Proof
of prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks
is continuing to trickle out of the purportedly
"leak-proof" White House, as more corroborative
chickens of 9/11 are coming home to roost -- even
as President Bush is considering invoking executive
privilege to keep the clamps on evidence that
could alter the political landscape for the nation's
conquering "top-gun."
However, for those still concerned about the mysteries
of September 11, such issues as: 1) poorly documented
visas -- issued fraudulently by immigration officials
failing to follow the law, 2) restrained U.S.
military air defense protocols, 3) millions of
dollars in suspicious pre-attack stock market
insider trading profits as yet unclaimed and unrevealed
within a still-unpublicized Securities Exchange
Commission 9/11 "Control List," 4) redacted presidential
intelligence documents, plus other unanswered
questions directly related to prior knowledge
of the attacks all seem fair game -- given the
explosive evidence.
Newly-revealed statements from a CIA July, 2001
presidential intelligence briefing -- when placed
within the context of planes crashing into buildings,
one-by-one on September 11 -- should bring to
mind Bush's reactions that morning at the Sarasota,
Florida elementary school. But the public has
never heard the reason for the President's lack
of swift and decisive action at the school.
The intelligence committee staff director, Eleanor
Hill -- a former federal prosecutor and Pentagon
Inspector General -- was blocked at the last minute
from divulging precisely who in the White House
received the July briefing, classified by CIA
Director George Tenet. According to Newsweek,
a source said one of the recipients of the still-unpublicized
July briefing which foretold the 9/11 attacks
was Bush himself.
But Hill was only permitted to say "senior government
officials." And no one has testified regarding
who exerted the pressure on the staff director.
The President has not testified. And the congressional
hearings are over.
The weekly periodical also revealed that the congressional
report "names names, gives dates, and provides
a body of new information about the handling of
many other crucial intelligence briefings -- including
one in early August 2001 given to national-security
advisor Condoleezza Rice that discussed Al Qaeda
operations within the United States and the possibility
that the group's members might seek to hijack
airplanes."
National Security Adviser Dr. Condoleezza Rice
briefing reporters at the May 16, 2002 "damage-control"
news conference in response to the "Bush Knew"
headline in the New York Post. Afterward, the
White House and CNN transcripts erased the name
of the Pakistani Intelligence General Mahmud Ahmad
who had met with State Department officials just
days prior to the attacks, but shortly after sending
a $100,000. check to lead hijacker Mohammed Atta.
The
astonishing validation of presidential prior knowledge
that a major attack would occur against the American
people on U.S. soil is only superceded by still-hidden
evidence regarding the specificity of the details,
how the information was obtained, and the complete
list of pre-9/11 meetings and briefings recipients,
even as supposedly redacted papers were sent to
the people's elected representatives -- thus far
mum about the subject.
THERE HAS BEEN A COVER UP OF THIS
That
is, everyone except Senator Bob Graham of Florida.
Our phone interview yesterday with Paul Anderson,
Graham's communications director, confirmed the
overnight Newsweek Online story revealing Graham's
ire over the fact that George W.'s lawyers are
currently determining whether the president will
invoke executive privilege to prevent critical
9/11 evidence from reaching the public via the
9/11 Commission.
Anderson told us "I am unable to tell you whether
Senator Graham (former co-chairman of the Joint
Senate-House 9/11 Intelligence Committee) has
even seen the complete and un-redacted versions
of the two (pre-9/11) presidential briefing documents
to which you refer," adding that "the senator
has been fighting for [evidence] declassification
since the end of February -- after we had waited
since filing our original 'classified first pass'
on the (800+ page) report last December 20."
Senator
Bob Graham (D-FL) It will be interesting
to see whether Presidential candidate Graham considers
all the 9/11 evidence and testimony important
enough to fight for the public's right to know
-- in the face of a possible presidential invocation
of Executive Privilege regarding document suppression.
Anderson
also said that "since late February, we have been
on the second pass, and Senator Graham has been
urging (FBI) Director (Robert) Mueller and (CIA)
Director (George) Tenet to help expedite the release
of all or as much information as possible regarding
meetings, briefing papers, and other documents."
According to the Newsweek report (5/1/2003), Graham
had claimed that "There has been a cover up of
this." His co-chairman, Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL)
added "I find this process horrendously frustrating,"
offering further that "senior intelligence officials
said things in public hearings that they [administration
officials] don't want us to put in the report."
"That's not something I can rationally accept
without further public explanation," Goss said.
Our three phone calls yesterday, attempting to
seek comment from Goss's press aide, Julie Almacy,
were unreturned.
When we asked Anderson what Graham would do if
he disagreed with Bush's lawyers regarding what
evidence Americans have a right to know about,
the senate aide told us "I can't tell you at this
time whether the Senator will make a major issue
out of either invocation of presidential executive
privilege or withholding what he considers key
evidence."
However, in a portent for down-the-road 9/11 machinations,
Anderson added "the President's attorneys have
told the Intelligence Committee that their consideration
of the 'second pass' will be delayed until the
end of May [5 months since the original submission]
-- and Senator Graham has complained repeatedly
and publicly about this."
That more media and public inquiries regarding
what is being hidden and why it is being hidden
is assured once the more public 9/11 Commission
hearings commence this summer.
BY THE TIME I GET TO PHOENIX
The
Associated Press confirmed on May 22, 2002, that
members of congress only received "portions of
the "Phoenix Memo" [revealing that Middle Eastern
nationals were enrolling in U.S. flight schools];
moreover, reporter Christopher Newton said that
the memo's author, FBI agent Kenneth Williams,
had urged FBI headquarters in Washington to canvass
flight schools across the country to identify
possible Arab students.
But FBI middle managers decided late in the summer
of 2001, just prior to the attacks, to "set Williams'
plan aside because his memo was based on information
they considered speculative...," said a government
official, speaking on condition of anonymity --
also according to AP.
"Every indication was that the traffic light went
from yellow to red and the FBI just kept driving,"
Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), said on ABC Good
Morning America on May 22, 2002, adding "They
seemed to ignore what was a very clear warning."
Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), said that FBI Director
Mueller said he saw the (Phoenix) memo shortly
after the attacks but still could not explain
why it didn't catch the attention of top bureau
officials. And Attorney General John Ashcroft
learned of the general topic of the memo in the
days after the September 11 attacks but was not
briefed extensively on the memo until several
weeks ago [7 months after the attacks], a Justice
Department official told AP.
All this, as Floridian Dan Hopsicker (Madcowprod.com,
12-26-2001), began breaking new ground regarding
Rudi Dekkers and Wally Hilliard, partners in the
Venice, Florida flight schools where most of the
Saudi terrorists developed their airplane hijacking
skills. Hopsicker reported that the day after
the attacks the local police had collected all
the files detailing Dekkers' relationships and
business with the hijackers.
Curiously however, one local law enforcement official
said, "The FBI took all our files, everything."
Then he added, "they loaded two Ryder trucks right
outside that (police station) window, then drove
them right onto a C-130 military cargo plane at
Sarasota airport which flew out with [Governor]
Jeb Bush aboard." And so went all the evidence.
Strangely -- and Governor Jeb Bush notwithstanding,
directors and subordinates of government entities
such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC), Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS), Justice Department
(DOJ) -- and current Bush Administration officials
and cabinet members -- have not publicly testified
regarding their activities, discussions and meetings
in the months and days leading up to September
11.
If the matter were not so tragic, the Sunshine
State journalist's recent reference to "Bin Laden
Airlines," and that "the FBI pointedly said --
early -- they knew about terrorists rotating through
Rudi Dekkers' flight school in Venice, Florida,"
one might consider it a sick joke; but Hopsicker
draws a startling comparison:
"48 hours after the slaying
of John Fitzgerald Kennedy a CIA pilot named
David Ferrie was under suspicion of participation
in the assassination conspiracy. Thirty years
later Joe Pesci plays Ferrie in Oliver Stone's
JFK the movie."
"48 hours after the September
11th attack, a flight school owner named Rudi
Dekkers, known to have trained virtually the entire
terrorist pilot cadre, and a possible CIA asset,
seemed impervious to suspicion. What suspicions?
He was being booked onto Larry King Live."
But given the staggering evidence, the question
is begged as to why no one is calling for subpoenaed
testimony of the unidentified "senior administration
officials."
This, just as the National Commission on Terrorist
Attacks Upon the United States begins to expend
its $3 million budget -- financially restricted
by the President's congressional majority; while
by comparison, the government spent over $47 million
investigating the sexual shenanigans between Monica
Lewinsky and President Clinton.
Former Indiana congressman and 9/11 Commission
member Tim Roemer, tried to review transcripts
of some of the joint intelligence committee's
closed-door hearings last week, according to Newsweek,
but he was denied access because "the commission
staff had agreed to a White House request to allow
its lawyers to first review the material to determine
if the president wants to invoke executive privilege
to keep the material out of the panel's hands."
RACING SLOWLY TO THE RESCUE
Perhaps
the single most damning indictment on September
11 was the failure of normal United States military
protocol to be followed as standard procedure.
The
testimony of victim family member Mindy Kleinberg,
presented on March 31, 2003 before the National
9/11 Commission is so articulate that it will
likely stand as a permanent U.S. historical document
in and of itself:
"Prior to 9/11, FAA and Department
of Defense Manuals gave clear, comprehensive instructions
on how to handle everything from minor emergencies
to full blown hijackings.
These 'protocols' were in place and were practiced
regularly for a good reason -- with heavily trafficked
air space; airliners without radio and transponder
contact are collisions and/or calamities waiting
to happen."
"Those protocols dictate that
in the event of an emergency, the FAA is to notify
NORAD. Once that notification takes place, it
is then the responsibility of NORAD to scramble
fighter-jets to intercept the errant plane(s).
It is a matter of routine procedure for fighter-
jets to 'intercept' commercial airliners in order
to regain contact with the pilot."
"If that weren't protection
enough, on September 11th, NEADS (or the North
East Air Defense System dept of NORAD) was several
days into a semi-annual exercise known as 'Vigilant
Guardian." This meant that our North East Air
Defense system was fully staffed. In short, key
officers were manning the operation battle center,
'fighter jets were cocked, loaded, and carrying
extra gas on board.' "
"Lucky for the terrorists that
none of this mattered on the morning of September
11th. Let me illustrate using just flight
11 as an example: "
"American Airline Flight 11
departed from Boston Logan Airport at 7:45 a.m.
The last routine communication between ground
control and the plane occurred at 8:13 a.m. Between
8:13 and 8:20 a.m. Flight 11 became unresponsive
to ground control. Additionally, radar indicated
that the plane had deviated from its assigned
path of flight. Soon thereafter, transponder contact
was lost -- (although planes can still be seen
on radar - even without their transponders)."
"Two Flight 11 airline attendants
had separately called American Airlines reporting
a hijacking, the presence of weapons, and the
infliction of injuries on passengers and crew.
At this point, it would seem abundantly clear
that Flight 11 was an emergency."
"Yet, according to NORAD's
official timeline, NORAD was not contacted until
20 minutes later at 8:40 a.m. Tragically the fighter
jets were not deployed until 8:52 a.m. -- a full
32 minutes after the loss of contact with flight
11."
"Why was there a delay in the FAA
notifying NORAD? Why was there a delay in NORAD
scrambling fighter jets? How is this possible
when NEADS was fully staffed with planes at the
ready and monitoring our Northeast airspace?"
"Flight's 175, 77 and 93 all
had this same repeat pattern of delays in notification
and delays in scrambling fighter jets. Delays
that are unimaginable considering a plane had,
by this time, already hit the World Trade Center."
"Even more baffling for us is the
fact that the fighter jets were not scrambled
from the closest air force bases. For example,
for the flight that hit the Pentagon, the jets
were scrambled from Langley Air Force in Hampton,
Virginia rather than Andrews Air Force Base right
outside D.C. As a result, Washington skies remained
wholly unprotected on the morning of September
11th. At 9:41 a.m., one hour and 11 minutes after
the first plane was hijack confirmed by NORAD,
Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. The fighter
jets were still miles away. Why?"
"So the hijackers' luck had continued.
On September 11th both the FAA and NORAD deviated
from standard emergency operating procedures.
Who were the people that delayed the notification?
Have they been questioned? In addition, the interceptor
planes or fighter jets did not fly at their maximum
speed."
"Had the belatedly scrambled
fighter jets flown at their maximum speed of engagement,
MACH-12, they would have reached NYC and the Pentagon
within moments of their deployment, intercepted
the hijacked airliners before they could have
hit their targets, and undoubtedly saved lives."
GOVERNMENT BY SECRECY
While
the Bush Administration's seeming penchant for
secrecy is of itself quite extraordinary, it is
only a continuing pattern of procedure; for on
November 1, 2001 -- 7 weeks after the 9/11 attacks
-- President
Bush signed Executive Order 13233. The Order
ends some 27 years of Congressional and judicial
efforts to make Presidential papers and records
available.
Unchallenged by weak congressional oversight,
President Bush has effectively used his executive
power to deteriorate public disclosure of public
presidential documents, while essentially creating
new law. It started with his gubernatorial papers,
letters, and notes -- accumulated during six years
as governor of Texas. All papers were quickly
moved to his father's presidential library in
College Station.
And since all materials archived there are under
federal jurisdiction, they are exempt from the
Texas Open Records Act which requires a response
within 10 days after a request for records. This
is now an impossibility.
JOHN DEAN, Former White House Counsel
In
an November 9, 2001 essay for Findlaw.com, John
Dean, former Nixon personal counsel during Watergate,
offered a revealing look at Bush's executive secrecy:
"The mystical veil of 'national
security' has been cast over much of the
Bush Administration. There were the secret arrests
of terror-related suspects (currently over 1,000
publicly unknown people). There was the expansion
of the wiretap granting powers of a secret federal
court hidden within the Department of Justice.
There was, and continues to be, an apparent policy
of precluding news organizations and congressional
leaders from access to anything other than managed
and generic news about Afghanistan."
"The Executive Order suggests
that President Bush not only does not want Americans
to know what he is doing, but he also does not
want to worry that historians and others will
someday find out....He has sought to significantly
modify the law, and made its procedures far more
complex, cumbersome and restrictive. In doing
so, he has exceeded his executive powers under
the Presidential Records Act of 1978."
"President Bush has also
shifted the burden from the former President to
the person seeking the material. Under the Executive
Order, the person seeking material must show that
he should be given it; it is no longer necessary
for the former President to show why material
must not be disclosed."
"The new Executive Order also
takes the Archivist of the United States out of
the role of deciding if a former President's invocation
of [executive] privilege should or should not
be honored. That role is now assigned to the incumbent
President."
"The new Executive Order creates
an elaborate procedure for an incumbent President
to block his predecessor from releasing documents.
In addition, under Bush's order, a former President
can indefinitely block release of his material,
which is not possible under existing law."
"Another added benefit for
former Presidents is this: When the incumbent
President agrees with the former President about
his decision to not release records, the incumbent
President (through the Department of Justice)
will defend the privilege against attack. That
saves the former President what can be significant
legal expenses [using public funds] for attorney's
fees to contest the case [such as documents related
to 9/11] in court."
Given the fact that soft congressional oversight
has permitted the President to exert total control
over all his documents, some may question ulterior
motives -- if one listens to John Dean: "I can
assure you from first-hand experience that a President
acting secretly usually does not have the best
interest of Americans in mind. It is his own personal
interest that is on his mind instead."
The American people, however, must in the end
rely upon their elected leaders -- soft as they
may seem -- regarding rebalancing the rules and
procedures governing the tax-paying public's "right
to know."
For without a strong, viable and un-intimidated
legislative branch, such a legitimate need for
high-ranking individual testimony, documents,
and meeting notes which respond to thousands of
questions connected to the September 11 attacks
on America will never be achieved. Instead of
full sunlight, Congress opted to punt the ball
over to a Commission.
Nevertheless, it is still tragic that even the
9/11 "Independent" Commission has built-in conflicts
of interest, yet-to-be revealed -- let alone the
surety of many tied subpoena votes.
Oh, that the United States Congress had carried
out its oversight responsibilities in full view
of the American people, instead of allowing public
distrust and suspicion to creep into the mindset
of so many citizens who feel that they've been
"had" -- like a Hollywood movie script --
regarding the truth surrounding the events of
September 11, 2001.
Critical Time Frame Illustrating How The
Most Powerful Nation in the World Was Left Totally
Vulnerable for 59 Minutes (Unable to Protect Even
Its Own Military Headquarters), While It's President
Wasted Precious, Potentially Life-saving Time
As the United States Was Under Attack on September
11, 2001 -- This, in Spite of Emerging Evidence
of Multiple Pre-Attack Presidential Intelligence
Briefings and Meetings:
8:38 a.m.: Boston air traffic center notifies
NORAD that American Airlines Flight 11 has been
hijacked.
8:46:26 a.m.: American Airlines Flight
11 impacts the north side of the North Tower 9:01
a.m.: Bush later makes the following
statement. "And I was sitting outside the
classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane
hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on, and
I used to fly myself, and I said, 'There's one
terrible pilot.' And I said, 'It must have been
a horrible accident.' But I was whisked off from
there -- I didn't have much time to think about
it." Bush could not have possibly seen the
first plane (American Airlines Flight 11) hit
the WTC, because the only video showing this was
not shown on television till later in the day.
So how could he have possibly seen and said this?
9:02:54 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175
impacts the south side of the South Tower of the
WTC. NORAD says that when United Airlines Flight
175 impacts the WTC at 9:02:54, the F-15's from
Otis are still 71 miles away. This means their
average flight speed was only 23.9% of their top
speed in trying to intercept United Airlines Flight
175.
Otis is 153 miles from WTC. F-15's have a top
speed of 1875+ MPH. Minus 71 miles left from 153
miles equals 82 miles covered in the 11 minutes
from 8:52 take-off to 9:03. 60 minutes divided
by 11 minutes equals 5.45, multiply this by the
82 miles covered, equals 447.3 MPH. divided by
1875 MPH equals 23.9% of their top speed. How
could these two F-15's possibly be going less
than one quarter of their top speed in trying
to intercept United Airlines Flight 175?
The following passages are from a BBC article
published on August 30, 2002. Two of the pilots
patrolling northeast America told the program
how they struggled to get to New York as fast
as possible after the first plane had hit the
World Trade Center. Pilots "Duff" and
"Nasty" recalled they were only minutes
away when the second plane hit the towers. Pilot
Duff said: "For a long time I wondered what
would have happened if we had been scrambled in
time. "We've been over the flight a thousand
times in our minds and I don't know what we could
have done to get there any quicker." Perhaps
if they flew a little faster than 23.9% of their
top speed is how. Will "Duff" and "Nasty" publicly
testify?
9:05 a.m.: Andrew Card walks up to Bush
while he is listening to a Goat Story with 16
second graders in Sandra Kay Daniels's class at
Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota,
Florida. Card whispers in his ear "A second
plane has hit the World Trade Center. America
is under attack." Bush (commander-and-chief?)
keeps listening to this Goat Story with these
children for at least 7 minutes, and perhaps as
long as 18 minutes. Why Bush didn't excuse himself
from these children right away, and immediately
address this national emergency, is totally unexplainable.
There is no way this should have happened. What
of course should have happened, was as soon as
the secret service found out about United Airlines
Flight 175 impacting the WTC (now knowing it was
a "terrorist" act), they would have
immediately grabbed Bush and brought him to an
undisclosed location. There is no way the secret
service leaves Bush in a place (Emma E. Booker
Elementary School) where everyone knows he is.
Remember, secret service agents moved Vice President
Cheney to a secure location immediately. This
was a Military Stand Down.
9:37 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77
is lost from radar screens and impacts the western
side of the Pentagon. The section of the Pentagon
hit consists mainly of newly renovated, unoccupied
offices. The Pentagon says American Airlines Flight
77 hits them at 9:37. Other published reports
have American Airlines Flight 77 striking at 9:40
to 9:43; The New York Times even published 9:45.
8:38 a.m. to 9:37 a.m. = 59 Minutes of
Vulnerability
The 9/11 Commission failed to place the two most
pre-eminent researchers on the subject of the
September 11 attacks on their staff, opting instead
to pick politically-connected staffers -- even
in the face of Paul and Mark's demonstrated and
incredible research. View their complete work
below. There is absolutely nothing on the internet
to compare with it for those who desire to know
the timeline-oriented facts about 9/11:
(Click
Here for the Paul Thompson 9/11 Time-Line )
(Click
Here for the Mark Elsis 9/11 Time-Line)
Thanks to Paul and Mark for the above, partial
9/11 timeline and commentary.

Fair
Use Notice: This site contains copyrighted material
the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding
of environmental, political, economic, democratic, domestic and international
issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted
material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own
that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|