9/11 Conspiracy????

9/11: Evidence Consistent with Possible Conspiracies and Cover-up of 9/11
    By Matthew B. Robinson, PhD
    Associate Professor of Criminal Justice
    Appalachian State University
   robinsnmb@appstate.edu

Although I team-teach a course called “Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes” I am no big believer in most conspiracy theories. Many of them are pretty wacky, as are the people who push them. Yet, there is significant evidence that a conspiracy was involved in 9/11.

After all, do you really believe that one man – Usama bin Laden (UBL) – directed the attacks from a cave in Afghanistan? UBL denied this numerous times on tape (not broadcast in the US) but then appeared on a video supposedly taking credit for the attacks on December 14, 2001 (this tape found in a private home in Jalalabad, Afghanistan). UBL supposedly says: "...we calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower ... We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. (...Inaudible...) due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for.” Yet, analysis of the tape suggests I may not be bin Laden after all!

On September 23, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said: “I’ve never been convinced that [bin Laden’s network acted alone]. There is no way in the world that a network can function as effectively over such a long period of time, with such excellent finances, and false passports, and all of the intelligence information they had to have, without being fostered, and facilitated, and assisted, and financed by states, and by businesses, and by non-governmental organizations, and by corporations. It is a -- it is a large network.” Of course, Rumsfeld may have said this to lay the ground work for what he knew was coming later – a (phony) case of war against Iraq – but it is clear a conspiracy was involved in 9/11.

Indeed, the official story is that a conspiracy did bring down the World Trade Center towers and blow up part of the Pentagon. It is that 19 men (15 from Saudi Arabia, none from Iraq) conspired with the help of other al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan and elsewhere, at the urging of UBL and under the command of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohamed (KSM), to attack the US using airplanes as weapons. Further, the official story says the largest failure was a “failure of imagination” in that US intelligence agencies and Bush Administration officials simply did not imagine airplanes being used as guided missiles or the US being attacked at home.

Since we know for certain that US officials did consider and even prepare for attacks using civil aviation, a different kind of conspiracy is suggested, one that implicates top government officials and agencies in the United States. At the very least, the evidence suggests that the US government has made efforts to cover-up relevant facts of 9/11 – that it has covered up the truth about what happened. If one merely considers the number and level of failures that occurred within the FBI, CIA, NSA, INS, State Department, and so forth (when the absence of any one them could have stopped the attacks) a logical conclusion is that someone in the US government either let it happen or made it happen.

In fact, this is the lead conspiracy theory about 9/11 – that US officials wanted and needed a reason to expand military and US dominance over world (in key regions of world) and so they either orchestrated the attacks or allowed the attacks to happen. James Bamford reports, in his book, Body of Secrets, of the secret plan, “Operation Northwoods,” approved by all five Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962 to commit terrorist acts against Americans and blame Cuba to justify an American invasion. One suggestion was to explode a remote controlled drone of a civilian aircraft. The real aircraft, loaded with “selected passengers, all boarded under carefully prepared aliases,” would take off simultaneously and land safely elsewhere. The memo read, in part: “We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba ... casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation ...” This means the US government has planned terrorist attacks in the past to justify a war.

Sound outrageous that 9/11 could have been a similar plan? President Bush thinks so! To the United Nations, he said: “We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of 11 September -- malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists themselves, away from the guilty.”

Let’s see if the following information “paints a picture” – even an outrageous one.

The document is organized into the following sections:

1)    Information Suggesting Many More People Knew
2)    All About the Oil???
3)    The Neo-Conservative Ideology
4)    Israel
5)    Unexplained

1) Information Suggesting Many More People Knew

Lots of people apparently knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks. For example:

•    A New York City taxi driver tells a Village Voice reporter in July 2001 that he is going home to Egypt in late August or September because he got emails from people saying it would not be safe in New York because UBL was planning a big terrorist attack for New York and DC then. He does leave and goes home to Egypt and is investigated and cleared by the FBI because so many other people also knew about the attacks.

•    In August 2001, a Moroccan named Hassan Dabou, who has penetrated al Qaeda, reports to the US that UBL is disappointed about the failed attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 and is planning another attack in New York in the summer or fall of 2001.

•    In September 2001, an Iranian inmate in a German jail calls the US to warn of an imminent attack against the World Trade Center. He also calls the White House 14 times and tries to fax a warning letter to the White House but is denied permission. Other warnings come from Moroccan man held in a Brazilian jail.

•    Also in September 2001, a Seattle security guard of Middle Eastern descent tells a friend on the phone that terrorists will soon attack the US. The friend tells the FBI and passes a lie detector test, but the Middle Eastern man refuses to cooperate with the FBI and the FBI determines that he must have just somehow had foreknowledge of the plot without being involved.

•    In September 2001, several members of a New York mosque are warned to stay away from lower Manhattan on 9/11. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force confirms the story after interviewing many people at the mosque. In fact, rumors among Arab Americans living in New York days before 9/11 that an attack was coming are common.

•    Many Middle Eastern people did not show up for work on 9/11 and this is investigated. Investigators cannot figure out why so many people knew to avoid work.

•    On September 6, 2001, a Pakistani student in an English class taught by Antoinette DiLorenzo in New York is asked why he is looking out the window. He says, “Do you see those two buildings? They won’t be standing there next week.” The boy had just immigrated to the US from Pakistan. The story is confirmed by the FBI.

•    On September 9, 2001, a message posted on Alsaha.com (based on Dubai, UAE) says that in the next two days a big surprise is coming from the Saudi Arabian region of Asir (the province that produced most of the 19 hijackers).

•    On September 10, 2001, a fifth grader in Dallas, Texas tells his teacher: “Tomorrow, World War III will begin. It will begin in the United States, and the United States will lose.” The student misses the next two days of school. Strangely, he lived in a suburb adjacent to where the funding-raising activities for two charities were being investigated for possible ties to terrorism. The FBI investigates and decides there is no meaning to the warning.

•    Also on September 10, 2001, a sixth grader of Middle Eastern descent in Jersey City, New Jersey tells his teacher that she should stay away from lower Manhattan because something bad is going to happen.

•    On the night of September 10, 2001, three men make anti-American comments in a bar in Daytona Beach, Florida. One says: “Wait until tomorrow. America is going to see bloodshed.”

•    In spite of all of this, the directors of the FBI and CIA say the plot remained in the minds of only a handful of the hijackers, and that no one else (even some of the hijackers), did not know the full plan.

•    From early 2000 through the summer, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar are visited late at night for short rides by limousines. These are the two hijackers who supposedly had no meaningful contacts with or assistance from anyone in the US.

•    The 9/11 Joint Congressional Inquiry says at least six hijackers got help in the US. It says the hijackers came into contact with at least 14 people who were investigated by the FBI prior to 9/11, four of which were active when the hijackers were in contact with them. Both FBI Director Robert Mueller and CIA Director George Tenet said that none of the hijackers had contacts with people they were investigating in the US. Contacts include Anwar al-Aulaqi – a Saudi Arabian Imam who met with Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar and assisted them financially, Omar al-Bayoumi – a Saudi national in San Diego who vouched for hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar (so that they would be accepted into the community and its mosque), may have even picked up the two hijackers from LA, provided the men with housing, and gave the men money, and Osama Basnan – a Saudi national in San Diego who funded the hijackers.

•    September 11, 2001, approximately 6am – While President Bush is staying at the Colony Beach and Tennis Resort on Longboat Key, Florida, a van occupied by Middle Eastern men arrives, saying they have a poolside interview with Bush. Since they do not have an appointment, they are turned away. This was likely an assassination attempt, similar to one used just two days earlier on Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Massoud. Witnesses report having seen Mohamed Atta there as late as September 7, 2001. If these men are connected to the 9/11 attacks, clearly more people knew!

•    In early September 2001, there is heavy trading in stocks of 38 companies, including an unusual number of trades and volume of trades in airlines and insurance. This includes both American and United Airlines. An increase of 40% in short selling of stocks in these companies is seen from the previous month. There is also short selling of some insurance companies. Between September 6 and 7, 2001, the Chicago Board Options Exchange sees purchases of 4,744 put options in United versus 396 call options (put options are bets that the company stock will lose value). On September 10, 2001, 4,516 put options are purchased in American versus only 748 call options. The trading ration on United is also 25 times higher at the Pacific Exchange. Put options are also purchased on Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, two tenants in the World Trade Center. The total the three days before the attacks is 2,157, versus only 27 per day in the first week of September. In early September, there is also an unusual number of trades and volume of trades in US Treasury Notes (a good investment during a world crisis that are backed by the US government). Allen Poteshman, a professor of finance at University of Illinois, published a paper in April 2004 showing that someone profited from foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks. Yet, this is denied by FBI on September 19, 2003, which concludes it was just the result of “investment hedge funds implementing bearish investment strategies or hedging a line position of common stock …” (Thomspson, p. 68).

•    32 hard drives recovered from WTC wreckage show surge in credit card transactions from WTC in hours before and after attacks ... more than $100 million moved out of accounts with no explanation

•    On September 10, 2001, Amr Elgindy orders his broker to liquidate his kids’$300,000 trust account because he fears a crash in the market. He also tells his stockbroker that the Dow Jones average will fall below 3,000. He and two FBI agents are arrested in May 2002; the agents were accused of using their FBI positions to obtain information on various corporations.

2) All About the Oil???

•    Author and film maker Michael Moore focuses on a gas and oil pipeline through Afghanistan (Unocal and Delta Oil of Saudi Arabia) which was proposed and examined in 1990s

•    In August 1996, UNOCAL and Delta Oil of Saudi Arabia reach an agreement with state companies in Turkmenistan and Russia to built a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan. UNOCAL is hopeful that the Taliban will stabilize the country for a pipeline through Afghanistan. Some State Department officials are even ok with the Taliban because they think they will bring stability to the country, thereby allowing the pipeline to go through.

•    In December 1997, Members of the Taliban traveled to Texas to visit UNOCAL while George W. Bush was governor. The Taliban agree to the deal will do so only if the US officially recognizes the Taliban regime.

•    In November 1998, former President George Bush meets with the bin Laden family on behalf of the Carlyle Group in Jeddah Saudi Arabia. They also meet in January 2000.

•    Is it possible that business relationships between the Bush’s and bin Laden’s led to obstruction to investigate the bin Laden family? FBI agents have claimed they wanted to investigate Abdullah and Omar bin Laden but were told to back off by Bush Administration officials. FBI agents thought that these bin Ladens worked with “terrorist” charity organizations such as the World Assembly of Muslin Youth, International Islamic Relief Organization, and Muslim World League to fund terrorist acts. The National Security Agency was also reportedly told to back off of investigations into the role of Saudi Arabia (including bin Ladens) in financing of terrorism.

•    This relationship might also explain why more than 140 Saudis were flown out of country by the US starting on 9/13 (including several bin Ladens). And it might explain why there are 28 pages missing from the Congressional inquiry report into 9/11.

•    In case you think relationships between Bushs and bin Ladens in weird or unusual, consider that between Bush’s and Hinckley’s! ... Neil Bush, brother of President George W. Bush, was a land man for Amoco Oil. Scott Hinckley, brother of John Hickley, Jr. (who shot President Reagan) was VP of Vanderbilt Energy. The Hinckley family made large donations to the Bush campaign for VP (John Hinckley Jr. is called the “bad brother in a nice family”).

•    In April 2001, an “Independent Task Force,” Sponsored by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University and the Council on Foreign Relations, publishes The Strategic Energy Policy: Challenges For The 21st Century where it writes “[T]he United States remains a prisoner of its energy dilemma, suffering on a recurring basis from the negative consequences of sporadic energy shortages. These consequences can include recession, social dislocation of the poorest Americans, and at the extremes, a need for military intervention.”

•    Also in the spring of 2001, an article in the Army War College’s journal by Jeffrey Record, a former staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee says it is legitimate to shoot in the Persian Gulf on behalf of lower gas prices. He also says it is all right to use Presidential subterfuge in the promotion of a conflict. … in April 2001, Tommy Franks, Commander of US forces in the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, says to Congress that his command’s key mission is “access to the region’s energy resources.”

•    Between October and November, 2001, according to reporter Greg Palast, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz convinces the Bush administration to invade and occupy Iraq. His plan scopes out the "sale of all state enterprises" -- that is, most of the nation's assets, "… especially in the oil and supporting industries."

•    In February 2002, it is reported that US bases in Afghanistan have been placed along the proposed pipeline route.

•    In the fall of 2002, according to reporter Greg Palast, Philip Carroll, former CEO of Shell Oil USA, is brought in by the Pentagon to plan the management of Iraq's oil fields, working with Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith. According to Palast, this is after “Grover Norquist and other corporate lobbyists meet secretly with Defense, State and Treasury officials to ensure the invasion plans for Iraq include plans for protecting ‘property rights.’” Palast says: “The result was a pre-invasion scheme to sell off Iraq's oil fields, banks, electric systems, and even change the country's copyright laws to the benefit of the lobbyists' clients. Occupation chief Paul Bremer would later order these giveaways into Iraq law.” Carroll refuses to participate saying: “There was to be no privatization of Iraqi oil resources or facilities while I was involved.”

•    In October 2002, Ahmed Chalabi meets with executives of three major oil companies to help decide how Iraqi oil will be divided up after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

•    In December 2002, the Oil and Energy Working Group, part of the State Department’s “Future of Iraq” project, meets and discusses plans for the oil industry in post-Saddam Iraq.

•    In January 2003, Judicial Watch learns of maps and charts of Iraqi oil fields as part of Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force meetings. They show locations of Iraqi oil and list potential foreign suitors of this oil. During this month, according to Greg Palast, Robert Ebel, former CIA oil analyst, is sent, BBC learns, to London to meet with Fadhil Chalabi to plan terms for taking over Iraq's oil. Greg Palast reports that Falah Aljibury, an “Iraqi-born oil industry consultant” took part in secret meetings that discussed plans to force a coup d’etat and to find a replacement leader for Saddam Hussein. Aljibury says that the original plan to sell off Iraq’s oil, which was backed by the US-installed Governing Council in 2003, helped bring on the insurgency in Iraq: “Insurgents used this, saying, ‘Look, you’re losing your county, you’re losing your resources to a bunch of wealthy billionaires who want to take you over and make your life miserable … We saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities, pipelines, built on the premise that privatization is coming.”

•    The first codename for the Iraq war was Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) but was changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

•    On September 6, 2003, a British government Minister Michael Meacher summarizes the lead conspiracy theory about 9/11 (see Thompson, p. 557).

•    In November 2003, the oil industry objects to the State Department plans for Iraq's oil fields. So it writes a 323-page plan, "Options for [the] Iraqi Oil Industry." Greg Palast says that Iraq is “forced to create an OPEC-friendly state oil company that supports the OPEC cartel's extortionate price for petroleum.” That the oil industry appears to have defeated the neo-conservatives when it comes to this one issue might explain why Paul Wolfowitz went to the World Bank???

•    In January 2004, under guidance of the James Baker Institute in Texas, a new plan to create a state-owned oil company in Iraq is created. Former US Secretary of State James Baker, now an attorney, represents ExxonMobil and the Saudi government.

•    Zalmay Khalizad is President Bush’s Ambassador to Kabul, Afghanistan. He previously worked under Paul Wolfowitz and who conducted a risk analysis for UOCAL for the proposed $2 billion gas pipeline. He also wrote op-eds in the Washington Post in 1997 in defense of the Taliban.

•    Afghanistan’s new leader, Hamid Kharzai, was a paid consultant for UNOCAL and had also been a Deputy Foreign Minister for the Taliban.

•    On top of all this, of course it is widely known that President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and now Secretary of State Rice are oil people (Rice had been on Chevron’s Board of Directors since 1991 and has an oil tanker named after her). Cheney still gets deferred payments from Haliburton, his oil company. And Bush headed Harken oil, a failed company until it was funded by Saudis and awarded a contract in the Persian Gulf.

3) The Neo-Conservative Ideology:

•    In 1992, Colin Powell tells members of Congress that we should develop significant power to assure that no one will ever challenge us again on the world stage … this shows he is a supporter of US global hegemony.

•    In March 1992, the Defense Planning Guidance is written by now Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and now Vice President Chief of Staff Lewis Libby. It calls for pre-emptive attacks against threatening regimes in order to protect against terrorism and assure access to raw resources. According to Bernard Weiner, the document called for “a new order” that accounts “sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our leadership” and a military power capable of “deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role.” According to the document, military intervention in Iraq is necessary to assure “access to vital raw material, primarily Persian Gulf Oil” and to prevent the spread of WMDs. Excerpts from the document include:

    “The number one objective of U.S. post-Cold War political and military strategy should be preventing the emergence of a rival superpower.

    Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power. These regions include Western Europe, East Asia, the territory of the former Soviet Union, and Southwest Asia.

    There are three additional aspects to this objective: First the U.S must show the leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the promise of convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests. Second, in the non-defense areas, we must account sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our leadership or seeking to overturn the established political and economic order. Finally, we must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role."

    Another major U.S. objective should be to safeguard U.S. interests and promote American values.

    … The U.S. should aim "to address sources of regional conflict and instability in such a way as to promote increasing respect for international law, limit international violence, and encourage the spread of democratic forms of government and open economic systems."

    The draft outlines several scenarios in which U.S. interests could be threatened by regional conflict: "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, threats to U.S. citizens from terrorism or regional or local conflict, and threats to U.S. society from narcotics trafficking."

    The draft relies on seven scenarios in potential trouble spots to make its argument -- with the primary case studies being Iraq and North Korea.

    If necessary, the United States must be prepared to take unilateral action. There is no mention in the draft document of taking collective action through the United Nations. The document states that coalitions "hold considerable promise for promoting collective action," but it also states the U.S. "should expect future coalitions to be ad hoc assemblies" formed to deal with a particular crisis and which may not outlive the resolution of the crisis. The document states that what is most important is "the sense that the world order is ultimately backed by the U.S." and that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated" or in a crisis that calls for quick response.

•    According to PBS’s Frontline: “Controversy erupts after the draft is leaked to the press. The White House orders Defense Secretary Cheney to rewrite it. In the new draft there is no mention of preemption or U.S. willingness to act alone.” This suggests our nation’s leaders were not quite ready for such a major shift in foreign policy. The election of George W. Bush to the White House provided the rationale for the shift.

•    In January 1993, Dick Cheney, while Secretary of Defense, releases his “Defense Strategy for the 1990s” which reasserts the case for US global domination. Bill Clinton’s inauguration means the plan is not put into place.

•    In October 1997, former National Security Advisor to President Carter Zbigniew Brzezinski publishes his book, The Grand Chessboard, where he says Eurasia is the key to determine world dominance and Central Asia is the key to that. He says that for the US to maintain its place in the world order, it must prevent any adversary from controlling that region. He writes: “The attitude of the American people toward the external projection of American power has been much more ambivalent. The public supported America’s engagement in World War II largely because of the shock effect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.” He says Americans will not accept the Central Asian strategy “except in the circumstances of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat.” Yet, in a later book, The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership (2004), he sharply criticizes President Bush’s foreign policy. In this book, Brzezinski still argues in favor of hegemony, but a co-optI’ve form of it. Although he still comes across as a foreign policy hawk, he says we must address the root causes of terrorism and not engage in pre-emptive war unless as a last resort. As a result of his government service, Brzezinski was widely acknowledged as an advocate of peaceful engagement, human rights, and forming & utilizing peaceful alliances instead of unilateral, go-it-alone policies. He was, however, intimately involved in planning for support the mujahedeen in Afghanistan, a policy he feels today is justified based on the collapse of the Soviet Union.

•    In June 1997, the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) issues its statement of principles, which include shaping the new century to be favorable to American principles and interests, achieving a foreign policy that does the same, increasing defense spending significantly, challenging regimes hostile to our interests and values, and accepting our role in the new world as the sole superpower.

•    Then in January 1998, PNAC sends a letter to President Bill Clinton calling for war against Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein because he is a hazard to the world’s oil supplies. It calls for the US to go it alone and says the US should not be crippled by the UN. Ten of the 18 signatories end up in George W. Bush’s first administration (including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowtiz, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Undersecretary of State John Bolton, Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, Presidential Advisor for the Middle East Elliot Abrams, and Special Iraq Envoy Zalmay Khalizad).

    In part, the letter reads:

    “Given the magnitude of the threat, the current policy, which depends for its success upon the steadfastness of our coalition partners and upon the cooperation of Saddam Hussein, is dangerously inadequate. The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction. In the near term, this means a willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing. In the long term, it means removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy … We believe the US has the authority under existing UN resolutions to take the necessary steps, including military steps, to protect our vital interests in the Gulf. In any case, American policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.”

    According to former Senator Bob Graham, who co-chaired the 9/11 Joint Congressional Inquiry, in 2000, the National Commission on Terrorism, chaired by Ambassador Paul Bremer (who would later head the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq) advised targeting states that support terrorism (Afghanistan, Syria, and North Korea were mentioned but Iraq was not).

•    In March 1999, Executive Director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments Andrew Krepinevich testifies before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities and says: “There appears to be general agreement concerning the need to transform the US military into a significantly different kind of force from that which emerged victorious from the Cold and Gulf Wars. Yet this verbal support has not been translated into a defense program supporting transformation … the critical mass needed to effect it has not yet been achieved. One may conclude that, in the absence of a strong external shock to the United States – a latter-day ‘Pearl Harbor’ of sorts – surmounting the barriers to transformation will likely prove a long, arduous process.”

    •    In September 2000, “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” is published by PNAC. It is commissioned by future VP Dick Cheney, future Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, future Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and future Chief of Staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, Lewis Libby. It calls for maintaining US global dominance, a military force in the Middle East, military control of space, regime change in China, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Iran, and other countries, the development of forms of biological warfare that can be used to target specific genotypes, and preparations for multiple theater wars.
    The report essentially calls for Pax Americana, an American empire, with a greater emphasis on “Homeland Defense,” preparation for multiple wars, and transformation of the US armed forces. It asserts the US right to secure global hegemony, and this depends, in no small part, to a US presence in the Middle East. For example, the document states … “the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein” (p. 14).

    The report puts forth the “axis of evil.” For example, it states “… adversaries like Iran, Iraq, and North Korea are rushing to develop ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons as a deterrent to American intervention in regions they seek to dominate” (p. 4). Further, the report states: “The current American peace will be short-lived if the United States becomes vulnerable to rogue powers with small, inexpensive arsenals of ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads or other weapons of mass destruction. We cannot allow North Korea, Iran, Iraq, or other similar states to undermine American leadership, intimidate American allies or threaten the American homeland itself” (p. 75).

    The report also states the US right to topple hostile regimes: “American military preeminence will continue to rest in significant part on the ability to maintain sufficient land forces to achieve political goals such as removing a dangerous and hostile regime when necessary” (p. 61).

    The report also explicitly calls for the militarization of space and the implementation of “Star Wars” type programs to achieve this goal, as well as increased defense spending to the tune of $15 to 20 billion per year.

    The report also calls for the establishment of more US military bases overseas to serve as “deployment bases” and “forward operating bases,” as well as expansion of US nuclear weaponry.

    The report says the desired changes will take a long time, “absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.” (Pearl Harbor reference #3)

    A comparison of this document with President Bush’s National Security Strategy of the United States (September 2002) is telling. In it, President Bush asserts the US right to prevent any nation from challenging us economically, politically, or militarily. According to Bernard Weiner, the similarities include:

    1) the policy of "pre-emptive" war – i.e., whenever the U.S. thinks a country may be amassing too much power and/or could provide some sort of competition in the "benevolent hegemony" region, it can be attacked, without provocation. (A later corollary would rethink the country's atomic policy: nuclear weapons would no longer be considered defensive, but could be used offensively in support of political/economic ends; so-called "mini-nukes" could be employed in these regional wars.);

    2) international treaties and opinion will be ignored whenever they are not seen to serve U.S. imperial goals;

    3) The new policies "will require bases and stations within and beyond Western Europe and Northeast Asia."

    In short, the Bush Administration seems to see the U.S., admiringly, as a New Rome, an empire with its foreign legions (and threat of "shock & awe" attacks, including with nuclear weapons) keeping the outlying colonies, and potential competitors, in line. Those who aren't fully in accord with these goals better get out of the way; "you're either with us or against us."

•    In February 2001, documents planning regime change for Iraq in the Bush Administration are created, including one titled “Plan for post-Saddam Iraq” and another “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oil Contracts.”

•    Also in February 2001, according to reporter Greg Palast: “The State Department's Pam Quanrud organizes a secret confab in California to make plans for the invasion of Iraq and removal of Saddam. US oil industry advisor Falah Aljibury and others are asked to interview would-be replacements for a new US-installed dictator. On BBC Television's Newsnight, Aljibury himself explained, ‘It is an invasion, but it will act like a coup. The original plan was to liberate Iraq from the Saddamists and from the regime.’”

•    In March 2001, Palast also reports that Vice-President Dick Cheney meets with oil company executives and reviews oil field maps of Iraq … Cheney refuses to release the names of those attending or their purpose. In March 2003, some of this information is discovered by Judicial Watch and posted on its web site.

•    In August 2001, Deputy Executive Director of PNAC Thomas Donnelly tells the Washington Post that the US should embrace its role as the world’s only superpower. During the summer of 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered a study of ancient empires including Macedonia, Rome, and the Mongols to see how they maintained dominance.

4) Israel (note: this document does not probe the “Israeli art spy ring” – I enjoy breathing too much):

•    In July 1996, Richard Perle (who later would become chairman of President Bush’s Defense Policy Board), then a member of the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS), authors a paper “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” which calls for a hard line Israel headed by Binyamin Netanyahu aimed at a restoration of Zionism. The plan starts with the removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, which would then destabilize the Middle East, including, it is hoped, new governments in Syria, Iran, and Lebanon.

•    On September 4, 2001, Israeli company Zim-American Israeli Shipping Company moves its North American headquarters out of the World Trade Center to Norfolk, Virginia. It had been announced six months earlier. A Zim ship is impounded one year later while attempting to ship Israeli military equipment to Iran.

•    On September 11, 2001, just two hours before the 9/11 attacks, two employees at ODIGO, Inc., an Israeli company, receive email warnings about an imminent attack in New York City. This instant messaging company has its headquarter about two blocks from the WTC. The warnings are received at its Research and Development offices in Herzliyaa (a suburb of Tel Aviv), Israel.

•    Israeli Mossad officers are on sight during the 9/11 attacks (a New Jersey homemaker witnessed five men in white van looking happy, dancing, smiling while filming themselves with burning WTC in background). They are arrested with $4,700 in cash, two foreign passports, box cutter, maps of the city with certain places highlighted in van. The Forward, an Israeli newspaper, identified them as Mossad officers ... held for 71 days and released ... Silvan Kurzberg, Paul Kurzberg, Oded Elne, Omer Marmari, Yaron Shmuel)

•    ALSO, American security services stopped a car bomb on the George Washington Bridge. The van, packed with explosives, was stopped on an approach ramp to the bridge. Authorities suspect the terrorists intended to blow up the main crossing between New Jersey and New York ...

•    What's really intriguing is that ABC's 20/20, the New York Post and the New Jersey Bergen Record all clearly and unambiguously reported that a white van with Israelis was intercepted on a ramp near Route 3, which leads directly to the Lincoln Tunnel. But the Jerusalem Post, Israeli National News, and Yediot America all reported, just as clearly and unambiguously, that a white van with Israelis was stopped on a ramp leading to the George Washington Bridge, which is several miles north of the Lincoln Tunnel. Were there two vans???

•    In September 2002, Philip Zelikow, who served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) that reports directly to the president, and who would later go on to serve as Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission (in spite of being in the room when President Bush received specific warnings about an al-Qaeda attack on the US), said to a gathering at the University of Virginia: “Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat (is) and actually has been since 1990 -- it's the threat against Israel…And this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don't care deeply about that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell.”

5) Unexplained:

•    In 1998, a man by the name of “Mohammed Atta” attended the Global Engagement at the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama, according to Air Force spokesman Colonel Ken McClellan. According to a 1998 military report, they were also developing sensors to be used in the Global Hawk, DarkStar, and Predator unmanned aerial vehicles. Global Hawk is technology that enables pilotless flight. Seven pilots trained at air bases and some of them were fighter pilots. Ahmed al-Nami, Ahmed al-Ghamdi, and Saeed al-Ghamdi listed Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida as their permanent addresses on their driver’s licenses. Saeed al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi fighter pilot who attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, Abdulaziz al-Omari attended Brooks Air Force Base Aerospace Medical School in San Antonio, Texas. And Mohammed Atta is a former Saudi fighter pilot who graduated from the US International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. The Air Force says these are probably not the same people as the hijackers.

•    In January 2000, the Malaysia meeting with noted terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks happens while we watch (which had the mastermind of 9/11, KSM). In the spring and summer of 2000, al-Mihdhar called a al-Qaeda safe house in Yemen from the US but neither the CIA nor the NSA realize the calls came from the US. The calls are, of course, censored. What did these callers say? Did the US listen in as specifics about the attacks were discussed?

•    In the summer of 2001, the NSA intercept a call between KSM and Atta but does not share the information with any other agency. No one knows what was said as the transcript has never been released.

•    In July 2001, UBL reportedly gets treatment at the American hospital at Dubai, UAE by Dr. Terry Callaway, who also supposedly treated him in 1996 and 1998. He is visited by Prince Turki al Faisal, head of Saudi intelligence, and CIA agent Larry Mitchell. The CIA, the hospital, and even UBL deny the story. Did the US assist UBL?

•    In August 2001, a man named Mike Vreeland, while in jail in Lindsay Ontario, claimed to be an American working for the Pentagon. He had a sealed pouch to deliver to a recipient. When the person did not show up, Vreeland opened it and handed a guard sheets of paper with various words and phrases, written in Russian including “World Trade Center” and “Pentagon” and “Let one happen, stop the rest.” ... he jumped bail and disappeared ...

•    From September 5-8, 2001, the Joint Terrorism Task Force conducts a three-day raid on InfoCom Corporation, a Texas company that hosts about 500 mostly Arabic web sites, including al Jazeera. A judge orders the warrant sealed so no one knows why the raid occurred. This town (Richardson, a suburb of Dallas) is very near Garland, Texas, where a fifth grader predicts“WWIII” starting the next day. Two charities (The Global Relief Foundation and The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development) are also investigated for alleged involvement with Palestinian terrorist groups. After the US freezes Holy Land’s assets in November, it is defended by a law firm (Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer, and Feld) with very close associations to the Bush Administration. What is the significance of the timing of the raid and freezing of assets?

•    On September 6, 2001, security personnel are working long shifts due to numerous phone threats, but bomb sniffing dogs are removed on this day. 9/11 is the first day there was not extra security that week.

•    On September 11, 2001, the US made no effort to get ISI Director Mahmood while he was here on 9/11 and after, in spite of the evidence that he personally knew about the 9/11 attacks and may have played a role in them.

•    On September 11, 2001, TRIPOD II exercise is running in New York on 9/11. So New York was already ready for the attacks. Mayor Giuliani says that FEMA is there along with officials from the state emergency office. After WTC building 7 is destroyed, the response center is moved to the site of the TRIPOD II exercise. Also, fire fighters and emergency personnel are already near the Pentagon prior to it being hit because of a call about an apartment fire in Rosslyn, Virginia. Many units are dispatched for the fire but after the first arrives, the fire has already gone out.

•    On September 11, 2001, the only side hit on the Pentagon was under construction and the was the only side on the Pentagon just reinforced and with bomb blast windows. It was also largely empty and was at the farthest point away from Defense Secretary’s office. Was damage intentionally minimal?

•    On September 11, 2001, a diesel tank installed at WTC Building 7 as part of a command center for Mayor Giuliani may have destroyed the building. Coincidentally, the building housed the SEC files for 3,000 to 4,000 SEC investigations of Wall Street crimes. A news report also indicates there was a secret CIA office there.

•    On September 11, 2001, several passengers of Flight 93 have connections to pilot-less aircraft and to the military (see Thompson, pp. 502-503)

•    On September 11, 2001, Flight 93 was still in the air minutes after the 9/11 Commission says it already crashed. Other planes and a missile were seen by witnesses which were first denied then explained away (see Thompson, pp. 447-450). Witnesses also heard bangs. The final moments of Flight 93 are also consistent with a missile strike. One fighter pilot was told on 9/11 that Flight 93 was shot down. On September 14, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz says: “We responded awfully quickly, I might say, on Tuesday [9/11], and in fact, we were already tracking in on that plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. I think it was the heroism of the passengers on board that brought it down. But the Air Force was in a position to do so if we had to.”

•    On September 11, 2001, the FBI confiscates film of the Pentagon crash from a gas station and from a hotel. The gas station owner never saw the film but the hotel employees watched it over and over before it was taken. How did FBI know to go there immediately? Also, how did it know to go to flight schools within hours of the attacks?

•    On September 11, 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney was the one who ordered President Bush to stay away from DC. Bush even has problems calling Cheney on the secure phone and has to use a cell phone instead (See Thompson, pp. 457, 460, 463).

•    Warren Buffet (second richest man in world) had a meeting at Orcutt Air Force base the same day with business executives including one supposed to be in WTC (WTC CEO Ann Tatlock who’s offices were right where Flight 175 crashed into). President Bush also flew to this Air Force Base on the same day!

•    In October 2001, former Pakistani Foreign Secretary Niaz Naik claims he was told in July 2001 that the US would be overthrowing the Taliban by the time the snow started falling in Afghanistan

•    In October 2001, a Kosovar Serb, Zelijko E., turns himself in to Hamburg, Germany police saying he has robbed a business and stolen piles of paper written in Arabic. After being told the files relate to 9/11, he turns himself in. There are 44 pounds of paper, and they turn out to be a “treasure trove.” The documents come from Mamoun Darkazanli’s files, which were not in his apartment when it raided two days after 9/11. German police suspect some other intelligence agency was trying to get the information into their hands. It is alleged that the CIA did it, but the FBI reportedly illegally monitored Darkazanli after 9/11.

•    In February 2002, the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Influence is created to falsify stories to manipulate public opinion. It is closed six days later but its functions are admittedly rolled into the already existing Office of Global Communications. Rumsfeld says: “I went down the next day and said fine, if you want to savage this thing fine I’ll give you the corpse. There’s the name. You can have the name, but I’m gonna’ keep doing every single thing that needs to be done and I have.”

•    On February 10, 2002, a driver’s license examiner – Kathy Smith (who was being investigated by the FBI) -- was murdered. She was scheduled to appear in court on charges she helped Muslim terrorists get illegal drivers’ licenses. The FBI says gasoline was poured on her clothes and she was burned to death and then her car crashed into a utility pole. A suicide note was found. One of the five Muslims, Sakhera Hammad, was found with a pass in his wallet that gave him access to restricted areas of the WTC dated September 5, 2001! He said he was a plumber and had worked on the sprinklers that day, but the company that does the plumbing never heard of him. The five pleaded guilty to fraud. The coroner who examined her body was targeted with a bomb one month later (the bomb was later defused). Just what is this about and who would have an interest in shutting this story down?

•    President Bush said on more than one occasion he saw the first plane hit the WTC live on TV In March 2004, a Bush spokesman says it was just a mistaken recollection.

Now, the truth is, I don’t know quite what to make of all this. There are several “conspiracy theories” one could create from such information. But, what seems readily apparent is that a lot more people knew 9/11 was coming than just 19 hijackers, and a lot of people have benefitted from the attacks in ways that they had hoped and even planned for. We know for certain that neither the 9/11 Commission nor the bi-partisan congressional inquiry investigations resulted in a complete telling of 9/11. But, what actually happened remains unknown.