9/11 Email

(Send the following email to everyone you know, so that even people who get all of their news from msnabcnnfox, which censors [1] 9/11 information, get a dose of truth. There are almost 100 million people who have already woken up to at least some of the truth about 9/11, so we can spread this message virally ... )[2]

9/11 Truthers are Nuts!

Or are they?

Let's take a look:

MILITARY LEADERS

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan (Col. Ronald D. Ray) said that the official story of 9/11 is "the dog that doesn't hunt" [3] (bio [4])

Director of the U.S. "Star Wars" space defense program in both Republican and Democratic administrations, who was a senior air force colonel who flew 101 combat missions (Col. Robert Bowman) stated that 9/11 was an inside job [5]. He also said:

"If our government had merely [done] nothing, and I say that as an old interceptor pilot—I know the drill, I know what it takes, I know how long it takes, I know what the procedures are, I know what they were, and I know what they’ve changed them to—if our government had merely done nothing, and allowed normal procedures to happen on that morning of 9/11, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive. [T]hat is treason! [6]"

U.S. Army Air Defense Officer and NORAD Tac Director, decorated with the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and the Soldiers Medal (Capt. Daniel Davis) stated:

"there is no way that an aircraft . . . would not be intercepted when they deviate from their flight plan, turn off their transponders, or stop communication with Air Traffic Control ... Attempts to obscure facts by calling them a 'conspiracy Theory' does not change the truth. It seems, 'Something is rotten in the State.' " [7]

President of the U.S. Air Force Accident Investigation Board, who also served as Pentagon Weapons Requirement Officer and as a member of the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review, and who was awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses for Heroism, four Air Medals, four Meritorious Service Medals, and nine Aerial Achievement Medals (Lt. Col. Jeff Latas) is a member of a group which doubts the government's version of 9/11 [8]

U.S. General, Commanding General of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, decorated with the Bronze Star, Silver Star, and Purple Heart (General Wesley Clark) said "We've never finished the investigation of 9/11 and whether the administration actually misused the intelligence information it had. The evidence seems pretty clear to me. I've seen that for a long time." [9]

Air Force Colonel and key Pentagon official (Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski) finds various aspects of 9/11 suspicious [10]

Lieutenant colonel, 24-year Air Force career, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the Defense Language Institute (Lt. Colonel Steve Butler) said "Of course Bush knew about the impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism." [11]

Two-Star general (Major General Albert Stubbelbine) questions the attack on the Pentagon [12]

U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, former instructor at the USAF Fighter Weapons School and NATO’s Tactical Leadership Program, with a 20-year Air Force career (Lt. Colonel Guy S. Razer) said the following [13]:

"I am 100% convinced that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were planned, organized, and committed by treasonous perpetrators that have infiltrated the highest levels of our government ....

Those of us in the military took an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic". Just because we have retired does not make that oath invalid, so it is not just our responsibility, it is our duty to expose the real perpetrators of 9/11 and bring them to justice, no matter how hard it is, how long it takes, or how much we have to suffer to do it.

We owe it to those who have gone before us who executed that same oath, and who are doing the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. Those of us who joined the military and faithfully executed orders that were given us had to trust our leaders. The violation and abuse of that trust is not only heinous, but ultimately the most accurate definition of treason!"

U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, a fighter pilot with over 300 combat missions flown and a 21-year Marine Corps career (Lt. Colonel Shelton F. Lankford) believes that 9/11 was an inside job, and said [14]:

"This isn't about party, it isn't about Bush Bashing. It's about our country, our constitution, and our future. ...

Your countrymen have been murdered and the more you delve into it the more it looks as though they were murdered by our government, who used it as an excuse to murder other people thousands of miles away.

If you ridicule others who have sincere doubts and who know factual information that directly contradicts the official report and who want explanations from those who hold the keys to our government, and have motive, means, and opportunity to pull off a 9/11, but you are too lazy or fearful, or ... to check into the facts yourself, what does that make you? ....

Are you afraid that you will learn the truth and you can't handle it? ..."

U.S. Navy 'Top Gun' pilot (Commander Ralph Kolstad) who questions the official account of 9/11 and is calling for a new investigation, says "When one starts using his own mind, and not what one was told, there is very little to believe in the official story" [15].

The Group Director on matters of national security in the U.S. Government Accountability Office said that President Bush did not respond to unprecedented warnings of the 9/11 disaster and conducted a massive cover-up instead of accepting responsibility [16]

Additionally, numerous military leaders from allied governments have questioned 9/11, such as:

Canadian Minister of Defense [17], the top military leader of Canada (Paul Hellyer)

Assistant German Defense Minister [18] (Andreas Von Bulow)

Commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy [19] (Anatoli Kornukov)

Chief of staff of the Russian armed forces [20] (General Leonid Ivashov)

INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONALS

A 27-year CIA veteran, who chaired National Intelligence Estimates and personally delivered intelligence briefings to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, their Vice Presidents, Secretaries of State, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many other senior government officials (Raymond McGovern) said “I think at simplest terms, there’s a cover-up. The 9/11 Report is a joke”, and is open to the possibility that 9/11 was an inside job [21].

A 29-year CIA veteran, former National Intelligence Officer (NIO) and former Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political Analysis (William Bill Christison) said “I now think there is persuasive evidence that the events of September did not unfold as the Bush administration and the 9/11 Commission would have us believe. ... All three [buildings that were destroyed in the World Trade Center] were most probably destroyed by controlled demolition charges placed in the buildings before 9/11. [22]" (and see this [23]).

20-year Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer, the second-ranking civilian in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence, and former CIA clandestine services case officer [24] (David Steele) stated that "9/11 was at a minimum allowed to happen as a pretext for war" [25], and it was probably an inside job (see Customer Review dated October 7, 2006).

A decorated 20-year CIA veteran, who Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh called "perhaps the best on-the-ground field officer in the Middle East”, and whose astounding career formed the script for the Academy Award winning motion picture Syriana (Robert Baer) said that"the evidence points at" 9/11 having had aspects of being an inside job [26] .

The Division Chief of the CIA’s Office of Soviet Affairs, who served as Senior Analyst from 1966 - 1990. He also served as Professor of International Security at the National War College from 1986 - 2004 (Melvin Goodman) said "The final [9/11 Commission] report is ultimately a coverup [27]."

Professor of History and International Relations, University of Maryland. Former Executive Assistant to the Director of the National Security Agency. Former military attaché in China. 21-year career in U.S. Army Intelligence (Major John M. Newman, PhD, U.S. Army)
questions the government's version of the events of 9/11. [28]

The head of all U.S. intelligence, the Director of National Intelligence [29] (Mike McConnel) said "9/11 should have and could have been prevented" [30]

9/11 COMMISSIONERS

The 9/11 Commissioners knew that military officials lied to the Commission, and considered recommending criminal charges for such false statements [31], yet didn't bother to tell the American people.

Indeed, the co-chairs of the Commission (Thomas Keane and Lee Hamilton) now admit that the Commission largely operated based upon political considerations [32].

9/11 Commission co-chair Lee Hamilton says "I don't believe for a minute we got everything right", that the Commission was set up to fail, that people should keep asking questions about 9/11, that the 9/11 debate should continue, and that the 9/11 Commission report was only "the first draft" of history [33].

9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey said that "There are ample reasons to suspect that there may be some alternative to what we outlined in our version . . . We didn't have access . . . ." [34]

9/11 Commissioner Timothy Roemer said "We were extremely frustrated with the false statements we were getting" [35]

Former 9/11 Commissioner Max Cleland resigned from the Commission, stating: "It is a national scandal" [36]; "This investigation is now compromised" [37]; and "One of these days we will have to get the full story because the 9-11 issue is so important to America. But this White House wants to cover it up" [38].

The Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission (John Farmer) who led the 9/11 staff's inquiry, said "I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described .... The tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public for two years.... This is not spin. This is not true." [39]

SCIENTISTS

[40]A prominent physicist with 33 years of service for the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC (Dr. David L. Griscom) said that the official theory for why the Twin Towers and world trade center building 7 collapsed "does not match the available facts" and supports the theory that the buildings were brought down by controlled demolition [41]

A world-renowned scientist, recipient of the National Medal of Science, America's highest honor for scientific achievement (Dr. Lynn Margulis) said:

"I suggest that those of us aware and concerned demand that the glaringly erroneous official account of 9/11 be dismissed as a fraud and a new, thorough, and impartial investigation be undertaken. [42]"

The former head of the Fire Science Division of the government agency which claims that the World Trade Centers collapsed due to fire (the National Institute of Standards and Technology), who is a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, with more than 25 years experience in fire research and its applications, and is a professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland (Dr. James Quintiere), called for an independent review of the World Trade Center Twin Tower collapse investigation. "I wish that there would be a peer review of this," he said, referring to the NIST investigation. "I think all the records that NIST has assembled should be archived. I would really like to see someone else take a look at what they've done; both structurally and from a fire point of view. ... I think the official conclusion that NIST arrived at is questionable." [43]

Former Director for Research, Director for Aeronautical Projects, and Flight Research Program Manager for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, who holds masters degrees in both physics and engineering (Dwain A. Deets) says:

"The many visual images (massive structural members being hurled horizontally, huge pyroclastic clouds, etc.) leave no doubt in my mind explosives were involved [in the destruction of the World Trade Centers on 9/11] [44].''

A prominent physicist, former U.S. professor of physics from a top university, and a former principal investigator for the U.S. Department of Energy, Division of Advanced Energy Projects (Dr. Steven E. Jones) stated that the world trade centers were brought down by controlled demolition [45]

A U.S. physics professor who teaches at several universities (Dr. Crockett Grabbe) believes that the World Trade Centers were brought down by controlled demolition [46]

An expert on demolition (Bent Lund) said that the trade centers were brought down with explosives [47] (in Danish)

A Dutch demolition expert (Danny Jowenko) stated that WTC 7 was imploded [48]

A safety engineer and accident analyst for the Finnish National Safety Technology Authority (Dr. Heikki Kurttila) stated regarding WTC 7 that "The great speed of the collapse and the low value of the resistance factor strongly suggest controlled demolition." [49]

A 13-year professor of metallurgical engineering at a U.S. university, with a PhD in materials engineering, a former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment Senior Staff Member (Dr. Joel S. Hirschhorn), is calling for a new investigation of 9/11 [50]

A Danish professor of chemistry (Dr. Niels Harrit) said, in a mainstream Danish newspaper, [51]"WTC7 collapsed exactly like a house of cards. If the fires or damage in one corner had played a decisive role, the building would have fallen in that direction. You don't have to be a woodcutter to grasp this" [52] (translated)

A former guidance systems engineer for Polaris and Trident missiles and professor emeritus, mathematics and computer science at a university concluded (Dr. Bruce R. Henry) that the Twin Towers "were brought down by planted explosives." [53]

A professor of mathematics (Gary Welz) said "The official explanation that I've heard doesn't make sense because it doesn't explain why I heard and felt an explosion before the South Tower fell and why the concrete was pulverized" [54]

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS AND ARCHITECTS

A prominent engineer [55] with 55 years experience, in charge of the design of hundreds of major building projects including high rise offices, former member of the California Seismic Safety Commission and former member of the National Institute of Sciences Building Safety Council (Marx Ayres) believes that the World Trade Centers were brought down by controlled demolition (see also this [56])

Two professors of structural engineering at a prestigious Swiss university (Dr. Joerg Schneider and Dr. Hugo Bachmann) said that, on 9/11, World Trade Center 7 was brought down by controlled demolition [57] (translation here [58])

Charles Pegelow, structural engineer [59], of Houston, Texas (and see this [60])

Dennis Kollar, structural engineer [61], of West Bend, Wisconsin

Doyle Winterton, structural engineer [62](retired)

Haluk Akol, Structural Engineer [63] and architect (ret.)

William Rice, P.E., structural engineer [64], former professor of Vermont Technical College

An architect, member of the American Institute of Architects, who has been a practicing architect for 20 years and has been responsible for the production of construction documents for numerous steel-framed and fire-protected buildings for uses in many different areas, including education, civic, rapid transit and industrial use (Richard Gage) disputes the claim that fire and airplane damage brought down the World Trade Centers and believes there is strong evidence of controlled demolition [65] (over 1000 other architects who question 9/11 are listed here [66])

LEGAL SCHOLARS

Former Federal Prosecutor, Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Department of Justice under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan; former U.S. Army Intelligence officer, and currently a widely-sought media commentator on terrorism and intelligence services (John Loftus) questions the government's version of 9/11 [67].

Former Inspector General, U.S. Department of Transportation; former Professor of Aviation, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering and Aviation and Professor of Public Policy, Ohio State University (Mary Schiavo) questions the government's version of 9/11 [68].

Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, Champaign; a leading practitioner and advocate of international law; responsible for drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the American implementing legislation for the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention; served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International (1988-1992), and represented Bosnia- Herzegovina at the World Court, with a Doctor of Law Magna Cum Laude as well as a Ph.D. in Political Science, both from Harvard University (Dr. Francis Boyle) questions the government's version of 9/11 [69].

Former prosecutor in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the U.S. Justice Department and a key member of Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s anti-corruption task force; former assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois (J. Terrence "Terry" Brunner) questions the government's version of 9/11 [70].

Professor Emeritus, International Law, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University; in 2001 served on the three-person UN Commission on Human Rights for the Palestine Territories, and previously, on the Independent International Commission on Kosovo (Richard Falk) questions the government's version of 9/11 [71].

Bessie Dutton Murray Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Director, Center for Human Rights, University of Iowa; Fellow, World Academy of Art and Science. Honorary Editor, Board of Editors, American Journal of International Law (Burns H. Weston) questions the government's version of 9/11 [72].

Former president of the National Lawyers Guild (C. Peter Erlinder), who signed a petition calling for a real investigation into 9/11 [73]. And see petition [74].

Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Troy University; associate General Counsel, National Association of Federal Agents; Retired Agent in Charge, Internal Affairs, U.S. Customs, responsible for the internal integrity and security for areas encompassing nine states and two foreign locations; former Federal Sky Marshall; 27-year U.S. Customs career (Mark Conrad) questions the government's version of 9/11 [75].

Professor of Law, University of Freiburg; former Minister of Justice of West Germany (Horst Ehmke) questions the government's version of 9/11 [76].

Director of Academic Programs, Institute for Policy and Economic Development, University of Texas, El Paso, specializing in executive branch secrecy policy, governmental abuse, and law and bureaucracy; former U.S. Army Signals Intelligence officer; author of several books on law and political theory (Dr. William G. Weaver) questions the government's version of 9/11 [77].

Famed trial attorney (Gerry Spence) questions the government's version of 9/11 [78].

Former Instructor of Criminal Trial Practice, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley 11-year teaching career. Retired Chief Assistant Public Defender, Contra Costa County, California 31-year career (William Veale) said:

"When you grow up in the United States, there are some bedrock principles that require concerted effort to discard. One is the simplest: that our leaders are good and decent people whose efforts may occasionally warrant criticism but never because of malice or venality... But one grows up. ... And with the lawyer's training comes the reliance on evidence and the facts that persuade... After a lot of reading, thought, study, and commiseration, I have come to the conclusion that the attacks of 9/11 were, in their essence, an inside job perpetrated at the highest levels of the U S government."

[79]MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

Current U.S. Senator (Patrick Leahy) states "The two questions that the congress will not ask . . . is why did 9/11 happen on George Bush's watch when he had clear warnings that it was going to happen? Why did they allow it to happen?" [80]

Current Republican Congressman (Ron Paul) states that "we see the [9/11] investigations that have been done so far as more or less cover-up and no real explanation of what went on" [81]

Current Democratic Congressman (Dennis Kucinich) hints that we aren't being told the truth about 9/11 [82]

Former Democratic Senator (Mike Gravel) states that he supports a new 9/11 investigation and that we don't know the truth about 9/11 [83]

Former U.S. Republican Congressman and senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, and who served six years as the Chairman of the Military Research and Development Subcommittee (Curt Weldon) has shown that the U.S. tracked hijackers before 9/11 [84], is open to hearing information about explosives in the Twin Towers, and is open to the possibility that 9/11 was an inside job [85]

FAMILY MEMBERS AND HEROIC FIRST RESPONDERS

A common criticism of those who question 9/11 is that they are being "disrespectful to the victims and their families".

However, half of the victim's families believe that 9/11 was an inside job [86] (according to the head of the largest 9/11 family group, Bill Doyle) (and listen to this interview [87]). Many family and friends of victims not only support the search for 9/11 truth [88], but they demand it [89] (please ignore the partisan tone). See also this interview [90].

Indeed, it has now become so clear that the 9/11 Commission was a whitewash that the same 9/11 widows who called for the creation of the 9/11 Commission are now demanding a NEW investigation [91] (see also this video [92]).

And dying heroes, soon-to-be victims themselves, the first responders who worked tirelessly to save lives on and after 9/11, say that controlled demolition brought down the Twin Towers and that a real investigation is necessary [93].

PSYCHIATRISTS AND PSYCHOLOGISTS

Finally, those who attack people who question the government's version of 9/11 as "crazy" may wish to review the list of mental health professionals who have concluded that the official version of 9/11 is false:

Psychiatrist Carol S. Wolman, MD [94]

Psychiatrist E. Martin Schotz [95]

Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, as well as Radiology, at Duke University Medical Center D. Lawrence Burk, Jr., MD [96]

Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean of the Graduate School at Ruters University Barry R. Komisaruk [97]

Professor of Psychology at University of New Hampshire William Woodward [98]

Professor of Psychology at University of Essex Philip Cozzolino [99]

Professor of Psychology at Goddard College Catherine Lowther [100]

Professor Emeritus of Psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies Ralph Metzner [101]

Professor of Psychology at Rhodes University Mike Earl-Taylor [102]

Retired Professor of Psychology at Oxford University Graham Harris [103]

Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Nebraska and licensed Psychologist Ronald Feintech [104]

Ph.D. Clinical Neuropsychologist Richard Welser [105]

THOUSANDS OF OTHERS

The roster above is only a sample. There are too many Ph.D. scientists and engineers, architects, military and intelligence officials, politicians, legal scholars and other highly-credible people who question 9/11 -- literally thousands -- to list in one place. Here are a few additional people to consider:

The former director of the FBI (Louis Freeh) says there was a cover up by the 9/11 Commission [106]

Former air traffic controller, who knows the flight corridor which the two planes which hit the Twin Towers flew "like the back of my hand" and who handled two actual hijackings (Robin Hordon) says that 9/11 could not have occurred as the government says, and that planes can be tracked on radar even when their transponders are turned off [107] (also, listen to this interview [108])

Perhaps "the premiere collapse expert in the country" [109], who 9/11 Commissioner Timothy Roemer referred to as a "very, very respected expert on building collapse" [110], the head of the New York Fire Department's Special Operations Command and the most highly decorated firefighter in its NYFD history, who had previously "commanded rescue operations at many difficult and complex disasters, including the Oklahoma City Bombing, the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, and many natural disasters worldwide [111]" thought that the collapse of the South Tower was caused by bombs, because the collapse of the building was too even to have been caused by anything else [112] (pages 5-6).

Former Deputy Secretary for Intelligence and Warning under Nixon, Ford, and Carter (Morton Goulder), former former Deputy Director to the White House Task Force on Terrorism (Edward L. Peck), and former US Department of State Foreign Service Officer (J. Michael Springmann), as well as a who's who of liberals and independents) jointly call for a new investigation into 9/11 [113]

Former FBI agent (Robert Wright) says "The FBI, rather than trying to prevent a terrorist attack, was merely gathering intelligence so they would know who to arrest when a terrorist attack occurred." [114]

Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg said that some of the claims concerning government involvement in 9/11 are credible [115], that "very serious questions have been raised about what they [U.S. government officials] knew beforehand and how much involvement there might have been", that engineering 9/11 would not be humanly or psychologically beyond the scope of the current administration, and that there's enough evidence to justify a new, "hard-hitting" investigation into 9/11 with subpoenas and testimony taken under oath [116]

Former FBI translator, who the Department of Justice's Inspector General and several senators have called extremely credible [117] (Sibel Edmonds), said "If they were to do real investigations we would see several significant high level criminal prosecutions in this country. And that is something that they are not going to let out. And, believe me; they will do everything to cover this up" [118]. She also is leaning towards the conclusion that 9/11 was an inside job. [119]

Hmmm . . . maybe 9/11 Truthers are not nuts!

Links:
[1] http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2005/10/hit-them-with-truth.html
[2] http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/11/overwhelming-majority-of-credible.html
[3] http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/july2006/010706doesnthunt.htm
[4] http://www.firstprinciplespress.org/pages/colonel.htm
[5] http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/040406mainsuspect.htm
[6] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6573509697830819918
[7] http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Davis
[8] http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Davis
[9] http://securingamerica.com/node/692
[10] http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski88.html
[11] http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.06E.butler.bush.htm
[12] http://www.undersiegemovie.com/media/stubblebine.wmv
[13] http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Razer
[14] http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Lankford
[15] http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070905_u_s__navy__top_gun__.htm
[16] http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/06/04/con06125.html
[17] http://www.septembereleventh.org/kc/multimedia/movies/Hellyer.mov
[18] http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11222.htm
[19] http://web.archive.org/web/20010913033540/http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/09/12/14983.html
[20] http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2006/230106doesnotexist.htm
[21] http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070922_seven_cia_veterans_c.htm
[22] http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070922_seven_cia_veterans_c.htm
[23] http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug06/Christison14.htm
[24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_David_Steele
[25] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0930852370/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/102-5410351-1934562?ie=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=283155
[26] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNsSn6D3CP4
[27] http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070922_seven_cia_veterans_c.htm
[28] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Newman
[29] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Director_of_National_Intelligence
[30] http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Spy_Chief_CIA_monitors_billions_of_0918.html
[31] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080101300.html?sub=new
[32] http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/08/04/national/w124141D43.DTL&type=printable
[33] http://www.911podcasts.com/files/video/CBCSunday_20060910.wmv
[34] http://salon.com/ent/feature/2006/06/27/911_conspiracies/index4.html
[35] http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/02/9-11panel.pentagon/index.html
[36] http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/11/21/cleland/index.html?pn=1
[37] http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/11/13/911_panel_to_get_access_to_withheld_data/
[38] http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/23/1546256
[39] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080101300.html
[40] http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10365
[41] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Griscom
[42] http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070906_national_academy_of_.htm
[43] http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070820_former_chief_of_nist.htm
[44] http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Deets
[45] http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635160132,00.html
[46] http://innworldreport.net/video_launcher.php?2007-04-23i
[47] http://www.bt.dk/nyheder/artikel:aid=67849/
[48] http://www.911blogger.com/node/3231
[49] http://www.saunalahti.fi/wtc2001/WTC7_collapse_examination.pdf
[50] http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070905_former_congressional.htm
[51] http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070905_former_congressional.htm
[52] http://www.911truth.dk/first/en/art_Harrit.htm
[53] http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070906_national_academy_of_.htm
[54] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Welz
[55] http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070906_national_academy_of_.htm
[56] http://patriotsquestion911.com/engineers.html#Ayres
[57] http://tagesanzeiger.ch/dyn/news/ausland/663864.html
[58] http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftagesanzeiger.ch%2Fdyn%2Fnews%2Fausland%2F663864.html&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools
[59] http://www.911blogger.com/node/2257
[60] http://www.ae911truth.org/info/9
[61] http://www.ae911truth.org/joinus.php
[62] http://stj911.org/members/index.html
[63] http://www.ae911truth.org/joinus.php
[64] http://www.vermontguardian.com/commentary/032007/TwinTowers.shtml http://67.15.255.19/%7Ec911sch1/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37&Itemid=35
[65] http://911blogger.com/node/10025
[66] http://www.ae911truth.org/joinus.php
[67] http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/#Loftus
[68] http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Schiavo
[69] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Boyle
[70] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Boyle
[71] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Falk
[72] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Weston
[73] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Erlinder
[74] http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20041026093059633
[75] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Conrad
[76] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Ehmke
[77] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Weaver
[78] http://www.interlinkbooks.com/BooksN/New_Pearl_Harbor.html
[79] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Veale
[80] http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/29/150254
[81] http://prisonplanet.tv/audio/170107paul.mp3
[82] http://www.911blogger.com/node/5854
[83] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE6XLYfAhG0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2F911blogger%2Ecom%2Fnode%2F10561
[84] http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050917&articleId=965
[85] http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10365
[86] http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2006/080706governmentcomplicit.htm
[87] http://www.911podcasts.com/files/audio/aj_2006-07-07_clipped.mp3
[88] http://loosechange911.blogspot.com/2006/07/ahem.html
[89] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EymYwYc43iE&mode=related&search
[90] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErHfTQAvDnw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwakeupfromyourslumber%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F2006%2F03%2Fbob%2Dmcilvaine%2Dus%2Dgov%2Dbehind%2D911%2Ehtml
[91] http://911blogger.com/node/2410
[92] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5589099104255077250
[93] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1855050994689354420&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en
[94] http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_carol_wo_070217_why_the_resistance_t.htm
[95] http://twilightpines.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&Itemid=35
[96] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Burk
[97] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Komisaruk
[98] http://twilightpines.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37&Itemid=35
[99] http://stj911.org/members/index.html
[100] http://stj911.org/members/index.html
[101] http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Metzner
[102] http://twilightpines.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37&Itemid=35
[103] http://stj911.org/members/index.html
[104] http://twilightpines.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&I...
[105] http://stj911.org/members/index.html
[106] http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/11/17/122900.shtml
[107] http://www.communitycurrency.org/robin.html
[108] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9147890225218338952
[109] http://web.archive.org/web/20011113123842/http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/101101Ingram.pdf
[110] http://www.9-11commission.gov/archive/hearing11/9-11Commission_Hearing_2004-05-18.htm
[111] http://www.fireengineering.com/display_article/132494/25/ARCHI/none/FYI/Inaugural-Ray-Downey-Courage-and-Valor-Award-to-be-Presented-at-FDIC-200
[112] http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110230.PDF
[113] http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20041026093059633
[114] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4703307/
[115] http://www.911blogger.com/2006/07/daniel-ellsberg-comes-out-for-911.html
[116] http://www.911blogger.com/2006/07/daniel-ellsberg-comes-out-for-911.html
[117] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/15/national/15translate.html?ex=1153886400&en=13842175814b8e8c&ei=5070
[118] http://baltimorechronicle.com/050704SibelEdmonds.shtml
[119] http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2006/240706insidejob.htm

DEMOLISHED vs. COLLAPSED - The Language of Deception

By: Adam Ruff, OpEdNews

The language of deception is used against us every day and most of us don’t even realize it has been done to us or realize the devastating effect it has on us. My task here is to expose some of the subtle deceptions hidden within the terminology we in the 9/11 truth movement use every day. My goal is to shine a light on the subtle deceptions that pass under our radar every day and to counter those deceptions with the language of truth.

First we have to consider how we in the 9/11 truth movement describe what happened to the World Trade Center (WTC)? The question is, should we say that WTC 1, 2, and 7 “collapsed” or should we say they were “demolished” and does it really matter all that much? At first glance it may not seem to be a particularly important question as to which word we use. I will expose however that it is, in fact, very important which word we use. Furthermore I want to reveal how and why the debate has been framed from the beginning by our opponents with the endlessly repeated use of just one simple word, “collapsed”.

To illustrate the problem let’s take a brief look at the definition for each of the two words that are commonly used to describe what happened to the WTC on 9/11. Using the dictionary we can compare the definition for collapse to the definition of demolish. Take a close look at the two definitions and note the subtle but important differences between them.

col·lapse
1. To fall down or inward suddenly; cave in.

de-mol-ish
1. To tear down completely; raze.

Consider for a moment the difference between something that has “fallen down” (collapsed) and something that has been “torn down” (demolished). It is obvious, once we look closely, that the two words really mean two completely different things. We should take note that the word “collapsed” was not chosen by the US Propaganda Ministry by accident. When applied to what happened to the WTC buildings, collapsed means the WTC buildings fell down, while demolished means they were torn down.

One term implies the buildings “fell” or “caved in” as a result of weakening from fire and damage while the other term implies the towers were “torn down” or “razed” with pre-positioned explosives. Obviously the word you use to describe the demise of the WTC buildings will depend on your perspective of what happened right? Not necessarily if the debate has been framed in advance and we have been carefully conditioned through endless repetition in the corpstream media. If we have been “framed” we will see both ourselves and our adversaries using the term “collapsed” on a regular basis.

Take a moment to think about how marketing firms sell products to you. Do they ask you to buy their product? No they don’t. Do you even notice what they actually say in commercials and advertisements? Do they affect you subliminally? Advertisers tell you why you need their product, they tell you to buy it like a parent tells a child to brush his teeth. They don’t ask you anything. Watch a few commercials and see for yourself the technique in action, write down what they actually say so you can see it in print.

Test it yourself see if you can find one professional print ad or commercial where the customer is asked to buy the product rather then told to buy it or one where the customer is asked his opinion of the product rather then told what his opinion should be. Politicians and their allies at the Disinformation Ministry use these techniques all day, every day to distort the truth and “frame” the debate on all kinds of issues. You can bet your bottom dollar they use these techniques to their fullest when talking about 9/11.

Marketing firms regularly work on political campaigns and even take the lead in designing huge propaganda efforts such as the now infamous baby incubator story. In that instance Hill and Knowlton, a large US marketing firm, trained the Kuwaiti Ambassadors daughter to come before Congress and lie about how Iraqi soldiers had taken babies out of their incubators and left them on the cold floor to die.

How many people still don’t know that this story was a lie to this very day? How many don’t even realize they were tricked into supporting Desert Storm by a marketing firm and an aspiring young Kuwaiti actress? Wag the Dog anyone?

Propaganda tactics like these have a very powerful effect on people and we have to understand how they work if we are going to have any hope of winning the information war. As 9/11 truth advocates we need to think carefully about how “framing the debate” is accomplished, how effective it is, and how to combat it effectively.

Consider this excerpt from Commondreams:

Take the term “tax relief,” for example. The phrase started appearing in White House press releases on the day President Bush took office, and it has been repeated over and over ever since. But it’s what is behind the words ― the mental structure known as a “frame” ― that matters as much as the words themselves.

For there to be “relief” there must be an affliction, an afflicted party harmed by the affliction, and a reliever who takes the affliction away and is therefore a hero. And if anybody tries to stop the reliever, he’s a villain wanting the suffering to go on. Add “tax” to the mix and you have a metaphorical frame: Taxation as an affliction, the taxpayer as the afflicted party, the president as the hero, and the Democrats as the villains.

Every time you hear the term, those subliminal meanings resonate. Once the campaign repeats the words day after day, they end up in every newspaper and on every TV and radio station, and the term becomes the way TV commentators and journalists talk about taxes. And pretty soon the Democrats are forced to talk about their own brand of “tax relief,” for the middle class. But by adopting the Republicans’ language, they have adopted one of the GOP’s central ideas. Every time they use the words, they reinforce the idea.

That’s because once phrases become part of everyday language, their frames become physically fixed in people’s brains. When this happens, mere facts don’t matter. If the facts don’t fit the frames, the frames stay and the facts are ignored. Once the Republicans see their frames accepted, they have an overwhelming advantage in every debate. Their frames become the new common sense, because frames define what common sense is.

With this in mind it becomes obvious that 9/11 Truth advocates should not use the term “collapse” at all but should instead replace it with “demolished”, but do we as a group allow ourselves to be framed by using the term “collapsed” in our conversations? Yes unfortunately we do and it needs to stop so we can reclaim the initiative from the propaganda masters in Washington DC and the corpstream media. It needs to stop now.

This brings us to the question of how we as 9/11 investigators should speak about 9/11 and the words we use to make our points. I propose that we as a group immediately take the initiative and re-frame the debate. We need to start putting our detractors on the defensive from the moment we begin speaking. We need to force them to explain why the demolitions were not really demolitions, why the squibs aren’t really squibs, and why explosions are not really explosions. We must start training ourselves to re-frame the debate instead of putting ourselves on the defensive by using the deceptive language of our detractors, essentially framing ourselves into a situation where we are on the defensive, having to explain why what happened to the towers was not a “collapse”.

To accomplish this re-framing we need to consistently use the terms “demolitions” or “demolished” or “brought down with explosives” or “exploded” in all our conversations and eliminate the term “collapsed” from our vocabulary whenever we are discussing 9/11. It is vital that we as a group re-frame the debate and take the initiative away from the proponents of the official propaganda and take it back for 9/11 truth. In the final analysis the truth is that the WTC towers were demolished, exploded, blown up, proving conclusively that 9/11 was an inside job!

It is about time we re-claim the initiative and put the deniers on the defensive with the truth!

The towers were DEMOLISHED!

NEW AMERICAN 9/11 DICTIONARY:

Collapsed
1. Demolished
2. Exploded
3. Blown up
4. Brought down with explosives.

Conspiracy theorist
1. 9/11 Truther
2. 9/11 Investigator
3. 9/11 Researcher

Debunker
1. Denier
2. Deceiver

Mainstream media
1. Corpstream media
2. Propaganda Ministry
3. Disinformation Ministry

Spin
1. Distort
2. Falsify
3. Lie

January 10, 2008, Original content: OpEdNews

Jesse Ventura Talks 9/11 & Fox New Anchor Leaves in a Huff

Jesse Ventura On Fox News causes Fox Anchor to leave the stage after his government sponsored act goes nowhere when talking with Ventura.



RADIO SHOW: Jesse Ventura talks with Howard Stern about 9/11:



Jesse with Larry King:

MOVIE: Terrorstorm

Here is the link to purchase the updated and expanded edition of Terrorstorm. Alex Jones-often credited as the father of the 9/11 Truth Movement-provides a riveting case of how throughout history, criminal elements inside governments have carried out terror attacks against their own populations as a pretext to enslave them.

Terrorstorm reveals that in the last hundred years, Western leaders have repeatedly murdered their own citizens while posing as their saviors.

Questioning the War on Terror

So, what happened to that CHANGE we voted for?



The sixty million Americans who voted for Obama are scratching their heads and questioning the War on Terror paradigm and the ever-escalating 9/11 wars. This is the perfect time to deprogram them with Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters--the book carefully designed for and tested on real live Obama voters.

It's guaranteed to turn the average Obama voter into a War on Terror skeptic overnight!

The revised and updated 2010 edition, shipping in March, includes almost 20 pages of all-new material questioning Obama's peace prize, the record military budget and troop deployments, plans to try KSM and the false-confession five, the Afghan escalation and war on Pakistan, the Ft. Hood shooting, the Christmas Day flaming-underwear affair, the invasion of Haiti, new threats to Iran, and more.

Hot Off the Press in late March. Pre-order now and receive a free gift--a personally-autographed copy of Kevin Barrett's book Truth Jihad here.

"Americans have now joined the rest of the world in regarding the war in Iraq as illegitimate because based on lies. Kevin Barrett's book shows that the same is true of the war in Afghanistan. President Obama's promise to base his administration's policies on good intelligence should, therefore, lead him to bring this war to a quick end."
-David Ray Griffin

"I loved the first one and am ordering my copy of Barrett's revised and updated book right now."
- Editor, NHTrugh.blogspot.com

Press Conference and Luncheon, February 19th

A Message from Richard Gage:

As of January 2010, over 1,000 architects and engineers have signed our petition demanding a real investigation into the destruction of the three World Trade Center skyscrapers on 9/11. This petition, along with AE911Truth literature and DVDs, will also be presented to every Member of Congress.

To underscore the importance of this milestone achievement, AE911Truth is launching a massive publicity campaign nationwide and holding a Press Conference in San Francisco, California on February 19, 2010 followed by an exclusive Keynote Luncheon to include David Ray Griffin, Steven Jones and others. We will also host an exclusive A/E Conference in honor of our AE911Truth petition signers– many of whom will be flying in to San Francisco to join us. Mark your calendars now! This will be a day of events that you won't want to miss!



• DATE: February 19, 2010

• TIME: 11am – 6pm

• PLACE: Marines' Memorial Club & Hotel, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA

REGISTRATION: Seating for Luncheon is limited. Please register now if you know you are coming. If you are unable to attend the event in person but would like to show your support with a donation your contribution will be greatly appreciated and can be made very easily:

• AE911Truth online ticketing service: http://www.1000aes.eventbrite.com

• Mail-in: AE911Truth, 2342 Shattuck Ave. Suite 189, Berkeley, CA 94704

• Phone: (510) 292-4710

• Email: 1000[at]AE911Truth.org

PROGRAM DETAILS HERE

Need Some Inspiration?

We're not alone in calling for the Truth of 9/11. Here are some good political quotes to inspire our cause:

Government should not be made an end in itself; it is a means only - a means to be freely adapted to advance the best interests of the social organism. The State exists for the sake of Society, not society for the sake of the State.
-Woodrow Wilson

The mere possession of intelligence and attainment of high political office does not automatically instill in one the desire to provide for the common good of all citizens.
-Ray Gattavara

Competing pressures tempt one to believe that an issue deferred is a problem avoided: more often it is a crisis invited.
-Henry Kissinger

The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of men change also; and as Government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that have any right in it.
-Thomas Paine

To kill time, a committee meeting is the perfect weapon.
-Fred Allen

It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.
-John Gardner

Example moves the world more than doctrine.
-Henry Miller

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
-George Bernard Shaw

Statistics are no substitute for judgment.
-Henry Clay

The level of dysfunction exhibited by any nation's political process is greatly influenced by the ethical and moral values observed and practiced by society as a whole.
-Ray Gattavara

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
-Elie Wiesel

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower

There's none so blind as they that won't see.
-Jonathan Swift

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
-Abraham Lincoln

Many people today don't want honest answers insofar as honest means unpleasant or disturbing. They want a soft answer that turneth away anxiety.
-Louis Kronenberger

The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.
-Benjamin Franklin

Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk.
-Joaquin Setanti

The ideals of liberty cannot be fixed from generation to generation; only its conception can be, the large image of what it is. Liberty fixed in unalterable law would be[and is] no liberty at all.
-Woodrow Wilson

A man's[or woman's] intelligence does not increase as he aquires power. What does increase is the difficulty in telling him so.
-D. Sutherland

Under democracy one party always devotes its energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed and are right.
-H.L. Mencken

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.
-Aristotle

Neither the clamor of the mob nor the voice of power will ever turn me by the breadth of a hair from the course I made out for myself guided by such knowledge as I can obtain and controlled and directed by a solemn conviction of right and duty.
-Robert La Follette

If everyone is thinking alike then someone isn't thinking.
-Gen. George S. Patton Jr.

Individual liberty and positive social evolution gradually erode within societies that remain fixated on governmental structures that were never intended to last for all of eternity.
-Ray Gattavara

Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.
-Samuel Johnson

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.
-Thomas Jefferson

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction.
-John F. Kennedy

The final test of a leader is that he[or she] leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.
-Walter Lippman

Truth is the only safe ground to stand on.
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey established government.
-George Washington

The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of our planet.
-John F. Kennedy

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.
-Henry David Thoreau

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end...I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.
-Abraham Lincoln

Creativity always dies a quick death in rooms that house conference tables.
-Bruce Hershensohn

I believe in the color-blind society - but it has been and remains an aspiration.
-Thurgood Marshall

The nation behaves well if it treats its natural resources as assets, which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.
-Theodore Roosevelt

Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as liberty without freedom of speech.
-Benjamin Franklin

There is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unkown to the world.
-Thomas Jefferson

Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
-Elie Wiesel

Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable.
-Thomas Jefferson

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
-Thomas Jefferson

A just society would be one in which liberty for one person is constrained only by the demands created by equal liberty for another.
-Ivan Illich

No man is justified in doing evil on the grounds of expediency.
-Theodore Roosevelt

The law must be stable but it must not stand still.
-Roscoe Pound

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth.
-Thomas Jefferson

Simply exercising power over others in a social and/or political environment does not equal greatness.
-Ray Gattavara

I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an "Honest Man."
-George Washington

I have never accepted what many people have kindly said - namely, that I inspired a nation....It was the nation and the race dwelling round the globe that had the lion's heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar. I also hope that I sometimes suggested to the lion the right place to use his claws.
-Winston Churchill

Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.
-Thucydides

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
-J.K. Galbraith

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
-Edmund Burke

These are the days when men of all social disciplines and all political faiths seek the comfortable and the accepted; when the man of controversy is looked upon as a disturbing influence; when originality is taken to be a mark of instability; and when, in minor modification of the scriptural parable, the bland lead the bland.
-J.K. Galbraith

Mankind has probably done more damage to the earth in the 20th century than in all of previous history.
-Jacques Cousteau

Let us teach ourselves and others that politics can be not only the art of the possible, especially if this means the art of speculation, calculation, intrigue, secret deals, and pragmatic maneuvering, but that it can even be the art of the impossible, namely, the art of improving ourselves and the world.
-Vaclev Havel

It is an inevitable defect, that bureaucrats will care more for routine than for results.
-Walter Bagehot

The true character of a politician, and many others as well, is revealed more by his/her statements that prompt a quick apology and/or explanation, rather than by routine comments made during the course of day-to-day activities.
-Ray Gattavara

Governments that apply complexity instead of simplicity to their domestic governing process often do so in an attempt to conceal inaction, or dysfunction.
-Ray Gattavara

Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone.
-Sigmund Freud

A problem well stated is a problem half solved.
-Charles F. Kettering

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
-John Locke

Be wary of the elected public official or branch of government that spends any energies on partisan political issues, for its reflective of a dysfunctional unwillingness to introduce or advance ideas that would foster much needed political and social evolution, and at the same time reveals an intense interest on the part of politicians to create an illusion for the general populace that something positive is being done when the opposite is true.
-Ray Gattavara

If Columbus had an advisory committee he would probably still be at the dock.
-Arthur Goldberg

No man should be in politics unless he would honestly rather not be there.
-Henry Adams

The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.
-John Steinbeck

Learn to expect more from your elected governmental representatives. Deliberately ignore what they say, diligently watch what they do. You may discover that little or nothing is accomplished that has the potential to restore common sense and hope for the future to our social fabric.
-Ray Gattavara

Fifty Questions from Asia

1) How come dead or not dead Osama bin Laden has not been formally indicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as responsible for 9/11? Is it because the US government - as acknowledged by the FBI itself - has not produced a single conclusive piece of evidence?

2) How could all the alleged 19 razor-blade box cutter-equipped Muslim perpetrators have been identified in less than 72 hours - without even a crime scene investigation?

3) How come NONE of the 19's names appeared on the passenger lists released the same day by both United Airlines and American Airlines?

4) How come EIGHT names on the "original" FBI list happened to be found alive and living in different countries?

5) Why would pious jihadi Mohammed Atta leave a "How-to-fly" video manual, a uniform and his last will inside his bag knowing he was on a suicide mission?

6) Why and how did Mohammed Atta study flight simulation at Opa Locka, a hub of no less than six US Navy training bases?

7) How could Mohammed Atta's passport have been "magically" found buried among the Word Trade Center (WTC)'s debris when not a single flight recorder was found?

8) Who is in the possession of the "disappeared" eight indestructible black boxes on those four flights?

9) Considering multiple international red alerts about a possible terrorist attack inside the US - including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's infamous August 6, 2001 Memo - how come four hijacked planes deviating from their computerized flight paths and disappearing from radar are allowed to fly around US airspace for more than an hour and a half - not to mention disabling all the elaborate Pentagon's defense systems in the process?

10) Why the secretary of the US Air Force James Roche did not try to intercept both planes hitting the WTC (only seven minutes away from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey) as well as the Pentagon (only 10 minutes away from McGuire)? Roche had no less than 75 minutes to respond to the plane hitting the Pentagon.

11) Why did President George W Bush continue to recite "My Pet Goat" in a Florida school classroom and was not instantly taken away by the secret service? And why would the Secret Service NOT assume that he was a target?

12) How could Bush have seen the first plane crashing on WTC live - as he admitted? Did he have previous knowledge - or is he psychic?

13) Bush said that he and Andrew Card initially thought the first hit on the WTC was an "accident with a small plane." How is that possible when the FAA as well as NORAD already knew this was about a hijacked plane?

14) What are the odds of transponders in four different planes be turned off almost simultaneously, in the same geographical area, very close to the nation's seat of power in Washington, and no one scrambles to contact the Pentagon - or the media?

15) Could defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld explain why initial media reports said that there were no fighter jets available at Andrews Air Force Base and then change the reports that there were, but not on high alert?

16) Why was the DC Air National Guard in Washington AWOL on 9/11?

17) Why did combat jet fighters of the 305th Air Wing, McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey not intercept the second hijacked plane hitting the WTC, when they could have done it within seven minutes?

18) Why did none of the combat jet fighters of the 459th Aircraft Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base intercept the plane that hit the Pentagon, only 16 kilometers away? And since we're at it, why the Pentagon did not release all of the full videos of the hit?

19) A number of very experienced airline pilots - including US ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a former fighter jet pilot - revealed that only crack pilots could have performed such complex maneuvers on the hijacked jets, while others insisted they could only have been accomplished by remote control. Is it remotely believable that the hijackers were up to the task?

20) How come a substantial number of witnesses swore they saw and heard multiple explosions in both towers of the WTC and Building #7?

21) How come a substantial number of reputed architects and engineers are adamant that the official narrative simply does not explain the largest structural collapse in recorded history (the Twin Towers) as well as the collapse of WTC building 7, which was not even hit by a jet?

22) According to Frank de Martini, WTC's construction manager, "We designed the building to resist the impact of one or more jetliners." The second plane nearly missed tower 1; most of the fuel burned in an explosion outside the tower. Yet this tower collapsed first, long before tower 2 that was "perforated" by the first hit. Jet fuel burned up fast - and by far did not reach the 2000-degree heat necessary to hurt the six tubular steel columns in the center of the tower - designed specifically to keep the towers from collapsing even if hit by a Boeing 707. A Boeing 707 used to carry more fuel than the Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 that actually hit the towers.

23) Why did Mayor Rudolph Giuliani instantly authorized the shipment of WTC rubble to China and India for recycling?

24) Why were metallic debris found no less than 13 kilometers from the crash site of the plane that went down in Pennsylvania? Was the plane in fact shot down - under vice president Dick Cheney's orders?

25) The Pipelineistan question: What did US ambassador Wendy Chamberlain talk about over the phone on October 10, 2001, with the oil minister of Pakistan? Was it to tell him that the 1990s-planned Unocal gas pipeline project, TAP (Turkmenistan/Afghanistan/ Pakistan), abandoned because of Taliban demands on transit fees, was now back in business? (Two months later, an agreement to build the pipeline was signed between the leaders of the three countries).

26) What is former Unocal lobbyist and former Bush pet Afghan Zalmay Khalilzad up to in Afghanistan?

27) How come former Pakistani foreign minister Niaz Niak said in mid-July 2001 that the US had already decided to strike against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban by October? The topic was discussed secretly at the July Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy, according to Pakistani diplomats.

28) How come US ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine told FBI agent John O'Neill in July 2001 to stop investigating al-Qaeda's financial operations - with O'Neill instantly moved to a security job at the WTC, where he died on 9/11?

29) Considering the very intimate relationship between the Taliban and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the ISI and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is Bin Laden alive, dead or still a valuable asset of the ISI, the CIA or both?

30) Was Bin Laden admitted at the American hospital in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on July 4, 2001, after flying from Quetta, Pakistan, and staying for treatment until July 11?

31) Did the Bin Laden group build the caves of Tora Bora in close cooperation with the CIA during the 1980s' anti-Soviet jihad?

32) How come General Tommy Franks knew for sure that Bin Laden was hiding in Tora Bora in late November 2001?

33) Why did president Bill Clinton abort a hit on Bin Laden in October 1999? Why did then-Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf abort a covert ops in the same date? And why did Musharraf do the same thing again in August 2001?

34) Why did George W Bush dissolve the Bin Laden Task Force nine months before 9/11?

35) How come the (fake) Bin Laden home video - in which he "confesses" to being the perpetrator of 9/11 - released by the US on December 13, 2001, was found only two weeks after it was produced (on November 9); was it really found in Jalalabad (considering Northern Alliance and US troops had not even arrived there at the time); by whom; and how come the Pentagon was forced to release a new translation after the first (botched) one?

36) Why was ISI chief Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmad abruptly "retired" on October 8, 2001, the day the US started bombing Afghanistan?

37) What was Ahmad up to in Washington exactly on the week of 9/11 (he arrived on September 4)? On the morning of 9/11, Ahmad was having breakfast on Capitol Hill with Bob Graham and Porter Goss, both later part of the 9/11 Commission, which simply refused to investigate two of its members. Ahmad had breakfast with Richard Armitage of the State Department on September 12 and 13 (when Pakistan negotiated its "cooperation" with the "war on terror") and met all the CIA and Pentagon top brass. On September 13, Musharraf announced he would send Ahmad to Afghanistan to demand to the Taliban the extradition of Bin Laden.

38) Who inside the ISI transferred US$100,000 to Mohammed Atta in the summer of 2001 - under orders of Ahmad himself, as Indian intelligence insists? Was it really ISI asset Omar Sheikh, Bin Laden's information technology specialist who later organized the slaying of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi? So was the ISI directly linked to 9/11?

39) Did the FBI investigate the two shady characters who met Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi in Harry's Bar at the Helmsley Hotel in New York City on September 8, 2001?

40) What did director of Asian affairs at the State Department Christina Rocca and the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef discuss in their meeting in Islamabad in August 2001?

41) Did Washington know in advance that an "al-Qaeda" connection would kill Afghan nationalist commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, aka "The Lion of the Panjshir", only two days before 9/11? Massoud was fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda - helped by Russia and Iran. According to the Northern Alliance, Massoud was killed by an ISI-Taliban-al Qaeda axis. If still alive, he would never have allowed the US to rig a loya jirga (grand council) in Afghanistan and install a puppet, former CIA asset Hamid Karzai, as leader of the country.

42) Why did it take no less than four months before the name of Ramzi Binalshibh surfaced in the 9/11 context, considering the Yemeni was a roommate of Mohammed Atta in his apartment cell in Hamburg?

43) Is pathetic shoe-bomber Richard Reid an ISI asset? What about the Underpants Bomber?

44) Did then-Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence tell the CIA in 2001 that 25 terrorist pilots had been training for suicide missions?

45) When did the head of German intelligence, August Hanning, tell the CIA that terrorists were "planning to hijack commercial aircraft?"

46) When did Egyptian President Mubarak tell the CIA about an attack on the US with an "airplane stuffed with explosives?"

47) When did Israel's Mossad director Efraim Halevy tell the CIA about a possible attack on the US by "200 terrorists?"

48) Were the Taliban aware of the warning by a Bush administration official as early as February 2001 - "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs?"

49) Has Northrop-Grumman used Global Hawk technology - which allows to remotely control unmanned planes - in the war in Afghanistan since October 2001? Did it install Global Hawk in a commercial plane? Is Global Hawk available at all for commercial planes?

50) Would Cheney stand up and volunteer the detailed timeline of what he was really up to during the whole day on 9/11?

Pepe Escobar is the author of these questions and his original article can be found at the Asia Times.