A Day in the Life of my Family: September 11, 2001

[Time for change]

As we approach the end of perhaps the most shameful eight years in the history of our nation, I think about the most momentous day of those eight years. That day continues to loom large, not only in our past, but more importantly, to our future. Yet our nation has not by a long shot yet come to terms with the events of that day.

My family experienced that day more close up than most Americans. To us, it has always, from the very first day, been experienced with a great sense of unreality – as something akin to “1984” or “Through the Looking Glass”.

This is how we experienced that day, as best we can recall it:


Me and my son on Tuesday morning until about 11 a.m.

I was sitting in a meeting in a co-worker’s office, in the FDA building where I work in Rockville, Maryland, about eight miles from the Washington DC border, when somebody popped into the office to tell us about the first plane hitting the north tower of the World Trade Center, at 8:45 a.m. Like most people, we didn’t think much about it at the time, except to wonder what could have gone wrong to cause such an accident.

A few minutes later I was back in my own office, talking with another co-worker, Lori, when someone popped in to tell us about the second plane hitting the south tower, at 9:03 a.m. With that news it became immediately obvious to us that two planes hitting the World Trade Center within a few minutes of each other was no coincidence. We were under attack.

Lori and I then began discussing our situation. While we were talking about it, my son Kevin, who was then working for Lockheed Martin in Crystal City, Virginia, as an IT specialist, sent me an e-mail telling me that he was hearing rumors that the Pentagon was going to be “bombed”. His office was located a few blocks from the Pentagon, and many of the men with whom he worked were former fighter pilots who had direct and frequent contact with Pentagon officials.

Lori and I then began discussing this startling revelation of rumors that the Pentagon was about to be “bombed”. But shortly into our conversation, one of us (or maybe both, I can’t remember) stopped and commented on how ridiculous that idea was. How could another country possibly penetrate the air space of the capital city of a nation that spent nearly a trillion dollars annually on defense? We both agreed that the idea was absurd in the extreme, and we decided not to worry about it.

Lori then left my office, and within seconds I received another e-mail from Kevin, saying that the Pentagon was just “bombed”. He sent me that e-mail within seconds of the event. Kevin had just heard a tremendous screech from the phone on which his supervisor had been talking with a General from the Pentagon. Kevin’s supervisor then turned to Kevin and said “Oh my god, the Pentagon’s just been bombed”. It was 9:43 a.m.

Within the next hour, Kevin requested that I give him a ride home (he was then living with me and my wife). The metro line that he relied upon to get home was closed because it went through the Pentagon, and nobody had any idea when it would reopen. Things were pretty crazy in that area. Kevin told me that when he momentarily walked outside his building he had to run back in because some crazy guy was shooting a gun at people, including him.


My trip to DC

So I took off in my car towards Kevin’s work place. As I traveled south towards DC on George Washington Parkway I could see that northwards traffic out of DC on the other side of the divide had become a parking lot, while southwards traffic was rapidly thinning out. When my car became the only one left on the road I thought that maybe I had missed an announcement or something, but I didn’t see any signs telling me to turn back, so I kept going.

I finally reached a blockade, shortly before the exit that would take me on a bridge over the Potomac River, to Virginia and Kevin’s building. I could see the smoke rising from the Pentagon across the river, and I thought I was probably about a mile from Kevin’s building at that point. I parked my car along the side of the road and started walking towards the entrance to the bridge (I didn’t own a cell phone at that time, so I had no way of contacting Kevin).

But right before the entrance to the bridge I encountered a policewoman, who told me I wasn’t allowed to enter, even on foot. I explained to her that I only wanted to pick up my son and take him home, but to no avail. She wouldn’t explain to me why I couldn’t cross, just something about “security”.

Finally I gave up and walked back to my car, after attempting to get directions from the policewoman on how to find another way to get to the other side of the river. But her directions were lousy, I got lost, and the traffic was awful. After wandering around in the traffic aimlessly for about an hour or two, I finally gave up and drove back home, which took me another three hours or so. Later that day the metro opened, and Kevin returned home by about eight in the evening.


My thoughts in the aftermath of the attack

Sometimes I have wondered why I never experienced the anger towards the Islamic fundamentalists or “Islamo-fascists” that so many other Americans experienced. I can only make an educated guess about that.

As I drove towards DC on September 11, I don’t recall experiencing any hatred towards the attackers. I just wanted to pick up my son and get him home. Nor did I believe myself to be in any danger. Probably I was too bewildered to make sense out of what was going on. Nothing seemed real to me.

On the evening of the 11th and 12th I got a chance to discuss it with Kevin. He had a larger perspective on the matter than I did, since he was a member of DU and I wasn’t. He explained to me why he believed that the Bush administration was complicit in the attacks. Then it started to make sense to me for the first time.

When I later read Will Pitt’s book, “The Greatest Sedition is Silence – Four Years in America”, I became more convinced about Bush administration complicity in the attacks, even though the 9/11 attacks were only a peripheral focus of that book. When I read David Ray Griffin’s book, “The 9/11 Commission Report – Omissions and Distortions”, I became almost totally convinced of Bush administration complicity. But the truth is that there was never a time in my life when I believed that Islamic fundamentalism posed a major threat to the survival or security of our country.


My daughter on 9/11

My daughter Carrie lived in Brooklyn, New York at the time. On the morning of 9/11 she was getting ready for her first day of her new job, teaching acting to college students at Long Island University. When she saw the first plane hit the north tower on TV she decided she’d better leave for work a little earlier than planned, because of the likelihood of increased traffic.

So she got in her car and started driving towards Long Island. Shortly after entering a road that runs parallel to the East River, which separates Brooklyn from Manhattan, traffic came to a complete stop. She could see smoke rising from the north tower of the WTC on the other side of the river, about a mile away.

When the second plane hit the south tower at 9:03, all Carrie could see was a vast amount of fiery smoke obscuring the tower. When the south tower collapsed at 10:05, all Carrie noticed was a big change in the pattern of the smoke. When the north tower collapsed at 10:28, again, all she could see was a big change in the pattern of the smoke. But after each of these events, within seconds she heard on the radio what had happened, so she knew what was going on.

All Carrie wanted to do was turn around and go home, so that she didn’t have to keep on witnessing these events. But she couldn’t because of the traffic. She considered getting out of her car and walking home, but decided against that because, in the event that this really wasn’t the end of the world, she might get in trouble for doing that or lose her car. She tried to use her cell phone to call us and her friends, but she couldn’t because cell phones weren’t working that day in New York. Hoards of people were pouring across the Manhattan Bridge on foot, going from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Carrie was thinking that most of her friends and family would be dead by the end of the day, because of the many conflicting reports she was hearing on several different radio stations, and since most of her friends and family lived either in New York City or the Washington DC area. And she kept on asking herself, “Where are the fucking fighter planes?”

Finally some Hassidic Jews came on the scene, in what appeared to be an organized rescue mission. They gave help to those who needed it and they manipulated the traffic to get it flowing again. By about 11:00 a.m. Carrie was able to turn around and go back to her apartment in Brooklyn.


Carrie’s thoughts in the aftermath of the attacks

While in her car and afterwards, Carrie listened a lot to radio station WBIA, “Peace and Justice Radio”, which had much the same thoughts as her: “Where are the fucking fighter planes?" WBIA was as bewildered about the whole thing as me and my family. To explain the success of the attacks, they postulated that someone must have knocked out our air defenses.

Over the next few days Carrie listened a lot to WBIA, as they asked and explored how our country could have ever let this happen. They asked how the so-called “terrorists” could have been identified so quickly after the attacks, and contrasted that quick identification to the near paralysis that our government exhibited during the attacks themselves. They asked how WTC Building 7 could have collapsed, even though it wasn’t hit. More important than that, they asked how Mayor Giuliani was able to announce in advance that WTC 7 was going to collapse. Within a few days they were talking about how the military exercises that were scheduled on 9/11 might have contributed to the paralysis of our government on that day.

So, that is the route by which Carrie came to have the same opinion about the causes of 9/11 that Kevin and my wife and I have.


The meaning of the 9/11 attacks

Two salient facts stand out today, just as they did ever since our country was attacked on September 11, 2001: 1) Our foreign policy is driven by those attacks more than by anything else, and 2) Yet, the cause of the attacks has never been adequately investigated.

From the beginning, our invasion of Afghanistan was predicated on the supposition that the ruling Taliban was harboring the man responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Yet, the Bush government never produced proof of bin Laden’s involvement, the Taliban agreed to extradite bin Laden to Pakistan – an American ally – to stand trial, and yet Bush adamantly refused to negotiate with the Taliban on the issue. Bush wanted his war. End of story.

Now we have a new president who says that he will escalate the war in Afghanistan and, while promising to withdraw from Iraq, will maintain a residual force to ensure that terrorism doesn’t take hold there. But the details of that plan remain unclear, and it is not clear that retaining a “residual force” in Iraq will be considered to be the end of our occupation by the Iraqis. Robert Dreyfuss, in an article in The Nation, expresses this concern:

Equally troubling, Obama made it through the entire campaign refusing to say much about his plans for Iraq besides the withdrawal, including what a residual force might look like, i.e., how many troops might remain in Iraq after the withdrawal of combat brigades, and what their mission might be.

An editorial in The Nation points out the dangers of escalating the war in Afghanistan:

The United States and its NATO allies are losing the war in Afghanistan not because we have had too few military forces but because our military presence, along with the corruption of the Hamid Karzai government, has gradually turned the Afghan population against us, swelling the ranks of Taliban recruits. American airstrikes have repeatedly killed innocent civilians…. More troops may only engender more anti-American resistance… Second, securing Afghanistan is not necessary to US security and may actually undermine our goal of defeating Al Qaeda…. American safety thus depends not on eliminating faraway safe havens for Al Qaeda but on common-sense counterterrorist and national security measures – extensive intelligence cooperation…

Yet, despite the extraordinary degree to which our policies are driven by the so-called “War on Terror”, the events of September 11th continue to remain woefully under-investigated. I don’t want to debate in this thread who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, since I don’t want it transferred to the September 11th forum. But whoever one believes was responsible for the attacks, there is no question that the 9/11 Commission was exceedingly deferential to the Bush administration during its investigation. Chairman Kean made it clear from the beginning that “…our fundamental purpose will not be to point fingers.” By design, several opportunities to obtain more and better information were lost, as Philip Shenon explains in “The Commission – The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation”, by virtue of the fact that: “There would be no routine subpoenas, they decreed; subpoenas would be seen as too confrontational, perhaps choking off cooperation by the Bush administration.” And they refused to even consider the possibility of Bush administration complicity in the event, contemptuously referring to such ideas as “irrational conspiracy theories”.

The idea of committing our country to an endless war based on unproven assertions of the causes of a single event is absurd and dangerous in the extreme. The Obama administration should seriously rethink our “War on Terror” and arrange for a thorough investigation of the events of 9/11. Otherwise we risk continuing our spiral of death and destruction to the point of no return.

[rosesaylavee]

1. I am willing to give Obama about 100 days

I am not at all thrilled about either war continuing or shifting or our troops deploying from one location to the next. I have some hope that Obama has facts that are leading to his initial decisions in all this that I don't have. However, I won't sit still very long... it better start making sense fast come spring. I believe that we as a people were complicit in 911. We were too lulled into thinking that our government was working for our own welfare and good and so were completely caught flat-footed by these criminals and their murder of our innocents on that date and since.

I am hopeful that Obama feels the same about justice as I do - but I won't wait more than a 100 days.

[LWolf]

2. You certainly experienced 9/11

up close and personal in a way I didn't.

Our conclusions are the same.

I started 2001 experiencing a personal terrorist attack, metaphorically speaking. I lost family, I lost a home, I lost income, and spent the first 9 months of 2001 grieving and attempting to create a new life out of the ashes of my old.

Nothing earth-shaking to anyone but to me, and to my sons, who love me.

Sometime during the last days of August I was in an accident that left me with a severe frontal lobe concussion, nerve damage, the loss of my olfactory nerves, memory loss, and a helicopter ride to a stay in ICU, and later the regular wing of the hospital. I remember almost nothing of this, from the moment to the attack until the day they sent me home. September 10th. I lost almost 2 weeks, and I've never gained them back.

On the morning of 9/11, my oldest son called to demand that I "turn the tv on." I was surprised, since he knew I refused to watch tv news.

"Just turn it on!" He yelled. So I did. I watched for about 10 minutes, and turned it off. My thoughts, at the time:

"What a terrible thing for those people. What a worse thing for the rest of us. The pretender has his foot in the door, now. Citizens and government are going to roll over for him, some out of fear, some from the desire for revenge. We're screwed."

I was emotionally detached from the shock, awe, rage, fear, and grief that the rest of the nation experienced. I never did experience any of that. I'd spent the whole year with those emotions, centered on the destruction of my own life. And I was recovering from a significant brain injury. The dread, and the anger, that I felt centered on those who would give GWB a blank check in response, and what he would do with that power.

And, logically, whether or not he sought that power deliberately, or allowed the situation to develop to deliver it to him. I don't believe in coincidences on that scale.

I haven't been proved wrong.

While I concur with your wish to see Obama provide some clarity, and some closure, I don't hold out any hope for that. He has made it more than clear that he intends to aggressively continue the "war on terror."

[Time for change]

13. I'm sorry about your losses

Hope you've recovered most of them.

Yes, the scale of coincidences that we're supposed to believe is huge.

I must admit that I really do not know what Obama believes about this. Can he really take our "War on Terror" seriously? He's obviously a very intelligent man. Clearly, he had to talk tough during the campaign in order to fend of the attacks about being a Muslim and soft on terrorism, and all that. Hopefully it was just tactical maneuvering when he talked about escalating in Afghanistan. Certainly he should be able to find a reason to reverse course on that. Unfortunately though, sometimes when politicians talk like that too much they eventually end up believing it themselves.

[LWolf]

15. I hope you are correct.

I was put on alert last summer:

<snip>

Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, said on Sunday, while visiting Afghanistan, that if the United States had “actionable intelligence against high-value Al Qaeda targets, and the Pakistani government was unwilling to go after those targets,” the United States should strike. Mr. Obama, of Illinois, has been viewed warily in Pakistan because of similar previous comments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/world/asia/22tribal.html

I'm uneasy about what to expect.

[defendandprotect]

24. I didn't get it right away -

LIHOP, that is ...

Everything was happening so quickly and I was riveted on loss of lives --

people dying in those buildings -- 350 firemen not called out of the

buildings --!!!!!

Only much later was I able to see that the Firefighters knew the fires were

contained -- jet fuel burned off after 10 minutes -- and that they understood

what was and what was NOT going to happen in all-steel buildings.

They didn't count on bombs, however ... nor demolition.

The Pentagon tale is what began to ring up as fake --

Also want to mention as a native New Yorker long living in NJ that I also

saw this as an attack on the city and New Yorkers the r-w detests.

[LWolf]

47. That's an interesting twist.

As a left-coaster, the closest I've been to New York is Nebraska/Kansas, in 1976, and Georgia, in 1965.

I was just a kid.

New York is as foreign and exotic to me as anyplace else east of the Rockies and beyond the borders (barring Mexico) would be.

[defendandprotect]

58. However, your personal journies aside . . .

If you're not terribly young, weren't you aware of the animosity that

the Repugs had for NYC?

Liberal and all???

Also think they'd like to see the money centers moved to Dallas --

or Austin --

They've done their best to crush NYC economically --

and then 9/11 did a pretty good job.

There was a lot of trouble with the WTC buildings which they've kept

very quiet. Seems they were going to have to be dismantled -- no demolition.

Hugely expensive.

I think the evidence of the musical chairs with the changing of ownership

in the WTC and insurance games, plus the "put options" all add up to MIHOP.

[LWolf]

68. I'm 48.

And no, I have to say that I've had no awareness of republican animosity towards NY in particular; I've been aware of the greater animosity towards economic and social justice everywhere.

As I tried to say, NY, the east coast of the U.S., the nation east of the rockies, is as foreign to me as all the other places on the planet I've never been.

I can read about it, of course. I've noticed that many people seem to think that reading about, hearing about, talking about, a particular issue, situation, etc., without ever having experienced it first hand, makes them informed enough to judge.

I see it all the time, for example, with my profession. Everybody who has never been on the front lines in a public school classroom thinks they have the answer to "fix" public education. The disconnect is extreme.

So I'll read, I'll listen, I'll think...but I know when I'm missing the key ingredient of first-hand knowledge.

I do appreciate you giving me more information to think about.

[defendandprotect]

72. Well . . . as I recall it . . .

Nixon, especially, began the attacks on their enemies -

liberals, Jews, whatever -- and helping those who helped them

at the expense of others. By the time we got to Ford, that

trend was more noticeable and open as the cities began to be

hurt by the economy. Nixon introduced "uncertainty" into the

stock markets by design. You can't make much money from certainty --

which is the result of regulated-capitalism.

So IMO they have continued trying to hurt those areas that they've

seen as hurting them. And rewarding corruption that works for them.

I've been aware of the greater animosity towards economic and social justice everywhere.

And, yes, agree that is absolutely true --

You might say, most of us are their enemies?


As I tried to say, NY, the east coast of the U.S., the nation east of the rockies, is as foreign to me as all the other places on the planet I've never been.

Same here -- I've never been to the West Coast.


PS: Of course, IMO, we're all enemies of the GOP --

women, homosexuals and on and on -- anyone who wants freedom and liberty.

But did want to elaborate on Nixon and "Jews" . . . evidently, many were very

anxious about how Nixon would treat Israel. And then seemingly relieved.

However, it has become clear that what Nixon did was arm right-wing religously

fanatical Israel. (In echoes of what we later did in Afghanistan with Taliban

and baiting the Russians in in hopes of giving them a Vietnam type experience?)

They say that Israeli and US weapons production is so intertwined that you can

barely tell the difference bewseen them.

[RetiredTrotskyite]

49. I Believe That...

at the very least it was LIHOP and at the worst MIHOP. I don't honestly know which. How else did they know who the alleged hijackers were so quickly? How come they weren't on it BEFORE it happened? Actually some agents, such as Colleen Rowley, appear to have been, but were stymied by higher-ups. The Minneapolis office of the FBI tried to connect with FBI Washington, D.C., but from what I can tell, they were completely blown off.

Both the WTC AND the Pentagon stories don't sound right. How come the firemen (Palmer and Bucca) who made it to the 78th floor of the South Tower felt the fires ("two isolated pockets of fire") could be "knocked down by 2 lines", only to have it collapse on them five or six minutes later? And what was up with WTC 7? As for the Pentagon, that hole looks like nothing that would be caused by a 757. I've never seen any footage where there is anything vaguely resembling wreckage from a 757. It is claimed the plane "vaporised"--somthing--the tail if nothing else--should have survived. How the hell could a plane completely vaporise and still leave DNA to help identify those aboard Flight 77? That makes NO sense. No solid "proof", just a real strong feeling that the "Truthers" might be onto something here.

I really feel for you, Time for Change and everyone who was so close to the horrendous events of that day. I was homeless at the time, living in a shelter in San Francisco. A fellow shelter-mate ran in and told me I should go to the TV room because a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I walked into the TV room just in time to see the second jet hit the South Tower. I remember walking down a deserted Market Street--it reminded me of a scene of a deserted San Francisco in the movie "On the Beach". I remember thinking that this was our Pearl Harbour--given that Pearl Harbour is widely beleieved to have been allowed to get us into World Wat II, I believe that assessment was correct. The first thought in my mind was:"OK, now where is Bush in all of this?" (if nothing else, it shows how cynical of our government I had already become by that point).I went to a friend's house and watched as the towers fell, crumbling into dust and twisted steel, killing thousands in the process. And where was Bush? Flying all over the country in Air Force One. He disgusted me that day. I watched footage of him at the school in Florida, looking shifty eyed and nodding. He later stated that he saw the first plane strike the North Tower--only problem was that the only footage of the first strike is in the Naudet brothers film that was still being recorded at the time and not shown on TV that day, at least so far as I am aware.

As time went on, I suspected the official story even more. How could a flight-school flunk out like Hani Hanjour pull off a tight, spiraling dive that most experienced pilots admit that they would not be able to do? Several pilots later stated that such a tight, spiraling turn would cause a high-speed stall. These guys are pilots so they ought to have a good idea of what can and cannot be done by someone piloting a 757. The air space over Washington, especially the airspace over places like the Pentagon is some of the most heavily defended airspace on the planet--so how did Hani Hanjour penetrate it? How come he just happened to hit the wedge which was most sparsely occupied? How could steel-framed buildings with massive cores simply collapse into dust and twisted steel when NO steel-framed building in history has collapsed due to fire?! How could an experienced Battalion Chief like Orio Palmer and a Fire Marshal like Ron Bucca say that a fire was containable and then five minutes later, the building collapses? Something is very fishy.

The only reason that there even was the 9/11 Commission was because the 9/11 families agitated for an investigation. Bush and Giuliani were dead set against an investigation. Why were they against it if they had nothing to hide? Many of the 9/11 families do not believe the whole truth was told at the Keane Commission hearings, nor do I. There needs to be an]unbiased/i] investigation into the events of that terrible day and let the chips fall where they may. If the "official theory" turns out to be correct, so be it. If individuals in the government are implicated, then so be it. I get so tired of people saying that if you think something is fishy you are disrespecting those who died that terrible day.The memory of the victims is being disrespected when, with so many indications that there is something very wrong with "the official story", people are content to take the Keane Commission report at face value. I believe that their deaths still cry out for justice.

[defendandprotect]

59. Agree ---

[nashville_brook]

32. without injury, i felt what i can only call "angry detachment" --

i knew the same thing -- that the country was now going to roll over for anything and everything Cheney-Bush threw at us. i felt incredibly ALONE in this fact as no one else i knew had this immediate reaction, and it sure as hell didn't have voice in the media.

i too don't hold out any hope for obama to set the record straight. when clinton failed to set the record straight on iran-contra i was devastated. "how could this be" i ranted. now we see that poppy bush is bill clinton's bestest friend and hillary will be our new sec of state. to quote the late/great kurt vonnegut -- "so it goes."

[LWolf]

48. "angry detachment" describes my state of mind perfectly. nt

[nashville_brook]

54. here's to the angrily detached!

[puebloknot]

57. Even with a significant brain injury, you were/are able to dispassionately ...

... look at the reality of 9/11 and stay about the madding crowd with regard to being told what to think and feel about that event.

There's too much smoke. There's fire somewhere and I hope we have a chance to find out the truth of 9/11 while yet we live.

Best wishes for good health!

[LWolf]

67. Thank you for the good wishes.

This many years later, the only seemingly permanent effect is my inability to smell anything.

I, too, hope that we will find out the truth in our lifetimes.

:hi:

[Demeter]

3. I Am Hoping It Won't Take 60 Years for the Truth to Surface

as was the case for many a WWII scandal and conspiracy.

[Time for change]

31. Yes -- And let's not forget the JFK assassination

We're still waiting for that.

A great deal has come out about that, but the "official" story line still holds.

[malaise]

4. Very good post

K & R

[truedelphi]

5. Thank you for your postings.

I was very ambivalent for awhile about the attack.

So many things did not add up. On the one hand, it seemed our government was complicit. On the other hand, maybe our government was just totally screwed up. Having worked for tiny agencies with teeny tiny bureauracies whose rules and regs thwarted the achievement of the agencies' mission statements, I realized it was possible that maybe our governemnt, with its myriad bureaucracies operating on a gigantic scale, might simply have screwed up.

But then C Span began showing the live taping of the 9/11 Commission hearings. I could not believe what was being said.

When asked why it was that the planes called in to defend the nation's Capital came from Langley AFB, some 130 miles out of Washington DC, rather than Andrews AFB, some eleven miles away from the Pentagon, the NORAD General who responded answered with a straight face that it was simply not possible for NORAD to contact Andrews because only the Secret Service had the phone number for Andrews!?!

This too me was just far too preposterous to be believable. But not only did the Commission accept the answer, the COmmission did not even seem shocked by that answer.

We taxpayers had spent 34 Trillion dollars since the end of the nineteen fifties to keep our nation safe, and yet my mother's Church Sodality group employed a better phone tree system than NORAD??

If this had been the only answer that seemed so far fetched that my head almost imploded from the incredulity of it all, I might have remained skeptical of the 9/11 Truth groups and their statements. But question after question was asked byt eh COmmission, only to be answered by some of the msot bewildering testimony ever heard in any halls of commission-dom.

Curious discussions like this one were entertained: Why is it that the responding planes from Andrews flew out over the ocean towards Russia during the first minutes of their flight?
Oh, because no one at NORAD had considered the possibility of an attack on our nation's Capital coming from within. (Which is not even a true statement - small plane pilots who approach certain sections of Washington DC have historically been directed away from those locations by fighter jets - none of which EVER first flew out over the ocean to oppose incoming Russian jets.) Another answer to that question was that the planes had to, in an attack situation, obey various local neighborhood sound ordinances rather than respond quickly. (That may be how they operated, but believe me, I have a cousin in the Air Force, and he say when our nation is under attack, sound ordinances are to be ignored.)

[Time for change]

25. Yes

One of the most preposterous stories in American history ever. As you say, there were so many preposterous explanations brought forth by the 9/11 Commission and others. To me, the most preposterous of all, and what sealed it for me was, "Where the fuck were the fighter planes?" Oh yeah, now I remember, Condi said that no one could have anticipated this.

Here's what I wrote about it a long time ago:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=125&topic_id=73406

But let's not discuss that. That thread was transferred to the 9/11 forum in 24 minutes, and I don't want that to happen to this one.

[Baby Snooks]

28. The planes...

The planes have always indicated to me that there was complicity somewhere. Four planes don't just leave their flight path without causing alarm. And yet no one was alarmed. Nothing was done to intercept them. That is a fact no one can dispute - all the official explanations which disputed it can and have been disputed which leaves the undisputed fact that those planes were not intercepted. Someone knew the planes were going to be hijacked. And someone made sure the airlines and the airports were not warned. And someone made sure once they were hijacked that the planes were not intercepted. Someone merely believed they were going to be hijacked. Someone didn't realize they were going to be flown into buildings. You can see the look on Bush's face in those photos of him as he was being told about what was unfolding and realize that.

Any doubts about complicity were more or less dispelled when it was revealed as a result of the Riggs Bank investigation that Princess Haifa had written checks to a "poor Saudi family" in California which in turn gave the cash to the hijackers. And when the investigation turned to Princess Haifa, she and Prince Bandar were suddenly called home to Saudi Arabia on "urgent family business" which no doubt was simply to protect the family by making sure investigators could not subpoena Princess Haifa. And that was the end of that. Congress could have pursued this as it could have pursued everything else. Congress did not and will not.

And Obama won't pursue it either. Of all the people who do not belong at his table of unity the Clintons do not belong there. And all anyone needs to do to understand why is to look at the donor list for the Clinton Foundation. Bubba of Arabia indeed. And who gave him the camel?




Our democracy was hijacked a long time before those planes were. Why are the Clintons at the table? Because when they realized Obama would win the primary and might win the election, deals were made. And not just with the Clintons. Hence, our table of unity. Including our new Defense Department which is our old Defense Department.

The only Democrats and Republicans are the fools who believe there are Democrats and Republicans on the ballots.

I woke up on 9/11 and went into my study and turned on the tv and then began to listen to my messages on the answering machine. And I sat there and listened to a message from the FBI as I watched what appeared at first to be a movie. The FBI had called to tell me they were going to execute a warrant on someone who had been stalking me at that point for over a year and had repeatedly threatened my life. The message was left before what I was watching on the television began to unfold. When I recovered from the shock I called the FBI back. I was amazed that with everything going on in New York and Washington that "life went on" for the FBI. Looking back, I wonder if they knew as well. And just simply didn't know the hijackers were going to fly the planes into buildings. But, well, life went on. I've begun to wonder about that more and more.

Later that day my phone began to ring. I began to realize that 9/11 was more than just a tragedy on the television for me.

I get so angry when I hear people say we have honored the memory of those who died on 9/11 by declaring this war on terror because we have dishonored their memory. Because their blood is just as much on our hands.

It is particularly on the hands of Congress. Which has consistently avoided confronting its own complicity in the matter.

Like Jeremiah Wright, I listened to the words of Osama bin Laden. And could understand the anger. Through the years I have begun to share the anger.

Barack Obama is not a president. He is merely a puppet.

[truedelphi]

41. Wow. Your post is leaving me sitting here just saying

Wow!

I haven't really noticed you on DU before (don't mean that as an insult, I am sure you've been here a lot)

But now two times in one day I am impressed by your posts.

Word for word you sum up how I feel about both the Clintons and the Big Money Party of the Republicrats.

How very politically incorrect of the both of us.

Here is my guiding light of a video (Great lyrics and even more profound message)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK7DRPyNAHA

[Baby Snooks]

46. Took me awhile to connect the dots...

I started connecting dots on 9/11 but it took me awhile to connect all of them. I have a handwritten note from George HW Bush, a response to a note I faxed to Kennebunkport after Ronald Reagan died in 2004, in which he speaks of the positive influence Ronald Reagan was in his life which at the time I thought was a wonderful memory of someone who I actually admired although I only knew him through a mutual friend. It was just a note.

Until the matter of Valerie Plame hit the headlines again. And suddenly all the dots started connecting. And it was suddenly not just a note.

One of those dots is a man named Isaam Fares who is on the list of donors for the Clinton Foundation. They delete what they can from the internet but Isaam Fares was and still is a major supporter of Hezbollah. And a friend of the Bushes.

And it was suddenly not just a note because of all those Marines who died in Beirut at the hands of Hezbollah. Ronald Reagan would never have been friends with someone who supported Hezbollah. There were many things, I realized, that Ronald Reagan would never have been. And would never have done.

I framed the note and have it by my desk. A constant reminder of how easily we are fooled. I at one time admired George HW Bush as well. Mainly because of his lobbying, which few realize he did, for ADA and Ryan White. It cost him a second term because the fundamentalists went nuts over it. I don't think it bothered him in the least. He just came back to Houston. And kept pulling strings the way he always had. He left. Everyone who went to Washington with him stayed. Wasn't hard to pull strings.

I knew and didn't know. I knew because our families were from Columbus and intertwined briefly and I was told in no uncertain terms about how "proper" people didn't associate with Samuel Bush in Columbus. And only spoke about him when the children weren't around. In hushed tones at the dinner table. Samuel Bush was a pillar of the community because of his wealth and all the nice things he did. But he was also a pariah in the community because of his views on federalism and fascism. He in essence viewed fascism as the perfected state of federalism. Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker. The merger of two men, Samuel Bush and Herb Walker, who shared the same views. Prescott and Dorothy lived in Columbus until they found the proper position for him. At a bank in New York. Handling the Harriman money. And using it to finance the Nazi Party. I was told once the Bushes didn't know Fritz Thyssen was building a military machine for Hitler. Of course they knew. It became the model for their "military-industrial complex." And Halliburton and others became their Thyssen Steel.

Everyone has always focused on Herb Walker. They should have focused on Samuel Bush. He never left Columbus. He controlled the dynasty there. Out of view of prying eyes. He is still out of view for most.

I was never fooled by the Clintons. Only by how easily, looking back, they were manipulated. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. But also, looking back, how easily everyone else was manipulated by them.

The mayor of Houston, who served in the Clinton administration and was head of the Texas Democratic Party, was the CEO for the Wedge Group which was the company that made the millions with which Isaam Fares supported Hezbollah. I have a problem with that finally. Most should.

When he first ran for mayor, his Republican opponent brought up the matter of Isaam Fares. And he won despite the matter. A lot of Republicans voted for him. Because of the connection to the Bushes.

I think about that note every time I see a photo of Bush and Clinton. And I remember 9/11. And I worry about where this country is headed.

I don't think Bernie Madoff just suddenly ran out of cash by the way. I think someone set him up. I look at all the liberal causes funded by not only the foundations but many of the individuals. We have only begun to see the effect. Much more, and much worse, will follow. I have always wondered if Ken Lay was set up. Used and discarded.

The Republicrats. Dominionists. Oligarchists. The ones we used to joke about at dinner tables. The Bilderbergers. Not such a joke at this point. They have destroyed the world economy in order to control it finally. What a lot of people in Manhattan are saying. In hushed tones at the dinner table. A lot of people who suddenly have no wealth. But they are the new Bilderbergers. They want to destroy the old Bilderbergers. The Bilderbergers of the Rothschilds. The Jews.

Those who supported Hitler did so not because they hated the Jews so much as they hated the Rothschilds whose wealth has always been incalculable.

Some are used and discarded. Others are given camels. For their "cash and carry" caravans to the Persian Gulf.

As I said, the only Democrats and Republicans are the fools who believe there are Democrats and Republicans on the ballots.

Pamela Harriman said once, perhaps without realizing what she was saying, that some things are Democratic things, some things are Republican things, and some things are just money things.

Pamela Harriman was fooled by the Clintons which may explain why she was found dead by the pool at the Ritz. Of a stroke. Or a heart attack. Or whatever someone decided would be put on the death certificate. Fooled or not I have always believed she was murdered. She knew too much. She knew about the Bushes. And about Hitler. And about a lot of things. She was there when it all unfolded. She was married to Randolph Churchill. And had an affair with Averell Harriman. Maybe she knew something she didn't even know she knew. But I do believe she was murdered. Along with quite a few others.



And all the Democrats wave their little flags and point the fingers at the Republicans like they're told to.

And all the Republicans wave their little flags and point the fingers at the Democrats like they're told to.

[defendandprotect]

60. Agree --- and interesting about Pamela Harriman . . .

had no idea how she had died ---

[Baby Snooks]

51. "We want your soul"

http://www.wewantyoursoul.com/

This link was from your link - a wonderful parody of a very frightening reality.

[tabatha]

6. I heard in an interview, that next year

a bunch of peer-reviewed studies will be released.

[Time for change]

42. That sounds encouraging

Studies by whom?

[tabatha]

45. There was no mention of whom.

It was just one sentence indicating that many would be surprised.

[Baby Snooks]

63. What Dorothy Kilgallen more or less said...

Dorothy Kilgallen was working on a story on the Kennedy assassination when she died in bed reading a book without her reading glasses. Told several it would shock everyone. Several knew about the story. They never found her notes. But they did find her reading glasses. Downstairs. The few who might have known whatever she might have uncovered of course never said a word. Frightened they might be found dead in bed reading a book without their reading glasses.

Which may or may not explain why Congress is so hesitant about 9/11. Someone might hijack another plane and fly it into the Capitol while Congress is in session.

One thing is for sure. We are no longer a democracy. I don't think we have been for some time. I think our democracy died along with JFK that day in Dallas.

[tabatha]

66. The person said the stuff would be coming out after Jan 20.

[bagrman]

7. Good read "Crossing the Rubicon"

[defendandprotect]

61. Did Michael Ruppert also leave America, having been threatened .... ?

I was just thinking about the few avenues that used to be left

to get some info out about conspiracies, etal ---

History Channel MWKK -- now gone to Clear Channel!!

And then your post reminded me of Ruppert - !!1

There's almost nothing left in America of any real reporting--!!!

[bagrman]

70. He went to Venezuela and was poisoned....

Then went to Canada to get better and now is back in CA. His web site is still up. www.fromthewilderness.com and he is posting daily at http://www.mikeruppert.blogspot.com.

If you google Conversations with the Crow, there's an interview with and old C1A man that refers to our press (all of it) as , once a newspaperman always a whore. Explains that the C1A controls all of the press in the US.


spelling edit

[defendandprotect]

71. Thank you for the report - tho sad news . . .

MOCKINGBIRD is complete now, it seems . . .

[bagrman]

73. He's alive, did you read all of #70 post.

[defendandprotect]

74. Yes....!!! But . . . .

I think being poisoned and having to move from your homeland is "sad."

Thanks for the blog link . . . haven't had time yet to look at it -- but soon.

He's a fantastic guy -- concerned with the right things ---

and I will be following.

Thank you, again!!!

PS My "Mockingbird" comment referred to the takeover of our "free press."

There isn't much left!

[bagrman]

75. That's what got me I thought you were meaning that he was dead. On the FTW.com

pages it gets into what happened to him in Venezuela and they were on him from the moment he got there.

Tough row to hoe.

Latr

[defendandprotect]

76. Yeah, I did read read the reports ---

Those who understand what is going on just don't have sufficient power

to turn things around --- not even to protect themselves.

[bagrman]

77. The way that the M$M is controlled, the masses only see it the way the....

controllers want the "news" to get out.

[G_j]

8. horrific, monstrous crimes

btw, I think the station you refer to is WBAI
(one of the best in the country,
I listened to the entire Iran.Contra hearings on that station)

[Time for change]

36. Yes, you're right, thank you. My daughter corrected me.

[Hekate]

9. KnR

:kick:

[bluesmail]

10. I am recommending. Because of the first sentence.

as we approach the most shameful eight years in the history of our nation. I will not be humiliated by TSA for not taking my shoes off. Or for trying to bring 'lotions' in. (thank you big multi nationals!) But lighters are OK? Once again, thank you multi natioals. GWOT. HA! (sorry for the rant)

[bleever]

11. K&R.

If nothing else, the Bush administration's tremendous opacity and intransigence regarding an understanding of this pivotal moment in American history is troubling in the extreme. Yet they were 110% ready to use that pivot to enact an agenda that the American people would never have voted to support.

Thank you for this personal account. Best wishes to you and your family in the new year, Tfc, as we enter a new era in American history.

[Time for change]

16. Yes, it is extremely troubling that our nation has been represented by these people for the last 8

years.

Best wishes to you and your family too bleever.

[bleever]

18. Specifically I was referring

to their stonewalling. I've had this cartoon on my fridge for the last four plus years:

[Time for change]

27. That's a great cartoon!

Sums up Bush's handling of the 9/11 investigation very neatly.

[trof]

12. The 'quick-and-dirty' on why they hate us.

'We' (so-called western powers/nations) have treated the middle east in general as an ignorant serfdom since we first discovered that they were there.

At the end of WW I the British navy began to convert from coal fired propulsion to oil fired. The U.S. soon followed.
And we already were pretty sure there was a LOT of oil in some areas of the middle east.

The first aerial bombing of a defenseless civilian population ("rebelious") was done by the RAF around 1918 in what was then Mesopotamia, now Iraq.

Over the years we've had no problem with toppling duly elected governments and replacing them with leaders 'more favorable' to us.

And nobody knows why they're pissed?
:eyes:

[Time for change]

20. That is the absolute truth

As long as our country refuses to acknowledge that, these kind of abominations are going to keep on happening.

[sce56]

14. My day 9-11

When I awoke that morning it was 6 time zones away and my not yet ex wife was told not to bother coming into work since the traffic was jammed all the way onto H1 from the entrances to both Pearl Harbor and Hickham AFB! She did her work that morning by internet. When we woke up the towers had already fallen and air traffic was already being stopped. I managed to actually enter Schofield Brks that afternoon trying to go to the commissary but it was closed as was all other facilities that day. this is how it looked there

A Dump Truck blocking an entrance to the day care center, trying to make us think there were truck bombers everywhere


The entrance to one of the barracks quads blocked with concertina wire and an armed Humvee, these were the same ones used in the film from "From Here to Eternity"


an F16 practicing intercepting a hijacked plane using a KC 135 aerial tanker as the target off the entrance to Pearl Harbor taken a few days after 9-11.



I can tell you this there are a whole lot of things that were not explained on that day.
In Hawaii up until April of 2001 you could just drive right onto Schofield Brks there were no guards at the entrances it was an open post then they posted a warning that in May you would be required to have registration to enter and started manning the gates. Security did go into high gear there the summer prior to 9-11.

And if you want to see the best pictures of the explosions, demolitions charges going off, in the WTC look at reply number 6 to this thread

I still do not understand how Al Queda could know the NEADS would not be able to respond to the multiple hijackings with out inside knowledge of the military exercises going on that day! From the
"When they told me there was a hijack, my first reaction was 'Somebody started the exercise early,'" Nasypany later told me. The day's exercise was designed to run a range of scenarios, including a "traditional" simulated hijack in which politically motivated perpetrators commandeer an aircraft, land on a Cuba-like island, and seek asylum. "I actually said out loud, 'The hijack's not supposed to be for another hour,'" Maj Nasypany recalled.


NASYPANY (to Marr): Sir, we got—we've got unconfirmed second hit from another aircraft. Fighters are south of—just south of Long Island, sir. Right now. Fighters are south of Long Island.

There's seemingly enough commotion in the Battle Cab that Nasypany needs to clarify: "Our fighters … " The two F-15s, scrambled from Otis, are now approaching the city.

In the background, several troops can be heard trying to make sense of what's happening.

09:04:50
—Is this explosion part of that that we're lookin' at now on TV?
—Yes.
—Jesus …
—And there's a possible second hijack also—a United Airlines …
—Two planes?…
—Get the fuck out …
—I think this is a damn input, to be honest.



The last line—"I think this is a damn input"—is a reference to the exercise, meaning a simulations input. It's either gallows humor or wishful thinking. From the tape, it's hard to tell.

Of course the real icing on the cake is the 9-11 testimony from Norman Minetta on events leading up to the attack on the pentagon that was not challenged apparently under orders from Darth Cheney himself in the PEOC. Despite the presecnce of ANG F15's and Marine Corps F18's at Andrews AFB with the mission up until 9-12-01 to defend the skies over Washington DC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDfdOwt2v3Y


I sure hope we can get a real investigation started by this summer but I feel to many in congress have a lot to lose by starting a investigation and of course don't even think Nancy would have anything to do with it!


Here is to hoping we can get to the bottom of this and once again try to fulfill life with the promise of better days ahead. And the real criminals ruining are country are put behind bars.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

29. The 3 bottom pics

Let it be so.

[Time for change]

43. Thank you for all that information and the pictures

It would be great if we could get to the bottom of this.

[sce56]

44. The fact is the Govt has been run by crooks since the 50's

In 1959 relations between the United States and the Soviet Union began to improve, culminating in an agreement to hold a summit meeting in Paris in May 1960 between President Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Only a few days before, however, the Soviets downed a U-2 American spy plane and produced the plane's pilot, Francis Gary Powers, after Eisenhower had denied the existence of the spy mission. Khrushchev subsequently walked out of the Paris summit conference, but not before denouncing Eisenhower and revoking his earlier invitation for the president to visit the Soviet Union. Powers was exchanged for a Soviet spy in 1962. Some have speculated that the incident was manufactured to prevent peace breaking out and the downturn of the Military Industrial Complex. Ike knew that but could not reign in the rouge elements in the CIA.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html

That speech is played in the beginning of Oliver Stones JFK which it is also noteworthy that CIA Director Allen Dulles was fired by JFK after the Bay of Pigs and yet he was one of the main members of the Warren commission white wash! Another point to remember is that another U-2 was shot down over Cuba during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis this was after Kennedy said to stop the overflights trying to cool down the situation not wanting to start WWIII, another rouge CIA action? And we know how respected that Warren Commission Report on the JFK Assassination is!

[Dystopian]

17. Thank you and more...

Thank you for sharing your personal story. It must have been difficult to write. I was in my preschool classroom when I got the call from home from my SO. I thought the entire country was under attack.

We weren't doing TV in those days, so were spared the horror of all the TV news ....the overkill of the crashes and terror. I can't imagine the pain of those who were there, or lost loved ones that day. The country went crazy with fear....just about every vehicle I saw was flying a flag and/or spray painted with God Bless America, etc. So many homes were flying flags with painted signs....Yes, the country really turned patriotic on that horrific day.
This is one of the great American lies that we've all lived through. 9/11 was a done deal.
I am clinging to thread of hope that Obama will be forced to reinvestigate....


I want to take this opportunity to thank you for being here. You are one of my greatest educators on DU.
You are golden....
Keep on keepin' on!
:hug:
peace~

[Time for change]

19. Thank you so much

That was very nice of you to say :hug:

Actually, this wasn't very difficult for me to write. From a personal standpoint, I was very lucky that day. I didn't lose any loved ones, and by late in the day I knew that all of my family was fine -- though my daughter suffered some psychological consequences from it.

Our country suffered terribly though, and so did the world, and it is still suffering.

I'm also clinging to a thread of hope. I don't think that there is any hope that Obama will denounce the WOT -- that would be politically (and maybe physically as well) very dangerous. But that doesn't mean that he can't quietly go about repairing a great deal of the damage -- if he has the courage and the wisdom to do that. We will see.

[merh]

21. I spent the day removed from the news and in the only

federal courtroom that remained open on that day, despite Ashcroft's instructions to close all federal buildings.

We got snippets of the news when we took breaks, the Marshals would tell us what was going on. Potential jurors were getting calls from their family members to get out of the building because of the attacks. The judge refused to recess the case, he knew we were in no danger.

It wasn't until I got home that I learned of the magnitude of the destruction.

[LibDemAlways]

22. The 911 commission was a total whitewash

with a meager budget. Its goals were to appease the families who had been lobbying for an investigation and to basically quelch any serious inquiry. The Bush Administration's failure to launch an immediate and thorough investigation told me all I needed to know. The American people should have been outraged, and maybe someday when the truth is known, they will be.

[undeterred]

23. Thanks for writing this.

Although many of us were more distant from the event, I have since gone to the September 11 forum here to learn more about the details. I found links to the television broadcasts that day and watched them all. The questions you asked were the questions we all asked: "How could another country possibly penetrate the air space of the capital city of a nation that spent nearly a trillion dollars annually on defense?" "Where the fuck are the fighter jets?" And a third one: "Where the hell is the president and why isn't he taking charge of the situation?"

I wasn't nearly as skeptical then as I am now. But I am disappointed that most people still do not seem to realize that this event was staged. It was necessary to play "shock and awe" with the American people to get our passive assent to the wars around the world that PNAC had planned.

[Time for change]

35. Yes indeed

Where the fuck WERE the fighter jets? One of the things I've never gotten over is why more people weren't demanding an answer to that question. A timeline for Flight 77 is included in this post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=125&topic_id=73406

[undeterred]

39. "the lead pilot misunderstood the orders he received and headed east, towards the Atlantic Ocean"

Not believable.

[NaturalHigh]

26. I remember it very specifically...

because my dad was in surgery when the planes hit. It was an outpatient surgery, and I remember later that day thinking how surreal it must have been for him to hear about it all after being under general anesthesia. My mom and I had been watching the whole thing in the waiting room.

[lonestarnot]

30. 13 bil faucet.

[nashville_brook]

33. there's a psychic disease that visits families where abuse is present -- first there's the injury,

then there's the denial. that's where we're at as a country. as a country, we are a neurotic mess and will stay that way until we demand and receive the truth.

[Time for change]

34. We're in denial about so many things

We claim to be leading the fight against global terrorism, when in fact we're the biggest perpetrators of terrorism in the world. If we can admit that, we'll be well on our way to recovery.

[nashville_brook]

55. amen! "my name is the United States and I'm a murdering megalomanic..."

i feel so much better!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. The first bit of dissonance for me came when I saw the footage from the Booker School

When Andrew Card told Bush about the attacks, he reacted with more annoyance than surprise, as if Card were telling him that he'd left his lights on in the parking lot.

I and everyone I knew was shocked and bewildered and somewhat frightened. Where would it end? Was every major city targeted?

But then I saw the footage from the Booker School and I became LIHOP at a minimum. The way in which the Bushies milked the situation for all it was worth, the way in which they had the 100+ pages of the Patriot Act ready for committee less than a month after 9/11 (which according to a former legal adviser to the Oregon state legislature, is an incredibly short, yes, impossible time to draft a bill of such complexity UNLESS they had it at least sketched out beforehand), the way in which they refused the Taliban's offer to turn over Osama bin Laden, the way in which the Bushies were hot to blame the attacks on Saddam Hussein.

Yes, if it wasn't LIHOP or MIHOP, the Bushies are the most evilly lucky administration in U.S. history.

[judy]

38. Thank you for this post

It reflects my thoughts and some of my anxiety about the incoming administration (though of course I am excited about the fact that Obama himself is change!)
I have heard Obama say the words I didn't want to hear "War on Terror". Anyone who uses these words is lacking an understanding that you don't wage war on terror.
Waging war on terror is like using gasoline to put out a fire.

Oh, how I hope that Obama sees this at some point, and stops using the term as well as stops the wars that were started in the name of this fallacy...

Thank you again...I hope someone in the transition team reads your post...but I won't hold my breath...

[Time for change]

40. Thank you -- I like your metaphor

"Waging war on terror is like using gasoline to put out a fire".

I think that if Obama is going to "see the light", so to speak, a lot of us will need to let him know how we feel about it. I understand that FDR was able to initiate the New Deal only because of a good amount of grassroots support for it. Without that, he probably would have had to bow to the corporatists and get in step with their agenda.

[lutherj]

50. It always seemed to me that the biggest question about 9/11 that

the American people deserve a real answer to is: where the hell was our national defense? Minetta gave testimony about some subordinate coming into the situation room where he was monitoring events along with Cheney, and reporting on the advance of the plane heading toward DC. At the time, they had no idea what the target was. So basically our nation's capitol city was completely defenseless. And then the plane hits the mammoth headquarters of the most expensive military on earth. And of course there are many other questions that deserve answers, regardless of conspiracy theories. (And I'm not out-of-hand dismissing the conspiracy theories, either.)

[MagickMuffin]

52. Cheney=MIHOP.....Bush=LIHOP

I came to the above conclusions on September 11th.

It became more apparent throughout the years. Cheney had the most to gain, he got his War on with Iraq, Halliburton got their no-bid contracts. Also Rumsfeld benefited from the "attacks" since he was in the Private sector Defense business after leaving the government.

CBSNEWS.com, "Plans For Iraq Attack Began On 9/11," 9/4/02: . . . at 2:40 p.m., the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying he wanted "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H." - meaning Saddam Hussein - "at same time. Not only UBL" - the initials used to identify Osama bin Laden . . . "Go massive," the notes quote him as saying. "Sweep it all up. Things related and not."


Bush's benefits by appearing as a "tough/strong leader" which he needed because he was appearing very weak up until that point in time. I cringed when he showed up at Ground Zero, standing on the piles of debris of dead bodies, and using/abusing the opportunity to lead the Nation in Cheerleader fashion. He didn't even want to be there but was forced into it. Just like Katrina a few years later.

A September 21 story by the Israeli Herzliyya International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism, entitled “Black Tuesday: The World’s Largest Insider Trading Scam?” documented the following trades connected to the September 11 attacks:

• Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call options… Assuming that 4,000 of the options were bought by people with advance knowledge of the imminent attacks, these “insiders” would have profited by almost $5 million.

• On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were bought on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls. Again, there was no news at that point to justify this imbalance;… Again, assuming that 4,000 of these options trades represent “insiders,” they would represent a gain of about $4 million.

•  The levels of put options purchased above were more than six times higher than normal.

• No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the Chicago exchange in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday.

• Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options bought in the three trading days before Black Tuesday; this compares to an average of 27 contracts per day before September 6. Morgan Stanley’s share price fell from $48.90 to $42.50 in the aftermath of the attacks. Assuming that 2,000 of these options contracts were bought based upon knowledge of the approaching attacks, their purchasers could have profited by at least $1.2 million. Merrill Lynch & Co., with headquarters near the Twin Towers, saw 12,215 October $45 put options bought in the four trading days before the attacks; the previous average volume in those shares had been 252 contracts per day (a 1200% increase!). When trading resumed, Merrill’s shares fell from $46.88 to $41.50; assuming that 11,000 option contracts were bought by “insiders,” their profit would have been about $5.5 million.

• European regulators are examining trades in Germany’s Munich Re, Switzerland’s Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with exposure to the Black Tuesday disaster. (FTW Note: AXA also owns more than 25% of American Airlines stock making the attacks a “double whammy” for them.)

On September 29, 2001 – in a vital story that has gone unnoticed by the major media – the San Francisco Chronicle reported, “Investors have yet to collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, according to a source familiar with the trades and market data.
“The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors – whose identities and nationalities have not been made public – had advance knowledge of the strikes.” They don’t dare show up now. The suspension of trading for four days after the attacks made it impossible to cash-out quickly and claim the prize before investigators started looking.

“… October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay of $2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100 shares, for 90 cents each. . Those options are now selling at more than $12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called “put” options outstanding according to the Options Clearinghouse Corp.”

“…The source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of these options…” This was the operation managed by Krongard until as recently as 1998.

As reported in other news stories, Deutsche Bank was also the hub of insider trading activity connected to Munich Re. just before the attacks.

I don't want this to end up in the dungeon either, but I had to state the obvious. Thank you for sharing your story.

Unfortunately I too don't think Obama will have any further investigations. Maybe if the Families of 9-11 demand a more thorough investigation, perhaps Obama could be persuaded to reopen the commission, since there never was ANY testimony by family members.


My take on Conspiracy Theories: When evidence as been tampered with before a criminal investigation has been thoroughly conducted it leaves questions unanswered, therefore we are left to speculate on the Conspiracy. Because there often IS a Conspiracy, but without the hard evidence provided for the conclusion of the investigations can only lead to "theories", by the people who recognize the Conspiracies.

[Richard D]

53. Too late to recommend.

I was with a few friends when this all happened. When the second plane hit the tower we all looked at each other and said "bush". When the towers collapsed we looked at each other and said "they were demolished from inside". I have never had any doubt about either one of these.

Follow the money. Who benefited from the attacks. BFEE.

[puebloknot]

56. Thanks for this well-written and "footnoted" article. Concise and informative ...

... like everything you write. And it's enhanced by your sharing of your family's experience with regard to 9/11.

I don't have footnotes to offer to back up my feeling about 9/11. I simply remember standing in front of the television as they played the tapes of the planes hitting the towers, over and over, and feeling calm and very sure that... "This is bogus. This is *not* an attack from terrorists without; it is a logical consequence of Theft 2000 and a populace and Congress being led along like sheep to the slaughter."

I fear that Obama is already "in harness," and how willingly, I can't fathom. I want to admire and trust him. He will have to earn that.

[Time for change]

62. It's amazing to me how many people on DU

suspected something sinister from the very beginning.

But certainly only a very small percentage of Americans. It seems that we have in many ways become a nation of sheep.

[Baby Snooks]

64. Not just on DU

I know some Republicans who wondered. The Bushes are not exactly loved by all. Some who have dealt with them through the years are actually afraid of them. No doubt with good reason.

In the end, the vast majority of Americans chose to be good Germans. Lots of Democrats as well as Republicans. Particularly in Congress.

Pierre Salinger wrote a lot of stories that went online through Reuters before they hit the pages of Le Figaro. One of those stories was about how the bin Laden family in Boston was put on a plane at Logan Airport the night of 9/11 and flown to "safety" in London. Including two sons-in-law who were convicted of terroristic acts in Jordan.

I have felt for a long time that Reuters/Yahoo has been a willing tool of the "cabal" in Washington. Deleting what they can online. Threatening worse if it's actually published.

[Name removed]

65. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[K Gardner]

69. I hope Obama changes course on Afghanistan as well. Wonderful post.