9/11: Debunking The Myths

[Jara sang]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html?page=1&c=y

Interesting note, take a look at the name of the lead reporter on this article. If that name looks familiar, it should. Benjamin Chertoff is the cousin of Michael Chertoff the Secretary of Homeland Security. Conflict of interest? How exactly does adressing issues such as "No Stand-Down Orders" and Fighter Intercept protocols fall under the auspices of a magazine that devotes itself to science and technology?

PM examines the evidence and consults the experts to refute the most persistent conspiracy theories of September 11.

In the end, we were able to debunk each of these assertions with hard evidence and a healthy dose of common sense. We learned that a few theories are based on something as innocent as a reporting error on that chaotic day. Others are the byproducts of cynical imaginations that aim to inject suspicion and animosity into public debate. Only by confronting such poisonous claims with irrefutable facts can we understand what really happened on a day that is forever seared into world history.--THE EDITORS

REPORTING: Benjamin Chertoff, Davin Coburn, Michael Connery, David Enders, Kevin Haynes, Kristin Roth, Tracy Saelinger, Erik Sofge and the editors of POPULAR MECHANICS.

[JohnyCanuck]

1. Quick, someone tell Cynthia McKinney

she should save hereself some trouble and just read Popular Mechanics to get the scoop on 9/11. :sarcasm:

On July 22, 2005, Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) will host a full-day briefing, co-sponsored by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), and other sponsors, for Members of Congress and their staffs in the Caucus Room, Cannon House Office Building, Room 345, Independence Ave. & First Street SE, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. One year after the release of the 9/11 Commission Final Report many questions about what transpired on September 11, 2001 and who should be held accountable still remain unanswered. Serious flaws and omissions in the Report have been addressed by whistleblowers and academics. Well known researchers and authors have put the events of that day into historical perspective, and have suggested possible alternatives to the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission regarding intelligence reform, domestic and foreign policy. The hard evidence has yet to be properly evaluated, and points to the need for full transparency, release of information, and continued probative investigations to have an effective, democratic response to the crisis that confronts all of us.

Family members of the victims of 9/11 will present a “Report Card” to address their still unanswered questions about the events of 9/11 and the lack of accountability for the security and intelligence failures that may have allowed these events to happen. Other experts will speak to the flaws in the 9/11 Commission’s process, including conflicts of interest, lack of transparency, investigative rigor and public input, and the many whistleblowers ignored by the Commission.

One panel of experts will explore the omissions and errors in the Commission’s Final Report, including the timeline of NORAD/FAA and P-56 defense responses that day, the suspects and plot, the background of Al Qaeda and bin Laden, the involvement of other countries, the obstruction of investigations by the FBI and CIA, and foreknowledge and forewarnings prior to the attacks. Another panel will place 9/11 into historical perspective and look at the flawed assumptions that misled the Commission’s work, including the politics of illegal drugs, oil investments, covert operations and terrorism, as well as past covert operations like Contragate and the rise of the neo-conservatives and their agenda.

http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=592&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[ChiDem]

4. The briefing is on the 22nd ?

Thats the Friday the 'torture pics' are suppose to come out...right ?

We won't hear a thing about it.

[BeFree]

11. Ahhh, yes...

...Let us begin the second Commission on 9/11. And who better to lead such an inquiry than Ms. McKinney?

Maybe this time we get some real answers and not a whitewash?

[Celebration]

2. cousins?

Have they met? Do they know how they are related? *Cousins* is VERY BROAD. Is it first cousin, second cousin, third cousin? Let's say it is third cousin. Do you have the same political leanings as your third cousin? Do you even know the political leanings of your third cousin? Do you go to family reunions with distant cousins attending? Do you all have the same agenda? Sorry, I buy into a WHOLE LOT of the wtf stuff with nine eleven but this is the absolute worst argument-- having the same last name. Good grief, my own sister is a RED voter. And yes, I love her anyway.

[RC]

5. What about the fact that this article reads as if it was

vetted by the White House? It is nothing more than a proaganda piece. I've read it.
Enjoy your stay.

[Jara sang]

6. Sure, just a coincidence...

Wow! What are the odds? :eyes:

[hfojvt]

8. no, when you say "the" cousin

then 1st cousin is implied, and sure I do not have the same political leanings as all of my first cousins, but I am not part of a crime family either. If one of my first cousins was "the head" of something like homeland security, it would be pretty good odds that I would be using him for connections and employment, and with connected employment comes a conflict of interest. It does not prove anything, no, but it raises suspicions, especially if it is not disclosed up front.

[Celebration]

13. they are NOT first cousins

They just aren't. Who says they are a crime family? Apparently the two are distantly related but probably have never met.

[hfojvt]

14. crime family was just a metaphor

since they are in the administration of the Bush crime family - the point being Chertoff is a person with power and connections.

However I am just going by the one source. If they are not first cousins, then it never should have been stated that he is "the" cousin ... That implies, perhaps erroneously, that they are first cousins. Otherwise you say "a" cousin or "a relative". Even "a" cousin probably implies 1st cousin, otherwise you say "a distant" cousin.

By the way, how do you know they are not 1st cousins?

[Celebration]

16. heard Chertoff interviewed

I think he debunks some things well, and other things not well at all. Nobody can ever explain to me the "coincidence" of the various warnings that people got ahead of time, and why couldn't we track down the put options, etc. But back to the point, the cousin thing was some reporter asked Chertoff's mom if they were related, and she said yes. Chertoff is a generation younger, and apparently was not aware of any family connection to the "cousin." He said he had never met him and the connection was generations back. I seriously doubt he was lying about this, because it would be so easy to disprove.

[H5N1]

3. That debunks nothing

They don't even touch the tip of the iceberg!

[pocket]

17. damn right it doesn't

they are acting as a mouthpiece for the BFEE, plain and simple

[hfojvt]

7. also it is nice that they set out to "refute"

rather than examine the evidence and weigh the claims.

[pnorman]

9. I've bookmarked that article for later and INTENSIVE reading.

I advise others here to do the same before condemning/smearing it out of hand. That name "Chertoff" should sound a small alert, but that's all. The true CRIME of 9-11 was it's HIJACKING IN BEHALF OF THE PNAC AGENDA. Let's not get too sidetracked by what may turn out to be diversionary Radar Chaff.

pnorman

[Jara sang]

10. The Chertoff thing did set off some alarms.

What I found of particular note was Popular Mechanics trying refute the theory that U.S. Military planes were ordered to stand down on 9/11. Now, first of all, how does that issue deal with such things as science and technology? You could grasp at straws here and say, well, those planes are high-tech machinery, but still an order to stand down deals with chain of command in a tactical situation. That is a policy issue, it has nothing to do with what Popular Mechanics is known for which is reporting on science and technology.

[pnorman]

12. This is the sort of discussion of that article that I had hoped to see,

rather than pointless short-cycling over the name of "Chertoff".

pnorman

[Al-CIAda]

15. Michael Chertoff-

Did Bush's New Homeland Security Nominee Protect Terror-Linked Doctor from Prosecution?
Bernard Kerik, Michael Chertoff... Who's Next?  Tony Soprano?
Daniel Hopsicker
January 12, 2005 - Venice, FL

Michael Chertoff, appointed by President Bush to head the Homeland Security Department, may have shielded from criminal prosecution a former client suspected by law enforcement of having funneled millions of dollars directly to Osama Bin Laden while in charge of the U.S. Government’s 9.11 investigation.

Egyptian-born Dr. Magdy el-Amir, a prominent New Jersey neurologist, was at the center of terrorist intrigue in Jersey City.

-El-Amir gave money to a conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.

-His brother in Cairo was caught on tape attempting to buy weapons from an American undercover agent for Islamic militant groups.

-Before being arrested in a terrorist deal involving oil and heroin for guns and training, arms smuggler Diaa Mohsen was paid at least $5,000 by one of Dr. el Amir's companies, NBC’s Dateline reported.

And his HMO was suspected by law enforcement of being used to funnel money directly to Osama bin laden.  


Wire Transfers to "Unknown Parties"

Chertoff’s client "caused more than $5.7 million to be paid by wire transfers to unknown parties," said the lawsuit filed shortly before the state took over his failing HMO. News accounts about el-Amir’s legal difficulties contain unanswered questions about undue political influence and its effect on national security.
For example, how did el-Amir, who only the month before had been granted a state license to operate an HMO, finagle a lucrative contract from the state of New Jersey in 1995?

“Why was this doctor allowed to start a health plan?” asked the October 25, 1999 issue of the medical trade journal Medical Economics.

“How could this medical entrepreneur, who had no experience running a managed-care or health insurance company, receive a license for an HMO that now provides care to 44,000 of New Jersey's most vulnerable citizens?" asked The Bergen Record. “Moreover, how could the state pay such a novice $ 6 million a month in taxpayers money to take on such a responsibility?”

Why did Michael Chertoff even take the case? 


Skimming for Osama in New Jersey

Answers were slow in coming, until it was revealed that at the same time el-Amir was pitching state business he had begun making generous contributions to the governing Republican party, donating nearly $ 18,000 to various GOP candidates in 1996. 

And a foreign intelligence report made available to the Chairman of the House International Committee alleged that an HMO owned by Dr. el Amir in New Jersey was “funded by Ben Laden,” and that in turn Dr. el Amir was skimming money from the HMO to fund “terrorist activities.”’…

 Stuff like that doesn’t happen, does it?  In New Jersey?

Barely three years after enrolling its first patient, APPP lay in financial ruins, its network doctors and hospitals were saddled with millions of dollars in unpaid claims, and its founder had retained the services of Michael Chertoff.

Did Chertoff know where the stolen money was going?

"Frankly, we can't differentiate between terrorism and organized crime and drug dealing," then-Asst Attorney General Michael Chertoff told the Senate Banking Committee looking into the terrorists’ money trail in the aftermath of 9.11.

“These groups don't hold themselves independently: They work with one another. Terrorists get engaged in drug activity. They have relationships with organized crime," Chertoff said.
 

Paging Tony Soprano

Chertoff was undoubtedly worth every penny Dr. Magdy paid him: though doctors and hospitals calculated they were owed more than $45 million, Dr. ElAmir faced no criminal charges.

When the MadCow Morning News first reported on Mob and terrorist connections to "Magic Dutch Boy” Rudi Dekkers and the covert operations conducted at the Venice Airport, Michael Chertoff was running the official U.S. investigation.

 Dekkers remains free. 

Magdy el-Amir continues to live and practice in New Jersey.

Now that Chertoff has been tapped to keep America safe, questions are sure to resurface about whether he hadn’t himself been instrumental in helping to make America dangerous.

Documents in the el-Amir case remain under seal. Fortunately, the following information does not.  From the Bergen County Record (New Jersey) on January 24, 1999:  
------
Chertoff for the Defense

The el-Amir’s appear to be intimately linked with Osama bin Laden, making the following report from The Bergen Record quite puzzling, dated December 11, 1998:

 “A Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered state Insurance Commissioner… to take control of American Preferred Provider Plan Inc., a health-maintenance organization for Medicaid patients allegedly bled dry by its Saddle River owner, neurologist Magdy Elamir”…

“But in a hint of the gravity of his legal predicament, he was represented in court by Michael Chertoff, the former U.S. attorney in Newark and counsel to U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato’s Whitewater investigation.” Link

Yes, the soon-to-be Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff represented a known bin Laden operative. Perhaps more troubling, Chertoff also headed the U.S.’s investigation into the September 11th attack. From the New Jersey Law Journal, August 4, 2003:

LINK-
http://www.madcowprod.com/01122004.html

============
Operation Diamond Back
Interview with FBI Whistblower Randy Glass
Originally aired: 07/02/04
http://innworldreport.net/video/2004-07-02/glass.html

----
Glass was an FBI informant working deep cover sting operations to net illegal arms deals. In the summer of 1999 he met, while wearing a wire, two men with ties to Pakistan's ISI, one of whom pointed to the World Trade Center and said "those towers are coming down." One of the dealers he met was Elamir's brother.
In July 2001, Glass took warning of imminent attacks to public officials, including Senator Bob Graham. His fax to Graham read "I've told you repeatedly about my terrorist case...the threats of blowing up the World Trade Center…Airplanes being used."
Glass believes, given his experience and what he saw from agents, that the FBI thwarted investigations which could have revealed 9/11. He also believes that Pakistan provided state sponsorship for the attacks.
A couple of excerpts from Paul Thompson's timeline:
July 14, 1999: US government informant Randy Glass records a conversation at a dinner attended by him, illegal arms dealers Diaa Mohsen and Mohammed Malik (see June 12, 2001), a former Egyptian judge named Shireen Shawky, and ISI agent Rajaa Gulum Abbas, held at a restaurant within view of the WTC. FBI agents pretending to be restaurant customers sit at nearby tables. (WPBF Channel 25, 8/5/02, MSNBC, 8/2/02) Abbas says he wants to buy a whole shipload of weapons stolen from the US military to give to bin Laden. (Cox News, 8/2/02) Abbas points to the WTC and says, "Those towers are coming down." This ISI agent later makes two other references to an attack on the WTC. (WPBF Channel 25, 8/5/02, Cox News, 8/2/02, Palm Beach Post, 10/17/02) Abbas also says "Americans are the enemy," and, "We would have no problem with blowing up this entire restaurant because it is full of Americans." (MSNBC, 3/18/03) The meeting is secretly recorded, and parts are shown on television in 2003 (see also August 17, 1999). (MSNBC, 3/18/03)
...
June 12, 2001: Operation Diamondback, a sting operation called uncovering an attempt to buy weapons illegally for the Taliban, bin Laden and others, ends with a number of arrests. An Egyptian named Diaa Mohsen and a Pakistani named Mohammed Malik are arrested, and accused of attempting to buy Stinger missiles, nuclear weapon components and other sophisticated military weaponry for the Pakistani ISI. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 8/23/01, Washington Post, 8/2/02) Malik appears to have had links to important Pakistani officials and Kashmiri terrorists, and Mohsen claims a connection to a man "who is very connected to the Taliban" and funded by bin Laden. (Washington Post, 8/2/02, MSNBC, 8/2/02) Some other ISI agents came to Florida on several occasions to negotiate, but they escaped being arrested. They wanted to partially pay in heroin. One mentioned that the WTC would be destroyed (see July 14, 1999 and Early August 2001). These ISI agents said some of their purchases would go to the Taliban in Afghanistan and/or terrorists associated with bin Laden. (New York Times, 6/16/01, Washington Post, 8/2/02 (B), MSNBC, 8/2/02) Both Malik and Mohsen lived in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Jersey Journal, 6/20/01) A number of the people held by the US after 9/11, including possible al-Qaeda members Syed Gul Mohammad Shah and Mohammed Azmath (see September 11, 2001) are from the same Jersey City neighborhood. (New York Post, 9/23/01) Mohsen pleads guilty after 9/11, "But remarkably, even though he was apparently willing to supply America's enemies with sophisticated weapons, even nuclear weapons technology, Mohsen was sentenced to just 30 months in prison." (MSNBC, 8/2/02) Malik's case appears to have been dropped, and reporters find him working in a store in Florida less than a year after the trial ended. (MSNBC, 8/2/02) Malik's court files remain completely sealed, and in Mohsen's court case prosecutors "removed references to Pakistan from public filings because of diplomatic concerns." (Washington Post 8/8/02)

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/randyglass.html

=========

Flashback:Chertoff headed the anthrax investigation

The legislation allows intelligence officials to share information with prosecutors for the first time. The immediate effect will be that a bundle of intelligence files from the CIA and other agencies on terrorism suspects will be shipped to a Justice Department terrorism task force headed by Attorney General Michael Chertoff.
Files on prior attacks and radical groups gathered before the Sept. 11 attacks are of particular interest for what they may reveal about possible new attacks, Justice Department officials said.
While new intelligence information will be available, investigators are still waiting for tests that will show whether the anthrax sent to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., was treated with chemical additives. That would indicate the anthrax probably is produced in a sophisticated state-sponsored lab. Officials have cited early indications that the anthrax attacks might be the work of a domestic terrorist. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said the anthrax sent to Daschle was altered to make it more easily inhaled.

http://www.courttv.com/assault_on_america/1026_terrorlaws_ap.html