Wednesday, August 23, 2006

The Whole War is built on the Lie of 911

FT. SAM HOUSTON, Texas a Forty-one-year-old Sergeant First Class Donald Buswell is a hero. Having served over 19 years in the United States Army, Buswell has seen a lot of terrain. On April 15, 2004, he was injured in a rocket attack while serving a tour in Iraq. For this, SFC Buswell was given a Purple Heart. And until recently, Buswell was an Intelligence Analyst stationed at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.
But if one were to ask Buswell's Commanding Officer what he thinks of the Sergeant, the response would likely sound a little bit more like, "No comment."
Under Fire! U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst Targeted For Suggesting New Independent 9/11 Investigation
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=2006082210535566

Kristol: "We Could Be In A Military Confrontation With Iran Much Sooner Than People Expect."
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/22/kristol-iran-war/

"Hardball" With Chris Mathews hosts a debate with two Iraq Vets
worth the watch
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=129C19D0-10E2-4704-A33B-A2393C4E09C3&f=00&fg=

A primary argument for being in Iraq
Have you noticed that one of the primary arguments for being in Iraq, regardless of how you may have gotten there, is that you are better off fighting them in Iraq, so as not to have to fight them in America?

What's wrong with this argument?

1.) So, the argument becomes that Iraqis should die in place of Americans. Which is to say they hate you so much that they would normally be fighting us here, but because we invaded Iraq, we've either fooled them as to America's actual location; or, its the convenience store argument. Iraq is near and America is far, its just more convenient and practical to kill them in Iraq, so let's kill them in Iraq, and let's not bother with them in America after all, there is all that expense, and bother, and their security services are so incredible, surely we would fail. Makes a lot of scense right?


2.) Al Quaeda can't walk and chew gum at the same time. This argument suggests that Al Quaeda is deficient in any or all of the following: critical thinking, man power, funding, resources, safe houses, falsified documents and the list would go on. I think that argument is absurd and flies in the face of logic and the established facts.
3.) It cuts down the argument that the administration and neo-cons use, that tells us that Al Quaeda has morphed into this nebulous entity that is more philosophy than organization, and that it has transformed since 2001 into loose, independent cells. And that these cells act independently of one another and without co-ordination and that (indeed) there are Al Quaeda cells in the United States. Well, if they have become a loose cannon kind of thing, it would stand to reason that some hot-head in a cell in the US would say "hey, what are we waiting for" and strike. It would seem to me the only way you could control such a thing would be with a well disciplined and highly centralized administration (no pun intended).


I wonder what the argument will be when we are attacked here with a bomb. I guess they will have to switch the argument again from fighting them over there to
It was inevitable that we would have to fight them here, and the "them" would be our own citizens. So then the question becomes if it was inevitable, why did we kill so many innocent people, waste all that time and resource in Iraq and wear down our military and treasury? Why didn't we just spend all that money at home?

Brian

Journalist Christopher Bollyn beaten by cops in his front yard in Chicago suburbs by: Pinget Thu Aug 17, 2006 at 08:41:38 AM PDT 9/11 INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST CHRISTOPHER BOLLYN HARASSED AND BEATEN AT HIS HOME BY COPSby Christopher Bollyn Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006 at 3:14 AM I was harassed, beaten, and shocked with a Tazer-like gun in my front yard before my wife and children, and then abused for 6 hours by the ADL-trained local police. I have every reason to believe it is because of my journalistic investigation into 9/11... http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=519B874BC8FDD18EBAA69C7431201BE8?diaryId=11227
Another site with worrisome claims was Alex Jones on YOUTube talking about how NORAD was told to stand down on Sept 11. He says there are AP articles admitting that, but I couldn't find them at his website, infowars.com. Watch this incredible video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz4uSHpd8O0&mode=related&search =

O'Reilly asks if judge who ruled against NSA wiretaps wants Americans to die
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/August2006/230806O'Reilly.htm

Was George Bush Sr.'s Carlyle Group Involved In 9/11?
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/August2006/220806Carlyle.htm

Look for our NC911Truth booth at the Durham CenterFest in downtown Durham
on Sept 16 & 17
We will follow up with another seminar and video showing on Wensday Sept. 20 at 7.PM
at the downtown Durham public Library

48 comments:

young brother said...

excellent post, and excellent job, everybody. The movement in Durham, NC is really taking hold. Monday, 8-21's meeting was very informative...perhaps a bit too informative for newcomers, but nonetheless a truely laudable presentation. this is a race against time as the wardrum continues to beat more intensely in the direction of Iran. I praise efforts such as this to throw the brakes on the nightmare ahead. Keep up the great work.

Living Positive said...

Did anyone listen to the Krystol clip?

He calls Iran a "Apacolyptic, Messianic regime."

What in the Hell is that supposed to mean? Does he think that the Messiah is coming from Iran? Does he think that the Iranian regime is where the Messiah is? That is what Messianic means.

What I believe he is trying to do is invoke images for the Apocalypse. Unfortunately he is doing a very bad job of it, other than throwing around big words that he obviously does not know how to use.

Living Positive said...

9/11 links can be found

HERE

LP

BLKNIGHT18 said...

GOP candidate says 9/11 attacks were a hoax
Nashua Telegraph, 8/24/06
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060824/NEWS01/108240131/-1/business

A Republican candidate for this area’s congressional seat said Wednesday that the U.S. government was complicit in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In an editorial board interview with The Telegraph on Wednesday, the candidate, Mary Maxwell, said the U.S. government had a role in killing nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, so it could make Americans hate Arabs and allow the military to bomb Muslim nations such as Iraq.

Maxwell, 59, seeks the 2nd District congressional seat. The Concord resident opposes the incumbent, Charles Bass of Peterborough, and Berlin Mayor Bob Danderson in the Republican primary Sept. 12.

Maxwell would not specify if she holds the opinion that the government stood by while terrorists hijacked four domestic airliners and used them as weapons, or if it had a larger role by sanctioning and carrying out the attacks.

But she implicated the government by saying the Sept. 11 attacks were meant “to soften us up . . . to make us more willing to have more stringent laws here, which are totally against the Bill of Rights . . . to make us particularly focus on Arabs and Muslims . . . and those strange persons who spend all their time creating little bombs,” giving Americans a reason “to hate them and fear them and, therefore, bomb them in Iraq for other reasons.”

She said this strategy “would be normal” for governments, citing her belief that the British government – and not the Germany military – sank the Lusitania ocean liner in 1915. The deaths of Americans on the cruise liner helped galvanize U.S. support to enter World War I, and benefited England, she said.

In turn, the Sept. 11 attacks “made the ground fertile” for more stringent laws, such as the Patriot Act, and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, Maxwell said.

Near the end of the interview, Maxwell pounded her fist on the table and asked editors of The Telegraph why they weren’t publishing more stories about the government’s role in the terrorist attacks or proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Maxwell has no political experience. She lived abroad for the past quarter-century with her husband, George, a pediatrician, and only recently returned to the U.S., she said.

In the hour-long interview, Maxwell spoke at length about Constitutional law, U.S. law, nuclear weapons proliferation, and other domestic and foreign policy issues.

Maxwell said the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq. She also questioned whether Congress authorized the war and said its members can’t explain that 2002 vote. (Congress authorized the use of force to defend this country’s security and enforce United Nations resolutions on Iraq.)

“Legally, we shouldn’t have gone to Iraq if Congress can’t explain why,” she said.

Maxwell described herself as a strict Constitutionalist, a candidate who wants to bring the country “back to basics.” The Constitution grants more power to the legislative branch than the other two branches, but Congress has allowed the executive and judicial branches to diminish its influence, she said.

She also said the U.S. shouldn’t immerse itself in the international community by signing trade and security pacts. These agreements have weakened national sovereignty, she said.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Listen to the author of "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11:
A Call to Reflection and Action", David Ray Griffin being interviewed:
http://mp3.rbnlive.com/Fetzer/0608/20060824_Thu_Fetzer1.mp3

and listen to a structural engineer give his opinion on the destruction of the WTC towers on 9/11:

http://mp3.rbnlive.com/Fetzer/0608/20060824_Thu_Fetzer2.mp3

urawizardharry said...

Yeah listen to poor Fetzer choke on something in between the tunes of the beatles. Seriously though, we need more structural engineers on board with the truth movement. Many engineers have argued that a physicist and mechanical engineer aren't proper qualifications for analyzing the WTC collapses.

Props to Mike for getting on the show with Fetzer and Griffin.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Popular Mechanics was in full retreat on the Charles Goyette Show!

Is this why Popular Mechanics canceled some appearances?

Listen to this MP3 file of Popular Mechanics on the Charles Goyette show in Phoenix. Charles has him backpedaling big time. Pass this MP3 file to any one who is leaning on Popular Mechanics to support their continued belief in the official story.

5MB Audio download:

http://www.911podcasts.com/files/audio/A003I060823-am-c3.MP3

http://www.911blogger.com/node/2278

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Professor's 9/11 theories outrage NH leaders
Union Leader, 8/27/06


A tenured professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire believes an "elite" group within the federal government orchestrated the September 11th attacks on America.

William Woodward has already raised that possibility in his classroom and later this year hopes to teach a class that would explore Sept. 11th "in psychological terms -- terms like belief, conspiracy, fear, truth, courage, group dynamics."

He may not get the chance. Several state leaders yesterday criticized Woodward for bringing the radical theories into the classroom.

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=0a013444-f391-4eaf-ae95-24cab674130b&headline=Professor%27s+9%2f11+theories+outrage+NH+leaders%22%27%25%3c%3e%3a%24

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Can Anything Be Done?
By Paul Craig Roberts
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14718.htm

08/27/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- Many readers have praised me for my courage in broaching taboo subjects and stating obvious truths. Others denounce me for “being unpatriotic and distrusting our government.” One reader, Susan Hartman, wrote to me that I was obviously in the pay of Islamic Jihadists and that she had reported me to the FBI.

Despite the lack of evidence to support their belief, a number of readers remain confident that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that America narrowly missed being annihilated. These readers know for a fact that Hussein had WMD, because “the President would know, and he wouldn’t lie.”

In other words, whatever Bush says is true, and all who doubt him are unpatriotic. “You are with us or against us.” The facts be damned. There are a large number of Susan Hartmans in the body politic.

A group of scientists, engineers, and university professors are trying to start a debate about the collapse of the three World Trade Center buildings. I reported one of their findings: There is an inconsistency between the speed with which the buildings collapsed and the “pancaking theory” used to explain the collapse. Another way of putting the problem is that there seems to be a massive energy deficit in the explanation that the buildings fell as a result of gravitational energy. There simply was not sufficient gravitational energy to produce the results.

For reporting a scientific finding, I was called a “conspiracy theorist.” Only in America is scientific analysis seen as conspiracy theory and government lies as truth.

Applications of the laws of physics and scientific calculations can be reviewed and checked by other scientists. Scientists, like the rest of us, can make mistakes. However, questions raised about the collapse of the WTC buildings are not engaged but ignored.

The 9/11 scholars findings seem to be in sync with public opinion. Polls show that more than one-third and as much as one-half of the American public does not believe the government’s 9/11 story.

The public doesn’t believe the John F. Kennedy assassination story either. Nevertheless, experts who point out problems in the official story are still called “conspiracy theorists” even though a large percentage of the people share their doubts.

I think the reason so many Americans do not believe the Kennedy story told by the Warren Commission and the 9/11 story told by the 9/11 Commission is not because Americans are knowledgeable about ballistics or physics, or know how to do energy calculations, but because the stories contain too many unusual happenings, too many oddities.

In the Kennedy case doubts are raised by such things as an improbable bullet trajectory, the against-all-procedures absence of Secret Service agents from the rear and sides of Kennedy’s limo, the inexplicable access of an unauthorized armed civilian, Jack Ruby, who was able to assassinate Oswald inside the jail before Oswald could be questioned. Online at http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/localnews/ci_4213295 there is a report that two scientists, Pat Grant and Erik Randich, at the Forensic Science Center of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory have discredited the reliability of the “neutron activation” analysis, which was used to “prove” that all the recovered bullet fragments came from Oswald’s shots. Courts no longer accept as evidence and the FBI no longer uses the analysis that was used to close the Oswald case.

Any one of these things would be an oddity. The combination of oddities becomes inexplicable, a statistical impossibility.

The same with the explanation of 9/11. Powerfully constructed buildings collapse when there is no source of the required energy to do the job. A large 757 hits the Pentagon but leaves a small hole, and there is no sign of wings, engines, tail or fuselage. Every air control and military procedure fails, and hijacked airliners are not intercepted by jet fighters. The alleged hijackers’ names apparently are not on the passenger lists, and some of the alleged hijackers have been found alive and well in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Thomas R. Olmstead used the Freedom of Information Act to get a copy of the autopsy list of American Airlines flight 77, and he reports that there are no Arabic names on the list.

My point is a simple one. Attentive people, even if they are not scientifically literate, can sense when there are too many oddities for an explanation to be believable.

If deception is sensed, there is a receptive audience when experts or film makers speak. Denouncing inconvenient facts as “conspiracy theories” is a way of suppressing debate and investigation.

This itself is telling. If the official explanations are safe, their proponents should welcome the opportunity to show again and again that the explanations can stand all challenges. Instead, the second a challenge shows its head, it is branded a “conspiracy theory.” That tells me that the official explanations can stand no challenge.

Don’t ask me who killed Kennedy and why, and don’t ask me who was behind the 9/11 attack or what brought the three WTC buildings down. My position is a simple one. The official accounts are too improbable to be believable.

I won’t believe them until the government can explain where the energy came from to bring down the three WTC buildings. With the demise of the “single bullet” theory, there seems to be no verification of Oswald’s magical shooting.

It seems to me that the real conspiracy theories are the explanations that are overweighted with improbabilities.

Readers ask me what can we do? We can do very little as we have lost control over our government. Elections, even if not stolen, change very little. Government got free of our control when we forgot the teaching of our Founding Fathers that government is always the greatest threat to our liberty.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Bin Laden, Most Wanted For Embassy Bombing?
The Washington Post, 8/28/06

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/27/AR2006082700687.html

BLKNIGHT18 said...

The Independent Weekly
AUGUST 23, 2006
Filmmaker responds

I am writing in response to the letter from James Tate concerning the article about the 9/11 presentation I gave at the Durham Public Library ("Indy needs a straitjacket," Back Talk, Aug. 9). Since Mr. Tate seems obsessed with calling us crazy, I wanted to pose a question to him: What is so crazy about asking very real questions that have never been answered about the worst tragedy to ever befall our country? To not demand answers, to sit by quietly while we are spoon-fed lies, shows cowardice and a desire to hide from reality.

All I ask of people is they do some research and look at the staggering number of inconsistencies and outright lies that make up the official story. I want people to decide for themselves if what we've been told happened on that day meshes with evidence they can see with their own eyes. The truth is out there; we just have to be willing to see it. Choosing to see something that we perhaps don't want to believe is one of the hardest choices a person has to make. However, I truly believe the truth shall set us free.

Rebecca Cerese
Carrboro

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A35768

BLKNIGHT18 said...

9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out
Edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott
Olive Branch Press (Interlink Books)


Truth activists can celebrate Thanksgiving astonishingly early this year given the precocious wealth of resources now hitting theaters and book shops across the land. Each new work seems to open another frontier and spread truth to a fresh audience. The relentless Dr. Griffin deserves great credit for many of these sallies, and now he has teamed with eminent diplomat/scholar Dr. Peter Dale Scott to catalyze and edit this latest tour de force. This anthology addresses the crimes of 9/11 from a rare altitude of intelligence in ten authoritative voices, and examines their premeditation and abuse as an empire ordaining event. Whenever you encounter 9/11 truth resistance in bright but wingnut-traumatized friends, this book is the antidote to offer. - Ed.

Pre-pub Review
"This is the most important book of our time. Distinguished national and international scientists and scholars present massive evidence that The 9/11 Commission Report is a hoax and that the 9/11 "terrorist attack" has been manipulated to serve a hegemonic agenda in the Middle East. The book's call for a truly independent panel of experts to be empowered to bring out the true facts must be heeded or Americans will never again live under accountable government." — Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury during the Reagan administration

CONTENTS
1. 9/11, the American Empire, and Common Moral Norms
David Ray Griffin

2. Assessing the Official 9/11 Conspiracy Theory
Karen Kwiatkowski

3. Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?
Steven E. Jones

4. Propping Up the War on Terror: Lies about the WTC by NIST and Underwriters Laboratories
Kevin Ryan

5. The Background of 9/11: Drugs, Oil, and US Covert Operations
Peter Dale Scott

6. What We Have Learned about the "Strategy of Tension": Historical Data from the Cold War Period
Daniele Ganser

7. 9/11, Texas A&M University, and Heresy
Morgan Reynolds

8. Global Ambitions and Geopolitical Wars: The Domestic Challenge
Richard Falk

9. 9/11 and the 9/11 Wars: Understanding the Supreme Crimes
John McMurtry

9. The War on Terror and Pax Americana
Ola Tunander

10. Parameters of Power in the Global Dominance Group: 9/11 and Election Irregularities in Context
Peter Phillips with Bridget Thornton and Celeste Vogler

"It has long been clear that the Bush-Cheney administration cynically exploited the attacks of 9/11 to promote its imperial designs. But the present volume confronts us with evidence for an even more disturbing conclusion: that the 9/11 attacks were themselves orchestrated by this administration precisely so they could be thus exploited. If this is true, it is not merely the case, as the Downing Street memos show, that the stated reason for attacking Iraq was a lie. It is also the case that the whole "war on terror" was based on a prior deception. This book hence confronts the American people---indeed the people of the world as a whole---with an issue second to none in importance and urgency. I give this book, which in no way can be dismissed as the ravings of 'paranoid conspiracy theorists,' my highest possible recommendation."---Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and founder of VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity)

"Read this. Read this now. And then tell someone else what it told you. If you wondered where morality, intellectual rigor, common sense and historical perspective went when they disappeared from public discourse, be reassured—the authors of these essays were keeping them safe for you, along with a surprisingly functional sense of humor. This is a massively important book about events that are still changing our world. Forget the internet wingnuts, forget the blurry thinking and the blurry photographs, forget the government gibberish. If you want to know about 9/11, read this book. Read it. Read it now. And then tell someone else what it told you."-—A. L. Kennedy, author of Paradise and Indelible Acts

"Official versions of historical events should always be questioned. This book, dealing with 9/11 and much more, does just that, and from various points of view. It will provoke argument and that's a good thing."-—Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States

"In 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out, David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott point out that the book's publication "signals the beginning of a new phase of the 9/11 Truth Movement, one in which scholars will play an increasingly larger role." Griffin and Scott have assembled academics, scientists, and other intellectuals with fine minds and courageous hearts to deliver the bitter pill: the official explanation of the events of 9/11 is false and the evidence indicating an inside job is significant. In doing so, they have returned scholarship to its rightful place of leading us back to excellence."-—Catherine Austin Fitts, Assistant Secretary of Housing, George H. W. Bush administration

"For far too long, the very reasonable questions raised by 9/11 have been ignored and even ridiculed by America's press and politicians, who treat the subject with the sort of willful blindness that suggests a wish not to find out unpleasant truths. We, the people, therefore owe the editors of this important new collection our warm thanks for their intelligent and unrelenting work."---Mark Crispin Miller, Professor of Culture and Communications, New York University, and author of Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order and Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them)

"All Americans who love their country enough to dig into the facts of these critical times will be well rewarded by examining David Griffin's books. 9/11 truth is a very important issue—-with the power to bring lasting change to our country."-—The Reverend William Sloane Coffin Jr., former pastor, Riverside Church, New York, and author of The Passion for the Possible: A Message to U.S. Churches

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Presbyterian publisher's book blames the U.S. government for Sept. 11 attacks
By RICHARD N. OSTLING | Associated Press
August 28, 2006
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/48456.html

(AP) - The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has tumbled into a new dispute over the Sept. 11 attacks of five years ago.

Its Presbyterian Publishing Corporation has issued "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11," (Westminster John Knox) containing perhaps the most incendiary accusations leveled by a writer for a mainline Protestant book house.

Author David Ray Griffin tells of concluding that "the Bush-Cheney administration had orchestrated 9/11 in order to promote this (American) empire under the pretext of the so-called war on terror."

"No other interpretation is possible," he asserts.

His conspiracy theory includes criminal involvement of the U.S. military and collusion by members of the 9/11 Commission, politicians of both parties and American journalists, who willfully ignored the plot, he says.

Such a massive cover-up is possible, he explains, because people don't want to believe high officials would "launch an attack on their own citizens," which would be "treason of the worst sort."

Indeed. And if unfounded, it's an accusation of the worst sort.

Griffin is unable to provide hard evidence and connects few dots. Rather, he discusses the metallurgy of the World Trade Center towers and various murky details and odd occurrences regarding the fateful day. He spins forth the speculations after deeming the accepted version of events implausible.

Speaking of plausibility, what are the odds that so many conspirators could maintain such a cover-up, except in a Stalinist police state?

Such 9/11 conspiracy theories have heretofore been spread abroad by Internet sites and Muslim extremists (some of those theories have blamed Jews, something Griffin goes out of his way to avoid). Now a venerable, respectable religious publisher has baptized such thinking as an acceptable part of public discourse.

Griffin also asserts claims about "abundant evidence" of Bush administration orchestration of 9/11 in a separate anthology from Westminster and did so also in two previous books for a small secular publisher. He has also spoken to campus and church groups.

He's a member of "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" along with Kevin Barrett, a Muslim instructor at the University of Wisconsin who's under fire for making similar accusations.

This is a notable event for mainline Protestantism, where leaders' attacks on U.S. foreign policy have escalated. Last spring, the social issues spokesman for President Bush's own United Methodist Church even called for his impeachment.

Griffin has solid mainline credentials. He's an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and recently retired after a long teaching career at the United Methodists' Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology.

There's been predictable church furor over the book, monitored day to day by the independent, nonpartisan http://www.presbyweb.com site. Most of the fulminations come from conservatives who were already hostile toward Presbyterian headquarters in Louisville, Ky. Their view: This book is a reckless act that damages the church and holds it up to ridicule.

Presbyterian Publishing's unapologetic responses to the critics insist that Griffin's "carefully researched" work and "intellectually rigorous arguments" merit "careful consideration by serious-minded Christians and Americans concerned with truth and the meaning of their faith."

The publisher's publicity contends that Griffin "applies Jesus' teachings to the current political administration" and puts forth "an abundance of evidence and disturbing questions that implicate the Bush administration."

Presbyterian News Service explains that the publishing house, though one of the denomination's six national agencies, receives no church money and "operates with complete editorial autonomy." It is governed by a board elected at the Presbyterian assembly.

Griffin's ultimate goal? He wants Christians to try to supplant America's "demonic" regime with a system of "global government."

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Filmmaker: ‘Sergeant Buswell Is A True Patriot’
The Lone Star Iconoclast, August 28, 2006
http://www.lonestaricon.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=448&z=56

Last week, The Lone Star Iconoclast broke news about an Army Intelligence Analyst stationed at Ft. Sam Houston outside of San Antonio, Texas. Sergeant First Class Donald Buswell, a loyal soldier of 19 years and recipient of a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in Iraq, offered a dissenting opinion of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in response to a mass email. For this, his security clearance was revoked and he is currently facing an investigation as to whether he violated certain Army rules regarding use of government networks for unauthorized purposes.

His commanding officer, Colonel Luke S. Green, reportedly wrote that Buswell is to be investigated for making statements disloyal to the United States.

Since the story was published, thousands have rallied to Buswell’s side. The story was published on TheRawStory.com, LookingGlassNews.org, 911Truth.org, and 911blogger.com, among others. Iconoclast editor W. Leon Smith has given numerous radio interviews, and this reporter is scheduled for a live call-in show on Air America Radio’s Eugene, Oregon affiliate, KOPT (www.kopt.com), at 9:30 a.m. (CST) on August 30.

Likewise, SFC Buswell and his father, Winthrop, have been overwhelmed with phone calls of supporters and well-wishers. Among them was Kyle Hence, the Executive Producer and co-writer of the new documentary 9/11: Press for Truth. Hence is also the Executive Director of 9/11 Citizen’s Watch, an independent watchdog group formed in mid-2003 with the intent of placing intense scrutiny upon the actions and conclusions made by the administration-appointed 9/11 Commission.

The film, Press for Truth, follows the now-famous Jersey Girls: four women who lost their husbands in the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. The Jersey Girls went public with their grief and questions, and are credited as the driving force behind the formation of the 9/11 Commission a full 14 months after the attacks; a commission that members of the Bush administration adamantly resisted. But for Hence and the Jersey Girls, questions still remain. Now, with the retaliation against SFC Buswell, Hence is springing into action once again.

"What’s happening now, and how the Army has reacted to this email sent by Sergeant Buswell, has nothing to do with National Security or Buswell’s loyalty to the country," said Hence during an interview on Aug. 27. "Sergeant Buswell is a true patriot. This move by the Army is about stifling dissent in this country regarding the most devastating attack on our soil in this country’s history and censorship of those who want to know the truth."

After reading the story in The Iconoclast, Hence contacted Winthrop Buswell and asked him to come to Washington D.C. on Sept. 11, 2006. At press time, Winthrop is on the fence about attending, but will update The Iconoclast when his decision is made. Should he attend, said Hence, 9/11 Citizen’s Watch will ask him to speak to the crowd.

"I’m not saying definitely no [to going to Washington D.C.], I’m just considering my son’s position," said Winthrop Buswell. "He doesn’t want this whole issue to become too politicized. But when he gets out [of the Army], he will be very much in favor of continuing the questions he has and the belief that he has, that it certainly was a cover-up and now there’s a conspiracy to cover-up the cover-up. That is his belief."

"Donald is a wonderful ally," continued Winthrop. "He is an asset to all of us. And he’ll be even more of an asset when he is out of the Army. But for now he cannot speak on the issue because that could get him in trouble. I would like to speak on behalf of my son [in Washington D.C.], but I don’t know. That might put my son in jeopardy because he is still in the Army."

Kyle Hence has a different view of the situation. "Basically, here is yet another American whose voice is being ignored by the mainstream media," he said. "This is a story that, you would think, every network would want to report on. This man just said ‘We want a new investigation,’ and as a result, he’s under investigation. I think that if Buswell is becoming an icon, it is because most Americans, or at least half according to recent polls, now believe there has been a cover-up."

"Here’s a Purple Heart recipient that is saying, ‘We don’t know the whole story,’ who is suspicious of the government’s story and thinks we need a new investigation," continued Hence. "And that they’re trying to shut them down and silence him is very reminiscent of what they do to whistleblowers who have real information they tried to bring to the [9/11] Commission. They were gagged."

"Take the case of the FAA flight controllers," he said. "[On tape] they recounted their memories of what exactly happened the morning of Sept. 11, and then a higher level official destroyed those tapes. Here you have someone who destroyed information to keep it from the American people. Now you have the U.S. military trying to destroy the life of a Purple Heart recipient who simply said there needs to be a new investigation and doesn’t believe the account offered to us by a now discredited 9/11 Commission."

From Sept. 11-18, Camp Casey and Camp Crawford will be moving to Washington D.C. for an event they have dubbed "Camp Democracy." On the morning of Sept. 11, at 8 a.m., between First Street and Third Street in front of the Reflecting Pond, Camp Democracy will begin its roll call. Various speakers are confirmed for the week-long event, including Dr. Morgan Reynolds, and several documentary films will be screened, including America: Freedom to Fascism, and WMD at the WTC.

Anonymous said...

This comment is somewhat of a repeat. Since I didn't get one response the first time, I will conclude, for now, that this(911 truth movement) is all more or less for entertainment value.

All of the 9/11 Movement "leaders" across the nation should agree on a specific protest gathering date. If you think anything significant can be accomplished without a large-scale show of unity, then you are much more optimistic than I.

OK, this is the repeat below:

Folks, the time has come and the connections have been made. We need to organize a protest march large enough to shutdown Washington DC, sometime after the government returns to work in early 2007. Something HISTORIC! We need to show the world we are as free as we claim to be, and not as stupid and gullible as we appear.

Whoever is going to NYC on the 9/11 fifth anniversary should really push this protest march idea, and get things moving.

If the Mexican people can force a recount of their recent presidential election, then I think we can do a little more than post things on the Internet, and watch the latest news about Jon Bonet Ramsey. Not to sound like I'm discounting the Internet because, I think, it is the one thing the People of Power have underestimated and miscalculated to their eventual demise.

PursuingTruth said...

I think your Idea is a very good one and needs to happen. The problem is that we are not yet big enough and the people are not yet angry enough. I agree that the idea needs to be spreed in NYC at the 9/11 gathering. Unfortunatly It may be that we are not far from the next "event" and are freedoms will be non exsistant.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Since we are also looking at what may be coming next, and other examples of possible government involvement in terror attacks, domestic emergencies, etc. I thought I would post this video:

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2006/280806levees.htm

It is the Bush supporter that the president talked to down in New Orleans, being interviewed, and actually talking about sabotage of the levees during Katrina.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Doubt about official version of 9/11 widespread
By Geoff Olson, Vancouver Courier,
http://www.vancourier.com/issues06/084206/opinion/084206op2.html

With the fifth anniversary of Sept 11 on the way, there will undoubtedly be a flood of television specials, terror-alert updates, and newspaper editorials. Yet a sizable portion of the public will likely remain dubious of the authorized version of 9/11.

In a Zogby International poll from last May, 42 per cent of the sampled U.S. population believe the 9/11 Commission "concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence" in the attacks. In a Zogby poll two years earlier, 49 per cent of New York City residents said some U.S. leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on and around Sept. 11, 2001, and they consciously failed to act." In other words, intentionally let it happen. In Canada, a May 2004 Maritz Research poll had 63 per cent of respondents agreeing strongly or somewhat that "individuals within the U.S. government including the White House had prior knowledge of the plans for Sept. 11 and failed to take appropriate action to stop them."

One thing is undeniable. If skepticism about 9/11 is the province of the "tin-foil hat crowd," things are looking up for the aluminum industry.

Within this widespread constituency of doubters, there is a smaller, hardcore confederacy-those who believe 9/11 involved an "inside job." The so-called 9/11 Truth Movement is vocal and persistent, maintaining a huge number of websites and blogs, and meeting for annual conferences across North America. Yet this counterculture remains almost completely off the radar of both mainstream and alternative media.

After spending time with the 9/11 material on the Internet, I can't say I've been overly impressed with heated speculation about a "pilotless drone" that supposedly penetrated the Pentagon, among other things. What's harder to discount are the truly resilient anomalies collected by independent researchers-the factual mass of contradictions, coincidences and discontinuities that respectable media and big government have chosen to ignore. (Google "WTC 7" for one of the most enduring mysteries in the official story)

Much of this material has been gathered and sourced in a new book by Toronto writer and broadcaster Barrie Zwicker, who was the first journalist in the world to express doubts about the official 9/11 narrative on national television, in late 2001. Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-up of 9/11, is as hard to put down as it is to dismiss-if only because no one can write off the author as a solitary kook with zero credentials. Zwicker studied for three years under Marshal McLuhan, and worked for major Canadians newspapers including the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail. He has also been a commentator on CBC Radio and Vision TV, and taught journalism part-time for seven years at Ryerson University.

Zwicker insists the wildest 9/11 conspiracy theory is actually the one endorsed by the Kean Commission, "that 19 fanatical Arabs, directed from a cave in Afghanistan, caught the whole of the U.S. military intelligence, the whole of U.S. political and diplomatic establishments, and NORAD completely off guard."

"In this case it includes such patent absurdities as observant Muslim fanatics drinking at bars the night before 9/11, a hijacker's passport miraculously floating down from the inferno in the towers, alleged Arab hijacker Hani Hanjour who could not fly a Cessna training aircraft flying an amazing stunt manoeuvre in a 757 in order to hit an empty, newly reinforced wing of the Pentagon and cause minimal damage - instead of just diving into the roof and killing thousands."

Hence, the polls cited above on Sept. 11 don't strike Zwicker as anything strange. "This pattern of viewer, listener and reader response to questioning of the official 9/11 story has been universal since 9/11, on those few occasions when the media has raised questions. This huge questioning constituency among Joe and Jane Public has always been there."

To Zwicker, the gnawing suspicions within the general public rest on the "evidence (that) points to 9/11 as an inside job," carried out by elements within the U.S. government "to advance its agenda of resource theft, world domination and domestic control." The Arabs involved were "patsies, dupes."

So where is the "smoking gun," the incontrovertible proof of the whom, what and how? "My colleagues are the first to admit that's it not within our power to definitively declare who did what on 9/11," he writes in his book. Zwicker argues that it is the cumulative weight of existing evidence that would rule in favour of the plaintiff-in this case, the 9/11 Truth Movement.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Searching for truth in the rubble
Author Barrie Zwicker believes the White House knocked down the Twin Towers on 9/11. Crazy conspiracy theory? Maybe not.

~ By MATTHEW SINGER ~

VCReporter, Aug 30, 2006

http://www.vcreporter.com/article.php?id=3396&IssueNum=87

BLKNIGHT18 said...

According to Scholars for 9/11 Truth,
Dr. David Ray Griffin will be appearing on the Hannity & Colmes show tomorrow night - September 1st.

1 September 2006
Interview: David Ray Griffin will be the guest
discussing 9/11 on "Hannity & Colmes"
6-7:00 PM/PT (9-10:00 PM/ET) FOX TV

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Fox's Hannity & Colmes" canceled David Ray Griffin's appearance tonight, 'due to hurricane coverage'

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Jim Hoffman responds to the NIST Q&A they released this week:

http://911research.wtc7.net/reviews/nist/WTC_FAQ_reply.html

BLKNIGHT18 said...

New York Times story:

2 U.S. Reports Seek to Counter Conspiracy Theories About 9/11

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/nyregion/02conspiracy.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&ref=nyregion&adxnnlx=1157170775-4uBLIgzKR3DM0xlJEzsKww&oref=slogin&oref=login

BLKNIGHT18 said...

No Intent to Mislead Panel Found In Aviation Officials' 9/11 Errors

The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090101498.html?sub=AR

BLKNIGHT18 said...

THE CONSPIRACY TO REWRITE 9/11
Conspiracy theorists insist the U.S. government, not terrorists, staged the devastating attacks

San Francisco Chronicle, 9/3/06

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/03/INGR0KRCBA1.DTL

BLKNIGHT18 said...

The Scholars for 9/11 Truth rebut NIST:

Why NIST hasn't Answered its own Questions
Jim Fetzer
http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org/Why-NIST-hasn't-Answered-its-own-Questions.html

Why the NIST "Fact Sheet" Just Won't Do
Sean Glazier
http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org/WhyNISTFactSheetWontDo.html

Responses to NIST's FAQs (Microsoft Word Doc - 45kb)
Kevin Ryan
http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org/NIST_Responses.doc

NIST and "The Foot Of God"
Robert Rice
http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org/NISTandThe%20FootOfGod.html

Experiments to test NIST "orange glow" hypothesis...
Steven E. Jones
http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org/Experiments-to-test-NIST-orange-glow-hypothesis.html

BLKNIGHT18 said...

RED ALERT: 9/11/06
(Chicago, Detroit & Houston)

Four-Square Analysis: The Who and Why

Almost five years after the first 9/11, all America is divided into three equal parts, and all of them have strong beliefs:

A third says it just doesn't trust this government, citing Iraq or Katrina as the main reasons why. They want to get out of the war in Iraq and stay out of the war with Iran.

A third says it simply hates this government, and wants to remove it for ordering or allowing 9/11 five years ago to take us to war in the Middle East. They say the media covered up 9/11 and is setting up the second, follow-up 9/11, so they use the Internet to get around the media, and the media calls them conspiracy theorists.

A third says it supports the government, which is run by the Neocon Republicans, and who now say that the only way to win the global war is to start a world war. Almost five years after 9/11, their war has been an utter failure, and they are fighting mad about it. In recent days they have threatened consequences for their foreign and domestic enemies, calling the one group fascists and the other appeasers. The joke in Washington now is that they'll need Osama Bin Laden to save the Republican Congress on the 11/7 elections, or to save their president from impeachment afterwards.

The Neocons wrote their "Project for a New American Century" world domination plan in 2000, stating in it that the US would be difficult to lead to war without "some catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor." 9/11 was just the kind of thing they'd wanted, and on the night of 9/11, their president wrote in his diary that "the Pearl Harbor of the 21st Century took place today," and the next day they began their war plans.

They have used the threat of Al Qaeda in the last two elections, but the threats aren't budging falling poll numbers any more. Only a second 9/11 might reverse this slide, and energize the public -- like a another new Pearl Harbor. If it were to happen, they could lead the nation to a second war, this time with Iran instead of Iraq; they could shut up appeasers at home; and if necessary they could arrest, confine and prosecute the conspiracy theorists who think that the government had anything to do with either the first or the second 9/11.

The media has spent five years saying that a second 9/11 is inevitable, and all this summer they've said that homegrown terrorists in Canada, Florida and the UK are planning to blow us up in our buildings, airplanes and tunnels. Last week they said Homeland Security was setting up terror exercises in major Midwestern cities around 9/11/06, to protect us. The conspiracy theorists don't feel protected, though, since they have learned that on 9/11/01 the US government was holding exercises to protect us from the very attacks that happened to us, and on 7/7/05 the UK government was holding exercises to protect their citizens from the very attacks that happened to them. To conspiracy theorists, it's clear that the terror exercises were setting up the terror events.

Three Targets and Times: The Where and When

CHICAGO, 9/7/06: Chicago has major terror exercises on 9/7, four days before 9/11/06. Recently the Chicago Sun-Times carried the story "Daley: Loop evacuation drill to be spontaneous" -- http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/evac28.html. The media says that Al Qaeda once wanted to destroy the Sears Tower ago on 9/11/01, and once Al Qaeda has chosen a target, they're sure to strike it sooner or later. Just this spring media said that Al Qaeda was casing the Sear Tower, and just this summer they said that a Florida Al Qaeda cell was planning to blow it up. Citizens of the Windy City were terrified during the strange 7/11 train derailment in one of their underground tunnels. When it happened everyone on the train immediately thought of the London 7/7 train bombings of just over a year before -- and of the Bombay 7/11 train bombings of that very day. They believed their city was the next terror target, and they may still be right.

DETROIT, 9/9/06: Detroit has major terror exercises on 9/9, the two days before 9/11/06. The Windsor Star recently carried the story "Detroit on guard for huge disaster" -- http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=958eb806-ba02-4908-ad17-a5e2e9dd91de&k=65105. The Motor City is quite close to the Canadian border, where media said a Canadian homegrown terror was plotting, and who would be surprised if they crossed the border to do something in Michigan? The exercises are reacting to tunnel attacks, and recent exercises have practiced falling buildings like the Twin Towers or Sears Tower.

HOUSTON, 9/11/06: This summer Houston media has said that Al Qaeda is a strong local threat, and would like to blow up area refineries, which are abundant around the Bayou City. The Houston media has kept a tight lid on a series of major, market-rocking explosions in the Texas City British Petroleum and Beaumont Exxon Mobil refineries, all of which I predicted and published weeks in advance. I covered the subject in my 7/17/06 Lone Star Iconoclast commentary, "9/11, 7/11, 3/11 Terror Dates -- Is there an embedded code, and can we use it to save ourselves? -- http://www.lonestaricon.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=318&z=44. If there is a petro-9/11 the biggest city of the Bush home state, look for Big Oil to make a killing on price changes -- and for that reason keep a close eye on them and their refineries.

A Pair of Points: The What and How

We Americans want our liberty back, especially our liberty from state terror, but we must pay for it with simple and sensible efforts to behave like a free people. In the 19th Century the American Wendell Phillips wrote "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." I urge every American to buy back their liberty due vigilance, especially from now to the 11/7 elections. We must speak, write and act freely, even if it is an unwelcome duty from which too many have hitherto hidden. As a lifelong military man, I swore an oath in 1977 to defend my country and its constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Writing and posting this commentary is my way of that duty, that I still carry in my middle years, even if it means they may be my last years.

It is worthwhile to oppose the tyranny of our times because it's clear -- at least to me -- that we shall regain our balance. Five years ago we lost it badly when we were shoved into a quicksand war from behind, then told that the people the Neocons wanted us to attack had done the shoving. It was all a lie. Our true enemies are apparent now, and becoming more apparent with each passing day. The once-powerful Neocons are but a poor copy of the real Nazis who proclaimed and pursued a Thousand Year Reich. Their war plan has failed, their New Ameican Century, which was the proclamation and pursuit of their Republican Reich.

# # #

Captain Eric H. May is the founder and commander of Ghost Troop, the 300-strong 911 Truth Movement's cyber-cavalry unit, made up of of military and police veterans, along with citizen researchers and activists. His most recent interview and Iconoclast articles are available via Visibility 9-11 at http://visibility911.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=123423

BLKNIGHT18 said...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1531304,00.html

Why The 9/11 Conspiracies Won't Go Away
Turns out, we need grand theories to make sense of grand events, or the world just seems too random
By LEV GROSSMAN, TIME Magazine, 9/4/06


Take a look, if you can stand it, at video footage of the World Trade Center collapsing. Your eye will naturally jump to the top of the screen, where huge fountains of dark debris erupt out of the falling towers. But fight your natural instincts. Look farther down, at the stories that haven't collapsed yet.

In almost every clip you'll see little puffs of dust spurting out from the sides of the towers. There are two competing explanations for these puffs of dust: 1) the force of the collapsing upper floors raised the air pressure in the lower ones so dramatically that it actually blew out the windows. And 2) the towers did not collapse from the impact of two Boeing 767s and the ensuing fires. They were destroyed in a planned, controlled demolition. The dust puffs you see on film are the detonations of explosives planted there before the attacks.

People who believe the second explanation live in a very different world from those who believe the first. In world No. 2, al-Qaeda is not responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center. The U.S. government is. The Pentagon was not hit by a commercial jet; it was hit by a cruise missile. United Flight 93 did not crash after its occupants rushed the cockpit; it was deliberately taken down by a U.S. Air Force fighter. The entire catastrophe was planned and executed by federal officials in order to provide the U.S. with a pretext for going to war in the Middle East and, by extension, as a means of consolidating and extending the power of the Bush Administration.

The population of world No. 2 is larger than you might think. A Scripps-Howard poll of 1,010 adults last month found that 36% of Americans consider it "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that government officials either allowed the attacks to be carried out or carried out the attacks themselves. Thirty-six percent adds up to a lot of people. This is not a fringe phenomenon. It is a mainstream political reality.

Although the 9/11 Truth Movement, as many conspiracy believers refer to their passion, has been largely ignored by the mainstream media, it is flourishing on the Internet. One of the most popular conspiracy videos online is Loose Change, a 90-min. blizzard of statistics, photographs, documents, eyewitness accounts and expert testimony set to a trippy hip-hop backbeat. It's designed to pick apart, point by point, the conventional narrative of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.

For all its amateur production values--it was created by a pair of industrious twentysomethings using a laptop, pizza money and footage scavenged from the Internet--Loose Change is a compelling experience. Take the section about the attack on the Pentagon. As the film points out--and this is a tent-pole issue among 9/11 conspiracists--the crash site doesn't look right. There's not enough damage. The hole smashed in the Pentagon's outer wall was 75 ft. wide, but a Boeing 757 has a 124-ft. wingspan. Why wasn't the hole wider? Why does it look so neat?

Experts will tell you that the hole was punched by the plane's fuselage, not its wings, which sheared off on impact. But then what happened to the wings? And the tail and the engines? Images of the crash site show hardly any of the wreckage you would expect from a building that's been rammed by a commercial jet. The lawn, where the plane supposedly dragged a wing on approach, is practically pristine. The plane supposedly clipped five lampposts on its way in, but the lampposts in question show surprisingly little damage. And could Hani Hanjour, the man supposedly at the controls, have executed the maneuvers that the plane performed? He failed a flight test just weeks before the attack. And Pentagon employees reported smelling cordite after the hit, the kind of high explosive a cruise missile carries.

There's something empowering about just exploring such questions. Loose Change appeals to the viewer's common sense: it tells you to forget the official explanations and the expert testimony, and trust your eyes and your brain instead. It implies that the world can be grasped by laymen without any help or interference from the talking heads. Watching Loose Change, you feel as if you are participating in the great American tradition of self-reliance and nonconformist, antiauthoritarian dissent. You're fighting the power. You're thinking different. (Conspiracists call people who follow the government line "sheeple.") "The goal of the movie was just really to get out there and show that there are alternate stories to what the mainstream media and the government will tell you," says Korey Rowe, 23, who produced the movie. "That 19 hijackers are going to completely bypass security and crash four commercial airliners in a span of two hours, with no interruption from the military forces, in the most guarded airspace in the United States and the world? That to me is a conspiracy theory."

It's also not much of a story line. As a narrative, the official story that the government--echoed by the media--is trying to sell shows an almost embarrassing lack of novelistic flair, whereas the story the conspiracy theorists tell about what happened on Sept. 11 is positively Dan Brownesque in its rich, exciting complexity. Rowe and his collaborator, Dylan Avery, 22, actually started writing Loose Change as a fictional screenplay--"loosely based around us discovering that 9/11 was an inside job," Rowe says--before they became convinced that the evidence of conspiracy was overwhelming. The Administration is certainly playing its part in the drama with admirable zeal. If we went to war to root out fictional weapons of mass destruction, is staging a fictional terrorist attack such a stretch?

But there's a big problem with Loose Change and with most other conspiracy theories. The more you think about them, the more you realize how much they depend on circumstantial evidence, facts without analysis or documentation, quotes taken out of context and the scattered testimony of traumatized eyewitnesses. (For what it's worth, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a fact sheet responding to some of the conspiracy theorists' ideas on its website, www.nist.gov. The theories prompt small, reasonable questions that demand answers that are just too large and unreasonable to swallow. Granted, the Pentagon crash site looks odd in photographs. But if the Pentagon was hit by a cruise missile, then what happened to American Airlines Flight 77? Where did all the real, documented people on it go? Assassinated? Relocated? What about eyewitnesses who saw a plane, not a missile? And what are the chances that an operation of such size--it would surely have involved hundreds of military and civilian personnel--could be carried out without a single leak? Without leaving behind a single piece of evidence hard enough to stand up to scrutiny in a court? People, the feds just aren't that slick. Nobody is.

There are psychological explanations for why conspiracy theories are so seductive. Academics who study them argue that they meet a basic human need: to have the magnitude of any given effect be balanced by the magnitude of the cause behind it. A world in which tiny causes can have huge consequences feels scary and unreliable. Therefore a grand disaster like Sept. 11 needs a grand conspiracy behind it. "We tend to associate major events--a President or princess dying--with major causes," says Patrick Leman, a lecturer in psychology at Royal Holloway University of London, who has conducted studies on conspiracy belief. "If we think big events like a President being assassinated can happen at the hands of a minor individual, that points to the unpredictability and randomness of life and unsettles us." In that sense, the idea that there is a malevolent controlling force orchestrating global events is, in a perverse way, comforting.

You would have thought the age of conspiracy theories might have declined with the rise of digital media. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was a private, intimate affair compared with the attack on the World Trade Center, which was witnessed by millions of bystanders and television viewers and documented by hundreds of Zapruders. You would think there was enough footage and enough forensics to get us past the grassy knoll and the magic bullet, to create a consensus reality, a single version of the truth, a single world we can all live in together.

But there is no event so plain and clear that a determined human being can't find ambiguity in it. And as divisive as they are, conspiracy theories are part of the process by which Americans deal with traumatic public events like Sept. 11. Conspiracy theories form around them like scar tissue. In a curious way, they're an American form of national mourning. They'll be with us as long as we fear lone gunmen, and feel the pain of losses like the one we suffered on Sept. 11, and as long as the past, even the immediate past, is ultimately unknowable. That is to say, forever.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060903/11conspiracy.htm

Viewing 9/11 From a Grassy Knoll
You won't believe what the conspiracy theorists are claiming-or will you?

U.S. News & World Report, 9/4/06

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Keep up to date on the latest Terror Drills and War Games at False Flag News.com

Drills

Wisconsin: Large-scale WMD/Pandemic drill set for Sept. 8 (same day as Detroit "dirty bomb" drills)

Pandemic Tabletop Exercise on Sept. 7 in North Dakota- Major drill on Oct. 5

Statewide pandemic flu drills in Minnesota Sept. 14

False Flag Alert: Dirty Bomb terror drills Sept. 8-9 in Detroit, MI

Virginia: Massive Flu Pandemic drill Sept. 7 (same day as Chicago terror drills)

Boston, MA: Terrorist drills Sept. 17 to simulate "Dirty Bomb," coordinated explosions

RED ALERT: Terrorist attack drill Sept. 7 in Chicago, IL-

San Diego, CA "Seahawk 06" naval war games, disaster drills from Aug. 21-Sep 4

Major disaster drill at fairgrounds in Holbrook, AZ on Sept. 22

War Games

Third stage of Iran 'Blow of Zolfaqar' war games start Sept. 2, simulating attack along Azerbaijan

Navy-CFFC exercise "Solid Curtain 2006" on September 6

NATO/UK-Kazakhstan joint training exercises Sept. 9-24

Pakistan, US to stage joint naval and anti-terrorism exercises Sep 4-6

Iran plans new war games to begin Saturday, Aug. 19- Running for five weeks

ALERT: Nellis Air Force Base Hosting Red Flag Exercises Aug 10-Sept 2

STRATCOM Global Strike nuclear exercise Global Lightning 07 scheduled Oct. 24–Nov 8

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Who really blew up the twin towers?
As the fifth anniversary of 9/11 nears, Christina Asquith finds academics querying the official version of events
The Guardian, 9/5/06

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/worldwide/story/0,,1864657,00.html

Shards of glass and dust from the World Trade Centre towers sit on Professor Steven Jones's desk at Brigham Young University in Utah. Evidence, he says, of the biggest cover-up in history - one too evil for most to believe, but one he has staked his academic career on exposing.
The attacks of September 11, Jones asserts, were an "inside job", puppeteered by the neoconservatives in the White House to justify the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries, inflate military spending and expand Israel.

"We don't believe that 19 hijackers and a few others in a cave in Afghanistan pulled this off acting alone," says Jones. "We challenge this official conspiracy theory and, by God, we're going to get to the bottom of this."

While this sinister spin strikes most American academics as absurd, Jones, a physics professor, is not alone. He is a member of 9/11 Scholars for Truth, a recently formed group of around 75 US professors determined to prove 9/11 was a hoax. In essays and journals, they are using their association with prominent universities to give a scholarly stamp to conspiracy theories long believed in parts of Europe and the Arab world, and gaining ground among Americans due to frustration with the Iraq war and opposition to President Bush's heavily hyped "war on terror".

Their iconoclastic positions have drawn wrath from rightwing radio shows and caused upheaval on campuses, triggering letters to newspapers, phone calls from parents and TV cameras in lecture halls.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=403757

Fury as academics claim 9/11 was 'inside job'
The Daily Mail, UK, 9/5/06

The 9/11 terrorist attack on America which left almost 3,000 people dead was an "inside job", according to a group of leading academics.

Around 75 top professors and leading scientists believe the attacks were puppeteered by war mongers in the White House to justify the invasion and the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries.
The claims have caused outrage and anger in the US which marks the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Monday.
But leading scientists say the facts of their investigations cannot be ignored and say they have evidence that points to one of the biggest conspiracies ever perpetrated.
Professor Steven Jones, who lectures in physics at the Brigham Young University in Utah, says the official version of events is the biggest and most evil cover up in history.
He has joined the 9/11 Scholars for Truth whose membership includes up to 75 leading scientists and experts from universities across the US.
Prof Jones said: "We don't believe that 19 hijackers and a few others in a cave in Afghanistan pulled this off acting alone.
"We challenge this official conspiracy theory and, by God, we're going to get to the bottom of this."
In essays and journals, the scientists are giving credence to many of the conspiracy theories that have circulated on the internet in the past five years.
They believe a group of US neo-conservatives called the Project for a New American Century, set on US world dominance, orchestrated the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to hit Iraq, Afghanistan and later Iran.
The group says scientific evidence over the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon is conclusive proof.
Professor Jones said it was impossible for the twin towers to have collapsed in the way they did from the collision of two aeroplanes.
He maintains jet fuel does not burn at temperatures high enough to melt steel beams and claims horizontal puffs of smoke seen during the collapse of the towers are indicative of controlled explosions used to bring down the towers.
The group also maintains World Trade Centre 7 - a neighbouring building which caught fire and collapsed later in the day - was only partially damaged but had to be destroyed because it housed a clandestine CIA station.
Professor James Fetzer, 65, a retired philosopher of science at the University of Minnesota, said: "The evidence is so overwhelming, but most Americans don't have time to take a look at this."

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Dr. Bob Bowman won the Florida-15th Democratic primary.

http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/2006PRI/20060905_DEM_DET_USR_015.html

Robert M. Bowman (born 1934) was the former Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the U.S. Air Force in the Ford and Carter administrations, and a former United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 101 combat missions. He holds a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Despite his involvement with space programs and defense, he emerged as an early public critic of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, also aka "Star Wars") during the Ronald Reagan administration. On The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour, he called it "the ultimate military lunacy, easily overwhelmed and vulnerable". Bowman founded the Institute for Space and Security Studies, and its publication Space & Security News (1983) (ISSN 1071-2569), and authored two books on the subject of SDI. He is also a critic of an outgrowth of the SDI program, the Bush administration's proposed National Missile Defense.

For several years he has been active with Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War as a speaker. He had also been a member of the Peace Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

In 1998, Project Censored cited Bowman's article "Our Continuing War Against Iraq," in the May 1998 issue of Space and Security News as one of the few (along with Bill Blum of the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Dennis Bernstein) covering what they deemed the fifth most censored story, "U.S. Weapons of Mass Destruction Linked to the Deaths of Half a Million Children." The WMDs referred to are the biological samples sent to Iraq from the United States up to 1989, and use of depleted uranium during the Gulf War.

He is a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, founded in January 2006 by James H. Fetzer. Because of the beliefs Bowman holds regarding U.S. complicity in the September 11, 2001 attacks, he is also part of the movement to impeach George W. Bush. He spoke at a September 11, 2005 rally in New York City held by members of the New York 9/11 Truth Movement.

More recently, Dr. Bowman joined Veterans for 9/11 Truth.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Interview with David Ray Griffin:

http://wholelifetimes.com/2006/09/911griffin0609.html

Anonymous said...

Hello to North Carolinians and esp. Durhamites interested in S11 research. I'm from Durham and would like to meet and have discussions with people about the Naudet-FDNY movie which is the focus of my research:
http://911foreknowledge.com

My thesis is that rogue, infiltrated elements of the FDNY (really agents from somewhere like CIA or FEMA) arranged to make a snuff film out of the day's events, under the false cover of a bogus story about making a documentary about a rookie-- and then they sold it back to us as a respectable documentary.

The Naudet-FDNY team is most famous for getting the only decent shot of the 1st Hit murder weapon, which wasn't a plane:

http://missilegate.com


Ray Ubinger
919-667-1528

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Well, Ghandi I believe once said, first they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.

We are now officially in the stage where they are fighting us. The White house today has branded 'conspiracy theorists' as terrorist recruieters:

White House Targets Conspiracy Theorists As Terrorist Recruiters
'Strategy for winning the war on terror' says world contaminated, corrupted by misinformation
Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | September 7 2006
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2006/070906terroristrecruiters.htm

BLKNIGHT18 said...

28-Year Career CIA Official Says 9/11 An Inside Job
Highlights missing Pentagon trillions as potential motive

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | September 7 2006

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2006/070906insidejob.htm

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Bin Laden uses video, 9/11 anniversary to threaten U.S.
USA TODAY, 9/7/06
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-09-10-binladen-tape_x.htm

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Big Washington Post story:

9/11 conspiracy theorists multiply
Many Americans suspect U.S. government involvement or complicity
The Washington Post, 9/8/06

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14723997/

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Indications add up to government conspiracy
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9/8/06
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/284273_conspire08.html
JAMES MORGANTE
GUEST COLUMNIST

An Aug. 8 Seattle P-I editorial asked, "Where are the facts? Where is the evidence?" about government complicity in the 9/11 attacks.

The case for complicity begins with motive and benefit. In his 1997 book "The Grand Chessboard," Zbigniew Brzezinski argues that the key to global dominance in the 21st century lies in control of Central Asian oil and gas reserves. Establishing a U.S. presence there would require the kind of military deployment that only "a direct external threat" could justify.

And in a 2000 paper titled "Rebuilding America's Defenses," Project for a New American Century, whose founding members were Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, argued for vast increases in military spending to assure American global dominance. Such a process, PNAC said, would take time absent "a catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor." Military deployment into Central Asia followed 9/11, as well as their desired increases in military spending.

The symmetry between the 9/11 attacks and U.S. policy goals is but the backdrop to the case for government complicity. The picture becomes clearer through considering the following:


Gen. Mahmoud Ahmed, the head of the Pakistani intelligence service, was in Washington when the attacks occurred, conferring with government officials. The Indian press subsequently implicated him in wiring $100,000 to Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker. When the story broke, he was pressured into retirement at U.S. insistence. His link to the attacks was never pursued.


Two FBI agents approached attorney David Schippers with specific foreknowledge about the attacks. His repeated calls to Attorney General John Ashcroft were never returned. An article in New American on March 11, 2002, corroborated the agents' story. They claimed that knowledge of the plot was widespread within the FBI for months before 9/11.


The air defense system breakdown on the day of Sept. 11 was unprecedented. Well-practiced protocols for dealing with suspected hijackings failed to function for an astonishing 90 minutes. The little-known existence of "coincidental" military war games has since been exposed, which undoubtedly caused confusion. And now, the chairman and vice-chairman of the 9/11 Commission claim (in a new book, "Without Precedent") that the military was less than completely honest.


The collapse of steel-frame buildings -- such as the World Trade Center Towers -- due to fire is unprecedented. The collapse of Building 7, which was not hit by a plane, is especially inexplicable. Its collapse late in the afternoon of Sept. 11 exhibited 10 specific features of a controlled demolition, as did the collapse of the Twin Towers. More important, numerous eyewitnesses attest to hearing multiple explosions at the time. And, Steven Jones, a professor at Brigham Young University, discovered Thermate, an incendiary compound, in two molten steel samples taken from the site.


From the beginning, the Bush administration delayed and otherwise impeded the investigation, preferring to focus on the foreign invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq enabled by the attacks.

Those are but some of many indications that together add up to government complicity. In the words of David Ray Griffin, world-renowned theologian and truth advocate, the agenda and events surrounding 9/11 reveal a "deeply perverted value system" at odds with that of the American people. For the sake of the common welfare, the truth behind 9/11 must be exposed.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Full house as leading 9/11 conspiracy theorist has his say
Saturday September 9, 2006
The Guardian


They call it the 9/11 for Truth Movement, and tonight those who believe the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon were carried out by the American government and not jihadist hijackers will gather in London's Conway Hall to listen to one of the biggest figures among a growing number of disbelievers.
Two days before the fifth anniversary of the attacks, David Ray Griffin, emeritus professor of philosophy of religion and theology at Claremont graduate university, and author of The New Pearl Harbor and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, will ask his audience: "Was 9/11 an inside job?"

He will be joined on stage by the ex-MI5 officer David Shayler, who will introduce the talk, for which tickets have almost sold out. Prof Griffin is a founder member of the 9/11 Scholars for Truth movement in the US. He is joined by 75 academics who write in books, journals and essays that they have overwhelming evidence that shatters the official version of events on that September morning.
And it seems that a growing number of people are listening to them. A recent poll in the US found that 36% of Americans believed it "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that their government was involved in allowing the attacks or had carried them out itself. There are many people in the UK who agree with them.

The theories as to what happened on that day, when almost 3,000 people were killed, differ but their unifying theme is that a neo-conservative cabal within the US government staged the events as a pretext to wage wars, become a dominant force in the world and establish "the new American century". The attacks, it is said, were not carried out by al-Qaida terrorists but were a "false flag" event used to justify invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Films have been made on the subject, websites show countless images that "back up" the claims, chatrooms are screaming with conspiracists and there is a plethora of published material. Much of this argues that the collapse of the Twin Towers was caused by a controlled demolition and not by the aeroplanes which slammed into their sides.

Ian Neal helped form the British 9/11 for Truth Movement, which he says is a "loose network of campaigners who have grown up over the past two years". The official 9/11 commission investigation into the attacks firmly dismissed the conspiracy theories, but those who expound them say this is precisely why there needs to be an independent inquiry.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

A Grieving Mother Wonders What Really Happened on 9/11
by Marion Kminek, mother of Mari-Rae Sopper, who was killed on American Airlines Flight 77 on September 11, 2001.
http://www.independent.com/opinion/2006/09/unanswered_questions.html

On September 11, 2001, our daughter had her life cut short at the age of 35. After practicing law in the Navy JAG Corps and then with a corporate law firm in Washington, D.C., she accepted her dream job to become the head women’s gymnastics coach at UCSB. Her condo was up for sale, the movers had picked up her furniture, her car had been shipped, and then she boarded American Airlines Flight 77 to begin her new life.

As we approach the fifth anniversary of her death, more and more unanswered questions have surfaced regarding the events of 9/11. Here are just a few of the questions that bother me most:
When President Bush learned of the second plane hitting the South Tower, he seemed puzzled, but not particularly upset or surprised. He continued reading to the children. The Secret Service is trained to act quickly and decisively to protect the president — why did they let him remain in a public place for more than seven minutes when our country was under attack?

According to radar data, American Airlines (AA) 77 was flying at 400 mph at 9:35 a.m. and passed over the Pentagon at 7,000 feet. The plane then made a very difficult high-speed descending turn in a downward spiral, dropping 7,000 feet in two-and-a-half minutes. How could the terrorists have done this difficult turn when their flight instructors have stated they were incompetent as pilots of even a small plane?

Pictures of the Pentagon after the impact show an entry hole much too small for a 757 to have crashed into the building. How can that be?
A C-130 military cargo plane that “happened” to be flying near the Pentagon was asked by air traffic control if he could see AA 77 and report its position. The same pilot later also “happened” to be in the same area as United Airlines Flight 93, and was asked to give 93’s position. Isn’t this a strange coincidence?

On September 13, 2001, in violation of a domestic flight ban, three Saudi royal family members flew to Kentucky in a private Lear jet from a private Raytheon hangar in Tampa, Florida. This flight took place several hours after a private meeting between President Bush and Prince Bandar, Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Tampa International Airport officials, former secretary of state Colin Powell, and former White House anti-terror adviser Richard Clarke all confirmed this information. Between September 14 and 19, about 140 Saudis —including 24 members of the bin Laden family — were evacuated to Saudi Arabia. For two years, this violation of the domestic flight ban was denied by the Federal Aviation Administration, FBI, and White House. Those evacuated include: the son of the Saudi defense minister, the latter of whom allegedly contributed at least $6 million since 1994 to four charities that financed Al Qaeda; Khalil bin Laden, who has been investigated by the Brazilian government for possible terrorist connections; Abdullah bin Laden, the U.S. director of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, a Muslim charity accused of funding terrorism; and Akberali Moawalla, who owned a joint bank account with Osama bin Laden from which there was a transfer of more than $250 million in 2000. MSNBC has reported that members of the Saudi royal family met frequently with Osama bin Laden both before and after 9/11. Why were these people allowed to leave our country after 9/11?

Just prior to 9/11, there was unusual stock activity related to short-selling and put options, which are both high-risk bets that a stock’s value will depreciate. Early in September 2001, there was a 40 percent increase in short-selling of American and United Airlines stock on the New York Stock Exchange. On September 10, trading ratios on United Airlines were 25 times greater than normal on the Pacific Exchange. The firm used to buy many of the put options on United Airlines stock between September 6 and 10 was headed until 1998 by A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard, who was the CIA executive director on 9/11. During the same period of time, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw suspicious trading on Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, two of the largest World Trade Center (WTC) tenants. Who were these investors and how did they know to make these particular investments?

In the 100-year history of steel high-rises, there was never one that collapsed due to fires until 9/11, when three collapsed: WTC 1, 2, and 7. Particularly mysterious was building 7, which was not struck by an aircraft, but rather by debris from the nearby Twin Towers. According to video evidence, the towers collapsed in approximately 8-10 seconds. In other words, in about the same amount of time it would take a brick thrown from the top of the building to hit the ground, these buildings collapsed one floor after another without any resistance from any of the floors. It was as if they were being demolished by explosives. Were they?

On September 10, 2001, Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for 9/11, apparently because of security concerns. Barely six weeks prior to 9/11, then-attorney general John Ashcroft decided not to travel on commercial airlines, due to “a threat assessment by the FBI.” This threat assessment was apparently communicated to members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, as confirmed by an interview with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Why did Ashcroft not similarly warn the American public? What did Pentagon officials and Ashcroft know?

If it seems too crazy to believe that anyone in our country could have been involved in the 9/11 attacks, please consider Operation Northwoods. On May 1, 2001, ABC News reported the following: “In the early 1960s, America’s top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba. Code-named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities. The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba’s then new leader, communist Fidel Castro. … The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy’s defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they were apparently rejected by the civilian leadership and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.”

Why did we invade Iraq again? In addition to the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, 9/11 was used as a justification. Was this a replay of Operation Northwoods?
How long do the American public and families of 9/11 victims have to wait before these questions and many more are answered? Will we ever know the real truth? Remember: in the U.S.A., it is our right to question the government.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

9/11 Press for Truth

This is the latest 9/11 movie to be released and is a documentary
based
on Paul Thompson's "The Complete 9/11 Timeline"
www.911pressfortruth.com/

Sept. 24th, 1:30pm showing, Free

Contact info and sign up:
http://pressfortruth.bravenewtheaters.com/screening/show/5555-raleigh

Location:
Cameron Village Public Library, upstairs room 202
Raleigh, NC

BLKNIGHT18 said...

NC 9/11 Truth in the News:

Conspiracy theories about 9/11 persist
The News & Observer, 9/9/06
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/484317.html

Conspiracy theories rarely get more than a dismissive wink and smile in mainstream America.
But as the anniversary of 9/11 nears, a couple of polls show nearly a third of Americans believe the U.S. government either participated in the attacks or allowed them to happen. And conspiracy theorists are getting their day in the sun.

In Durham, the skeptics can fill a church fellowship hall or a library meeting room, casting doubt on the official story -- that al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial jets Sept. 11, crashed two into the World Trade Center and the third into the Pentagon, with the fourth plummeting into a Pennsylvania field after passengers foiled the plot.

As long as there have been historic events, conspiracy theories have followed.

Who hasn't heard the 1969 moonwalk happened in a Hollywood studio. John F. Kennedy was killed by anyone but Lee Harvey Oswald (and Lyndon Johnson was involved). Franklin D. Roosevelt surely goaded the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor to start a world war.

"Death usually brings out conspiracy theories," said Jonathan Knight, director of the American Association of University Professors Academic Freedom and Tenure program.

Last week, in an attempt to dismiss the nagging and persistent conspiracy theories, the State Department and a federal science agency released separate reports insisting that the disasters were caused by hijackers using fully fueled passenger jets as missiles.

But a subculture of doubters home in on holes and inconsistencies with video footage, photographs and initial reactions to the catastrophic events. For them it all adds up to one inescapable conclusion: conspiracy.

On a late August evening, nearly 100 people filled a room at Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in southern Durham. They were from Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham, northern Chatham County, Hillsborough, Asheville, Raleigh and Wake Forest -- mostly North Carolina towns with large enclaves left of the political center.

Peter Zarcone, a man who describes himself as a skeptic -- "not a paranoid schizophrenic type of conspiracy person" -- helped organize a presentation with video clips, photographs, collected quotes and other information about events before and after 9/11.

Larry Burk, a self-employed radiologist at the forefront of establishing Duke University's alternative medicine program, was at the front of the room, wearing a small microphone under the fake white rose pinned to his lapel.

The fabric flower represents the White Flower, the nonviolent German resistance group famous for a leaflet campaign calling for active opposition to the Nazi regime during World War II.

Before the laptop presentation began, Burk polled the audience.

Who believed the federal government either took part in or allowed the attacks on the World Trade Center to happen, Burk asked. Most people raised their hands.

A smattering of hands went up when Burk asked who believed the destruction was caused by a planned demolition.

A nationwide poll this summer by the Ohio University Scripps Survey Research Center found more than a third of the 1,010 adults surveyed said it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that the U.S. government either participated in the attacks of allowed them to happen.

Sixteen percent said the destruction of the twin towers was aided by explosives hidden in the buildings. Fifty-four percent of those polled said they "are more angry" at the government than they used to be.

"Americans are living through a historical period in which the government is less able to keep secrets from us than it was in the past," said Pete Furia, an associate professor of political science at Wake Forest University. "But precisely because we are now aware of secretive government actions in earlier eras -- nothing on the scale of staging 9/11, but various covert operations and policy machinations -- we're hesitant to dismiss contemporary conspiracy theories outright."

Popular theories

One popular theory is that an elite group in power orchestrated the event as a pretext for going to war in the Middle East.

Many theorists zero in on puffs of dust spurting from the sides of the towers to support claims that the buildings collapsed from planted explosives, not the impact of Boeing 767s and subsequent fuel fires.

The Pentagon, the theorists say, was hit by a cruise missile, not a plane, and Flight 93 did not crash after passengers rushed the cockpit -- it was taken down by an Air Force fighter plane.

"The stuff that's out there is remarkable," said Richard Ned Lebow, a professor of government at Dartmouth University. "People everywhere have a real need to believe that things don't happen randomly. When you have events like Pearl Harbor or 9/11, there's a need to bring them under control. Conspiracies play a role in doing that."

In November, Steven E. Jones, a physicist at Brigham Young University, shot to stardom among conspiracy theorists with an online paper hypothesizing that the twin towers had to have been brought down by a controlled demolition, that the planes could not have caused the extensive damage.

Although there has been much debunking and dismissing, Zarcone, 60, a semi-retired financial adviser and former minister who lives in Durham, buys into the theories. "It's very difficult for people to believe the possibility that our own government would pull off such a thing as this," Zarcone said.

"It creates a trauma within people's minds and hearts because we were all taught to believe that America is the greatest thing since sliced bread and it couldn't happen here, that we had the checks and balances in place to prevent tyranny."

Conspiracy buffs rally around academics who share their views and cry out about academic freedoms being throttled when others question the scholarliness of their work.

"I'm looking for criticisms of the theories, and the only criticisms are even more radical," Burk said. "I'm willing to have a discussion based on facts. I wouldn't be doing this if I weren't persuaded by the facts."

Burk was surfing the Web in 2004, on the day before Christmas. His brother was interested in Kennedy conspiracy theories, so he looked them up. That led to the 9/11 conspiracy world and a host of questions.

"I sort of went down the rabbit hole that Christmas Eve," Burk said.

BLKNIGHT18 said...

New film: 9/11 Press For Truth

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1016720641536424083&q=press+for+truth

BLKNIGHT18 said...

Reichstag Fire in Spades
By Stephen Fleischman, WBAI, 99.5, New York City
http://www.wbai.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=9076&Itemid=2

On February 27, 1933, Hitler, as a first step on his way to power, set fire to the Reichstag, the German Parliament building, and blamed it on the Communists.

On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center towers in New York collapsed, and Bush blamed it on al Qaeda, an Islamic “terrorist” group.

“The World Trade Towers collapsed as a result of controlled demolitions,” says an esteemed physicist, Dr. Steven E. Jones.

Truth or conspiracy theory?

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the law of gravity. When you drop something, it falls to the ground. If you drop a brick, for example, from a height of 1,368 feet (the height of the former World Trade Towers, coincidentally) it will take 10 seconds to hit the ground.

“All that one needs to know, to be able to conclusively prove that the Twin Towers were demolished, is that the towers fell in roughly 10 seconds, that is, that they fell at about the same rate that an object falls through air. The observed collapse of the World Trade Centers, Towers 1 and 2, have been measured at near the rate of free fall. This is the rate at which nearly ALL of the "falling energy" (kinetic energy from gravity) must deliver the building to ground level ASAP. This leaves NO energy for smashing and pulverizing the concrete slabs NOR for shredding construction steel.

Anyone with a little common sense will realize that the top of a building does not pass through the concrete and steel that comprises the lower portion of the building at the same rate that it falls through air. This just doesn't happen, unless, of course, the lower part of the building has lost its structural integrity (and this is usually due to the detonation of a multitude of small explosive charges as seen in controlled demolitions).

BLKNIGHT18 said...

SCHOLARS FOR 9/11 TRUTH ASSAILED
Members and movement attacked from several directions
Madison, WI (PRWEB) September 9, 2006 --- Three professors who are members of Scholars for 9/11 Truth have been threatened with the loss of their positions for their research and teaching about the events of 9/11. Other attacks are coming from national magazines, such as TIME and U.S. NEWS, which have cover-stories this week suggesting that those who believe 9/11 involved a conspiracy may need psychological counseling. In addition, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Popular Mechanics have published pieces intended to bolster the official account of 9/11.

“This flurry of activity suggests that the government is becoming desperate in its efforts to keep the truth about 9/11 from the American people,” said James H. Fetzer, the founder and co-chair of the society. “But I don’t think it’s working.” Fetzer finds attacks on faculty members, including Kevin Barrett, a humanities instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bill Woodward, a professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire, and Steven Jones, a physics professor at Brigham Young University and the society’s co-chair, especially disturbing.

“According to the government, 9/11 is ‘the pivotal event of the 21st century,’ which changed everything”, he observed. “So it obviously deserves to be studied. College and universities are the institutions that undertake the study of significant historical events. The very idea that faculty should not be studying the events of 9/11 verges on the absurd,” he remarked. “And since the official account-that the events of 9/11 involved 19 Islamic fundamentalists hijacking four commercial airliners and perpetrating terrorist acts under control of a man in a cave in Afghanistan-involves a conspiracy, it is impossible to study 9/11 without dealing with conspiracy theories.”

Fetzer thinks the administration wants to suppress serious research on 9/11 because the official account cannot withstand scrutiny. “What the government has told us is just fine if you are willing to believe impossible things,” he observed. “Its truth requires violating laws of physics and engineering that cannot be violated and cannot be changed.” He offered a recent piece from NIST that attempts to resolve “frequently asked questions” as an illustration. “We have posted it on our web site at st911.org along with several critiques. I invite anyone to review that exchange to determine if the official account has any basis in science. It does not.”

An article from Popular Mechanics that has been turned into a book doesn’t fare any better, he observed. Since there is no objective foundation for the official account, there is no ground to suggest that skeptics of the official account need psychological counseling. “Rationality is the tendency to accept, reject, and hold-in-suspense beliefs on the basis of logic and evidence,’” Fetzer stated. “Given what we know now, those who continue to defend the government’s account are the ones whose beliefs cannot be justified by logic and evidence, not the critics. The situation abounds with ironies.”

“Sometimes I wonder if the general public realizes the government has been lying to us about 9/11 from the beginning.” He cites the recent acknowledgment from the FBI that it has “no hard evidence” connecting Osama bin Laden to 9/11 and the President’s response during a press conference that Saddam Hussein had “nothing” to do with 9/11. Only this week a Senate Intelligence Committee report explained that Saddam not only was not collaborating with bin Laden but opposed him. “These were reasons we were given for going to war,” he said. “If the government has been lying about them, we already know the government has been lying about 9/11.”

Scholars, a non-partisan society of students, faculty and experts dedicated to exposing falsehoods and revealing truths about 9/11, includes physicists, mechanical engineers, civil engineers, pilots, and aeronautical engineers among its members. “We have no funds and no budget but are doing this because we believe the American people are entitled to know the truth about their own history. Even I find it difficult to believe that the American government could have attacked the American people and killed 3,000 civilians to promote its political agenda, but that is where the evidence leads.”

Anonymous said...

"I sort of went down the rabbit hole that Christmas Eve," Burk said.

That I agree with. Your head is definately in a hole. But it's more like UP into a hole.