On 9/11/2006, 9/11 Family members Donna Marsh O’Connor, Michele Little, and Christina Kminek, along with Kyle Hence (Executive Producer of 9/11: Press For Truth), and Paul Thompson (www.historycommons.org, author of “The Terror Timeline”), called for a new investigation (RealPlayer required) at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. I believe this is the only news outlet to cover it.
Over the years, different family members like Bob McIlvaine, Lorie Van Auken, Daniel Wallace (RIP), Barry Zelman, and Manny Badillo have spoken out for the truth.
The September Eleventh Advocates have released letter after letter after letter after letter after letter after letter after letter after letter after letter after letter after letter trying to get some truth. The media has been silent.
In late 2009, there was an effort in New York to get a new investigation onto the ballot. Over 100 9/11 Family Members endorsed this effort. The city argued that a real/new investigation into 9/11 is “not a proper subject to be placed before the voters.” When Supreme Court Justice Edward Lehner asked city counselor Steve Kitzinger “if the City had done anything to investigate 9/11. Kitzinger flatly responded, “No.” In disbelief, Judge Lerner responded with, “the City never did anything?” 9/11 Whistleblowers Coleen Rowley, and LTC Anthony Shaffer endorsed this initiative.
Fact #24
The United States Government has not fully cooperated with international investigations into 9/11.
With regards to Abdelghani Mzoudi, the United States “would not allow Mzoudi’s defense to cross-examine bin al-Shibh,” and as a result he was acquitted. During an appeal, “Kay Nehm, Germany’s top federal prosecutor, again appeals to the US State Department to release interrogation records of bin al-Shibh to the court. However, the US still refuses to release the evidence, and a list of questions the court gives to the US for bin al-Shibh to answer are never answered.”
With regards to Mounir El-Motassadeq, his conviction having to do with the 9/11 attacks was overturned after finding that “German and US authorities withheld evidence.” He was later convicted for his “Al-Qaeda” membership, but not for 9/11.
Fact #25
As I mentioned in the introduction, the Mainstream Media has not covered the questions concerning the 9/11 attacks as they should, and for the most part, with the exception of small town news, have attacked those that do.
According to James Goodale, the founders of the United States “enacted the First Amendment to distinguish their new government from that of England, which had long censored the press and prosecuted persons who dared to criticize the British Crown.” On 10/31/2005, Reporters Without Borders reported that the United States ranked 44th in the world for Freedom Of The Press “mainly because of the imprisonment of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and legal moves undermining the privacy of journalistic sources.”
At the 2008 RNC, several journalists, including Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow were arrested.
Over the years, the Mainstream Media has essentially used George Bush’s policy of never tolerating “outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September 11th – malicious lies that attempt to shift blame away from the terrorists themselves, away from the guilty.”
At first, and still, they have referred to anyone that questions the events of 9/11 as “Conspiracy Theorists.” They have done so again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
The Mainstream Media has also repeatedly focused on what is considered the “fringe” of the 9/11 Truth Movement, and has ignored the more credible researchers.
Several celebrities have spoken out for 9/11 Truth. Each time one has done so, almost in unison, the Mainstream Media has attacked them. They have done so again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
They have portrayed those who question the official account as “unpatriotic,” and also as “terrorist sympathizers.” We were even painted as Holocaust Denying murderers.
As pointed out in Fact #23, the media has also ignored the 9/11 Family Members who question the official account, but they have also given a lot of attention to people like Ann Coulter that have attacked some of those family members again, and again, and again. The September Eleventh Advocates responded to Coulter’s remarks.
The media has heavily promoted movies like “Path To 9/11” which are factually incorrect, and ignored movies liked “9/11: Press For Truth,” which calls into question the entire 9/11 Report, and is endorsed by the family members that fought for it.
The MSM have also repeatedly said that if you question the official account of 9/11, you are dishonoring the family members.
Fact #26
The 9/11 Commission was mandated to give a “full and complete accounting” of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and recommendations as to how to prevent such attacks in the future.”
The 9/11 Commission had the power of subpoena, but rarely used it. Instead, they used what were called “document requests” which could be, and were ignored.
As mentioned in Fact #19, several whistleblowers were brought forward, but were either censored or ignored by the 9/11 Commission. Early on, the 9/11 Commission didn’t hold people under oath.
At one point, an advertising campaign was started that asked for people to be held under oath.
On 4/27/2009, a memo was discovered that talked about “Government Minders” intimidating witnesses. According to Kevin Fenton’s article, they “answer[ed] questions directed at witnesses,” they “acted as “monitors, reporting to their respective agencies on Commission staffs lines of inquiry and witnesses’ verbatim responses.” The staff thought this “conveys to witnesses that their superiors will review their statements and may engage in retribution,” and they “positioned themselves physically and have conducted themselves in a manner that we believe intimidates witnesses from giving full and candid responses to our questions.”
The following are some quotes from 9/11 Commissioners Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton from their book “Without Precedent.” “The two sides decided to split the difference, allowing eighteen months for the inquiry-a period of time that proved insufficient” [....] “The White House also suggested some candidates for executive director for our staff. The importance of this position cannot be overstated” [...] “”we seriously only considered one candidate: Philip Zelikow”. Zelikow was a controversial choice. In the 1990s, as an academic, he had co-authored, with Condoleezza Rice, a book about German unification, and he later assisted Stephen Hadley in running the National Security Council transition for the incoming Bush administration in 2000-2001″ [...] “After Philip Zelikow came on board as executive director, he began recruiting and interviewing candidates”. Zelikow was selected with little consultation with the rest of the committee, but several commissioners had concerns about the kind of inquiry he would lead” [...] “We soon encountered problems, both in obtaining information and with the laborious conditions placed on our access to some information” [...] “We decided against an aggressive use of subpoenas for several reasons”. Furthermore, we knew that many of the most important documents we sought were potentially the subject of an executive privilege claim-meaning that the president might not be legally compelled to share that material with another branch of government, even with a subpoena” [...] “We were supposed to be independent, not necessarily confrontational. We were investigating a national catastrophe, not a White House transgression; this was 9/11, not Watergate” [...] “Senior officials from the FAA and NORAD-Jane Garvey and Craig McKinley-made statements about the timeline of 9/11 that were later proven to be inaccurate” [...] “Many interviews were recorded, though we were not permitted to record those conducted with current officials from the Executive Office of the President” [...] “We were set up to fail.”
The 9/11 Family Steering Committee was made up of 12 family members, including the “Jersey Girls.” They monitored the commission, they worked with the staffers of the commission, and they provided 100′s of well researched questions for the commission to answer. According to 9/11 Commission Chair Thomas Kean, “They monitor us, they follow our progress, they’ve supplied us with some of the best questions we’ve asked. I doubt very much if we would be in existence without them.”
The 9/11 Commission only answered 30% of the families questions.
Fact #27
The level of fear that resulted from the attacks of 9/11 was nourished and maintained, and still is to this day.
Reich Marshal Hermann Goering once said “of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.”
On 6/23/2007, Glenn Greenwald wrote about how insurgents in Iraq were being referred to as “Al-Qaeda” more frequently. He states, “what makes this practice all the more disturbing is how quickly and obediently the media has adopted the change in terms consciously issued by the Bush administration and their military officials responsible for presenting the Bush view of the war to the press.”
Fox News once suggested “Al-Qaeda” was responsible for starting California Wildfires.
Keith Olbermann ran two stories that I know of regarding the political usage of “terror threats.”
The New York Times recently ran a massive story on how military analysts with “ties to military contractors” were being used by the Pentagon to “shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.” They “have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated.”
Fact #28
The 9/11 Report was, and is promoted as a triumph.
The Washington Post reported that it is “a useful analysis of the changes that have taken place since, as well as the changes that have not taken place,” and calling the commission’s unanimity and comprehensiveness “impressive.” WaPo also reported that “the final report is a document of historic sweep and almost unprecedented detail, offering the sort of examination of a highly classified subject that customarily would not be possible for decades after the fact. From the findings of spy agencies to the tactics of fighter pilots, from the conversations of heads of state to the verbatim texts of secret presidential briefings, this is the government laid bare.”
The New York Times reported that it was “uncommonly lucid, even riveting,” and is an “improbable literary triumph.”
Time Magazine said the report was “meticulous in its reconstruction of the attacks and unflinching in its conclusions about why the government failed to stop them.”
The 9/11 Commission’s report was nominated by the National Book Foundation in 2004 for best in Non-fiction.
Former Representative Katherine Harris referred to the 9/11 Report as “one of the most important publications of our age.”
Senator Hillary Clinton said the 9/11 Commission’s report was “a great testimony to the their willingness to search hard for the truth, to get at the facts.”
Senator Charles Schumer said the 9/11 Commission did an “incredible job.”
In 2004, Bush’s Presidential Campaign said “the Commission’s report makes the case for the policies that U.S. President Bush has been pursuing in the War on Terror and eliminates any doubt that the best defense against the threat of global terror is a strong offense.”
Bush said, “I agree with their conclusion that the terrorists were able to exploit deep institutional failings in our nation’s defenses that developed over more than a decade.”
A different kind of praise for the 9/11 Report has come in the form of requests for “9/11-Type Commissions” for other horrible events in America’s history such as Katrina and the recent “financial crisis.”
Fact #29
Osama Bin Laden has not been indicted for the 9/11 attacks.
Some time before 9/26/2001, FBI spokesman Rex Tomb says, “there’s going to be a considerable amount of time before anyone associated with the attacks is actually charged.” He continues, “To be charged with a crime, this means we have found evidence to confirm our suspicions, and a prosecutor has said we will pursue this case in court.”
On 9/23/2001, then Secretary of State Colin Powell is asked, “will you release publicly a white paper which links [bin Laden] and his organization to this attack to put people at ease?” He responds by saying “we are hard at work bringing all the information together, intelligence information, law enforcement information. And I think in the near future we will beable to put out a paper, a document that will describe quite clearly the evidence that we have linking him to this attack.” The following day, then White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer when asked about Powell’s statement says “I think that there was just a misinterpretation of the exact words the secretary used on the Sunday shows.” I’m not aware of anybody who said white paper, and the secretary didn’t say anything about a white paper yesterday.”
On 10/4/2001, Tony Blair will present a paper that makes the case for Osama Bin Laden’s involvement before Parliament. It says, “this document does not purport to provide a prosecutable case against Osama bin Laden in a court of law.” Nevertheless, it continues, “on the basis of all the information available [Her Majesty's Government] is confident of its conclusions as expressed in this document.”
On 6/6/2006, Rex Tomb will say, “the reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Osama bin Laden’s Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11.” This according to Ed Haas of the Muckraker Report.
On 8/28/2006, the Washington Post will report about this story. They state “from this point of view, the lack of a Sept. 11 reference suggests that the connection to al-Qaeda is uncertain. Exhaustive government and independent investigations have concluded otherwise, of course, and bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders have proudly taken responsibility for the hijackings.” They speak to Rex Tomb who says “There’s no mystery here” [...] “They could add 9/11 on there, but they have not because they don’t need to at this point. . . . There is a logic to it.” According to David N. Kelley, a former U.S. attorney, “It might seem a little strange from the outside, but it makes sense from a legal point of view,” said Kelley, now in private practice. “If I were in government, I’d be troubled if I were asked to put up a wanted picture where no formal charges had been filed, no matter who it was.”
Contrary to WaPo’s claim that “bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders have proudly taken responsibility for the hijackings,” Osama denied any involvement in the attacks on three separate ocassions.
On 9/16/2001, he says, “I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons.”
On 9/28/2001, he says, “I have already said that I am not involved in the September 11 attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other human beings as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a practice is forbidden even in the course of battle.” The United States should try to trace the perpetrators of these attacks within itself; the people who are a part of the US system but are dissenting against it. Or those who are working for some other system; persons who want to make the present century as a century of conflict between Islam and Christianity so that their own civilization, nation, country, or ideology can survive. They may be anyone, from Russia to Israel and from India to Serbia. In the US itself, there are dozens of well-organized and well-equipped groups capable of causing large-scale destruction. Then you cannot forget the American Jews, who have been annoyed with President Bush ever since the Florida elections and who want to avenge him.” Then there are intelligence agencies in the US, which require billions of dollars worth of funds from Congress and the government every year.” They needed an enemy.” Is it not that there exists a government within the government in the United Sates? That secret government must be asked who carried out the attacks.”
On 12/26/2001, Bin Laden releases a tape that says the U.S.’s invasion of Afghanistan is “a vicious campaign based on mere suspicion.”
On 9/10/2008, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino will be asked a question. “But Osama bin Laden is the one that – you keep talking about his lieutenants, and, yes, they are very important, but Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of 9/11 –” Her response is to say that “No, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind of 9/11, and he’s sitting in jail right now.”
Fact #30
The authenticity of video and audio recordings that have been released over the years allegedly from Osama Bin Laden have been disputed.
On 10/29/2007, MSNBC reported about a “running debate among video analysts about whether al-Qaida faked” a video that was released on 9/7/2007.
The so called “confession video” has been disputed from three different points of view. The translation of the tape was disputed. Professor Gernot Rotter from the University of Hamburg says, “this tape is of such poor quality that many passages are unintelligible. And those that are intelligible have often been taken out of context, so that you can’t use that as evidence. The American translators who listened to the tape and transcribed it obviously added things that they wanted to hear in many places.”
The date the video was made is disputed by analyst Maher Osseiran. Several commentators questioned whether the person depicted in the video is actually Osama.
According to CNN, Bush was asked about the authenticity of the tape, but “scoffed” at the idea “that the videotape of Osama bin Laden discussing the September 11 terrorist attacks might not be authentic.” He said, “It is preposterous for anybody to think that this tape is doctored” [...] “That’s just a feeble excuse to provide weak support for an incredibly evil man.”
On May 25th, 2010, Jeff Stein of the Washington Post reports that the CIA’s Office of Technical Services “actually did make a video purporting to show Osama bin Laden and his cronies sitting around a campfire swigging bottles of liquor and savoring their conquests with boys, one of the former CIA officers recalled, chuckling at the memory. The actors were drawn from “some of us darker-skinned employees,” he said.”
Fact #31
The majority of the testimony from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged “mastermind” of the 9/11 attacks, something the 9/11 Report is heavily based on, was gotten through torture, and “third-hand – passed from the detainee, to the interrogator, to the person who writes up the interrogation report, and finally to [its] staff in the form of reports, not even transcripts.”
Because of the latter, the 9/11 Commission decided to add a disclaimer to the chapters that are heavily based on detainee interrogations. The disclaimer says, “Chapters 5 and 7 rely heavily on information obtained from captured al-Qaeda members. A number of these ‘detainees’ have firsthand knowledge of the 9/11 plot. Assessing the truth of statements by these witnesses-sworn enemies of the United States-is challenging. Our access to them has been limited to the review of intelligence reports based on communications received from the locations where the actual interrogations take place. We submitted questions for use in the interrogations, but had no control over whether, when, or how questions of particular interest would be asked. Nor were we allowed to talk to the interrogators so that we could better judge the credibility of the detainees and clarify ambiguities in the reporting. We were told that our requests might disrupt the sensitive interrogation process. We have nonetheless decided to include information from captured 9/11 conspirators and al-Qaeda members in our report. We have evaluated their statements carefully and have attempted to corroborate them with documents and statements of others. In this report, we indicate where such statements provide the foundation for our narrative. We have been authorized to identify by name only ten detainees whose custody has been confirmed officially by the US government.”
The 9/11 Commission became unhappy because the government’s investigators were “not asking the detainees the kinds of questions [it wanted] answered.”
On 8/6/2007, the New Yorker reports that a former CIA official estimates that about “ninety percent of the information was unreliable.”
KSM’s interrogations are mentioned as a source in the 9/11 report 211 times.
On 6/15/2009, the Associated Press reported that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said he would “make up stories” in order to get them to stop torturing him.
On 8/6/2010, it is reported that “four of the nation’s most highly valued terrorist prisoners were secretly moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2003, years earlier than has been disclosed, then whisked back into overseas prisons before the Supreme Court could give them access to lawyers, The Associated Press has learned. The transfer allowed the U.S. to interrogate the detainees in CIA “black sites” for two more years without allowing them to speak with attorneys or human rights observers or challenge their detention in U.S. courts.”
Fact #32
The Military Tribunals taking place at Guanatanamo Bay are a slap in the face to those seeking justice for the crimes of 9/11, as well as to the rest of the world.
The level of secrecy is counterproductive. As the September 11th Advocates state, “prosecuting these men within a system that is secretive in nature and lacking in due process, and which uses evidence tainted by questionable interrogation methods and possibly even torture, is a dangerous endeavor.” Several other family members have voiced their concerns about the secrecy.
Unlike U.S. Federal courts, “the Guantanamo tribunal permits hearsay evidence as well as information gleaned from coercion and makes no guarantee that the accused will be able to confront his accusers or know all the evidence against him.”
As far as the media goes “only a handful of journalists will be allowed in the courtroom, confined to a glass enclosed booth where they can be shut off from hearing testimony on the judge’s instructions.” [...] “Audio recordings and pictures of the proceedings are barred.”
The ACLU charged that “the U.S. government is blocking the American Civil Liberties Union from paying attorneys representing suspected terrorists held here, insisting that the ACLU must first receive a license from the U.S. Treasury Department before making the payments.”
Once the Supreme Court ruled that detainees “have the right to challenge their detention in civilian court,” the Bush Administration decided “to rewrite the official evidence against Guantanamo Bay detainees, allowing it to shore up its cases before they come under scrutiny by civilian judges for the first time.”
A propaganda film was shown to the court room. “The video is entitled “The Al Qaeda Plan,” an echo of “The Nazi Plan” made by Oscar-winning director George Stevens as evidence in the Nuremberg war crimes trials of German leaders after World War II.” Judge Keith Allred approved the video, but said, “The planes crashing into the towers and the people screaming doesn’t prove anything.”
Army Brig. Gen. Gregory Zanetti said that Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the Pentagon official who oversees the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals, was “abusive, bullying, unprofessional.”
Detainee lawyers say that “political interference taints the proceedings.”
On 4/18/2008, it was reported that the families would be able to watch the trials. According to Army Col. Lawrence Morris, “we’re going to broadcast in real time to several locations that will be available just to victim families.” Later, the military decided against that. However, they were going to allow Debra Burlingame, a 9/11 Family Member that happens to be pro-Bush to attend. Several family members released a statement that said, “selectively inviting only 9/11 family members whose views are in alignment with those of the Bush administration is only one example of the repeated attempts to infuse politics into what should be an impartial process that has the goal of achieving justice.” On 10/27/2008, it was reported that “the Pentagon has made plans to bring victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — chosen by lottery — to watch a hearing of reputed al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s death penalty trial.” Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said, “Soon, some of those victim families will have the opportunity to see firsthand the fair, open and just trials of those alleged to have perpetrated these horrific acts.” The Miami Herald cites, “a long-promised victims witness program, which will enable thousands of family members of the Sept. 11 dead to watch the eventual trial through satellite feeds to four U.S. military bases.”
On 12/10/2008, a group of 31 9/11 family members, along with the ACLU released a statement that said, “many of us do not believe these military commissions to be fair, in accordance with American values, or capable of achieving the justice that 9/11 family members and all Americans deserve.”
Fact #33
The resulting dust from the collapse of the buildings on 9/11/2001 was toxic, and people like Condoleezza Rice and Christie Todd Whitman lied about it so things like Wall Street could reopen. As a result, several 1000 9/11 First Responders, and residents of New York are sick and dying. Both local and Federal Governments have ignored them in their time of need. (tantamount to)
Fact #34
Suspicious trading in the world markets took place before 9/11/2001.
On or around 8/6/2001, what appear to be “suspicious” put option purchases are made. According to one analyst, “from what I’m hearing, it’s more than coincidence.”
In early September 2001, “suspicious” short selling of reinsurance company stocks take place.
Also in September 2001, suspicion of insider trading takes place in many other countries, resulting in the creation of several investigations. The countries mentioned are Belgium, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Monte Carlo, Cyprus, U.K., Italy, and Japan.
On 10/3/2001, the San Francisco Chronicle will report that the NYSE sees “unusually heavy trading in airline and related stocks several days before the attacks.” Some of those companies are American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest, United, and US Airways.
In early September 2001, there is a sharp increase in short selling of American and United Airlines stocks.
Between 9/6/2001, and 9/10/2001, suspicious trading of put options on American and United Airlines occur. Ernst Welteke, the President of a German central bank, says that his bank has done a study. “There are ever clearer signs that there were activities on international financial markets that must have been carried out with the necessary expert knowledge.” His researchers have found “almost irrefutable proof of insider trading.”
During the time of the 9/11 Commission, the families pressed for answers about this suspicious trading.
The 9/11 Report states, “highly publicized allegations of insider trading in advance of 9/11 generally rest on reports of unusual pre-9/11 trading activity in companies whose stock plummeted after the attacks. Some unusual trading did in fact occur, but each such trade proved to have an innocuous explanation.” [...] “The SEC and the FBI, aided by other agencies and the securities industry, devoted enormous resources to investigating this issue, including securing the cooperation of many foreign governments. These investigators have found that the apparently suspicious consistently proved innocuous.”
Fact #35
The 9/11 Report says, “to date, the U.S. government has not been able to determine the origin of the money used for the 9/11 attacks. Ultimately the question is of little practical significance. Al Qaeda had many avenues of funding. If a particular funding source had dried up, al Qaeda could have easily tapped a different source or diverted funds from another project to fund an operation that cost $400,000–$500,000 over nearly two years.” The 9/11 Commission repeats this in a document entitled, “The Financing of the 9/11 Plot.” “To date, the U.S. government has not been able to determine the origin of the money used for the 9/11 attacks. As we have discussed above, the compelling evidence appears to trace the bulk of the funds directly back to KSM and, possibly, Qatari, but no further. Available information on this subject has thus far has not been illuminating. According to KSM, Bin Ladin provided 85–95 percent of the funds for the plot from his personal wealth, with the remainder coming from general al Qaeda funds. To the extent KSM intended to refer to wealth Bin Ladin inherited from his family or derived from any business activity, this claim is almost certainly wrong, because Bin Ladin was not personally financing al Qaeda during this time frame. Ultimately the question of the origin of the funds is of little practical significance. Al Qaeda had many avenues of funding. If a particular source of funds dried up, it could have easily tapped a different source or diverted money from a different project to fund an attack that cost $400,000–$500,000 over nearly two years.”
Fact #36
“Al-Qaeda” has curious connections to intelligence agencies all over the world.
Wikipedia defines “Al-Qaeda” as “an international Sunni Islamist movement founded in 1988. Al-Qaeda have attacked civilian and military targets in various countries, the most notable being the September 11 attacks in 2001. These actions were followed by the US government launching a military and intelligence campaign against al-Qaeda called the War on Terror.”
On 9/28/2006, the Washington Post reported that “a leaked document accuses Pakistan’s intelligence agency of indirectly supporting terrorist groups including al-Qaida and calls on Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to disband the agency.” [...] “Indirectly, Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism _ whether in London on (July 7, 2005) or in Afghanistan or Iraq.”
The BBC reports that ” [The West has] turned a blind eye towards existing instability and the indirect protection of Al Qaeda and promotion of terrorism.”
On 9/30/2006, the BBC reported Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy’s statement that, “We have solved the 11 July bombings case. The whole attack was planned by Pakistan’s ISI and carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba and their operatives in India.”
On 10/7/2006, the Sunday Times reports that “captured Taliban fighters and failed suicide bombers have confirmed that they were trained by the Pakistani intelligence service, known as the ISI.”
In March 2001, Selig Harrison, a “long-time regional expert” says, “the CIA still has close links with the ISI.” Harrison is said to have “extensive contact with the CIA and political leaders in South Asia.” In 2000, “Ahmed Rashid, longtime regional correspondent for the Financial Times and the Daily Telegraph” referred to the U.S. as “Pakistan’s closest ally, with deep links to [Pakistan's] military and the ISI.”
On 10/19/2007, B. Raman reported that “Brig Ejaz Shah, a former officer of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence” [...] “used to be the handling officer of Osama bin Laden and Mulla Omar, the amir of the Taliban.” When I asked Mr. Raman “What does it mean to be Osama Bin Laden’s “Handling Officer” for the Pakistani ISI? What is the responsibility of the person that has this particular job?” his response was, “The handling officer of a source in Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies is the person who looks after the welfare of the source, keeps him motivated and uses him as needed. The source cannot meet anybody else other than his handling officer except the head of the agency. One source–one handling officer is the general rule. This is to prevent the exposure of the operation and maintain its deniability. I understand in the CIA they call him the Running Officer of a source.”
On 10/31/2001, Le Figaro reports that while staying in the American hospital in Dubai, he is treated by Dr. Terry Callaway. “He is possibly accompanied by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri (who is said to be bin Laden’s personal physician as well as al-Qaeda’s second-in-command), plus several bodyguards. Callaway supposedly treated bin Laden in 1996 and 1998, also in Dubai. Callaway later refuses to answer any questions on this matter.” “During his stay, bin Laden is visited by “several members of his family and Saudi personalities,” including Prince Turki al-Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence.” “On July 12, bin Laden reportedly meets with CIA agent Larry Mitchell in the hospital. Mitchell apparently lives in Dubai as an Arab specialist under the cover of being a consular agent. The CIA, the Dubai hospital, and even bin Laden deny the story. The two news organizations that broke the story, Le Figaro and Radio France International, stand by their reporting.” “The Guardian claims that the story originated from French intelligence, “which is keen to reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA, and to restrain Washington from extending the war to Iraq and elsewhere.” The Guardian adds that during his stay bin Laden is also visited by a second CIA officer.” “In 2003, reporter Richard Labeviere will provide additional details of what he claims happened in a book entitled “The Corridors of Terror.” He claims he learned about the meeting from a contact in the Dubai hospital. He claims the event was confirmed in detail by a Gulf prince who presented himself as an adviser to the Emir of Bahrain. This prince claimed the meeting was arranged by Prince Turki al-Faisal. The prince said, “By organizing this meeting”Turki thought he could start direct negotiations between [bin Laden] and the CIA on one fundamental point: that bin Laden and his supporters end their hostilities against American interests.” In exchange, the CIA and Saudis would allow bin Laden to return to Saudi Arabia and live freely there. The meeting is said to be a failure.” “On July 15, Larry Mitchell reportedly returns to CIA headquarters to report on his meeting with bin Laden.” “French counterterrorism expert Antoine Sfeir says the story of this meeting has been verified and is not surprising: It “is nothing extraordinary. Bin Laden maintained contacts with the CIA up to 1998. These contacts have not ceased since bin Laden settled in Afghanistan. Up to the last moment, CIA agents hoped that bin Laden would return to the fold of the US, as was the case before 1989.” “A CIA spokesman calls the entire account of bin Laden’s stay at Dubai “sheer fantasy.”
Luai Sakra, an alleged CIA informant is said to have trained 6 of the 9/11 hijackers.
Ali Mohamed has connections to both the FBI and the CIA.
On 3/17/2007, Seymour Hersh reported that, “Iran-Contra veterans working out of Dick Cheney’s office are using stolen funds from Iraq to arm al Qaeda-tied groups and foment a larger Sunni-Shia war.”
On 4/3/2007, ABCNews reported that, “a Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005.” ["] “Pakistani government sources say the secret campaign against Iran by Jundullah was on the agenda when Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in February.”
On 7/2/2009, a successful “working relationship” was established “between the Bush Administration, specifically Cheney, the CIA, and the Pakistani ISI” [...] “for the express purpose of funding, manipulating and using a “terrorist” organization in order to carry out terrorist attacks.”
On 3/1/2010, nearly three years after the initial report, Newsweek attempts to “debunk” the claims about Jundullah. However, even though they say “the United States has never had a relationship with Jundullah” in the following paragraph they admit that “there appears to be at least some brief history between the U.S. and Junduallah.” Also, they neglect to mention that Abdolhamid Rigi, Abdolmalek’s brother, made the same claims July 2009 “in a court session held in the southeastern city of Zahedan.”
On June 24th, 2009, 9/11 Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, someone the ACLU refers to as the “the most gagged person in the history of the United States of America” because of the Bush Administration’s usage of the “States Secrets Privilege” to gag her on two separate occasions, said on the Mike Malloy Show that Osama Bin Laden had “intimate relations” with elements within the U.S. Government up until the day of 9/11.
As I pointed out in Fact #20, “Lt. General Mahmood Ahmed, the head of the Pakistani ISI, someone who met with U.S. elected and appointed officials in the weeks before 9/11, on the day of 9/11, and in the days after 9/11, ordered possible MI6 Agent Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to wire transfer $100,000 to Mohammad Atta.” I refer you back to Fact #35.
Fact #37
Former 9/11 Commissioner Max Cleland had a lot of interesting things to say.
Between January and July of 2003, the Bush Administration delayed the release of the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry Report until after the start of the Iraq War. Max Cleland says, “The administration sold the connection (between Iraq and al-Qaeda) to scare the pants off the American people and justify the war. There’s no connection, and that’s been confirmed by some of bin Laden’s terrorist followers” What you’ve seen here is the manipulation of intelligence for political ends. The reason this report was delayed for so long-deliberately opposed at first, then slow-walked after it was created-is that the administration wanted to get the war in Iraq in and over” before (it) came out. Had this report come out in January [2003] like it should have done, we would have known these things before the war in Iraq, which would not have suited the administration.”
After 1/27/2003, Max Cleland is disappointed with the start of the 9/11 Commission’s investigation. Specifically, he is not happy that the Commission “will not issue subpoenas for the documents it wants and will have a single non-partisan staff headed by executive director Philip Zelikow, who is close to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.”
In May 2003, Max Cleland wanted the 9/11 Commission to investigate the false claims tying Iraq to 9/11 made by the Bush Administration. He says, “they were focused on Iraq, they were planning a war on Iraq, they were not paying attention to the business at hand.” Zelikow, Kean, and Hamilton opposed this. Phil Shenon will write, “even some of the Democrats [on the commission] were distancing themselves from him. Cleland knew he was quickly becoming a pariah.” Cleland will say, “it was painfully obvious to me that there was this blanket over the commission” [...] “Anybody who spoke out or dissented, whether against George Bush, the White House, or the war against Iraq, was going to be marginalized.”
In November 2003, the Commission, and the White House were battling over how much access the Commission would have to Bush daily briefings. Cleland says, “all ten commissioners should have full, unfettered, and unrestricted access to all evidence.”
In December 2003, Max Cleland is offered a “position on the board of the Export-Import Bank.” He accepts. Before leaving the Commission, he calls the Bush Administration’s stonewalling of the Commission a “national scandal,” and says “I’m not going to be part of looking at information only partially. I’m not going to be part of just coming to quick conclusions. I’m not going to be part of political pressure to do this or not do that. I’m not going to be part of that. This is serious.”
On 10/26/2003, Cleland tells the New York Times “as each day goes by, we learn that this government knew a whole lot more about these terrorists before Sept. 11 than it has ever admitted.”
Fact #38
Over the years, several polls have been conducted that show a majority of people are concerned about this issue.
In August 2004, 911Truth.org commissioned Zogby International for a poll that concluded “half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall say that some of our leaders “knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act.”
In May 2006, 911Truth.org commissioned Zogby International for a poll that concluded 45% of voting Americans think “Congress or an International Tribunal should re-investigate the attacks, including whether any US government officials consciously allowed or helped facilitate their success.”
In September 2007, 911Truth.org commissioned Zogby International for a poll that concluded “51% of Americans want Congress to probe Bush/Cheney regarding the 9/11 Attacks.”
In August 2006, Scripps Howard/Ohio University conducted a poll that concluded, “more than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East.”
In November 2007, Scripps Howard/Ohio University conducted another poll that concluded, “nearly two-thirds of Americans think it is possible that some federal officials had specific warnings of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but chose to ignore those warnings.”
Fact #39
Several interesting and thought provoking quotes have been made by people over the years with regards to the 9/11 attacks.
Sen. Patrick Leahy said, “the two questions that the congress will not ask, because republicans wont allow it, is why did 9/11 happen on George Bush’s watch when he had clear warnings that it was going to happen? Why did they allow it to happen? And secondly, when they had Osama Bin Laden cornered why didnt they get him? Had there been an independent congress, one that could ask questions these questions would have been asked years ago.”
Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission John Farmer states in his upcoming book, “at some level of the government, at some point in time…there was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened.”
9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey said, “By the way, there’s a credible case that the president’s own negligence prior to 9/11 at least in part contributed to the disaster in the first place. In the summer of 2001, the government ignored repeated warnings by the CIA, ignored, and didn’t do anything to harden our border security, didn’t do anything to harden airport country, didn’t do anything to engage local law enforcement, didn’t do anything to round up INS and consular offices and say we have to shut this down, and didn’t warn the American people. The famous presidential daily briefing on August 6, we say in the report that the briefing officers believed that there was a considerable sense of urgency and it was current. So there was a case to be made that wasn’t made. The president says, if I had only known that 19 Islamic men would come into the United States of America and on the morning of 11 September hijack four American aircraft, fly two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one into an unknown Pennsylvania that crashed in Shanksville, I would have moved heaven and earth. That’s what he said. Mr. President, you don’t need to know that. This is an Islamic Jihadist movement that has been organized since the early 1990s, declared war on the United States twice, in ’96 and ’98. You knew they were in the United States. You were warned by the CIA. You knew in July they were inside the United States. You were told again by briefing officers in August that it was a dire threat. And what did you do? Nothing, so far as we could see on the 9/11 Commission.”
9/11 Family Member Kristen Breitweiser said, “it is clear that [Zelikow] should never have been permitted to be a member of the commission, since it is the mandate of the commission to identify the source of failures. We can now see that trail would lead directly to the staff director himself.”
On 7/22/2005, at the 9/11 Congressional Briefing chaired by then Rep. Cynthia McKinney, 9/11 Family Members Monica Gabrielle, and Mindy Kleinberg accompanied 9/11 Family Member Lorie Van Auken who said, “the 9/11 Commission’s report is one year old today. This report was supposed to provide the definitive account of what had transpired on September eleven, 2001. We hoped that our thousands of unanswered questions would be addressed and answered. Yet incredibly we have found that the Commission’s definitive final report has actually yielded more questions than answers.”
9/11 Family Member Donna Marsh O’Connor said at the National Press Club on 9/11/2006, “This Government has made me a victim of Conspiracy Theories, because they haven’t answered fully, or allowed anyone to ask the true questions of September 11th, and that’s what I’m asking from you today. For exposure. We are not crazy. We have questions. We demand answers. [...] We’re asking for a new investigation into the events of September 11th, and this time, a truly bipartisan, global, with families invested from the beginning, middle, and throughout the end.”
Fact #40
A document entitled, “Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba” from 1962 proves BEYOND THE SHADOW OF DOUBT that elements within our Government are MORE THAN CAPABLE of devising a “9/11 Type” plan.
--airspoon
edit on 23-11-2010 by airspoon because: (no reason given)
