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Some people argue that questioning 9/11 is a waste of time -- which distracts us from the many real problems our country is facing.There's the economic downturn, the Iraq war, terrorist threats, loss of liberties and a lot of other problems that need fixing. So stop wasting time and distracting everyone with all this stuff about 9/11, right?
Well, before I address that argument, let me ask you one question: how did we get here? How did we get into the economic downturn, the Iraq war, the war on terror, spying and the loss of liberties, and the other problems?
Iraq
Let's start with Iraq. Why are we in Iraq? WMDs, you say!
Actually, President Bush's March 18, 2003 letter to Congress authorizing the use of force against Iraq, includes the following paragraph.
(2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.
In other words, it was actually the White House's false linkage of Iraq and 9/11 which allowed the Bush administration to claim that Congress had voted for the Iraq war. So looking at who was actually behind 9/11 (not Saddam Hussein) is important in connection with the Iraq war.
Tortured Logic
Likewise, torture is based upon the belief that we can stop future acts of terrorism if we get information from bad guys, and that torture is a good way to get that information.
What has allowed Americans to accept torture - something that runs contrary to traditional American values?
9/11. The September 11th attacks scared Americans into think that terrorists were out to get us, and that we had to get tough to stop them.
But knowing who really attacked us is important if we are to stop them, right? Remember the old saying: "You have to know your enemy to beat him"?
The following facts are therefore important:
- * The Co-Chair of the Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 and former Head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham, said that at least one foreign government aided in the 9/11 attack, and it was not just a bunch of lone wolves
- * A CIA memo written on October 2, 2002, concluded there is “incontrovertible evidence that there is support for these terrorists within the Saudi government” (page 169)
- * 28 pages of the Congressional Joint Inquiry's report were blacked out and classified (the redacted portions supposedly include funding by Saudi Arabia of the hijackers)
- * In addition, Saudi intelligence was "actively following" most of the September 11, 2001, plotters "with precision" prior to the attacks
- * According to intelligence officials in India and the FBI, Pakistan's military chief of intelligence wired $100,000 to the lead hijacker days before 9/11 (mentioned here in an editorial round-up). However, the 9/11 Commission stated that -- because Bin Laden wasn't the source of 9/11 funding -- it wasn't important to examine who was the funding source (page 147)
- * According to a Pakistani weekly newspaper, Pakistan bribed the 9/11 Commission to remove damaging information linking Pakistan to 9/11
- * Israel also tracked the hijackers' every movement prior to the attacks, and apparently sent agents to film the attack on the World Trade Centers (see also this). And yet a government official told Fox News' reporter Carl Cameron, "evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information."
- * According to the president of Pakistan, one of the one of the main perpetrators of 9/11 worked for British intelligence
- * The former president of Italy said that Israeli and other western intelligence services were behind the 9/11 attack
Without even going into the claims by many high-level military leaders, intelligence officials, scientists, engineers and others that rogue elements within the U.S. government aided and abetted the 9/11 attack, it is clear from the above-described claims that a foreign government may have done so.
It would thus be important to determine which government or governments were involved, so that we know who to interrogate. Doesn't that make sense?
(Note: It is beyond the scope of this essay to discuss the fact that the government has overblown the entire terror threat, or that torture doesn't actually work).
War on Terror
Until we determine with certainly which governments or nationalities were actually behind 9/11, then how can we determine which countries we should treat as close allies and which countries we should treat as enemies?
The Economy
The economy is on everyone's mind right now. What possible connection can there be between the economy and 9/11 -- when 9/11 occurred years ago?
Well, many top economists - such as Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz - say that the high cost of war in Iraq is the cause of the current slowdown in the U.S. Therefore, if the false linkage of Iraq and 9/11 was the reason Congress "authorized" war, and if the war is the reason for the current economic downturn, then false statements about 9/11 are one of the reasons our country is currently in an economic slump.
Spying and Loss of Liberties
The government claims that it is spying on Americans and otherwise curtailing our rights because it is a new, "post-9/11 world", and they have to keep us safe. The government is spending many billions of dollars to carry out its spying and other supposed anti-terror programs. (It is beyond the scope of this essay to go into detail about the fact that the government's spying on Americans began before 9/11 -- confirmed here and here -- or that many other programs related to the "war on terror" including the drafting of the Patriot Act, actually commenced before 9/11).
Wouldn't the spying and anti-terror programs be more effective if we had confidence in who we should be watching out for? By way of analogy, let's say that the spying efforts had been justified on the anthrax attacks which occurred shortly after 9/11. Because the letters which contained the anthrax sounded like they were written by a radical Muslim, a spying program based on the anthrax attacks would probably focus on arabic folks, right? Well, it is now beyond dispute that the anthrax actually came from a U.S. military base and was of a type that can only be manufactured by the military.
Similarly, if we want to protect America, wouldn't it make sense that we'd want to be 100% certain we know who was behind 9/11?
Is History Repeating?
Imagine, if you would, that you were a citizen in Germany right after the Reichstag fire had occurred. As you might know, the Reichstag fire was the burning down of the German parliament building by Hitler's men, which was then blamed on the communists in order to justify wars against neighboring countries. See this History Channel video (if you have trouble playing the clip, it is because the website hosting the clip requires you to download the clip before playing it). Similarly, the Nazis, in Operation Himmler, staged murder on their own people and attacks on their own resources which they blamed on the Poles, to justify the invasion of Poland.
Do you believe you could have stopped the government from torturing communists after the Reichstag fire, by convincing people that Germans are a good people who do not torture others?
Do you think that you could have prevented the spread of disinformation about the hostile intentions and military capabilities?
Do you imagine you could have stopped the brownshirts and loss of domestic rights?
I believe not, not without first exposing that the Reichstag fire - the single thing which allowed the German parliament and other institutions to hand Hitler total power. The German's were in shock, and rallied around their "strong" leader.
Or not exposing that Operation Himmler -- the event which caused the German people to rally around the invasion of Poland -- was a false flag operation.
Similarly, Americans are crazed by the fear of Arab terrorists just like Germans were terrified of communist and Polish terrorists. Both peoples have handed over all of their power to their leaders in order to buy an imaginary security. Both peoples have forgotten to look at the root causes of their troubles, and have thus let themselves be manipulated and repressed.
Conclusion
Given the fact that the Iraq war, the war on terror, the economic downturn, torture, spying and other loss of liberties all have strong connections to 9/11, any reasonable person must conclude that knowing with certainty exactly what happened on September 11th is vital for America. As vital as investigating the Reichstag fire and Operation Himmler should have been for the German people.
Will we make the same mistakes that the German people did, by trying to fight with the surface manifestations of their problems? Or will we investigate the root cause of our problems, the place where our country lost its way, the justification for all of the bad things which are happening to us and which our government is doing: September 11th?
The choice is ours.
See also this short talk on why 9/11 is important.
