Rayvan wrote:
> No, they're not idiots, they're retarded!
The magic fire/super Arab conspiracy theorists are
clearly very gullible, easily brainwashed, poorly
informed, and not particularly intelligent, but it's
a stretch to say they're retarded. They just need to
be spoon fed the truth - kinda like infants. <g>
http://100777.com/node/963
Happy coincidenting!
That governments have permitted terrorist acts against their own
people , and have even themselves been perpetrators in order to find
strategic advantage is quite likely true, but this is the United
States we're talking about.
That intelligence agencies, financiers, terrorists and narco-criminals
have a long history together is well established, but the Nugan Hand
Bank , BCCI , Banco Ambrosiano , the P2 Lodge , the CIA/Mafia
anti-Castro/Kennedy alliance, Iran/Contra and the rest were a long
time ago, so there's no need to rehash all that . That was then, this
is now !
That Jonathan Bush's Riggs Bank has been found guilty of laundering
terrorist funds and fined a US-record $25 million must embarrass his
nephew George, but it's still no justification for leaping to paranoid
conclusions.
That George Bush's brother Marvin sat on the board of the
Kuwaiti-owned company which provided electronic security to the World
Trade Centre, Dulles Airport and United Airlines means nothing more
than you must admit those Bush boys have done alright for themselves.
That George Bush found success as a businessman only after the
investment of Osama's brother Salem and reputed al Qaeda financier
Khalid bin Mahfouz is just one of those things - one of those crazy
things.
That Osama bin Laden is known to have been an asset of US foreign
policy in no way implies he still is .
That al Qaeda was active in the Balkan conflict, fighting on the same
side as the US as recently as 1999, while the US protected its cells,
is merely one of history's little aberrations .
The claims of Michael Springman , State Department veteran of the
Jeddah visa bureau, that the CIA ran the office and issued visas to al
Qaeda members so they could receive training in the United States,
sound like the sour grapes of someone who was fired for making such
wild accusations.
That one of George Bush's first acts as President, in January 2001 ,
was to end the two-year deployment of attack submarines which were
positioned within striking distance of al Qaeda's Afghanistan camps,
even as the group's guilt for the Cole bombing was established, proves
that a transition from one administration to the next is never an easy
task.
That so many influential figures in and close to the Bush White House
had expressed, just a year before the attacks, the need for a "new
Pearl Harbor" before their militarist ambitions could be fulfilled,
demonstrates nothing more than the accidental virtue of being in the
right place at the right time.
That the company PTECH , founded by a Saudi financier placed on
America's Terrorist Watch List in October 2001, had access to the
FAA's entire computer system for two years before the 9/11 attack,
means he must not have been such a threat after all.
That whistleblower Indira Singh was told to keep her mouth shut and
forget what she learned when she took her concerns about PTECH to her
employers and federal authorities, suggests she lacked the big
picture. And that the Chief Auditor for JP Morgan Chase told Singh
repeatedly, as she answered questions about who supplied her with what
information, that "that person should be killed," suggests he should
take an anger management seminar.
That on May 8, 2001 , Dick Cheney took upon himself the job of
co-ordinating a response to domestic terror attacks even as he was
crafting the administration's energy policy which bore implications
for America's military, circumventing the established infrastructure
and ignoring the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman report, merely
shows the VP to be someone who finds it hard to delegate.
That the standing order which covered the shooting down of hijacked
aircraft was altered on June 1, 2001, taking discretion away from
field commanders and placing it solely in the hands of the Secretary
of Defense, is simply poor planning and unfortunate timing.
Fortunately the error has been corrected, as the order was rescinded
shortly after 9/11.
That in the weeks before 9/11, FBI agent Colleen Rowley found her
investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui so perversely thwarted that her
colleagues joked that bin Laden had a mole at the FBI, proves the
stress-relieving virtue of humour in the workplace.
That Dave Frasca of the FBI's Radical Fundamentalist Unit received a
promotion after quashing multiple, urgent requests for investigations
into al Qaeda assets training at flight schools in the summer of 2001
does appear on the surface odd, but undoubtedly there's a good reason
for it, quite possibly classified.
That FBI informant Randy Glass , working an undercover sting, was told
by Pakistani intelligence operatives that the World Trade Center
towers were coming down, and that his repeated warnings which
continued until weeks before the attacks, including the mention of
planes used as weapons, were ignored by federal authorities, is simply
one of the many "What Ifs" of that tragic day.
That over the summer of 2001 Washington received many urgent,
senior-level warnings from foreign intelligence agencies and
governments - including those of Germany, France, Great Britain,
Russia, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Afghanistan and others - of impending
terror attacks using hijacked aircraft and did nothing, demonstrates
the pressing need for a new Intelligence Czar.
That John Ashcroft stopped flying commercial aircraft in July 2001 on
account of security considerations had nothing to do with warnings
regarding September 11, because he said so to the 9/11 Commission.
That former lead counsel for the House David Schippers says he'd taken
to John Ashcroft's office specific warnings he'd learned from FBI
agents in New York of an impending attack – even naming the proposed
dates, names of the hijackers and the targets – and that the
investigations had been stymied and the agents threatened, proves
nothing but David Schipper's pathetic need for attention.
That Garth Nicolson received two warnings from contacts in the
intelligence community and one from a North African head of state,
which included specific site, date and source of the attacks, and
passed the information to the Defense Department and the National
Security Council to evidently no effect, clearly amounts to nothing,
since virtually nobody has ever heard of him.
That in the months prior to September 11, self-described US
intelligence operative Delmart Vreeland sought, from a Toronto jail
cell, to get US and Canadian authorities to heed his warning of his
accidental discovery of impending catastrophic attacks is worthless,
since Vreeland was a dubious character , notwithstanding the fact that
many of his claims have since been proven true .
That FBI Special Investigator Robert Wright claims that agents
assigned to intelligence operations actually protect terrorists from
investigation and prosecution, that the FBI shut down his probe into
terrorist training camps, and that he was removed from a
money-laundering case that had a direct link to terrorism, sounds like
yet more sour grapes from a disgruntled employee.
That George Bush had plans to invade Afghanistan on his desk before
9/11 demonstrates only the value of being prepared .
The suggestion that securing a pipeline across Afghanistan figured
into the White House's calculations is as ludicrous as the assertion
that oil played a part in determining war in Iraq.
That Afghanistan is once again the world's principal heroin producer
is an unfortunate reality, but to claim the CIA is still actively
involved in the narcotics trade is to presume bad faith on the part of
the agency.
Mahmood Ahmed , chief of Pakistan's ISI, must not have authorized an
al Qaeda payment of $100,000 to Mohammed Atta days before the attacks,
and was not meeting with senior Washington officials over the week of
9/11, because I didn't read anything about him in the official report.
That Porter Goss met with Ahmed the morning of September 11 in his
capacity as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence has no bearing whatsoever upon his recent selection by
the White House to head the Central Intelligence Agency.
That Goss's congressional seat encompasses the 9/11 hijackers' Florida
base of operation, including their flight schools, is precisely the
kind of meaningless factoid a conspiracy theorist would bring up.
It's true that George HW Bush and Dick Cheney spent the evening of
September 10 alone in the Oval Office, but what's wrong with old
colleagues catching up? And it's true that George HW Bush and Shafig
bin Laden, Osama's brother, spent the morning of September 11 together
at a board meeting of the Carlyle Group, but the bin Ladens are a big
family.
That FEMA arrived in New York on Sept 10 to prepare for a scheduled
biowarfare drill, and had a triage centre ready to go that was larger
and better equipped than the one that was lost in the collapse of WTC
7, was a lucky twist of fate.
Newsweek's report that senior Pentagon officials cancelled flights on
Sept 10 for the following day on account of security concerns is only
newsworthy because of what happened the following morning.
That George Bush's telephone logs for September 11 do not exist should
surprise no one, given the confusion of the day.
That Mohamed Atta attended the International Officer's School at
Maxwell Air Force Base, that Abdulaziz Alomari attended Brooks Air
Force Base Aerospace Medical School, that Saeed Alghamdi attended the
Defense Language Institute in Monterey merely shows it is a small
world , after all.
That Lt Col Steve Butler , Vice Chancellor for student affairs of the
Defense Language Institute during Alghamdi's terms, was disciplined ,
removed from his post and threatened with court martial when he wrote
"Bush knew of the impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn
the American people because he needed this war on terrorism. What
is...contemptible is the President of the United States not telling
the American people what he knows for political gain," is the least
that should have happened for such disrespect shown his Commander in
Chief.
That Mohammed Atta dressed like a Mafioso, had a stripper girlfriend,
smuggled drugs, was already a licensed pilot when he entered the US,
enjoyed pork chops, drank to excess and did
cocaine, was closer to
Europeans than Arabs in Florida, and included the names of defence
contractors on his email list, proves how dangerous the radical
fundamentalist Muslim can be.
That 43 lbs of heroin was found on board the Lear Jet owned by Wally
Hilliard , the owner of Atta's flight school, just three weeks after
Atta enrolled – the biggest seizure ever in Central Florida – was just
bad luck . That Hilliard was not charged shows how specious the claims
for conspiracy truly are.
That Hilliard's plane had made 30-round trips to Venezuela with the
same passengers who always paid cash, that the plane had been supplied
by a pair of drug smugglers who had also outfitted CIA drug runner
Barry Seal , and that 9/11 commissioner Richard ben-Veniste had been
Seal's attorney before Seal's murder , shows nothing but the lengths
to which conspiracists will go to draw sinister conclusions .
Reports of insider trading on 9/11 are false, because the SEC
investigated and found only respectable investors who will remain
nameless involved, and no terrorists, so the windfall profit-taking
was merely, as ever, coincidental.
That heightened security for the World Trade Centre was lifted
immediately prior to the attacks illustrates that it always happens
when you least expect it.
That Hani Hanjour, the pilot of Flight 77, was so incompetent he could
not fly a Cessna in August, but in September managed to fly a 767 at
excessive speed into a spiraling, 270-degree descent and a level
impact of the first floor of the Pentagon, on the only side that was
virtually empty and had been hardened to withstand a terrorist attack,
merely demonstrates that people can do almost anything once they set
their minds to it.
That none of the flight data recorders were said to be recoverable
even though they were located in the tail sections, and that until
9/11, no solid-state recorder in a catastrophic crash had been
unrecoverable, shows how there's a first time for everything.
That Mohammed Atta left a uniform, a will, a Koran, his driver's
license and a "how to fly planes" video in his rental car at the
airport means he had other things on his mind.
The mention of Israelis with links to military-intelligence having
been arrested on Sept 11 videotaping and celebrating the attacks, of
an Israeli espionage ring surveiling DEA and defense installations and
trailing the hijackers, and of a warning of impending attacks
delivered to the Israeli company Odigo two hours before the first
plane hit, does not deserve a response. That the stories also appeared
in publications such as Ha'aretz and Forward is a sad display of
self-hatred among certain elements of the Israeli media.
That multiple military wargames and simulations were underway the
morning of 9/11 – one simulating the crash of a plane into a building;
another, a live-fly simulation of multiple hijackings – and took many
interceptors away from the eastern seaboard and confused field
commanders as to which was a real hijacked aircraft and which was a
hoax, was a bizarre coincidence, but no less a coincidence.
That the National Military Command Center ops director asked a rookie
substitute to stand his watch at 8:30 am on Sept. 11 is nothing more
than bad timing.
That a recording made Sept 11 of air traffic controllers' describing
what they had witnessed, was destroyed by an FAA official who crushed
it in his hand, cut the tape into little pieces and dropped them in
different trash cans around the building, is something no doubt that
overzealous official wishes he could undo.
That the FBI knew precisely which Florida flight schools to descend
upon hours after the attacks should make every American feel safer
knowing their federal agents are on the ball.
That a former flight school executive believes the hijackers were
"double agents," and says about Atta and associates, "Early on I
gleaned that these guys had government protection. They were let into
this country for a specific purpose," and was visited by the FBI just
four hours after the attacks to intimidate him into silence, proves
he's an unreliable witness, for the simple reason there is no
conspiracy .
That Jeb Bush was on board an aircraft that removed flight school
records to Washington in the middle of the night on Sept 12th
demonstrates how seriously the governor takes the issue of national
security.
To insinuate evil motive from the mercy flights of bin Laden family
members and Saudi royals after 9/11 shows the sickness of the
conspiratorial mindset.
Le Figaro's report in October 2001, known to have originated with
French intelligence, that the CIA met Osama bin Laden in a Dubai
hospital in July 2001, proves again the perfidy of the French.
That the tape in which bin Laden claims responsibility for the attacks
was released by the State Department after having been found
providentially by US forces in Afghanistan, and depicts a fattened
Osama with a broader face and a flatter nose, proves Osama, and Osama
alone, masterminded 9/11.
That at the battle of Tora Bora, where bin Laden was surrounded on
three sides, Special Forces received no order to advance and capture
him and were forced to stand and watch as two Russian-made helicopters
flew into the area where bin Laden was believed hiding, loaded up
passengers and returned to Pakistan, demonstrates how confusing the
modern battlefield can be.
That upon returning to Fort Bragg from Tora Bora, the same Special
Operations troops who had been stood down from capturing bin Laden,
suffered a unusual spree of murder/suicides , is nothing more than a
series of senseless tragedies.
Reports that bin Laden is currently receiving periodic dialysis
treatment in a Pakistani medical hospital are simply too incredible to
be true.
That the White House went on
Cipro September 11 shows the
foresightedness of America's emergency response.
That the anthrax was mailed to perceived liberal media and the
Democratic leadership demonstrates only the perversity of the
terrorist psyche.
That the anthrax attacks appeared to silence opponents of the Patriot
Act shows only that appearances can be deceiving.
That the Ames-strain anthrax was found to have originated at Fort
Detrick , and was beyond the capability of all but a few labs to
refine, underscores the importance of allowing the investigation to
continue without the distraction of absurd conspiracy theories .
That Republican guru Grover Norquist has been found to have aided
financiers and supporters of Islamic terror to gain access to the Bush
White House, and is a founder of the Islamic Institute, which the
Treasury Department believes to be a source of funding for al Qaeda,
suggests Norquist is at worst, naive, and at best, needs a wider
circle of friends.
That the Department of Justice consistently chooses to see accused
9/11 plotters go free rather than permit the courtroom testimony of al
Qaeda leaders in American custody looks bad, but only because we don't
have all the facts.
That the White House balked at any inquiry into the events of 9/11,
then starved it of funds and stonewalled it, was unfortunate, but
since the commission didn't find for conspiracy it's all a non issue
anyway.
That the 9/11 commission's executive director and "gatekeeper," Philip
Zelikow, was so closely involved in the events under investigation
that he testified before the the commission as part of the inquiry,
shows only an apparent conflict of interest.
That commission chair Thomas Kean is, like George Bush, a Texas oil
executive who had business dealings with reputed al Qaeda financier
Khalid bin Mafouz , suggests Texas is smaller than they say it is.
That co-chair Lee Hamilton has a history as a Bush family "fixer,"
including clearing Bush Sr of the claims arising from the 1980
"October Surprise" , is of no concern, since only conspiracists
believe there was such a thing as an October Surprise.
That FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds accuses the agency of
intentionally fudging specific pre-9/11 warnings and harboring a
foreign espionage ring in its translation department , and claims she
witnessed evidence of the semi-official infrastructure of
money-laundering and narcotics trade behind the attacks, is of no
account, since John Ashcroft has gagged her with the rare invocation
of "State Secrets Privilege," and retroactively classified her public
testimony. For the sake of national security, let us speak no more of
her.
That, when commenting on Edmond's case, Daniel Ellsberg remarked that
Ashcroft could go to prison for his part in a cover-up, suggests
Ellsberg is giving comfort to the terrorists, and could, if he doesn't
wise up, find himself declared an enemy combatant .
I could go on. And on and on. But I trust you get the point. Which is
simply this: there are no secrets, an American government would never
accept civilian casualties for geostrategic gain, and conspiracies are
for the weak-minded and gullible.
posted by Jeff at 5:15 PM
--
http://911research.wtc7.net http://www.st911.org
Here's what happens to steel framed buildings exposed
to raging infernos for hours on end.
http://davesweb.cnchost.com/nwsltr69c.html
On 9-11-01, WTC7, a 47 story steel framed building, which
had only small, random fires, dropped in perfect symmetry
at near free fall speed as in a perfectly executed controlled
demolition.
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc/videos.html http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html http://wtc7.net/articles/FEMA/WTC_ch5.htm
"You're doin' a heckuva job, Brownie!" - bu$h, a few days
before his FEMA chief, Micheal Brown was forced to resign
because of his gross incompetence.
"The tools that enable Cuba to save lives and preserve
human dignity during hurricanes are socialist values
and organization." - Dr. W.T. Whitney Jr
Ever wonder who benefits from the 300 MILLION
U.S. taxpayer dollars spent each DAY in Iraq?
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0223-08.htm http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=21
"They are waging a campaign of murder and destruction. And
there is no limit to the innocent lives they are willing to
take... men with blind hatred and armed with lethal weapons
who are capable of any atrocity... they respect no laws of
warfare or morality."
-bu$h describing his own illegal invasion of Iraq.
http://www.robert-fisk.com/iraqwarvictims_mar2003.htm http://www.commondreams.org/ http://www.truthout.org/ http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/ http://thirdworldtraveler.com/ http://counterpunch.org/ http://responsiblewealth.org/
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things
that matter." -- Martin Luther King Jr.
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President,
or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is
not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable
to the American public."
-- Theodore Roosevelt (1918)
Don't let bu$h do to the United States what his very close
friend and top campaign contributor, Ken Lay, did to Enron...
Conspiracy theorists help 9-11 truth movement 