 KILLER ROBOT JETPLANES! |
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KILLER ROBOT JETPLANES! |
 PIRATE NEWS TV News cache edited by John Lee AIR COMMAND AND STAFF COLLEGE, AIR UNIVERSITY by Kenneth E. Thompson, Major, USAF by Major Daniel R. Rocha, USAF Air Force Times, August 28, 2006 Air Force Times, February 16, 2004 Air Force Times, May 24, 2007 Air Force Times, May 10, 2007 Creech Air Force Base, Nev Air Force Times, April 27, 2007 Air Force Times, April 24, 2007 Air Force Times, April 13, 2007
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"Allow Boeing.com to access your camera and microphone?" "The USAF is currently researching other combat mission ideas for UAVs, including suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) at a "battlelab" in Eglin AFB, Florida. The USAF can quickly provide a cost-effective unmanned military option by modifying some F-16C fighters into dual-role UCAVs. The multirole F-16 is a combat-proven air-to-air and air-to-ground fighter platform that can perform all airpower missions with its capability to carry almost all of the USAF bomb and missile inventory. Slightly modifying an F-16C for unmanned flight while maintaining its manned flight capability gives the USAF most of the advantages of UCAV operations and reduces or eliminates many unmanned flight concerns. A remotely piloted, dual-role F-16C UCAV can quickly provide a politically safe, cost-effective, and flexible unmanned military option for US leadership. An important prerequisite for this F-16 UCAV idea is proving that the United States now needs an alternative to cruise missiles. Therefore, this article presents arguments on why US leadership quickly needs an interim UCAV option before exploring the F-16C UCAV proposal. The objectives of this article are to (1) provide some UCAV background to the reader with the advantages and concerns related to unmanned flight, (2) explain why the United States needs an interim UCAV military option, and (3) recommend the dual-role F-16C UCAV. Prompted by the USAF Scientific Advisory Board's recommendations in New World Vistas, DARPA research grants, and UCAV interest in the Air Force 2025 project, several US aerospace companies including Teledyne Ryan, Boeing, Northrop, and Lockheed Martin have started preliminary designs on advanced-technology UCAVs. Both Great Britain and Germany are also studying a UCAV replacement for their air-to-ground Tornado. Interestingly, the development and research phase of the Joint Strike Fighter now has four versions: USAF, USN, US Marine Corps, and a UCAV. Dr. Gene McCall, USAF chief scientist, predicts that the last JSFs to roll off the factory line will be UCAVs." "Aerospace giant Boeing has decided that it needs to give serious thought to cutting pilots out of the cockpit. The company has established a new organisation dedicated to efforts in the expanding 'unmanned systems' market and aimed at fast-tracking the development of pilotless aircraft. At one time, the US military said it had no desire to allow unmanned aircraft to carry lethal payloads. However, following tests last year with Predator UAV's firing Hellfire anti-tank missiles, and the subsequent deployment and success of the pairing in killing tanks in Afghanistan, the Pentagon has warmed rapidly to the idea. The Boeing group will look at the feasibility of cheap, expendable UAV's that could be sent on suicidal missions. Based in St.Louis, the new Unmanned Systems group will be headed up by Mike Heinz and report to both Jerry Daniels, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Military Aircraft and Missile Systems, and George Muellner, president, Boeing Phantom Works, the company's advanced research-and-development unit. 'Unmanned systems are the future of aerospace,' Daniels said."
"On land, our heavy forces will be lighter, our light forces will be more lethal. All will be easier to deploy and to sustain. In the air, we will be able to strike across the world with pinpoint accuracy, using both aircraft and unmanned systems. On the oceans, we will connect information and weapons in new ways, maximizing our ability to project power over land. In space, we'll protect our network of satellites essential to the flow of our commerce and the defense of our common interests." "A secret blueprint for U.S. global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure regime change even before he took power in January 2001." "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." "That's why I got rid of my television. It was like having an insane relative sitting in the corner, jabbering to himself 24 hours a day." "There is a chance for the President of the United States to use the disaster to carry out what his father - a phrase his father used I think only once, and it hasn't been used since - and that is a New World Order." "A president of the United States has just assumed what amounts to dictatorial power." "Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means of going backwards. The greatest triumphs of propaganda have been accomplished, not by doing something, but by refraining from doing. Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. If you are going to control any population for any length of time, you must have some measure of consent. Pure terrorism can function for a fairly long time, but sooner or later you have to bring in an element of pursuasion. You have to get people to love their servitude. Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad." |
"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it's gonna happen? It's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" "And don't criticize my children and don't criticize my daughters-in-law and don't criticize my husband, or you're dead!" "Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, launched a stinging attack on President George Bush last night, denouncing him as the 'greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen'." "There are no innocent civilians, so it doesn't bother me so much to be killing innocent bystanders." "The Pentagon—a building, institution, and symbol—was conceived at the request of Brigadier General Brehon B. Sommervell, Chief of the Construction Division of the Office of the Quartermaster General, on a weekend in mid-July 1941. The purpose was to provide a temporary solution to the War Department's critical shortage of space.The groundbreaking ceremony took place on September 11, 1941. The building was dedicated on January 15, 1943, nearly 16 months to the day after the groundbreaking. Construction began 11 September 1941." |
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"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
"The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] announced today that the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) program has successfully completed all ground and flight objectives for the first phase of demonstrations and is ready to begin the second phase of flight demonstrations, focused on more advanced, multi-vehicle operations. As a joint effort of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. Air Force and the Boeing Phantom Works, the UCAV program consists of two X-45A air vehicles, a mission control system and various supportability elements. Its objective is to demonstrate the technical feasibility of a UCAV system to effectively and affordably perform suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) and strike missions. In the first phase of demonstrations, known as Block 1, 48 discrete laboratory, simulation and flight demonstrations were conducted, primarily focused on initial systems checkout, including a total of 16 flights for the two air vehicles. The final demonstration flight occurred on Feb. 28, which verified safe operation of the weapons bay door at 35,000 ft. and speeds up to 0.75 Mach, the maximum planned altitude and speed for the X-45A demonstrator vehicles. Col. Earl Wyatt (U.S. Air Force), the UCAV Program Manager for DARPA said he was "extremely proud" of the joint team. Key Block 1 demonstrations included:
"You will be happy to learn that the former head of the KGB (the secret police of the former Soviet Union), General Yevgeni Primakov, has been hired as a consultant by the US Department of Homeland Security [Pentagon's Office of Information Awareness at DARPA.MIL]." "Government control of Communications and Transportation." "Operation NORTHWOODS may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government. Operation NORTHWOODS had called for nothing less than the launch of a secret campaign of terrorism within the United States in order to blame Castro and provoke a war with Cuba."
"We could blow up a drone (unmannded) vessel anywhere in the Cuban waters. The presense of Cuban planes or ships merely investigating the intent of the vessel could be fairly compelling evidence that the ship was taken under attack. The US could follow with an air/sea rescue operation covered by US fighters to "evacuate" remaining members of the non-existant crew. Casualty lists in US newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation. We could develop a Communist Cuba terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Flordia cities and even in Washington. The terror campaign could be pointed at Cuban refugees seeking haven in the United States. We could sink a boatload of Cubans enroute to Florida (real or simulated). We could foster attempts on lives of Cubans in the United States even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized. Exploding a few bombs in carefully chosen spots. The arrest of Cuban agents and the release of prepared documents substantiating cuban involvement. Use of MIG-type aircraft by US pilots could provide additional provocation. Harassment of civil air, attacks on surface shipping, and destruction of US military drone aircraft by MIG type planes would be useful. An F-86 properly painted would convince air passengers that they saw a Cuban MIG, especially if the pilot of the transport were to announce that fact. Hijacking attampts against US civil air and surface craft should be encouraged. It is possible to create an incident which would demonstrate convincingly that a Cuban aircraft has attacked and shot down a chartered civilian airliner from the United States. An aircraft at Eglin AFB would be painted and numbered as an exact duplicate for a civil registered aircraft belonging to a CIA proprietary organization in the Miami area. At a designated time the duplicate would be subsituted for the actual civil aircraft and the passengers, all boarded under carefully prepared aliases. The actual registered aircraft would be converted to a drone. Take off times of the drone aircraft and the actual aircraft will be scheduled to allow a rondevous. From the rondevous point the passenger-carrying aircraft will descend to minimum altitude and go directly to an auxiliary airfield at Eglin AFB where arrangements will have been made to evacuate the passengers and return the aircraft to its original status. Meanwhile the drone aircraft will continue to fly the filed flight plan. The drone will be transmitting on the international distress frequency "MAY DAY" message stating it is under attack by Cuban MIG aircraft. The transmission will be interrupted by the destruction of aircraft which will be triggered by radio signal. This will allow IACO radio stations to tell the US what has happened to the aircraft instead of the US trying to "sell" the incident. It is possible to create an incident that will make it appear that Communist Cuban MIGs have destroyed a USAF aircraft over international waters in an unprovoked attack. On one such flight, a pre-briefed pilot would fly Tail-end Charlie. While near the Cuban island this pilot would broadcast that he had been jumped by MIGs and was going down. This pilot would then fly at extremely low altitude and land at a secure base, an Eglin auxiliary. The aircraft would be met by the proper people, quickly stored and given a new tail number. The pilot who performed the mission under an alias would resume his proper identity. The pilot and aircraft would then have disappeared. A submarine or small craft would distribute F-101 parts, parachute, etc. The pilots retuning to Homestead would have a true story as far as they knew. Search ships and aircraft could be dispatched and parts of aircraft found.
It is understood that the Department of State is also preparing suggested courses of action to develope justification for US military intervention in Cuba." |
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"It was like a cruise missile with wings, went right there and slammed into the Pentagon," Mike Walter, an eyewitness, told CNN. "Huge explosion, great ball of fire, smoke started billowing out, and then it was just chaos on the highway as people either tried to move around the traffic and go down either forward or backwards." "A respected philosopher of religion at the Claremont School of Theology since the 1970s and longtime Santa Barbara resident, Griffin is now raising questions that even President Bush's harshest critics are afraid to think, let alone ask aloud. In his latest book, The New Pearl Harbor — released just two weeks ago — Griffin all but accuses the Bush administration of taking a dive on September 11 and giving Al Qaeda terrorists an unobstructed shot at the World Trade Center. According to Griffin, a case can be made that the Bush administration arranged the attack, or allowed it to happen. "It's easy to imagine an infinite number of situations where the government might legitimately give out false information. It's an unfortunate reality that the issuance of incomplete information and even misinformation by government may sometimes be perceived as necessary to protect vital interests." "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." "To counter psychological warfare, the Internet and talk radio are
weapons of mass instruction." Official Testimony by Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta 9-11 Commission self-appointed by Bush Jr. White House National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States The Bush Administration claims the terrorists were successful because the U.S. had faulty intelligence, bad luck, and bureaucratic ineptitude, but that isn't true. Vice President Dick Cheney monitored the flight path of Flight 77, the commercial airliner that crashed into the Pentagon. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta was in the Presidential Emergency Operating Center with Vice President Cheney as American Airlines Flight 77 approached Washington, D.C. Secretary Norman Mineta testified to the 911 Commission on May 23, 2003:
Mariani v. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al. - White House sued by 9-11 victims' families for terrorism, racketeering and organized crime for perping the 9-11 massacres. Irate families demand immediate arrest of president and staff for mass murder, terrorism and treason
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NORAD Ran Eerie Plane Drills - Pentagon, WTC among imagined targets NORAD had drills of jets as weapons By Steven Komarow and Tom Squitieri WASHINGTON — In the two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted exercises simulating what the White House says was unimaginable at the time: hijacked airliners used as weapons to crash into targets and cause mass casualties. In a third scenario, the target was the Pentagon — but that drill was not run after Defense officials said it was unrealistic, NORAD and Defense officials say. NORAD, in a written statement, confirmed that such hijacking exercises occurred. It said the scenarios outlined were regional drills, not regularly scheduled continent-wide exercises. "Numerous types of civilian and military aircraft were used as mock hijacked aircraft," the statement said. "These exercises tested track detection and identification; scramble and interception; hijack procedures; internal and external agency coordination and operational security and communications security procedures." A White House spokesman said Sunday that the Bush administration was not aware of the NORAD exercises. But the exercises using real aircraft show that at least one part of the government thought the possibility of such attacks, though unlikely, merited scrutiny. On April 8, the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks heard testimony from national security adviser Condoleezza Rice that the White House didn't anticipate hijacked planes being used as weapons. On April 12, a watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight, released a copy of an e-mail written by a former NORAD official referring to the proposed exercise targeting the Pentagon. The e-mail said the simulation was not held because the Pentagon considered it "too unrealistic." President Bush said at a news conference Tuesday, "Nobody in our government, at least, and I don't think the prior government, could envision flying airplanes into buildings on such a massive scale." The exercises differed from the Sept. 11 attacks in one important respect: The planes in the simulation were coming from a foreign country. Until Sept. 11, NORAD was expected to defend the United States and Canada from aircraft based elsewhere. After the attacks, that responsibility broadened to include flights that originated in the two countries. But there were exceptions in the early drills, including one operation, planned in July 2001 and conducted later, that involved planes from airports in Utah and Washington state that were "hijacked." Those planes were escorted by U.S. and Canadian aircraft to airfields in British Columbia and Alaska. NORAD officials have acknowledged that "scriptwriters" for the drills included the idea of hijacked aircraft being used as weapons. "Threats of killing hostages or crashing were left to the scriptwriters to invoke creativity and broaden the required response," Maj. Gen. Craig McKinley, a NORAD official, told the 9/11 commission. No exercise matched the specific events of Sept. 11, NORAD said. "We have planned and executed numerous scenarios over the years to include aircraft originating from foreign airports penetrating our sovereign airspace," Gen. Ralph Eberhart, NORAD commander, told USA TODAY. "Regrettably, the tragic events of 9/11 were never anticipated or exercised." NORAD, a U.S.-Canadian command, was created in 1958 to guard against Soviet bombers. Until Sept. 11, 2001, NORAD conducted four major exercises a year. Most included a hijack scenario, but not all of those involved planes as weapons. Since the attacks, NORAD has conducted more than 100 exercises, all with mock hijackings. NORAD fighters based in Florida have intercepted two hijacked smaller aircraft since Sept. 11. Both originated in Cuba and were escorted to Key West in spring 2003, NORAD said.
Jerry Russell Jim Hoffman has discovered a document which I believe may be very important to the 911 skeptic movement. This document superseded earlier DOD procedures for dealing with hijacked aircraft, and it requires that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is personally responsible for issuing intercept orders. Commanders in the field are stripped of all authority to act. This amazing order came from S.A. Fry (Vice Admiral, US Navy and Director, Joint Staff) so it appears to me that responsibility for the US armed forces "Failure to Respond" rests directly with Fry for issuing this instruction, as well as with Donald Rumsfeld for failing to execute his responsibility to issue orders in a timely fashion. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction CJCSI 3610.01A (dated 1 June 2001) was issued for the purpose of providing "guidance to the Deputy Director for Operations (DDO), National Military Command Center (NMCC), and operational commanders in the event of an aircraft piracy (hijacking) or request for destruction of derelict airborne objects." This new instruction superseded CJCSI 3610.01 of 31 July 1997. This CJCSI states that "In the event of a hijacking, the NMCC will be notified by the most expeditious means by the FAA. The NMCC will, with the exception of immediate responses as authorized by reference d, forward requests for DOD assistance to the Secretary of Defense for approval." Reference D refers to Department of Defense Directive 3025.15 (Feb. 18, 1997) which allows for commanders in the field to provide assistance to save lives in an emergency situation -- BUT any requests involving "potentially lethal support" (including "combat and tactical vehicles, vessels or aircraft; or ammunition") must still be approved by the Secretary of Defense. So again, the ability to respond to a hijacking in any meaningful fashion, is stripped from the commanders in the field. While none of this relieves the Bush Administration from ultimate responsibility from 911, nevertheless there is the possibility that this discovery could somewhat diffuse the power of our movement's message about the "Stand Down", since it is now clear that it was implemented through a routine administrative memo. If this comes up as an issue at the Washington 911 cover-up commission, it would be interesting if Fry could testify as to the reasoning behind making it bureaucratically impossible for the DOD to respond to hijackings in a timely fashion. The relevant documents are on the Web at: |
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Geocities.com/x_files_lone_gunmen_911 Pilot Episode 1AEB79 March 4, 2001 Broadcast Censored GIF Animation file with cockpit view and Yahoo.com website of Pentagon hijacking US airliner by remote control to crash into World Trade Center 6 months prior to terror massacres on 9-11-2001. Too bad Jewish FOX TV didn't report on Pentagon's Operation NORTHWOODS (declassified in 2000) in its "news" broadcasts, with Pentagon's confessed plot to hijack and bomb US airliners by remote control, instead relying on its Jewish X-Files "When Aliens Attack" FBI fiction series to "warn" (or taunt?) America of impending treason by Pentagon and its Jewish masters in the White House and beyond... by John Lee and Pirate News - September 911 Surprise
Reconstituted webpage with links that tell of Lone Gunmen's true-crime ESP:
Conspiracy Theory The Lone Gunmen Posted by MightyPonyGirl.com Cast and Characters
John Byers: Bruce Harwood Episode Summary It's party time at E-Com-Con Corporation in Vienna, Virginia. As people filter in, the camera pans up to the rooftop, where two figures are hurrying for the ventilation shaft. Inside, an E-Com-Con publicist is welcoming guests when an unknown agitator in the crowd steers that conversation toward the new Octium IV chip, claiming that it has a tiny little modem embedded in every chip that uploads its users' files onto the internet. The agitator is none other than Langly, enjoying a chicken-kebab. Meanwhile, Frohike and Byers are setting up the computer-controlled winch that will lower Frohike into the high-security room that the Octium IV chip is being kept in (a la Mission Impossible). While Langly provides the distraction (faking an alergic reaction), Frohike is lowered into the room. However, not everyone is distracted by Langly's convulsions. A mysterious bearded man checks up on the security cameras in time to see Frohike's descent, and shortly thereafter, Byers becomes alarmed when the winch program is hacked. The security guards notice a radio transmitter in Langly's ears and become suspicious. Just then, the mysterious bearded man enters the Octium IV room, setting off the alarm system. Frohike recognizes the man, "You!" which is cut off by a big, passionate kiss. The mysterious bearded man grabs the chip and takes off, heading for the men's bathroom, just as the security guards escort Langly into the room. Discovering the chip missing, a full body cavity search is ordered. A mysterious woman emerges from the men's bathroom and deposits a wig and a beard into the trash on her way out the door. The boys return to the Lone Gunmen Headquarters, in Takoma Park, Maryland. Without the Octium chip in tow, they have no proof for what they hoped would be that week's cover story. Frohike, figuring their plans were known about in advance, performs a sweep of the place, while explaining that the one who stole the chip from them was a hacker by the name of Yves Adele Harlow. He discovers a bugging device which Langly disposes of after venting some frustration. There is little time to stew in their juices, as Byers receives a call that his father has been killed in a car crash in Reston, Virginia. At the funeral of Byers's father (Bertram), Mr. Helms, a colleague gives a moving speech about how Bertram's received his middle name by being named after Franklin Roosevelt. John Byers being named after Kennedy, it's probably a good thing that Byers doesn't have any kids (Carter? Clinton?). During the service, Langly notices a mysterious bearded man in the crowd, and as soon as Byers commends his dad's ashes to the air via model rocket and the crowd disperses, Langly takes off after the bearded man, only to discover that it is not Harlow. Also, Frohike tells Langly of how Byers and his father had a falling out in 1989, when Byers left his cushy government job to hang out with "a couple of hippies." As the three regroup, Mr. Helms joins them to let Byers know that his father's death might not have been an accident. He suggests grimly that Byers's father knew something he shouldn't have, and was targeted for assassination as a result. The Gunmen, though suspicious, are determined to look into it. Their first stop is the home of Byers's father. Frohike slips on a freshly-shampooed carpet and checks into that, while Byers and Langly check his father's computer. Langly discovers that the computer has been cleaned out, leaving nothing but an operating system. After running a sector editor, Langly is able to retrieve a list of deleted files, including a Department of Defense file named "Scenario 12-D." Meanwhile, Frohike discovers that the carpet was shampooed because of a conspicuous blood stain that he discovers under a black light. Byers comes to the conclusion that his father was dead before the car accident, which takes them to the demolition yard. Unfortunately, they're a little late, as the car has already been cubed, but they haul it back anyway. While Byers and Frohike start to peel apart the car, Langly heads over to a virtual reality shooting range to pick up a fellow hacker, Kimmy. Apparently, Langly can't hack the DoD alone, and needs Kimmy's assistance. While Kimmy is reluctant to help, Langly spots Yves Harlow, and rushes over seeking vengence. He's not too good at convincing her to give back the chip, and Kimmy agrees to help Langly because Langly doesn't realize the implicit dangers of threatening a woman who's carrying an uzi. As Kimmy settles in to help the boys out, Frohike discovers a circuit board attached to the car's steering system. The board contains a grafted antenna, which meant that the car could have been controlled remotely. Kimmy hacks into the DoD and locates Scenario 12-D, which is a "airline counterterrorism wargame". At Byers's instruction, Kimmy begins to download it, and, in a poorly lit room, a man at a laptop discovers the intrusion. He alerts his shadowy superior and begins to track the connection. As the text file is being downloaded, the laptop guardian cracks into the Gunmen's computer and begins to scan for files that will reveal their identity (userdata.ini). Despite the threat of discovery and prosecution, Byers insists that the download continues. The laptop guardian is just about to complete the upload of the .ini file when Frohike pulls the plug on the download process. We return to the poorly-lit room, where the shadowy superior is revealed to be none other than Mr. Helms. At this point, the Gunmen contact Mr. Helms to ask him for his DoD password, which is "Overlord." Byers reveals that his father was not murdered, that the body found inside of the car was that of the would-be assassin, who slipped on the freshly-shampooed carpet and shot himself. Bertram Byers then faked the car crash in order to make his enemies think he was dead. Mr. Helms becomes very adamant about finding Bertram, and Byers goes to his father's house for some soul-searching. He finds that his father has a stack of Lone Gunmen editions in his desk, and turns around to come face to face with his father. Byers is overwhelmed with emotion and goes to give his father a hug, but his father slaps him and scolds him for searching for him. Byers Sr. finally explains that the people who invented Scenario 12-D are planning to use it on a highly visible flight over Manhattan. The resulting security frenzy would mean an increase in arms sales. Bertram reminds Byers that it is a small faction, and that it is not "the whole government," and that he also knows the flight that the group is planning on targetting. Byers and his father go to the airport to board the flight from Baltimore to Boston, armed with portable hydrocarbon sniffers. Midway through the flight, Byers and his father realize that the plane might not be carrying a bomb, and call Langly and Frohike to ask them to hack into the plane's navigation system. Under the "Navradio" field, Langly discovers modem protocols, indicating that the plane is being controlled remotely, and according to the pre-programmed flight plan, the plane will be making an unscheduled stop at the corner of Liberty and Washington Streets in Manhattan: The World Trade Center. Langly doesn't have enough processor power to decrypt the system. His system keeps overloading, and he doesn't have enough time to decrypt in background mode. Frohike takes off for the shooting range, where it appears Yves never left. While Yves talks tough, Frohike tells her he's discovered her secret, that the name "Yves Adele Harlow" is an anagram for "Lee Harvey Oswald." Yves patches into Langly's computer with the Octium chip, and the two of them are able to override the protocols and return the power to the pilots. The plane pulls up just in time, knocking an antenna off the top of one of the towers as it passes over. As the passengers disembark from the plane, Byers can barely contain his excitement. With his father's testimony, the Gunmen will be able to publish a paper that can bring down Overlord. However, Bertram is not interested in speaking, thinking that if he says nothing, they will stop gunning for him. Finally, Byers retires to the paper and Frohike reveals that he swiped the Octium chip from Yves, and they have a cover story after all. Click link for pics and audio files from the TV show. Doomsday Scenario: Chris Carter Foresaw 9/11 by Ed Martin Ever since September 11, and throughout the firestorm of its accusation-heavy aftermath, our political leaders have asserted that nobody ever could have imagined a terrorist act as horrific as the piloting of commercial airliners into crowded office buildings. Perhaps they should talk to Chris Carter. Carter, one of the more imaginative writers working in television, is the creator and executive producer of both Fox' former smash "The X-Files" and its spin-off, "The Lone Gunmen." The latter a short-lived series that under-performed in the Nielsen ratings premiered on March 4, 2001 with a storyline that now seems horrific in its familiarity: The halting of a terrorist plot to fly a passenger jet into the twintowers of the World Trade Center. To put it another way, six months before one of the darkest days in American history a broadcast entertainment series presented a fictional version of a scenario shockingly similar to the awful events of that day. For the record, the episode was not actually written by Carter, but by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz. When a friend of mine brought this to my attention the other day I responded with disbelief. I had seen that pilot, and several other episodes of "Gunmen," early last year. So had many of my friends, in and out of the media.Yet, none of us picked up on this queasy coincidence last fall, or at any time since. This might be explained by the understanding that "Gunmen" was an unremarkable and, apparently, easily forgotten show. But that doesn't explain the utter absence of commentary on this circumstance by the traditionally thrill-seeking media. This seems to be collective amnesia of the highest order. If any outlets did indeed offer comment or reportage, the rest of the media, in a startling break from the ordinary, failed to immediately re-purpose that timely content. The final act of the "Gunmen" pilot, which seemingly made no impact last year, now contains some of the most deeply disturbing images ever created for a scripted entertainment program. One of the Gunmen, John Byers, is actually aboard a crowded 747 that is under the control of a group of computer savvy terrorists who have accessed the plane's on-board navigation system and are steering it toward the towers. (The terrorists are on the ground, not in the plane.) In a sequence that now seems utterly unfathomable, Byers easily enters the cockpit to convey the troubling news and the pilots politely chastise him until they realize that he is right and that someone else is indeed controlling the plane. Chillingly, much of the Manhattan skyline later becomes visible through the cockpit window with the towers at dead center. On the ground, Byers' two partners, also computer savvy, determine that the terrorists are steering the plane specifically toward the corner of Liberty and Washington Streets in lower Manhattan. They even access a detailed computerized flight path. With mere moments to spare, the Gunmen manage to override the terrorists, terminating their control of the plane. The pilots take over and pull the plane upward. As seen through the window of the cockpit, the airliner curves up the side of one of the towers. The plane is then shown skimming the top corner of the building, passing so closely that it scrapes a fence on its roof. It's a night flight, so the near miss seemingly goes unseen by everyone except Byers and the pilots. The Gunmen, a crime fighting, government conspiracy-busting trio who were regulars on "The X-Files" and were unwisely killed off by Carter during one of that show's last episodes (eliminating possible appearances in upcoming "X-Files" feature films), determine that the terrorist group responsible was actually a faction of our own government. These malefactors were seeking to stimulate arms manufacturing in the lean years following the end of the Cold War by bringing down a plane in New York City and fomenting fears of terrorism. Following the attacks of September 11, our government cobbled together a group of film and television writers and asked them to create fantastic terrorism scenarios, so that thought could be given to (and preparations made for?) possible responses to unthinkable horrors. A second look at this episode of "Gunmen" perhaps further justifies such action. Might there be additional episodes of past and present television series that warrant such scrutiny during these increasingly unnerving times? How about the pilot of "Fox' "24," which reveals how a terrorist might skillfully blow a commercial airliner out of the sky and parachute herself to safety?
US Safety System: Kidnapped Airliners Land by Remote Control Der Spiegel A forced landing system developed in the USA will make plane hijackings more difficult: in case of emergency the crew operates a switch - and the machine steers automatically to the next airport. The times for an airplane kidnapper are becoming harder: in America engineers are working to land kidnapped machines in the future by an improved autopilot without assistance of the cockpit on the nearest airport - an emergency switch, that a ground control operates crew; the levers in the airplane are then blocked and the kidnappers can no longer control the plane from the hand controls. According to a recent news release, technicians of US aviation and arms company Raytheon already in August landed a passenger aircraft six times successfully on the military airport at Holloman, New Mexico. The plane was equipped with a special forced landing system without any pilots. The Boeing 727 oriented itself not, as usual, with the radar signals at the end of the runway, but by a combination of GPS satellite and ground signals, which help, to exactly compute the alititude and thus the necessary angle of approach with deviation no greater than one meter." Conspiracy Factory "Personally, I'm not into conspiracy theories except those that are true." "CONSPIRACY- A person who conspires to commit an offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties (other than the penalty of death) as the penalties prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy." "The term `domestic terrorism' means activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State." "'Enterprise' means any individual, sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, business trust, union chartered under the laws of this state, or other legal entity, or any unchartered union, association or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity, and it includes illicit as well as licit enterprises, AND GOVERNMENTAL, as well as other, entities." "Operation NORTHWOODS may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government. Operation Northwoods had called for nothing less than the launch of a secret campaign of terrorism within the United States in order to blame Castro and provoke a war with Cuba." "General Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government. Franks, who successfully led the U.S. military operation to liberate Iraq, expressed his worries in an extensive interview he gave to the men's lifestyle magazine Cigar Aficionado. In the magazine's December edition, the former commander of the military's Central Command warned that if terrorists succeeded in using a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) against the U.S. or one of our allies, it would likely have catastrophic consequences for our cherished republican form of government. Discussing the hypothetical dangers posed to the U.S. in the wake of Sept. 11, Franks said that 'the worst thing that could happen' is if terrorists acquire and then use a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon that inflicts heavy casualties.
If that happens, Franks said, '... the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy. It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it may be in the United States of America – that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important.' Franks didn't speculate about how soon such an event might take place.
Already, critics of the U.S. Patriot Act, rushed through Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, have argued that the law aims to curtail civil liberties and sets a dangerous precedent. But Franks' scenario goes much further. He is the first high-ranking official to openly speculate that the Constitution could be scrapped in favor of a military form of government. Franks ended his interview with a less-than-optimistic note. 'It's not in the history of civilization for peace ever to reign. Never has in the history of man. ... I doubt that we'll ever have a time when the world will actually be at peace.'" "War is merely the continuation of policy by other means." "War is an instrument of political policy." "We've got to understand airpower—its strengths, its weaknesses, and its potential—if we are to fully capitalize on it to at tack an adversary's strategy and to compel him to do our will." "Strategic attacks are defined by objective--not by the weapon system employed, munition used, or target location." "Largely as a response to World War I, the development of airpower began in earnest to enable direct strikes on the enemy's ability to wage war by leapfrogging conventional ground battles. At the same time, ironically, Clausewitz's principles were criticized, primarily
by Liddell Hart, for causing this bloody and costly war. However, Clausewitz's reputation was never seriously hurt because his basic concepts of warfare are not only valid, but timeless—particularly the concepts embodied in his trinity. He defined the
essence of warfare through a trinity comprised of 'primordial violence and passion, chance and probability influenced by creativity, and an instrument of policy subjected to reason alone.' The Clausewitzian Trinity is a construct used at the National War College to illustrate these three elements." "My job was to root out and investigate police corruption, and criminals who've infiltrated the police department.... Sure I went after other policemen. After other policemen that were criminals who happened to join the police department. There were drug dealers, murderers, rapists. These are the types of policemen that I went after. The general public should know there are real, serious criminals in the police department. I don't believe that it should be hidden. Let the policemen know that someone they worked with was a murderer, or a drug dealer." "It seems to me like Justice was stood on its head. In Boston, we had a group of FBI agents who decided to throw the rules out the window. They let a lying witness send innocent men to death row and life in prison. They had a group of mob informants committing murders with impunity. They tipped of killers so they could flee before being arrested. They interfered with local investigations of drug dealing and arms smuggling. We had a bunch of criminals running around killing people under virtual FBI protection. The FBI let innocent men die in prison. We cannot have the FBI winking and looking the other way when their informants go on a crime spree. As the people's representatives, we have an obligation to find out why it happened, and to make sure it never happens again." "A conspiracy theory is the belief that historical or current events are the result of manipulations by one or more secretive powers or conspiracies. A conspiracy theory alleges that some particular event -- such as an assassination, a revolution, or even the failure of a product -- resulted not solely from the visible action of overt political or market forces, but rather from covert manipulation. Because conspiracy theories rely on allegations of covert action, they are frequently difficult to support with evidence. Real conspiracy versus conspiracy theory: The word conspiracy comes from the Latin "conspirare," ("to breath together"), and in contemporary usage it is a situation where two or more people agree to perform an illegal or immoral act. The essential components are the involvement of a group of people, secrecy and malicious intent. The existence of countless thousands of such conspiracies well known and includes organized crime and gangs as well as cartels in restraint of trade, organized political bribery, and so forth. At any given time, hundreds or thousands of conspiracies in this sense are afoot. For a discussion of this sort of conspiracy, see the article conspiracy. Historians generally use the term conspiracy to refer to conspiracies that are considered to be real, proven, or at least seriously plausible and with some element of support. The waters are muddied by the fact that powerful groups or individuals may have an interest in trying to discredit those who accuse them of real or imagined crimes. Ridicule, and even the diagnosis of schizophrenia has been used as a means of silencing political dissent, for example in the Soviet Union (see anti-psychiatry). Note: The term conspiracy theory is sometimes also used refer to sociological attempts to study the phenomenon of conspiracy. Many governments use intelligence agencies to promote national policies in secretive ways -- in several cases including the use of sabotage, propaganda, and assassination. Intelligence agencies, such as the CIA, KGB, MI6, and Mossad, are a common element of political conspiracy theories precisely because they are known to participate in some activities similar to those described in conspiracy theories. There are conspiracy theories based on the notion that AIDS was a man-made disease (i.e. created by scientists in a laboratory). Some of these theories allege that HIV was created by a conspiratorial group or by a secret agency as a tool of genocide. * The United States Department of Defense Information Awareness Office (IAO) has many similarities to conspiracy theories. First, its avowed purpose is to gather and correlate information on ordinary citizens for the purpose of predicting terrorism and other crime. Second, its logo depicts the eye in the pyramid, a symbol associated with Illuminati and Masonic representations of power or divinity, casting a beam over the globe of the Earth [like New World Order symbolism on dollar bill]. Lastly, the name "Iao" is a Gnostic word for God, used in the Golden Dawn and Thelema among others. ["On November 27, 2002, San Francisco Weekly columnist Matt Smith decided to illustrate the perils of information proliferation to John Poindexter personally by publishing a column containing Poindexter's home address and phone number, along with those of his next door neighbors. The information quickly propagated through the Internet, and protestors created numerous web sites with this data, and with satellite photographs of Poindexter's house."] In the 2003 Iraq War, Iraqi resistance was strong at first and then collapsed suddenly. A conspiracy theory emerged in Iraq and elsewhere that there had been a "safqua" - a secret deal - between the US and the Iraqi military elite, wherein the elite were bribed to stand down. This conspiracy theory was ignored or ridiculed in the US media. In late May, 2003, General Tommy Franks, who had been the head of the US forces in the conflict, confirmed in an interview with Defense News that the US government had paid off high-level Iraqi military officials and that they had stated that "I am working for you now". How important this was to the course of the conflict was not entirely clear at the time of this writing (May 24, 2003).
Operation NORTHWOODS (q.v.), before its declassification, was long considered by most to be a conspiracy theory." ["The document was rejected by John F. Kennedy and with the Bay of Pigs Invasion disaster contributed to efforts by John F. Kennedy to break the military-industrial complex that was constantly asking for war."] "Zionist conspiracy theories regarding the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks and 9-11 domestic conspiracy." ["The 9/11 domestic conspiracy theory is a conspiracy theory which asserts that George W. Bush or American intelligence agencies knew, in advance, about the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, and allowed it to happen or even caused it. Project for a New American Century plans seeming to call for an Pearl Harbor type "event" to motivate the extension of US power abroad. See also, Bush family conspiracy theory and October Surprise."] "Mayor Giuliani — a former federal prosecutor who won notice for 'pursuing' the Mafia — had relatives linked to organized crime, including a mobbed-up cousin who was gunned down by FBI agents in 1977, a new book says. Lewis D'Avanzo, a son of the mayor's uncle and a guest at Giuliani's first wedding in 1968, was a 'ruthless and widely feared mob associate' who headed a massive stolen car ring, according to FBI documents and interviews detailed in Rudy! An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, by Village Voice senior editor Wayne Barrett. Due in stores next week, the book sketches a largely unflattering portrait of the clan, depicting his father, Harold, as a hothead and the "muscle" behind a brother-in-law's loansharking operation, run out of a Brooklyn bar. Along with cracking heads, it says the mayor's father served time in state prison for a stickup, rarely held an on-the-books job and once was a gunman in a mob shootout in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. According to the book, Giuliani's cousin Lewis D'Avanzo was known as "Steve the Blond" and listed as armed and dangerous in FBI bulletins. His criminal record included a 10-year federal sentence for the armed hijacking of a truck loaded with $240,000 worth of mercury. The book alleges that he was suspected of taking part in several murders. D'Avanzo was gunned down by the FBI in October 1977, when he tried to run down an agent after being stopped on a warrant that accused him and two associates of transporting 100 stolen luxury cars. Quoting an unnamed friend of D'Avanzo, the book describes a 1962 shootout pitting a local mobster against the mayor's father and Leo D'Avanzo, Lewis D'Avanzo's father. The book says Leo was later sanctioned by mob bosses for shooting at a Mafia member. Leo D'Avanzo, who was known in family circles as a black sheep, ran loansharking and gambling operations out of a Brooklyn bar where Giuliani's father worked as a bartender. In his role as debt collector, his father 'broke legs, smashed kneecaps, crunched noses.' Joan Ellen D'Avanzo, a cousin who at one time lived with Giuliani when he was a youngster, became a drug addict who was beaten to death in 1973 at age 34. Her cause of death was listed as undetermined, but several family members said she was murdered." "Here's another admission which destroys the government's lie that it couldn't possibly have foreseen the use of planes to ram buildings. And explains why NORAD was tricked into not intercepting the hijacked airliners [except for 100 Years of Killer Robot Jetplanes - USAF Unmanned Vehicles Museum - Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio
"Did the U.S. government really pay the Mafia protection money during World War II? At the beginning of WWII, America wasn't yet fighting, but her support for the Allies was clear. The 1941 Lend-Lease Act enabled FDR to ship weapons and essential materials to England. But were U.S. harbors being watched? In 1942, fire broke out on The Normandie, a luxury liner turned troop carrier. Was it Nazi sabotage? Decades later, Lucky Luciano claimed the Mafia had burnt The Normandie, and in the aftermath struck a protection deal with the government to prevent further 'Nazi sabotage'.
An anonymous interviewee supports Lucky Luciano's story that the mob torched the Normandie. An archival interview with J. Edgar Hoover offers one take on this extraordinary assertion. Modern scholars examine the evidence of wartime ties between the Mob and the government. Officially, the cause was negligence. Unofficially, the authorities suspected it was the act of Nazi saboteurs. But when the ocean liner Normandie--recently converted to a troop carrier--caught fire in New York Harbor, the government had to take steps to prevent such setbacks in the future. For decades, rumors have persisted that one of the steps they took was to 'hire' the Mafia to make sure no additional 'accidents' happened. Of course, that looks suspiciously like a famously successful Mafia business model, and there are some who believe that the Normandie fire was actually a shakedown. In fact, Lucky Luciano is said to have boasted as much. Could this really be true? Did the government enlist help from the least likely of sources--and under duress--from an underground enemy? with testimony from military scholars, Mafia experts and an intriguing anonymous eyewitness to the Normandie fire, DEAD MEN'S SECRETS explores one of the most intriguing myths of America during WWII." 1942, Feb 9 - Normandie burned and sank in New York Harbor during its conversion to an Allied trip transport ship. It was once regarded as most elegant ocean liner ever built. (MC, 2/9/02) "He wrote his name in blood on the sidewalks of New York and made himself the Boss of all Bosses. Arriving in America at the age of nine and embarking upon a life of crime at age 14, Charles 'Lucky' Luciano rose through the ranks of the New York Mafia like a pistol shot. By the age of 34, he was running the Sicilian mob like a U.S. corporation diversifying the rackets, organizing the gangs and running his own political candidates. Examine Lucky's 30-year career as CEO of Murder, Inc. through rare interviews and extensive archival footage. Mob insiders recall the history-making meetings held in Luciano's Waldorf-Astoria headquarters. And naval records reveal how his top-secret war efforts earned him parole from a 50-year sentence. Journey into the dangerous world of La Cosa Nostra for the definitive portrait of one of the most notorious criminals in history." "As to private discords among your soldiers, the only remedy is to expose them all to some sort of danger; for in such cases, fear generally unites them. Surely no one can be called a good man who, in order to support himself, takes up a profession that obliges him at all times to be rapacious, fraudulent, and cruel." "Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob
on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it
is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't
want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany.
That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who
determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along,
whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or
a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought
to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them
they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism
and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." "Some of my packmules have experienced three campaigns, but they still don't know anything about waging war." "US special forces rescued Colonel President Qadaffi, and checked for visiting world leaders, before US bombers attacked with Operation EL DORADO CANYON in 1987, in order to prevent an 'international incident'. You wouldn't believe what really goes on at the Pentagon." How to replace illiterate truck-driving pilots with Robots "The Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle will be the norm for the future, providing vastly more affordable and effective warfighting capability for our forces. We are bringing these same integrated system concepts into the army through the Future Combat System Program." "Former Air Force chief of staff General Michael Dugan [fired in the middle of Desert Storm #1 thanks to Congressional complaints written by this webmaster] once commented to me that the Air Force is producing a generation of illiterate truck drivers. He worried that officers who aspire to senior leadership positions know a great deal about airplanes and precious little about airpower. They can skillfully talk with their hands about air tactics but are ill prepared to think with their heads about air strategy. For 20 years I have watched the crème de la crème of the Air Force officer corps come to Air University's Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) and Air War College (AWC). For the most part, these officers have been appallingly ignorant of the bedrock foundation of airpower thinking, virtually oblivious to airpower theory and its development, and without any appreciation of airpower history and its meaning." "A warrant charging the 134 Air Refueling Wing commander with driving under the influence of alcohol is on file at the Loudon County Sheriff's Office in connection with a Dec. 18 traffic stop. According to Loudon County Sheriff Tim Guider, truck drivers helped Deputy Jason Scott stop Col. John Keenan near mile marker 76 on Interstate 75. A blood-alcohol test showed the veteran military officer had a 0.38 blood-alcohol level, well above the legal limit of 0.08 and enough to cause someone to go into a comatose state, the sheriff said. Keenan is being treated at an undisclosed medical facility. Col. Tim Deering is currently acting commander of the 134th Air Refueling Wing at McGhee Tyson Airbase. Guider said this is apparently Keenan's first offense and that when he's released from medical care, he'll be taken into custody. The Loudon County warrant states that Scott was dispatched on a call of a reckless driver headed southbound on I-75. The vehicle was not speeding. Deputies couldn't determine if he was under the influence of alcohol because he didn't smell like he had been drinking, but was very disoriented, Guider said. The sheriff said Scott called for an ambulance to transport Keenan to the emergency room at Fort Sanders Medical Center-Loudon. Major General Gus L. Harriet, adjutant general of The Tennessee Air National Guard, released the following statement: 'We are certainly aware of the situation concerning the commander of the 134th Air Refueling Wing. We have taken the appropriate steps to ensure that Tennessee Air National Guard Operations continue as normal at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard base. Col. Tim Deering is the acting commander.'" "When it came time to release Keenan from the Loudon County facility, deputies were told that Keenan should go to Peninsula Hospital in Louisville, Tenn., in Blount County. Peninsula Hospital provides inpatient mental health and alcohol/drug crisis stabilization services for adults, adolescents and children." "Deputy Jason Scott was murdered this morning when he stepped out of his car as he responded to a domestic violence call at the home of Loudon County Assistant District Attorney Frank Harvey. Harvey's son, 16 year old Michael Harvey, is suspected in Officer Scott's death. At this hour, Michael Harvey remains barricaded inside the Harvey residence on Palmer Road in the Shiloh Acres Subdivision. More than one hundred officers from various regional law enforcement agencies are on the scene and at least three other officers are reported to have been wounded in attempting to take the suspect into custody. Speaking to reporters from near the scene of the ongoing standoff, a tearful Sheriff Guider shared his memories of Officer Scott, who had been with the Sheriff's Department for three years." "According to Loudon County officials, 16 year old Michael Harvey is dead. Law enforcement entered the Harvey home in Loudon County between noon and 1:00 pm on Saturday, ending a tense standoff lasting more than 24 hours. Michael Harvey was found dead in a bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head. It appears that he had been dead more than 12 hours when he was found, according to sources. Michael Harvey, son of Loudon County Assistant District Attorney, Frank Harvey, had been holed up inside his family's home after Deputy Jason Scott was gunned down there at 8:30 am on Friday. It is believed that the teenager killed Scott as he exited his police vehicle. Loudon County 911 dispatched officers in response to a domestic violence call made by Michael Harvey's mother, who said that her son attacked her with a metal pipe." "You go fuck around with the law and all hell breaks loose!" 9/11 inquiry subpoenas Pentagon BBC NEWS A United States federal commission investigating the 11 September 2001 attacks has voted to subpoena the Pentagon. The panel said they were "dismayed" that documents they had requested about the country's air defences on the day of the attack had not been provided. They subpoenaed the Federal Aviation Administration last month, accusing the organisation of slowing down their inquiry. The 10-member, bipartisan panel has until May to report on its investigation into lapses in national security relating to the plane hijackings that led to the deaths of about 3,000 people. They had requested information from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, Norad, which is responsible for protecting North American airspace. Ministerial backing "The commission has encountered some serious delays in obtaining needed documents from the Department of Defense," they said in a statement. "We are especially dismayed by problems in the production of the records of activities of ... Norad and certain Air Force commands on September 11, 2001." "The commission has therefore voted to issue a subpoena requiring the production of these records." They issued a subpoena to the Federal Aviation Administration in October requesting information on air traffic control tracking of hijacked aircraft. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was said to back the commission's request for documentation. "The commission has a statutory deadline to meet," said Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence, Stephen Cambone. "The Secretary has directed that the department be responsive to held ensure the commission can meet its deadlines."
Theologian Charges White House Complicity in 9/11 Attack [Damage Control?] by Nick Welsh There's nothing the least bit wild-eyed or hysterical about David Ray Griffin. In person, he's disarmingly calm, and speaks in the unflappably precise and deliberate style of a lifelong academic. Which is exactly what Griffin is. A respected philosopher of religion at the Claremont School of Theology since the 1970s and longtime Santa Barbara resident, Griffin is now raising questions that even President Bush's harshest critics are afraid to think, let alone ask aloud. In his latest book, The New Pearl Harbor — released just two weeks ago — Griffin all but accuses the Bush administration of taking a dive on September 11 and giving Al Qaeda terrorists an unobstructed shot at the World Trade Center. According to Griffin, a case can be made that the Bush administration arranged the attack, or allowed it to happen. He is aware that he may be dismissed as a conspiracy nut, but given the "transcendent importance" of the issue, Griffin is willing to assume that risk and has taken to repeating Michael Moore's line on the subject: "Personally, I'm not into conspiracy theories except those that are true." I met with Griffin over coffee to discuss his book and the September 11 investigation. The following is an edited account of their conversation. NICK WELSH: Is there a smoking gun that shows the Bush administration knew 9/11 was likely to happen and did nothing about it? DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: I think there are four. One is the fact that standard operating procedures for dealing with possibly hijacked airplanes were not followed on 9/11. Those procedures call for fighter jets to be sent out immediately upon any sign that a plane may have been hijacked. These jets typically get to the plane within no later than 15 minutes anywhere in the United States. And on that day, there were four airplanes that went for a half-hour or more after they were hijacked without jets intercepting them. NICK WELSH: What's the official explanation of that? DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: I'm afraid the press has not done its job. They have not forced government officials to explain why standard operating procedures were not followed that day, nor have they pressed the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to explain why they didn't report these hijackings as they were supposed to. The official story is that [the fighter jets] were very late. NICK WELSH: And the other smoking guns? DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: The second strongest piece of evidence I would say is the crash at the Pentagon. The physical evidence contradicts so violently the official account, that the Pentagon was hit by a Boeing 757 — Flight 77, that is. The physical evidence, photographs, and eyewitness testimony say that the Pentagon was hit by something that caused a hole no larger than 18 feet in diameter. The story the Pentagon put out, and was published by the Washington Post, was that the hole in the Pentagon was five stories high and 200 feet wide. If you look at the photographs taken by Tom Horan of the Associated Press — that's just not the size of the hole. But if the hole was only 18 feet wide, it had to have been created by something other than a Boeing. Whatever went into the Pentagon pierced six reinforced walls. This was the west wing, the part of the Pentagon being refurbished and reinforced. These walls were extra strong, and yet whatever it was went through six walls creating a hole about seven feet in diameter in the sixth wall. This had to have been something with a very powerful head on it. A Boeing 757 has a very fragile nose, and would not have pierced through all those walls; it would have been crushed by hitting the Pentagon. And given that it only penetrated these three rings, the rest of the aircraft would have been sitting outside on the yard. And yet the photographs taken just as the fire trucks got there — very shortly after the crash — show no plane whatsoever. NICK WELSH: What do they show? DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: They show no aircraft whatsoever. And everyone agrees on this. The official story is that the whole aircraft went inside the Pentagon. The problem with that — the firefighters in there would have seen the airplane. They would have seen the engines, they would have seen the aluminum fuselage, but they reported nothing. Ed Plower, the fire chief, when asked what he saw, said, "I didn't see any big pieces, no fuselage, no engines, no nothing." But about a month later, when asked he said, "Oh yes, I saw all that." His memory had had time to be refreshed. NICK WELSH: If what you're saying is accurate — that it was a missile — then what happened to the plane and all the people on it? DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: That's why I stress I'm not trying to give an account of what really happened. I have no idea what happened to Flight 77. NICK WELSH: President Bush has also been criticized for behaving somewhat bizarrely that day. DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: As he and the Secret Service got word that a second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center and that three planes had been hijacked, there could have been no possible doubt in their mind that the United States was under terrorist attack . . . The most horrendous attack the United States had ever suffered. And they would have had to assume that one or more of them were heading toward President Bush himself. And so upon learning about this, the Secret Service surely would have whisked him away immediately. In fact, one Secret Service agent on the scene said, "We're out of here." But obviously he got overruled because President Bush stayed there. After Andrew Card reported the second crash on the World Trade Center, the president just nodded as if he understood and said, "We're going to go ahead with the reading lesson." And he sat there another 15 minutes listening to the children read a story about a pet goat [while holding the book upside down because he's dyslexic and illiterate]. This was a photo op and when it was over he lingered around talking to the children and talking to the teacher. Bill Sammon, of the Washington Times, wrote a very pro-Bush book, yet he comments how casual and relaxed the president was given the fact he'd just learned the country was under attack. He said Bush took his own sweet time and in fact called him "Our Dawdler in Chief." And then the president went on national TV, going forward with an interview that had been planned and announced in advance . . . then they took their regularly scheduled motorcade back to the airport. In other words, [Bush and the Secret Service] showed no fear whatsoever that they would be targeted for attack, which strongly suggests they knew how many aircraft were being hijacked and what their targets were. NICK WELSH: Couldn't it have been that he was trying to project calm in the eye of the storm, that this was Bush projecting Churchillian resolve in the face of calamity? DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: People who want to believe such things can, of course, imagine such scenarios. But the president in a situation like that does not make the decisions; the Secret Service team makes the decisions. And the guys in the Secret Service are trained to be ready for a catastrophe like this where they make snap decisions and whisk the president to safety immediately. They would have had an escape route planned; they would have had contingencies planned — they always do. It is at least not very plausible to think they would have remained there and endangered the lives of all the children and teachers at that school in order to exude that Churchillian confidence. NICK WELSH: What about the plane that crashed down? DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: We know that on Flight 93, which crashed over Pennsylvania, the passengers were trying to get control of the aircraft. They had decided the hijackers did not have bombs and probably didn't even have guns. And because their plane didn't take off until a half-hour after the others, they knew that the others had crashed into the World Trade Center — so they knew they were going to die anyway, even if they didn't do anything. So as one of the passengers is saying, "They're doing it, they're forcing their way into the cabin, they're going to make it." As soon as that happened, with the FBI listening in, the plane went down. There was a whoosh, then the sound of wind. And people on the ground reported hearing what Vietnam veterans said sounded like a missile. Furthermore, there was debris from the plan eight miles from the crash site, suggesting the plane had been hit and stuff started falling out. And one of the engines was found over a mile from the crash site. Of course, if it had been a missile that downed the plane, it most likely would have been a heat-seeking missile that would have found the engine and knocked it off. NICK WELSH: Why would the government have an interest in doing this? So the hijackers couldn't speak to anyone? DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: That would be a very good reason. If it were a conspiracy and the hijackers knew about it, it would have been very threatening to those who made the plan to have anybody left alive. Again, I don't pretend to know, but that's at least a plausible scenario. There were many rumors that day that the plane was shot down, but the government denied it. NICK WELSH: You suggest that the World Trade Center buildings must have been detonated with explosives to account for the heat generated and the speed the structures collapsed on themselves. That sounds extreme. What's the evidence? [PBS TV Documentary: Silverstei |
