Almost everyone agrees, September 11, 2001 was a really lousy day in America. Thousands died horrible and violent public deaths– in airplanes, in burning and collapsing buildings, and by jumping out skyscraper windows. All of us around New York City who watched two of the tallest buildings in the world burn and fall will never forget seeing something macabre and previously unimaginable take place that morning.
It was easy to take it personal around here-- Photocopy posters
everywhere bearing the photos of the missing, people spontaneously
sobbing on the street on in the subway, and the sick smoldering stench
that lingered around here for months. It wasn’t until weeks later that
I realized that people all over the country were probably just as
affected by the replaying of slickly edited
movie-trailer style videos of the day's disasters on television. (You can download and watch a couple mpg versions here and here)
While the smoking hole downtown is gone and most of the mess was cleaned up years ago, the memory remains ugly, distinct, and powerful. And what’s worse, despite Bush’s promise to “smoke” out the “evildoers” responsible for all the American death that day, nobody has been caught or tried for those ghastly crimes. Sure, we were immedietly told the attacks were the work of a vast network known as “Al-Qaeda” led by a guy named Osama Bin Laden. but the billions spent there hasn’t been any fresh leads on capturing these alleged terrorist masterminds since our forces inexplicably let Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora over three years ago.
Instead, our government took advantage of America’s new fear of brown Muslim people and “weapons of mass destruction,” and convinced a lot people that attacking and occupying two Middle Eastern countries would actually fight terrorism. Okay, there were terrorist camps in Afghanistan and the Taliban government was supposedly sheltering Bin Laden-- No one should have been surprised when the U.S. went into Afghanistan. We all knew after the September 11th attacks were pinned on Al-Qaeda that the Taliban were in big trouble. But Iraq?
Despite that fact that Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their underlings have gone on record to say that Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi leadership had nothing to do with the attacks of September 11th, the administration really did a canny job of insinuating to the uninformed that there were connections between Hussein and Al-Qaeda. At the very least, the Bush Administration strongly hinted that Hussein had some serious weaponry and would likely pass it on to Al-Qaeda or other terrorist factions. And let’s face it-- Americans aren’t known for their geography skills or their understanding of complex geo-political issues. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard morons defending the Iraq War talk about how “they” attacked us. Xenophobia at its finest.
While Bush fought the idea of an official investigation into the events of September 11, 2001 for over a year, in November 2002 he changed his mind and authorized the Kean Commission to look into the terrorist attacks of that day. Their conclusion– Bin Laden and his henchmen did it. Case closed. If only we could just find the guy...
But not everybody is so sure. Not by a long shot.
There hasn’t been this massive of a conspiracy cottage industry surrounding one day’s events since the Kennedy Assassination. A CNN online poll conducted in November 2004 with over 10,000 respondents found that 89% percent of those participating believed there was a government coverup surrounding 9-11. While that’s hardly scientific, it does show that more than a few people thought there might have been something fishy going on that day. And New Yorkers? A real scientific poll conducted by Zogby International during the summer of 2004 found that nearly half the city’s residents believe “U.S. leaders had foreknowledge of impending 9/11 attacks and "consciously failed to act.”
Outrageous, right? Sure is. Either half the people in the city where the World Trade Center fell are suspending logic in anger at the Bush Administration's failure to prevent such an attack, or we are being governed by the most corrupt criminal bunch of goons to ever run the executive branch of our country.
Whether you think the Bush administration was just negligent, or you really believe that they had a hand in the death and destruction of that day, there’s plenty of facts and evidence out there (circumstantial and direct) to fuel such conclusions, and that there's an ongoing cover up. For starters, there’s the famous “Presidential Daily Briefing” from August 2001 titled: “Bin Laden determined to strike in US.” What did Bush do? He went on the longest vacation ever taken by a sitting American President. Cut up some trees with a chain saw. (At least Reagan could handle a real axe for his corny photo ops.)
And there’s SO much more. So much. A good place to start would be to take a look at some of the websites which offer detailed timelines of the events of September 11th. There are immediate questions, like how could a passenger flight be off course for an hour and a half, heading for the Pentagon, without some kind of challenge by our superpower forces? And you’d think there would be a video or photo somewhere of that big jet slamming into the Pentagon, wouldn’t you? Ever seen one? It seems like the U.S. military headquarters would have quite a few security cameras mounted around the place. And many have noted that there was a very little of the expected airline wreckage around that burning hole in the Pentagon.
We’ve all seen the video footage and photographs of the airlines hitting the World Trade Center. But they were hit pretty high up. Why did both buildings fall down so quickly? And how did they collapse so neatly? Not only that, but how in the hell could four simultaneous highjackings occur without immediate reaction from our military?
Well for one thing, it appears that Dick Cheney himself was in charge of some war games the morning of September 11, 2001. It was the second day of an event called “Vigilant Guardian,” which was a test of national air response systems, and involved some hijacking scenarios. When the real thing started to occur, they say the “games” were called off. One would think that up to a point some people must have assumed that the real highjackings were a wargame fantasy.
Adding to the suspicions, there were some interviews recorded not long after September 11 with a few of the air traffic controllers who handled a couple of the hijacked flights. While those tapes would certainly make for some interesting listening, they don’t exist anymore. A few months after they were recorded, an “unidentified Federal Aviation Administration quality assurance manager” crushed the cassette in his hand, and cut the tape into small pieces and threw them away in multiple trash cans.” Why? Among other reasons given by the “unidentified official” was that the air traffic controllers “were not in the right frame of mind to have consented to the taping.” Who says federal officials are heartless thugs?
As far as those falling skyscrapers in New York, some people think they were, ah... blown up, you know– destroyed ON PURPOSE. Both buildings certainly seemed to implode as if there were taken down by a controlled demolition. Several fireman have reported explosions within the buildings just before they collapsed. (You can download a video mpg here, and download a eyewitness report here) And who hauled away all that WTC debris? Controlled Demolitions Incorporated, the foremost destroyer of large buildings in the world.
But none of that is really proof of anything. Buildings burn, things blow up. And CDI is just darn good at handling a couple million tons of debris. So, is it just kooks, liberals and New Yorkers who suspect those buildings came down a little too easily? There appears to be at least one recent exception.
Morgan Reynolds, a former chief economist for the Department of Labor during the first Bush term (and now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University), has just recently stated that he thinks the collapse of the twin towers after the double plane crash was "bogus" and was more likely a “controlled demolition.“
That was a big surprise. As far as I know, he’s the first Bush official (or American government figure) to say in any way that the official narrative regarding the attacks of September 11 are suspect.
And what about all the connections between the Bush family and the Bin Ladens? Osama Bin Laden’s oldest brother invested in George W. Bush’s first (failed) business venture. And when the planes were slamming into the WTC, another of Bin Laden’s brothers was in a meeting with George Bush Sr. Certainly that could all just be coincidental. After all, he has a lot of brothers.
Just for the heck of it, let’s just assume for a moment that the Bush Administration at least let the horrors of September 11 happen. What motive could there be? Well, you might want to take a look at this exclusive club - “The Project For The New American Century.” It’s a neo-conservative think tank dedicated to the idea that “American leadership is good both for America and for the world.” Sounds almost imperialistic, don'tcha think?
Back in the beginning of 1998, this little gang (herein referred to as the PNAC) sent a public letter to President Clinton calling for “the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power.” And as we all know, he didn’t take the bait. As you may recall, instead of waging war with Saddam Hussein that year, Clinton was engaged in battle with a guy named Kenneth Starr.
In September of 2000, as the Presidential election was coming to a close, the PNAC released a major report– “Rebuilding America’s Defenses.’ And in that document, they call for a large American presence in the Middle East to resolve the conflict with Hussein’s Iraq. But more significantly, in a chapter entitled “Creating Tomorrow’s Dominant Force” the document bemoans the fact that a desired “transformation strategy” which “solely pursued capabilities for projecting force from the United States” would be long delayed without a “catastrophic and catalyzing event" – like "a new Pearl Harbor.”
In other words, the stated goals of the PNAC– to “to increase defense spending significantly,” and to “challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values” were realized by a real “new Pearl Harbor,” the attacks of September 11.
And who belongs to this power hungry neocon cult? See if some of these names sound familiar– Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Elliott Abrams, Richard Pearle and John Bolton. All have either been members of the Bush regime, or are closely associated cohorts of the administration. Other members include chronic gambler William Bennett, Jeb Bush, and the eternally pathetic Dan Quayle. No surprise that George W. Bush himself wouldn’t be included in a "think" tank.
Arguably the architect of this Iraq War (until recently the Deputy Secretary of Defense under Rumsfeld, and currently the head of the World Bank), Paul Wolfowitz had been pushing hard to snatch Iraq from Saddam Hussein since the later days of the first Iraq war in 1991, when he was Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under George Bush I. Back then Bush Sr. was more interested in Mideast stability than taking over the region. Things have changed.
More eerie and circumstantial evidence of U.S. complicity in the attacks can be found in a Commencement Address given by Wolfowitz to the graduating class at West Point in June of 2001. “Military history is full of surprises, even if few are as dramatic or as memorable as Pearl Harbor,” Wolfowitz told the cadets. “Surprise happens so often that it’s surprising that we’re still surprised by it.”
Wolfowitz spoke at length about courage in the face of surprise attacks, and told them that they “will be engaged in another war.” and “will be tested in combat.” He ended his call to arms with this: “Be prepared to be surprised. Have courage. And remember what General Eisenhower said to those American and Allied troops before they were about to land on the beaches of Normandy. "You are about to embark on a great crusade..."
Spooky, eh? Here’s a realvideo of meat of the speech to download, if you have stomach for it.
So, while a verifiable smoking gun indicting the Bush clan of involvement in September 11 has yet to be found, there’s no doubt that they intended to take out Saddam Hussein from the very onset of the Bush Presidency. (Former Bush insiders Paul O’Neill and Richard Clarke have made this pretty clear.) September 11, 2001 made that goal possible. We now know that by the summer 2002 that the mission was on, despite the song and dance the U.S. carried on at the U.N. And during the first Bush term, the administration used the 9/11 fear card over and over by issuing terror alerts whenever his poll numbers took a dive.
One thing is for sure, the Bush regime has taken advantage of the horrible events of that day in more ways then anyone could have previously imagined. What’s more, the existence of a worldwide Al-Qaeda network trumpeted by Bush as the reason for preemptive wars, the Patriot Act, and holding Muslims in concentration camps with no legal recourse, may all be rouse. (I recommend anyone interested in the history of the Neocons and the Islamic Jihadis check out the BBC documentary series, “The Power of Nightmares” for more on this subject).
And tonight (on the day of this post- June 16, 2005) on the national all-night talk show, Coast to Coast, host George Noory will be holding a roundtable discussion about 9/11, and whether the Muslim attackers acted alone, or were aided or directed by others...
George’s guest the first hour will actually be Morgan Reynolds, to talk about why he thinks the WTC buildings were demolished on purpose. Then the next three hours will be dedicated to the 9/11 roundtable, with author Peter Lance, WBAI radio host Mike Levine, author David Ray Griffin and shortwave super-conspiratorial talk host Alex Jones. The show will air tonight from 1am to 5am here on the east coast (on WABC in New York). But it is the biggest all night radio show in America, and if you’re up late any AM radio in America should find this several stations carrying this show on the dial. If I am able to get a good archive of it, I will post it here.
So, in this lengthy post I’ve offered no absolute proof that Bush officials either directed the events of September 11, 2001, or deliberately let them occur. And while there is not a good case for criminal prosecution of anyone in the administration at this time, it doesn’t mean they're all innocent either. Powerful people get away with powerful crimes. And as is the case with any full-blown conspiracy theory, there’s plenty of wild and wooly disinformation out there too. The internet is a great way to get news, information, AND unmitigated bullshit. But I do invite you (if you haven’t already) to take look at all the known and provable details of that day and see if it all makes sense to you. Because, on the chance that the Bush Administration really did conduct an “Operation Northwoods” type operation on America that day, or if the suspicions of some that the 9/11 attacks have frightening parallels to the Reichstag Fire in Nazi Germany are someday proven true, we may be in for much more trouble than we've already been through.
As much as I detest the Bush bunch, I hope this is all wild speculation. I really do.
***
Some 9/11 sites I’d recommend: Unanswered Questions, From The Wilderness, and the 9/11 timeline. However, there are many thousands of websites and online articles discussing these issues. And there will probably be breaking stories regarding September 11, 2001 for the rest of our lives.
I followed a link from Fluxblog thinking this was a music/mp3 blog. Don'cha have any songs about 9-11/apocolypse? Peaceable Kingdom by Rush from the Vapor Trails album, perhaps?
As to the substance, one of the 9-11 terrorists who was unable to enter the country to be part of the evil plot was in fact captured in Iraq and now resides in the Guantanamo Hilton eating honey fried chicken at taxpayer expense. Who really thinks none have been captured?
It was disappointing that we did not get Bin Laden, but it was a close call. We almost got him. The consensus now is that he shuttles between Iran and the wilder areas of Pakistan. If Iran (part of the remaining Axis of Evil), the biggest state sponsor of terror in the world, did not help Bin Laden, he would find little rest.
We have made significant inroads whittling the leadership of Al Qaeda down. Virtually all of Bin Ladens top associates have fallen to his right and left. Cells have been disrupted, plots stopped in countries around the world. See the book Shadow War by Richard Miniter. Myopic mainstream media can only see what is happening in Iraq. The war on terror is worldwide, and has been very successful to date. Read the book.
Unless those opposed to Mr. Bush move beyond wacky conspiracy theories, they will continue to lose elections. I'm open to the idea that Iraq could be managed better, but by whom? Kerry had no plan. What a waste of botox.
Actually, I've thought for a long time that TWA flight 800 was a conspiracy to cover up terrorist involvement, and now there is evidence of an Arab terrorist (an Iraqi, no less) intimately involved in the Oklahoma City bombing. But those were Clinton-era shenanigans, so I guess not even the left wing nuts are interested in looking too deeply there.
As for Coast to Coast AM with Noory, I'm reminded of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, who wrote in his song, The Nightfly, "Well you say there's a race/ Of men in the trees? / You're for tough legislation? / Thanks for calling / I wait all night for calls like these."
And amen.
Posted by: eric the half-a-bee | June 17, 2005 at 01:42 AM
I hope to someday see these swine tried and convicted. But I wonder about repeating the most fringe-ish of conspiracy theories. There's so much solid proof that Bush Co. has been criminally negligent and incompetent, and that they have lied us into a quagmire. But when we bring up infotainment like "Coast to Coast" (which I enjoyed much more when Art Bell took us into the dark morning of eternal mystery) then we give those like "half-a-bee" the excuse to paint it all as conspiracy theories.
Besides, I do remember seeing a security cam's capture of the plane hitting the pentagon. The thing just came slamming down low.
I'm just saying, please, don't let the swine equate theories that the hijackings didn't happen with revelations like the Downing Street Memo.
Posted by: Bat Guano | June 17, 2005 at 10:29 AM
This article seems to be a pretty thorough, nonpartisan debunking of some of the more ridiculous 9/11 theories:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html
Posted by: Herb Blackschleger | June 17, 2005 at 02:25 PM
I think a central tenet of so-called conspriracy theory is a desire to make order out of chaos; it is somehow more acceptable to my brain that the Bush Admin has fore-knowledge of the event and let it happen (or caused it to happen) than to accept what is being forced down our throats, because the official story is so chock-full of carelessness, stupidity and incredibly unfortunate conincidences. Still, in many ways, these various mishaps are preferable to believe in than the idea that our government would willingly allow its citizens to be killed, which is the Prof hopes this is all speculation. But there are at least as many holes in official accounts as there are in the so-called conspiracy theories, and in some cases (Such as Michael Rupert's obsessively foot-noted book Crossing the Rubicon) there is very well documented proof of gov't foreknowledge of the attack.
I predict: many years from now, when 9/11 is but a memory, the truth will slowly begin to trickle out...
Posted by: squinchy | June 17, 2005 at 05:00 PM
I'd just like to say that the case for government complicity in 9-11 is much stronger than Prof makes it seem in this post, although many of the issues are touched upon. David Ray Griffen wrote an excellent book titled "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9-11" In his book he does not conclude absolutely that the administration was complicit in the attacks but argues that there is a prima facie case for a full scale investigation without the limitations that were placed on the Kean commission. Such an investigation would have subpeona power and the ability to hear testimony from high ranking officials. His case is presented calmly, logically and is very compelling. (he is a professor of theology at a seminary after all)
With regards to the Popular Mechanics article: As Herb said, the article is a debunking of the more rediculous theories out there. There are hundreds and maybe thousands of different criticisms of the official account of 9-11, made by people of various levels of inteligence and sanity. However, disproving some of these theories doesn't do much to end doubt of the official story. The holes in the official account of the events of 9-11 are so many, and so glaring, that if only one or two of the many, many, criticisms actually hold up to scrutiny, it would constitute a prima facie case for a larger investigation.
It should also be said that the official account of 9-11 is a conspiracy theory itself: Arab Muslim extremists conspiring to attack the United States. Critics of this account simply see holes in official conspiracy theory, and have constructed revised versions that more closely fit the available evidence.
Posted by: Dib432 | June 17, 2005 at 10:06 PM
So the government conspired to crash a plane into their own building, the Pentagon? Maybe it was an insurance job.
Posted by: Jennifer Wilbanks | June 18, 2005 at 11:28 AM
"I predict: many years from now, when 9/11 is but a memory, the truth will slowly begin to trickle out..."
The same could be said about Kennedy right about now, but it'll never happen.
Posted by: mikey | June 18, 2005 at 05:08 PM
most of us figured this out a while ago and has moved on. everyone else is living in an alternate reality. enjoy it!
Posted by: ghostboy | June 27, 2005 at 09:27 PM