Saturday, April 01, 2006

Oops

The administration's claim that terrorists crashing planes into buildings was not foreseeable on 9/11 is contradicted by numerous sources.

According to MSNBC, "There have been a slew of reports over the past decade of plots to use planes to strike American targets".

For example, a 1998 report forwarded from the FBI to the Federal Aviation Administration concluded that "a group of unidentified Arabs planned to fly an explosive-laden plane . . . into the World Trade Center"

The CIA Director had warned congress shortly before 9/11 "that there could be an attack, an imminent attack, on the United States of this nature. So this is not entirely unexpected" according to a broadcast on National Public Radio

It was widely known within the FBI shortly before 9/11 that an imminent attack was planned on lower Manhattan.

An employee who worked in the south tower stated "How could they let this happen? They knew this building was a target. Over the past few weeks we'd been evacuated a number of times, which is unusual. I think they had an inkling something was going on"

And a guard who worked in the world trade center stated that "officials had recently taken steps to secure the towers against aerial attacks"

More importantly, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the military air defense agency responsible for protecting the U.S. mainland, had run drills for several years of planes being used as weapons against the World Trade Center and other U.S. high-profile buildings, and "numerous types of civilian and military aircraft were used as mock hijacked aircraft". In other words, drills using REAL AIRCRAFT simulating terrorist attacks crashing jets into buildings, including the twin towers, were run.

And the military had conducted numerous drills of planes crashing into the Pentagon. For example, see this official military website showing a military drill conducted in 2000 using miniatures; this article concerning a May 2001 exercise of a plane crashing into the Pentagon (see also this article and this one); and this article about yet another drill of a plane hitting the Pentagon from August 2001. Indeed, many of the drills appear to have included warning alarms and evacuation of the building..

The military had also run war games involving multiple, simultaneous hijackings (first paragraph), so this aspect of 9/11 was not as overwhelming as we have been led to believe.

See this short excerpt of a Peter Jennings newscast on 9/11 (excuse the music and subtitles)

Not convinced yet? Substantial additional evidence also indicates that the U.S. knew of the impending attacks:

In June-Aug 2001, German intelligence warned the CIA that Middle Eastern terrorists were training for hijackings and targeting American interests. Russian President Vladimir Putin alerted the US of suicide pilots training for attacks on U.S. targets. In late July, a Taliban emissary warned the US that bin Laden was planning a huge attack on American soil. In August, Israel warned of an imminent Al Qaeda attack. See, for example, this article from Fox News and this article from the Independent

In July 2001, Bin Laden is alleged to have received kidney treatment at the American Hospital in Dubai. During his stay, bin Laden is alleged to have been visited by one or two CIA agents. See this Guardian article, this article from the Sydney Morning Herald, this story from the London Times, and and this one from United Press International

On July 26, 2001, Attorney General Ashcroft stopped flying commercial airlines due to a threat assessment . In May 2002, Ashcroft walked out of his own office rather than answer questions about it.

On August 6, 2001, President Bush received an intelligence briefing warning that bin Laden might be planning to hijack commercial airliners. Titled “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US,” the briefing specifically mentioned the World Trade Center. See this Washington Post story, and the actual partially-declassified briefing.

On August 27, 2001, an FBI supervisor saied he was trying to keep a hijacker from “flying a plane into the World Trade Center.” (Senate Report Hill #2). FBI headquarters chastised him for notifying the CIA.

On September 10th, intelligence services intercepted messages between the alleged lead hijacker and the mastermind behind 9/11 stating "the match begins tomorrow" and "tomorrow is zero hour"

Newsweek stated "On Sept. 10, NEWSWEEK has learned, a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns" (pay-per-view; cached version of article here)

And on 9/11 itself, data recovery experts extracted data from 32 damaged world trade center computer drives. The data revealed a surge in financial transactions shortly before the attacks. Illegal transfers of over $100 million may have been made through some trade center computer systems immediately before and during the 9/11 disaster. See this article and this one.

It is also known that military bases, such as the Navy's Sixth Fleet Ocean Surveillance Information Facility in Rota, Spain, have for many years produced daily reports on all Middle East activity. There are also mobile intel station on large naval vessels which monitor electronic communications in the Middle East.

In addition, Bin Laden was reported to have used walkie-talkies which required booster stations with easily-interceptable signals.

As if that's not enough, the Americans (see also this article and this one were trailing the hijackers on the ground in the U.S. before 9/11. A former White House Policy Analyst and Special Assistant to the President has recently stated in a letter sent to the New York Times that the NSA was tracking all of the alleged hijackers before September through wiretaps. Our close allies the Israelis were also apparently tracking the hijackers.

And remember that Cheney tracked flight 77 from many miles out as it approached the Pentagon, and yelled "the orders still stand" as the plane got closer and closer and then struck the Pentagon.

Given the above-described facts, it is impossible that we didn't see it coming. And therefore, the "innocent mistake" line just doesn't fly.

When my kid claims she broke something by "accident" but the facts prove otherwise, I give her a time out. "Oops" doesn't work with me when I know she did it on purpose. If my kid gets a time out, shouldn't the grown men who let (or made) 9/11 happen on purpose?

Time out in my kid's case means she goes to her room. Time out in the 9/11 perpetrators' case means they go to jail.




3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

you should get out more often as you reek of idiocy. this is the biggest waste of time i have ever seen one person use up in a lifetime.

1:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

anonymous: You're the idiot.

4:39 AM  
Blogger John Doraemi said...

Anonymous 1 has intimate knowlege of "idiocy."

Here's my list of 70+ Disturbing Facts about the September 11th attacks.

5:58 PM  

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