Friday, September 2 2011   -   Editorials

By Paul Craig Roberts

August 24, 2011 Information Clearing House -- -- -In a few days it will be the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001. How well has the US government's official account of the event held up over the decade?

Not very well. The chairman, vice chairman, and senior legal counsel of the 9/11 Commission wrote books partially disassociating themselves from the commission's report. They said that the Bush administration put obstacles in their path, that information was withheld from them, that President Bush agreed to testify only if he was chaperoned by Vice President Cheney and neither were put under oath, that Pentagon and FAA officials lied to the commission and that the commission considered referring the false testimony for investigation for obstruction of justice.

In their book, the chairman and vice chairman, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, wrote that the 9/11 Commission was "set up to fail." Senior counsel John Farmer, Jr., wrote that the US government made "a decision not to tell the truth about what happened," and that the NORAD "tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public." Kean said, "We to this day don't know why NORAD told us what they told us, it was just so far from the truth."

Most of the questions from the 9/11 families were not answered. Important witnesses were not called. The commission only heard from those who supported the government's account. The commission was a controlled political operation, not an investigation of events and evidence. Its membership consisted of former politicians. No knowledgeable experts were appointed to the commission.

 

Thursday, September 1 2011   -   9/11 A/V Galleries

September 1, 2011
BoilingFrogsPost.com

This is Part I of our three-part one-of-a-kind interview series with author and researcher Paul Thompson. For additional background information please visit the complete 9/11 Timeline Investigative Project at HistoryCommons.org and Richard Clarke's interview by John Duffy and Ray Nowosielski at SecrecyKills.com.

Paul Thompson joins us to discuss the latest revelations by former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke and his explosive allegations against three former top CIA officials -- George Tenet, Cofer Black and Richard Blee -- accusing them of knowingly withholding intelligence about two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, who had entered the United States more than a year before the attacks. He provides us with the most comprehensive history and context to date on Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, who hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 with three other terrorists and flew the jetliner directly into the Pentagon killing 189 people. Mr. Thompson takes us through a mind-boggling journey through the Yemen Hub, the highly critical Malaysia Summit, Thailand, USS Cole bombing, CIA's Alec Station, NSA, FBI and beyond!

Paul Thompson is the author of The Terror Timeline, a compilation of over 5,000 reports and articles concerning the September 11, 2001 attacks. His research in the field has garnered over 100 radio and TV interviews. Mr. Thompson holds a psychology degree from Stanford University obtained in 1990. For the complete 9/11 Timeline Investigative Project visit HistoryCommons.org

Here is our guest Paul Thompson unplugged! [ 1:03:14 ]

 

Thursday, September 1 2011   -   Truth Movement News

Written by Eli Rika
August 23, 2011
AE911Truth.org

"It starts from below... They have simply blown away columns."

"This is controlled demolition."

"A team of experts did this."

Photo: Though Danny Jowenko is no longer with us, his expert analysis and fearless testimony remain as an example to those who seek the truth about 9/11

These startling words, spoken by controlled demolition expert Danny Jowenko in 2006, ignited an international discussion over the destruction of WTC Building 7, and added to the professional voices at AE911Truth who have challenged the official explanation. As we mourn Jowenko's tragic death on July 16, we look back at how his impromptu interview shed light onto one of the greatest mysteries of the 9/11 catastrophe.

 

Thursday, September 1 2011   -   Resources and Materials

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AS 10TH ANNIVERSARY APPROACHES, NEW BOOK CHALLENGES OFFICIAL STORY OF 9/11

(Newark, California August 11, 2011). Years after most of us thought the Crime of the Century was solved, additional evidence demands a closer look.

While next month 's commemorations in New York, San Francisco and other cities are affirming the official narrative for the 9/11 tragedy, MOUNTING EVIDENCE shows how it doesn't square with information now available. In each of the key areas -- the shifting stories, the remarkable intelligence lapses, the stunning air defense failures, the unprecedented fall of the World Trade Center buildings -- the government explanations conflict with what is known today.

There's little doubt the tragic attacks on 9/11 quickly became the defining events of our time, shaping much of what has followed. But if Americans don't understand the past, are they ready to face an uncertain future? In MOUNTING EVIDENCE, Dr. Rea shows that by understanding the shattering events of that dark day, Americans can help to end seemingly endless wars, take back their lost personal liberties, and restore their democracy.

 

Wednesday, August 31 2011   -   9/11 Consequences

by Glenn Greenwald
August 29, 2011
Salon.com

The Los Angeles Times examines the staggering sums of money expended on patently absurd domestic "homeland security" projects: $75 billion per year for things such as a Zodiac boat with side-scan sonar to respond to a potential attack on a lake in tiny Keith County, Nebraska, and hundreds of "9-ton BearCat armored vehicles, complete with turret" to guard against things like an attack on DreamWorks in Los Angeles. All of that -- which is independent of the exponentially greater sums spent on foreign wars, occupations, bombings, and the vast array of weaponry and private contractors to support it all -- is in response to this mammoth, existential, the-single-greatest-challenge-of-our-generation threat:

"The number of people worldwide who are killed by Muslim-type terrorists, Al Qaeda wannabes, is maybe a few hundred outside of war zones. It's basically the same number of people who die drowning in the bathtub each year," said John Mueller, an Ohio State University professor who has written extensively about the balance between threat and expenditures in fighting terrorism.

Last year, McClatchy characterized this threat in similar terms: "undoubtedly more American citizens died overseas from traffic accidents or intestinal illnesses than from terrorism." The March, 2011, Harper's Index expressed the point this way: "Number of American civilians who died worldwide in terrorist attacks last year: 8 -- Minimum number who died after being struck by lightning: 29." That's the threat in the name of which a vast domestic Security State is constructed, wars and other attacks are and continue to be launched, and trillions of dollars are transferred to the private security and defense contracting industry at exactly the time that Americans -- even as they face massive wealth inequality -- are told that they must sacrifice basic economic security because of budgetary constraints.

 

Monday, August 29 2011   -   9/11 Consequences

August 17, 2011
By Russ Baker
Another original investigation by WhoWhatWhy.com

Article Summary: When you look closely, nothing seems right about what will surely become the accepted account of the raid that nailed America's enemy number one. And then things get even weirder...

Photo: The father of the New Yorker writer who got the exclusive inside story of the bin Laden raid

The establishment media just keep getting worse. They're further and further from good, tough investigative journalism, and more prone to be pawns in complicated games that affect the public interest in untold ways. A significant recent example is The New Yorker's vaunted August 8 exclusive on the vanquishing of Osama bin Laden.

The piece, trumpeted as the most detailed account to date of the May 1 raid in Abbottabad Pakistan, was an instant hit. "Got the chills half dozen times reading @NewYorker killing bin Laden tick tock...exquisite journalism," tweeted the digital director of the PBS show Frontline. The author, freelancer Nicholas Schmidle, was quickly featured on the Charlie Rose show, an influential determiner of "chattering class" opinion. Other news outlets rushed to praise the story as "exhaustive," "utterly compelling," and on and on.

To be sure, it is the kind of granular, heroic story that the public loves, that generates follow-up bestsellers and movie options. The takedown even has a Hollywood-esque code name: "Operation Neptune's Spear"

Here's the introduction to the mission commander, full of minute details that help give it a ring of authenticity and suggest the most intimate reportorial access:

James, a broad-chested man in his late thirties, does not have the lithe swimmer's frame that one might expect of a SEAL--he is built more like a discus thrower. That night, he wore a shirt and trousers in Desert Digital Camouflage, and carried a silenced Sig Sauer P226 pistol, along with extra ammunition; a CamelBak, for hydration; and gel shots, for endurance. He held a short-barrel, silenced M4 rifle. (Others SEALs had chosen the Heckler & Koch MP7.) A "blowout kit," for treating field trauma, was tucked into the small of James's back. Stuffed into one of his pockets was a laminated gridded map of the compound. In another pocket was a booklet with photographs and physical descriptions of the people suspected of being inside. He wore a noise-cancelling headset, which blocked out nearly everything besides his heartbeat.

 

Wednesday, August 24 2011   -   9/11 Consequences

August 24, 2011
By Stephen C. Webster
Rawstory.com

Despite a prohibition on spying within the United States, the Central Intelligence Agency played a key role in transforming the New York Police Department's intelligence unit into a cutting edge spy shop dedicated to gathering information on Muslims, and not just in New York.

That's according to a new report out Wednesday by The Associated Press, which claims a veteran CIA agent helped train one of the NYPD's detectives in advanced surveillance methods. They also sent an undercover agent to work in the department, the report says.

With the CIA's help, the NYPD has gathered information on cab drivers, street level food vendors, ethnic book stores, Internet cafes and even mosques, sending snoops in to listen to sermons -- all without a hint of federal, state or local oversight.

Part of their strategy involves the use of a "Demographic Unit," which the NYPD officially denied exists. One undercover officer quoted by AP said he was ordered to move into an ethnic neighborhood and "act like a civilian" so his monitors could use him like a "walking camera."

 

Saturday, August 20 2011   -   9/11 A/V Galleries

Lorie August 19, 2011
BoilingFrogspost.com

Lorie Van Auken joins us and shares with us her reflections ten years on about the events of 9/11 and her loss. She discusses the still-classified 28 pages of the JICI dealing with terrorist financing, the 9/11 families' stalled lawsuit to bankrupt the terrorists and the direct interventions by the White House to protect the Saudi regime against the justice-seeking families, and the many uninvestigated questions and facts covered up by the 9/11 Commission. She questions our current many-fronted wars and the senselessness of the occupation of and our military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan with Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden both dead, while our economy is crashing here at home. Ms. Van Auken talks about the three versions of the NORAD timeline, the passage of the Patriot Act as a vehicle to erode our civil liberties, NSA's illegal wiretapping of our domestic communications under the guise of security, and more!

Lorie Van Auken, the mother of two children, lost her husband Kenneth Van Auken in the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. She is one of the "Jersey Girls" who, along with Kristen Breitweiser, Mindy Kleinberg, and Patty Casazza, fought the Bush administration for a commission to investigate the attacks. Ms. Van Auken is also a member of the September 11 Advocates.

 

Saturday, August 20 2011   -   First Responders/Health Effects

August 13th 2011
By Alison Gendar
NYDaily News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - The cops, firefighters and rescue workers who toiled at Ground Zero will not be invited to take part in the 10th anniversary ceremony, a city official told the Daily News Friday.

First responders will instead be asked back to the site at another day for a separate commemorative ceremony, city officials said.

Space and security logistics were at the heart of the decision, those involved said.

Family of the nearly 3,000 killed receive first priority at an event with maximum security.

President Obama's appearance will make the day even more of a security concern.

For many first responders, though, the news was a bitter pill.

[Photo, right: A select few gathered at the relecting pool honoring 9/11 victims at Ground Zero last year for the ninth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Credit: Don Emmert/Pool]