Summer 2016
For years, we have seen massive changes in society. We have witnessed the evolution of many social movements (from the Black Lives Matter movement to the new Democracy Spring movement). Also, we live in an age of political debates and the war on terror. The time of summer is a time of reflection, vacations, and other events (from family reunions to the establishment of other occasions). Now, we witness a new era. In many parts of the world (especially along the Ring of Fire region), earthquakes have happened. We see the Republicans and the Democrats, within their leaderships, continuing to promote the status quo of austerity, war, laws that violate our civil liberties, the allowance of corporate interests to dominate the processes of campaigns, the super delegates having inordinate influence on the political duopoly, and other nefarious agendas. Therefore, the handwriting is on the wall. It has been on the wall for a long time. Bill Clinton recently said that some black protesters are defending drug dealers and murderers, which is a bold faced lie. Donald Trump has spoken vile, evil rhetoric against minorities, immigrants, women, and Muslims. Hillary Clinton (who once worked for the Goldwater campaign in 1964) has praised the overt war criminal and extremist Henry Kissinger. So, these politicians are what they are: reactionary politicians. The lie that Democrats and the Republicans are only the hopes for liberation and self-determination must end. So, I have to follow my conscience and not vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump when November 2016 comes around. I have to vote my conscience and most probably vote 3rd party for the national election. We are not ashamed of our views either. We believe in social justice. We believe in clean water, in protecting the environment overall, in universal health care for all, in the separation of church and state, and for a strong educational system (available for all regardless of class, income, race, sex, or background).
These are the principles that I will fight for throughout my life. Some members of the CBC or the Congressional Black Caucus are just as neoliberal as the Clintons are and some even opposed a proposed amendment to ban the usage of militarized weapons to local police. Some CBC members are doing what is right to be fair. Even Bernie Sanders claims to be a democratic socialist, but he hasn’t called for the public ownership of the means of production. So, he is a pro-Democrat not a socialist. Bernie Sanders has disrespected Hugo Chavez (by calling him a “dead communist dictator” when he wasn’t a communist. Hugo Chavez was a socialist and he voted by the people in his nation). Not to mention that Hugo Chavez has decreased poverty, increased educational opportunities, and grown health care in Venezuela when he was President. What he or Bernie sounds like are most Democrats sound like 40 to 50 years ago (or a New Deal Democrat). The Democratic Party has moved to the right so much in the past decades that they call Bernie Sanders a “far left” person. The Republican Party has gone so far right that many mistaken clarify a person like John Kasich (who suppressed workers’ rights, etc.) as a “moderate.” Paul Manafot is a Washington lobbyist who is allied with the Trump campaign. Manafort is also the former business partner of Rick Davis, who ran the McCain for president campaign in 2008. Manafort’s lobbying firm (according to the Daily Beast) has represented international war criminals and torturers. That is why people are right to call for the establishment of a new independent party that promotes labor rights, economic justice, gender justice, that is against bigotry, and seeks imperialism to be gone. Revolutionary change involves overturning oppressive systems in order for the masses of the people to live in liberty, freedom, equality, and justice. We know that the current President Barack Obama has allied with the powers that be to promote imperialism, the disastrous war in Libya, extrajudicial killings, torture, and Wall Street bailouts. We also need murdering cops to be prosecuted and never be allowed to oppress communities at all. We don’t need quadrennial elections with propaganda. We want liberation, self-determination, and justice as black people.
9/11 (15 Years Later)
9/11 started many things. It began in the early part of the 21st century. It was one of the horrendous tragedies in human history. Almost 3,000 people of many races, creeds, and backgrounds were murdered by evil people on that somber day. 9/11 fully showed in plain view that evil is real and also our human rights, which are sacrosanct, must be protected and preserved regardless. There are many facts about what happened during 9/11 that must be shown. We won’t back down our quest to advance the truth. 9/11 certainly has been thought about by me every single day of my life. 3 states were attacked during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Numerous people from around the world remember the events vividly. I do too. In our generation, we know many key facts about what happened. There are notorious business connections between the Bush and Bin Laden family. There was a huge amount of disrespect shown by the powers that be against 9/11 rescue workers. Some in the EPA claimed at one time that the Ground Zero air was safe to breathe. Yet, that wasn’t the case and many courageous rescue workers died as a product of injecting poisonous air. We have seen the promotion of a truly independent 9/11 investigation to get to the truth. Even that call of an independent investigation has being demonized by numerous establishment media engines. We do know that corporate leaders owned the WTC complex and that the neo-conservatives used the attacks in 9/11 as a pretext for them to invade the Middle East and Afghanistan (along with the establishment of laws that compromised and violated our civil liberties in America). The West wanted to reshape the Middle East to gain its oil, gas, water, and mineral resources in competing against the Russian plus Chinese hegemonies. We know that the attacks were bigger than just blowback. U.S. allies gave specific warnings about terrorist threats in America using even airplanes as weapons. Many FBI agents, who wanted to follow up on these warnings, were blocked by headquarters (as mentioned in the article entitled "Agent alleges FBI stalled pre-9/11 inquiry: HQ was a 'roadblock' in Moussaoui investigation, she says" by Larry Margasak and John Solomon. They wrote from The Associated Press which was published on 10:00 pm at Thursday, May 23, 2002).
Therefore, after 15 years since the attacks on September 11, 2001, we should reflect, investigate information, be inspired to stand up for our human rights in general.
The History of the WTC
The construction of the World Trade Center has a long history. The Twin Towers was created as a product of a urban renewal project and it was spearheaded by David Rockefeller. David Rockefeller and others wanted to “revitalize” Lower Manhattan. The project was planned explicitly by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. They hired architect Minoru Yamasaki, who was an American architect, to create plans for building the structure. On September 20, 1962, the Port Authority announced the selection of Minoru Yamasaki as lead architect and Emery Roth & Sonsas as associate architects. Yamasaki's original plan called for the towers to be 80 stories tall, but to meet the Port Authority's requirement for 10,000,000 square feet (930,000 m2) of office space, the buildings would each have to be 110 stories tall. Yamasaki came up with the idea of building twin towers. There were many extensive negotiations. The New Jersey and New York State government, which supervised the Port Authority, agreed to the construction of the World Trade Center at the Radio Row site. That site was located in the lower west area of Manhattan. To satisfy the New Jersey government, the Port Authority agreed to buy the bankrupt Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (renamed to Port Authority Trans-Hudson), which transported commuters from New Jersey to Lower Manhattan. The towers were designed as framed tube structures, giving tenants open floor plans, unobstructed by columns or walls.
This design was accomplished by using many closely spaced perimeter columns, providing much of structure's strength, with the gravity load shared with the core columns. The elevator system, which made use of sky lobbies and a system of express and local elevators, allowed substantial floor space to be used for office purposes by making the structural core smaller. The design and construction of the towers involved many other innovative techniques, such as wind tunnel experiments and the slurry wall for digging the foundation. The construction of the North Tower began in 1966. World Trade Center One was completed by December 23, 1970. When completed in 1973, the South Tower, Two World Trade Center (the South Tower) became the second tallest building in the world during that time at 1,362 feet (415 m). The South Tower's rooftop observation deck was 1,362 ft (415 m) high and its indoor observation deck was 1,310 ft (400 m) high. Each tower stood over 1,350 feet (410 m) high, and occupied about 1 acre (4,000 m2) of the total 16 acres (65,000 m2) of the site's land. World Trade Center 2 was completed in July 19, 1971. The complex of WTC 4, 5, and 6 was completed in 1975. WTC 3 was finished in July 1981. World Trade Center Number Seven was completed in 1987. The opening of the original World Trade Center came about in April 4, 1973.
The first Bombing
To understand the attacks on 9/11, we have to understand events of the past as well. The first major terror attack in the World Trade Center occurred in February 26, 1993. It was over 20 years ago and I was in the fourth grade of elementary school when it happened. I remembered it. The bomb was a 1,336 pound urea nitrate-hydrogen gas enhanced device. The people involved in the evil action wanted both Twin Towers to fall. It failed. Also, 6 people were murdered and more than 1,000 people were injured in the blast. The attack was planned by a group of terrorists including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmed Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Yousef's uncle. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property, and interstate transportation of explosives. In November 1997, two more were convicted: Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb. Ramzi Yousef was born in Kuwait and he spent time in an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Khalid Sheikh Muhammad Ali Fadden gave Yousef advice and tips over the phone. He funded the co-conspirator Mohammed Salameh with a US$660 wire transfer. Yousef came into America illegally on September 1, 1992. Yousef would live in Jersey City, New Jersey and he traveled around New York plus New Jersey. Yousef assembled the gas enhanced device to deliver it to the WTC.
On Friday, February 26, 1993, Ramzi Yousef and a Jordanian friend, Eyad Ismoil, drove a yellow Ryder van into Lower Manhattan, and pulled into the public parking garage beneath the World Trade Center around noon. They parked on the underground B-2 level. Yousef ignited the 20-foot fuse, and fled. Twelve minutes later, at 12:17:37 pm, the bomb exploded in the underground garage, generating an estimated pressure of 150,000 psi. The bomb exploded in the basement. The World Trade Center’s main electrical power line was knocked out. Smoke rose up to the 93rd floor of both towers. In the course of the trial it was revealed that the FBI had an informant, a former Egyptian army officer named Emad Salem. Salem claims to have informed the FBI of the plot to build a bomb that would eventually be used in the World Trade Center towers as early as February 6, 1992. Salem's role as informant allowed the FBI to quickly pinpoint the conspirators out of hundreds of possible suspects. The transcripts do not make clear the extent to which Federal Authorities knew that there was a plan to bomb the World Trade Center, merely that a bombing of some sort was being discussed. Salem said that the FBI plan was for Salem to give the conspirators with a harmless powder instead of an actual explosive. The FBI allowed him to do other actions. Also, the Salem secretly recorded hundreds of hours of telephone conversations with his FBI handlers. So, the FBI knew about such terrorism. It is no secret that the FBI has been involved in dubious conduct for decades from illegal spying to other actions. A granite memorial fountain honoring the victims of the bombing was designed by Elyn Zimmerman and dedicated in 1995 on Austin J. Tobin Plaza, directly above the site of the explosion. It contained the names of the six adults who were killed in the attack as well as an inscription.
I remember everything like it was yesterday. The attacks were evil actions of terrorism and murder. I was 17 years old and a freshman in college during September 11, 2001. The day started like any other day. It was a sunny Tuesday morning back then. I came to the university for a few hours since it was Tuesday. I finished taking a math class on that tragic day. Then, I walked into an university library in order for me to relax. I used Yahoo chat and people talked about the Twin Towers burning in that chat. I didn't believe it at first. I thought it was out of the ordinary for such a heinous act to transpire. I came home and turned on the TV and there it was. I witnessed the Towers burning, I saw people screaming, and I saw the Towers fall down on national TV. Schools in my area were let out early in secondary schools and I ate lunch. People freaked out and some people vandalized Muslim mosques, which was wrong. News coverage of 9/11 happened non stop during that day. Peter Jennings and others did their coverage of the tragedy. Also, I told my relatives that people will remember these events for a long time. Later in the day, Building Number Seven fell down and no plane hit it. Flight 93 crashed in Shanskville, PA. The Pentagon was hit with a plane in Arlington, Virginia. People in the streets were in a dazed, shocked look for weeks after 9/11. I always think about 9/11 every day. The events validated my views more. I was a civil libertarian before 9/11, but afterwards I was even more in favor of promoting civil liberties.
I take life more seriously since 9/11 and I am a more progressive person since the attacks too. The Patriot Act and other anti-liberty laws came after the attacks. The neo cons exploited this tragedy as a way for them to promote Empire instead of real democratic rights. The drone attacks and other imperial policies didn't end with Bush. These policies continue today. We know who did 9/11 and it wasn't one person alone. As time went on, evil wars existed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc. These wars caused millions of Muslims and others to be maimed, tortured, murdered, and displaced. Also, Osama was an ally of the CIA in Operation Cyclone. The heroes of 9.11 were the firefighters and other rescuers who saved lives. 9/11 was an emotional day.
The events of the September 11th attacks
On the morning of September 11, 2001 at 5:45 am., the hijackers would go throughout security screening in Portland, Maine. 19 hijackers in total would hijack four California bound commercial airplanes shortly after their departures from airports in Boston, Massachusetts, Newark, New Jersey, and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Hijackers Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al-Omari passed through security at Portland International Jetport in Maine at 5:45 a.m. Atta and al-Omari boarded a commuter flight to Boston Logan International Airport, where they connect to American Airlines Flight 11. Three other hijackers will join Atta and al-Omari aboard Flight 11. Before 9/11, airports were not required to videotape security checkpoints. At that time, knives were allowed on planes if the blade was less than four inches in length. By 6:00 am, the New York City polling stations are opened. September 11, 2001 was the time of a primary election day in New York City. Primary elections were held for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, and other city offices. On 7:59 am., Flight 11 (or American Airlines Flight 11) took off from Boston. 11 crew members, 76 passengers, and five hijackers are on board. It has 76,400 pounds of fuel for its transcontinental run to Los Angeles. By 8:15 am, United Airlines Flight 175 took off from Boston for Los Angeles. It had 9 crew members, 51 passengers, and five hijackers on board. The flight had 76,000 pounds of fuel. On 8:19 am, Flight 11 crew members contact ground personnel. One flight attendant named Betty Ann Ong alerted the American Airlines ground personnel that a hijacking was taking place. She said that the cockpit was unreachable. She used an inflight phone. The phone call last for about 25 minutes. Shortly before Ong’s call, a hijacker, likely Satam al-Suqami, had stabbed the passenger seated directly in front of him in first class. Hijackers Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al-Omari are seated in close proximity as well. The passenger, identified as Daniel M. Lewin by the flight crew, had served four years in the Israeli army. The Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States speculated that he may have tried to stop the hijackers. Lewin was likely the first person killed in the 9/11 attacks. 8:20 am was the time when American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Washington Dulles International Airport. It has six crew members, 53 passengers, and five hijackers are on board. The flight has 49,900 pounds of fuel. At 8:21 a.m., two minutes into Ong’s call, the hijackers turn off the plane’s transponder—a device that allows air traffic control to identify and monitor an airplane’s flight path. Meanwhile, American Airlines authorities relay details from Ong to their operations center in Texas. Five minutes later, Ong provides the hijackers’ seat numbers to American Airlines. On 8:24 am., the hijacker Mohamed Atta presses the wrong button (in trying to communicate with the passengers and crew in the Flight 11 cabin). He alerted the air traffic control and unwittingly alerting controllers to the attacks. Minutes later, Atta again makes an unintended transmission to ground control. At least one of Atta’s transmissions is picked up by the pilot of Flight 175, Victor J. Saracini, who will inform the Federal Aviation Administration of what he has heard minutes before his own plane is hijacked.
At 8:30 am, 80 people gather to attend the Risk Waters Group financial technology conference on the 106th floor of the North Tower. Other special events at the World Trade Center planned for September 11 include the annual National Association for Business Economics (NABE) conference, already underway in the Marriott hotel, which was an evening dance performance on the World Trade Center’s outdoor plaza. There was a Peace Corps information session scheduled for 6:00 p.m. in 6 World Trade Center.
On 8:37 am, Boston Air Traffic Control Center alerted the military (or the U.S. Air Force’s Northeast Air Defense Sector being the NEADS). This comes after they heard the transmissions from hijackers Mohamed Atta. The NEADS is headquartered in Rome, New York. Then, the NEADS mobilized the Air National Guard jets at Otis Air Force Base in Falmouth, MA to identify and follow the hijacked Flight 11. In 8:42 am, Flight 93 took off. It is scheduled to leave Newark International Airport within minutes of the other hijacked flights. United Airlines Flight 93 delayed its takeoff because of routine traffic. It has seven crew members, 33 passengers, and four hijackers. It is bound to San Francisco. It has 48,700 pounds of fuel. On 8:46 am, the North Tower is attacked with the use of Flight 11. Five hijackers crash American Airlines Flight 11 into floors 93 through 99 of the North Tower (of 1 World Trade Center). The 76 passengers and 11 crew members on board including hundreds in the building are killed instantly. The crash severs all three emergency stairwells and trapped hundreds of people above the 91st floor. Responders mobilize to help save lives. They include New York City emergency dispatchers, police, paramedics, and firefighters come to the North Towers.
Immediately after witnessing the crash from 14 blocks north of the World Trade Center, Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer directs New York City Fire Department (FDNY) dispatch to issue a second alarm. En route to the scene, he signals a third alarm, which calls for 23 engine and ladder companies, 12 chiefs, and 10 specialized units to respond to a plane crash at “Box 8087,” the FDNY’s shorthand reference for the World Trade Center. Vehicle drivers are instructed to park adjacent to the North Tower. The Port Authority Police Department (PAPD), responsible for the safety and security of the World Trade Center in addition to regional bridges, tunnels, airports, and the Port of New York and New Jersey, mobilizes in response to the attack. Additional PAPD units from other posts dispatch to the World Trade Center to aid in evacuation and rescue. At 8:50 am., U.S. President George W. Bush was alerted of the events by his advisers. Bush was visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida. PAPD Sergeant Al DaVona orders to evacuate both Twin Towers in 8:59 am. One minute later, PAPD Captain Anthony Whitaker expanded the order to include all civilians in the World Trade Center complex. In 9:00 am, a report about the hijacking of Flight 175 existed. In 9:03 am, the South Toward was attacked by the United Airlines Flight 175 (with five hijackers in the plane) into floors between 77 and 85 of the South Tower (or 2 World Trade Center). All 51 passengers and the rest of the people in the plane were killed. An unknown amount of people in the building was killed instantly too. Above the impact zone, people were trapped. 2 emergency stairwells were impassable. Most of the elevator cables in the place were severed. Some people fell to their death from the North and South Towers by jumping out of the windows of the Twin Towers.
The response increased by 9:03 am. There was the request of the shutdown of airspace over NYC. The NYPD called for a second Level 4 mobilization. It brought up the total deployment to nearly 2,000 officers. The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) issues a fifth alarm for the South Tower, deploying several hundred additional firefighters to the disaster. Additional companies and off-duty personnel from across the metropolitan area travel to the scene. In 9:05 am, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told the President that a second plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.
25 minutes later, before President Bush leaves the Sarasota, Florida elementary schools, he gave remarks. He called the attacks a “national tragedy.” He said that he spoke with several officials like U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, New York Governor Pataki, and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. “Terrorism against our nation will not stand,” President Bush told Americans in a minute long statement. In 9:05 am, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani rushed to the NYPD command post near the World Trade Center. This was where he coordinated his response.
At 9:35 am, the President and members of his staff leave the elementary school. They drive to Sarasota Bradenton International Airport to board Air Force One. The plane leaves at about 9:54 am. without a clear destination. President George W. Bush prefers to return to Washington, D.C., but his staff recommends Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana as an appropriate and secure location for landing. On 9:12 am, flight attendant of flight 77 named Renee A. May called her mother (Nancy May) and told her that hijackers have seized control of the plane, and forced passengers plus crew members to the rear. When they are disconnected, Nancy May called American Airlines. Minutes later, Flight 77 passenger Barbara K. Olson called her husband, U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson. Theodore Olson was at his desk in the Department of Justice. She told him that the hijackers took over the flight using knives and box cutters. Theodore Olson alerts other federal officials. In 9:30 am, there was a report by a Secret Service agent of the possibility of more additional hijacked planes. This caused the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) headquarters (found in the 7 World Trade Center) to be evacuated. In 9:36 am, U.S. Secret Service agents evacuate Vice President Dick Cheney to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the White House. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was also in the bunker with Cheney.
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden was one of the controversial and evil men in our history. He consciously choose a life of irrational extremism and he was part of the CIA-funded efforts to fight the Soviets in 1979 inside of Afghanistan. He was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on March 10, 1957. He died on May 2, 2011 at the age of 54 in Abbottabad, Pakistan (as a product of a U.S. raid in his compound). He was the founder of Al-Qaeda. His father was the well-known Saudi businessman and billionaire named Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (who allied with Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia. He gave Prince Faisal financial assistance). He lived from 1908 to September 13, 1967 (in a plane crash). Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden led a construction company and his family had immense wealth. He or Mohammed bin Awad bin fathered a total of 77 children by 22 wives. Mohammed never had more than four wives at a time—divorcing older wives and marrying new ones as needed to limit the number of current wives to four. Osama bin Laden was raised with a strict religious and moral code. Osama went into a university. Bin Laden was raised as a devout Sunni Muslim. From 1968 to 1976, he attended the élite secular Al-Thager Model School. He studied economics and business administration at King Abdulaziz University. Later, joined the mujahedeen forces in Pakistan to fight the Soviets (under the CIA’s Operation Cyclone) back during the late 1970's.
Bin Laden met and built relations with Hamid Gul, who was a three-star general in the Pakistani army and head of the ISI agency. Although the United States provided the money and weapons and the training of militant groups was entirely done by the Pakistani Armed Forces and the ISI. The Reagan administration continued to fund the terrorist mujahedeen during the 1980’s. By 1984, bin Laden and Azzam established Maktab al-Khidamat, which funneled money, arms and fighters from around the Arab world into Afghanistan. Through al-Khadamat, bin Laden's inherited family fortune paid for air tickets and accommodation, paid for paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihadi fighters. Osama bin Laden created camps for terrorists during the 1980’s. He founded Al-Qaeda in 1988. Osama bin Laden had many wives and many children. Osama believed that U.S. foreign policy oppressed, killed, and harmed Muslims in the Middle East according to former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer. It is true that many Muslims have been the victims of imperialism and oppression from the 20th century to the present. He wanted Sharia law to govern the world.
During the Persian Gulf War, Osama bin Laden met with King Fahd and Saudi Defense Minister Sultan and told them that no non-Muslims should assist them and that he could defend Saudi Arabia with his Arabic legion. The Saudi monarchy rejected his plan and allowed U.S. forces in Saudi territory. Bin Laden was angered by this and said that the cities of Mecca and Medina should be protected by Muslims. The Saudi monarchy tried to silence Osama since Osama publicly criticized the Saudi policy. Osama bin Laden used a fatwa against the United States in 1996 as first published in Al Qubs Al Arabia or a London based newspaper. It was entitled "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places." Osama bin Laden’s jihadists committed terrorism in many places from Africa to the Middle East. In the 1990's, bin Laden's al-Qaeda assisted jihadis financially and sometimes militarily in Algeria, Egypt and Afghanistan. In 1992 or 1993 bin Laden sent an emissary, Qari el-Said, with $40,000 to Algeria to aid the Islamists and urge war rather than negotiation with the government. Their advice was heeded. The war that followed caused the deaths of 150,000–200,000 Algerians and ended with the Islamist surrender to the government.
The 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the major East African cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The attacks were linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. These evil attacks brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to the attention of the United States public for the first time, and resulted in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation placing bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted list. Terrorists were in the Yugoslavian conflicts of the 1990’s too. The September 11th attacks caused Osama bin Laden to be searched heavily by the West. Osama bin Laden at first denied any involvement in 9/11 and then in 2004 claimed that he had responsibility for the attacks. One thing is true. Osama is not the only person involved in terror. Western forces have done terrorism in the fours corners of the Earth for a long time. Many al-Qaeda leaders have died. The death of Osama bin Laden in 2011 outlined a turning point. Al-Qaeda is weakened in many cases, but ISIS is still powerful. Osama bin Laden’s life and death is a lesson that murder is wrong, that evil Western imperialism is real (US intelligence in liaison with Britain’s MI6, an Israel’s Mossad, continues to provide covert support to the radical Islamist organizations), and that we should reject harming innocent human life.
The Bush/Bin Laden families connections
There is no question that there are business connections between the Bush and Bin Laden families. Osama bin Laden’s brother was Salem. English papers had shown a photograph from 1971 that showed Osama when he was 14 and Salem when he was 19. They were in a summer holiday at the Astoria Hotel in Falun, Sweden. So, the bin Laden family is a very wealthy family. According to the Daily Mail’s Peter Allen, “…Salem went on to become a business partner of the man who is leading the hunt for his brother… In the 1970s, he and George W. Bush were founders of the Arbusto Energy oil company in Mr. Bush's home state of Texas." During the 1970’s, the Bush and bin Laden family worked together a lot. Salem was the head of the bin Laden family business by 1977. George W. Bush set up his start up oil company called Arbusto Energy, Inc. and Salem invested in Bush’s Arbusto Energy, Inc. "Arbusto" actually means "shrub" in Spanish, but the Bush family interpreted it as "bush." Salem dealt with the construction industry. Many sources have said that James R. Bath used to send money to Salem bin Laden to set up George W. Bush in the oil business according to the Wall Street Journal and other sources. Salem met with a tragedy when he died in a flying accident near San Antonio in 1988. Salem was a close friend of Saudi King Fahd. Arbusto later became Bush Exploration, when Bush's father became vice president. As the company neared financial collapse in September 1984, it was merged with Spectrum 7 Energy Corp. in an effort to stay afloat. During the 1980’s, the controversial BCCI banking institution grew as well.
The BCCI was the Bank of Credit and Commercial International. It was a crooked offshore bank that the CIA used to run guns to Hussein, finance Osama bin Laden, move money in the illegal Iran-Contra operation, and carry out other secret agency “ops.” BCCI was created in 1972 by a Pakistani banker, Agha Hasan Abedi, with the support of Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and head of the United Arab Emirates. Its corporate strategy was money laundering. It became the banker for drug and arms traffickers, corrupt officials, financial fraudsters, dictators and terrorists. The CIA used BCCI Islamabad and other branches in Pakistan to funnel some of the two billion dollars that Washington sent to Osama bin Laden's Mujahadeen to help fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. It moved the cash the Pakistani military and government officials skimmed from U.S. aid to the Mujahadeen. It also moved money as required by the Saudi intelligence services.
The BCCI was so corrupt that it ended in 1991. The Washington Post reported that the Carlyle Group (which supported investments globally) met at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C. one day before 9/11. In that meeting were former President George H. W. Bush and Shafiq bin Laden or the brother of Osama bin Laden. Shafig bin Laden is an investor. George H. W. Bush would make many speeches years ago on behalf of the Carlyle Group. No commercial planes, including chartered flights, were permitted to fly into, out of, or within the United States until Sept. 13, 2001. After the air space reopened, six chartered flights with 142 people, mostly Saudi Arabian nationals, departed from the United States between Sept. 14 and 24. One flight, the so-called bin Ladin flight, departed the United States on Sept. 20 with 26 passengers, most of them relatives of Osama Bin Laden.
NORAD if the North American Aerospace Defense Command. It is run by USNORTHCOM. It was created during the late 1950’s. The purpose of NORAD is a combined organization of America and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and defense for North America. Its headquarters are found in Peterson Air Force Base in El Paso County, near Colorado Springs, Colorado. The nearby Cheyenne Mountain Complex has the Alternate Command Center. The NORAD commander and deputy commander (CINCNORAD) are, respectively, a United States four-star general or equivalent and a Canadian three-star general or equivalent. We know that the Washington Post reported that NORAD discussed the possibility of a hijacked jetliner being flown into the Pentagon in a suicide attack only months before September 11 (and after Donald Rumsfeld assumed control of the Department of Defense). The Post article, published April 15, 2004, said: “While planning a high-level training exercise months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. military officials considered a scenario in which a hijacked foreign commercial airliner flew into the Pentagon, defense officials said yesterday.” There was an email message from a retired army officer, written just after September 11, defending the conduct of NORAD during the terrorist attacks.
The air defense agency was widely criticized for the unaccountable delay in scrambling jet fighters over New York City and Washington after the four hijackings were reported to the FAA. The officer recalled that the hijacking scenario had been proposed by one NORAD planner and was rejected by “Joint Staff action officers” as “too unrealistic.” His email also cited opposition from the US Pacific Command, which regarded the notion as a distraction from “their exercise objectives.” A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the scenario had been suggested and rejected for the exercise, known as Positive Force, which was to practice control of military forces under wartime conditions where the Pentagon building itself had been made unusable. Forty-four minutes elapsed between the crash of American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center and the launching of fighters from the Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. No fighters were launched from Andrews Air Force Base, the closest facility to Washington. It remains unclear when President Bush issued an order to authorize air defense fighters to shoot down hijacked airliners, and how or even whether that order was communicated through the Pentagon to NORAD fighter pilots. NORAD officers have said they did not learn of the order until 10:10 a.m. on the day of the attacks, after the fourth jet crashed in rural Pennsylvania. The agency initially failed to turn over documents sought by the 9/11 commission, forcing the panel to issue a formal subpoena to the Pentagon.
During the morning of 9/11, the U.S. sponsored war games were taking place. Some included “live-fly” exercises where actual aircraft were simulating the behavior of hijacked airlines in real life. This paralyzed the FAA, NORAD, and the Air Force from using Standard Operation Procedure they had applied in other times. On September 11, at least five different war games were conducted by the military and the intelligence agencies. They were the CIA/National Reconnaissance office “plane into building” exercise, Vigilant Guardian, Vigilant Warrior, Northern Vigilance, Northern Guardian, and Tripod II. These exercises included simulations of 9/11 type events like a plane into the building scenario near Dulles Airport in Virginia. (and deployment fighters to northern Canada and Alaska). A bio war exercise was also about to start in New York City. Fake clips on radar diverted interceptors. The war-games tie into the military industrial complex and ultimately the Bush administration since they controlled the war-games ultimately.
Saudis, Israelis, and Other Information
There is no question that a certain amount of Saudis have links to 9/11. That is why people want the release of the 28 missing pages from the Joint Congressional Inquiry’s report. The two alleged hijackers Khalid Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi, came to the U.S. in January 2000, they immediately met with Omar Al-Bayoumi, a suspected Saudi spy and an employee of a Saudi aviation company. Al-Bayoumi, who was the target of FBI investigations in the two years before 9/11, became a good friend to the two 9/11 suspects, setting them up in an apartment and paying their rent. President George W. Bush is a friend of Prince Bandar bin Sulton or the Saudi Ambassador to America. They met in Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas on August 27, 2002. Al-Mihdhar and Al-Hazmi then moved in with a long-time FBI asset, Abdussattar Shaikh, who was said to be a teacher of the Saudi language. Shaikh allowed them to live in his home for at least seven months, later saying that he thought they were only Saudi students. In an unlikely coincidence, both Al-Bayoumi and Shaikh also knew Hani Hanjour, the alleged pilot of Flight 77. Journalist Joseph Tento claimed that an unnamed former CIA officer (who worked in Saudi Arabia) told him that Alhazmi and Almihdhar were Saudi spies (protected by the U.S. authorities). Former CIA Director in 1997 George Tenet had close ties to officials in Saudi Arabia like Prince Bandar. Bandar and Tenet often met at Bandar’s home near Washington. Tenet did not share information from those meetings with his own CIA officers who were handling Saudi issues at the agency. Bandar and Tenet often met at Bandar’s home near Washington. Tenet did not share information from those meetings with his own CIA officers who were handling Saudi issues at the agency.
After 9/11, former FBI director Louis Freeh, whose agency failed to stop Al Qaeda-attributed terrorism from 1993 to 2001, became the personal attorney for Tenet’s dubious cohort, Prince Bandar. Sometimes called “Bandar Bush” for his close relationship to the Bush family, Bandar was the Saudi intelligence director from 2005 to 2015. The Kroll Associates was the company that designed the security system for the WTC complex. Kroll Associates had strong connections to Saudi Arabia. For example, Kroll board member Raymond Mabus, now Secretary of the Navy, was the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in the 1990s. All four of the contractors that were involved in implementing Kroll’s security design for the WTC had done significant business in the Saudi kingdom. Stratesec, the company that installed the overall electronic security system at the WTC complex, had also managed security for Dulles airport, where Flight 77 took off, and for United Airlines, which owned two of the three other planes. For many reasons, the company’s managers should be known in any research of 9/11. Stratesec was in partnership with a large Saudi engineering and construction company to develop and conduct business in Saudi Arabia. Another interesting connection between Stratesec and Saudi Arabia was that, in the years leading up to 9/11, Stratesec held its annual shareholders’ meetings in an office that was leased by Saudi Arabia. This was an office in the Watergate Hotel occupied by the Saudi Embassy (run by Prince Bandar). The Saudi government was sued by thousands of 9/11 victim’s family members due to the suspicion that Saudi Arabia helped to finance Al Qaeda. The Saudis hired the law firm of Bush Administration insider James Baker to defend them in that lawsuit. The world’s leading insurance provider, Lloyd’s of London, filed a lawsuit alleging Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks. Lloyd’s dropped the lawsuit just days later without explanation. So, the CIA had links with many of the Saudi elites.
He added, “I think some people may seize upon” this information to conclude that Saudi Arabia was involved, “which I think would be very, very inaccurate.” At the same time, he argued that the documents were being kept hidden because of the “sensitive methods” and “investigative action” used in collecting them.
Brennan has shown self-contradictory statements, which is similar to a cover up. We know that Saudi Arabia’s involvement is extensive. The evidence of Saudi involvement includes the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals and several of them received financing from Saudi officials. Moreover, Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted of participation in the plot to hijack airplanes and fly them into the World Trade Center and other US targets, has testified in court that he worked as a courier between Osama bin Laden and the Saudi royal family, including Prince Salman, who is today the King of Saudi Arabia. Moussaoui also asserted that high-level Saudi officials and members of the Saudi royal family, including Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the long-time Saudi ambassador to Washington, directly financed Al Qaeda. Democratic Senator Robert Graham, co-chair of the Joint Congressional inquiry into the 9/11 terrorist attacks, said earlier this year that there is “a pervasive pattern of covering up the role of Saudi Arabia in 9/11, by all of the agencies of the federal government, which have access to information that might illuminate Saudi Arabia’s role in 9/11.” By extension, folks have discussed about the involvement of U.S. intelligence agencies in the events of 9/11. The CIA has long standing and close ties with its counterparts in Saudi Arabia. The 9/11 hijackers, despite being under surveillance, were able to freely travel in and out of the country and attend flight schools, despite repeated warnings from other countries and from individuals within US intelligence.
“We have a very strong relationship with Saudi Arabia,” including “intelligence,” Brennan said in his interview, adding, “I have very close relations with my Saudi counterparts.” In addition to being the largest customer of the US military-industrial complex, having purchased over $100 billion in weapons from the US, Saudi Arabia has been the nexus for every clandestine and criminal alliance between the United States and Islamist forces for nearly four decades. The big lie is that Osama bin Laden alone created the 9/11 attacks. Under the CIA’s Operation Cyclone, conducted between 1979 and 1989, the United States and Saudi Arabia provided $40 billion worth of financial aid and weapons to the mujahedeen “freedom fighters” waging war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, an operation in which then-US ally Osama bin Laden played a key role. The proxy war in Afghanistan was pivotal in the later creation of Al Qaeda. More recently, Saudi Arabia has been a key player, along with Turkey and Qatar, in funneling US money and weapons to Islamic fundamentalist groups in Syria beginning in 2011 as part of the civil war targeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.The U.S. and Saudi Arabia has supported the attacks in Yemen as well in 2016.
Many people have talked about Israel too. Months before 9/11, the two Zionists named Larry Silverstein and Frank Lowy took over the entire World Trade Center complex from the Port Authority. The Port Authority ran the buildings for decades. These people like Silverstein and Lowy are connected to Netanyahu, Sharon, Ehud Barak, Rupert Murdoch, and Israel’s national security establishment. In February 2001, Bush nominated Rabbi Zakheim to serve as Comptroller at the Pentagon and Under Secretary of Defense. On May 4, Dov Zakheim was sworn in as Pentagon Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Defense. ICTS' subsidiary, Huntleigh, shared security duties at Boston's Logan Airport on September 11, 2001, where two of the four planes hijacked for use in the attacks originated. According to Logan Airport officials, the company provided gate and baggage security services for United Airlines. Huntleigh faced multiple lawsuits for alleged screening failures by its workers at Logan Airport, but denied any liability for those cases. ICTS International N.V. is a Dutch firm that develops products and provides consulting and personnel services in the field of aviation and general security. It was established in 1982, by former members of the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, and El Alairline security agents. The company's shares are traded on OTCQB under the symbol ICTSF. Some Jewish students were arrested on 9/11. They were seen cheering while the towers went down. They were driving a truck belonging to Urban Moving Systems, largely an Israeli company headquartered in New Jersey. After the men had been arrested, a police dog reacted to traces of explosives inside the van, but nothing was found. The men were eventually returned to Israel. They denied links to the Mossad and explained that they had taken it upon themselves to document what they were seeing. Some believe that they were cheering, because the attack meant a stronger alliance among U.S. and Israel in conducting the war on terror. The owner of Urban Moving System fled to Israel soon after 9/11 and it is suspected by some that the company was used for intelligence operations by the Mossad. Larry Silverstein made the pull it comment about the World Trade Center 7. Some believe pull it meant destroy and some don’t (as in pull meant remove the firefighters from the location). Saudi Arabia and Israeli are American allies. Also, Saudi Arabia and Israel has collaborated economically and politically for years. Another point is to be mentioned too. While, I disagree with many of the policies of Saudi Arabia and Israel, I don't subscribe to Islamphobia and I oppose Antisemitism. The truth is that America is allied with Saudi Arabia and Israel to promote Western interests worldwide.
United States Government Foreknowledge
It is a historical fact that the United States government received warnings from even foreign countries that terrorist attacks were coming in America (even in the realm of planes) for years. This reality has been documented for years. Immediately following the attacks, President George W. Bush stated that: "Nobody in our government at least, and I don't think the prior government, could envisage flying air planes into buildings" and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice claimed: "no-one could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile". An Air Force general called the attack: "something we had never seen before, something we had never even thought of.” A few days after the attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller announced: "There were no warning signs that I'm aware of that would indicate this type of operation in the country.” We know that these comments are outright falsehoods and lies. Even Mueller noted that an FBI agent in Minneapolis said Moussaoui might be "that type of person that could fly something into the World Trade Center.” Mueller said this warning should have been followed more vigorously. Here are many examples of the U.S. government receiving warns of various attacks against America (including attacks using planes as weapons):
1. Chris Whipple from Politico wrote about how the Bush administration ignored a warning of an attack from the CIA months before 9/11 along with others that were far more detailed than previous revealed. There was the “Bin Laden Determined to Strikes in U.S.” CIA Presidential daily brief. It was given to President George W. Bush on August 6, 2001. Months earlier during the spring of 2001, the CIA repeatedly warned the White House that an attack was coming. On May of 2001, Cofer Black (then chief of the CIA’s counterterrorism center” mentioned that: “it was very evidence that we were going to be struck, we were gonna be struck hard and lots of Americans were going to die.” Gorge Tenets told Cofer that: “There were real plots being manifested.” July 10, 2001 was a meeting where the CIA talked about these things. It was first reported by Bob Woodward in 2006 and Tenet wrote about it in general terms in his 2007 memoir “At the Center of the Storm.” Tenet and Black during the Spring of 2001 sent the Blue sky paper to Bush’s new national security team. They wanted to strike at Al-Qaeda.
2. And a top NSA whistleblower says that the NSA had all of the information it needed prior to 9/11 to stop the attacks. The only reason NSA didn’t share that information with other agencies is because of corruption … in an effort to consolidate power. And widespread spying by the U.S. government on Americans began before 9/11. Ryan Singel wrote an article for Wired on 10/11/2007 entitled, “NSA Domestic Surveillance Began 7 Months Before 9/11, Convicted Qwest CEO claims.” This shows that NSA surveillance was more extensive than some perceive. An FBI informant hosted and rented a room to Mihdhar and another 9/11 hijacker in 2000.
3. The Bojinka Plot was a foiled large-scale al-Qaeda terrorist attack to blow up eleven airliners and their passengers as they flew from Asia to America, due to take place in January 1995. In September 2002, one year after the 9/11 attacks, The Chicago Sun-Times reported that:
"The FBI had advance indications of plans to hijack U.S. airliners and use them as weapons, but neither acted on them nor distributed the intelligence to local police agencies. From the moment of the September 11 attacks, all high-ranking federal officials insisted that the terrorists’ method of operation surprised them. Many continue to stick to that story. Actually, elements of the suicide hijacking plan were known to the FBI as early as 1995 and, if coupled with current information, might have uncovered the plot."
4. In April 2001, NORAD ran a war game in which the Pentagon was to become incapacitated; a NORAD planner proposed the simulated crash of a hijacked foreign commercial airliner into the Pentagon, but the Joints Chiefs of Staff rejected that scenario as "too unrealistic.”
5. On the morning of September 11, 2001, the National Reconnaissance Office, which is responsible for operating U.S. reconnaissance satellites, had scheduled an exercise simulating the crashing of an aircraft into their building, 4 miles (6 km) from Washington Dulles International Airport.
6. The US administration, CIA and FBI received multiple prior warnings from foreign governments and intelligence services, including France, Germany, the UK, Israel, Jordan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Morocco and Russia. The warnings varied in their level of detail, but all stated that they believed an Al-Qaeda attack inside the United States was imminent. British Member of Parliament Michael Meacher cites these warnings, suggesting that some of them must have been deliberately ignored. Some of these warnings include the following: On March of 2001, Italian intelligence warns of an al-Qaeda plot in the United States involving a massive strike involving aircraft, based on their wiretap of al-Qaeda cell in Milan. On July of 2001, Jordanian intelligence told US officials that al-Qaeda was planning an attack on American soil, and Egyptian intelligence warned the CIA that 20 al-Qaeda Jihadists were in the United States, and that four of them were receiving flight training. August 2001 – The Israeli Mossad gives the CIA a list of 19 terrorists living in the US and say that they appear to be planning to carry out an attack in the near future. August 2001 – The United Kingdom is warned three times of an imminent al-Qaeda attack in the United States, the third specifying multiple airplane hijackings. According to the Sunday Herald, the report is passed on to President Bush a short time later. September 2001 – Egyptian intelligence warns American officials that al-Qaeda is in the advanced stages of executing a significant operation against an American target, probably within the US.
7. FBI agent and Al-Qaeda expert John P. O'Neill warned of an al-Qaeda threat to the United States in 2000. He retired from his position in mid-2001, citing repeated blocking of his investigations of al-Qaeda by FBI officials. After his retirement from the FBI, the World Trade Center hired him as its chief of security. He started work on August 23, 2001; 9/11 rescue workers found his body in a staircase inside the south tower rubble.
8. According to Senator Bob Graham, who was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee from June 2001 through the buildup to the Iraq war, "Two of the September 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship," as reported by the Miami Herald. And in Graham's book, Intelligence Matters, he makes clear that some details of that financial support from Saudi Arabia were in the 27 pages of the congressional inquiry's final report that were blocked from release by the administration, despite the pleas of leaders of both parties on the House and Senate intelligence committees." In March 2012 as part of a lawsuit by 9/11 victims’ families Graham and another former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey said in affidavits that they were certain there were direct links between the Saudi government and the attacks.
The Collapse of the Twin Towers
The collapse of the two Twin Towers were tragic events. What caused the collapse of both towers has been the subject of debate and discussion for 15 years. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 am, which was less than an hour after being hit by the second hijacked airliner. By 10:28 am, the North Tower collapsed. Each World Trade Center tower consisted of 110 stories and was about 1,350 feet (400 meters) high, the sides measuring 208 feet (62 meters) in length. There were six basement levels: B1 to B6. B1 consisted of a maintenance floor, followed by several levels of parking lots, as well as a subway station and tenant spaces. One of the freight elevator pits was located in the bedrock at "B7.” This elevator could stop from B6 to the 109th floor. Each tower consisted of a core and separate perimeter structure of steel columns. The perimeter structure protected the core from wind stresses. The total amount of steel used per tower was an estimated 100,000 tons, roughly 1/5 of the total weight of each building. Every floor of the inner and outer structure was ringed by steel girders to which the floors were attached. The floors themselves consisted of a relatively thin layer of concrete laying on top of relatively thin steel trusses. The core structure carried 60 percent of the weight of the building The official story of the collapse has been promoted by the American Society of Civil Engineers (SEI/ASCE), FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), and of course the NIST (or the National Institute of Standards and Technology). Immediately after the attacks, a building performance study (BPS) team of engineering specialists was formed by the SEI/ASCE and FEMA. The BPS issued its report in May 2002. It said that the aircraft impacts caused "extensive structural damage, including localized collapse" and that the resulting fires "further weakened the steel-framed structures, eventually leading to total collapse." They also presented recommendations for more detailed engineering studies of the disaster. The famous NIST investigation also consulted outside engineering entities. This investigation was completed in September 2005. The NIST investigators did not find anything substandard in the design of the WTC towers, noting that the severity of the attacks and the magnitude of the destruction was beyond anything experienced in U.S. cities in the past. They also emphasized the role of the fires and found that sagging floors pulled inward on the perimeter columns: "This led to the inward bowing of the perimeter columns and failure of the south face of WTC 1 and the east face of WTC 2, initiating the collapse of each of the towers.” Also, it is important to note that many people disagree with the conclusions of the NIST. Many researchers believe that the Towers fell by a controlled demolition. While NIST never criticizes FEMA for having left behind so little steel, obviously this test suffered from a severe lack of available material. Tests on perimeter columns of the South Tower couldn't even be carried out, because "none of the nine recovered panels from within the fire floors of WTC 2 were directly exposed to fire." There are sincere people on both sides of this issue. My advice is for people to do their own research and make up your own minds on how the Twin Towers fell. What is definitely true that the Towers falling was sad event and we send condolences to the victims of 9/11.
WTC# 7
World Trade Center 7 is a building in lower Manhattan. The original WTC & was completed in 1987 (with 47 stories tall with an red exterior masonry and it occupied a trapezoidal footprint). In 1988, Salomon Brothers signed a long-term lease, and became the main tenants of the building. It was destroyed by the evil September 11 attacks. During 9/11, WTC 7 was damaged by debris when the nearby North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. The debris also ignired fired. The current recreated World Trade Center Number Seven was opened in 2006. Both buildings were developed by Larry Silverstein, who holds a ground lease for the site from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The new 7 World Trade Center has 52 stoires and is 741 feet tall. It has 42 floors of leasable space, starting at the 11th floor, and a total of 1,700,000 sq ft (160,000 m2) of office space. It has stainless steel design in it too. Some call the building as the safest skyscraper in America. It has Otis destination elevators. World Trade Center collapsed on the time of 5:20:33 pm. EST. The World Trade Center 7 is part of the World Trade Center complex. There has been a huge debate about whether explosives or not were used in WTC 7. First, more facts must be shown here. World Trade Center Seven wasn’t hit by an airplane, it was largely undamaged for a time, it had its fireproofing intact for a time, and it collapsed from the bottom instead from the top. Structural engineer Tony Szamboti is part of the engineers affiliated with the Architects & Engineers for 9/11. He said that the NIST report has flaws. The NIST believed that the WTC 7 fell by fire alone. The final Report of the NIST avoided physical testing, but use computer models heavily. Even the NIST had to admit that the diesel fuel was not responsible for the collapse as the official story of 9/11 claimed. The NIST ignored the many points of evidence of molten steel at the building’s base and the steel sulfidation as documented by FEMA. This debate has continued to this very day. The Madrid tower partially collapsed; the hotel in Beijing remained fully intact. The fact that Building 7 collapsed in seconds, symmetrically, and with only a fraction of the fire that the Madrid (in 2005) and Beijing (in 2009) towers experienced. The NIST believes that WTC 7 fell by fire and debris.
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is located in Arlington County, Virginia. It is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. As a symbol of the military, it is related to many policies related to foreign policy. The American architect George Bergstrom designed the Pentagon. It was built by general contractor John McShain of Philadelphia. Ground was broken for construction on September 11, 1941 and the building was dedicated on January 15, 1943. General Brehon Somervell provided the major motive power behind the project; Colonel Leslie Groves was responsible for overseeing the project for the U.S. Army. The Pentagon is one of the world's largest office buildings, with about 6,500,000 sq. ft. (600,000 m2), of which 3,700,000 sq. ft. (340,000 m2) are used as offices. Approximately 23,000military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel work in the Pentagon. It has five sides, five floors above ground, two basement levels, and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 mi (28.2 km) of corridors. The Pentagon includes a five-acre (20,000 m2) central plaza, which is shaped like a pentagon and informally known as "ground zero", a nickname originating during the Cold War on the presumption that it would be targeted by the Soviet Union at the outbreak of nuclear war. The western side of the building was damaged by the 9/11 attacks done by the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77. The attack killed 189 people total (or 59 victims in the plane, 5 hijackers, and the 125 victims in the building). It was the first significant foreign attack in Washington, D.C.’s government facilities during the 21st century, which was similar to the burning of Washington D.C. during the War of 1812. The Pentagon is about 28.7 acres. We know about how the Pentagon was involved in nefarious actions and how the CIA has been involved in evil, clandestine activities since its inception from 1947. One myth is that view that no plane hit the Pentagon. This myth is common among many people who are sincere and others who are outright disinformationists. One such person is Steve Pieczenik. He was an assistant and chief anti-terrorist hostage negotiator at the State Department to Rockefeller allied members Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, George Shultz, and James Baker. He listed himself as member of the AFIO and the National Military Intelligence Association. He was a member of the CFR too, which is an establishment organization. He was an ally of the Reagan administration and is a reactionary person. Joel Skousen promotes the no-757 hit the Pentagon myth too. Joel is the nephew of the Mormon Cleon Skousen (he wrote the 1970 conspiracy best-seller 'The Naked Capitalist' (largely a review of Carroll Quigley's book 'Tragedy and Hope'). The Skousens have ties to the Council for National Policy. The CNP are a far right organization with establishment ties. Oliver North and the Blackwater founder Erik Prince are members of the CNP. Many witnesses have said that they saw an airplane crash into the Pentagon. Images show debris of an airplane surrounding the Pentagon area. Quotes from the aftermath of the crash site offer no proof that something else than a 757 hit the building.
The 9/11 Commission Report
The 9/11 Commission was created to promote the establishment line on 9/11. The commission was established on November 27, 2002 (442 days after the attack) and their final report was issued on July 22, 2004. The report was originally scheduled for release on May 27, 2004, but a compromise agreed to by the Speaker of then House Dennis Hastert allowed a sixty-day extension through July 26. The establishment view of 9/11 is that hijackers crashed planes into buildings and the government had no foreknowledge of such attacks. That view, of course, is totally false. The members of the commission had overt ties to the establishment. Thomas H. Kean was the Chair of the Commission and Lee H. Hamilton was the Vice Chair. Other members of the commission included Max Cleland (he was replaced after he asked real questions), Fred F. Fielding, Jamie S. Gorelick, Slade Gorton, John F. Lehman, Timothy J. Roemer, and James R. Thompson. The Chair Thomas H. Kean was a former New Jersey Governor and he was on the board of the Amerada Hess petroleum company, which had business dealings with Saudi interests. Senator Cleland left the Commission since he accurately said that the U.S. government knew more about the terrorists before September 11 than it has been admitted. Max Cleland also said that the investigation is compromised. Cleland was replaced with then Senator Bob Kerrey. Kerrey was in Vietnam. The 9/11 Commission back then didn’t look at Cheney’s energy task force documents (which proves that oil was one major factor on why the Bush administration attacked Iraq), the warnings of 9/11 style attacks from many foreign governments, and the radar tapes and tapes of air traffic controllers in the FAA, military and all other agencies with access to this information, with a "chain of custody" to prove that this information had not been altered in any way. The Commission didn’t show full details on the CIA/National Reconnaissance war games that took place on 9/11 simulating planet into building scenario and the NORAD/Air Force war games that were also taking place during hat morning that confused some air traffic controllers for crucial minutes, thinking it was the exercise and not an attack. The Family Steering Committee has watched the actions of the Commission and they include victims’ relatives.
Ironically, years later, many members of the 9/11 Commission has expressed skepticism about their own commission (as it is filled with distortions and fabrications). There has been a cover up of the evidence. Some of them are proposing to set up a new investigation.
9/11 Commission co-chair Lee Hamilton says “I don’t believe for a minute we got everything right”, that the Commission was set up to fail, that people should keep asking questions about 9/11, and that the 9/11 debate should continue.
The Commission’s co-chairs said that the CIA (and likely the White House) “obstructed our investigation.”
9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey said that “There are ample reasons to suspect that there may be some alternative to what we outlined in our version . . . We didn’t have access . . . .”
9/11 Commissioner Timothy Roemer said “We were extremely frustrated with the false statements we were getting.”
9/11 Commissioner Max Cleland resigned from the Commission, stating: “It is a national scandal”;“This investigation is now compromised”; and “One of these days we will have to get the full story because the 9-11 issue is so important to America. But this White House wants to cover it up”. When asked in 2009 if he thought there should be another 9/11 commission, Cleland responded: “There should be about fifteen 9/11 commissions.”
An FBI informant hosted and rented a room to two hijackers in 2000. Specifically, investigators for the Congressional Joint Inquiry discovered that an FBI informant had hosted and even rented a room to two hijackers in 2000 and that, when the Inquiry sought to interview the informant, the FBI refused outright, and then hid him in an unknown location, and that a high-level FBI official stated these blocking maneuvers were undertaken under orders from the White House.
According to NBC News, Much of the 9/11 Commission Report was based upon the testimony of people who were tortured. At least four of the people whose interrogation figured in the 9/11 Commission Report have claimed that they told interrogators information as a way to stop being “tortured.”
We know now that the U.S. intelligence community is complicit in foreknowledge of 9/11 style attacks and they exploited the attacks as a means for them to execute the destructive war on terror.
9/11 Truth
The 9/11 Truth movement is diverse amount of people who are well known in America and in the world. They are diverse, but they are unified in believing in that view that the official story of 9/11 is false. They don’t believe that 9/11 is a surprise attack. Some have gained popularity over the years and many of them have built up various organizations. The 9/11 Truth Movement has done some good in getting more people interested in researching about the war on terror and to question authority. They have done a great job in organizing protests and organizing people to promote human civil liberties and peace. Some 9/11 Truth members unfortunately have promoted overt hoaxes that only advance falsehoods not truth. There are two major factions of the 9/11 Truth Movement. One faction are sincere human beings, who try to document information, and who want serious research to be presented to the public. The other faction of this movement include people who promote disinformation, falsehoods (like the myth that no plane hit the Pentagon, which only distracts from real issues), and don’t advance serious, documented research. The 9/11 truth movement members met in March 2004 at the International Inquiry into 9/11, held in San Francisco, California. There is the intersectionality of the 9/11 Truth movement too. Many of them are allied to the peace, environment justice, and anti-imperialist movements.
9/11 still have many questions. We know that just before 9/11, George W. Bush was ready to sign papers to involve the U.S. in Afghanistan. Also, many of the folks who claim to be against governmental corruption are allied with far right movement (and excuse neoliberal capitalism). Some of them falsely equate liberalism with socialism when socialists defended labor rights and human rights for decades and centuries. Some of them even equate any kind of government with communists. Some of the paleoconservative, anti-government dismiss any health care programs and have a fetish of gun rights (there is nothing wrong with an innocent person owning a gun, but criminals should never own a gun). Some of these paleaoconservative info-entertainers want to sell products and are multimillionaires at the expense of promoting paranoia and other problems. We know which info-entertainer that I’m talking about. I don’t have to say his name. He’s from Austin, TX. It is what it is. It is true that many political elites have done evil against many people and the Third World people, but I reject anti-progressive lies that are meant to advance xenophobia, sexism, and racism. Now, it is very important to expose government corruption. We know that false flag operations have existed for generations from Operation Ajax to Operation Gladio. We know that the oligarchy have done illegal actions. I have noticed that these paleaoconservatives only attack the “liberal” Eastern Establishment. They never attack the establishment groups like the Council for National Policy, the American Security Council, Le Cercle, the Pilgrim Society, the John Birch Society, etc. because these groups have links to the John Birch Society and other far right organizations. Leading Skulls & Bones author is Kris Millegan. He published the works of Sutton, Iserbyt, and others. His father is Lloyd Millegan, who was a ranking OSS, Army G2, and CIA officer. Lloyd Millegan Sr. was acquainted with John Foster Dulles from a very young age. A few years later Millegan, Sr. was recruited into the OSS and kept tabs on the notoriously reactionary and stubborn General Douglas MacArthur as one of the general's staffers. A full decade later, in 1956, years before the Vietnam War broke out, he was partying with General Edward Lansdale and even a few North Vietnamese leaders in Saigon. Dulles, along with his brother, later belonged to the Pilgrims. MacArthur and Lansdale were favorites of the American Security Council. Even author Alexandra Robbins was a member of the Scroll & Key.
The CNP have members with links Oliver North and Jack Abramoff. The son of CNP board member Elsa Prince, Erik Prince, later founded and chaired Total Intelligence Solutions and Blackwater USA, the private CIA and Bush White House nexus of the JSOC assassination programs in the post 9/11 world. Blackwater later changed its name to Academi, with the new chairman being a long-time key shareholder in Coast to Coast AM. Top-level neocon, former CIA director and known CNP speaker James Woolsey chairs the advisory board of Executive Action, LLC, a firm named after the CIA's term for assassination. Also, these palaeconservatives who talk about conservativism readily believe in unrestrained corporate fascism by opposing any kind of involvement of the state in the market. Some want a ban on taxes and a powerless government. There is a huge difference between moderate socialism and communism. Even socialism is a reality in the world and has helped many people. The corporation that treats its personnel the worst - the lowest wages, the least amount of benefits, the longest hours, the harshest spy and enforcement measures against unionists, etc. are abysmally unjust. Even the good parts of FDR's New Deal program (with similar programs appearing in Western Europe) had progressive parts to it. It established a minimum wage, a maximum number of working hours, abolished child labor, provided pensions, and set up watchdog agencies for banks and corporations. To a large extent it ended the age of the robber barons and is one of the cornerstones of the modern social democracy. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with exposing real conspiracies, yet we must use accurate information and inspiration to call for justice.
The official story is accurate to mention that many Islamist extremists wanted to attack America. Yet, it ignores how that anger is a product of U.S. & Western intervention in the Middle East. Also, the official story ignores definitely ignores how governments have exploited terrorist attacks for their own aims of expanding the power of the oligarchy. The official story ignores how U.S. allies provided specific warnings about terrorist threats. Many FBI agents who tried to stop the attacks were blocked by headquarters. That was obstruction not incompetence. The official story ignores the CIA’s “plane into building exercise” and NORAD war games (which were conducted by Western forces) during that morning. The 9/11 Truth Movement correctly says that there was a deliberate conspiracy to use the attacks as an excuse to promote the war on terror, an invasion in Middle Eastern and Central Asian nations, and for the West to get resources throughout the Earth. The 9/11 Truth movement is right that the 9/11 Commission is a complete whitewash of the facts. Some 9/11 truth people unfortunately mix true conclusions with myths and falsehoods. So, the 9/11 Truth Movement has been praised, reviled, and slandered. One thing is true. The 9/11 Truth Movement is here to stay. The 9/11 Truth movement has been courageous to show their views whether people agreed with them or not. We certainly want accountability, the truth, and justice for all.
The War on Terror
The evil attacks on September 11, 2001 started the war on terror. It was been almost 15 years since the war on terror commenced and we know the truth. The truth is that the destructive war on terror has not ended terrorism and it has caused not only an abrogation of many of our civil liberties (via the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, the NDAA, etc.). There has been the buildup of police state powers in America and the growth of the Pentagon’s Northern Command. The historic crackdown in Boston after the Boston Marathon bombing shows how our democratic rights are violated all of the time for years and centuries in America. We have seen the growth of unjust wars and the destabilization of the Middle East. Domestically, massive NSA spying and militarized police in New York City, Washington, D.C., etc. are common place. There is a global recession in the world and police brutality exists in NYC, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and throughout the Earth. We have many developments of how Western intelligence forces have aided terrorist entities for decades and during the war on terror too. One example is how US/NATO forces have funded jihadist terrorist forces who overthrown Gaddafi’s Libyan government. Al-Qaeda (which originated from Osama and Osama bin Laden had ties to the CIA since the Soviet/Afghan war) and ISIS are evil. Also, it is evil for US/NATO forces to enact torture and to cause acts which resulted in the millions of civilians deaths including other atrocities. As Michel Chossudovsky has written:
"The war on terrorism is an integral part of Bush’s National Security Doctrine . It is being used as a pretext for waging war on Iraq. Many antiwar activists are unaware that successive US administrations have over the last 20 years supported Islamic terrorism including Al Qaeda . The latter is a creation of the CIA. It is a key instrument of US foreign policy."
Recently, U.S. and NATO ground forces are deployed in Eastern Europe including Ukraine (which is near Russia). Major military overt and covert intelligence operations are taken place simultaneously in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and in Asia. One lie during this era is that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in a mass scale and it was a direct threat to America. That lie influenced the creation of the 2003 Iraq War (along with the West wanting more oil and water resources in the Middle East). There are also the ongoing connections between the US intelligence agencies and Al Qaeda-allied groups, which have resurfaced again in Libya and Syria, where Al Qaeda forces have been a key element in US-backed operations for “regime change.” Wall Street bankers who were involved in corruption are not readily prosecuted and those who organized the torture policy in America are not prosecuted either. Today, we have a financial aristocracy who influences the corporate media, political parties, and foreign policy in many different ways. The war on terror has been destructive in the world. I am in opposition to the war on terror completely and I believe in justice for all.
Conclusion
As for 9/11, we know the truth. Osama bin Laden back during the 1970’s had ties to the CIA and the intelligence community of the West. He founded Al-Qaeda and many terrorist groups have ties to Western agencies for a long time. Bin Mahfouz was an important former BCCI director and he was in business with the CIA’s Frank Carlucci and George H. W. Bush. The CIA Counterterrorist Center (CTC), under later War on Terror fundamentalist Cofer Black, was aware from March 2000 and on that Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar had entered the United States via Los Angeles, immediately after attending an Al Qaeda conference in Kuala Lumpur, which the CTC was also aware of. The CTC didn't put this pair on watch lists. Neither did it inform the FBI about them. On its own the FBI figured out that these men were financed and supported by a Saudi intelligence asset with covert financial ties to the wife of Bandar Bush, a close friend of the Bush family. Joseph Kasputys, tenant of the South Tower's impact and collapse floors, had various direct and indirect ties to the Carlyle Group, both pre and post 9/11. Carlucci and former president George H. W. Bush, both with a CIA background, were key individuals of this company. Carlucci knew Kasputys for years before 9/11 through the Committee for Economic Development and Bush almost certainly through the Council for Excellence in Government. In addition, Kasputys' associate Patrick Gross ran a company owned by the Carlyle Group. Carlucci, Bush and James Baker met Shafig bin Laden, an older half-brother of Osama bin Laden, on the morning of 9/11 at a Carlyle meeting. Senators Bob Graham and Jon Kyl also served on the board of the NED in 2001. Both were in contact with Pakistani backers of Al Qaeda, along with CIA covert operations veteran and AFIO member Porter Goss. On the morning of 9/11 these three men were having lunch with an ISI general who was accused of wiring $100,000 to Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 hijackers. So, the attacks on 9/11 were bigger than people using planes to crash into various buildings. Innocent human beings were murdered by evil people. Certain intelligence members and the political establishment exploited the evil September 11 attacks as an excuse for them to promote the murderous, nefarious war on terror (which is filled with torture, illegal wars, other war crimes, etc.).
We know that the Bush/Cheney administration was elected after blatant voter fraud after the 2000 Election. They tried their best to try to obstruct any independent 9/11 inquiry. There was a conspiracy by the Bush/Cheney team and their allies to use deception in order for them to invade Iraq. That administration has enacted recklessness in conducting economic affairs. The administrations of Bush and Obama have promoted policies that undermine the Constitution and civil liberties with the activation of the Patriot Act and the continuation of the domestic NSA spy programs. The Bush/Cheney administration has enacted crimes against humanity with the execution of torture programs. We know that the Ground Zero air immediately after 9/11 wasn’t safe, yet thousands of 9/11 rescue workers died as a product of injecting poisonous air without adequate medical treatment. Also, there is the refugee crisis in Europe. This has been a product of the imperialist policies from the war on terror. We see many people dying in Libya, Syria, Iraq, and in the Mediterranean Sea. In late May 2016, there was up to 900 refugees drowning to their deaths in the Mediterranean. In total, over 8,000 refugees have died who have attempted to make the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean to Europe since 2014.
That is a tragedy. Most of them started their voyages from the coast of Libya. “We came, we saw, he died,” exclaimed Hillary Clinton to a television reporter on October 20, 2011. Hillary's comments about her gloating over the murder of Muammar Gaddafi (without due process of law or a trial). Such a murder is not only condoned by Hillary, but by the US/NATO forces who committed war crimes in Libya, which destabilized Libya. This is the worst global refugee crisis in the world since World War II. The ongoing massacre in the Mediterranean has not been mentioned by Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and Bernie Sanders in an elaborate way that condemns Western imperialism. Both Republicans and Democrats have promoted over a quarter of a century of U.S. military interventions, proxy wars, and regime change operations. The civil war in Syria has caused Washington and its regional allies to call for regime change. This civil war in Syria has caused Syrians to be refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq. Also, many Al-Qaeda linked Islamist militants have served as proxy forces for the regime change operation. They have caused terror in Syria, Iraq, etc. Many of these Syrian refugees came into Europe. There are African refugees too from countries like Nigeria and Somalia, where US Special Operations troops and drone strikes are being employed in a further extension of the global war on terror. Xenophobia is common in America with Trump calling for a wall to be built along the U.S./Mexican border (and he wanting no Muslims to come into America). In Europe, there is massive xenophobia anti-immigrant chauvinism too. This has contributed to the death toll in the Mediterranean. While the European Union’s sealing off of the so-called Balkan route for refugees has diverted them to the far more perilous Mediterranean, the crackdown on the US-Mexican border has sent those attempting to enter the US into more and more dangerous areas of the desert where many die of exposure. This policy is supported by both parties. Even Hillary Clinton wants the deportation of child refugees from Central America. So, we defend the human rights of refugees and immigrants as we struggle against war. We believe in truth and justice for the victims of 9/11.
Never Forget
By Timothy
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