrats and Republicans alike told a bipartisan commission that neither U.S. nor world opinion would have stood for such aggression before 9/11. [USA Today] "To be truthful about it, there was no way we could have got the public consent to have suddenly launched a campaign on Afghanistan but for what happened on September 11." - Tony Blair, comments to the Commons liaison committee. [Guardian] The White House approves plans to invade Afghanistan. [CBS News; USA Today; MSNBC; Associated Press] Barely two weeks after President Bush's nearly impossible demands on the Taliban, the U.S. invades Afghanistan. [White House; DoD; Wikipedia]
President Bush's defence of a secret programme of wiretaps within the United States begins. Mr Bush authorised the NSA to listen in to international phone calls and intercept the international e-mails of American citizens and others inside the US without warrants from a special court. [BBC News; Capital Hill Blue] New York Times revealsit held domestic spying story for a full year at the request of the Bush Administration. [Raw Story] Pentagon Spying now includes peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups. [MSNBC]
January 24, 2006 - A provision in the "PATRIOT Act" creates a new federal police force with the power to violate the Bill of Rights. [Anti-War; House Report 109-333] USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 Sec. 605 reads: "There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division.'" This new federal police force is "subject to the supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security." The new police are empowered to "make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony." [House Report 109-333, Sec. 605]
September 10, 2001: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announces that the Pentagon has lost track of $2.3 TRILLION DOLLARS of military spending. [CBS; PBS News Hour; DoD] The next day Flight 77 crashed right in the middle of the only renovated section of the Pentagon being renovated to bolster it against an attack which at the time housed the fewest people in the entire building, important budget information was located in the damaged area, the attack came near the end of the fiscal year. [USA Today; Fort Meade/Army; Arlington County After-Action Report] Most of the Pentagon fatalities were civilian accountants, bookkeepers and budget analysts. [Pitt Post-Gazette]
The stage for the air defense stand-down is set months before the attack through changes in procedures for responding to hijacked aircraft. A June 1, 2001 order from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff requires that all requests from FAA for assistance in suspected hijacking events be forwarded to the Secretary of Defense for approval. From June through September 10th, Rumsfeld's office promptly dispatches intercept requests, and the new procedure is not questioned.
The conspirators schedule a number of war games to take place during the attack and act as cover for the operation. Air Force and Air National Guard units are told to expect deviations of airliners as part of the exercises. Operation Northern Vigilance deploys most of the fighters normally available to defend the northeast to locations in northern Canada and Alaska. A war game setting Operation Vigilant Guardian against Operation Vigilant Warrior is played on the day of the attack. It involves the insertion of virtual radar blips, indistinguishable from the blips of real aircraft, on military radar screens. FAA radar screens are not affected, and FAA officials promptly notify NORAD of deviations. (NORAD and the 9/11 Commission would subsequently supply contradictory notification timelines which bore little resemblance to reality.) FAA requests for assistance are directed to Rumsfeld's office, as per the June 1st order. Rumsfeld's deputy finally orders jets scrambled from Otis Air Force Base just as the North Tower is hit, and later from Langley. The pilots from both Otis and Langley think that they are participating in Vigilant Guardian and fly subsonic as instructed.
The Langley jets did not take off until 9:25, but the pilots had been in their cockpits since about 9:10 -- only about ten minutes since the North Tower strike went live on most local TV affiliates. Vigilant Guardian was so much like the real thing that a participant could easily mistake radio chatter about the attacks as part of the exercises. However, these and other interceptor pilots might have learned that the attack was real by phone or television before scrambling and were a threat to the completion of Flight 77's mission. But the Pentagon attack was a bonus. Even if the military had managed to foil the attack, both of the Twin Towers had already been hit and the destruction in Manhattan could continue to unfold, sufficient pretext for the War on Terror.
And what has been the result of that war? The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered. Contrary to claimes based on the "errored" 2003 report. [Seattle Times, 4/16/05; WA Post, 4/18/05; News 24; Asia Times, 5/5/05; Common Dreams; HumanRightsFirst]
Across the land, the image of an "outside enemy" is instilled in the consciousness of Americans. Al Qaeda is threatening America and the world. The repeal of democracy under the Patriot legislation is portrayed as a means to providing "domestic security" and upholding civil liberties.
The 9/11 Commission Report destroys the historical record of US covert support to international terrorism, while creating the illusion that America and "Western Civilization" are threatened. In turn, the various terrorist warnings and code orange alerts have created, across America, an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.