Almost half of the first paragraph was omitted! ______________________________________________
Since it was a “fire resistive” building, there would have been every expectation that the fires would burn out without any local or global collapse. However, given that the towers had collapsed and that there had been a serious interior collapse of Building 5, there was concern, and the collapse area around the building was cleared. The building suffered global collapse from fire after several hours of uncontrolled burning. There were no known injuries or fatalities in the collapse.
actually the whole artical was rewritten...comparing the two will be a lot of work...G:
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visiting this post in the am of march 1, 2008 -________________________________
jref forums .... arthur
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?p=3483044
I find _________
Yesterday, 05:50 PM #212 LashL Goddess of Legaltainment™
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Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Toronto Posts: 4,966 Donor
Originally Posted by pomeroo View Post Arthur e-mailed me a 13-page paper on WTC 7 (2.78 MB). I'd like to make it available to the regulars on this forum, but I don't know how to do it. Any suggestions?
I created a site to host it, available here.
ETA: I corrected two small typos while converting it to html, but it is otherwise unchanged from the Word document. __________________ The Litigious George R. Simpson in all of his Corn Doggedy Glory
The "Truth" movement is full of liars: wtc7lies.googlepages.com/home www.911myths.com www.debunking911.com
Last edited by LashL : Yesterday at 05:52 PM.
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And i find _____________
Today, 05:43 AM #217 Walter Ego Thinker
Walter Ego's Avatar
Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Savannah, Ga. Posts: 242
A 'Geezer' Responds On My Blog I got a comment (my first) on my blog regarding the show. The comment can be read here. Tracing it back I found it was a cut and paste from this blog post by a certain Geezer who also had this to say.
Quote: Well here it is folks, right out here in front of God and everybody. These nerds from the JREF blog have been very busy on the innertubes, even setting up web sites like the ones of Mark Roberts. Ronald Wieck claims that he can find no one from the Truth Movement (his term) that "has the stones" to accept an interview on his show. What a laugh. He probably doesn't have enough paper to send copies to all of the Architects, Engineers, Scientists, Generals in the military, Ex CIA men, etc. etc. I think the trick here is....you have to first be invited to accept...G:
They also showed up on Susie-Q's blog on the post Who is Arthur Scheuerman? Pomaroo & Gravy (the nerds in the video) in spite of their smug condemnation of what they call troofers and their proclamation that they can't get one to accept their invitation are indeed interviewing someone from Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice, who is a member and holds a Fire Science Technology AAS Degree.
http://mosnas2.blogspot.com/2008/02/...wstarring.html I believe Ron’s efforts to find a truther to debate on the show have been discussed on this forum. Should I inform the ‘Geezer’?
Edit: Left this comment for the 'Geezer.'
Quote: Ron Wieck did try to find a truther to debate on the Hardfire show. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Nobody for 'truth' took up the challenge.
Keep in mind that Hardfire is a public access program with no budget for travel or accommodations for show guests. When Jim Fetzer debated Mark Roberts, members of the JREF forum actually took up a collection to pay Fetzer's airfare.
-------------------------
Here is where I commented on Walters blog...G: ___________________________________________
Almost half of the first paragraph was omitted! ______________________________________________
Since it was a “fire resistive” building, there would have been every expectation that the fires would burn out without any local or global collapse. However, given that the towers had collapsed and that there had been a serious interior collapse of Building 5, there was concern, and the collapse area around the building was cleared. The building suffered global collapse from fire after several hours of uncontrolled burning. There were no known injuries or fatalities in the collapse.
actually the whole artical was rewritten...comparing the two will be a lot of work...G:
-----------------------
visiting this post in the am of march 1, 2008 -________________________________
jref forums .... arthur
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?p=3483044
I find _________
Yesterday, 05:50 PM #212 LashL Goddess of Legaltainment™
LashL's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Toronto Posts: 4,966 Donor
Originally Posted by pomeroo View Post Arthur e-mailed me a 13-page paper on WTC 7 (2.78 MB). I'd like to make it available to the regulars on this forum, but I don't know how to do it. Any suggestions?
I created a site to host it, available here.
ETA: I corrected two small typos while converting it to html, but it is otherwise unchanged from the Word document. __________________ The Litigious George R. Simpson in all of his Corn Doggedy Glory
The "Truth" movement is full of liars: wtc7lies.googlepages.com/home www.911myths.com www.debunking911.com
Last edited by LashL : Yesterday at 05:52 PM.
-----------------------------------
And i find _____________
Today, 05:43 AM #217 Walter Ego Thinker
Walter Ego's Avatar
Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Savannah, Ga. Posts: 242
A 'Geezer' Responds On My Blog I got a comment (my first) on my blog regarding the show. The comment can be read here. Tracing it back I found it was a cut and paste from this blog post by a certain Geezer who also had this to say.
Quote: Well here it is folks, right out here in front of God and everybody. These nerds from the JREF blog have been very busy on the innertubes, even setting up web sites like the ones of Mark Roberts. Ronald Wieck claims that he can find no one from the Truth Movement (his term) that "has the stones" to accept an interview on his show. What a laugh. He probably doesn't have enough paper to send copies to all of the Architects, Engineers, Scientists, Generals in the military, Ex CIA men, etc. etc. I think the trick here is....you have to first be invited to accept...G:
They also showed up on Susie-Q's blog on the post Who is Arthur Scheuerman? Pomaroo & Gravy (the nerds in the video) in spite of their smug condemnation of what they call troofers and their proclamation that they can't get one to accept their invitation are indeed interviewing someone from Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice, who is a member and holds a Fire Science Technology AAS Degree.
http://mosnas2.blogspot.com/2008/02/...wstarring.html I believe Ron’s efforts to find a truther to debate on the show have been discussed on this forum. Should I inform the ‘Geezer’?
Edit: Left this comment for the 'Geezer.'
Quote: Ron Wieck did try to find a truther to debate on the Hardfire show. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Nobody for 'truth' took up the challenge.
Keep in mind that Hardfire is a public access program with no budget for travel or accommodations for show guests. When Jim Fetzer debated Mark Roberts, members of the JREF forum actually took up a collection to pay Fetzer's airfare.
-------------------------
Here is where I commented on Walters blog...G: ___________________________________________
Photo 21. Building 7 before September 11 (left) and hours before collapsing (right). (Photos Courtesy of NYFD Photo.com.)
WTC's Building 7 was a 47-story office building completed in 1987 by Silverstein Properties on land owned by the Port Authority. It was built according to PA-NY-NJ codes developed for tenant alterations in the tower buildings. Building 7 was not hit by any planes but had damage from parts of Tower 1 impacting the south wall. Because of the damage to the building and the failure of the water supply, after talking to the owner, the Fire Department decided to evacuate the building and not attempt to control the fires but to let them burn out.
Building 7 had all the same deficiencies present in the Towers except that the bar joist, trusses were replaced with long span I beams. There were large growing fires on several floors as well as damage from the exterior columns of Tower 1 which peeled away during its collapse and hit the southwest corner and the middle of the south side of building 7, gouging out large sections. In addition to this damage, and problems with water supply the Fire Department Command decided not to fight these fires and ordered every one out of the building and out of the collapse zone (which was a large area including buildings and streets around building 7) It is the procedure when anticipating possible collapse to discontinue interior firefighting operations and that a collapse zone is cleared around the building. The anticipation of collapse was a brilliant conclusion and no lives were lost when the 47 story building collapsed about an hour and a half after the evacuation order was given. The BBC somehow misheard the orders to evacuate the collapse zone and reported the building had collapsed well before it actually did.
Figure 20a. Floors 8 to 45 plan. (Courtesy of NIST)
Building 7 was built over an existing Consolidated Edison power station. Above the seventh floor, the construction was very similar to that of the towers: with long-span outer floors, large open areas, unknown fireproofing on the steel, little lateral bracing in the core, and most likely weak column splicing. Since the perimeter wall columns were shear walls that resisted wind loads, the long-span floors (53 feet) acted as a diaphragm, transferring loads between exterior walls and between the walls and the core; the center core structure, as in the towers, supported only gravity loads with no lateral bracing except the floors. One important difference was that instead of steel bar-joists, the primary floor structure was more typical in that it had two-foot-deep wide flange steel 'I'-beams, nine feet on center, composite with a concrete slab.
The long-span steel I-beams had ¾-inch diameter by five-inch-long steel shear studs, about two feet on center that projected into the concrete. These studs provided bonding and composite action under load with the 5½-inch concrete floor. Shear studs were not provided in the core.
Similar sorts of floor-failure mechanisms, as those responsible for the towers' collapse, might have been responsible for Building 7's interior column failure, which triggered the progressive collapse. NIST studies (2, Appendix L) show that because of the large areas and long spans failure of one or more of three key interior columns on the east side of the building would travel vertically to the roof, collapsing all the floors on the east side and producing the initial kink in the east penthouse roof - the first indication of collapse as videotaped. As seen on the videotape, the west penthouse roof sank into the building five seconds after the east penthouse sank and indicates a horizontal collapse progression to the rectangular core, imploding the building.
I believe the collapse was unlikely to have started below the 5th floor, since the construction below the 5th floor was more conventional. These lower floors were reinforced with much lateral bracing and thick, reinforced membrane floors that would redistribute any lateral loads throughout the lower floors. The 5th floors to 7th floors were transition floors. There was speculation about the fire’s being on these floors and fed from oil-fired generators supplied from tanks on the lower floors. There was evidence for fire on the 7th and 8th floors.
The fire shown in photos 21 and 22 appears to be a very severe, but ordinary, office fire and was well above the area supplied with oil lines. There is a strong possibility that this building collapsed from this office fire alone. NIST was scheduled to complete its analysis of the cause of the collapse in late 2007. This report is my contribution toward the analysis.
Figure 21. The approximate fire location on the east side of floor 12. (Courtesy of NIST, modified by author)
Fire was first seen on the south side spreading east than photographed coming out of eight windows on the east side on the 12th floor. This fire must have dropped down to or spread up from the 11th floor, since another photo shows fire at four windows on the 11th floor. There was also fire showing at multiple 12th-floor windows on the north side and some windows on the 7th floor. This is a serious high-rise building fire that would have necessitated multiple alarms to control. There were various other fires on different floors. These photos were taken at around 2 p.m. Later photos show extensive numbers of windows burnt out apparently on the 11th and 12th floors and the 6th and 7th floors on the north side. The building collapsed about 5 pm, after the fire had burned out in most areas on the11th and 12th and 6th and 7th-floors.
Collapse Initiation Hypothesis
With a serious large area fire on the 12th floor, the two foot wide, long-span steel beams on the 13th floor, depending on the amount of fireproofing insulation installed, could have expanded and bowed, sagged or buckled downward and possibly twisted out or flopped over from the uncontrolled fire. The same scenario could have been happening on the 7th floor with fire weakening the steel on the 8th floor. Steel expansion and buckling would have deflected the floors possibly into suspension or the fire may have been burning long enough to weaken the steel causing additional sag. Unlike the bar-joist failure producing early pull-in forces, steel I-beam composite floors usually maintain push-out forces,- at least in the short-span configuration used in the standard frame construction,- caused by their expansion, during the fire, while the slab floors sag into tensile membrane action. It is unknown whether long-span floors act the same way. The large area of the concrete slab may have limited or increased tensile membrane action. As the steel beams first expanded from the heat, the studs might have pulled the slower expanding concrete into tension, possibly cracking it and removing some compression capabilities. This would have allowed the steel beams to bow or buckle sooner from the loads and thermal forces and the floor to sag and put torque on the connections to the girder supported by the three key columns on the east side. The sag could have also separated the wire mesh bond in the concrete over the girder. The girders themselves may have also been sagging.
As the sagging steel beams and girders cooled after burnout, they began to contract. Since they would have been seriously deflected downward, the beams would have been unable to overcome the inertia and lift the floor loads as they contracted, and strong pull-in forces would have developed. According to Seputro “Plastification of the steel beam leads to very high tensile stresses that may cause rupture damage to the connections after cooling. If the fire decays before the beam fails, the deformation and the steel strength will recover. The cooling phase causes shortening of the beam, which can be dangerous in the pin-pin and fix-fix cases as it may cause tensile rupture of the end connections”. Lamont, Lane, Flint and Usmani’s studies also indicate that in long span (10 meter) floors the beams can disconnect from thermal buckling and contraction on cooling.41
The increasing tension or torque in the 13th floor’s (or 8th floor’s) connections from suspension forces as the floor cooled and contracted after burnout could have started an edge detachment, or rip failure, detaching the beams along the north-south girder along the line of columns 79, 80, and 81. The “typical floor beam-to-girder and girder-to-core column connection was a single shear plate,” (2, Appendix. L, 7) but certain floors had reinforced connections. This tension or torque could have disconnected the west side of the east floor from the girder, allowing tension in the remaining portion of the floor to laterally displace one or more columns and break the column splices as the beams contracted. There were fewer beam connections to the west side of this girder than on the east side. The sinking of the east roof penthouse before any other visible failure indicates that one, two or three of the key columns (79, 80, and 81) were the first to fail. These were massive columns and most probably adequately fireproofed and would not have failed directly from heat.
The girder itself along the line of columns 79, 80 and 81 could also itself have sagged and detached from the remaining girder creating pull-in forces on the column(s) as the girder buckled from the heat and/or contracted from cooling.
A less likely scenario is that the floor attachments to Columns 76, 77, and 78 initially failed. As the 13th floor (or 8th floor) sagged and contracted as it cooled, the floor could have initially detached at these east core columns. The loss of restraint could have allowed the remaining tension in sagging and contracting floors to laterally deflect one or more of the three key columns (79, 80, and 81). There was a layer of welded wire mesh reinforcement placed in the concrete over the girders along columns 79, 80, and 81; this additional reinforcement might have strengthened these connections and thus caused the connections to the core to fail first. There was also fire on the 11th floor, and possibly the 14th floor (and the 6th and 7th floors). This could have assisted the failure of Columns 79, 80, and 81 by producing additional lateral forces.
Vertical Progression
Figure 22. East-West building middle section as viewed from the north showing column failure and resulting progression, putting all floors above in suspension; and the east roof shed is sinking. Reinforced floors are darker. (Diagram by author.)
This initial column failure was evidenced by the kinking and sinking of the east penthouse into the building’s roof and the simultaneous breaking of the windows on the east side of the north wall as it was pulled in by the suspended floors. The east wall was also reported bowing inward.
NIST studies have shown that because of the large floor areas, the failure of just one key column on any one of the lower floors would cause a vertical progression of collapse upward so that the entire section would come down. (NIST, S. Shyam Sunder lecture) This single-column’s failure initiating progressive collapse is a design defect noncompliant with the NYC codes. The buckling of these three key columns (79, 80, and 81) would have removed support for all columns directly above, putting all upper floors in immediate long-span suspension with eventual collapse. The breaking of the widows on the east side of the north face simultaneously with the buckling of the roof shed was evidence of this tension as the north wall was pulled and leaned in. This high tension in all the floors above could have failed the floor connections or buckled more columns, depending on the stresses and strains developed. As can be seen in the illustration, the floors would have been equally deflected in the initial collapse because of the geometry of the rigid columns pulling or pushing on the floors. This equal floor deflection would have created pull-in forces in the floors increasing, from the top floor downward, on the exterior walls and interior columns on the west side. This sequential increase of pull-in forces progressing downward is because the walls would have been leaning inward a greater distance at the top.
If the connections had held, and because the 14th floor was still intact, even though sagging, the exterior and interior columns more likely would have buckled near that floor. The question that needs analysis is what connections would fail first and what connections would hold with all 35 floors in suspension? NIST reported that the information available indicated that the floor–to-column connections would fail under this scenario without seriously damaging the perimeter or interior columns. However, certain connections on Floors 19 and 20 were reinforced, and Floors 21 to 23 used heavier steel. (2,126) These floors could have developed a higher degree of column destabilizing tensile forces before connection failure cut off these lateral forces.
Horizontal Progression West
One of NIST’s hypotheses involving the horizontal progression is that the impact of the debris from the falling floors hit a robust transverse truss between Floors 5 and 7 and rotated the truss, which would have pulled a line of core columns eastward, collapsing the core. This is certainly possible and may have happened, but probably not until after the core had already started collapsing from the tensile forces from the floors in suspension.
Floors 21 to 23 had slightly heavier steel framing than the others (shown darker in diagram, Figure 22). Portions of Floors 10, 19, and 20 had reinforcing plates on the bottom flange, and certain connections were reinforced. If other floor connections failed, these strong connections might have held and pulled a line of core columns eastward, especially if impacted by falling debris from the collapsing floors above. The fact that Core Columns 76, 77, and 78 on all the floors would have been subjected to suspension induced ‘pull-in’ eastward with increasing ‘pull-in’ on the lower floors, should be figured in.
Tension in the suspended floors above the buckled columns could have put floor connections to the core columns under immediate severe lateral stress on all the floors above 13. The failure of columns 76, 77 and 78 could have started the progression westward and been responsible for the kink in the north facade. If the floor connections to Column 77’s connection held on any of the levels above the 13th floor, a middle line of Core Columns 77 to 62, and possibly 59, could have been pulled eastward on any floor under the lateral forces. This line of middle core columns would more easily have been pulled eastward, since there were elevator shafts along this line and there were fewer floors that could have restrained these columns and floor beams from deflection. The connections to columns 76 and 78 on any floor above the thirteenth would probably fail first allowing the connection to column 77 to hold and pull the line the line of core columns 77 to 62 and possibly 59 eastward.
The reinforced connections on Floors 19 to 23 could have made it more likely that these connections would have held and buckled the middle line of core columns destabilized the remaining core columns. As this middle line of columns deflected, they would have pulled the remaining core columns inward toward the middle line, possibly buckling all the core columns on a floor. Debris hitting the girders and beams might have assisted in deflecting this middle line of columns. Columns 78 to 63 and/or 76 to 61 could have been pulled inward more easily since the attached beams did not have shear studs connecting them to the concrete floors. The elevator shafts without floors would offer little resistance to this inward buckling. These core columns which probably had weak splices would have had to buckle on only one floor to collapse the core structure and implode the whole building.
Five seconds after the east penthouse failed, the west shed disappeared into the roof indicating that the core failed before the building began descending. The breaking of the vertical line of windows near Column 54 on the east side of the north wall simultaneously with the sinking of the east penthouse indicates that the wall was being pulled inward by the sagging floors above the buckled core columns.
Figure 24. As-built elevations. Building 7. Courtesy of NIST.)
There were numerous diagonal braces in the core below the 7th floor. There were also thick reinforced concrete floors on the 5th and 7th floors. The 5th floor diaphragm was 14 inches thick and reinforced with imbedded steel “T” sections. The 7th floor was eight-inch reinforced concrete. This would have made it less likely that the initial failure started or progressed on these lower floors but, since the fire was also on the 7th floor, and the 8th floor was not reinforced and would have been receiving all the heat from the 7th floor fire, the 8th floor could have sagged and could have affected those columns.
The belt truss around the building at the 22nd to the 24th floors stiffened the perimeter wall and probably supported the outer frame and helped it come down as a unit above the buckling columns.
As the core failed, the perimeter walls were pulled inward, with the greatest deflection at the top floors. This “lean in” of the perimeter walls sequentially decreased the pull-in forces on each floor moving upward, and produced increasing forces on each consecutive floor moving lower. Various exterior columns and connections would have failed on the lower floors with the increasing tension. This perimeter wall’s buckling was not seen in the videos because it was below the line of sight because of the buildings in the foreground; it looked as though the building had just descended straight into the ground.
The evidence of dust expulsions from floor to floor upward from the southwest corner near the roof, said to be from “detonations,” would have been caused by the floors’ disconnecting sequentially in the corner as the tensions in the suspended collapsing floors increased after core failure. That these failures were sequentially upward shows that there were sequentially increasing tensions in lower floors due to exterior wall’s leaning inward.
The possibility that some weaknesses exist in high-rise buildings constructed with long-span floors and cores without lateral bracing and with weak column splices necessitates that all possible failure mechanisms be studied to determine the cause of failure and means to prevent future failure. NIST can do a computer analysis of the forces involved and connection strength to confirm or disprove the analysis and clarify this theory. With the increasing spans and size of floor areas of high-rise office buildings allowed by the use of steel, there is a critical need for new methods to test long-span floors to determine if they are, or can be, adequately protected from fire.
New methods should be developed for testing and determining the forces that affect these floors and their connections under collapse conditions. Long span ‘I’ beams may be affected by differential heating and expansion of different parts of the web or flanges causing early bowing, buckling or twisting, affecting structural integrity. Contraction of sagging steel beams of girders as they cool after the fire burns out may put extra pull-in forces on columns pulling them out of alignment and buckling them. If these long-span floors cannot be adequately tested and protected against progressive or global collapse, the spans should be reduced and the steel size and strength increased. Surely, lateral bracing of core columns on each floor should be required, the column splice strength increased and alternate load paths should be built in to handle floor loads in case columns fail. In situations where the failure of floor assemblies could affect the lateral stability of the columns, these floors should be considered part of the frame and should have the same degree of fireproofing protection as the columns.
WTC’s Building 7 was a 47-story office building completed in 1987 by Silverstein Properties on land owned by the Port Authority. It was built according to PA-NY- NJ codes developed for tenant alterations in the tower buildings. Building 7 was not hit by any planes but had some damage from parts of Tower 1 impacting the south wall. Because of the damage to the building and the failure of the water supply, after talking to the owner, the Fire Department decided to evacuate the building and not to attempt to control the fires but to let them burn out. Since it was a “fire resistive” building, there would have been every expectation that the fires would burn out without any local or global collapse. However, given that the towers had collapsed and that there had been a serious interior collapse of Building 5, there was concern, and the collapse area around the building was cleared. The building suffered global collapse from fire after several hours of uncontrolled burning. There were no known injuries or fatalities in the collapse. Building 7 was built over an existing Consolidated Edison power station. Above the seventh floor, the construction was very similar to that of the towers: with long-span outer floors, large open areas, unknown fireproofing on the steel, little lateral bracing in the core, and most likely weak column splicing. Since the perimeter wall columns were shear walls that resisted wind loads, the long-span floors (53 feet) acted as a diaphragm, transferring loads between exterior walls and between the walls and the core; the center core structure, as in the towers, supported only gravity loads. One important difference was that instead of steel bar-joists, the primary floor structure was more typical in that it had two-foot-deep wide flange steel I-beams, nine feet on center, composite with a concrete slab. . Figure 20a. Floors 8 to 45 plan. (Courtesy of NIST) Page 2 Photo 21. Building 7 before September 11 (left) and hours before collapsing (right). (Courtesy of Fire Department of New York.) The long-span steel I-beams had ¾-inch diameter by five-inch-long steel shear studs, about two feet on center that projecting into the concrete. These studs provided bonding and composite action under load with the 5½-inch concrete floor. Shear studs were not provided in the core. Similar sorts of floor-failure mechanisms, as those responsible for the towers’ collapse, might have been responsible for Building 7’s interior column failure, which triggered the progressive collapse. NIST studies (2, Appendix L) show that failure of one or more of three key interior columns on the east side of the building would travel vertically to the roof, collapsing all the floors and producing the initial kink in the east penthouse roof, the first indication of collapse as videotaped. That the west penthouse roof sank into the building, as seen on the videotape, five seconds after the east penthouse sank indicates a horizontal collapse progression to the rectangular core, imploding the building. Page 3 I believe the collapse was unlikely to have started below the 5th floor, since the construction below the 5th floor was more conventional. These lower floors were reinforced with much lateral bracing and thick, reinforced membrane floors that would redistribute any lateral loads throughout the lower floors. The 5th floors to 7th floors were transition floors. There was speculation about the fire’s being on these floors and fed from oil-fired generators supplied from tanks on the lower floors, but I have seen no hard evidence of fire from this source . The fire shown in photos 21 and 22 appears to be a very severe, but ordinary, office fire and was well above the area supplied with oil lines. There is a strong possibility that this building collapsed from this office fire alone. NIST was scheduled to complete its analysis of the cause of the collapse in June 2006. This report is my contribution toward the analysis. Photo 22. The north side of Building 7. Fires are on the 7th and 12th floors. (Courtesy of NIST.) Page 4 Figure 21. The approximate fire location on the east side of floor 12. (Courtesy of NIST, modified by author) Fire is coming out of eight windows on the east side on the 12th floor. This fire must have dropped down to the 11th floor, since a later photo shows fire at four windows on the 11th floor. There was also fire showing at multiple 12th-floor windows on the north side. This is a serious high-rise building fire that would have necessitated multiple alarms to control. There were various other fires on different floors. These photos were taken at around 2 p.m.; the building collapsed about three hours later, after the 12th-floor fire had burned out. Collapse Initiation Hypothesis With a serious large area fire on the 12th floor, the two foot wide, long-span steel beams on the 13th floor, depending on the amount of fireproofing insulation installed, could have expanded and bowed, sagged or buckled downward and possibly twisted out or flopped over from the uncontrolled fire. The fire may have been burning long enough to weaken the steel causing a sag and catenary action. This same mechanism could have been happening on the 11th floor with the beams on the 12th floor being heated from both sides. Unlike the bar-joist failure producing early pull-in forces, short-span, steel I-beam composite floors usually maintain push-out forces caused by their expansion, during the fire, while the floors sag into tensile membrane action. It is unknown whether long-span floors act the same way. The large area of the concrete slab may have limited or increased tensile membrane action. As the steel beams first expanded from the heat, the studs might have pulled the slower expanding concrete into tension, possibly cracking it and removing some compression capabilities. This would have allowed the steel beams to bow or buckle sooner Page 5 from the loads and thermal forces and the floor to sag and put torque on the connections to the girder on the east side. The sag could have separated the wire mesh bond in the concrete over the girder. The girders themselves may have been sagging also. As the sagging steel beams and girders cooled after burnout, they began to contract. Since they would have been seriously deflected downward, the beams would have been unable to overcome the inertia and lift the floor loads as they contracted, and strong pull-in forces would have developed. The office furnishing and equipment loads on the 13th floor might have shifted down the slope toward the middle of the floor, increasing these pull-in forces. A question that needs to be studied is, what forces are developed by the shrinking of long span steel ?-beams and girders in relation to the sag and temperature change, and over what distance does this force operate when the floor begins contracting after burnout? The increasing tension or torque in the 13th floor’s connections from suspension forces as the floor bowed, buckled, or sagged or from contraction forces in the sagging floor as the floor cooled and contracted after burnout could have started an edge detachment, or rip failure, detaching the beams along the north-south girder along the line of columns 79, 80, and 81. The “typical floor beam-to-girder and girder-to-core column connection was a single shear plate,” (2, Appendix. L, 7) but certain floors had reinforced connections. This could have disconnected the west side of the east floor from this girder, allowing tension in the remaining portion of the floor to laterally displace one or more columns and break the column splices as the beams contracted. The sinking of the east roof penthouse before any other visible failure indicates that the three key columns (79, 80, and 81) were the first to fail. These were massive columns and most probably adequately fireproofed and would not have failed directly from heat. The girder along the line of columns 79, 80 and 81 could also have sagged and detached with the remaining girder creating pull-in forces on the column(s) as the girder buckled from the heat and/or contracted from cooling A less likely scenario is that the floor attachments to Columns 76, 77, and 78 initially failed. As the 13th floor sagged and contracted as it cooled, the floor could have initially detached at these east core columns. The loss of restraint could have allowed the remaining tension in sagging and contracting floors to laterally deflect one or more of the three key columns (79, 80, and 81). There was a layer of welded wire mesh reinforcement placed in the concrete over the girders along columns 79, 80, and 81; this additional reinforcement might have strengthened these connections and thus caused the core connections to fail first. There was also some fire on the 11th floor, and possibly the 14th floor. This could have assisted the failure of Columns 79, 80, and 81 by producing additional lateral forces. Page 6 Vertical Progression The failure of columns 79, 80, and 81 on the 13th floor put all the long-span floors above into suspension. Since the columns were widely spaced and floor spans were on the order of 50 feet, with a column failure, the floors would not have been able to effectively redistribute their loads to other columns, and the collapse would have progressed upward to the top of the building. A semi-plastic hinge would have formed along the north-south girder because of the single- plate, bolted beam-to- girder connections. The tensile pull-in forces in all these upper buckled floors would have been great, since these floors were cool and there would have been no expansion-induced sag. (See Part 3, Theory.) Figure 22. East-West building section as viewed from the north showing column failure and resulting progression, putting all floors above in suspension; and the east roof shed is sinking. Darker floors are reinforced. (Diagram by author.) This initial column failure was evidenced by the kinking and sinking of the east penthouse into the building’s roof and the simultaneous breaking of the windows on the east side of the north wall as it was pulled in by the suspended floors. NIST studies have shown that because of the large floor areas, the failure of just one [key] column on any one of the lower floors would cause a vertical progression of collapse so that the entire section would come down. (NIST, S. Shyam Sunder lecture) This single-column’s failure initiating progressive Page 7 collapse is a design defect noncompliant with the NYC codes. The buckling of two or more of these three key columns (79, 80, and 81) would have removed support for all columns directly above, putting all upper floors in immediate long- span suspension with eventual collapse. The breaking of the widows on the east side of the north face simultaneously with the buckling of the roof shed was evidence of this tension as the north wall was pulled and leaned in. This high tension in all the floors above could have failed the floor connections or buckled more columns, depending on the stresses and strains developed. As can be seen in the illustration, the floors would have been equally deflected in the initial collapse because of the geometry of the rigid columns pulling or pushing on the floors. This combination of equal floor deflection along with the exterior walls leaning inward would have created increasing pull-in forces in the floors from the top floor downward. If the connections had held, the exterior walls and core columns would have been pulled inward with greater forces on the lower floors because of the lean. Because the 14th floor was still intact, even though sagging, if the floor to column connections held the exterior and interior columns more likely would have buckled at that floor. The question that needs analysis is what connections would fail first and what connections would hold with all 35 floors in suspension? NIST reported that the information available indicated that the floor–to-column connections would fail under this scenario without seriously damaging the perimeter or interior columns. However, certain connections on Floors 19 and 20 were reinforced, and Floors 21 to 23 used heavier steel. (2,126) These floors could have developed a higher degree of column destabilizing tensile forces before connection failure cut off these lateral forces. Horizontal Progression West One of NIST’s hypotheses involving the horizontal progression is that the impact of the debris from the falling floors hit a transverse truss between Floors 5 and 7 and rotated the truss, which would have pulled a line of core columns eastward, collapsing the core. This is certainly possible and may have happened, but probably not until after the core had already started collapsing from the tensile forces of the floors in suspension. Floors 21 to 23 had slightly heavier steel framing than the others (shown darker in diagram, Figure 22). Portions of Floors 10, 19, and 20 had reinforcing plates on the bottom flange, and certain connections were reinforced. If other floor connections failed, these strong connections might have held and pulled a line of core columns eastward, especially if impacted by falling debris from the collapsing floors above. The fact that Core Columns 76, 77, and 78 on all the floors would have been subjected to pull-in with increasing pull-in on the lower floors should be figured in. Page 8 Figure 23. The buckling of Columns 79, 80, and 81 would have allowed the east side floors directly above these columns to go into suspension and would have produced these strains in the remaining structure on all the floors above the 13th. (Diagram by author.) Tension in the floors above the buckled key columns could have put floor connections to the core columns under immediate severe lateral stress on all the floors above 13. These lateral stresses would be greater on the lower floors because of the exterior wall’s leaning inward more at the top. If the floor connections to Column 77’s connection held on any of the levels above the 13th floor, the middle line of Core Columns 77 to 62, and possibly 59, could have been pulled eastward under the lateral forces. This line of middle core columns would more easily have been pulled eastward, since there were elevator shafts along this line and there were fewer floors that could have restrained these columns and floor beams from deflection. The connections to columns 76 and 78 on any floor above the thirteenth would probably fail first allowing the connection to column 77 to hold and pull the line the line of core columns 77 to 62 and possibly 59 eastward. The reinforced connections on Floors 19 to 23 could have made it more likely that these connections would have held and buckled the middle line of core columns and destabilized the remaining core columns. As this middle line of columns deflected, they would have pulled the remaining core columns inward toward the middle line, possibly buckling all the core columns on a floor. Debris hitting the girders and beams might have assisted in deflecting the middle line of columns. Columns 78 to 63 and/or 76 to 61 could have been pulled inward since the attached beams would not have shear studs connecting them to the floors. The elevator shafts without floors would offer little resistance to this inward buckling. These core columns which probably had weak splices would have had Page 9 to buckle on only one floor to collapse the core structure and implode the whole building. Photo 23. Façade kink. (Courtesy of NIST) The massive façade kink, which increased as the perimeter wall came down as a unit, was aligned with Columns 76, 77, and 78. This supports the idea that these particular columns were the first core columns to fail on one or more floors and were followed by the remaining core columns, pulling in the entire exterior facade. The pull-in tension on a particular floor or floors could have buckled, say columns 76 to 61, This pull-in tension on the remaining core columns was possibly assisted by a floor or floors disconnecting from the girder along the east-west axis of the core, since “shear studs were not indicated in the design drawings for the core girders” (NIST). A line or lines of core columns buckling would have collapsed the core and put all the west side floors into suspension putting extreme lateral forces on remaining perimeter column connections on all the upper floors, buckling the entire perimeter wall. Five seconds after the east penthouse failed, the west shed disappeared into the roof indicating that the core failed before the building began descending. The breaking of the vertical line of windows near Column 54 on the east side of the north wall simultaneously with the sinking of the east penthouse indicates that the wall was being pulled inward by the floors in suspension. The evidence of dust expulsions from floor to floor upward from the southwest corner near the roof, said to be from “detonations,” would have been caused by the floors’ disconnecting sequentially in the corner as the tensions in the suspended collapsing floors increased from core failure. That these failures were upward shows that there were sequentially increasing tensions in lower floors due to exterior wall’s leaning inward. Page 10 Figure 24. As-built elevations. Building 7. (Courtesy of NIST.) Page 11 The belt truss around the building at the 22nd to the 24th floors stiffened the perimeter wall and probably supported the outer frame so that it came down as a unit above the buckling columns. There were numerous diagonal braces in the core below the 7th floor. There were also thick reinforced concrete floors on the 5th and 7th floors. The 5th floor diaphragm was 14 inches thick and reinforced with imbedded steel “T” sections. The 7th floor was eight-inch reinforced concrete. This would have made it unlikely that the initial failure started or progressed on these lower floors. As the core failed, the perimeter walls were pulled inward, with the greatest deflection at the top floors. This “lean in” of the perimeter walls sequentially decreased the pull-in forces on each floor moving upward, and produced increasing forces on each consecutive floor moving lower. Various exterior columns and connections would have failed on the lower floors with the increasing tension. This perimeter wall’s buckling was not seen in the videos because it was below the line of sight because of the buildings in the foreground; it looked as though the building had just descended straight into the ground. The possibility that some weaknesses exist in high-rise buildings constructed with long-span floors and cores without lateral bracing and weak column splices necessitates that all possible failure mechanisms be studied to determine the cause of failure and means to prevent such failure. NIST can do a computer analysis of the forces involved and connection strength to confirm or disprove the analysis and clarify the theory. With the increasing spans and size of floor areas of high-rise office buildings allowed by the use of steel, there is a critical need for new methods to test long-span floors to determine if they are, or can be, adequately protected from fire. New methods should be developed for testing and determining the forces that affect these floors and their connections under collapse conditions. Long span ‘I’ beams may be affected by differential heating and expansion of different parts of the web or flanges causing early bowing, buckling or twisting out of alignment, affecting structural integrity. Contraction of sagging steel beams of girders may put extra pull-in forces on columns pulling them out of alignment and buckling them. If these long-span floors cannot be adequately tested and protected against progressive or global collapse, the spans should be reduced and the steel size and strength increased. Surely, lateral bracing of core columns on each floor should be required, the column splice strength increased and alternate load paths should be built in to handle floor loads in case columns fail. In situations where the failure of floor assemblies could affect the stability of the columns, these floors should be considered part of the frame and should have the same degree of fireproofing protection as the columns
STRATEGIC DECEPTION DESK Return to Main desk: http://www.ecologynews.com/cuenews43.html FREE WILL & A FREE MIND ARE THE BULWARKS OF PERSONAL LIBERTY
Caveat Lector - We do not endorse this information, but pass it on in the public interest. EcoNews Service, Vancouver, BC
QUERY:Who is the Beneficiary from all this? Update 1
Message: 25 Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 01:48:23 +0200 From: "Mario Profaca" Mario.Profaca@zg.tel.hr Subject: "Criminal insider trading lead directly into the CIA's highest ranks"
SUPPRESED DETAILS OF CRIMINAL INSIDER TRADING LEAD DIRECTLY INTO THE CIA's HIGHEST RANKS
CIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR "BUZZY" KRONGARD MANAGED FIRM THAT HANDLED "PUT" OPTIONS ON UAL http://www.copvcia.com/stories/oct_2001/krongard.html
by
Michael C. Ruppert
[C COPYRIGHT, 2001, Michael C. Ruppert and FTW Publications, www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved. - May be reprinted or distributed for non-profit purposes only.]
FTW, October 9, 2001 - Although uniformly ignored by the mainstream U.S. media, there is abundant and clear evidence that a number of transactions in financial markets indicated specific (criminal) foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the case of at least one of these trades -- which has left a $2.5 million prize unclaimed -- the firm used to place the "put options" on United Airlines stock was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three Executive Director position at the Central Intelligence Agency. Until 1997 A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard had been Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown. A.B. Brown was acquired by Banker's Trust in 1997. Krongard then became, as part of the merger, Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust-AB Brown, one of 20 major U.S. banks named by Senator Carl Levin this year as being connected to money laundering. Krongard's last position at Banker's Trust (BT) was to oversee "private client relations." In this capacity he had direct hands-on relations with some of the wealthiest people in the world in a kind of specialized banking operation that has been identified by the U.S. Senate and other investigators as being closely connected to the laundering of drug money. Krongard (re?) joined the CIA in 1998 as counsel to CIA Director George Tenet. He was promoted to CIA Executive Director by President Bush in March of this year. BT was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. The combined firm is the single largest bank in Europe. And, as we shall see, Deutsche Bank played several key roles in events connected to the September 11 attacks.
THE SCOPE OF KNOWN INSIDER TRADING Before looking further into these relationships it is necessary to look at the insider trading information that is being ignored by Reuters, The New York Times and other mass media. It is well documented that the CIA has long monitored such trades - in real time - as potential warnings of terrorist attacks and other economic moves contrary to U.S. interests. Previous stories in FTW have specifically highlighted the use of Promis software to monitor such trades. It is necessary to understand only two key financial terms to understand the significance of these trades, "selling short" and "put options".
"Selling Short" is the borrowing of stock, selling it at current market prices, but not being required to actually produce the stock for some time. If the stock falls precipitously after the short contract is entered, the seller can then fulfill the contract by buying the stock after the price has fallen and complete the contract at the pre-crash price. These contracts often have a window of as long as four months.
"Put Options," are contracts giving the buyer the option to sell stocks at a later date. Purchased at nominal prices of, for example, $1.00 per share, they are sold in blocks of 100 shares. If exercised, they give the holder the option of selling selected stocks at a future date at a price set when the contract is issued. Thus, for an investment of $10,000 it might be possible to tie up 10,000 shares of United or American Airlines at $100 per share, and the seller of the option is then obligated to buy them if the option is executed. If the stock has fallen to $50 when the contract matures, the holder of the option can purchase the shares for $50 and immediately sell them for $100 - regardless of where the market then stands. A call option is the reverse of a put option, which is, in effect, a derivatives bet that the stock price will go up.
A September 21 story by the Israeli Herzliyya International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism, entitled "Black Tuesday: The World's Largest Insider Trading Scam?" documented the following trades connected to the September 11 attacks:
- Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call options. Assuming that 4,000 of the options were bought by people with advance knowledge of the imminent attacks, these "insiders" would have profited by almost $5 million.
- On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were bought on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls. Again, there was no news at that point to justify this imbalance;. Again, assuming that 4,000 of these options trades represent "insiders," they would represent a gain of about $4 million.
- [The levels of put options purchased above were more than six times higher than normal.]
- No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the Chicago exchange in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday.
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options bought in the three trading days before Black Tuesday; this compares to an average of 27 contracts per day before September 6. Morgan Stanley's share price fell from $48.90 to $42.50 in the aftermath of the attacks. Assuming that 2,000 of these options contracts were bought based upon knowledge of the approaching attacks, their purchasers could have profited by at least $1.2 million.
- Merrill Lynch & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 12,215 October $45 put options bought in the four trading days before the attacks; the previous average volume in those shares had been 252 contracts per day [a 1200% increase!]. When trading resumed, Merrill's shares fell from $46.88 to $41.50; assuming that 11,000 option contracts were bought by "insiders," their profit would have been about $5.5 million.
- European regulators are examining trades in Germany's Munich Re, Switzerland's Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with exposure to the Black Tuesday disaster. [FTW Note: AXA also owns more than 25% of American Airlines stock making the attacks a "double whammy" for them.]
On September 29, 2001 - in a vital story that has gone unnoticed by the major media - the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Investors have yet to collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, according to a source familiar with the trades and market data.
"The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors - whose identities and nationalities have not been made public - had advance knowledge of the strikes." They don't dare show up now. The suspension of trading for four days after the attacks made it impossible to cash-out quickly and claim the prize before investigators started looking.
". October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay of $2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100 shares, for 90 cents each. [This represents 230,000 shares]. Those options are now selling at more than $12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called "put" options outstanding [valued at $2.77 million and representing 231,300 shares] according to the Options Clearinghouse Corp."
".The source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of these options." This was the operation managed by Krongard until as recently as 1998.
As reported in other news stories, Deutsche Bank was also the hub of insider trading activity connected to Munich Re. just before the attacks.
CIA, THE BANKS AND THE BROKERS
Understanding the interrelationships between CIA and the banking and brokerage world is critical to grasping the already frightening implications of the above revelations. Let's look at the history of CIA, Wall Street and the big banks by looking at some of the key players in CIA's history.
Clark Clifford - The National Security Act of 1947 was written by Clark Clifford, a Democratic Party powerhouse, former Secretary of Defense, and one-time advisor to President Harry Truman. In the 1980s, as Chairman of First American Bancshares, Clifford was instrumental in getting the corrupt CIA drug bank BCCI a license to operate on American shores. His profession: Wall Street lawyer and banker.
John Foster and Allen Dulles - These two brothers "designed" the CIA for Clifford. Both were active in intelligence operations during WW II. Allen Dulles was the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland where he met frequently with Nazi leaders and looked after U.S. investments in Germany. John Foster went on to become Secretary of State under Dwight Eisenhower and Allen went on to serve as CIA Director under Eisenhower and was later fired by JFK. Their professions: partners in the most powerful - to this day - Wall Street law firm of Sullivan, Cromwell.
Bill Casey - Ronald Reagan's CIA Director and OSS veteran who served as chief wrangler during the Iran-Contra years was, under President Richard Nixon, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. His profession: Wall Street lawyer and stockbroker.
David Doherty - The current Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange for enforcement is the retired General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency.
George Herbert Walker Bush - President from 1989 to January 1993, also served as CIA Director for 13 months from 1976-7. He is now a paid consultant to the Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense contractor in the nation, which also shares joint investments with the bin Laden family.
A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard - The current Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency is the former Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown and former Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust.
John Deutch - This retired CIA Director from the Clinton Administration currently sits on the board at Citigroup, the nation's second largest bank, which has been repeatedly and overtly involved in the documented laundering of drug money. This includes Citigroup's 2001 purchase of a Mexican bank known to launder drug money, Banamex.
Nora Slatkin - This retired CIA Executive Director also sits on Citibank's board.
Maurice "Hank" Greenburg - The CEO of AIG insurance, manager of the third largest capital investment pool in the world, was floated as a possible CIA Director in 1995. FTW exposed Greenberg's and AIG's long connection to CIA drug trafficking and covert operations in a two-part series that was interrupted just prior to the attacks of September 11. AIG's stock has bounced back remarkably well since the attacks. To read that story, please go to http://www.copvcia.com/stories/part_2.html.
One wonders how much damning evidence is necessary to respond to what is now irrefutable proof that CIA knew about the attacks and did not stop them. Whatever our government is doing, whatever the CIA is doing, it is clearly NOT in the interests of the American people, especially those who died on September 11.
end
Michael C. Ruppert P.O. Box 6061-350, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413 (818)788-8791 * fax(818)981-2847 mruppert@copvcia.com
C COPYRIGHT 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 MICHAEL C. RUPPERT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
.
From spynews@yahoogroups.com: Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 19:56:46 -0700 From: "Dave Hartley" dave@localcomputermart.com Subject: CIA exec-director managed firm that handled WTC-related "insider trading" options against UAL
So, what're the odds against "coincidence" here? Billion to one?
Dave Hartley dave@localcomputermart.com http://www.localcomputermart.com Santa Cruz, CA (831)423-4284
Tri-Cities Computer (TN) |Asheville Computer (NC) 423-952-0983 or 877-245-3362 |(828)285-0240 $9.95 internet http://www.federalisp.com/?page=ispsignup
What a coincidence... -Bob Dodds
CIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR "BUZZY" KRONGARD MANAGED FIRM THAT HANDLED "PUT" OPTIONS ON UAL
A September 21 story by the Israeli Herzliyya International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism, entitled "Black Tuesday: The World's Largest Insider Trading Scam?" documented the following trades connected to the September 11 attacks:
- Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call options... Assuming that 4,000 of the options were bought by people with advance knowledge of the imminent attacks, these "insiders" would have profited by almost $5 million.
- On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were bought on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls. Again, there was no news at that point to justify this imbalance; ... Again, assuming that 4,000 of these options trades represent "insiders," they would represent a gain of about $4 million.
- [The levels of put options purchased above were more than six times higher than normal.]
- No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the Chicago exchange in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday.
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options bought in the three trading days before Black Tuesday; this compares to an average of 27 contracts per day before September 6. Morgan Stanley's share price fell from $48.90 to $42.50 in the aftermath of the attacks. Assuming that 2,000 of these options contracts were bought based upon knowledge of the approaching attacks, their purchasers could have profited by at least $1.2 million.
- Merrill Lynch & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 12,215 October $45 put options bought in the four trading days before the attacks; the previous average volume in those shares had been 252 contracts per day [a 1200% increase!]. When trading resumed, Merrill's shares fell from $46.88 to $41.50; assuming that 11,000 option contracts were bought by "insiders," their profit would have been about $5.5 million.
- European regulators are examining trades in Germany's Munich Re, Switzerland's Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with exposure to the Black Tuesday disaster. [FTW Note: AXA also owns more than 25% of American Airlines stock making the attacks a "double whammy" for them.]
On September 29, 2001 - in a vital story that has gone unnoticed by the major media - the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Investors have yet to collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, according to a source familiar with the trades and market data.
"The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors - whose identities and nationalities have not been made public - had advance knowledge of the strikes." They don't dare show up now. The suspension of trading for four days after the attacks made it impossible to cash-out quickly and claim the prize before investigators started looking.
"... October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay of $2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100 shares, for 90 cents each. [This represents 230,000 shares]. Those options are now selling at more than $12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called "put" options outstanding [valued at $2.77 million and representing 231,300 shares] according to the Options Clearinghouse Corp."
"...The source familiar with the United trades identified
Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown,
the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of these options..."
As reported in other news stories, Deutsche Bank was also the hub of insider trading activity connected to Munich Re. just before the attacks.
The firm used to place the "put options" on United Airlines stock was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three Executive Director position at the Central Intelligence Agency. Until 1997 A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard had been Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown. A.B. Brown was acquired by Banker's Trust in 1997. Krongard then became, as part of the merger, Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust-AB Brown, one of 20 major U.S. banks named by Senator Carl Levin this year as being connected to money laundering. Krongard's last position at Banker's Trust (BT) was to oversee "private client relations." In this capacity he had direct hands-on relations with some of the wealthiest people in the world in a kind of specialized banking operation that has been identified by the U.S. Senate and other investigators as being closely connected to the laundering of drug money.
Krongard (re-?) joined the CIA in 1998 as counsel to CIA Director George Tenet. He was promoted to CIA Executive Director by President Bush in March of this year.
BT(Krongard@Banker'sTrust) was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999.
_____ EcoNews Service: Always online for Ecology, Consciousness, and Universal Exopolitics EcoNews: http://www.ecologynews.com Email: econews@ecologynews.com Vancouver, BC V6M1V8
CAVEAT LECTOR: FROM TOPVIEW From World-Action list:
9.13.01 AF INTEL SOURCE: PRO-BUSH GOVERNMENT FACTIONS ABSOLUTELY BEHIND TUESDAY'S MASS DEVASTATION
Please send as far and wide as possible. Thanks, Robert Sterling, Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com ** URGENT ** PLEASE FORWARD AS FAR AND WIDE AS POSSIBLE 9.13.01 AF Intel source: pro-Bush gov't factions 'absolutely' behind Tuesday's mass devastation! "The enemy is very much within"
--------------
TOP_VIEW has just conducted a brief yet immeasurably important phone interview -- set up by a trusted and totally reliable intermediary already known to us -- with an Air Force Reserve intelligence specialist.
The interview was carried out this evening, over two days after the incredible death and devastation that took place in New York City and Washington D.C.
Our Air Force source told us his superiors had activated him at about 10 AM Tuesday morning.
He absolutely refused to permit us to record the conversation, even though he was speaking into some kind of electronic gizmo that substantially altered the sound of his voice; making him sound like Darth Vader with a serious chest cold. Some portions of his statements were unintelligible, and he refused to repeat several of these. Although this source was somewhat taciturn and close-lipped, for the most part he was cooperative in terms of giving us enough time to transcribe what he was saying. Overall what is stated plainly and unequivocally is of absolutely paramount importance for every single person in this nation and the world: certainly among those of us who value our inalienable human rights and liberties and want them to remain un-imperiled, un-abrogated and unabridged.
TOP_VIEW: We'd like to hear what you have to say about the events on Tuesday. First of all, I assume you have knowledge of the events that goes above and beyond what the public is being told by the media and the government? INTEL SOURCE: That's quite correct.
TOP_VIEW: Can you -- are you able and willing to relay this information to us? INTEL SOURCE: Well, that depends. Some of it. You're going to publish this?
TOP_VIEW: On the Internet. INTEL SOURCE: It's essential that nothing which could possibly be used to identify myself or " ** " (our intermediary) is made public.
TOP_VIEW: We totally understand. Completely. That's exactly how it will be, and -- INTEL SOURCE: You've known " ** " a long time?
TOP_VIEW: For about 6 years, sir. INTEL SOURCE: So... he'll vouch for you? (Chuckles) Fire away.
TOP_VIEW: Well... it's becoming increasingly clear that certain federal government sectors had prior knowledge of the destruction carried out on Tuesday. Would you concur with this? INTEL SOURCE: (unintelligible)
TOP_VIEW: Excuse me? I didn't understand you. INTEL SOURCE: Never mind.
TOP_VIEW: Is it true that our government knew what was going to happen? INTEL SOURCE: You could say that. Actually there are certain (pause) groups in our government who pretty much ran the whole show.
TOP_VIEW: Are you saying that there was cooperation and collaboration between elements of our government and the perpetrators? INTEL SOURCE: No. What I'm saying is that these groups (within the federal government - TV) were the perpetrators of the action, right down the line from top to bottom.
TOP_VIEW: This is really incredibly shocking, what you're saying here. Did I understand correctly, that you say elements of the federal government were the prime force behind these so-called terrorist attacks Tuesday? INTEL SOURCE: That's correct. Absolutely.
TOP_VIEW: God, what a horrifying thing to come to grips with! What is your feeling about this sir, and exactly why are you even talking to us about this? Are you positive about what you're saying? INTEL SOURCE: (laughs) What should I answer first? I would never make this kind of statement without being fully certain it was factual. My own feeling is that it's completely sickening. It's repugnant and unacceptable and I'm completely opposed to what was done. But it's true and we all have to deal with it. There are forces within our government who are completely determined to change the structure of our society at the most basic level, and these are the kind of things they're going to be doing to make sure that (fundamental changes in our society) happens.
TOP_VIEW: What's going on in the military right now with regard to what's occurred? Do many military higher-ups know this, and if so what's their position? INTEL SOURCE: (unintelligible)
TOP_VIEW: Excuse me? INTEL SOURCE: I said some do know and some don't. Some wouldn't believe it, just like many citizens wouldn't believe it. There are certainly lots of conflict going on at the upper levels of the military right now between people aware of the true facts.
TOP_VIEW: What about yourself? INTEL SOURCE: I consider myself to be a patriotic American who believes strongly in the Constitution. I'll do whatever is in my power to uphold and defend those principles, and so will many others.
TOP_VIEW: Well that's something I wanted to get to. The primary motivation for an atrocity of this magnitude would seem to be to soften up the country for some serious curtailment of civil liberties, in the name of protecting us from such "terrorist" attacks. I've likened it to Hitler's burning of the Reichstag in Germany. INTEL SOURCE: That's a good comparison. (Unintelligible)... one of the main reasons the action was carried out Tuesday. There's also other agendas having to do with control of the Middle East oil fields, and things related to that (issue).
TOP_VIEW: Well, are people such as yourself in any way prepared to, or able to, oppose these forces? INTEL SOURCE: Speaking for myself, I'd say there's a lot I'm prepared to do and will do. Speaking to you is one of those things. And there are many more like me.
TOP_VIEW: Now, how does the attack on the Pentagon figure into this whole thing? INTEL SOURCE: I can't discuss that at all.
TOP_VIEW: Can you some time in the future? INTEL SOURCE: Maybe. I think I'll need to sign off here soon.
TOP_VIEW: Is there anything else in particular you'd care to say, any advice or whatever? INTEL SOURCE: I'd say that our way of life is facing the biggest threat in our history, and the enemy is very much within. VERY MUCH WITHIN.
TOP_VIEW: So it boils down to: what happened on Tuesday was an inside job? INTEL SOURCE: Absolutely. All the way down the line and to a much higher level than most of you could ever imagine. There's a very intense struggle going on within our government like I said.
TOP_VIEW: It's a struggle we're all involved in, sir. INTEL SOURCE: That's quite true.
TOP_VIEW: It seems very clear to me that the Bush administration was way involved in the attacks. Would that be correct? They obviously want to bring about the exact kind of fundamental social restructuring that you mentioned. INTEL SOURCE: It's a good bet. Right now, it's best we cut this short.
TOP_VIEW: Good night and thank you very much for speaking with us.
----------------
This concluded our short but vastly significant interview with a patriotic Air Force intelligence officer.
Folks, we've heard it from the proverbial horse's mouth. Americans are in the most critical struggle in our entire history, and the enemy is a deceptive, malevolent and indeed demonic force deeply ensconced within the very fabric and structure of our federal government, and which also infests even our news and information sources, our entertainment, our schools and workplaces and many other aspects of our life and our society.
As our source stated: "the enemy is very much within."
-------------------------
THE START OF THE FIGHT BACK FOR TRUTH World-Action http://www.world-action.co.uk
Subject: WTC UFO possibly black helicopter Date sent: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 20:45:17 -0500
Greetings, All:
Kent Steadman has done a superlative job of putting many of the pieces of the puzzle together for us. What follows are direct links to his webpage at http://cyberspaceorbit.com. His e-mail is bardsquill@aol.com. Thank you Mr. Steadman!
Randy Kitchur > >http://cyberspaceorbit.com/blhelo.jpg (Compare the black helicopter image >at the Pentagon with the speeding image in link below.) > >http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34238,00.html#video 9/11/01: East Angle >- Second Plane Hits Tower (If this is indeed a black helicopter in the >image, the implications are truly staggering.) > >http://www.therevelation.50megs.com/cgi-bin/i/Animation2.gif (Note the >silver cylinder or discoid object to the right of the frame. A monitoring >UFO or merely distant aircraft? This thould be easily verifiable one way >or the other through official FAA records.) > >"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." > >VIDEO: Farewell address by former U.S. President (and General) Dwight >Eisenhower, January 17,1961. >http://cseti.homesite.net:7071/ramgen/ike.rm
< ROMERO SAID THAT IF HIS SCENARIO IS CORRECT, THE DIVERSIONARY ATTACK WOULD HAVE BEEN THE COLLISION OF THE PLANES INTO THE TOWERS >
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/albu.htm
EXPLOSIVES PLANTED IN TOWERS, NEW MEXICO TECH EXPERT SAYS
[Posted 14 September 2001] By Olivier Uyttebrouck - Journal Staff Writer
Televised images of the attacks on the World Trade Center suggest that explosives devices caused the collapse of both towers, a New Mexico Tech explosion expert said Tuesday. The collapse of the buildings appears "too methodical" to be a chance result of airplanes colliding with the structures, said Van Romero, vice president for research at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
"My opinion is, based on the videotapes, that after the airplanes hit the World Trade Center there were some explosive devices inside the buildings that caused the towers to collapse," Romero said. Romero is a former director of the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center at Tech, which studies explosive materials and the effects of explosions on buildings, aircraft and other structures.
Romero said he based his opinion on video aired on national television broadcasts. Romero said the collapse of the structures resembled those of controlled implosions used to demolish old structures. "It would be difficult for something from the plane to trigger an event like that," Romero said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C.
Romero said he and another Tech administrator were on a Washington-area subway when an airplane struck the Pentagon. He said he and Denny Peterson, vice president for administration and finance, were en route to an office building near the Pentagon to discuss defense-funded research programs at Tech.
If explosions did cause the towers to collapse, the detonations could have been caused by a small amount of explosive, he said. "It could have been a relatively small amount of explosives placed in strategic points," Romero said. The explosives likely would have been put in more than two points in each of the towers, he said.
< ROMERO SAID THAT IF HIS SCENARIO IS CORRECT, THE DIVERSIONARY ATTACK WOULD HAVE BEEN THE COLLISION OF THE PLANES INTO THE TOWERS >
The detonation of bombs within the towers is consistent with a common terrorist strategy, Romero said. "One of the things terrorist events are noted for is a diversionary attack and secondary device," Romero said. Attackers detonate an initial, diversionary explosion that attracts emergency personnel to the scene, then detonate a second explosion, he said. Romero said that if his scenario is correct, the diversionary attack would have been the collision of the planes into the towers.
Tech President Dan Lopez said Tuesday that Tech had NOT been asked to take part in the investigation into the attacks. Tech often assists in forensic investigations into terrorist attacks, often by setting off similar explosions and studying the effects.
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/albu.htm
Original posted at http://www.abqjournal.com/aqvan09-11-01.htm
(C) 2001, 'Albuquerge Journal,' Reprinted for Fair Use Only
------------
Further Reading:
1) Rick Rozoff takes a critical look at Washington's response to Tuesday's tragedies in 'Bush's Press Conference: Into the Abyss' at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/rozoff/abyss.htm
2) While Washington points to Osama bin Laden as "suspect # 1" in yesterday's horrific violence, the truth is not being told to the American people: 'Washington Created Osama bin Laden' by Jared Israel can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/madein.htm
3) If one looks carefully, one can find in the Western media evidence that bin Laden has been involved - on the U.S.-backed side - in Kosovo, Bosnia and now Macedonia. Can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/binl.htm
4) Bin Laden was propelled into power as part of the U.S. drive to create an Islamist terrorist movement to crush the former Soviet Union. See, the truly amazing account from the 'Washington Post,' 'Washington's Backing of Afghan Terrorists: Deliberate Policy.' at http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/anatomy.htm
5) Head of Russian Navy says official scenario couldn't have happened. See 'Russian Navy Chief Says Official 9-11 Story Impossible' at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/navy.htm
================================================== INFORMATION TIMES: http://www.InformationTimes.com ==================================================
[4,000 Jews Did Not Go To Work At World Trade Center On Sept. 11]
AL-MANAR Television Special Investigative Report http://www.manartv.com Beirut, Lebanon - Monday, September 17, 2001 http://www.manartv.com/html/engmiddle.html
4,000 Israeli Employees in WTC Absent the Day of the Attack
With the announcement of the attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, the international media, particularly the Israeli one, hurried to take advantage of the incident and started mourning 4,000 Israelis who work at the two towers. Then suddenly, no one ever mentioned anything about those Israelis and later it became clear that they remarkably did not show up in their jobs the day the [four passenger aircraft hijacking and crashing] incident [at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Pennsylvania] took place [on Tuesday, September 11, 2001].
No one talked about any Israeli being killed or wounded in the attacks. Arab diplomatic sources revealed to the Jordanian al-Watan newspaper that those Israelis remained absent that day [Tuesday, September 11, 2001] based on hints from the Israeli General Security Apparatus, the Shabak, the fact which evoked unannounced suspicions on American officials who wanted to know how the Israeli government learned about the incident before it occurred, and the reasons why it refrained from informing the U.S. authorities of the information it had.
Suspicions had increased further after Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot revealed that the Shabak prevented Israeli premier Ariel Sharon from traveling to New York and particularly to the city's eastern coast to participate in a festival organized by the Zionist organizations in support of the "Israel". Aharon Bernie, the commentator at the newspaper, brought up the issue and came up with a negative conclusion, saying "no answer". He then asked about the clue behind the Shabak's position in preventing Sharon's participation, and again without giving an answer.
Bernie added that Sharon, who was delighted for having his speech on top of the festival agenda, asked the head of the organization to mediate and convince the Shabak to change its position, but his attempts were in vein. The next day after Sharon's secretary officially announced that Sharon would not participate the incident [at the World Trade Center] took place.
For its part, the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper revealed that the FBI arrested five Israelis four hours after the attack on the [World Trade Center] Twin Towers while filming the smoking skyline from the roof of their company's building. The FBI had arrested the five for "puzzling behavior". They are said to have been caught videotaping the disaster in what was interpreted as cries of joy and mockery.
==============================
Al-Manar TV Contact Info: http://www.manartv.com/html/contact.html About Al-Manar Television http://www.manartv.com/html/about.html
Al-Manar Television, a Lebanese TV station, aims to preserve the Islamic values and to enhance the civilized role of the Arab and Islamic Community. Political, cultural and social affairs are of special importance o the station's programs. Most important is the struggle against Zionism/racism. In its course of work, Al-Manar TV focuses on live talk shows and dialogue programs in which it makes sure to bring out different thoughts and beliefs in addition to the participation of the viewers in the dialogues. The Al-Manar TV station was licensed by the Government of Lebanon in 1997.
INFOTIMES INTERNET-WEB LINKS:
FBI Arrests 5 Israeli-Jews After U.S. Terrorist Attacks http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1053
Did Israel Attack the Pentagon and World Trade Center? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1032
U.S. Military Could Be Behind The Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1048
'FBI's Dead Hijacker' is Alive and Lives in Saudi Arabia http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1049
Peter Arnett's Interview of Usama bin Laden http://www.flinet.com/~politics/jihad/jihad.htm
Robert Fisk Talks with Osama bin Laden http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=archive&s=fisk_wtc_19980921
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/laden.htm
U.S. Government is the World's Largest Terrorist Organization http://geocities.com/americanterrorism/Amerikan_Terrorism.html
Civilized World Should Oppose U.S.-Israeli Terrorism http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1036
Racism Against Arabs and Muslims on the Rise in America http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1033
James Bamford's New Book: "Body of Secrets" http://www.randomhouse.com/features/bamford/home.html
"Body of Secrets" by James Bamford http://www.salon.com/books/review/2001/04/25/nsa
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) http://www.nsa.gov
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) http://www.cia.gov
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) http://www.fbi.gov
================================================== INFORMATION TIMES: http://www.InformationTimes.com ==================================================
Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large-scale terror attacks By David Wastell in Washington and Philip Jacobson in Jerusalem (Filed: 16/09/2001)
ISRAELI intelligence officials say that they warned their counterparts in the United States last month that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible targets on the American mainland were imminent.
The attacks on the World Trade Centre's twin towers and the Pentagon were humiliating blows to the intelligence services, which failed to foresee them, and to the defence forces of the most powerful nation in the world, which failed to deflect them.
The Telegraph has learnt that two senior experts with Mossad, the Israeli military intelligence service, were sent to Washington in August to alert the CIA and FBI to the existence of a cell of as many of 200 terrorists said to be preparing a big operation.
"They had no specific information about what was being planned but linked the plot to Osama bin Laden and told the Americans that there were strong grounds for suspecting Iraqi involvement," said a senior Israeli security official.
The CIA has said that it had no hard information that would have led to the prevention of the hijacking, but the FBI said it believed that cells operating within America and totalling at least 50 terrorists were behind last week's devastating hijacks; the names of new suspects are being added to the list daily.
America's intelligence agencies are being widely blamed for their failure to predict the attacks, or anything like them, and for not discovering any of the terrorist cells before the hijackings on Tuesday. Some of those who took part had lived in the US for months, or even years.
Evidence that a clear Israeli warning was delivered to American authorities, but ignored, would be a further blow to the reputation of the CIA, which is under fire for its failure last week.
An administration official in Washington said: "If this is true then the refusal to take it seriously will mean heads will roll. It is quite credible that the CIA might not heed a Mossad warning: it has a history of being overcautious about Israeli information."
For years, staff at the Pentagon joked that they worked at "Ground Zero", the spot at which an incoming nuclear missile aimed at America's defences would explode. There is even a snack bar of that name in the central courtyard of the five-sided building, America's most obvious military bullseye.
This weekend, five days after that target was struck with devastating effect by a hijacked plane, the joking has stopped.
It is far from certain that any military commander would have had the courage to recommend shooting down a passenger airliner, even in the unprecedented circumstances of last Tuesday.
For three of the four airliners hijacked last week, however, the question did not even arise. Two pairs of combat fighters were scrambled into action but did not get near enough to shoot any of them down.
Norad, the command headquarters in Colorado responsible for defending all of North America from air attack, was notified of the first hijack at 8.38am and six minutes later two F-15 fighter jets were ordered into the air from Otis airforce base on Cape Cod.
Before they could take off, however, the first hijacked airliner crashed into the World Trade Centre's north tower at 8.46am. Six minutes later the two military jets were airborne, but when the second hijacked airliner hit the south tower shortly after 9am they were still 70 miles from Manhattan.
The only successful action against the hijackers was taken by passengers of the fourth airliner, whose heroic decision to fight back led to its crashing into the fields of Pennsylvania.
The reason lies in the strict distinction America draws between civil and military power, combined with the fact that until last week nobody had confronted the possibility that a terrorist hijacker might turn kamikaze pilot.
Although Norad has its own radar system to track aircraft over the US, its prime task is to watch for hostile aircraft approaching America from outside. "We assume anything originating in US airspace is friendly," said a spokesman.
For the same reason, the 20 or so American fighter planes on permanent full alert in case of a suspect intruder, were deployed at half a dozen bases in the likeliest flightpaths of an attack from the former Soviet Union, several hundred miles from New York or Washington DC.
All aircraft flying over American airspace are monitored and controlled by a network of 20 regional Federal Aviation Authority air traffic control centres, backed up by individual airport control towers. Military aircraft under Norad control can intervene with domestic traffic only if called on for help by their civilian colleagues.
That is what happened on Tuesday, but in no case was there apparently enough time after the FAA's warning for fighter planes to reach the hijacked airliners.
More puzzling, there were 45 minutes between air traffic controllers losing contact with the third airliner, which took off from Dulles airport just outside Washington, and its crash on to the Pentagon.
At that point, however, the aircraft was still flying on its intended course westwards. It may not have been until later, possibly after a passenger's mobile phone call to the Justice Department, that the civil authorities finally twigged what was happening.
It was not the military but civilian air traffic controllers at Washington's Reagan National Airport - tipped off by their colleagues at Dulles - who alerted the White House to the fact that an unauthorised jet was flying at full throttle towards it.
As shaken White House staff began a frantic evacuation, the aircraft banked, performed a 270 degree turn and sailed past lines of aghast drivers on expressways to crash explosively into the west side of the Pentagon.
If the airliner had approached much nearer to the White House it might have been shot down by the Secret Service, who are believed to have a battery of ground-to-air Stinger missiles ready to defend the president's home.
The Pentagon is not similarly defended. "We are an open society," said a military official. "We don't have soldiers positioned on the White House lawn and we don't have the Pentagon ringed with bunkers and tanks."
It emerged last night that two F-16 fighters took off from Langley airforce base in Virginia just two minutes before the American Airlines Boeing 767 crashed into the Pentagon, again too late to have a chance of intercepting.
Only the fourth hijacked airliner, which was less than 30 minutes from Washington when it crashed, might have been successfully intercepted: air traffic controllers at a regional centre in Nashua, New Hampshire, told a Boston newspaper that at least one F-16 fighter was in hot pursuit, and defence officials confirmed that the fighters already launched from Langley were on their way to intercept the flight when passengers apparently took matters into their own hands.
Deep inside the Pentagon, in the hardened bunkers of the National Military Joint Intelligence Centre, senior officials were said to be "stunned" by the terrorists' achievement.
Within minutes of the attack American forces around the world were put on one of their highest states of alert - Defcon 3, just two notches short of all-out war - and F-16s from Andrews Air Force Base were in the air over Washington DC.
A flotilla of warships was deployed along the east coast from bases in Virginia and Florida, with two aircraft-carriers to help protect the airspace around New York and Washington DC. Off the west coast, a further 10 ships put to sea to take up station close to the shore.
Extra Awacs aerial reconnaissance aircraft were sent aloft to ensure that nothing other than military aircraft flew in American airspace - a home-grown version of the "no-fly zones" enforced for many years over Iraq. For much of the rest of the week, the unsettling roar of F-15 and F-16 fighters patrolling the skies high above America's biggest cities replaced the usual rumble of commercial airliners.
On Friday, in a tacit admission that America must in future be better prepared, Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, announced that fighters were being put on a 15-minute "strip" alert at 26 bases nationwide.
There was anger among politicians at what many saw as the failure of the intelligence services, and some officials on Capitol Hill began canvassing support for a move to force George Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, originally appointed by Clinton, to step aside.
James Traficant, a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, said that for years Congress had poured billions of dollars of largely unscrutinised funding into America's intelligence services, "yet we learnt of every one of these tragedies from Fox News and CNN"- two television channels. Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican member of the Senate intelligence committee, said it was "a failure of great dimension".
There are moves to address one severe shortcoming noted by many critics: the CIA's reliance on technological rather than "human" means to gather information, and its weakness as a means of finding out what Osama bin Laden is up to.
During the Clinton administration, Congress banned the CIA from recruiting as a paid informer anyone with a criminal record or who was guilty of human rights violations. James Woolsey, another former CIA director, said: "Inside bin Laden's organisation there are only people who want to be human rights violators. If you don't recruit them then you don't recruit anyone."
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE > > SAB Commentary 9/13/2001 stock brokers view of tragic bombing > > StocksAtBottom.com > > September 13, 2001 > > The World has just changed > > New York is physically devastated; our spirit is alive and well. As a > society we have now been enlisted in the international war against > terrorism. This war has been going on certainly since the Jewish State > of > Israel was created in the 1948- 1949 period. > > Why the building collapsed > > As many as 5,000 to 10,000 people may have died in the destruction of > the > twin 110 story towers. They will never be recovered due to the heat > involved. Those two buildings were among the best built structures in > history. When I was very young, I remember studying them. They were > built > to withstand 200-mph winds from a hurricane. The steel girders were > placed > three feet apart, which is why the windows are narrow. Current > buildings > have girders placed seven to ten feet apart. > > The buildings were built to take the impact of an airplane crashing > into > it. What they can not take is the heat. With over 24,000 gallons of > burning aviation fuel streaming through the structure, the temperatures > were in the range of 2,000 to 2,200 degrees. Contrary to what the press > > has been stating, the steel did not melt. Steel melts at 2700 degrees. > It > did lose stiffness. At 500 degrees, steel softens, at 1200 degrees it > loses stiffness. The connectors that connect the beams went first, then > > the beams connecting the steel columns went. The columns buckled. When > the > buckling took place, the weight above just came down vertically. Each > floor cascaded on the floor below. This accounts for why the floors > came > down vertically, as opposed to why the building did not topple over on > its > side. It was gravity in the end. The way the building is designed is if > > there is a fire, it is believed that firefighters will dampen the steel > > with water in the first hour. This insures that the steel does not have > a > chance to lose stiffness. It normally takes up to three hours before > the > stiffness is effected. In this case the temperature went to 2000 > degrees, > so it took an hour for the steel to give way. > > The Investigation > > Our government has by now pretty much determined who, and what is > behind > these acts of war. The people involved took zero efforts to hide their > trail. The one thing our investigative agencies are superb at doing, is > putting the manpower into a Hercules type effort to audit the trail. > They > already know who the actual killers were. They know from their credit > card > files, what their spending habits for the last year looked like. They > include what restaurants they ate in, and what they bought. The trial > will > take them right to the source. The telephone records will take them > right > to the people and the country involved. > > In addition what is not normally known in our country, is that all > (that's > 100%) of all telephone calls going out of this country, and coming into > > this country are recorded on giant supercomputers in Fort Meade, > Maryland. > This is under the control of the National Security Agency. The computers > > listen to the first minute, where key words are monitored. This means > if > people talk about bombs, money laundering, murder, terrorism, etc., the > > conversation is then listened to completely. The terrorists who > perpetuated these acts would have notified their superiors in foreign > countries as to their status. Death leaves many trials. The trails are > being followed. > > The President was targeted > > The President knows he was targeted, and so was Air Force One. Had > President Bush been in the Oval Office on Tuesday morning, either the > plane > hitting the Pentagon, or the plane that crashed near Pittsburgh would > have > targeted the President. When you consider that the plane that hit the > Pentagon probably had only a 100-foot corridor to make the angle to hit > a > building that was only a 100 feet high, there is a good chance of > success > against the White House. > > For years our country has had missiles stationed across the street from > > the White House on the roof of the Executive Office Building (EOB). > There > is a tunnel that goes from the White House to the EOB. When President > Nixon was in office, he used to traverse the tunnel and spend most of > his > day working in the EOB. This is because the Oval Office is very small. > As > I recall, it is 17 to about 20 feet across. It is actually tiny by > comparison to a lot of offices; you may have been in. > > The problem with the missiles on the roof of the EOB is it takes time > to > launch them. In addition, how quickly would a technician react and shoot > > down a civilian airliner, without know for sure that he was about to > witness a terrorist act. Time and culture is on the side of the > terrorist. > > It would seem prudent that the President is probably not working out of > > the Oval Office at the moment, and even for the foreseeable future. Our > country spends in excess of $ 450 million per year for executive > protection > for the President. Air Force One cost over $ 400 million to build. > There > are two of them, which are both custom designed 747's, that are given > "white glove' treatment. This means all maintenance schedules are cut > in > half. This means if you change your car oil every 3000 miles, they > would > change it every 1500 miles. We take a lot of caution in guarding a > President. The results of a terrorist killing a President are > unimaginable. > > In 1963, America lost a President to terrorism. Subsequent to that act, > > President Johnson, took whatever steps were necessary to see to it that > no > foreign country was implicated in President Kennedy's death. President > Johnson made a decision that it was not worth fighting a war over. He > knew > that it could be settled another way. President Kennedy's brother > Robert > Kennedy, knew that he could not make a move until he himself was freely > > elected to the Presidency himself. This, he tried to do in 1968 before > falling prey to assassination himself. > > The Response > > America must respond, and respond quickly because Americans will demand > > it. It will not be easy. First of all, my friends tell me that > Afghanistan > has nothing to attack. The city of Kabul is a waste of time. There's > nothing there. > > If we are going to attack the military organization of an individual > terrorist, we will have to do it on the ground, with Special Forces > units. > We have the ability. We will now test the will. > > In addition, these organizations can not operate without State support. > > Our government will have to attack a major country to truly root out > the > terrorists. There have been numerous claims about the potential failure > of > American intelligence including the FEB and CIA regarding this tragedy. > This is non-sense. Electronic surveillance including sky satellites > would > not have detected this. > > Human intelligence would not catch this either. In order to penetrate > the > inner circle of radical terrorist organizations they make you prove > your > loyalty by having you murder an innocent victim. This is something that > > Americans will not do, and American sponsored individuals would not be > permitted to do this either. As a society we have to find another way, > and > we will. > > There are also concerns as to whether not there were other terrorist > teams > involved, aside from the four that succeeded. There may have been teams > > that did not make it onto the airplanes, or back up teams, or other > teams > that did make it onto planes but were diverted because the FAA shut down > > all air travel within minutes of the 2(superscript: nd) building being > taken out. > > A President always tries to stay slightly ahead of the American people > and > then lead from that position. At this point it clear that the people > want > action. The President will have to move quickly and sharply to stay in > front of the curve on this one, and he will. > > Economic Consequences > > There have been 22 events in the United States that in some shape or > fashion resemble what we are going through right now. When the markets > reopened after these events, the average decline was five to seven > percent. > On average, within weeks, the markets recovered their losses, and were > in > the plus column. > > In our opinion absent a nuclear weapon hitting this country, the > markets > will be basically unaffected. The only time the stock markets in this > country were truly closed for a long period was during the onset of > World > War I. The market was closed for four and one half months during that > period. You will remember that the banks and the exchanges were closed > for > a bank holiday during the beginning of Franklin Roosevelt's term. There > > were also several days during World War II. > > There were a large number of securities firms with offices in the World > > Trade Centers. Years ago, I knew Bernard Cantor. Bernie created a firm > called Cantor Fitzgerald, a major bond trading firm. He was a wonderful > character that assembled the world's greatest collection of sculptures. > Over 200 of these sculptures are on display at the Brooklyn Museum. An > entire separate collection is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art > on > Fifth Avenue in New York. Bernie's firm is on the 102(superscript: nd) > floor of the World Trade Center. It was wiped out in the destruction. > He > had hundreds of employees. I understand less then 10 percent survived. > Morgan Stanley had 3500 people working in the building. Hopefully most > of > them got out. > > Our banking system is intact. Years ago, this nation planned for a > nuclear > attack, and the banking industry also planned. All banking transactions > > are processed in an initial location, with a collateral system > operating > in another location. This means that if your brokerage firm was in the > Trade Center then the transactions were probably also processed > simultaneously across the river in New Jersey. What we are telling you > is > that business is intact. The American economy is intact. > > The Federal Reserve System has pumped $ 50 plus billion into the > American > economy in the last 48 hours. The Fed has also lent Europe over $ 50 > billion to prop up the European banks. We are okay. > > Conclusion > > Like previous generations we are being tested, and we shall pass the > test. > The character of our people has not changed. It never does. The genes > of > the people that fought at the Alamo, that survived the death march of > Bataan, that marched through Europe to Berlin, inhabit all of us. It > also > inhabits the immigrants today that become Americans. There is something > > very special about coming to America today. It is the same specialiness > > that our forefathers created in this country. It does not change. It > has > not changed in 200 years, and probably won't in the next 200 years. > > We are quick to respond, and respond we will. We spilled blood in lower > > Manhattan on Tuesday. We may spill more blood. In the end, we have > always > carried the day, and the end will be the same this time as well. Talk to > > your children; explain to them that there are bad people in the world. > There always will be, and we will ferret them out, and do what it is we > > have to do. Our lives will not change that much. We are too big, and > too > rich. We have lost 10,000 precious lives, and affected 100,000 others. > Every American of good character will unite with their President. There > > are no Democrats or Republicans in this situation, only Americans. Hang > in > there; believe in the innate goodness of your country. Our response is > going to very strong. The Pentagon is lining up the dominos as we write > > this. > > Your Friends At > StocksAtBottom.com >
Alleged Hijackers May Have Trained at U.S. Bases The Pentagon has turned over military records on five men to the FBI By George Wehrfritz, Catharine Skipp and John Barry NEWSWEEK
Sept. 15 -- U.S. military sources have given the FBI information that suggests five of the alleged hijackers of the planes that were used in Tuesday's terror attacks received training at secure U.S. military installations in the 1990s.
THREE OF THE alleged hijackers listed their address on drivers licenses and car registrations as the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla.--known as the "Cradle of U.S. Navy Aviation," according to a high-ranking U.S. Navy source.
Another of the alleged hijackers may have been trained in strategy and tactics at the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala., said another high-ranking Pentagon official. The fifth man may have received language instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex. Both were former Saudi Air Force pilots who had come to the United States, according to the Pentagon source. But there are slight discrepancies between the military training records and the official FBI list of suspected hijackers--either in the spellings of their names or with their birthdates. One military source said it is possible that the hijackers may have stolen the identities of the foreign nationals who studied at the U.S. installations.
The five men were on a list of 19 people identified as hijackers by the FBI on Friday. The three foreign nationals training in Pensacola appear to be Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmad Alnami, who were among the four men who allegedly commandeered United Airlines Flight 93. That flight crashed into rural Pennsylvania. The third man who may have trained in Pensacola, Ahmed Alghamdi, allegedly helped highjack United Airlines Flight 75, which hit the south tower of the World Trade Center.
Military records show that the three used as their address 10 Radford Boulevard, a base roadway on which residences for foreign-military flight trainees are located. In March 1997, Saeed Alghamdi listed the address to register a 1998 Oldsmobile; five months later he used it again to register a second vehicle, a late model Buick. Drivers licenses thought to have been issued to the other two suspects in 1996 and 1998 list the barracks as their residences.
NEWSWEEK visited the base early Saturday morning, where military police confirmed that the address housed foreign military flight trainees but denied access past front barricades. Officials at the base confirmed that the FBI is investigating the three students.
Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com Please send as far and wide as possible.
Thanks,
Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com
All of us who has ever seen a rerun of Columbo, read an Agatha Christie novel, or seen any TV crime drama has heard that question when trying to figure out the most likely suspect of a murder.
Well it looks like five thousand people were just murdered. So ask the question. Well? For starters it's certainly not the hijackers. They lost their lives. What about the people that are supposedly behind them, like Osama bin Laden? It would seem not.
Some terrorist acts may give the perpetrator some street cred: blowing up a mid-air flight like the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie Scotland which was linked back to Libya, blowing a hole in the USS Cole, blowing up a couple of US embassies in some backwater country like Tanzania. You can make a name for yourself in your little region of the world and know that the US will definitely try to catch you, but it's only going to try so hard.
But anyone would have to realize that committing an act so horrifying in size and audacity is sure to commit the US to not rest until it has your head on a stick. It's like a gang member who will try to improve his gangsta rep by shooting a local cop, but knows better than to try to assassinate the president.
Decide for yourself what it means or doesn't mean but the ones who benefit the most from this incident are those in the Bush administration.
Fact: The economy was likely to enter recession. Rightly or wrongly the public tends to place blame for economic downturns on whichever president is in office at the time. Well now if the economy heads south, it's not their fault! It's this horrible tragedy of course that's shaken people's confidence!
Fact: The Bush administration had "nothing to do". No cause. The President was reading to school children when the planes hit. (He couldn't have been too busy with affairs of state). Bush himself has said that this has now become "the focus of (his) administration" They have found their issue, their cause to rally around, and their issue to campaign for reelection on in 3 years.
Fact: Declaring a "war on terrorism" is like declaring a war on vice. It is endless and can be used indefinitely as an excuse to push through whatever agendas they may have like the missile defense shield, increased defense spending, or whatever.
Fact: The label "terrorist" is a very easy one to apply. Especially so the label "harboring" a terrorist. And we now are finding out the "enemy is among us" (here in the US). This sounds an awful lot like the Red Scare of the 50's where the excuse of routing out the invisible communists was used to abuse people's civil rights and intimidate anyone and everyone opposed to the administration or US policy. Today we look back and condemn that as "McCarthyism" but are we so clear sighted about what's right in front of us now?
Fact: Congress just approved a FORTY BILLION "relief aid package" with little to no oversights on how Bush gets to spend it. That's Billion with a "B". And this is not just for disaster clean up and aid to the victims. It's also for the "ongoing" war Bush has told us to expect and "increasing our intelligence capability". Well what does that include exactly? Reading all emails? Eavesdropping on our phone calls? Who knows because they don't have to say. Congress has given the money in the heat of emotion with little or no conditions.
Fact: Congress will have to go along with just about anything the President's administration wants that can be tied in to this disaster. Any representative or senator that dissents will look "unpatriotic" if they say no. This is very dangerous. The founders created three branches of government so that no one branch would have too much power. One of those is the judicial branch and we saw what the Supreme Court did this most recent election. Many legal experts say it was unprecedented that they ruled to hand the election results to Bush rather than say they had no business deciding it and were unduly influenced by the fact that many of the justices were appointed by Bush Sr. So that's one branch that seems not to be performing its role of providing checks and balances. And now the other branch, Congress, is cow towed too.
Fact: This sudden disaster sure seems to have taken many people's attention off the fact that this President won the election under very fishy circumstances in Florida (where his brother is governor). Boy that sure is a big help.
Does this prospect seem horrendous? Too incredible to imagine? Well it's happened before. A great fire destroyed a huge part of Rome. The emperor Nero blamed it on the Christians and used it as an excuse to persecute them and this cause helped the unpopular emperor consolidate his political power and rally patriotic Rome around him. Historians generally feel that Nero himself probably had the fire set. In the 1930's the Reichstag (the German building where their representatives met...like our Capitol building) burned down. Hitler blamed it on the "communists among them" and used it to rally a patriotic Germany around him, consolidating his political power and to persecute his political enemies. People generally agree there is enough evidence to believe the Nazis themselves set fire to the building for just this purpose.
It's very likely the Roman citizens could never imagine their own Emperor setting fire to their own city, and the same with the Germans. And that is exactly why it worked.
After the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, people who suggested people in the government were behind it looked like conspiracy nuts. Even today there seems little motivation to that idea. Unless it was a test. A smaller scale test to see how the public would react. And to extrapolate how they might react to something much bigger in the future.
Back to the suspects: Shortly after the attacks a rental car was found in the parking lot of Boston's Logan airport. Inside was the Koran and an instructional video tape on how to fly airliners. Even some of the news anchors reporting this live seemed to say what an obvious plant this seemed like! It's just not plausible that the perpetrators would be watching a video the day before the attack. It seems they'd have learned how to fly the plane well before then. If they didn't have it down by the day before something's wrong.
And it also doesn't make sense to leave such obvious evidence behind. It might if the attackers/backers planned on taking credit for it. But they haven't. Just the opposite. Everyone is denying it. So if they didn't want to get blamed for it, wouldn't they be a little more careful about leaving behind such obvious evidence?
On Saturday, just days after the attack, they announced that in the rubble of the trade center they found one of the terrorist's passports. We all saw that fireball! The fire was so hot it turned the steel of the building into hot liquid molten metal. But his passport survived? And it was found even though they had only gone through 20,000 tons of debris out of a total of 1.4 million tons? In other words they only scratched the surface of the ruins and there it was? It's like reaching out and taking a pinch from the haystack and lo and behold! There's the needle!
Something about all of this just doesn't smell right. Does that seem unpatriotic? Un-American? Well this country has a long tradition of healthy Yankee skepticism and asking about what might really be going on, what we're not being told rather than falling lockstep behind whatever slogans and rhetoric government leaders are feeding the public like the masses do in totalitarian countries.
So now might be the time to use our heads and try to look beyond the superficial.
Real Americans are not afraid of debate, of different ideas, of free thought. So pass this email along and let people discuss it. If millions of people passed along the email hoax of that phony Nostradamus "prediction" then we owe it to ourselves to share with each other something that is actually relevant.
If you are interested in a free subscription to The Konformist Newswire, please visit:
http://www.eGroups.com/list/konformist
-Caveat Lector-
This video clip shows an unknown explosion of some kind that hit an unknown building BEFORE either tower collapsed.
http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/towerblast.html
Could this be what the unknown object in the FOX video hit? Was it a missile? A jet? Please check out the FOX video. Go to this link:
Scroll to "Video - The Attack" and click on "East Angle - Second Plane Hits Tower." Between five and ten seconds after the second plane hits, SOMETHING comes down from the top left to the lower right. This has been completely and unbelievably unreported and could be one of the most important news stories in all of this. The absence of reporting on it is also a fascinating news story in and of itself.
George Bush's administration was warned repeatedly that a devastating attack on the United States was on its way, including a State Department advisory as late as 7 September, but either failed to read the signals or was unable to follow up on intelligence tips in time to prevent last Tuesday's onslaught on the country.
Evidence from countless sources has surfaced in the past few days, suggesting that the "colossal failure of intelligence" described by several senior politicians was not entirely the result of ignorance. In the three weeks before the attack, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was actually looking for two suspected associates of Osama bin Laden who turned out to be among the 19 suicide hijackers.
That search was part of a pattern of alarm signals sounding in intelligence circles from late August onwards. Around the time the FBI was receiving its tip-off about the two men, one of whom was wanted for another suspected bin Laden operation – the bombing of the USS Cole in Aden harbour last October – security was abruptly heightened at the World Trade Centre with the introduction of sniffer dogs and systematic checks on trucks bringing in deliveries. No explanation has been given for this measure.
Also in late August, Mr bin Ladenboasted in an interview with the London-based newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi that he was planning an unprecedentedly large strike against the United States.
Then, four days before calamity struck, the State Department sent out a worldwide advisory, repeating warnings it first made in May that "American citizens may be the target of a terrorist threat from extremist groups with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida organisation". The reason for the new advisory was a heightened concern over military bases in Japan or Korea.
Although these were clearly not the targets most at risk, the very fact that the State Department chose to put out an advisory was a sign that "something was cooking", according to the former secretary of state George Shultz, who received a copy at his private offices in San Francisco.
"I have no idea what intelligence lies behind the warning," Mr Shultz told the San Francisco Chronicle, "but they put this out because they had some sort of intelligence." There is nothing new about the fear that Mr bin Laden and his organisation might strike against the United States at any time. Particularly since the simultaneous bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, a crime the United States has laid squarely at Mr bin Laden's door, there have been repeated alerts leading to the temporary evacuation of American government buildings overseas.
The night after the attacks on New York and Washington, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts told CNN that the CIA believed it had thwarted an attack by Mr bin Laden's acolytes as recently as August. He gave no further details.
Aside from the general threat, however, there seems to have been some misreading of the evidence at hand. Over the weekend, for example, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert Mueller, said he had been taken entirely by surprise by the revelation that a number of last Tuesday's hijackers had received pilot training in the United States. "If we had understood that to be the case, we would have, perhaps one could have, averted this," he said on Saturday.
And yet, during the trial earlier this year of four defendants charged with involvement in the 1998 embassy bombings, it emerged that two suspected contacts of Mr bin Laden's, Essam al Ridi and Ihab Ali Nawawi, had received pilot training in Texas and Oklahoma. Mr al-Ridi, a naturalised US citizen of Egyptian origin who testified that he had bought a military aircraft at Mr bin Laden's request and flown it to Sudan, had been in contact with federal authorities since 1998. That would suggest, contrary to Mr Mueller's statement, that the FBI had solid information about the pilot-training scheme for three years.
There is also mounting evidence that the Bush administration, preoccupied with its "Son of Star Wars" missile defence system to guard against rogue nuclear, biological or chemical attacks from overseas, did not give sufficient weight to the demonstrably more pressing threat of low-tech guerrilla attacks.
Last January, just after Mr Bush took office, a bipartisan commission chaired by former senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman, issued a warning that "the relative invulnerability of the US homeland to catastrophic attack" was coming to an end.
The report said: "A direct attack against American citizens on American soil is likely over the next quarter century." A series of 50 recommendations was made, including a greater reliance on human intelligence rather than espionage equipment and the creation of a new domestic security agency marshalling the forces of the CIA, immigration, the border patrol, the Coast Guard and the FBI.
Rather than accept the report, which was unanimously approved by all seven Republicans and seven Democrats involved in its drafting and which led to the introduction of congressional legislation advocating the creation of a National Homeland Security Agency, the Bush administration chose to put it to one side and work out its own strategy from scratch.
Senator Hart said he sat tearing his hair out last week while he watched the scenes of carnage and destruction unfold on his television set, feeling that his warnings had not been taken with the appropriate seriousness. "We predicted it," he said forlornly.
I hate to point out the obvious, but doesn't this whole WTC thing seems to be like it's a mossad operation to others?
I have no proof, of course, but the economics and the reverse-engineering of the logics of the whole events point to this conclusion.
1) Israel has been very well prepared in that the current and ex-prime ministers have been very well available and have been talking on international television about this incident from the moment it started.
2) The below news is very beneficial to Israel
3) Israel benefits the most from this incident politically
4) They have the resources to do something like this
5) Their politicians don't care about killing innocent people
6) They have done it before to the Americans (Sinking one of their ships)
7) The Mossad recruit palestinians for suicide missions and kill the volunteers before they commit a bombing -> a short extention would be to use them for their own benefit by having them do suicide attacks in the US to gain support for their policies in the middle east, and have US attack the neighboring arab countries threatening Israel.
8) Osama has denied responsibility, yes he is "implicated" somehow by the evidence.
9) Osama would not seem to benefit from this politically or economically, or gain any support by doing this in the Arab countries, as has been made clear
10) Iraelis' claim to have warned USA before hand...
etc. etc. etc.
Tons of coincidences and reportings of facts about this whole incident in the news.
Israel is very prominently playing this for all it's worth, and seems incredibly very well prepared.
Of course, this does not mean that they had anything to do with it.
I'm just pointing out that they are getting the biggest benefit, together with the military-industrial and spy-complexes of the USA.
Certainly a nice conspiracy theory? ;-)
On Sat, 15 Sep 2001, [anton.raath] wrote:
> :- anybody could confirm the following? > > The authenticity of the "Palestinians celebrating footage dates back to > 1991" meme has been hotly debated on the Net over the last few days, and > last I heard nobody reputable was able to confirm that CNN was faking it. > Personally, I take CNN reports with a pinch of salt, but this might just be > a little too obvious to be true. > > For more speculation on this topic, there's a discussion at Plastic: > http://www.plastic.com/article.pl?sid=01/09/15/0020252&mode=thread > > A!
-Caveat Lector-
From: surfingtheapocalypse.com:
From My Inbox:
To the editors/webmasters/owners of your respective news sites, now is probably the time to hover over privacy.org and sites like it as UFOs hover over mutilated cattle; news respecting systematic attempts to crush civil liberties is appearing rapidly now. For example:
Senate OK's Warrantless Internet Surveillance in new Anti-Terrorism Act
Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz said yesterday that he was "startled" by a little-noticed State Department memo that was issued a week ago and warned that Americans "may be the target of a terrorist threat."
The memo, issued just four days before the attacks on New York and Washington, identified the threat as coming from "extremist groups with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization."
"I have not idea what intelligence lies behind the warning," Shultz said, ''but they put this out because they had some sort of intelligence."
Shultz, who served as secretary of state under President Reagan, said he received a copy of the Sept. 7 "worldwide warning" in his San Francisco office on the day before the fatal attacks. The memo addressed concerns for Americans overseas and made no mention of any possible attack on U.S. soil.
Reached last night, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein said this was the first she had heard anything about the State Department warnings.
"Everyone should have been (alerted), but then you would have to ask whether they would have known what to look out for," Feinstein said. "Of course," Feinstein said, "today is a different world, and I think a lot of things are going to change.
"Bin Laden's people had made statements three weeks ago carried in the Arab press in Great Britain that they were preparing to carry out unprecedented attacks in the U.S.," she said. "Whether that was the derivation of this (State Department ) bulletin, I don't know."
The warning dealt primarily with military bases in Japan and Korea. But as Shultz pointed out, the mere fact that a warning was issued indicates that "something was cooking."
And indeed, in the one-page alert, the State Department said it had received information in May 2001 "that American citizens may be the target of a terrorist threat from extremist groups with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization."
"Such individuals have not distinguished between official and civilian targets," the report said, adding, "As always, we take this information seriously. U.S. Government facilities worldwide remain on heightened alert."
"They had some sort of rumbling of something," Shultz said, "even if they didn't pinpoint it in the right direction."
U.S. State Department representative Julie Reside in Washington downplayed the significance of the bulletin yesterday, saying it was only the latest in a series of "periodically" issued public warnings by the department.
Reside said warnings are available to media organizations and on the state department's Web page.
"If it was based on intelligence, we cannot, of course, provide any details, " Reside said.
It's not the first time this year that the bin Laden organization was mentioned in a "worldwide caution." The first warning came in May, and was later updated on Sept. 7 to include the threats to U.S. military personnel in Asia.
Officials at San Francisco International Airport said they weren't aware of the State Department warning - but someone in the airport security section knew of it and passed word of the warning onto Mayor Willie Brown when he called to check on the status of flight he was planning to take to New York.
"I didn't give it much thought at the time," Brown said. "It wasn't until after the attacks that I even remembered the call."
Whether U.S. military installations around the world were aware of the memo and took extra precautions is a bit unclear. Department of Defense spokesman Glenn Flood said his agency would have received a copy of the bulletin. But, he added, "There was no order from the Pentagon for every base to go on heightened alert, because that's up to the commands in each theater, and some are on alert anyway."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher made mention of the bulletin at a routine -- and sparsely attended -- media briefing last Friday. He explained that the department was revising a June 22 notice to include warnings about threats to the military in Japan and Korea and "to ensure that the general American public is aware of this potential danger to their safety."
Boucher declined to say whether the threat in Asia was directly linked to bin Laden.
E-mail Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross at matierandross@sfchronicle.com.
Subj: NY Times Confirms Air Defense FAA Coverup Date: 15/09/01 1:10:44 PM Pacific Daylight Time From: vvvvvv@AOL.COM () Sender: CURRENT-ENCOUNTERS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
The New York Times has published an article confirming the air defense problems tragically illustrated by Tuesday's acts of war against this country, and confirming that the FAA was well aware that airliners had been hijacked PRIOR to the crashes into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon but fighters were not scrambled in time for some reason. See this link:
The article reveals that "The Federal Aviation Administration has officially REFUSED TO DISCUSS ... the SEQUENCE OF EVENTS on Tuesday morning, saying these are part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's inquiry."
WHAT???? You mean that 10,000 of our citizens can be slaughtered in coldblood and the FAA can REFUSE TO DISCUSS EVEN WHAT HAPPENED?????
This is absolutely contemptible. This is the response of a bunch of CRIMINALS TAKING THE 5th.
At what level of carnage would the FAA finally relent and DISCUSS THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS leading to the carnage? Would it take 100,000 dead? How about 1 million dead? Would maybe at 70 million dead -- one-fourth of the U.S. population -- as in a nuclear war, would the FAA finally relent and DISCUSS THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS that led to such a holocaust?????
The article goes on to discuss the military-civilian system of air traffic control set up in the 50's (I had traced it to 1952 via ADC histories in researching the UFO air defense issue). It claims these are "provisions for close communications between civilian [FAA] and military [NORAD] traffic officials." But it looks to me like the 1950's system of minute-by-minute coordination between CAA/FAA and ADC/NORAD of air traffic information to identify all flights has broken down. There doesn't seem to be a continuous flow of instantaneous electronic air traffic data to NORAD. Instead, someone at FAA, a human, has to DECIDE to notify NORAD. The data apparently (I don't _know_ for sure) doesn't automatically appear on NORAD display screens. Or if it does, NORAD doesn't task computers to track and pay attention to air target data unless and until the FAA singles out traffic for attention.
The excuse that this was unprecedented, they were taken by surprise, didn't know what to do about civilian airliners hijacked as weapons of war, etc., is just POPPYCOCK. Ever heard of Pearl Harbor???? It was UNPRECEDENTED, a SURPRISE, an ACT of WAR. Later in the war we had SUICIDE KAMIKAZE bombers. The CIA was set up in 1947 to warn against and to prevent future Pearl Harbors. The rules of engagement for fighter interception of Unidentified Targets, as we've seen from UFO incidents, has never been so EFFETE and CONFUSED.
If the target was behaving peculiarly or entered a Restricted Zone (remember the Washington National Airport UFO incidents of July 1952?) the targets were INTERCEPTED. At the very least fighters could have pinpointed the airliners, followed their headings and alerted ahead where the airliners seemed to be going, especially American Flight 77 which reportedly flew around the White House and the Capitol prior to plunging into the Pentagon.
In the Wash Nat UFO incidents we saw there was a delay in scrambling fighters because the runway at Andrews AFB was closed for repairs and the F-94's had to come from Dover AFB in Delaware over 100 miles away. Has NO ONE IN AIR DEFENSE LEARNED ANY LESSONS from 1952???? I thought they had and that in part at least it was recognized that the comprehensive system of CAA-ADC communication was going to solve such problems, though in 1952 it was realized that it would take a few years before the system would be fully up and running. And THAT was in the days before computers and satellites. What excuse do we have today?
Echelon Warned US & Israeli Intel Hijacked Planes > Were To Be Weapons > By Ned Stafford > BizReport.com > 9-14-1 > > U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies received warning signals at > least three months ago that Middle Eastern terrorists were > planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack > important symbols of American and Israeli culture, according to a > story in Germany's daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). > > The FAZ, quoting unnamed German intelligence sources, said that > the Echelon spy network was being used to collect information > about the terrorist threats, and that U.K. intelligence services > apparently also had advance warning. The FAZ, one of Germany's > most respected dailies, said that even as far back as six months > ago western and near-east press services were receiving > information that such attacks were being planned. > > Within the American intelligence community, the warnings were > taken seriously and surveillance intensified, the FAZ said. > However, there was disagreement on how such terrorist attacks > could be prevented, the newspaper said. > > Echelon is said to be a vast information collection system capable > of monitoring all the electronic communications in the world. It is > thought to be operated by the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia > and New Zealand. No government agency has ever confirmed or > denied its existence. However, an EU committee that investigated > Echelon for more than a year just last week reported its belief that > the system does exist. > > The EU committee said that Echelon sucks up electronic > transmissions "like a vacuum cleaner," using keyword search > techniques to sift through enormous amounts of data. > > The FAZ, in its news story, described the system as covering the > whole world with 120 satellites. The newspaper also said Israeli > intelligence had collected information indicated that Arab terrorist > groups planned to hijack planes in Europe to use as weapons to > attack targets in Tel Aviv and other coastal cities in Israel. > > Because of increasing concerns of plane hijackings, Israel has > tested a new x-ray machine at the Tel Aviv airport, the FAZ said. > The machine capable of detecting all known explosive elements, > even if only in small quantities, the newspaper said. > > The FAZ said that German intelligence fears that in coming days > planes will be hijacked in Europe and the Near East, and that > there is no sure way to protect against it. > > http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=2137&width=800 > > NFORMATION TIMES: http://www.InformationTimes.com ==================================================
THE INDEPENDENT (London, UK) http://www.independent.co.uk Monday, 17 September 2001
'Suicide Hijacker' is an Airline Pilot Alive and Well in Jeddah
[FBI LIST OF 19 HIJACKERS by Syed Adeeb http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1040 ]
By ROBERT FISK in Beirut
A man named by the U.S. Department of Justice as a suicide hijacker of American Airlines flight 11, the first airliner to smash into the World Trade Centre, is very much alive and living in Jeddah.
Abdulrahman al-Omari, a pilot with Saudi Airlines, was astonished to find himself accused of hijacking, as well as being dead, and has visited the U.S. consulate in Jeddah to demand an explanation.
None has so far been forthcoming. It is possible that the hijacker adopted Mr. al-Omari's identity but, if he had been using the same false name while training as a pilot in the U.S., he would presumably have been uncovered.
That is not the only error on the [FBI] list of hijackers. The name of Ziad Jarrah, identified as the pilot-hijacker of United Airlines flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, was misspelt "Jarrahi". He was a Lebanese whose family, living in the Bekaa Valley, spoke to him just two days before his death but who still refuse to believe that he was involved.
Mr. al-Omari's first name, Abdulrahman, was later given out by the U.S. authorities as "Abdulaziz" but there can be little doubt that it referred to the pilot who lives in Jeddah. The Americans described him as a father of four and Mr. al-Omari does have four children, all of whom live with him and his family in Saudi Arabia's second city. He has refused to talk to reporters and, in the words of one prominent Saudi journalist, "is one nervous guy".
INFOTIMES INTERNET-WEB LINKS:
'FBI's Dead Hijacker' is Alive and Lives in Saudi Arabia http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1049
FBI LIST OF 19 HIJACKERS by Syed Adeeb http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1040
U.S. Military Could Be Behind The Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1048
James Bamford's New Book: "Body of Secrets" http://www.randomhouse.com/features/bamford/home.html
"Body of Secrets" by James Bamford http://www.salon.com/books/review/2001/04/25/nsa
U.S. Government is the World's Largest Terrorist Organization http://geocities.com/americanterrorism/Amerikan_Terrorism.html
Civilized World Should Oppose U.S.-Israeli Terrorism http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1036
Racism Against Arabs and Muslims on the Rise in America http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1033
Did Israel Attack the Pentagon and World Trade Center? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1032
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) Website http://www.nsa.gov
================================================== INFORMATION TIMES: http://www.InformationTimes.com ==================================================
[U.S. Military Could Be Behind The Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks]
THE BALTIMORE SUN (Maryland, USA) http://www.sunspot.net Originally published April 24, 2001 http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-te.md.nsa24apr24.story
New Book on NSA Sheds Light on Secrets U.S. terror plan called Cuba invasion pretext
By Scott Shane and Tom Bowman (Sun Staff)
WASHINGTON - U.S. military leaders proposed in 1962 a secret plan to commit terrorist acts against Americans and blame Cuba to create a pretext for invasion and the ouster of Communist leader Fidel Castro, according to a new book about the National Security Agency.
"We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington," said one document reportedly prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," the document says. "Casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of indignation."
The plan is laid out in documents signed by the five Joint Chiefs but never carried out, according to writer James Bamford in "Body of Secrets." The new history of the Fort Meade-based eavesdropping agency is being released today by Doubleday.
NSA regularly picks up the conversations of suspected terrorist financier Osama bin Laden, says Bamford, and has monitored Chinese and French companies trying to sell missiles to Iran. He provides new details about an Israeli attack on a Navy eavesdropping ship in 1967, suggesting that the sinking was deliberate. And he reveals the loss of an "entire warehouse" full of secret cryptographic gear to the North Vietnamese in 1975, at the end of the Vietnam War.
Bamford, a former investigative reporter for ABC News who wrote "The Puzzle Palace" about the NSA in 1982, said his new book is based mostly on documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act or found in government archives. "NSA never handed me any documents," he said. "It was a question of digging."
He said he was most surprised by the anti-Cuba terror plan, code-named Operation Northwoods. It "may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government," he writes.
The Northwoods plan also proposed that if the 1962 launch of John Glenn into orbit were to fail, resulting in the astronaut's death, the U.S. government would publicize fabricated evidence that Cuba had used electronic interference to sabotage the flight, the book says.
A previously secret document obtained by Bamford offers further suggestions for mayhem to be blamed on Cuba.
"We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route 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," the document says. Another idea was to shoot down a CIA plane designed to replicate a passenger flight and announce that Cuban forces shot it down.
Citing a White House document, Bamford writes that the idea of creating a pretext for the invasion of Cuba might have started with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the last weeks of his administration, when the plan for an invasion by Cuban exiles trained in the United States was hatched. Carried out in April 1961, soon after Kennedy became president, the Bay of Pigs invasion proved a fiasco. Castro's forces quickly killed or rounded up the invaders.
Army Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, presented the Operation Northwoods plan to Kennedy early in 1962, but the president rejected it that March because he wanted no overt U.S. military action against Cuba. Lemnitzer then sought unsuccessfully to destroy all evidence of the plan, according to Bamford.
Lemnitzer and those who served with him in 1962 as chiefs of the nation's military branches are dead. But two former top Kennedy administration officials said yesterday that they were unaware of Operation Northwoods and questioned whether such a plan was ever drafted.
"I've never heard of Operation Northwoods. Never heard of it and don't believe it," said Theodore Sorenson, Kennedy's White House special counsel. "Obviously, it would be totally illegal as well as totally unwise."
Robert S. McNamara, Kennedy's defense secretary, said: "I never heard of it. I can't believe the chiefs were talking about or engaged in what I would call CIA-type operations."
Bamford writes that besides the Joint Chiefs, then-Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul H. Nitze also favored "provoking a phony war with Cuba."
"There may be a piece of paper" on Northwoods, said McNamara. "I just cannot conceive of [Nitze] approving anything like that or doing it without talking to me."
The book contains many other revelations in its detailed account of NSA, the biggest U.S. intelligence agency and Maryland's largest employer, with more than 25,000 personnel at Fort Meade, site of its global eavesdropping efforts.
Among them:
In recent years, NSA has regularly listened to bin Laden's unencrypted telephone calls. Agency officials have sometimes played tapes of bin Laden talking to his mother to impress members of Congress and select visitors to the agency.
In the late 1990s, NSA tracked efforts by Chinese and French companies to sell missile technology to Iran, particularly the C-802 anti-ship missile. The eavesdropping led to U.S. protests to the Chinese and French governments.
When U.S. troops evacuated Vietnam in 1975, "an entire warehouse overflowing with NSA's most important cryptographic machines and other supersensitive code and cipher materials" was left behind. It was the largest compromise of such equipment in U.S. history, Bamford writes, but the agency still has not acknowledged it.
When Israeli fighter jets attacked the NSA eavesdropping ship USS Liberty in the Mediterranean in 1967, killing 34 Americans and wounding 171, an NSA aircraft was listening in and heard Israeli pilots referring to the American flag on the ship. U.S. officials, including President Lyndon Baines Johnson, decided to forget the matter, Bamford writes, because they did not want to embarrass Israel. To this day, Israeli officials say their forces mistakenly attacked the U.S. ship.
Bamford says the reason for the strike was Israel's desperate effort to cover up its attacks on the Egyptian town of El Arish in the Sinai. The Liberty was sitting offshore and the Israelis feared that the ship would detect the operation, which included the shooting of prisoners.
Yesterday, an NSA spokesperson questioned a point made in the book about the USS Liberty.
"We do not comment on operational matters, alleged or otherwise; however, Mr. Bamford's claim that the NSA leadership was `virtually unanimous in their belief that the attack was deliberate' is simply not true," the spokesperson said.
When he wrote "The Puzzle Palace" in 1982, Bamford was attacked by some NSA officials, who said his revelations gave the Soviet Union and other U.S. adversaries too much information on the secret agency. One former director referred to him as "an unconvicted felon."
With the end of the Cold War, the agency has been less guarded. NSA's current director, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, has granted a number of interviews. Hayden "cracked the door open a tiny bit," said Bamford, partly to burnish NSA's public image and correct misconceptions.
INFOTIMES EDITOR's NOTE: James Bamford is the author of The Puzzle Palace, a national bestseller when it was first published and now regarded as a classic. He was until recently Washington Investigative Producer for ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and has written investigative cover stories for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. He lives in Washington, DC.
Praise for James Bamford's first examination of the National Security Agency, The Puzzle Palace: "There have been glimpses inside the NSA before, but until now no one has published a comprehensive and detailed report on the agency Mr. Bamford has emerged with everything except the combination to the director's safe." -- New York Times Book Review.
Bamford's new book "Body of Secrets" went on-sale on April 24, 2001 in the USA. http://www.randomhouse.com/features/bamford/home.html
INFOTIMES INTERNET-WEB LINKS:
U.S. Military Could Be Behind The Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1048
James Bamford's New Book: "Body of Secrets" http://www.randomhouse.com/features/bamford/home.html
"Body of Secrets" by James Bamford http://www.salon.com/books/review/2001/04/25/nsa
U.S. Government is the World's Largest Terrorist Organization http://geocities.com/americanterrorism/Amerikan_Terrorism.html
Civilized World Should Oppose U.S.-Israeli Terrorism http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1036
U.S. Government Must Stop its Barbaric Terrorism http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1033
Did Israel Attack the Pentagon and World Trade Center? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1032
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) Website http://www.nsa.gov
Sent four days before the terrorist act in NY:
From: Michael Novick [mailto:part2001@usa.net] Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2001 4:19 PM Subject: CIA predicts globalization will cause breakdown in Pakistan
CIA Report Predicts Globalization May Cause 'Breakdown' in Pakistan By T.C. Malhotra CNSNews.com Correspondent September 07, 2001
New Delhi (CNSNews.com) - A Central Intelligence Agency report calls the Pakistani government a "hybrid regime, not democracy," and it predicts that globalization could cause an eventual economic and political breakdown in the country. "Globalization means there could be breakdowns in bigger, developed, urban places where the United States may not be able to intervene," the CIA report said. "Pakistan is the best current example of this because it seems to encompass the worst of everything," the report continued. The report, called "Reshaping Geopolitical Trends," was released in Washington on Wednesday. Regional analysts in New Delhi explained that the "breakdowns" mentioned by the CIA would stem from growing inequality in certain parts of the world. "With growing globalization, there is bound to inequalities among regions in the world and also among regions within a particular country," said New Delhi-based analyst, Rahul Banerjee. "That is why it is necessary that a strong and democratic form of government is in place in any country if tensions due to inequalities are to be avoided. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Pakistan, where a military government is ruling the country," said Banerjee. The CIA report said the government of Pakistan is likely to remain comprised of military and democratic elements - a hybrid regime that will be called "democratic" only for the sake of stability. Pakistan's military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf , recently announced a roadmap for restoring democracy in the country by October of next year, but the military influence is not expected to wane. According to analyst Rahul Banerjee, the CIA report predicts that globalization will cause increased unemployment in Pakistan and Afghanistan. "Globalization entails free movement of goods and services across countries. Consequently, in a country such as Pakistan where there is a weak production base of goods, items produced in foreign countries are likely to replace inferior quality goods [produced domestically]. "This will result in widespread unemployment as profit margins of domestic companies come down and they eventually close shop. Terrorism therefore will turn out to be a form occupation for many youths," Banerjee said.
-- ------------- * ENWL (English) * -------- Ecological North West Line * St. Petersburg, Russia E-mail: enwle@lew.spb.org http://www.enwl.net.ru -----------------------------------------------
FROM A READER:
Date sent: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 01:51:38 -0400 From: XXXX@erols.com> To: econews@ecologynews.com Subject: Navy Warning
My mom heard the same from a friend who's son was called back to the Navy on Tuesday, September 11th under strict security at 5 AM (almost four hours before WTC)--so your info is confirmed.
Subject: Time sequence series of WTC UFO photos Date sent: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 19:53:43 -0500
http://drudgereport.com/flash91.htm
CAVEAT LECTOR - Sept 17, 2001 Cui Bono? Who is responsible for all of this?
by Monzer Zimmo
Regardless of disagreements on American foreign policies, most media outlets seem to have accepted the theory that the horrible events of September 11, 2001 resulted from American foreign policies. The basic premise in this theory is that victims, or enemies, of American foreign policies committed the terrorist attacks on American targets. Let us see if that basic premise withstands the test of reason.
Those horrifying acts were committed with a high level of sophistication, in terms of planning, coordination, and accuracy of execution. Such sophistication suggests that those who dreamed up the attacks must have also considered the consequences of their plot. They must have also calculated who would benefit from their actions. Consider the volume of resources, level of training, intelligence gathering capabilities, and the pragmatic cold calculating ruthless minds behind such operation. Then consider whether it is reasonable to accept that the perpetrators did not think of consequences and did not calculate who would benefit from their acts. Something is missing from this picture.
The perpetrators of those unspeakable crimes must have intended to benefit from them. They must have calculated the outcome and must have considered the possible reactions of the American public. More importantly, those criminals must have carefully put in place diversion tactics to focus public attention on someone else other than them; and preferably their enemies.
All media outlets seem to be focusing their reporting on Arab or Muslim "suspects". No one is examining the possible beneficiaries of those criminal acts. No one is considering the possibility that those horrible crimes were not reactions to American foreign policies, but deliberate acts to firmly position such policies in a certain direction. No one is searching for a party who has the sophistication, the means, the intelligence gathering capabilities, the motivation, the opportunity to benefit, the media manipulation skills, and the burning desire to divert world attention from its own actions against innocent civilians under its occupation. No one is suspecting a party that is eager to obtain a license to oppress the people it occupies as it wishes and with impunity. No one is considering the possible, direct or indirect, involvement of the state of Israel!
Source:
by courtesy & C 2001 Monzer Zimmo mailto:editor@mediamonitors.net
10 comments:
Had so many children she didn't know what to do...
original copy of arthurs paper
The Collapse of Building 7 by Arthur Scheuerman December 8, ‘06
http://wtc.nist.gov/media/ScheuermanStatementDec2006.pdf
jref html copy of arthurs paper
The Collapse of Building 7
By Arthur Scheuerman
FDNY Battalion Chief, Retired
Posted February 29, 2008
http://scheuermanwtc7paper.googlepages.com/home
-----------------------
ommissions
Almost half of the first paragraph was omitted!
______________________________________________
Since it
was a “fire resistive” building, there would have been every expectation that the
fires would burn out without any local or global collapse. However, given that the
towers had collapsed and that there had been a serious interior collapse of
Building 5, there was concern, and the collapse area around the building was
cleared. The building suffered global collapse from fire after several hours of
uncontrolled burning. There were no known injuries or fatalities in the collapse.
actually the whole artical was rewritten...comparing the two will be a lot of work...G:
-----------------------
visiting this post in the am of march 1, 2008
-________________________________
jref forums .... arthur
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?p=3483044
I find
_________
Yesterday, 05:50 PM #212
LashL
Goddess of Legaltainment™
LashL's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Toronto
Posts: 4,966
Donor
Originally Posted by pomeroo View Post
Arthur e-mailed me a 13-page paper on WTC 7 (2.78 MB). I'd like to make it available to the regulars on this forum, but I don't know how to do it. Any suggestions?
I created a site to host it, available here.
ETA: I corrected two small typos while converting it to html, but it is otherwise unchanged from the Word document.
__________________
The Litigious George R. Simpson in all of his Corn Doggedy Glory
The "Truth" movement is full of liars: wtc7lies.googlepages.com/home
www.911myths.com
www.debunking911.com
Last edited by LashL : Yesterday at 05:52 PM.
-----------------------------------
And i find
_____________
Today, 05:43 AM #217
Walter Ego
Thinker
Walter Ego's Avatar
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Savannah, Ga.
Posts: 242
A 'Geezer' Responds On My Blog
I got a comment (my first) on my blog regarding the show. The comment can be read here. Tracing it back I found it was a cut and paste from this blog post by a certain Geezer who also had this to say.
Quote:
Well here it is folks, right out here in front of God and everybody. These nerds from the JREF blog have been very busy on the innertubes, even setting up web sites like the ones of Mark Roberts. Ronald Wieck claims that he can find no one from the Truth Movement (his term) that "has the stones" to accept an interview on his show. What a laugh. He probably doesn't have enough paper to send copies to all of the Architects, Engineers, Scientists, Generals in the military, Ex CIA men, etc. etc. I think the trick here is....you have to first be invited to accept...G:
They also showed up on Susie-Q's blog on the post Who is Arthur Scheuerman? Pomaroo & Gravy (the nerds in the video) in spite of their smug condemnation of what they call troofers and their proclamation that they can't get one to accept their invitation are indeed interviewing someone from Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice, who is a member and holds a Fire Science Technology AAS Degree.
http://mosnas2.blogspot.com/2008/02/...wstarring.html
I believe Ron’s efforts to find a truther to debate on the show have been discussed on this forum. Should I inform the ‘Geezer’?
Edit: Left this comment for the 'Geezer.'
Quote:
Ron Wieck did try to find a truther to debate on the Hardfire show. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Nobody for 'truth' took up the challenge.
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=106814
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.p...75#post3388575
Keep in mind that Hardfire is a public access program with no budget for travel or accommodations for show guests. When Jim Fetzer debated Mark Roberts, members of the JREF forum actually took up a collection to pay Fetzer's airfare.
-------------------------
Here is where I commented on Walters blog...G:
___________________________________________
http://911vids.blogspot.com/2008/02/hardfire-wtc7.html#comments
**************************
My encounters with the nerds from jref about the Pomaroo show starring Arthur Scheuerman
original copy of arthurs paper
The Collapse of Building 7 by Arthur Scheuerman December 8, ‘06
http://wtc.nist.gov/media/ScheuermanStatementDec2006.pdf
jref html copy of arthurs paper
The Collapse of Building 7
By Arthur Scheuerman
FDNY Battalion Chief, Retired
Posted February 29, 2008
http://scheuermanwtc7paper.googlepages.com/home
-----------------------
ommissions
Almost half of the first paragraph was omitted!
______________________________________________
Since it
was a “fire resistive” building, there would have been every expectation that the
fires would burn out without any local or global collapse. However, given that the
towers had collapsed and that there had been a serious interior collapse of
Building 5, there was concern, and the collapse area around the building was
cleared. The building suffered global collapse from fire after several hours of
uncontrolled burning. There were no known injuries or fatalities in the collapse.
actually the whole artical was rewritten...comparing the two will be a lot of work...G:
-----------------------
visiting this post in the am of march 1, 2008
-________________________________
jref forums .... arthur
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?p=3483044
I find
_________
Yesterday, 05:50 PM #212
LashL
Goddess of Legaltainment™
LashL's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Toronto
Posts: 4,966
Donor
Originally Posted by pomeroo View Post
Arthur e-mailed me a 13-page paper on WTC 7 (2.78 MB). I'd like to make it available to the regulars on this forum, but I don't know how to do it. Any suggestions?
I created a site to host it, available here.
ETA: I corrected two small typos while converting it to html, but it is otherwise unchanged from the Word document.
__________________
The Litigious George R. Simpson in all of his Corn Doggedy Glory
The "Truth" movement is full of liars: wtc7lies.googlepages.com/home
www.911myths.com
www.debunking911.com
Last edited by LashL : Yesterday at 05:52 PM.
-----------------------------------
And i find
_____________
Today, 05:43 AM #217
Walter Ego
Thinker
Walter Ego's Avatar
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Savannah, Ga.
Posts: 242
A 'Geezer' Responds On My Blog
I got a comment (my first) on my blog regarding the show. The comment can be read here. Tracing it back I found it was a cut and paste from this blog post by a certain Geezer who also had this to say.
Quote:
Well here it is folks, right out here in front of God and everybody. These nerds from the JREF blog have been very busy on the innertubes, even setting up web sites like the ones of Mark Roberts. Ronald Wieck claims that he can find no one from the Truth Movement (his term) that "has the stones" to accept an interview on his show. What a laugh. He probably doesn't have enough paper to send copies to all of the Architects, Engineers, Scientists, Generals in the military, Ex CIA men, etc. etc. I think the trick here is....you have to first be invited to accept...G:
They also showed up on Susie-Q's blog on the post Who is Arthur Scheuerman? Pomaroo & Gravy (the nerds in the video) in spite of their smug condemnation of what they call troofers and their proclamation that they can't get one to accept their invitation are indeed interviewing someone from Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice, who is a member and holds a Fire Science Technology AAS Degree.
http://mosnas2.blogspot.com/2008/02/...wstarring.html
I believe Ron’s efforts to find a truther to debate on the show have been discussed on this forum. Should I inform the ‘Geezer’?
Edit: Left this comment for the 'Geezer.'
Quote:
Ron Wieck did try to find a truther to debate on the Hardfire show. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Nobody for 'truth' took up the challenge.
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=106814
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.p...75#post3388575
Keep in mind that Hardfire is a public access program with no budget for travel or accommodations for show guests. When Jim Fetzer debated Mark Roberts, members of the JREF forum actually took up a collection to pay Fetzer's airfare.
-------------------------
Here is where I commented on Walters blog...G:
___________________________________________
http://911vids.blogspot.com/2008/02/hardfire-wtc7.html#comments
**************************
*******************************
*************************************
The whole original article by Arthur Scheuerman December 8, ‘06 below has been rewritten by someone, and I doubt that it was Arthur!
----------------------------
See the original below the jref article---->
***********************************G:
***********************************
From jref
____________-
The Collapse of Building 7
By Arthur Scheuerman
FDNY Battalion Chief, Retired
Posted February 29, 2008
Photo 21. Building 7 before September 11 (left) and hours before collapsing (right). (Photos Courtesy of NYFD Photo.com.)
WTC's Building 7 was a 47-story office building completed in 1987 by Silverstein Properties on land owned by the Port Authority. It was built according to PA-NY-NJ codes developed for tenant alterations in the tower buildings. Building 7 was not hit by any planes but had damage from parts of Tower 1 impacting the south wall. Because of the damage to the building and the failure of the water supply, after talking to the owner, the Fire Department decided to evacuate the building and not attempt to control the fires but to let them burn out.
Building 7 had all the same deficiencies present in the Towers except that the bar joist, trusses were replaced with long span I beams. There were large growing fires on several floors as well as damage from the exterior columns of Tower 1 which peeled away during its collapse and hit the southwest corner and the middle of the south side of building 7, gouging out large sections. In addition to this damage, and problems with water supply the Fire Department Command decided not to fight these fires and ordered every one out of the building and out of the collapse zone (which was a large area including buildings and streets around building 7) It is the procedure when anticipating possible collapse to discontinue interior firefighting operations and that a collapse zone is cleared around the building. The anticipation of collapse was a brilliant conclusion and no lives were lost when the 47 story building collapsed about an hour and a half after the evacuation order was given. The BBC somehow misheard the orders to evacuate the collapse zone and reported the building had collapsed well before it actually did.
Figure 20a. Floors 8 to 45 plan. (Courtesy of NIST)
Building 7 was built over an existing Consolidated Edison power station. Above the seventh floor, the construction was very similar to that of the towers: with long-span outer floors, large open areas, unknown fireproofing on the steel, little lateral bracing in the core, and most likely weak column splicing. Since the perimeter wall columns were shear walls that resisted wind loads, the long-span floors (53 feet) acted as a diaphragm, transferring loads between exterior walls and between the walls and the core; the center core structure, as in the towers, supported only gravity loads with no lateral bracing except the floors. One important difference was that instead of steel bar-joists, the primary floor structure was more typical in that it had two-foot-deep wide flange steel 'I'-beams, nine feet on center, composite with a concrete slab.
The long-span steel I-beams had ¾-inch diameter by five-inch-long steel shear studs, about two feet on center that projected into the concrete. These studs provided bonding and composite action under load with the 5½-inch concrete floor. Shear studs were not provided in the core.
Similar sorts of floor-failure mechanisms, as those responsible for the towers' collapse, might have been responsible for Building 7's interior column failure, which triggered the progressive collapse. NIST studies (2, Appendix L) show that because of the large areas and long spans failure of one or more of three key interior columns on the east side of the building would travel vertically to the roof, collapsing all the floors on the east side and producing the initial kink in the east penthouse roof - the first indication of collapse as videotaped. As seen on the videotape, the west penthouse roof sank into the building five seconds after the east penthouse sank and indicates a horizontal collapse progression to the rectangular core, imploding the building.
I believe the collapse was unlikely to have started below the 5th floor, since the construction below the 5th floor was more conventional. These lower floors were reinforced with much lateral bracing and thick, reinforced membrane floors that would redistribute any lateral loads throughout the lower floors. The 5th floors to 7th floors were transition floors. There was speculation about the fire’s being on these floors and fed from oil-fired generators supplied from tanks on the lower floors. There was evidence for fire on the 7th and 8th floors.
The fire shown in photos 21 and 22 appears to be a very severe, but ordinary, office fire and was well above the area supplied with oil lines. There is a strong possibility that this building collapsed from this office fire alone. NIST was scheduled to complete its analysis of the cause of the collapse in late 2007. This report is my contribution toward the analysis.
Figure 21. The approximate fire location on the east side of floor 12. (Courtesy of NIST, modified by author)
Fire was first seen on the south side spreading east than photographed coming out of eight windows on the east side on the 12th floor. This fire must have dropped down to or spread up from the 11th floor, since another photo shows fire at four windows on the 11th floor. There was also fire showing at multiple 12th-floor windows on the north side and some windows on the 7th floor. This is a serious high-rise building fire that would have necessitated multiple alarms to control. There were various other fires on different floors. These photos were taken at around 2 p.m. Later photos show extensive numbers of windows burnt out apparently on the 11th and 12th floors and the 6th and 7th floors on the north side. The building collapsed about 5 pm, after the fire had burned out in most areas on the11th and 12th and 6th and 7th-floors.
Collapse Initiation Hypothesis
With a serious large area fire on the 12th floor, the two foot wide, long-span steel beams on the 13th floor, depending on the amount of fireproofing insulation installed, could have expanded and bowed, sagged or buckled downward and possibly twisted out or flopped over from the uncontrolled fire. The same scenario could have been happening on the 7th floor with fire weakening the steel on the 8th floor. Steel expansion and buckling would have deflected the floors possibly into suspension or the fire may have been burning long enough to weaken the steel causing additional sag. Unlike the bar-joist failure producing early pull-in forces, steel I-beam composite floors usually maintain push-out forces,- at least in the short-span configuration used in the standard frame construction,- caused by their expansion, during the fire, while the slab floors sag into tensile membrane action. It is unknown whether long-span floors act the same way. The large area of the concrete slab may have limited or increased tensile membrane action. As the steel beams first expanded from the heat, the studs might have pulled the slower expanding concrete into tension, possibly cracking it and removing some compression capabilities. This would have allowed the steel beams to bow or buckle sooner from the loads and thermal forces and the floor to sag and put torque on the connections to the girder supported by the three key columns on the east side. The sag could have also separated the wire mesh bond in the concrete over the girder. The girders themselves may have also been sagging.
As the sagging steel beams and girders cooled after burnout, they began to contract. Since they would have been seriously deflected downward, the beams would have been unable to overcome the inertia and lift the floor loads as they contracted, and strong pull-in forces would have developed. According to Seputro “Plastification of the steel beam leads to very high tensile stresses that may cause rupture damage to the connections after cooling. If the fire decays before the beam fails, the deformation and the steel strength will recover. The cooling phase causes shortening of the beam, which can be dangerous in the pin-pin and fix-fix cases as it may cause tensile rupture of the end connections”. Lamont, Lane, Flint and Usmani’s studies also indicate that in long span (10 meter) floors the beams can disconnect from thermal buckling and contraction on cooling.41
The increasing tension or torque in the 13th floor’s (or 8th floor’s) connections from suspension forces as the floor cooled and contracted after burnout could have started an edge detachment, or rip failure, detaching the beams along the north-south girder along the line of columns 79, 80, and 81. The “typical floor beam-to-girder and girder-to-core column connection was a single shear plate,” (2, Appendix. L, 7) but certain floors had reinforced connections. This tension or torque could have disconnected the west side of the east floor from the girder, allowing tension in the remaining portion of the floor to laterally displace one or more columns and break the column splices as the beams contracted. There were fewer beam connections to the west side of this girder than on the east side. The sinking of the east roof penthouse before any other visible failure indicates that one, two or three of the key columns (79, 80, and 81) were the first to fail. These were massive columns and most probably adequately fireproofed and would not have failed directly from heat.
The girder itself along the line of columns 79, 80 and 81 could also itself have sagged and detached from the remaining girder creating pull-in forces on the column(s) as the girder buckled from the heat and/or contracted from cooling.
A less likely scenario is that the floor attachments to Columns 76, 77, and 78 initially failed. As the 13th floor (or 8th floor) sagged and contracted as it cooled, the floor could have initially detached at these east core columns. The loss of restraint could have allowed the remaining tension in sagging and contracting floors to laterally deflect one or more of the three key columns (79, 80, and 81). There was a layer of welded wire mesh reinforcement placed in the concrete over the girders along columns 79, 80, and 81; this additional reinforcement might have strengthened these connections and thus caused the connections to the core to fail first. There was also fire on the 11th floor, and possibly the 14th floor (and the 6th and 7th floors). This could have assisted the failure of Columns 79, 80, and 81 by producing additional lateral forces.
Vertical Progression
Figure 22. East-West building middle section as viewed from the north showing column failure and resulting progression, putting all floors above in suspension; and the east roof shed is sinking. Reinforced floors are darker. (Diagram by author.)
This initial column failure was evidenced by the kinking and sinking of the east penthouse into the building’s roof and the simultaneous breaking of the windows on the east side of the north wall as it was pulled in by the suspended floors. The east wall was also reported bowing inward.
NIST studies have shown that because of the large floor areas, the failure of just one key column on any one of the lower floors would cause a vertical progression of collapse upward so that the entire section would come down. (NIST, S. Shyam Sunder lecture) This single-column’s failure initiating progressive collapse is a design defect noncompliant with the NYC codes. The buckling of these three key columns (79, 80, and 81) would have removed support for all columns directly above, putting all upper floors in immediate long-span suspension with eventual collapse. The breaking of the widows on the east side of the north face simultaneously with the buckling of the roof shed was evidence of this tension as the north wall was pulled and leaned in. This high tension in all the floors above could have failed the floor connections or buckled more columns, depending on the stresses and strains developed. As can be seen in the illustration, the floors would have been equally deflected in the initial collapse because of the geometry of the rigid columns pulling or pushing on the floors. This equal floor deflection would have created pull-in forces in the floors increasing, from the top floor downward, on the exterior walls and interior columns on the west side. This sequential increase of pull-in forces progressing downward is because the walls would have been leaning inward a greater distance at the top.
If the connections had held, and because the 14th floor was still intact, even though sagging, the exterior and interior columns more likely would have buckled near that floor. The question that needs analysis is what connections would fail first and what connections would hold with all 35 floors in suspension? NIST reported that the information available indicated that the floor–to-column connections would fail under this scenario without seriously damaging the perimeter or interior columns. However, certain connections on Floors 19 and 20 were reinforced, and Floors 21 to 23 used heavier steel. (2,126) These floors could have developed a higher degree of column destabilizing tensile forces before connection failure cut off these lateral forces.
Horizontal Progression West
One of NIST’s hypotheses involving the horizontal progression is that the impact of the debris from the falling floors hit a robust transverse truss between Floors 5 and 7 and rotated the truss, which would have pulled a line of core columns eastward, collapsing the core. This is certainly possible and may have happened, but probably not until after the core had already started collapsing from the tensile forces from the floors in suspension.
Floors 21 to 23 had slightly heavier steel framing than the others (shown darker in diagram, Figure 22). Portions of Floors 10, 19, and 20 had reinforcing plates on the bottom flange, and certain connections were reinforced. If other floor connections failed, these strong connections might have held and pulled a line of core columns eastward, especially if impacted by falling debris from the collapsing floors above. The fact that Core Columns 76, 77, and 78 on all the floors would have been subjected to suspension induced ‘pull-in’ eastward with increasing ‘pull-in’ on the lower floors, should be figured in.
Tension in the suspended floors above the buckled columns could have put floor connections to the core columns under immediate severe lateral stress on all the floors above 13. The failure of columns 76, 77 and 78 could have started the progression westward and been responsible for the kink in the north facade. If the floor connections to Column 77’s connection held on any of the levels above the 13th floor, a middle line of Core Columns 77 to 62, and possibly 59, could have been pulled eastward on any floor under the lateral forces. This line of middle core columns would more easily have been pulled eastward, since there were elevator shafts along this line and there were fewer floors that could have restrained these columns and floor beams from deflection. The connections to columns 76 and 78 on any floor above the thirteenth would probably fail first allowing the connection to column 77 to hold and pull the line the line of core columns 77 to 62 and possibly 59 eastward.
The reinforced connections on Floors 19 to 23 could have made it more likely that these connections would have held and buckled the middle line of core columns destabilized the remaining core columns. As this middle line of columns deflected, they would have pulled the remaining core columns inward toward the middle line, possibly buckling all the core columns on a floor. Debris hitting the girders and beams might have assisted in deflecting this middle line of columns. Columns 78 to 63 and/or 76 to 61 could have been pulled inward more easily since the attached beams did not have shear studs connecting them to the concrete floors. The elevator shafts without floors would offer little resistance to this inward buckling. These core columns which probably had weak splices would have had to buckle on only one floor to collapse the core structure and implode the whole building.
Five seconds after the east penthouse failed, the west shed disappeared into the roof indicating that the core failed before the building began descending. The breaking of the vertical line of windows near Column 54 on the east side of the north wall simultaneously with the sinking of the east penthouse indicates that the wall was being pulled inward by the sagging floors above the buckled core columns.
Figure 24. As-built elevations. Building 7. Courtesy of NIST.)
There were numerous diagonal braces in the core below the 7th floor. There were also thick reinforced concrete floors on the 5th and 7th floors. The 5th floor diaphragm was 14 inches thick and reinforced with imbedded steel “T” sections. The 7th floor was eight-inch reinforced concrete. This would have made it less likely that the initial failure started or progressed on these lower floors but, since the fire was also on the 7th floor, and the 8th floor was not reinforced and would have been receiving all the heat from the 7th floor fire, the 8th floor could have sagged and could have affected those columns.
The belt truss around the building at the 22nd to the 24th floors stiffened the perimeter wall and probably supported the outer frame and helped it come down as a unit above the buckling columns.
As the core failed, the perimeter walls were pulled inward, with the greatest deflection at the top floors. This “lean in” of the perimeter walls sequentially decreased the pull-in forces on each floor moving upward, and produced increasing forces on each consecutive floor moving lower. Various exterior columns and connections would have failed on the lower floors with the increasing tension. This perimeter wall’s buckling was not seen in the videos because it was below the line of sight because of the buildings in the foreground; it looked as though the building had just descended straight into the ground.
The evidence of dust expulsions from floor to floor upward from the southwest corner near the roof, said to be from “detonations,” would have been caused by the floors’ disconnecting sequentially in the corner as the tensions in the suspended collapsing floors increased after core failure. That these failures were sequentially upward shows that there were sequentially increasing tensions in lower floors due to exterior wall’s leaning inward.
The possibility that some weaknesses exist in high-rise buildings constructed with long-span floors and cores without lateral bracing and with weak column splices necessitates that all possible failure mechanisms be studied to determine the cause of failure and means to prevent future failure. NIST can do a computer analysis of the forces involved and connection strength to confirm or disprove the analysis and clarify this theory. With the increasing spans and size of floor areas of high-rise office buildings allowed by the use of steel, there is a critical need for new methods to test long-span floors to determine if they are, or can be, adequately protected from fire.
New methods should be developed for testing and determining the forces that affect these floors and their connections under collapse conditions. Long span ‘I’ beams may be affected by differential heating and expansion of different parts of the web or flanges causing early bowing, buckling or twisting, affecting structural integrity. Contraction of sagging steel beams of girders as they cool after the fire burns out may put extra pull-in forces on columns pulling them out of alignment and buckling them. If these long-span floors cannot be adequately tested and protected against progressive or global collapse, the spans should be reduced and the steel size and strength increased. Surely, lateral bracing of core columns on each floor should be required, the column splice strength increased and alternate load paths should be built in to handle floor loads in case columns fail. In situations where the failure of floor assemblies could affect the lateral stability of the columns, these floors should be considered part of the frame and should have the same degree of fireproofing protection as the columns.
_________________________________________________**************************************************__________________________________________________
original
http://wtc.nist.gov/media/ScheuermanStatementDec2006.pdf
htnl version of original pdf file.........G:
The Collapse of Building 7
by Arthur Scheuerman December 8, ‘06
WTC’s Building 7 was a 47-story office building completed in 1987 by Silverstein
Properties on land owned by the Port Authority. It was built according to PA-NY-
NJ codes developed for tenant alterations in the tower buildings. Building 7 was
not hit by any planes but had some damage from parts of Tower 1 impacting the
south wall. Because of the damage to the building and the failure of the water
supply, after talking to the owner, the Fire Department decided to evacuate the
building and not to attempt to control the fires but to let them burn out. Since it
was a “fire resistive” building, there would have been every expectation that the
fires would burn out without any local or global collapse. However, given that the
towers had collapsed and that there had been a serious interior collapse of
Building 5, there was concern, and the collapse area around the building was
cleared. The building suffered global collapse from fire after several hours of
uncontrolled burning. There were no known injuries or fatalities in the collapse.
Building 7 was built over an existing Consolidated Edison power station. Above
the seventh floor, the construction was very similar to that of the towers: with
long-span outer floors, large open areas, unknown fireproofing on the steel, little
lateral bracing in the core, and most likely weak column splicing.
Since the perimeter wall columns were shear walls that resisted wind loads, the
long-span floors (53 feet) acted as a diaphragm, transferring loads between
exterior walls and between the walls and the core; the center core structure, as
in the towers, supported only gravity loads. One important difference was that
instead of steel bar-joists, the primary floor structure was more typical in that it
had two-foot-deep wide flange steel I-beams, nine feet on center, composite
with a concrete slab.
.
Figure 20a. Floors 8 to 45 plan. (Courtesy of NIST)
Page 2
Photo 21. Building 7 before September 11 (left) and hours before collapsing
(right). (Courtesy of Fire Department of New York.)
The long-span steel I-beams had ¾-inch diameter by five-inch-long steel shear
studs, about two feet on center that projecting into the concrete. These studs
provided bonding and composite action under load with the 5½-inch concrete
floor. Shear studs were not provided in the core.
Similar sorts of floor-failure mechanisms, as those responsible for the towers’
collapse, might have been responsible for Building 7’s interior column failure,
which triggered the progressive collapse. NIST studies (2, Appendix L) show
that failure of one or more of three key interior columns on the east side of the
building would travel vertically to the roof, collapsing all the floors and producing
the initial kink in the east penthouse roof, the first indication of collapse as
videotaped. That the west penthouse roof sank into the building, as seen on the
videotape, five seconds after the east penthouse sank indicates a horizontal
collapse progression to the rectangular core, imploding the building.
Page 3
I believe the collapse was unlikely to have started below the 5th floor, since the
construction below the 5th floor was more conventional. These lower floors were
reinforced with much lateral bracing and thick, reinforced membrane floors that
would redistribute any lateral loads throughout the lower floors. The 5th floors to
7th floors were transition floors. There was speculation about the fire’s being on
these floors and fed from oil-fired generators supplied from tanks on the lower
floors, but I have seen no hard evidence of fire from this source
.
The fire shown in photos 21 and 22 appears to be a very severe, but ordinary,
office fire and was well above the area supplied with oil lines. There is a strong
possibility that this building collapsed from this office fire alone. NIST was
scheduled to complete its analysis of the cause of the collapse in June 2006.
This report is my contribution toward the analysis.
Photo 22. The north side of Building 7. Fires are on the 7th and 12th floors.
(Courtesy of NIST.)
Page 4
Figure 21. The approximate fire location on the east side of floor 12. (Courtesy of NIST,
modified by author)
Fire is coming out of eight windows on the east side on the 12th floor. This fire
must have dropped down to the 11th floor, since a later photo shows fire at four
windows on the 11th floor. There was also fire showing at multiple 12th-floor
windows on the north side. This is a serious high-rise building fire that would
have necessitated multiple alarms to control. There were various other fires on
different floors. These photos were taken at around 2 p.m.; the building
collapsed about three hours later, after the 12th-floor fire had burned out.
Collapse Initiation Hypothesis
With a serious large area fire on the 12th floor, the two foot wide, long-span
steel beams on the 13th floor, depending on the amount of fireproofing
insulation installed, could have expanded and bowed, sagged or buckled
downward and possibly twisted out or flopped over from the uncontrolled fire.
The fire may have been burning long enough to weaken the steel causing a sag
and catenary action. This same mechanism could have been happening on the
11th floor with the beams on the 12th floor being heated from both sides. Unlike
the bar-joist failure producing early pull-in forces, short-span, steel I-beam
composite floors usually maintain push-out forces caused by their expansion,
during the fire, while the floors sag into tensile membrane action. It is unknown
whether long-span floors act the same way. The large area of the concrete slab
may have limited or increased tensile membrane action. As the steel beams first
expanded from the heat, the studs might have pulled the slower expanding
concrete into tension, possibly cracking it and removing some compression
capabilities. This would have allowed the steel beams to bow or buckle sooner
Page 5
from the loads and thermal forces and the floor to sag and put torque on the
connections to the girder on the east side. The sag could have separated the
wire mesh bond in the concrete over the girder. The girders themselves may
have been sagging also.
As the sagging steel beams and girders cooled after burnout, they began to
contract. Since they would have been seriously deflected downward, the beams
would have been unable to overcome the inertia and lift the floor loads as they
contracted, and strong pull-in forces would have developed. The office
furnishing and equipment loads on the 13th floor might have shifted down the
slope toward the middle of the floor, increasing these pull-in forces. A question
that needs to be studied is, what forces are developed by the shrinking of long
span steel ?-beams and girders in relation to the sag and temperature change,
and over what distance does this force operate when the floor begins
contracting after burnout?
The increasing tension or torque in the 13th floor’s connections from suspension
forces as the floor bowed, buckled, or sagged or from contraction forces in the
sagging floor as the floor cooled and contracted after burnout could have started
an edge detachment, or rip failure, detaching the beams along the north-south
girder along the line of columns 79, 80, and 81. The “typical floor beam-to-girder
and girder-to-core column connection was a single shear plate,” (2, Appendix. L,
7) but certain floors had reinforced connections. This could have disconnected
the west side of the east floor from this girder, allowing tension in the remaining
portion of the floor to laterally displace one or more columns and break the
column splices as the beams contracted. The sinking of the east roof penthouse
before any other visible failure indicates that the three key columns (79, 80, and
81) were the first to fail. These were massive columns and most probably
adequately fireproofed and would not have failed directly from heat.
The girder along the line of columns 79, 80 and 81 could also have sagged and
detached with the remaining girder creating pull-in forces on the column(s) as
the girder buckled from the heat and/or contracted from cooling
A less likely scenario is that the floor attachments to Columns 76, 77, and 78
initially failed. As the 13th floor sagged and contracted as it cooled, the floor
could have initially detached at these east core columns. The loss of restraint
could have allowed the remaining tension in sagging and contracting floors to
laterally deflect one or more of the three key columns (79, 80, and 81). There
was a layer of welded wire mesh reinforcement placed in the concrete over the
girders along columns 79, 80, and 81; this additional reinforcement might have
strengthened these connections and thus caused the core connections to fail
first. There was also some fire on the 11th floor, and possibly the 14th floor.
This could have assisted the failure of Columns 79, 80, and 81 by producing
additional lateral forces.
Page 6
Vertical Progression
The failure of columns 79, 80, and 81 on the 13th floor put all the long-span
floors above into
suspension.
Since the columns were
widely spaced and floor
spans were on the order
of 50 feet, with a column
failure, the floors would
not have been able to
effectively redistribute
their loads to other
columns, and the
collapse would have
progressed upward to
the top of the building. A
semi-plastic hinge would
have formed along the
north-south girder
because of the single-
plate, bolted beam-to-
girder connections. The
tensile pull-in forces in all
these upper buckled
floors would have been
great, since these floors
were cool and there
would have been no
expansion-induced sag.
(See Part 3, Theory.)
Figure 22. East-West building section as viewed from the north showing column
failure and resulting progression, putting all floors above in suspension; and the
east roof shed is sinking. Darker floors are reinforced. (Diagram by author.)
This initial column failure was evidenced by the kinking and sinking of the east
penthouse into the building’s roof and the simultaneous breaking of the windows
on the east side of the north wall as it was pulled in by the suspended floors.
NIST studies have shown that because of the large floor areas, the failure of just
one [key] column on any one of the lower floors would cause a vertical
progression of collapse so that the entire section would come down. (NIST, S.
Shyam Sunder lecture) This single-column’s failure initiating progressive
Page 7
collapse is a design defect noncompliant with the NYC codes. The buckling of
two or more of these three key columns (79, 80, and 81) would have removed
support for all columns directly above, putting all upper floors in immediate long-
span suspension with eventual collapse. The breaking of the widows on the east
side of the north face simultaneously with the buckling of the roof shed was
evidence of this tension as the north wall was pulled and leaned in. This high
tension in all the floors above could have failed the floor connections or buckled
more columns, depending on the stresses and strains developed. As can be
seen in the illustration, the floors would have been equally deflected in the initial
collapse because of the geometry of the rigid columns pulling or pushing on the
floors. This combination of equal floor deflection along with the exterior walls
leaning inward would have created increasing pull-in forces in the floors from the
top floor downward.
If the connections had held, the exterior walls and core columns would have
been pulled inward with greater forces on the lower floors because of the lean.
Because the 14th floor was still intact, even though sagging, if the floor to
column connections held the exterior and interior columns more likely would
have buckled at that floor. The question that needs analysis is what connections
would fail first and what connections would hold with all 35 floors in suspension?
NIST reported that the information available indicated that the floor–to-column
connections would fail under this scenario without seriously damaging the
perimeter or interior columns. However, certain connections on Floors 19 and 20
were reinforced, and Floors 21 to 23 used heavier steel. (2,126) These floors
could have developed a higher degree of column destabilizing tensile forces
before connection failure cut off these lateral forces.
Horizontal Progression West
One of NIST’s hypotheses involving the horizontal progression is that the impact
of the debris from the falling floors hit a transverse truss between Floors 5 and 7
and rotated the truss, which would have pulled a line of core columns eastward,
collapsing the core. This is certainly possible and may have happened, but
probably not until after the core had already started collapsing from the tensile
forces of the floors in suspension.
Floors 21 to 23 had slightly heavier steel framing than the others (shown darker
in diagram, Figure 22). Portions of Floors 10, 19, and 20 had reinforcing plates
on the bottom flange, and certain connections were reinforced. If other floor
connections failed, these strong connections might have held and pulled a line
of core columns eastward, especially if impacted by falling debris from the
collapsing floors above. The fact that Core Columns 76, 77, and 78 on all the
floors would have been subjected to pull-in with increasing pull-in on the lower
floors should be figured in.
Page 8
Figure 23. The buckling of Columns 79, 80, and 81 would have allowed the east
side floors directly above these columns to go into suspension and would have
produced these strains in the remaining structure on all the floors above the
13th. (Diagram by author.)
Tension in the floors above the buckled key columns could have put floor
connections to the core columns under immediate severe lateral stress on all the
floors above 13. These lateral stresses would be greater on the lower floors
because of the exterior wall’s leaning inward more at the top. If the floor
connections to Column 77’s connection held on any of the levels above the 13th
floor, the middle line of Core Columns 77 to 62, and possibly 59, could have
been pulled eastward under the lateral forces. This line of middle core columns
would more easily have been pulled eastward, since there were elevator shafts
along this line and there were fewer floors that could have restrained these
columns and floor beams from deflection. The connections to columns 76 and
78 on any floor above the thirteenth would probably fail first allowing the
connection to column 77 to hold and pull the line the line of core columns 77 to
62 and possibly 59 eastward.
The reinforced connections on Floors 19 to 23 could have made it more likely
that these connections would have held and buckled the middle line of core
columns and destabilized the remaining core columns. As this middle line of
columns deflected, they would have pulled the remaining core columns inward
toward the middle line, possibly buckling all the core columns on a floor. Debris
hitting the girders and beams might have assisted in deflecting the middle line of
columns. Columns 78 to 63 and/or 76 to 61 could have been pulled inward since
the attached beams would not have shear studs connecting them to the floors.
The elevator shafts without floors would offer little resistance to this inward
buckling. These core columns which probably had weak splices would have had
Page 9
to buckle on only one floor to collapse the core structure and implode the whole
building.
Photo 23. Façade kink.
(Courtesy of NIST)
The massive façade kink,
which increased as the
perimeter wall came down
as a unit, was aligned with
Columns 76, 77, and 78.
This supports the idea that
these particular columns
were the first core
columns to fail on one or
more floors and were
followed by the remaining
core columns, pulling in
the entire exterior facade.
The pull-in tension on a
particular floor or floors
could have buckled, say
columns 76 to 61, This
pull-in tension on the
remaining core columns
was possibly assisted by a
floor or floors
disconnecting from the
girder along the east-west
axis of the core, since
“shear studs were not
indicated in the design
drawings for the core girders” (NIST). A line or lines of core columns buckling
would have collapsed the core and put all the west side floors into suspension
putting extreme lateral forces on remaining perimeter column connections on all
the upper floors, buckling the entire perimeter wall.
Five seconds after the east penthouse failed, the west shed disappeared into
the roof indicating that the core failed before the building began descending. The
breaking of the vertical line of windows near Column 54 on the east side of the
north wall simultaneously with the sinking of the east penthouse indicates that
the wall was being pulled inward by the floors in suspension.
The evidence of dust expulsions from floor to floor upward from the southwest
corner near the roof, said to be from “detonations,” would have been caused by
the floors’ disconnecting sequentially in the corner as the tensions in the
suspended collapsing floors increased from core failure. That these failures
were upward shows that there were sequentially increasing tensions in lower
floors due to exterior wall’s leaning inward.
Page 10
Figure 24. As-built elevations. Building 7.
(Courtesy of NIST.)
Page 11
The belt truss around the building at the 22nd to the 24th floors stiffened the
perimeter wall and probably supported the outer frame so that it came down as
a unit above the buckling columns.
There were numerous diagonal braces in the core below the 7th floor. There
were also thick reinforced concrete floors on the 5th and 7th floors. The 5th floor
diaphragm was 14 inches thick and reinforced with imbedded steel “T” sections.
The 7th floor was eight-inch reinforced concrete. This would have made it
unlikely that the initial failure started or progressed on these lower floors.
As the core failed, the perimeter walls were pulled inward, with the greatest
deflection at the top floors. This “lean in” of the perimeter walls sequentially
decreased the pull-in forces on each floor moving upward, and produced
increasing forces on each consecutive floor moving lower. Various exterior
columns and connections would have failed on the lower floors with the
increasing tension. This perimeter wall’s buckling was not seen in the videos
because it was below the line of sight because of the buildings in the
foreground; it looked as though the building had just descended straight into the
ground.
The possibility that some weaknesses exist in high-rise buildings constructed
with long-span floors and cores without lateral bracing and weak column splices
necessitates that all possible failure mechanisms be studied to determine the
cause of failure and means to prevent such failure. NIST can do a computer
analysis of the forces involved and connection strength to confirm or disprove
the analysis and clarify the theory. With the increasing spans and size of floor
areas of high-rise office buildings allowed by the use of steel, there is a critical
need for new methods to test long-span floors to determine if they are, or can
be, adequately protected from fire.
New methods should be developed for testing and determining the forces that
affect these floors and their connections under collapse conditions. Long span ‘I’
beams may be affected by differential heating and expansion of different parts of
the web or flanges causing early bowing, buckling or twisting out of alignment,
affecting structural integrity. Contraction of sagging steel beams of girders may
put extra pull-in forces on columns pulling them out of alignment and buckling
them. If these long-span floors cannot be adequately tested and protected
against progressive or global collapse, the spans should be reduced and the
steel size and strength increased. Surely, lateral bracing of core columns on
each floor should be required, the column splice strength increased and
alternate load paths should be built in to handle floor loads in case columns fail.
In situations where the failure of floor assemblies could affect the stability of the
columns, these floors should be considered part of the frame and should have
the same degree of fireproofing protection as the columns
original
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QUERY:Who is the Beneficiary from all this?
Update 1
Message: 25
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 01:48:23 +0200
From: "Mario Profaca" Mario.Profaca@zg.tel.hr
Subject: "Criminal insider trading lead directly into the CIA's highest ranks"
SUPPRESED DETAILS OF CRIMINAL INSIDER TRADING
LEAD DIRECTLY INTO THE CIA's HIGHEST RANKS
CIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR "BUZZY" KRONGARD
MANAGED FIRM THAT HANDLED "PUT" OPTIONS ON UAL
http://www.copvcia.com/stories/oct_2001/krongard.html
by
Michael C. Ruppert
[C COPYRIGHT, 2001, Michael C. Ruppert and FTW Publications,
www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved. - May be reprinted or distributed for
non-profit purposes only.]
FTW, October 9, 2001 - Although uniformly ignored by the mainstream U.S.
media, there is abundant and clear evidence that a number of transactions in
financial markets indicated specific (criminal) foreknowledge of the
September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the case
of at least one of these trades -- which has left a $2.5 million prize
unclaimed -- the firm used to place the "put options" on United Airlines
stock was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three
Executive Director position at the Central Intelligence Agency. Until 1997
A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard had been Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown.
A.B. Brown was acquired by Banker's Trust in 1997. Krongard then became, as
part of the merger, Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust-AB Brown, one of 20
major U.S. banks named by Senator Carl Levin this year as being connected to
money laundering. Krongard's last position at Banker's Trust (BT) was to
oversee "private client relations." In this capacity he had direct hands-on
relations with some of the wealthiest people in the world in a kind of
specialized banking operation that has been identified by the U.S. Senate
and other investigators as being closely connected to the laundering of drug
money.
Krongard (re?) joined the CIA in 1998 as counsel to CIA Director George
Tenet. He was promoted to CIA Executive Director by President Bush in March
of this year. BT was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. The combined firm is
the single largest bank in Europe. And, as we shall see, Deutsche Bank
played several key roles in events connected to the September 11 attacks.
THE SCOPE OF KNOWN INSIDER TRADING
Before looking further into these relationships it is necessary to look at
the insider trading information that is being ignored by Reuters, The New
York Times and other mass media. It is well documented that the CIA has long
monitored such trades - in real time - as potential warnings of terrorist
attacks and other economic moves contrary to U.S. interests. Previous
stories in FTW have specifically highlighted the use of Promis software to
monitor such trades.
It is necessary to understand only two key financial terms to understand the
significance of these trades, "selling short" and "put options".
"Selling Short" is the borrowing of stock, selling it at current market
prices, but not being required to actually produce the stock for some time.
If the stock falls precipitously after the short contract is entered, the
seller can then fulfill the contract by buying the stock after the price has
fallen and complete the contract at the pre-crash price. These contracts
often have a window of as long as four months.
"Put Options," are contracts giving the buyer the option to sell stocks at a
later date. Purchased at nominal prices of, for example, $1.00 per share,
they are sold in blocks of 100 shares. If exercised, they give the holder
the option of selling selected stocks at a future date at a price set when
the contract is issued. Thus, for an investment of $10,000 it might be
possible to tie up 10,000 shares of United or American Airlines at $100 per
share, and the seller of the option is then obligated to buy them if the
option is executed. If the stock has fallen to $50 when the contract
matures, the holder of the option can purchase the shares for $50 and
immediately sell them for $100 - regardless of where the market then stands.
A call option is the reverse of a put option, which is, in effect, a
derivatives bet that the stock price will go up.
A September 21 story by the Israeli Herzliyya International Policy Institute
for Counterterrorism, entitled "Black Tuesday: The World's Largest Insider
Trading Scam?" documented the following trades connected to the September 11
attacks:
- Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw
purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call
options. Assuming that 4,000 of the options were bought by people with
advance knowledge of the imminent attacks, these "insiders" would have
profited by almost $5 million.
- On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were bought
on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls. Again, there was no
news at that point to justify this imbalance;. Again, assuming that 4,000 of
these options trades represent "insiders," they would represent a gain of
about $4 million.
- [The levels of put options purchased above were more than six times
higher than normal.]
- No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the Chicago
exchange in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday.
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the
World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options bought in the
three trading days before Black Tuesday; this compares to an average of 27
contracts per day before September 6. Morgan Stanley's share price fell from
$48.90 to $42.50 in the aftermath of the attacks. Assuming that 2,000 of
these options contracts were bought based upon knowledge of the approaching
attacks, their purchasers could have profited by at least $1.2 million.
- Merrill Lynch & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade
Center, saw 12,215 October $45 put options bought in the four trading days
before the attacks; the previous average volume in those shares had been 252
contracts per day [a 1200% increase!]. When trading resumed, Merrill's
shares fell from $46.88 to $41.50; assuming that 11,000 option contracts
were bought by "insiders," their profit would have been about $5.5 million.
- European regulators are examining trades in Germany's Munich Re,
Switzerland's Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with
exposure to the Black Tuesday disaster. [FTW Note: AXA also owns more than
25% of American Airlines stock making the attacks a "double whammy" for
them.]
On September 29, 2001 - in a vital story that has gone unnoticed by the
major media - the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Investors have yet to
collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the
stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, according
to a source familiar with the trades and market data.
"The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors - whose
identities and nationalities have not been made public - had advance
knowledge of the strikes." They don't dare show up now. The suspension of
trading for four days after the attacks made it impossible to cash-out
quickly and claim the prize before investigators started looking.
". October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual
volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay
of $2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100
shares, for 90 cents each. [This represents 230,000 shares]. Those options
are now selling at more than $12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called "put"
options outstanding [valued at $2.77 million and representing 231,300
shares] according to the Options Clearinghouse Corp."
".The source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Bank Alex.
Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as
the investment bank used to purchase at least some of these options." This
was the operation managed by Krongard until as recently as 1998.
As reported in other news stories, Deutsche Bank was also the hub of insider
trading activity connected to Munich Re. just before the attacks.
CIA, THE BANKS AND THE BROKERS
Understanding the interrelationships between CIA and the banking and
brokerage world is critical to grasping the already frightening implications
of the above revelations. Let's look at the history of CIA, Wall Street and
the big banks by looking at some of the key players in CIA's history.
Clark Clifford - The National Security Act of 1947 was written by Clark
Clifford, a Democratic Party powerhouse, former Secretary of Defense, and
one-time advisor to President Harry Truman. In the 1980s, as Chairman of
First American Bancshares, Clifford was instrumental in getting the corrupt
CIA drug bank BCCI a license to operate on American shores. His profession:
Wall Street lawyer and banker.
John Foster and Allen Dulles - These two brothers "designed" the CIA for
Clifford. Both were active in intelligence operations during WW II. Allen
Dulles was the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland where he met frequently with
Nazi leaders and looked after U.S. investments in Germany. John Foster went
on to become Secretary of State under Dwight Eisenhower and Allen went on to
serve as CIA Director under Eisenhower and was later fired by JFK. Their
professions: partners in the most powerful - to this day - Wall Street law
firm of Sullivan, Cromwell.
Bill Casey - Ronald Reagan's CIA Director and OSS veteran who served as
chief wrangler during the Iran-Contra years was, under President Richard
Nixon, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. His profession:
Wall Street lawyer and stockbroker.
David Doherty - The current Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange
for enforcement is the retired General Counsel of the Central Intelligence
Agency.
George Herbert Walker Bush - President from 1989 to January 1993, also
served as CIA Director for 13 months from 1976-7. He is now a paid
consultant to the Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense contractor in the
nation, which also shares joint investments with the bin Laden family.
A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard - The current Executive Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency is the former Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown
and former Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust.
John Deutch - This retired CIA Director from the Clinton Administration
currently sits on the board at Citigroup, the nation's second largest bank,
which has been repeatedly and overtly involved in the documented laundering
of drug money. This includes Citigroup's 2001 purchase of a Mexican bank
known to launder drug money, Banamex.
Nora Slatkin - This retired CIA Executive Director also sits on Citibank's
board.
Maurice "Hank" Greenburg - The CEO of AIG insurance, manager of the third
largest capital investment pool in the world, was floated as a possible CIA
Director in 1995. FTW exposed Greenberg's and AIG's long connection to CIA
drug trafficking and covert operations in a two-part series that was
interrupted just prior to the attacks of September 11. AIG's stock has
bounced back remarkably well since the attacks. To read that story, please
go to http://www.copvcia.com/stories/part_2.html.
One wonders how much damning evidence is necessary to respond to what is now
irrefutable proof that CIA knew about the attacks and did not stop them.
Whatever our government is doing, whatever the CIA is doing, it is clearly
NOT in the interests of the American people, especially those who died on
September 11.
end
Michael C. Ruppert
P.O. Box 6061-350, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413
(818)788-8791 * fax(818)981-2847
mruppert@copvcia.com
C COPYRIGHT 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
MICHAEL C. RUPPERT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
.
From spynews@yahoogroups.com:
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 19:56:46 -0700
From: "Dave Hartley" dave@localcomputermart.com
Subject: CIA exec-director managed firm that handled WTC-related "insider trading" options against UAL
So, what're the odds against "coincidence" here?
Billion to one?
Dave Hartley dave@localcomputermart.com
http://www.localcomputermart.com
Santa Cruz, CA (831)423-4284
Tri-Cities Computer (TN) |Asheville Computer (NC)
423-952-0983 or 877-245-3362 |(828)285-0240
$9.95 internet http://www.federalisp.com/?page=ispsignup
What a coincidence... -Bob Dodds
CIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR "BUZZY" KRONGARD
MANAGED FIRM THAT HANDLED "PUT" OPTIONS
ON UAL
by Michael C. Ruppert [© COPYRIGHT, 2001, Michael C.
Ruppert and FTW Publications, www.copvcia.com. All Rights
Reserved. - May be reprinted or distributed for non-profit
purposes only.]
FTW, October 9, 2001 -
A September 21 story by the Israeli Herzliyya International Policy
Institute for Counterterrorism, entitled "Black Tuesday: The
World's Largest Insider Trading Scam?" documented the following
trades connected to the September 11 attacks:
- Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options
Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 put options on United
Airlines, but only 396 call options... Assuming that 4,000
of the options were bought by people with advance knowledge
of the imminent attacks, these "insiders" would have profited
by almost $5 million.
- On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were
bought on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls.
Again, there was no news at that point to justify this imbalance;
... Again, assuming that 4,000 of these options trades represent
"insiders," they would represent a gain of about $4 million.
- [The levels of put options purchased above were more than six times
higher than normal.]
- No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the Chicago exchange
in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday.
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the
World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options bought
in the three trading days before Black Tuesday; this compares to an
average of 27 contracts per day before September 6. Morgan
Stanley's
share price fell from $48.90 to $42.50 in the aftermath of the
attacks.
Assuming that 2,000 of these options contracts were bought based
upon
knowledge of the approaching attacks, their purchasers could have
profited by at least $1.2 million.
- Merrill Lynch & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade
Center, saw 12,215 October $45 put options bought in the four
trading
days before the attacks; the previous average volume in those shares
had
been 252 contracts per day [a 1200% increase!]. When trading
resumed,
Merrill's shares fell from $46.88 to $41.50; assuming that 11,000
option
contracts were bought by "insiders," their profit would have been
about
$5.5 million.
- European regulators are examining trades in Germany's Munich Re,
Switzerland's Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with
exposure to the Black Tuesday disaster. [FTW Note: AXA also owns
more than 25% of American Airlines stock making the attacks a
"double
whammy" for them.]
On September 29, 2001 - in a vital story that has gone unnoticed by the
major
media - the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Investors have yet to collect
more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of
United
Airlines before the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, according to a source
familiar with
the trades and market data.
"The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors - whose
identities
and nationalities have not been made public - had advance knowledge of the
strikes." They don't dare show up now. The suspension of trading for four
days
after the attacks made it impossible to cash-out quickly and claim the prize
before investigators started looking.
"... October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual
volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay
of
$2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100 shares,
for 90 cents each. [This represents 230,000 shares]. Those options are now
selling at more than $12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called "put" options
outstanding [valued at $2.77 million and representing 231,300 shares]
according
to the Options Clearinghouse Corp."
"...The source familiar with the United trades identified
Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown,
the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche
Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of these
options..."
As reported in other news stories, Deutsche Bank was also the hub of insider
trading activity connected to Munich Re. just before the attacks.
The firm used to place the "put options" on United Airlines stock was,
until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three Executive
Director position at the Central Intelligence Agency. Until 1997 A.B.
"Buzzy" Krongard had been Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown.
A.B. Brown was acquired by Banker's Trust in 1997. Krongard then became,
as part of the merger, Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust-AB Brown, one of
20 major U.S. banks named by Senator Carl Levin this year as being
connected to money laundering. Krongard's last position at Banker's Trust
(BT) was to oversee "private client relations." In this capacity he had
direct
hands-on relations with some of the wealthiest people in the world in a kind
of specialized banking operation that has been identified by the U.S. Senate
and other investigators as being closely connected to the laundering of drug
money.
Krongard (re-?) joined the CIA in 1998 as counsel to CIA Director George
Tenet. He was promoted to CIA Executive Director by President Bush in
March of this year.
BT(Krongard@Banker'sTrust) was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999.
_____
EcoNews Service: Always online for Ecology, Consciousness, and Universal Exopolitics
EcoNews: http://www.ecologynews.com
Email: econews@ecologynews.com
Vancouver, BC V6M1V8
CAVEAT LECTOR: FROM TOPVIEW
From World-Action list:
9.13.01 AF INTEL SOURCE: PRO-BUSH
GOVERNMENT FACTIONS ABSOLUTELY
BEHIND TUESDAY'S MASS DEVASTATION
Please send as far and wide as possible.
Thanks, Robert Sterling, Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
** URGENT ** PLEASE FORWARD
AS FAR AND WIDE AS POSSIBLE
9.13.01 AF Intel source: pro-Bush gov't factions
'absolutely' behind Tuesday's mass devastation!
"The enemy is very much within"
--------------
TOP_VIEW has just conducted a brief yet immeasurably
important phone interview -- set up by a trusted and totally
reliable intermediary already known to us -- with an Air
Force Reserve intelligence specialist.
The interview was carried out this evening, over two days
after the incredible death and devastation that took place
in New York City and Washington D.C.
Our Air Force source told us his superiors had activated
him at about 10 AM Tuesday morning.
He absolutely refused to permit us to record the conversation,
even though he was speaking into some kind of electronic
gizmo that substantially altered the sound of his voice; making
him sound like Darth Vader with a serious chest cold. Some
portions of his statements were unintelligible, and he refused
to repeat several of these. Although this source was somewhat
taciturn and close-lipped, for the most part he was cooperative
in terms of giving us enough time to transcribe what he was
saying. Overall what is stated plainly and unequivocally is of
absolutely paramount importance for every single person in
this nation and the world: certainly among those of us who
value our inalienable human rights and liberties and want
them to remain un-imperiled, un-abrogated and unabridged.
TOP_VIEW: We'd like to hear what you have to say
about the events on Tuesday. First of all, I assume you
have knowledge of the events that goes above and
beyond what the public is being told by the media
and the government?
INTEL SOURCE: That's quite correct.
TOP_VIEW: Can you -- are you able and willing to
relay this information to us?
INTEL SOURCE: Well, that depends. Some of it.
You're going to publish this?
TOP_VIEW: On the Internet.
INTEL SOURCE: It's essential that nothing which
could possibly be used to identify myself or
" ** " (our intermediary) is made public.
TOP_VIEW: We totally understand. Completely.
That's exactly how it will be, and --
INTEL SOURCE: You've known " ** " a long time?
TOP_VIEW: For about 6 years, sir.
INTEL SOURCE: So... he'll vouch for you?
(Chuckles) Fire away.
TOP_VIEW: Well... it's becoming increasingly clear
that certain federal government sectors had prior
knowledge of the destruction carried out on Tuesday.
Would you concur with this?
INTEL SOURCE: (unintelligible)
TOP_VIEW: Excuse me? I didn't understand you.
INTEL SOURCE: Never mind.
TOP_VIEW: Is it true that our government knew what
was going to happen?
INTEL SOURCE: You could say that. Actually there are
certain (pause) groups in our government who pretty
much ran the whole show.
TOP_VIEW: Are you saying that there was cooperation
and collaboration between elements of our government
and the perpetrators?
INTEL SOURCE: No. What I'm saying is that these groups
(within the federal government - TV) were the perpetrators
of the action, right down the line from top to bottom.
TOP_VIEW: This is really incredibly shocking, what
you're saying here. Did I understand correctly, that
you say elements of the federal government were
the prime force behind these so-called terrorist
attacks Tuesday?
INTEL SOURCE: That's correct. Absolutely.
TOP_VIEW: God, what a horrifying thing to come
to grips with! What is your feeling about this sir, and
exactly why are you even talking to us about this?
Are you positive about what you're saying?
INTEL SOURCE: (laughs) What should I answer first?
I would never make this kind of statement without
being fully certain it was factual. My own feeling is
that it's completely sickening. It's repugnant and
unacceptable and I'm completely opposed to what
was done. But it's true and we all have to deal with it.
There are forces within our government who are
completely determined to change the structure of
our society at the most basic level, and these are
the kind of things they're going to be doing to
make sure that (fundamental changes in our
society) happens.
TOP_VIEW: What's going on in the military right
now with regard to what's occurred? Do many military
higher-ups know this, and if so what's their position?
INTEL SOURCE: (unintelligible)
TOP_VIEW: Excuse me?
INTEL SOURCE: I said some do know and some don't.
Some wouldn't believe it, just like many citizens wouldn't
believe it. There are certainly lots of conflict going on at
the upper levels of the military right now between
people aware of the true facts.
TOP_VIEW: What about yourself?
INTEL SOURCE: I consider myself to be a patriotic
American who believes strongly in the Constitution.
I'll do whatever is in my power to uphold and defend
those principles, and so will many others.
TOP_VIEW: Well that's something I wanted to get to.
The primary motivation for an atrocity of this magnitude
would seem to be to soften up the country for some
serious curtailment of civil liberties, in the name of
protecting us from such "terrorist" attacks. I've likened
it to Hitler's burning of the Reichstag in Germany.
INTEL SOURCE: That's a good comparison.
(Unintelligible)... one of the main reasons the action
was carried out Tuesday. There's also other agendas
having to do with control of the Middle East oil fields,
and things related to that (issue).
TOP_VIEW: Well, are people such as yourself in any
way prepared to, or able to, oppose these forces?
INTEL SOURCE: Speaking for myself, I'd say there's
a lot I'm prepared to do and will do. Speaking to you
is one of those things. And there are many more like me.
TOP_VIEW: Now, how does the attack on the
Pentagon figure into this whole thing?
INTEL SOURCE: I can't discuss that at all.
TOP_VIEW: Can you some time in the future?
INTEL SOURCE: Maybe. I think I'll need to sign
off here soon.
TOP_VIEW: Is there anything else in particular
you'd care to say, any advice or whatever?
INTEL SOURCE: I'd say that our way of life is facing
the biggest threat in our history, and the enemy
is very much within. VERY MUCH WITHIN.
TOP_VIEW: So it boils down to: what happened
on Tuesday was an inside job?
INTEL SOURCE: Absolutely. All the way down the
line and to a much higher level than most of you
could ever imagine. There's a very intense struggle
going on within our government like I said.
TOP_VIEW: It's a struggle we're all involved in, sir.
INTEL SOURCE: That's quite true.
TOP_VIEW: It seems very clear to me that the
Bush administration was way involved in the attacks.
Would that be correct? They obviously want to bring
about the exact kind of fundamental social
restructuring that you mentioned.
INTEL SOURCE: It's a good bet. Right now,
it's best we cut this short.
TOP_VIEW: Good night and thank you
very much for speaking with us.
----------------
This concluded our short but vastly significant
interview with a patriotic Air Force intelligence officer.
Folks, we've heard it from the proverbial horse's
mouth. Americans are in the most critical struggle
in our entire history, and the enemy is a deceptive,
malevolent and indeed demonic force deeply
ensconced within the very fabric and structure
of our federal government, and which also infests
even our news and information sources, our
entertainment, our schools and workplaces and
many other aspects of our life and our society.
As our source stated: "the enemy is very much within."
-------------------------
THE START OF THE FIGHT BACK FOR TRUTH
World-Action http://www.world-action.co.uk
JOIN World-Action Discussion & ACTION Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World-Action
PLEASE NETWORK
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Subject: WTC UFO possibly black helicopter
Date sent: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 20:45:17 -0500
Greetings, All:
Kent Steadman has done a superlative job of putting many of the pieces
of the puzzle together for us. What follows are direct links to his webpage
at http://cyberspaceorbit.com. His e-mail is bardsquill@aol.com. Thank you
Mr. Steadman!
Randy Kitchur
>
>http://cyberspaceorbit.com/blhelo.jpg (Compare the black helicopter image
>at the Pentagon with the speeding image in link below.)
>
>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34238,00.html#video 9/11/01: East Angle
>- Second Plane Hits Tower (If this is indeed a black helicopter in the
>image, the implications are truly staggering.)
>
>http://www.therevelation.50megs.com/cgi-bin/i/Animation2.gif (Note the
>silver cylinder or discoid object to the right of the frame. A monitoring
>UFO or merely distant aircraft? This thould be easily verifiable one way
>or the other through official FAA records.)
>
>"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."
>
>VIDEO: Farewell address by former U.S. President (and General) Dwight
>Eisenhower, January 17,1961.
>http://cseti.homesite.net:7071/ramgen/ike.rm
< ROMERO SAID THAT IF HIS SCENARIO
IS CORRECT, THE DIVERSIONARY ATTACK
WOULD HAVE BEEN THE COLLISION OF
THE PLANES INTO THE TOWERS >
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/albu.htm
EXPLOSIVES PLANTED IN TOWERS,
NEW MEXICO TECH EXPERT SAYS
[Posted 14 September 2001]
By Olivier Uyttebrouck - Journal Staff Writer
Televised images of the attacks on the World Trade Center
suggest that explosives devices caused the collapse of both
towers, a New Mexico Tech explosion expert said Tuesday.
The collapse of the buildings appears "too methodical" to
be a chance result of airplanes colliding with the structures,
said Van Romero, vice president for research at New Mexico
Institute of Mining and Technology.
"My opinion is, based on the videotapes, that after the
airplanes hit the World Trade Center there were some
explosive devices inside the buildings that caused the
towers to collapse," Romero said. Romero is a former
director of the Energetic Materials Research and Testing
Center at Tech, which studies explosive materials and
the effects of explosions on buildings, aircraft and
other structures.
Romero said he based his opinion on video aired on
national television broadcasts. Romero said the collapse
of the structures resembled those of controlled implosions
used to demolish old structures. "It would be difficult for
something from the plane to trigger an event like that,"
Romero said in a phone interview from Washington,
D.C.
Romero said he and another Tech administrator were on
a Washington-area subway when an airplane struck the
Pentagon. He said he and Denny Peterson, vice president
for administration and finance, were en route to an office
building near the Pentagon to discuss defense-funded
research programs at Tech.
If explosions did cause the towers to collapse, the
detonations could have been caused by a small amount
of explosive, he said. "It could have been a relatively small
amount of explosives placed in strategic points," Romero
said. The explosives likely would have been put in more
than two points in each of the towers, he said.
< ROMERO SAID THAT IF HIS SCENARIO
IS CORRECT, THE DIVERSIONARY ATTACK
WOULD HAVE BEEN THE COLLISION OF
THE PLANES INTO THE TOWERS >
The detonation of bombs within the towers is consistent
with a common terrorist strategy, Romero said. "One of the
things terrorist events are noted for is a diversionary attack
and secondary device," Romero said. Attackers detonate
an initial, diversionary explosion that attracts emergency
personnel to the scene, then detonate a second explosion,
he said. Romero said that if his scenario is correct, the
diversionary attack would have been the collision of the
planes into the towers.
Tech President Dan Lopez said Tuesday that Tech had
NOT been asked to take part in the investigation into the
attacks. Tech often assists in forensic investigations
into terrorist attacks, often by setting off similar
explosions and studying the effects.
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/albu.htm
Original posted at
http://www.abqjournal.com/aqvan09-11-01.htm
(C) 2001, 'Albuquerge Journal,'
Reprinted for Fair Use Only
------------
Further Reading:
1) Rick Rozoff takes a critical look at Washington's response
to Tuesday's tragedies in 'Bush's Press Conference: Into the
Abyss' at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/rozoff/abyss.htm
2) While Washington points to Osama bin Laden as "suspect # 1"
in yesterday's horrific violence, the truth is not being told to the
American people: 'Washington Created Osama bin Laden' by
Jared Israel can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/madein.htm
3) If one looks carefully, one can find in the Western media
evidence that bin Laden has been involved - on the U.S.-backed
side - in Kosovo, Bosnia and now Macedonia. Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/binl.htm
4) Bin Laden was propelled into power as part of the U.S.
drive to create an Islamist terrorist movement to crush the
former Soviet Union. See, the truly amazing account from
the 'Washington Post,' 'Washington's Backing of Afghan
Terrorists: Deliberate Policy.' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/anatomy.htm
5) Head of Russian Navy says official scenario couldn't have
happened. See 'Russian Navy Chief Says Official 9-11 Story
Impossible' at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/navy.htm
==================================================
INFORMATION TIMES: http://www.InformationTimes.com
==================================================
[4,000 Jews Did Not Go To Work At World Trade Center On Sept.
11]
AL-MANAR Television Special Investigative Report
http://www.manartv.com
Beirut, Lebanon - Monday, September 17, 2001
http://www.manartv.com/html/engmiddle.html
4,000 Israeli Employees in WTC Absent the Day of the Attack
With the announcement of the attacks at the World Trade Center
in New York, the international media, particularly the Israeli
one, hurried to take advantage of the incident and started
mourning 4,000 Israelis who work at the two towers. Then
suddenly, no one ever mentioned anything about those Israelis
and later it became clear that they remarkably did not show up
in their jobs the day the [four passenger aircraft hijacking and
crashing] incident [at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and
Pennsylvania] took place [on Tuesday, September 11, 2001].
No one talked about any Israeli being killed or wounded in the
attacks. Arab diplomatic sources revealed to the Jordanian
al-Watan newspaper that those Israelis remained absent that day
[Tuesday, September 11, 2001] based on hints from the Israeli
General Security Apparatus, the Shabak, the fact which evoked
unannounced suspicions on American officials who wanted to know
how the Israeli government learned about the incident before it
occurred, and the reasons why it refrained from informing the
U.S. authorities of the information it had.
Suspicions had increased further after Israeli newspaper Yadiot
Ahranot revealed that the Shabak prevented Israeli premier Ariel
Sharon from traveling to New York and particularly to the city's
eastern coast to participate in a festival organized by the
Zionist organizations in support of the "Israel". Aharon Bernie,
the commentator at the newspaper, brought up the issue and came
up with a negative conclusion, saying "no answer". He then asked
about the clue behind the Shabak's position in preventing
Sharon's participation, and again without giving an answer.
Bernie added that Sharon, who was delighted for having his
speech on top of the festival agenda, asked the head of the
organization to mediate and convince the Shabak to change its
position, but his attempts were in vein. The next day after
Sharon's secretary officially announced that Sharon would not
participate the incident [at the World Trade Center] took place.
For its part, the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper revealed that the
FBI arrested five Israelis four hours after the attack on the
[World Trade Center] Twin Towers while filming the smoking
skyline from the roof of their company's building. The FBI had
arrested the five for "puzzling behavior". They are said to have
been caught videotaping the disaster in what was interpreted as
cries of joy and mockery.
==============================
Al-Manar TV Contact Info:
http://www.manartv.com/html/contact.html
About Al-Manar Television
http://www.manartv.com/html/about.html
Al-Manar Television, a Lebanese TV station, aims to preserve the
Islamic values and to enhance the civilized role of the Arab and
Islamic Community. Political, cultural and social affairs are of
special importance o the station's programs. Most important is
the struggle against Zionism/racism. In its course of work,
Al-Manar TV focuses on live talk shows and dialogue programs in
which it makes sure to bring out different thoughts and beliefs
in addition to the participation of the viewers in the
dialogues. The Al-Manar TV station was licensed by the
Government of Lebanon in 1997.
INFOTIMES INTERNET-WEB LINKS:
FBI Arrests 5 Israeli-Jews After U.S. Terrorist Attacks
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1053
Did Israel Attack the Pentagon and World Trade Center?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1032
U.S. Military Could Be Behind The Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1048
'FBI's Dead Hijacker' is Alive and Lives in Saudi Arabia
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1049
Peter Arnett's Interview of Usama bin Laden
http://www.flinet.com/~politics/jihad/jihad.htm
Robert Fisk Talks with Osama bin Laden
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=archive&s=fisk_wtc_19980921
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/laden.htm
U.S. Government is the World's Largest Terrorist Organization
http://geocities.com/americanterrorism/Amerikan_Terrorism.html
Civilized World Should Oppose U.S.-Israeli Terrorism
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1036
Racism Against Arabs and Muslims on the Rise in America
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1033
James Bamford's New Book: "Body of Secrets"
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/bamford/home.html
"Body of Secrets" by James Bamford
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2001/04/25/nsa
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA)
http://www.nsa.gov
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
http://www.cia.gov
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
http://www.fbi.gov
==================================================
INFORMATION TIMES: http://www.InformationTimes.com
==================================================
CAVEAT LECTOR - FROM MOSSAD:
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/09/16/wcia16.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/09/
Israeli security issued urgent warning
to CIA of large-scale terror attacks
By David Wastell in Washington and Philip
Jacobson in Jerusalem
(Filed: 16/09/2001)
ISRAELI intelligence officials say that they warned
their counterparts in the United States last month
that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible
targets on the American mainland were imminent.
The attacks on the World Trade Centre's twin
towers and the Pentagon were humiliating blows to
the intelligence services, which failed to foresee
them, and to the defence forces of the most
powerful nation in the world, which failed to deflect
them.
The Telegraph has learnt that two senior experts
with Mossad, the Israeli military intelligence service,
were sent to Washington in August to alert the CIA
and FBI to the existence of a cell of as many of 200
terrorists said to be preparing a big operation.
"They had no specific information about what was
being planned but linked the plot to Osama bin
Laden and told the Americans that there were
strong grounds for suspecting Iraqi involvement,"
said a senior Israeli security official.
The CIA has said that it had no hard information that
would have led to the prevention of the hijacking,
but the FBI said it believed that cells operating
within America and totalling at least 50 terrorists
were behind last week's devastating hijacks; the
names of new suspects are being added to the list
daily.
America's intelligence agencies are being widely
blamed for their failure to predict the attacks, or
anything like them, and for not discovering any of
the terrorist cells before the hijackings on Tuesday.
Some of those who took part had lived in the US for
months, or even years.
Evidence that a clear Israeli warning was delivered
to American authorities, but ignored, would be a
further blow to the reputation of the CIA, which is
under fire for its failure last week.
An administration official in Washington said: "If this
is true then the refusal to take it seriously will mean
heads will roll. It is quite credible that the CIA might
not heed a Mossad warning: it has a history of being
overcautious about Israeli information."
For years, staff at the Pentagon joked that they
worked at "Ground Zero", the spot at which an
incoming nuclear missile aimed at America's defences
would explode. There is even a snack bar of that
name in the central courtyard of the five-sided
building, America's most obvious military bullseye.
This weekend, five days after that target was struck
with devastating effect by a hijacked plane, the
joking has stopped.
It is far from certain that any military commander
would have had the courage to recommend shooting
down a passenger airliner, even in the
unprecedented circumstances of last Tuesday.
For three of the four airliners hijacked last week,
however, the question did not even arise. Two pairs
of combat fighters were scrambled into action but
did not get near enough to shoot any of them down.
Norad, the command headquarters in Colorado
responsible for defending all of North America from
air attack, was notified of the first hijack at 8.38am
and six minutes later two F-15 fighter jets were
ordered into the air from Otis airforce base on Cape
Cod.
Before they could take off, however, the first
hijacked airliner crashed into the World Trade
Centre's north tower at 8.46am. Six minutes later
the two military jets were airborne, but when the
second hijacked airliner hit the south tower shortly
after 9am they were still 70 miles from Manhattan.
The only successful action against the hijackers was
taken by passengers of the fourth airliner, whose
heroic decision to fight back led to its crashing into
the fields of Pennsylvania.
The reason lies in the strict distinction America
draws between civil and military power, combined
with the fact that until last week nobody had
confronted the possibility that a terrorist hijacker
might turn kamikaze pilot.
Although Norad has its own radar system to track
aircraft over the US, its prime task is to watch for
hostile aircraft approaching America from outside.
"We assume anything originating in US airspace is
friendly," said a spokesman.
For the same reason, the 20 or so American fighter
planes on permanent full alert in case of a suspect
intruder, were deployed at half a dozen bases in the
likeliest flightpaths of an attack from the former
Soviet Union, several hundred miles from New York
or Washington DC.
All aircraft flying over American airspace are
monitored and controlled by a network of 20
regional Federal Aviation Authority air traffic control
centres, backed up by individual airport control
towers. Military aircraft under Norad control can
intervene with domestic traffic only if called on for
help by their civilian colleagues.
That is what happened on Tuesday, but in no case
was there apparently enough time after the FAA's
warning for fighter planes to reach the hijacked
airliners.
More puzzling, there were 45 minutes between air
traffic controllers losing contact with the third
airliner, which took off from Dulles airport just
outside Washington, and its crash on to the
Pentagon.
At that point, however, the aircraft was still flying on
its intended course westwards. It may not have
been until later, possibly after a passenger's mobile
phone call to the Justice Department, that the civil
authorities finally twigged what was happening.
It was not the military but civilian air traffic
controllers at Washington's Reagan National Airport
- tipped off by their colleagues at Dulles - who
alerted the White House to the fact that an
unauthorised jet was flying at full throttle towards it.
As shaken White House staff began a frantic
evacuation, the aircraft banked, performed a 270
degree turn and sailed past lines of aghast drivers
on expressways to crash explosively into the west
side of the Pentagon.
If the airliner had approached much nearer to the
White House it might have been shot down by the
Secret Service, who are believed to have a battery
of ground-to-air Stinger missiles ready to defend the
president's home.
The Pentagon is not similarly defended. "We are an
open society," said a military official. "We don't have
soldiers positioned on the White House lawn and we
don't have the Pentagon ringed with bunkers and
tanks."
It emerged last night that two F-16 fighters took off
from Langley airforce base in Virginia just two
minutes before the American Airlines Boeing 767
crashed into the Pentagon, again too late to have a
chance of intercepting.
Only the fourth hijacked airliner, which was less than
30 minutes from Washington when it crashed, might
have been successfully intercepted: air traffic
controllers at a regional centre in Nashua, New
Hampshire, told a Boston newspaper that at least
one F-16 fighter was in hot pursuit, and defence
officials confirmed that the fighters already launched
from Langley were on their way to intercept the
flight when passengers apparently took matters into
their own hands.
Deep inside the Pentagon, in the hardened bunkers
of the National Military Joint Intelligence Centre,
senior officials were said to be "stunned" by the
terrorists' achievement.
Within minutes of the attack American forces around
the world were put on one of their highest states of
alert - Defcon 3, just two notches short of all-out
war - and F-16s from Andrews Air Force Base were
in the air over Washington DC.
A flotilla of warships was deployed along the east
coast from bases in Virginia and Florida, with two
aircraft-carriers to help protect the airspace around
New York and Washington DC. Off the west coast, a
further 10 ships put to sea to take up station close
to the shore.
Extra Awacs aerial reconnaissance aircraft were sent
aloft to ensure that nothing other than military
aircraft flew in American airspace - a home-grown
version of the "no-fly zones" enforced for many
years over Iraq. For much of the rest of the week,
the unsettling roar of F-15 and F-16 fighters
patrolling the skies high above America's biggest
cities replaced the usual rumble of commercial
airliners.
On Friday, in a tacit admission that America must in
future be better prepared, Donald Rumsfeld, the
Defence Secretary, announced that fighters were
being put on a 15-minute "strip" alert at 26 bases
nationwide.
There was anger among politicians at what many
saw as the failure of the intelligence services, and
some officials on Capitol Hill began canvassing
support for a move to force George Tenet, the
director of the Central Intelligence Agency, originally
appointed by Clinton, to step aside.
James Traficant, a Democratic congressman from
Pennsylvania, said that for years Congress had
poured billions of dollars of largely unscrutinised
funding into America's intelligence services, "yet we
learnt of every one of these tragedies from Fox
News and CNN"- two television channels. Senator
Richard Shelby, a Republican member of the Senate
intelligence committee, said it was "a failure of great
dimension".
There are moves to address one severe shortcoming
noted by many critics: the CIA's reliance on
technological rather than "human" means to gather
information, and its weakness as a means of finding
out what Osama bin Laden is up to.
During the Clinton administration, Congress banned
the CIA from recruiting as a paid informer anyone
with a criminal record or who was guilty of human
rights violations. James Woolsey, another former CIA
director, said: "Inside bin Laden's organisation there
are only people who want to be human rights
violators. If you don't recruit them then you don't
recruit anyone."
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE
>
> SAB Commentary 9/13/2001 stock brokers view of tragic bombing
>
> StocksAtBottom.com
>
> September 13, 2001
>
> The World has just changed
>
> New York is physically devastated; our spirit is alive and well. As a
> society we have now been enlisted in the international war against
> terrorism. This war has been going on certainly since the Jewish State
> of
> Israel was created in the 1948- 1949 period.
>
> Why the building collapsed
>
> As many as 5,000 to 10,000 people may have died in the destruction of
> the
> twin 110 story towers. They will never be recovered due to the heat
> involved. Those two buildings were among the best built structures in
> history. When I was very young, I remember studying them. They were
> built
> to withstand 200-mph winds from a hurricane. The steel girders were
> placed
> three feet apart, which is why the windows are narrow. Current
> buildings
> have girders placed seven to ten feet apart.
>
> The buildings were built to take the impact of an airplane crashing
> into
> it. What they can not take is the heat. With over 24,000 gallons of
> burning aviation fuel streaming through the structure, the temperatures
> were in the range of 2,000 to 2,200 degrees. Contrary to what the press
>
> has been stating, the steel did not melt. Steel melts at 2700 degrees.
> It
> did lose stiffness. At 500 degrees, steel softens, at 1200 degrees it
> loses stiffness. The connectors that connect the beams went first, then
>
> the beams connecting the steel columns went. The columns buckled. When
> the
> buckling took place, the weight above just came down vertically. Each
> floor cascaded on the floor below. This accounts for why the floors
> came
> down vertically, as opposed to why the building did not topple over on
> its
> side. It was gravity in the end. The way the building is designed is if
>
> there is a fire, it is believed that firefighters will dampen the steel
>
> with water in the first hour. This insures that the steel does not have
> a
> chance to lose stiffness. It normally takes up to three hours before
> the
> stiffness is effected. In this case the temperature went to 2000
> degrees,
> so it took an hour for the steel to give way.
>
> The Investigation
>
> Our government has by now pretty much determined who, and what is
> behind
> these acts of war. The people involved took zero efforts to hide their
> trail. The one thing our investigative agencies are superb at doing, is
> putting the manpower into a Hercules type effort to audit the trail.
> They
> already know who the actual killers were. They know from their credit
> card
> files, what their spending habits for the last year looked like. They
> include what restaurants they ate in, and what they bought. The trial
> will
> take them right to the source. The telephone records will take them
> right
> to the people and the country involved.
>
> In addition what is not normally known in our country, is that all
> (that's
> 100%) of all telephone calls going out of this country, and coming into
>
> this country are recorded on giant supercomputers in Fort Meade,
> Maryland.
> This is under the control of the National Security Agency. The computers
>
> listen to the first minute, where key words are monitored. This means
> if
> people talk about bombs, money laundering, murder, terrorism, etc., the
>
> conversation is then listened to completely. The terrorists who
> perpetuated these acts would have notified their superiors in foreign
> countries as to their status. Death leaves many trials. The trails are
> being followed.
>
> The President was targeted
>
> The President knows he was targeted, and so was Air Force One. Had
> President Bush been in the Oval Office on Tuesday morning, either the
> plane
> hitting the Pentagon, or the plane that crashed near Pittsburgh would
> have
> targeted the President. When you consider that the plane that hit the
> Pentagon probably had only a 100-foot corridor to make the angle to hit
> a
> building that was only a 100 feet high, there is a good chance of
> success
> against the White House.
>
> For years our country has had missiles stationed across the street from
>
> the White House on the roof of the Executive Office Building (EOB).
> There
> is a tunnel that goes from the White House to the EOB. When President
> Nixon was in office, he used to traverse the tunnel and spend most of
> his
> day working in the EOB. This is because the Oval Office is very small.
> As
> I recall, it is 17 to about 20 feet across. It is actually tiny by
> comparison to a lot of offices; you may have been in.
>
> The problem with the missiles on the roof of the EOB is it takes time
> to
> launch them. In addition, how quickly would a technician react and shoot
>
> down a civilian airliner, without know for sure that he was about to
> witness a terrorist act. Time and culture is on the side of the
> terrorist.
>
> It would seem prudent that the President is probably not working out of
>
> the Oval Office at the moment, and even for the foreseeable future. Our
> country spends in excess of $ 450 million per year for executive
> protection
> for the President. Air Force One cost over $ 400 million to build.
> There
> are two of them, which are both custom designed 747's, that are given
> "white glove' treatment. This means all maintenance schedules are cut
> in
> half. This means if you change your car oil every 3000 miles, they
> would
> change it every 1500 miles. We take a lot of caution in guarding a
> President. The results of a terrorist killing a President are
> unimaginable.
>
> In 1963, America lost a President to terrorism. Subsequent to that act,
>
> President Johnson, took whatever steps were necessary to see to it that
> no
> foreign country was implicated in President Kennedy's death. President
> Johnson made a decision that it was not worth fighting a war over. He
> knew
> that it could be settled another way. President Kennedy's brother
> Robert
> Kennedy, knew that he could not make a move until he himself was freely
>
> elected to the Presidency himself. This, he tried to do in 1968 before
> falling prey to assassination himself.
>
> The Response
>
> America must respond, and respond quickly because Americans will demand
>
> it. It will not be easy. First of all, my friends tell me that
> Afghanistan
> has nothing to attack. The city of Kabul is a waste of time. There's
> nothing there.
>
> If we are going to attack the military organization of an individual
> terrorist, we will have to do it on the ground, with Special Forces
> units.
> We have the ability. We will now test the will.
>
> In addition, these organizations can not operate without State support.
>
> Our government will have to attack a major country to truly root out
> the
> terrorists. There have been numerous claims about the potential failure
> of
> American intelligence including the FEB and CIA regarding this tragedy.
> This is non-sense. Electronic surveillance including sky satellites
> would
> not have detected this.
>
> Human intelligence would not catch this either. In order to penetrate
> the
> inner circle of radical terrorist organizations they make you prove
> your
> loyalty by having you murder an innocent victim. This is something that
>
> Americans will not do, and American sponsored individuals would not be
> permitted to do this either. As a society we have to find another way,
> and
> we will.
>
> There are also concerns as to whether not there were other terrorist
> teams
> involved, aside from the four that succeeded. There may have been teams
>
> that did not make it onto the airplanes, or back up teams, or other
> teams
> that did make it onto planes but were diverted because the FAA shut down
>
> all air travel within minutes of the 2(superscript: nd) building being
> taken out.
>
> A President always tries to stay slightly ahead of the American people
> and
> then lead from that position. At this point it clear that the people
> want
> action. The President will have to move quickly and sharply to stay in
> front of the curve on this one, and he will.
>
> Economic Consequences
>
> There have been 22 events in the United States that in some shape or
> fashion resemble what we are going through right now. When the markets
> reopened after these events, the average decline was five to seven
> percent.
> On average, within weeks, the markets recovered their losses, and were
> in
> the plus column.
>
> In our opinion absent a nuclear weapon hitting this country, the
> markets
> will be basically unaffected. The only time the stock markets in this
> country were truly closed for a long period was during the onset of
> World
> War I. The market was closed for four and one half months during that
> period. You will remember that the banks and the exchanges were closed
> for
> a bank holiday during the beginning of Franklin Roosevelt's term. There
>
> were also several days during World War II.
>
> There were a large number of securities firms with offices in the World
>
> Trade Centers. Years ago, I knew Bernard Cantor. Bernie created a firm
> called Cantor Fitzgerald, a major bond trading firm. He was a wonderful
> character that assembled the world's greatest collection of sculptures.
> Over 200 of these sculptures are on display at the Brooklyn Museum. An
> entire separate collection is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
> on
> Fifth Avenue in New York. Bernie's firm is on the 102(superscript: nd)
> floor of the World Trade Center. It was wiped out in the destruction.
> He
> had hundreds of employees. I understand less then 10 percent survived.
> Morgan Stanley had 3500 people working in the building. Hopefully most
> of
> them got out.
>
> Our banking system is intact. Years ago, this nation planned for a
> nuclear
> attack, and the banking industry also planned. All banking transactions
>
> are processed in an initial location, with a collateral system
> operating
> in another location. This means that if your brokerage firm was in the
> Trade Center then the transactions were probably also processed
> simultaneously across the river in New Jersey. What we are telling you
> is
> that business is intact. The American economy is intact.
>
> The Federal Reserve System has pumped $ 50 plus billion into the
> American
> economy in the last 48 hours. The Fed has also lent Europe over $ 50
> billion to prop up the European banks. We are okay.
>
> Conclusion
>
> Like previous generations we are being tested, and we shall pass the
> test.
> The character of our people has not changed. It never does. The genes
> of
> the people that fought at the Alamo, that survived the death march of
> Bataan, that marched through Europe to Berlin, inhabit all of us. It
> also
> inhabits the immigrants today that become Americans. There is something
>
> very special about coming to America today. It is the same specialiness
>
> that our forefathers created in this country. It does not change. It
> has
> not changed in 200 years, and probably won't in the next 200 years.
>
> We are quick to respond, and respond we will. We spilled blood in lower
>
> Manhattan on Tuesday. We may spill more blood. In the end, we have
> always
> carried the day, and the end will be the same this time as well. Talk to
>
> your children; explain to them that there are bad people in the world.
> There always will be, and we will ferret them out, and do what it is we
>
> have to do. Our lives will not change that much. We are too big, and
> too
> rich. We have lost 10,000 precious lives, and affected 100,000 others.
> Every American of good character will unite with their President. There
>
> are no Democrats or Republicans in this situation, only Americans. Hang
> in
> there; believe in the innate goodness of your country. Our response is
> going to very strong. The Pentagon is lining up the dominos as we write
>
> this.
>
> Your Friends At
> StocksAtBottom.com
>
CAVEAT LECTOR - FROM TOPVIEWER
9.16.01
-- Hijackers trained by US - NAVY LINK SURFACES
INSIDE JOB.
- - - - - - - -
http://www.msnbc.com/news/629529_asp.htm?0cb=-81924124
Alleged Hijackers May Have Trained at U.S. Bases
The Pentagon has turned over military records on five men to the FBI By
George Wehrfritz, Catharine Skipp and John Barry NEWSWEEK
Sept. 15 -- U.S. military sources have given the FBI information that
suggests five of the alleged hijackers of the planes that were used in
Tuesday's terror attacks received training at secure U.S. military
installations in the 1990s.
THREE OF THE alleged hijackers listed their address on drivers licenses
and car registrations as the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla.--known
as the "Cradle of U.S. Navy Aviation," according to a high-ranking U.S.
Navy source.
Another of the alleged hijackers may have been trained in strategy and
tactics at the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala., said another
high-ranking Pentagon official. The fifth man may have received language
instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex. Both were
former Saudi Air Force pilots who had come to the United States,
according to the Pentagon source. But there are slight discrepancies
between the military training records and the official FBI list of
suspected hijackers--either in the spellings of their names or with
their birthdates. One military source said it is possible that the
hijackers may have stolen the identities of the foreign nationals who
studied at the U.S. installations.
The five men were on a list
of 19 people identified as
hijackers by the FBI on Friday.
The three foreign nationals
training in Pensacola appear to
be Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmad
Alnami, who were among the
four men who allegedly
commandeered United Airlines Flight 93. That flight crashed into rural
Pennsylvania. The third man who may have trained in Pensacola, Ahmed
Alghamdi, allegedly helped highjack United Airlines Flight 75, which hit
the south tower of the World Trade Center.
Military records show that the three used as their address 10 Radford
Boulevard, a base roadway on which residences for
foreign-military flight trainees are located. In March 1997, Saeed
Alghamdi listed the address to register a 1998 Oldsmobile; five months
later he used it again to register a second vehicle, a late model Buick.
Drivers licenses thought to have been issued to the other two suspects
in 1996 and 1998 list the barracks as their residences.
NEWSWEEK visited the base early
Saturday morning, where military police
confirmed that the address housed foreign
military flight trainees but denied access past front barricades.
Officials at the base confirmed that the FBI is investigating the three
students.
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
Please send as far and wide as possible.
Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
http://www.konformist.com/911/911.htm
http://www.konformist.com/911/who-had-most-to-gain.htm
Who had the most to gain?
All of us who has ever seen a rerun of Columbo, read an Agatha
Christie novel, or seen any TV crime drama has heard that question
when trying to figure out the most likely suspect of a murder.
Well it looks like five thousand people were just murdered. So ask
the question. Well? For starters it's certainly not the hijackers.
They lost their lives. What about the people that are supposedly
behind them, like Osama bin Laden? It would seem not.
Some terrorist acts may give the perpetrator some street cred:
blowing up a mid-air flight like the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie
Scotland which was linked back to Libya, blowing a hole in the USS
Cole, blowing up a couple of US embassies in some backwater country
like Tanzania. You can make a name for yourself in your little region
of the world and know that the US will definitely try to catch you,
but it's only going to try so hard.
But anyone would have to realize that committing an act so horrifying
in size and audacity is sure to commit the US to not rest until it
has your head on a stick. It's like a gang member who will try to
improve his gangsta rep by shooting a local cop, but knows better
than to try to assassinate the president.
Decide for yourself what it means or doesn't mean but the ones who
benefit the most from this incident are those in the Bush
administration.
Fact: The economy was likely to enter recession. Rightly or wrongly
the public tends to place blame for economic downturns on whichever
president is in office at the time. Well now if the economy heads
south, it's not their fault! It's this horrible tragedy of course
that's shaken people's confidence!
Fact: The Bush administration had "nothing to do". No cause. The
President was reading to school children when the planes hit. (He
couldn't have been too busy with affairs of state). Bush himself
has said that this has now become "the focus of (his)
administration" They have found their issue, their cause to rally
around, and their issue to campaign for reelection on in 3 years.
Fact: Declaring a "war on terrorism" is like declaring a war on vice.
It is endless and can be used indefinitely as an excuse to push
through whatever agendas they may have like the missile defense
shield, increased defense spending, or whatever.
Fact: The label "terrorist" is a very easy one to apply. Especially
so the label "harboring" a terrorist. And we now are finding out
the "enemy is among us" (here in the US). This sounds an awful lot
like the Red Scare of the 50's where the excuse of routing out the
invisible communists was used to abuse people's civil rights and
intimidate anyone and everyone opposed to the administration or US
policy. Today we look back and condemn that as "McCarthyism" but
are we so clear sighted about what's right in front of us now?
Fact: Congress just approved a FORTY BILLION "relief aid package"
with little to no oversights on how Bush gets to spend it. That's
Billion with a "B". And this is not just for disaster clean up and
aid to the victims. It's also for the "ongoing" war Bush has told us
to expect and "increasing our intelligence capability". Well what
does that include exactly? Reading all emails? Eavesdropping on our
phone calls? Who knows because they don't have to say. Congress has
given the money in the heat of emotion with little or no conditions.
Fact: Congress will have to go along with just about anything the
President's administration wants that can be tied in to this
disaster. Any representative or senator that dissents will
look "unpatriotic" if they say no. This is very dangerous. The
founders created three branches of government so that no one branch
would have too much power. One of those is the judicial branch and we
saw what the Supreme Court did this most recent election. Many legal
experts say it was unprecedented that they ruled to hand the election
results to Bush rather than say they had no business deciding it and
were unduly influenced by the fact that many of the justices were
appointed by Bush Sr. So that's one branch that seems not to be
performing its role of providing checks and balances. And now the
other branch, Congress, is cow towed too.
Fact: This sudden disaster sure seems to have taken many people's
attention off the fact that this President won the election under
very fishy circumstances in Florida (where his brother is governor).
Boy that sure is a big help.
Does this prospect seem horrendous? Too incredible to imagine? Well
it's happened before. A great fire destroyed a huge part of Rome. The
emperor Nero blamed it on the Christians and used it as an excuse to
persecute them and this cause helped the unpopular emperor
consolidate his political power and rally patriotic Rome around him.
Historians generally feel that Nero himself probably had the fire
set. In the 1930's the Reichstag (the German building where their
representatives met...like our Capitol building) burned down. Hitler
blamed it on the "communists among them" and used it to rally a
patriotic Germany around him, consolidating his political power and
to persecute his political enemies. People generally agree there is
enough evidence to believe the Nazis themselves set fire to the
building for just this purpose.
It's very likely the Roman citizens could never imagine their own
Emperor setting fire to their own city, and the same with the
Germans. And that is exactly why it worked.
After the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995,
people who suggested people in the government were behind it looked
like conspiracy nuts. Even today there seems little motivation to
that idea. Unless it was a test. A smaller scale test to see how the
public would react. And to extrapolate how they might react to
something much bigger in the future.
Back to the suspects: Shortly after the attacks a rental car was
found in the parking lot of Boston's Logan airport. Inside was the
Koran and an instructional video tape on how to fly airliners. Even
some of the news anchors reporting this live seemed to say what an
obvious plant this seemed like! It's just not plausible that the
perpetrators would be watching a video the day before the attack. It
seems they'd have learned how to fly the plane well before then. If
they didn't have it down by the day before something's wrong.
And it also doesn't make sense to leave such obvious evidence behind.
It might if the attackers/backers planned on taking credit for it.
But they haven't. Just the opposite. Everyone is denying it. So if
they didn't want to get blamed for it, wouldn't they be a little more
careful about leaving behind such obvious evidence?
On Saturday, just days after the attack, they announced that in the
rubble of the trade center they found one of the terrorist's
passports. We all saw that fireball! The fire was so hot it turned
the steel of the building into hot liquid molten metal. But his
passport survived? And it was found even though they had only gone
through 20,000 tons of debris out of a total of 1.4 million tons? In
other words they only scratched the surface of the ruins and there it
was? It's like reaching out and taking a pinch from the haystack and
lo and behold! There's the needle!
Something about all of this just doesn't smell right. Does that
seem unpatriotic? Un-American? Well this country has a long tradition
of healthy Yankee skepticism and asking about what might really be
going on, what we're not being told rather than falling lockstep
behind whatever slogans and rhetoric government leaders are feeding
the public like the masses do in totalitarian countries.
So now might be the time to use our heads and try to look beyond the
superficial.
Real Americans are not afraid of debate, of different ideas, of free
thought. So pass this email along and let people discuss it. If
millions of people passed along the email hoax of that phony
Nostradamus "prediction" then we owe it to ourselves to share with
each other something that is actually relevant.
If you are interested in a free subscription to The
Konformist Newswire, please visit:
http://www.eGroups.com/list/konformist
-Caveat Lector-
This video clip shows an unknown explosion of some kind that hit an unknown
building BEFORE either tower collapsed.
http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/towerblast.html
Could this be what the unknown object in the FOX video hit? Was it a
missile? A jet? Please check out the FOX video. Go to this link:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34238,00.html#video
Scroll to "Video - The Attack" and click on "East Angle - Second Plane
Hits Tower." Between five and ten seconds after the second plane hits,
SOMETHING comes down from the top left to the lower right. This has been
completely and unbelievably unreported and could be one of the most important
news stories in all of this. The absence of reporting on it is also a
fascinating news story in and of itself.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=94433
Bush did not heed several warnings of attacks
Intelligence
By Andrew Gumbel
17 September 2001
George Bush's administration was warned repeatedly that a devastating attack
on the United States was on its way, including a State Department advisory as
late as 7 September, but either failed to read the signals or was unable to
follow up on intelligence tips in time to prevent last Tuesday's onslaught on
the country.
Evidence from countless sources has surfaced in the past few days, suggesting
that the "colossal failure of intelligence" described by several senior
politicians was not entirely the result of ignorance. In the three weeks
before the attack, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was actually looking
for two suspected associates of Osama bin Laden who turned out to be among
the 19 suicide hijackers.
That search was part of a pattern of alarm signals sounding in intelligence
circles from late August onwards. Around the time the FBI was receiving its
tip-off about the two men, one of whom was wanted for another suspected bin
Laden operation – the bombing of the USS Cole in Aden harbour last October –
security was abruptly heightened at the World Trade Centre with the
introduction of sniffer dogs and systematic checks on trucks bringing in
deliveries. No explanation has been given for this measure.
Also in late August, Mr bin Ladenboasted in an interview with the
London-based newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi that he was planning an
unprecedentedly large strike against the United States.
Then, four days before calamity struck, the State Department sent out a
worldwide advisory, repeating warnings it first made in May that "American
citizens may be the target of a terrorist threat from extremist groups with
links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida organisation". The reason for the new
advisory was a heightened concern over military bases in Japan or Korea.
Although these were clearly not the targets most at risk, the very fact that
the State Department chose to put out an advisory was a sign that "something
was cooking", according to the former secretary of state George Shultz, who
received a copy at his private offices in San Francisco.
"I have no idea what intelligence lies behind the warning," Mr Shultz told
the San Francisco Chronicle, "but they put this out because they had some
sort of intelligence." There is nothing new about the fear that Mr bin Laden
and his organisation might strike against the United States at any time.
Particularly since the simultaneous bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania in August 1998, a crime the United States has laid squarely at Mr
bin Laden's door, there have been repeated alerts leading to the temporary
evacuation of American government buildings overseas.
The night after the attacks on New York and Washington, Senator John Kerry of
Massachusetts told CNN that the CIA believed it had thwarted an attack by Mr
bin Laden's acolytes as recently as August. He gave no further details.
Aside from the general threat, however, there seems to have been some
misreading of the evidence at hand. Over the weekend, for example, the
director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert Mueller, said he had
been taken entirely by surprise by the revelation that a number of last
Tuesday's hijackers had received pilot training in the United States. "If we
had understood that to be the case, we would have, perhaps one could have,
averted this," he said on Saturday.
And yet, during the trial earlier this year of four defendants charged with
involvement in the 1998 embassy bombings, it emerged that two suspected
contacts of Mr bin Laden's, Essam al Ridi and Ihab Ali Nawawi, had received
pilot training in Texas and Oklahoma. Mr al-Ridi, a naturalised US citizen of
Egyptian origin who testified that he had bought a military aircraft at Mr
bin Laden's request and flown it to Sudan, had been in contact with federal
authorities since 1998. That would suggest, contrary to Mr Mueller's
statement, that the FBI had solid information about the pilot-training scheme
for three years.
There is also mounting evidence that the Bush administration, preoccupied
with its "Son of Star Wars" missile defence system to guard against rogue
nuclear, biological or chemical attacks from overseas, did not give
sufficient weight to the demonstrably more pressing threat of low-tech
guerrilla attacks.
Last January, just after Mr Bush took office, a bipartisan commission chaired
by former senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman, issued a warning that "the
relative invulnerability of the US homeland to catastrophic attack" was
coming to an end.
The report said: "A direct attack against American citizens on American soil
is likely over the next quarter century." A series of 50 recommendations was
made, including a greater reliance on human intelligence rather than
espionage equipment and the creation of a new domestic security agency
marshalling the forces of the CIA, immigration, the border patrol, the Coast
Guard and the FBI.
Rather than accept the report, which was unanimously approved by all seven
Republicans and seven Democrats involved in its drafting and which led to the
introduction of congressional legislation advocating the creation of a
National Homeland Security Agency, the Bush administration chose to put it to
one side and work out its own strategy from scratch.
Senator Hart said he sat tearing his hair out last week while he watched the
scenes of carnage and destruction unfold on his television set, feeling that
his warnings had not been taken with the appropriate seriousness. "We
predicted it," he said forlornly.
Subj: Re: [CTRL] CNN disinformation?
Date: 16/09/01 5:49:54 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Caveat Lector-
I hate to point out the obvious, but doesn't this whole
WTC thing seems to be like it's a mossad operation to
others?
I have no proof, of course, but the economics and the
reverse-engineering of the logics of the whole events
point to this conclusion.
1) Israel has been very well prepared in that the
current and ex-prime ministers have been very well available
and have been talking on international television about this
incident from the moment it started.
2) The below news is very beneficial to Israel
3) Israel benefits the most from this incident politically
4) They have the resources to do something like this
5) Their politicians don't care about killing innocent people
6) They have done it before to the Americans (Sinking one of their ships)
7) The Mossad recruit palestinians for suicide missions and kill the
volunteers before they commit a bombing -> a short extention would be to
use them for their own benefit by having them do suicide attacks in the
US to gain support for their policies in the middle east, and have US
attack the neighboring arab countries threatening Israel.
8) Osama has denied responsibility, yes he is "implicated" somehow by
the evidence.
9) Osama would not seem to benefit from this politically
or economically, or gain any support by doing this in the
Arab countries, as has been made clear
10) Iraelis' claim to have warned USA before hand...
etc. etc. etc.
Tons of coincidences and reportings of facts about this
whole incident in the news.
Israel is very prominently playing this for all it's
worth, and seems incredibly very well prepared.
Of course, this does not mean that they had anything to do with it.
I'm just pointing out that they are getting the biggest benefit,
together with the military-industrial and spy-complexes of the USA.
Certainly a nice conspiracy theory? ;-)
On Sat, 15 Sep 2001, [anton.raath] wrote:
> :- anybody could confirm the following?
>
> The authenticity of the "Palestinians celebrating footage dates back to
> 1991" meme has been hotly debated on the Net over the last few days, and
> last I heard nobody reputable was able to confirm that CNN was faking it.
> Personally, I take CNN reports with a pinch of salt, but this might just be
> a little too obvious to be true.
>
> For more speculation on this topic, there's a discussion at Plastic:
> http://www.plastic.com/article.pl?sid=01/09/15/0020252&mode=thread
>
> A!
-Caveat Lector-
From: surfingtheapocalypse.com:
From My Inbox:
To the editors/webmasters/owners of your respective news sites, now is
probably the time to hover over privacy.org and sites like it as UFOs
hover over mutilated cattle; news respecting systematic attempts to
crush civil liberties is appearing rapidly now. For example:
Senate OK's Warrantless Internet Surveillance in new Anti-Terrorism Act
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,46852,00.html
Carnivore Installation Disco Fever, Both ISPs and "Tier-1 Carriers"
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,46747,00.html
GLOBAL Prohibition of No-Backdoor Encryption?
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,46816,00.html
Civil Liberty the Next Casualty?
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46784,00.html
ISPs Aid FBI In Terrorist Search
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7141812.html
Privacy Trade-Offs Reassessed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21207-2001Sep12.html
FBI Looking To Internet For Terrorism Clues
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/018876.htm
Terrorism Bills Revive Civil Liberties Debate
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28636-2001Sep14.html
Activist Groups on Lookout for Erosion of Civil Liberties
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-091401legal.story
>>
San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Sept 2001
EARLY WARNING
State Department memo warned of terrorist threat
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, September 14, 2001
©2001 San Francisco Chronicle
Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz said yesterday that he was
"startled" by a little-noticed State Department memo that was issued a week
ago and warned that Americans "may be the target of a terrorist threat."
The memo, issued just four days before the attacks on New York and
Washington, identified the threat as coming from "extremist groups with
links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization."
"I have not idea what intelligence lies behind the warning," Shultz said,
''but they put this out because they had some sort of intelligence."
Shultz, who served as secretary of state under President Reagan, said he
received a copy of the Sept. 7 "worldwide warning" in his San Francisco
office on the day before the fatal attacks. The memo addressed concerns for
Americans overseas and made no mention of any possible attack on U.S. soil.
Reached last night, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein said this was the first
she had heard anything about the State Department warnings.
"Everyone should have been (alerted), but then you would have to ask
whether they would have known what to look out for," Feinstein said.
"Of course," Feinstein said, "today is a different world, and I think a lot
of things are going to change.
"Bin Laden's people had made statements three weeks ago carried in the Arab
press in Great Britain that they were preparing to carry out unprecedented
attacks in the U.S.," she said. "Whether that was the derivation of this
(State Department ) bulletin, I don't know."
The warning dealt primarily with military bases in Japan and Korea.
But as Shultz pointed out, the mere fact that a warning was issued
indicates that "something was cooking."
And indeed, in the one-page alert, the State Department said it had
received information in May 2001 "that American citizens may be the target
of a terrorist threat from extremist groups with links to Osama bin Laden's
al Qaeda organization."
"Such individuals have not distinguished between official and civilian
targets," the report said, adding, "As always, we take this information
seriously. U.S. Government facilities worldwide remain on heightened alert."
"They had some sort of rumbling of something," Shultz said, "even if they
didn't pinpoint it in the right direction."
U.S. State Department representative Julie Reside in Washington downplayed
the significance of the bulletin yesterday, saying it was only the latest
in a series of "periodically" issued public warnings by the department.
Reside said warnings are available to media organizations and on the state
department's Web page.
"If it was based on intelligence, we cannot, of course, provide any
details, " Reside said.
It's not the first time this year that the bin Laden organization was
mentioned in a "worldwide caution." The first warning came in May, and was
later updated on Sept. 7 to include the threats to U.S. military personnel
in Asia.
Officials at San Francisco International Airport said they weren't aware of
the State Department warning - but someone in the airport security section
knew of it and passed word of the warning onto Mayor Willie Brown when he
called to check on the status of flight he was planning to take to New York.
"I didn't give it much thought at the time," Brown said. "It wasn't until
after the attacks that I even remembered the call."
Whether U.S. military installations around the world were aware of the memo
and took extra precautions is a bit unclear. Department of Defense
spokesman Glenn Flood said his agency would have received a copy of the
bulletin. But, he added, "There was no order from the Pentagon for every
base to go on heightened alert, because that's up to the commands in each
theater, and some are on alert anyway."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher made mention of the bulletin at
a routine -- and sparsely attended -- media briefing last Friday. He
explained that the department was revising a June 22 notice to include
warnings about threats to the military in Japan and Korea and "to ensure
that the general American public is aware of this potential danger to their
safety."
Boucher declined to say whether the threat in Asia was directly linked to
bin Laden.
E-mail Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross at matierandross@sfchronicle.com.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/09/14/MN92245.DTL&type=printable
Subj: NY Times Confirms Air Defense FAA Coverup
Date: 15/09/01 1:10:44 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: vvvvvv@AOL.COM ()
Sender: CURRENT-ENCOUNTERS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
The New York Times has published an article confirming the air defense
problems tragically illustrated by Tuesday's acts of war against this
country, and confirming that the FAA was well aware that airliners had been
hijacked PRIOR to the crashes into the World Trade Center towers and the
Pentagon but fighters were not scrambled in time for some reason. See this
link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/15/national/15CONT.html
The article reveals that "The Federal Aviation Administration has officially
REFUSED TO DISCUSS ... the SEQUENCE OF EVENTS on Tuesday morning, saying
these are part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's inquiry."
WHAT???? You mean that 10,000 of our citizens can be slaughtered in
coldblood and the FAA can REFUSE TO DISCUSS EVEN WHAT HAPPENED?????
This is absolutely contemptible. This is the response of a bunch of
CRIMINALS TAKING THE 5th.
At what level of carnage would the FAA finally relent and DISCUSS THE
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS leading to the carnage? Would it take 100,000 dead? How
about 1 million dead? Would maybe at 70 million dead -- one-fourth of the
U.S. population -- as in a nuclear war, would the FAA finally relent and
DISCUSS THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS that led to such a holocaust?????
The article goes on to discuss the military-civilian system of air traffic
control set up in the 50's (I had traced it to 1952 via ADC histories in
researching the UFO air defense issue). It claims these are "provisions for
close communications between civilian [FAA] and military [NORAD] traffic
officials." But it looks to me like the 1950's system of minute-by-minute
coordination between CAA/FAA and ADC/NORAD of air traffic information to
identify all flights has broken down. There doesn't seem to be a continuous
flow of instantaneous electronic air traffic data to NORAD. Instead, someone
at FAA, a human, has to DECIDE to notify NORAD. The data apparently (I don't
_know_ for sure) doesn't automatically appear on NORAD display screens. Or
if it does, NORAD doesn't task computers to track and pay attention to air
target data unless and until the FAA singles out traffic for attention.
The excuse that this was unprecedented, they were taken by surprise, didn't
know what to do about civilian airliners hijacked as weapons of war, etc., is
just POPPYCOCK. Ever heard of Pearl Harbor???? It was UNPRECEDENTED, a
SURPRISE, an ACT of WAR. Later in the war we had SUICIDE KAMIKAZE bombers.
The CIA was set up in 1947 to warn against and to prevent future Pearl
Harbors. The rules of engagement for fighter interception of Unidentified
Targets, as we've seen from UFO incidents, has never been so EFFETE and
CONFUSED.
If the target was behaving peculiarly or entered a Restricted Zone (remember
the Washington National Airport UFO incidents of July 1952?) the targets were
INTERCEPTED. At the very least fighters could have pinpointed the airliners,
followed their headings and alerted ahead where the airliners seemed to be
going, especially American Flight 77 which reportedly flew around the White
House and the Capitol prior to plunging into the Pentagon.
In the Wash Nat UFO incidents we saw there was a delay in scrambling fighters
because the runway at Andrews AFB was closed for repairs and the F-94's had
to come from Dover AFB in Delaware over 100 miles away. Has NO ONE IN AIR
DEFENSE LEARNED ANY LESSONS from 1952???? I thought they had and that in
part at least it was recognized that the comprehensive system of CAA-ADC
communication was going to solve such problems, though in 1952 it was
realized that it would take a few years before the system would be fully up
and running. And THAT was in the days before computers and satellites. What
excuse do we have today?
Echelon Warned US & Israeli Intel Hijacked Planes
> Were To Be Weapons
> By Ned Stafford
> BizReport.com
> 9-14-1
>
> U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies received warning signals at
> least three months ago that Middle Eastern terrorists were
> planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack
> important symbols of American and Israeli culture, according to a
> story in Germany's daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).
>
> The FAZ, quoting unnamed German intelligence sources, said that
> the Echelon spy network was being used to collect information
> about the terrorist threats, and that U.K. intelligence services
> apparently also had advance warning. The FAZ, one of Germany's
> most respected dailies, said that even as far back as six months
> ago western and near-east press services were receiving
> information that such attacks were being planned.
>
> Within the American intelligence community, the warnings were
> taken seriously and surveillance intensified, the FAZ said.
> However, there was disagreement on how such terrorist attacks
> could be prevented, the newspaper said.
>
> Echelon is said to be a vast information collection system capable
> of monitoring all the electronic communications in the world. It is
> thought to be operated by the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia
> and New Zealand. No government agency has ever confirmed or
> denied its existence. However, an EU committee that investigated
> Echelon for more than a year just last week reported its belief that
> the system does exist.
>
> The EU committee said that Echelon sucks up electronic
> transmissions "like a vacuum cleaner," using keyword search
> techniques to sift through enormous amounts of data.
>
> The FAZ, in its news story, described the system as covering the
> whole world with 120 satellites. The newspaper also said Israeli
> intelligence had collected information indicated that Arab terrorist
> groups planned to hijack planes in Europe to use as weapons to
> attack targets in Tel Aviv and other coastal cities in Israel.
>
> Because of increasing concerns of plane hijackings, Israel has
> tested a new x-ray machine at the Tel Aviv airport, the FAZ said.
> The machine capable of detecting all known explosive elements,
> even if only in small quantities, the newspaper said.
>
> The FAZ said that German intelligence fears that in coming days
> planes will be hijacked in Europe and the Near East, and that
> there is no sure way to protect against it.
>
> http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=2137&width=800
>
> NFORMATION TIMES: http://www.InformationTimes.com
==================================================
THE INDEPENDENT (London, UK)
http://www.independent.co.uk
Monday, 17 September 2001
'Suicide Hijacker' is an Airline Pilot Alive and Well in Jeddah
Suspects
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=
94438
[FBI LIST OF 19 HIJACKERS by Syed Adeeb
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1040 ]
By ROBERT FISK in Beirut
A man named by the U.S. Department of Justice as a suicide
hijacker of American Airlines flight 11, the first airliner to
smash into the World Trade Centre, is very much alive and
living in Jeddah.
Abdulrahman al-Omari, a pilot with Saudi Airlines, was
astonished to find himself accused of hijacking, as well as
being dead, and has visited the U.S. consulate in Jeddah to
demand an explanation.
None has so far been forthcoming. It is possible that the
hijacker adopted Mr. al-Omari's identity but, if he had been
using the same false name while training as a pilot in the U.S.,
he would presumably have been uncovered.
That is not the only error on the [FBI] list of hijackers. The
name of Ziad Jarrah, identified as the pilot-hijacker of United
Airlines flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, was misspelt
"Jarrahi". He was a Lebanese whose family, living in the Bekaa
Valley, spoke to him just two days before his death but who
still refuse to believe that he was involved.
Mr. al-Omari's first name, Abdulrahman, was later given out by
the U.S. authorities as "Abdulaziz" but there can be little
doubt that it referred to the pilot who lives in Jeddah. The
Americans described him as a father of four and Mr. al-Omari
does have four children, all of whom live with him and his
family in Saudi Arabia's second city. He has refused to talk to
reporters and, in the words of one prominent Saudi journalist,
"is one nervous guy".
INFOTIMES INTERNET-WEB LINKS:
'FBI's Dead Hijacker' is Alive and Lives in Saudi Arabia
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1049
FBI LIST OF 19 HIJACKERS by Syed Adeeb
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1040
U.S. Military Could Be Behind The Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1048
James Bamford's New Book: "Body of Secrets"
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/bamford/home.html
"Body of Secrets" by James Bamford
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2001/04/25/nsa
U.S. Government is the World's Largest Terrorist Organization
http://geocities.com/americanterrorism/Amerikan_Terrorism.html
Civilized World Should Oppose U.S.-Israeli Terrorism
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1036
Racism Against Arabs and Muslims on the Rise in America
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1033
Did Israel Attack the Pentagon and World Trade Center?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1032
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) Website
http://www.nsa.gov
==================================================
INFORMATION TIMES: http://www.InformationTimes.com
==================================================
[U.S. Military Could Be Behind The Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks]
THE BALTIMORE SUN (Maryland, USA)
http://www.sunspot.net
Originally published April 24, 2001
http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-te.md.nsa24apr24.story
New Book on NSA Sheds Light on Secrets
U.S. terror plan called Cuba invasion pretext
By Scott Shane and Tom Bowman (Sun Staff)
WASHINGTON - U.S. military leaders proposed in 1962 a secret
plan to commit terrorist acts against Americans and blame Cuba
to create a pretext for invasion and the ouster of Communist
leader Fidel Castro, according to a new book about the National
Security Agency.
"We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami
area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington," said one
document reportedly prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We
could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," the
document says. "Casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a
helpful wave of indignation."
The plan is laid out in documents signed by the five Joint
Chiefs but never carried out, according to writer James Bamford
in "Body of Secrets." The new history of the Fort Meade-based
eavesdropping agency is being released today by Doubleday.
NSA regularly picks up the conversations of suspected terrorist
financier Osama bin Laden, says Bamford, and has monitored
Chinese and French companies trying to sell missiles to Iran. He
provides new details about an Israeli attack on a Navy
eavesdropping ship in 1967, suggesting that the sinking was
deliberate. And he reveals the loss of an "entire warehouse"
full of secret cryptographic gear to the North Vietnamese in
1975, at the end of the Vietnam War.
Bamford, a former investigative reporter for ABC News who wrote
"The Puzzle Palace" about the NSA in 1982, said his new book is
based mostly on documents obtained through the Freedom of
Information Act or found in government archives. "NSA never
handed me any documents," he said. "It was a question of
digging."
He said he was most surprised by the anti-Cuba terror plan,
code-named Operation Northwoods. It "may be the most corrupt
plan ever created by the U.S. government," he writes.
The Northwoods plan also proposed that if the 1962 launch of
John Glenn into orbit were to fail, resulting in the astronaut's
death, the U.S. government would publicize fabricated evidence
that Cuba had used electronic interference to sabotage the
flight, the book says.
A previously secret document obtained by Bamford offers further
suggestions for mayhem to be blamed on Cuba.
"We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route 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," the document says. Another idea was to
shoot down a CIA plane designed to replicate a passenger flight
and announce that Cuban forces shot it down.
Citing a White House document, Bamford writes that the idea of
creating a pretext for the invasion of Cuba might have started
with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the last weeks of his
administration, when the plan for an invasion by Cuban exiles
trained in the United States was hatched. Carried out in April
1961, soon after Kennedy became president, the Bay of Pigs
invasion proved a fiasco. Castro's forces quickly killed or
rounded up the invaders.
Army Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
presented the Operation Northwoods plan to Kennedy early in
1962, but the president rejected it that March because he wanted
no overt U.S. military action against Cuba. Lemnitzer then
sought unsuccessfully to destroy all evidence of the plan,
according to Bamford.
Lemnitzer and those who served with him in 1962 as chiefs of the
nation's military branches are dead. But two former top Kennedy
administration officials said yesterday that they were unaware
of Operation Northwoods and questioned whether such a plan was
ever drafted.
"I've never heard of Operation Northwoods. Never heard of it and
don't believe it," said Theodore Sorenson, Kennedy's White House
special counsel. "Obviously, it would be totally illegal as well
as totally unwise."
Robert S. McNamara, Kennedy's defense secretary, said: "I never
heard of it. I can't believe the chiefs were talking about or
engaged in what I would call CIA-type operations."
Bamford writes that besides the Joint Chiefs, then-Assistant
Secretary of Defense Paul H. Nitze also favored "provoking a
phony war with Cuba."
"There may be a piece of paper" on Northwoods, said McNamara. "I
just cannot conceive of [Nitze] approving anything like that or
doing it without talking to me."
The book contains many other revelations in its detailed account
of NSA, the biggest U.S. intelligence agency and Maryland's
largest employer, with more than 25,000 personnel at Fort Meade,
site of its global eavesdropping efforts.
Among them:
In recent years, NSA has regularly listened to bin Laden's
unencrypted telephone calls. Agency officials have sometimes
played tapes of bin Laden talking to his mother to impress
members of Congress and select visitors to the agency.
In the late 1990s, NSA tracked efforts by Chinese and French
companies to sell missile technology to Iran, particularly the
C-802 anti-ship missile. The eavesdropping led to U.S. protests
to the Chinese and French governments.
When U.S. troops evacuated Vietnam in 1975, "an entire warehouse
overflowing with NSA's most important cryptographic machines and
other supersensitive code and cipher materials" was left behind.
It was the largest compromise of such equipment in U.S. history,
Bamford writes, but the agency still has not acknowledged it.
When Israeli fighter jets attacked the NSA eavesdropping ship
USS Liberty in the Mediterranean in 1967, killing 34 Americans
and wounding 171, an NSA aircraft was listening in and heard
Israeli pilots referring to the American flag on the ship. U.S.
officials, including President Lyndon Baines Johnson, decided to
forget the matter, Bamford writes, because they did not want to
embarrass Israel. To this day, Israeli officials say their
forces mistakenly attacked the U.S. ship.
Bamford says the reason for the strike was Israel's desperate
effort to cover up its attacks on the Egyptian town of El Arish
in the Sinai. The Liberty was sitting offshore and the Israelis
feared that the ship would detect the operation, which included
the shooting of prisoners.
Yesterday, an NSA spokesperson questioned a point made in the
book about the USS Liberty.
"We do not comment on operational matters, alleged or otherwise;
however, Mr. Bamford's claim that the NSA leadership was
`virtually unanimous in their belief that the attack was
deliberate' is simply not true," the spokesperson said.
When he wrote "The Puzzle Palace" in 1982, Bamford was attacked
by some NSA officials, who said his revelations gave the Soviet
Union and other U.S. adversaries too much information on the
secret agency. One former director referred to him as "an
unconvicted felon."
With the end of the Cold War, the agency has been less guarded.
NSA's current director, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden,
has granted a number of interviews. Hayden "cracked the door
open a tiny bit," said Bamford, partly to burnish NSA's public
image and correct misconceptions.
[Sun staff writer Laura Sullivan contributed to this article.
Copyright © 2001, The Baltimore Sun - http://www.sunspot.net ]
INFOTIMES EDITOR's NOTE: James Bamford is the author of The
Puzzle Palace, a national bestseller when it was first published
and now regarded as a classic. He was until recently Washington
Investigative Producer for ABC's World News Tonight with Peter
Jennings and has written investigative cover stories for The New
York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine and the Los
Angeles Times Magazine. He lives in Washington, DC.
Praise for James Bamford's first examination of the National
Security Agency, The Puzzle Palace: "There have been glimpses
inside the NSA before, but until now no one has published a
comprehensive and detailed report on the agency Mr. Bamford has
emerged with everything except the combination to the director's
safe."
-- New York Times Book Review.
Bamford's new book "Body of Secrets" went on-sale on April 24,
2001 in the USA.
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/bamford/home.html
INFOTIMES INTERNET-WEB LINKS:
U.S. Military Could Be Behind The Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1048
James Bamford's New Book: "Body of Secrets"
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/bamford/home.html
"Body of Secrets" by James Bamford
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2001/04/25/nsa
U.S. Government is the World's Largest Terrorist Organization
http://geocities.com/americanterrorism/Amerikan_Terrorism.html
Civilized World Should Oppose U.S.-Israeli Terrorism
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1036
U.S. Government Must Stop its Barbaric Terrorism
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1033
Did Israel Attack the Pentagon and World Trade Center?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1032
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) Website
http://www.nsa.gov
Sent four days before the terrorist act in NY:
From: Michael Novick [mailto:part2001@usa.net]
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2001 4:19 PM
Subject: CIA predicts globalization will cause breakdown in Pakistan
CIA Report Predicts Globalization May Cause 'Breakdown' in Pakistan
By T.C. Malhotra
CNSNews.com Correspondent
September 07, 2001
New Delhi (CNSNews.com) - A Central Intelligence Agency report calls the
Pakistani government a "hybrid regime, not democracy," and it predicts that
globalization could cause an eventual economic and political breakdown in
the country.
"Globalization means there could be breakdowns in bigger, developed, urban
places where the United States may not be able to intervene," the CIA report
said.
"Pakistan is the best current example of this because it seems to encompass
the worst of everything," the report continued. The report, called
"Reshaping Geopolitical Trends," was released in Washington on Wednesday.
Regional analysts in New Delhi explained that the "breakdowns" mentioned by
the CIA would stem from growing inequality in certain parts of the world.
"With growing globalization, there is bound to inequalities among regions in
the world and also among regions within a particular country," said New
Delhi-based analyst, Rahul Banerjee. "That is why it is necessary that a
strong and democratic form of government is in place in any country if
tensions due to inequalities are to be avoided. Unfortunately, this is not
the case in Pakistan, where a military government is ruling the country,"
said Banerjee.
The CIA report said the government of Pakistan is likely to remain comprised
of military and democratic elements - a hybrid regime that will be called
"democratic" only for the sake of stability.
Pakistan's military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf , recently announced a
roadmap for restoring democracy in the country by October of next year, but
the military influence is not expected to wane.
According to analyst Rahul Banerjee, the CIA report predicts that
globalization will cause increased unemployment in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"Globalization entails free movement of goods and services across countries.
Consequently, in a country such as Pakistan where there is a weak production
base of goods, items produced in foreign countries are likely to replace
inferior quality goods [produced domestically].
"This will result in widespread unemployment as profit margins of domestic
companies come down and they eventually close shop. Terrorism therefore will
turn out to be a form occupation for many youths," Banerjee said.
--
------------- * ENWL (English) * --------
Ecological North West Line * St. Petersburg, Russia
E-mail: enwle@lew.spb.org http://www.enwl.net.ru
-----------------------------------------------
FROM A READER:
Date sent: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 01:51:38 -0400
From: XXXX@erols.com>
To: econews@ecologynews.com
Subject: Navy Warning
My mom heard the same from a friend who's son was called back to the
Navy on Tuesday, September 11th under strict security at 5 AM (almost
four hours before WTC)--so your info is confirmed.
Subject: Time sequence series of WTC UFO photos
Date sent: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 19:53:43 -0500
http://drudgereport.com/flash91.htm
CAVEAT LECTOR - Sept 17, 2001
Cui Bono? Who is responsible for all of this?
by Monzer Zimmo
Regardless of disagreements on American foreign policies, most media
outlets seem to have accepted the theory that the horrible events of
September 11, 2001 resulted from American foreign policies. The basic
premise in this theory is that victims, or enemies, of American foreign
policies committed the terrorist attacks on American targets. Let us
see if that basic premise withstands the test of reason.
Those horrifying acts were committed with a high level of
sophistication, in terms of planning, coordination, and accuracy of
execution. Such sophistication suggests that those who dreamed up the
attacks must have also considered the consequences of their plot. They
must have also calculated who would benefit from their actions.
Consider the volume of resources, level of training, intelligence
gathering capabilities, and the pragmatic cold calculating ruthless
minds behind such operation. Then consider whether it is reasonable to
accept that the perpetrators did not think of consequences and did not
calculate who would benefit from their acts. Something is missing from
this picture.
The perpetrators of those unspeakable crimes must have intended to
benefit from them. They must have calculated the outcome and must have
considered the possible reactions of the American public. More
importantly, those criminals must have carefully put in place diversion
tactics to focus public attention on someone else other than them; and
preferably their enemies.
All media outlets seem to be focusing their reporting on Arab or Muslim
"suspects". No one is examining the possible beneficiaries of those
criminal acts. No one is considering the possibility that those
horrible crimes were not reactions to American foreign policies, but
deliberate acts to firmly position such policies in a certain direction.
No one is searching for a party who has the sophistication, the means,
the intelligence gathering capabilities, the motivation, the opportunity
to benefit, the media manipulation skills, and the burning desire to
divert world attention from its own actions against innocent civilians
under its occupation. No one is suspecting a party that is eager to
obtain a license to oppress the people it occupies as it wishes and with
impunity. No one is considering the possible, direct or indirect,
involvement of the state of Israel!
Source:
by courtesy & C 2001 Monzer Zimmo mailto:editor@mediamonitors.net
*****************************************
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Original J.Post artical about missing 4000
google search shows no results...
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/12/News/News.34692.html.
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/12/LatestNews/LatestNews.34656.html
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/12/News/News.34692.html
------------------------
server not found....
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Molson042402/molson042402.html
http://paknews.com/flash.php?id=27&date1=2001-09-18
------------------------
dead links from here....
http://www.manartv.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.kuwait/msg/94e353f20060a4a9?as_umsgid=20010920094207.47834.qmail@web12806.mail.yahoo.com
http://www.manartv.com/html/contact.html
http://www.manartv.com/html/about.html
But this is now available...?
Al-Manar TV
http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/News.aspx?language=en
The Collapse of Building 7
http://scheuermanwtc7paper.googlepages.com/home is no longer available. It had similar graphics to the original.
It is cached in a text only version.
cached copy
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