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October 16, 2008 at 22:06:14
9/11 in 33 Minutes: Determining the Official Story Cannot Be True by Tim Hjersted Page 1 of 2 page(s) |
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Seven years after 9/11, debate about who was involved in the attacks remains as contentious as ever. Despite Osama Bin Laden being popularly named as the prime suspect, the FBI to this day does not have him listed on their Most Wanted list for 9/11. By the FBI's own admission, there is "no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11". So who was responsible? We still don't know, but the evidence available does prove one thing: the official story cannot be true. To bring attention to this last year, a few friends and I organized a screening of the documentary "Oil, Smoke, & Mirrors" at a local independent theater in Lawrence, KS. The Films For Action screening brought in a crowd of over 250 people, and the response was comparatively enthusiastic. Like the film linked to above, Oil, Smoke & Mirrors presents in factual and credible terms what the mainstream media has failed to deliver - a balanced and serious look into the other side of the story. In general that's the main purpose of the Films For Action project - to bring attention to information that isn't covered by the major news media. Granted, of all the issues Films For Action has covered over the last two years, 9/11 has certainly been one of the most controversial. To present information that implies that officials in our own government could be complicit in allowing or aiding the 9/11 attacks can certainly not be taken lightly. But with every issue the mainstream media has failed to adequately cover, we feel that it's important that people have access to the full spectrum of information on a given issue, not just the governments official take. 
The film above raises many important questions about what really happened on 9/11, presenting evidence that contradicts the official narrative in many ways. At the same time, in the span of 33 minutes, the film only hints at the vast body of evidence that has been accumulated on the subject. Doing hours of research on the issue ourselves, we've cataloged several of the best films you can watch on the Films For Action website, and many articles and websites where you can look into the issue further.
Ultimately, we don't know what really happened that day. The 9/11 Commission doesn't give us any clearer answer. Over one hundred professors and over fifty senior government officials have been quoted raising serious questions about the integrity of the 9/11 Commission's official report.
As compiled by WantToKnow.info - Senator Max Cleland, a former member of the 9/11 Commission, who resigned in December 2003 and who has been a U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1996 to 2002 is on the record saying:
"If this decision stands [to limit 9/11 Commission access to White House documents], I, as a member of the commission, cannot look any American in the eye, especially family members of victims, and say the commission had full access. This investigation is now compromised."
Raymond L. McGovern is a former Chairman of the National Intelligence Estimates and was responsible for the President's Daily Brief (PDB) for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He is a 27-year CIA veteran, and former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer. Here is one of many statements he's made on the Commission:
"I think at simplest terms, there's a cover-up. The 9/11 report is a joke. The question is: What's being covered up? Is it gross malfeasance, gross negligence? Now there are a whole bunch of unanswered questions. And the reason they're unanswered is because this administration will not answer the questions. This is the bottom line for me; just as Hitler in 1933 cynically exploited the burning of the parliament building, the Reichstag, this is exactly what our President did in exploiting 9/11. The cynical way in which he played on our trauma, used it to justify attacking, making a war of aggression on a country that he knew had nothing to do with 9/11. That suffices for me. That's certainly an impeachable offense."
Rep. Curt Weldon is a ten-term Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania. He is the House Armed Services Committee Vice Chairman and Homeland Security Committee Vice Chairman. In a speech he gave to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2005:
"Intelligence officers ... identified [lead 9/11 hijacker] Mohammed Atta and three terrorists a year before 9/11, tried to transfer that information to the FBI, were denied, and the FBI Director has now said ... the FBI could have used it to perhaps prevent the hijackings. The 9/11 Commission totally ignored this entire story.
I am a strong supporter of our military. I am a strong supporter of President Bush. I say all of that, Mr. Speaker, because ... there is something desperately wrong here. I have met with at least 10 people who fully corroborate what [intelligence officer] Tony Shaffer says. This is not [about] Republicans or Democrats. It is about what is fundamental to this country."
The list goes on. These are not "nut-job" conspiracy theorists. As Alan Miller writes on behalf of WantToKnow.info:
"These dedicated individuals from across the political spectrum are not irresponsible believers in some 9/11 conspiracy theory. Their sincere concern, backed by decades of service to their country, demonstrate that criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report is not only reasonable and responsible, it is in fact a patriotic duty."
To get the truth, we must demand that a truly independent investigation of 9/11 be carried out with the power to subpoena and bring criminal charges against those involved. Then, we may finally get some real answers.
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Why were the repeated, urgent and specific warnings of an unprecedented terrorist attack ignored by the Bush inner circle for eight months? In the first eight months of the Bush administration, with unprecedented warnings coming from at least eleven foreign intelligence agencies in addition to over 40 Daily Presidential Briefs with urgent warnings, and with CIA director George Tenet later proclaiming that the US intelligence system was "blinking red", why was anti-terror funding steadily cut by the Bush administration, even though the bombing of the USS Cole and two US embassies abroad had gone with no US response? Why did National Security Advisor Condaleezza Rice, apparently acting in some alternate official capacity, remove top US anti-terrorism expert, (under four administrations), Richard Clarke from the Bush inner circle in the months prior to the attacks, even as DCI director George Tenet reportedly was "running around with his hair on fire" regarding a steady stream of unprecedented intelligence warnings? Why did George Bush sign presidential order 199i WF213589 shortly after taking office that directed the FBI to "back off" of their investigations into the bin Laden family? Why did the Bush administration ardently oppose ANY investigation from the start? Why did both Bush - and later Cheney - contact the democratic Congressional leadership to warn that "the democrats would pay a high price" for exposing the pre 911 warnings that went ignored? Why was a team of legal specialists assembled by Bush insiders to select the members that would make up the 911 Commission? Why was the 911 Commission staffed with well-engrained, political insiders - all steeped in conflicts of interest in their official duty? and: and: From it's formation and in it's first public statement, why would the 911 Commission, proclaim that they intend to "provide the fullest possible account of the events surrounding 911", and shortly thereafter add that they are "not out to blame anyone"? Why would the 911 Commission proclaim in their final report that "the financing of the 911 attacks is, ultimately, of little importance"? Wikipedia actually claims that the 911 attacks financing is unknown: With subpeona power, why did the 911 Commission receive less than 3,000 of the 12,000 documents that it requested from the White House, and not object or employ it's "subpeona power"? Why did the arrangement that compelled National Security Advisor Rice to testify before the Commission include provisions to exclude sworn testimony from Rice's deputy Stephen Hadley, Bush's political adviser Karl Rove, or any other White House officials? Why were decades long Bush family ties with the bin Laden family and the Saudi Royal family completely suppressed throughout the congressional investigation and deliberately omitted by the 911 Commission? and: (A twenty-eight page, highly detailed report of these critical connections was reviewed and suppressed by both "investigative committees", as per White House demands.) Why did Bush agree to "meet with" the 911 Commission only with Dick Cheney at his side? Why were no cameras, transcript or recordings allowed? Why did neither agree to be sworn? Why were all notes taken by the Commission members confiscated by the Secret Service when Bush and Cheney concluded their "meeting" with the Commission? Why were numerous key FBI and intelligence officials surrounding the events of 911 gagged - even threatened, while key military, intelligence and political officials that utterly failed were ALL promptly promoted? and: Why was the San Diego FBI "asset", with whom two of the hijackers would live before 911, sequestered by the FBI in a secret location and prevented from testifying before the Commission? Why was Pakistan's Intelligence Chief General Mahmud Ahmed not questioned when it was confirmed that he personally authorized a $100,000 wire transfer to lead hijacker Mohammed Atta in the days before the 911 attacks? Why were the connections with and training of at least six of the alleged hijackers by US intelligence and military agencies in the months and years before the 911 attacks suppressed by the Commission? Why would the 911 Commission make no mention of chief hijacker Muhammed Atta having attended the International Officer's Training School at Maxwell AFB in Alabama, the Defense Language Institute in Monterrey California, being attached to Brooks AFB in Texas and giving contact information for Pensacola Naval Air Station? http://spitfirelist.com/?p=108 Why was the fact that 15 of the 19 alleged hijackers received their US entry visas through the US consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where a US official was threatened by firing if he did not ignore numerous rules in issuing these visas, not addressed nor mentioned by the Commission? Why did Jeb Bush, the president's brother and governor of Florida leave his state aboard a US military C-130 transport aircraft the evening of 911, with the entirety of the records from the flight shool that was attended by several of the hijacker pilots? Why was this ignored by each investigative body? What could warrant this extraordinary action? Where are the records and what did they reveal? http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0212/S00058.htm and: http://spitfirelist.com/?p=111 Why was the testimony of 118 NY firefighters, that spoke to massive and repeated explosions within the WTC towers following the initial airliner strikes, (as clearly evidenced in a wide array of on-site videotapes and civilian testimony), unaddressed and ignored by the 911 Commission? (Why did the city of New York fight the release of this testimony for over five years, and release it only after numerous court and FOIA battles?) Why was the testimony of William Rodriquez, a twenty year Trade Center employee and maintenance worker, (and a variety of additional survivors that were in and around the buildings), that spoke at length of a massive explosion prior to flight 11's impact into the north tower completely ignored by the Commission? Why were a wide variety of news reporters and eye witnesses to repeated explosions within the World Trade Center towers, after the airliner impacts, virtually ignored by the 911 Commission? There's a bomb in the building, start clearing out: Why did the $20 million NIST report, conducted by many experts in the field of explosive technologies, ignore, avoid and not test for any possibility of explosives in the demise of the WTC towers - including the collapse of WTC 7? With maximum burning jet fuel temperatures well under a thousand degrees farenheit, what possible building contents could account for temperatures of over 1,400 degrees deep within the remains of the buildings that were sustained for weeks after their collapses? Who had the power to facilitate the unduly fast clearing and disposal of debris at the crime scenes, especially in New York and at the Pentagon? What was the official reason? Regarding the Salomon Brothers building or WTC7, how could fires cause 25 massive steel vertical columns throughout the interior and 58 equally massive steel perimeter columns to fail at the same moment? Why was the collapse of this 47 story building completely unaddressed by the Commission? Why would it be necessary, in the conduct of military war drills on 911, to inject large numbers of "phantom" radar images into the civilian radar system that made locating the actual hijacked airliners by the FAA impossible? (All military air drills were taking place hundreds of miles from both the US Capital and New York City.) When key, top-level Pentagon officials offer three sharply contradictory versions of their failures over a sixteen month period, (the final one to the 911 Commison), and the members of the Commission know that they are lying, why has this critical aspect of the crime not been addressed? and: (911 Commission members knew the Pentagon officials were lying and considered referring perjury charges to the Justice department. Perjury by any key witness in any trial is a reversible error). How was a large, lumbering passenger jet able to fly for over 40 minutes and 300 miles eastward, (after it was commandeered and located on radar), in the most heavily guarded airspace in the US without a military response? Why did agents of the FBI immediately confiscate numerous civilian videotapes of the Pentagon impact, even as people were burning to death in the aftermath? Why are the videotapes of the crash classified, to this day? Why do the only two ostensibly 'leaked' videotapes not indicate the actual aircraft that is reported to have struck the Pentagon? Why are the aircraft remains from flights 93 and 77 classified? Why are the scant remains from New York City of flights AA 77 and UA 175 classified ? Was the Pentagon, or was it not, equipped with a missle defense system on 911, and if so, why did it utterly fail in preventing American Airlines flight 77 from crashing into the building? How, why and by who's design was vice president Dick Cheney granted unprecedented command and control of all US air defense training and coordination only three months before the 911 attacks? and: By whom and for what purpose were long-established aircraft intercept procedures and protocols significantly revised only three months prior to 911? How, when, by whom and for what purpose were the numerous air drills, (critical in the failures to intervene during the attacks), originally planned for October 2001, re-scheduled for the week of 9/10/2001? With the myriad air drills in progress on 911, (the essence of the official version and critical in the failures to respond to the attacks), why was only one briefly mentioned in a minor footnote deeply buried in the final report by the 911 Commission? Why were the results of 'Able Danger', a pre-911 intelligence operation that produced countless red flags about those that would eventually hijack airliners on 911, suppressed by both the congressional investigation and the 911 Commission? Why were libraries of Able Danger records destroyed both before and after the 911 attacks? Why were many critical investigations into those that would become hijackers thwarted by mid and upper level FBI supervisors? Why were numerous FBI operatives prevented from testifying? Why were volumes of National Security Agency files made available only days before the 911 Commission disbanded? When two FBI agents that were being repeatedly ignored by their supervisors about suspicious Muslim men taking flight training, they went to former Clinton prosecutor David Schippers. Mr Schippers contacted Attorney General Ashcroft many times, to no avail. Why was this critical failure ignored? Why was FBI translator Sibel Edmonds fired and gagged, her critical, 3 1/2 hour testimony about widespread incompetence and outright corruption within the FBI ignored? Why was the critical testimony by US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, (that sharply contradicted Cheney's rendition of events during the 911 attacks), not only ignored - but expunged from the Commission transcripts and video archives? For what reason does the 911 Commission claim that Cheney arrived in the White House command bunker at 10 AM on 911, when Mr Mineta clearly indicated and described Cheney's actions and commands that took place well before 9:30 AM? How, and by who's design were the members of Odigo, an Israeli owned text message service, warned fully two hours before the 911 attacks - and why wasn't this critical matter pursued by the 911 Commission? http://reddit.com/info/6c9re/comments. With confirmed, widespread identity theft and mistaken identites among the alleged hijackers, why hasn't the FBI revised the original list of the accused? How can the crime of the century be tied to al Qaeda, or anyone, when identities are known to be fraudulent? Why would ICTS, the Israeli owned company that provided security at Boston's Logan airport, Washington's Dulles airport and Newark's airport, (departure points for all four hijacked airliners), push for, (and receive), legislation to be inserted into the Patriot Act that gave them immunity from any liability in the 911 attacks? Why hasn't the FBI or any US law enforcement agency charged Osama bin Laden in the attacks on the United States of America on September 11, 2001? Why was the central objective of the crime not addressed? Why did every investigative body deliberately suppress the motive - the cause - the impetus behind the 911 attacks? Why has the mainstream media not reported on the fact the 911 Commission chairs Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton wrote a book that pointed out that the 911 Commission was set up to fail from the beginning? http://belowgroundsurface.org/ Yeah. By complete surprise. No one could have imagined it. Four airliners were hijacked by fanatical Muslims and three reached their targets on September 11, 2001. What could be worth hiding? Indeed. by Michael McCoy (7 articles, 1 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 488 comments [28 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Oct 17, 2008 at 4:21:46 PM  (0+)
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