Pajamas Media » Tinfoil Nation: Why 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Linger

Tinfoil Nation: Why 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Linger

A majority of Americans say it is "likely" that their government knew about the September 11 attacks in advance and ignored the warning, a recent poll revealed: more evidence that what were once considered loony fringe theories have penetrated the U.S. mainstream. Richard Miniter examines the roots of the claims and debunks them.

November 27, 2007 - by Richard Miniter

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Sixty-two percent of Americans believe it is “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that federal officials knew about the 9-11 attacks in advance and ignored this lifesaving information, according to this recent New York Post report.

The Post, in its typically calm manner, opines “Idiots in the majority.”

This characterization was too much for the blog ThinkProgress.com.

While eschewing conspiracy theories, the ThinkProgress blogger cited three pieces of “evidence” that “prove” that President Bush knew about the 9-11 attacks in advance: the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Brief; a July 10, 2001 briefing by CIA director George Tenet; and the FBI’s legendary Phoenix memo.

The “smoking gun” is supposed to be the August 6, 2001, President’s Daily Brief, a summary of vital intelligence prepared by the CIA. Its re: line seems to say it all: “Bin Ladin [sic] Determined to Strike in US.”

It seems like a rock solid case, but on closer inspection it is as flimsy as TV backdrop.

Exhibit A is the full text of the PDB, as it is known internally. Recently declassified, the document is clearly not a warning at all, but a rehash of old news reports and outdated intelligence cables.

Here is the briefing paper, in its entirety, except for two minor security redactions:

Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and “bring the fighting to America.”
After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a …[redacted] … service.
An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an … [redacted] … service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative’s access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.

The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin’s first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.

Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.

Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.
Al-Qa’ida members — including some who are US citizens — have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa’ida members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.

A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a … [redacted] … service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of “Blind Shaykh” ‘Umar ‘Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.
Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.

The bulk of the memo is a souped-up history lesson. The mention of “hijackings” comes from foreign intelligence service reports from 1998. Significantly, it does not mention flying hijacked planes into buildings-and it is uncorroborated. In other words, what spooks call “chatter.”

Next it mentions “FBI information” about “suspicious activity”-but does not mention the FBI reports from field offices in Minnesota and Arizona. Finally, the “surveillance” of “federal buildings in New York” is nearly worthless. It is not connected to intelligence about hijackings and, of course, the World Trade Center is not a Federal Building. Finally, the CIA notes that FBI is investigating a possible plot involving “explosives.”

Where is the warning here? A warning is a prediction about a future calamity. Yet, not a single sentence speaks of the future. Instead, every sentence is about the past or the present. A warning implies a degree of alarm. Yet every sentence is as passive as an encyclopedia entry. If the CIA had done its job properly and marshaled the pre-9-11 information that was later uncovered by the 9-11 commission, then, possibly, this document could have turned into a warning. But as it stands, it is not warning. It is a status report. And not a very good one.

Next, let us consider how this “warning” came to be written.

In July, the CIA learned that Italian police had intercepted a cell phone call in Milan. Al Qaeda had long been active in Italy. Italian police and intelligence had foiled plots to attack the U.S. Embassy in Rome and uncovered terror cells in Turin, Milan, and elsewhere. Some were arrested, but many more were the targets of roving wire taps. What the Italians overheard surprised them. Al Qaeda seemed to be planning to assassinate President George W. Bush during a state visit to Genoa, Italy in July 2001.

Security was stepped up. The Italian military supplied a battery of surface-to-air missiles to repel an air attack. The press treated it as simply overkill by the America’s Secret Service and did not probe any deeper.

President Bush was told about the al Qaeda assassination plot in his morning intelligence briefing. He wasn’t happy.

The president said that earlier attempts by President Clinton to capture or kill bin Laden were simply “swatting at flies.” He wanted to “bring this guy down.” He wanted a realistic action plan for killing or capturing Osama bin Laden. When he was informed that the National Security Council was already leading an inter-agency effort to hit bin Laden in Afghanistan, Bush reportedly told Rice that he wanted something more imaginative than a cruise missile strike, which would cost millions “to hit a camel in the butt.”

Bush also demanded a thorough review of all intelligence about terrorist threats from al Qaeda, including the possibility of attacks inside the United States. That is why the PDB, which was delivered on August 6, 2001, was prepared.

At Bush’s small ranch house amid the scrub pine near Crawford, Texas, the CIA presented its findings. Condoleeza Rice tuned in via a secure teleconferencing link from her White House office.

Neither Bush nor Rice was happy with the briefing. Rice later described the briefing as “vague,” a rehash of existing intelligence with no new analysis; it merely recited that bin Laden was dangerous, had plans to attack America, and that we should be careful. Not exactly a call to arms.

Little wonder that then-National Security Advisor Rice told the 9-11 Commission that “the country had taken the steps that it could given there was no threat reporting what might happen inside the United States.”

Certainly, the intelligence community was abuzz with “threat reports” with no specifics about where, when, and how al Qaeda would strike. Months before the September 11 attacks, the CIA Counter-Terrorism Center-known as the “CTC”-distributed a classified memo headlined “Threat of Impending al Qaeda Attack to Continue Indefinitely.” CIA Director George Tenet dismissed it as “maddeningly short on actionable details.” And that report was not distributed outside of the CIA.

Richard Clarke, the hard-driving “counter-terrorism czar,” testified before the 9-11 commission about pre-September 11 intelligence. He said that the number of “al Qaeda threats and other terrorist threats was in the tens of thousands-probably hundreds of thousands.” But none of it contained specific information that could be used to stop the 9-11 plot. Clarke is even more emphatic in his book, Against All Enemies: “Had we had any chance of stopping it, had we the knowledge we needed to prevent that day, those of us sitting as members of CSG [Counterterrorism Security Group] would literally have given our lives to do so; many of those around the CSG table had already put their lives at risk for their country.”

What was lacking was “actionable intelligence.” To prevent the 9-11 attacks (or any terrorist attack), intelligence officials need to know the target, timing, and type of attack, what counterterrorism researcher Kevin Michael Derksen calls “the three T’s of tactical intelligence.” Without knowing all three elements–when, where, and how-an attack cannot be stopped. If you knew that al Qaeda was going to attack the World Trade Center on September 11, but assumed a truck bomb attack, you would be inspecting cars while the planes crashed overhead.
A State Department intelligence officer once described the analytic side of the spy business this way:

“Imagine your boss… placing a lunch-size brown bag twisted at the top on your desk and asking you to tell him what the contents mean? Dutifully, you untwist the bag and spill the contents on your desk. The contents are some sixty pieces of a puzzle. As you look over the puzzle pieces you immediately notice that about one-third of [them] are blank, and another third appear to have edges that have been cut off. As you look at the pieces that have some part of a picture on them, you sense that this is really a mixture of about four different puzzles. Now keep in mind that you have no boxtop to tell you what the puzzle should look like and you do not know how many pieces are in the puzzle…welcome to the art of terrorism analysis. We rarely see a majority of the pieces of a terrorist threat puzzle. When we do, action is taken.

Did the president-or any member of the intelligence community-have enough puzzle pieces to prevent the September 11 attacks?

Both the 9-11 commission and the U.S. Congress’ “Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001,” exhaustively investigated this question. Both used professional investigators to comb through the public record, took sworn testimony from officials, and enjoyed access to reams of classified material.

Both identified dozens of intelligence failures, mostly relating to information sharing, bureaucratic infighting, computer problems, and boneheaded decisions. Still, both bodies came to the same conclusion: that the intelligence community did not know the timing, the target, or the type of attack. So the president had no actionable intelligence.

For those who are tempted to dismiss the reports of both the 9-11 commission and Congress’ Joint Inquiry as a “whitewash,” remember that the hijackers themselves did not know the three Ts. A December 2001 raid on an al Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan turned up a video tape, which featured a lengthy speech by Osama bin Laden.

“The brothers, who conducted the operation, all they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation and that we asked each of them to go to America, but they didn’t know anything about the operation, not even one letter. But they were trained and we did not reveal the operation to them until they are there [in the United States] and just before they boarded the planes.

Those who were trained to fly didn’t know the others. One group of people did not know the other group.”

The majority of the hijackers, until the morning of September 11, did not know the target or the type of attack. And the timing was not disclosed to them until a few days before the attack, according to the 9-11 Commission report. (Indeed, it was originally slated for May, then for July, before bin Laden chose September 11-the seven-year anniversary of the 1996 conviction of Ramzi Youssef, who planned the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.) If the hijackers were apprehended before September 11, there is very little they could say-even if they wanted to cooperate.

So how would it be possible for the president to know something that the terror cell members did not?

Those on the right and left-everyone from the Washington Times’ Bill Gertz to filmmaker Michael Moore-who cling to idea that U.S. government had enough foreknowledge of the attacks to stop them usually cite a handful of reports. Let’s examine each of them.

Gertz, in his book Breakdown: How America’s Intelligence Failures Led to September 11, notes an interview with Kie Fallis, a onetime Defense Intelligence Agency analyst. Fallis told him: “I obtained information in January of 2000 that indicated terrorists were planning two or three major attacks against the United States. The only gaps were where and when.” That is akin to saying that you will win the lottery, the only gaps are the winning numbers and the day on which to play them.

It turns out that Fallis did not even know that al Qaeda planned to hijack planes and ram them into buildings. All Fallis knew is that four al Qaeda operatives, some of whom were tied to the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole, had met in Malaysia in January 2000-and that they were up to no good. What exactly is the president supposed to do with this information?

Others point to two September 10 phone intercepts of the National Security Agency. The NSA overheard two Arabic speakers say “The match begins tomorrow” and “tomorrow is zero hour.” These seem to be coded conversations about an upcoming attack.

The intelligence community was not told about these intercepts until after the September 11 attacks.

This looks like a dramatic example of foreknowledge, but it isn’t.

NSA Director Michael Hayden was called on to the carpet in June 2002 by the Congress’ Joint Inquiry. He pointed out that the agency gathers some two million intercepts per hour. Analysts must make snap decisions about which ones to translate and pass on. The two intercepts were put aside as “unactionable” because they did not contain information about a target or a type of attack. All the NSA knew is that tomorrow, somewhere in the world, al Qaeda was hoping to strike somehow. Again, nothing to go on. Messages like this are intercepted routinely and analysts know that many such intercepts are disinformation, when there is no attack in the works.

Still others point to the arrest of Zacarias Moussaui, the so-called “20th hijacker.” Even now, terrorism analysts cannot agree if Moussaoui was supposed to be part of what al Qaeda high command called “the planes operation” or part of a planned second wave of attacks.

Here are the facts that are not in contention: A Pan Am International Flight Academy instructor became suspicious of Moussaoui because he wanted to learn how to fly a 747, but not how to take-off or land. The concerned instructor had to phone the Minnesota FBI four times and, even then, only got the attention of a Special Agent by blurting out “a 747 loaded with fuel can be used as a bomb.”
Moussaoui, who the FBI linked to an al Qaeda affiliate in Chechnya on August 26, 2001, refused to cooperate. When he did talk, months after the attacks, it became clear that he had no knowledge of the target or timing of the attack. It is unclear whether Moussaoui thought he would be part of a conventional hijacking.

Again, no actionable intelligence.

What about the famous “Phoenix memo”?

Kenneth Williams, a veteran policeman turned FBI Special Agent, interviewed some Arab men who were taking flight lessons in Arizona, men who had aroused his suspicions. One had a picture of bin Laden in his living room. Others were tied to an al Qaeda group in London. On July 10, 2001, he e-mailed the FBI’s Osama bin Laden unit and the FBI’s New York Field Office, which often takes the lead in counter-terrorism investigations. The so-called Phoenix memo was quietly shelved-until after 9-11.

Did it contain information that could have tipped off the federal government to the killers living among us?

The 9-11 commission did not think so.

“If the memo had been distributed in a timely fashion and its recommendations were acted on promptly, we do not believe it would have uncovered the plot.”
Kevin Michael Derksen of the University of Winnipeg investigated pre-911 intelligence for the specialist journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. He concludes that “security agencies should not be held responsible for failing to forestall what was an impenetrable terrorist plot. An examination of the evidence has shown that security agencies did not have the actionable intelligence they needed to prevent the attack or the means to obtain it.”

Even so, the intelligence services performed poorly. Here is a partial list of some of the intelligence failures uncovered by investigators.

* The very high barrier placed by the Foreign Intelligence Security Act prevented FBI and CIA counter-intelligence operatives from working together or sharing information.
* The FBI’s computer system was horribly antiquated. When the Phoenix office of the FBI issued a warning about the possibility of fundamentalists entering the United States to train on airplane simulators, Phoenix agents had no way of searching the FBI’s internal database to see if there were any other reports about fundamentalists taking flight training in the U.S. Some FBI offices could not even send e-mails to other offices.
* For more than two years, the National Security Agency had tapped the phones of an al Qaeda safe house in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. The NSA analysts had the ability to trace some (but not all) of the calls made from the safe house. In particular, they were suspicious about an al Qaeda operative named “Khalid.” But they couldn’t determine Khalid’s last name or where he was headed. As U.S. News & World Report reported in 2004, only after 9-11 did the NSA discover that the Khalid in question was Khalid al-Mihdar, who hijacked the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. The safe house belonged to al-Mihdar’s father-in-law.
* British restaurant worker Niaz Khan told the FBI in 2000 that al Qaeda was planning to attack the U.S. The FBI let him go, took no action (except to put Khan on the list of people banned from flying into the U.S). After Khan returned to Britain, he tried to contact British intelligence, but they didn’t want to hear from him. Only after he contacted Crimestoppers, a British television series, did anyone pay any attention to him.
* The FBI had several tips about a mosque in San Diego where some of the 9-11 hijackers had worshipped. Yet the bureau had no idea that the plot was underway, even though they had extensive wiretaps on some of the activities there.

Even if intelligence officers could have followed up on these leads, it is doubtful they would have uncovered “actionable intelligence” about the target, timing, and type of attack. Remember, the hijackers themselves did not know all of these details until the morning of September 11.

The only way that the president could have been warned prior to 9-11 would be if American intelligence had an “asset” among bin Laden’s inner circle in Afghanistan-and it did not.

Stubbornly, some believe that the CIA must have warned the president; essentially they assume that the CIA is omniscient. But as historian David McCullough, speaking in another context, told the Christian Science Monitor, “You can’t ever judge why people did things the way they did in the past unless you take into consideration what they didn’t know. Looking back, we say: They should have known, or listened to him or to her. It’s never that simple.’”

Why does this conspiracy theory linger? Historian Joseph E. Persico argues that it is simply human nature. Persico is an acknowledged expert on the last surprise attack on the American homeland, the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor. He notes that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had some inkling of Japan’s dark designs before the December 7, 1941 attack. Relations between Washington and Tokyo had been souring for years and the U.S. was opposed to Japan’s bloody invasion and occupation of eastern China. So FDR knew that Japan might attack at some point. But there was no intelligence suggesting that Japan would attack at Pearl Harbor or when it would attack or how. Still FDR’s critics and many others continue to suspect that he knew all along and that he allowed Pearl Harbor to happen as a “backdoor to war.”

“Why do conspiracy theories keep sprouting?” Persico asks. “Neat, suspenseful plots create high drama, while the truth is often messy, contradictory, even dull.”

Unfortunately, the same is true today. Bush’s critics are as misguided as FDR’s.

103 Comments

Bill Bradley:

That is a serious misreading of what that poll says.

It is incontrovertible that the Bush Administration did not act on warnings of potential major terrorist strikes inside the US prior to 9/11.

A fact which I have direct knowledge of and which has been widely publicized.

But that is not at all the same thing as saying that most Americans believe the Bush Administration conspired to allow 9/11 to occur.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:55 am Crimson Ghost:

People want to believe in conspiracy theories because they are terrified of the idea that there is no one at the wheel. People fell safer knowing that there is some rational explanation to such a catastrophic event, regardless of how sinister that explanation is. They don’t want to believe that there are just some things that sometimes happen outside of our control and there was nothing that anyone could have done about it.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:25 am Jon Gold:

From 11/3/2007:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rukxI_GLc3w&e

Transcript:

http://visibility911.com/jongold/?p=306

Patty Casazza: Sibel came to, actually, the four widows, and asked us if she could get a hearing with the Commission because nobody of the Commission was responding to her requests to testify. And part of the problem with testifying, um… as someone who’s working for one of the agencies, is that, they have to be careful with state secrets, what they reveal. And, in order to be a whistle-blower, and not be retaliated against, most whistle-blowers need to be subpoenaed, cause then their co-workers, and those who might retaliate against them, know that under penalty of, ya know, law, they could be… um… ya know, accused of being traitors and what not, and put in jail, or executed. So, most whistle-blowers were… did not come forward on the basis of what happened to Sibel Edmonds. Um, Sibel brought us many whistle-blowers, and I submitted them personally to Governor Kean, who was the Chairman of the Commission. And I said, “these people are not being subpoenaed. They will not come before the Commission voluntarily unless they are subpoenaed.” And, he promised me… to my face that “every whistle-blower would be… indeed heard.” And, most were not heard. Sibel was only heard because we dragged her in and surprised the Commission on one of the days we were meeting with them… that we had her with us. Um, we met other whistle-blowers on the side of the road in Maryland, ya know, to hear what they could tell us. None of them revealed state secrets to us by the way (laughs)… um, but, they had information… and basically, the Government knew… ya know, other than the exact moment… they knew the date, and the method of which the attacks were supposed to come. (pauses) And none of this made it to mainstream media. None of it made it into the Commission. And yet, again, all of your Representatives, on the day that the Commission book came out, were on their pulpits saying, “What a fabulous job this Commission has done. A real service to this nation.” And it was anything but a service. It was a complete fabrication.

Question From The Audience: (inaudible)

Patty Casazza: Other than the exact.. perhaps time, ya know, cause planes don’t always go off on time. Um… They knew the date, they knew the method, that it was going to be with airplanes.

Question From The Audience: (inaudible)

Patty Casazza: Yep… mhmm.. They knew that it was that day, and they were going to happen. They knew the targets.

In other words Richard Miniter, you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Nov 27, 2007 - 4:50 am David Thomson:

“It is incontrovertible that the Bush Administration did not act on warnings of potential major terrorist strikes inside the US prior to 9/11.”

That is simply false. It appears that someone is reading too much of the posts appearing on the Daily Kos. The Bush administration never possessed any significant information about a terrorist attack. Both the CIA and FBI, which were significantly damaged in the Clinton era, only spoke in very broad and general terms. They were also severely hindered by political correctness. Careers were often damaged if one dared to investigate Muslim groups flirting with terrorism.

Nov 27, 2007 - 5:23 am davod:

“They were also severely hindered by political correctness. Careers were often damaged if one dared to investigate Muslim groups flirting with terrorism.”

Little has changed.

Nov 27, 2007 - 5:41 am JihadWatcher:

RE Jon Gold
So, a Jersey girl says the Government knew beforehand. That settles it for me! Yep, the wives of 9-11 victims know EVERYTHING dontcha know.(and no security clearance is required!)…please…go back to your nutjob conspiracy sites & leave the serious subjects to serious people.

Nov 27, 2007 - 6:54 am Jon Gold:

“So, a Jersey girl says the Government knew beforehand.”

No, a “Jersey Girl” said that whistle-blowers that approached the “Jersey Girls” in the hopes that they would get the 9/11 Commission to subpoena them have information that suggest this Government knew the date, the type of attack, and the targets.

Stop lying about, and spinning what is said.

Nov 27, 2007 - 7:20 am Tony Ryan:

It must be wonderful to be a conspiracy theorist.

Commission doesn’t give you the results you want after investigating 9/11? No problem, just invent a new conspiracy around the handling of the investigation.

Come off it you clowns.

Nov 27, 2007 - 7:36 am xmax:

Blah, Blah, Blah. Not a conspirecy huh? Then how did some guy in a cave make N.O.R.A.D stand down all day? Anyone want to discuss the Soloman Brothers bldg. or ODIGO ? Your’e all nuts.

Nov 27, 2007 - 8:00 am Jon Gold:

“just invent a new conspiracy around the handling of the investigation”

First of all, 9/11 was never criminally investigated. Yes, it was a crime, and not an act of war. Secondly, the 9/11 Commission was limited in time and funding by the Bush Administration. Thirdly, the 9/11 Commission was run by a member of the Bush Administration, Philip Zelikow (someone the families’ wanted to resign, and he refused). Fourthly, the Bush Administration was anything but cooperative during the 9/11 Commission hearings (they withheld pertinent documentation, fought tooth and nail against people testifying, etc…) There are many other problems with the “investigation.” We didn’t have to create a new conspiracy for this. It is well known, and nothing new. The 9/11 Commission had a mandate to give a “full and complete accounting” of the attacks of 9/11. As Patty Casazza pointed out, they failed miserably at their task.

Nov 27, 2007 - 8:26 am Bill Bradley:

You really ought to read everything that I wrote. Besides, I don’t read the Daily Kos. I’m not a fan of the yaposphere …

There were a number of reports that the Bush Administration ignored. Which doesn’t make it a conspiracy. Nor does it make Americans tin-foil people.

Terrorism was not a big priority for the Bush Administration pre-9/11.

Missile defense was the big thing. In fact, it was the topic of a speech Condi Rice was just about to deliver.

This poll has been misread.

>David Thomson :
“It is incontrovertible that the Bush Administration did not act on warnings of potential major terrorist strikes inside the US prior to 9/11.”
That is simply false. It appears that someone is reading too much of the posts appearing on the Daily Kos.
Nov 27, 2007 05:23 AM

Nov 27, 2007 - 8:35 am Alan Miller:

Interesting conjecture, Mr. Miniter, but what do real intelligence professionals have to say on the subject of 9/11?

Raymond McGovern - former Chairman of National Intelligence Estimates at the CIA and 27-year CIA veteran, “I think at simplest terms, there’s a cover-up. The 9/11 Report is a joke.”

William Christison - former National Intelligence Officer (NIO) and former Director of the CIA’s Office of Regional and Political Analysis, overseeing 200 CIA analysts, and 29-year CIA veteran, “We very seriously need an entirely new very high level and truly independent investigation of the events of 9/11. I think you almost have to look at the 9/11 Commission Report as a joke and not a serious piece of analysis at all.”

Melvin Goodman, PhD - former Division Chief of the CIA’s Office of Soviet Affairs and Senior Analyst from 1966 - 1990, “The final report is ultimately a coverup. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

Robert Baer - 21-year CIA veteran and specialist in the Middle East, who was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal upon his retirement in 1997, “Until we get a complete, honest, transparent investigation …, we will never know what happened on 9/11.”

Robert David Steele - 25 years of combined service in the CIA and the U.S. Marine Corps. Second ranking civilian in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence from 1988 - 1992. Member of the Adjunct Faculty of Marine Corps University. “I am forced to conclude that 9/11 was at a minimum allowed to happen as a pretext for war. … I have to tell anyone who cares to read this: I believe it. I believe it enough to want a full investigation that passes the smell test of the 9/11 families as well as objective outside observers.”

Lynne Larkin - former CIA Operations Officer who served in several CIA foreign stations before being assigned to the CIA’s Counter-Intelligence Center. There, she co-chaired a multi-agency task force, which coordinated intelligence efforts among the many intelligence and law enforcement agencies. One of twenty-five signers of a letter to Congress expressing their concerns about “serious shortcomings,” “omissions,” and “major flaws” in the 9/11 Commission Report and offering their services for a new investigation.

David MacMichael, PhD - former Senior Estimates Officer at the CIA with special responsibility for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the CIA’s National Intelligence Council. Also one of the twenty-five signers of the letter to Congress.

These individuals played significant roles in our national security apparatus from the 1960’s through the 1990’s. In particular, Raymond McGovern, William Christison, and Melvin Goodman, served at the highest levels of the CIA and each for more than 25 years.

We relied on them to collect vital information and provide critical analysis for decades, during which time America faced far more real and much more serious threats than anything we face today. We cannot now ignore their stunning condemnation of the official account of 9/11.

For more information, see the article Seven CIA Veterans Challenge 9/11 Commission Report - Official Account of 9/11 a “Joke” and a “Cover-up” at http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070922_seven_cia_veterans_c.htm

Nov 27, 2007 - 8:43 am Pat Curley:

Excellent article; I will link it from our 9-11 conspiracy theory debunking blog. One minor correction: although it is often reported that 9-11 was an anniversary (your math is off on the number of years) of Yousef’s conviction, in fact he was convicted on 9/5/96 and not of the WTC bombing but for his planning and test runs of Operation Bojinka. His conviction on the WTC bombing came on 11/12/97.

I love the conspiracy theorists who believe that the US government pulled off 9-11 and yet at the same time, believe that the US government had warnings about 9-11.

Nov 27, 2007 - 9:07 am Pat Curley:

Bill Bradley, look at this report from the news side of the actual polling organization:

http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/28533

“Nearly two-thirds of Americans think it is possible that some federal officials had specific warnings of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but chose to ignore those warnings, according to a Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University poll.”

The key words in there are “specific” and “chose to ignore”. It may be that the news people added those words and that the actual poll itself was more neutral (indeed, the outcome seems nutty if those words were used). I have been unsuccessful in tracking down the actual poll question used; the Scripps Survey Research Center which is cited in the Scripps article does not mention this poll:

http://www.newspolls.org/

Nov 27, 2007 - 9:21 am Jon Gold:

“I love the conspiracy theorists who believe that the US government pulled off 9-11 and yet at the same time, believe that the US government had warnings about 9-11.”

I love how “debunkers” believe our Government isn’t covering up different aspects of the 9/11 attacks, and that no one within our Government is lying about them. I love how “debunkers” believe that no one within our Government should be held accountable, either for incompetence, or criminality regarding the 9/11 attacks. I love how “debunkers” spend more time name calling those that question the 9/11 attacks (as every American citizen should) than actually contributing something. I love how “debunkers” focus on the weakest elements within the 9/11 Truth Movement in an effort to portray them as the “mainstream” of the movement. I love how “debunkers” focus on the weakest arguments within the 9/11 Truth Movement in an effort to make it seem like everyone in the 9/11 Truth Movement subscribes to them. I especially love when “debunkers” attend 9/11 Truth Press Conferences, and insult people like the 9/11 family members.

Look at how Pat and his buddy Stephen disrupt this particular press conference.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2900494084292136000

You gotta love them “debunkers”.

Nov 27, 2007 - 10:26 am Joe B.:

This is the same old Bush trick in their book on how to make sure they don’t trace a crime back to you. You ask for an investigation to see how much the secret services know. Hoover was on Bush senior for Kennedy’s assassination. This is how they found out who knew and this is why they got rid of him. Bush son has done the same thing to see who could know about the 911 plans. Like father like son.

Nov 27, 2007 - 10:28 am Thames:

I want to believe in the Government blowing up people because i hate the president is the reason a lot of the wacky people are jumping up and down shouting Bush lied and people died. plus it rhymes. Please use some common sense rather then blind hate for the government. Normally this comes down to government wanting money by stealing oil or something like that. I really don’t see the point when we can by it, or take it out of the ground in AK, or off shore, or raise more Taxes on Gas to buy oil with the money. Please stop and think rather then jumping on a band wagon and saying that the government that can’t do anything right (besides steal money from people) can have the biggest cover up in the history of the world. If you really believe that then the VA Hospital thing was a conspiracy too most likly to make them get more money from us, because surely if the government is so good at covering up and paying off the 10,000 of people it would take to over 9.11 up then by George it could run a hospital with no problems, or fix Social security, keep us safe, give us health care, maybe even keep the roads in working order in your local town with out having a single pot hole, maybe even just take over Mexico and Canada. And while there at it just make the super highway, opps I just let out a government secret, Don’t tell anyone

Nov 27, 2007 - 10:40 am John:

I for one don’t believe what the government told us on 9/11. There is alot of evidence to how the building came down not by a collapse, but by cut steel beams with implosions. I really recommend watching zeitgeist to make your own conclusions.

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

If you are religious skip the first part or you will throw the movie away entirely. But it has some interesting conclusions and covers a massive amount of information. The movie is 2 hours long and a real eye opener if you question what happened on 9/11. The third part is a must watch segment also.

Nov 27, 2007 - 10:49 am Charles:

What about the fact that explosions can be seen coming from the sides of the twin towers before the collapse cycle reached that particular point. What about the fact that the heat from jet fuel cannot melt steele. What about the fact that the “I-Beams” recovered were bent in perfect circular shapes as seen in a demo. What about the fact that the “News Facts” about the heat from the jet fuel was already released into the Press before a single report was issued from any official? What about the fact that the Liquid Substance needed to melt metal that quickly (20 minutes) is called Thermite, which is a military grade weapon? What about the fact that Guliani already decided to “Pull” (which is a demo term) “Building 7″ before he received a single report, and by the way, since when is it up to a Mayor to “Pull” any building? Where was the Govenor or the President at that time? Why wasn’t that building left standing to collect any kind of evidence from the explosive material that came from the towers? See, there are many questions that were not considered by such a bothced investigation… Next question!

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:03 am David Thomson:

“There were a number of reports that the Bush Administration ignored.”

Once again, there were no substantial reports. They were all too vague to be of much help. But the Bush administration did goof up! It did not get rid of the politically correct whack jobs that dominated the CIA, FBI, and other investigative organizations. Furthermore, the President blundered greatly in not firing Norm Mineta as Secretary of Transportation.

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:03 am Pat Curley:

As Jon Gold well knows, that “press conference” was much like the recent FEMA press conference; until my buddy Stephen showed up there was no actual press there (unless you want to count that lunatic from the Idaho Observer).

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:12 am wooten:

Tired of all the Lies

Why and who has the authority to screen the media from TV News and Newspapers. Are we only allowed to see, hear and read what our present government will allow? It is time for the Republican Administration to wake up and see where this government is leading us. This also applies to the Democrats who are in office today letting George Bush have his way. Why are the American people afraid to speak out against this administration? Why are there too many unanswered questions on the 9-11 so called terrorist attack? Why did it take George Bush 411 days to appoint a chairman to the commission to lead the investigation for the so called 9-11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon? Was this to allow time for all the destruction to be removed before an investigation would be allowed? He first appointed Henry Kissinger to this job and Kissinger quit the job after a couple of weeks because he would not reveal his involvement with the Arab Nations. Bush then appointed another one of his men to this job. When the Titanic sank it only took 6 days to start an investigation, when Pearl Harbor was attacked only 9 days, when John F. Kennedy was killed 7 days. Why 40 million dollars were spent investigating Bill Clinton’s sex life and only $600,000 spent investigating the Twin Towers collapse? Never before in history has a steel building been taken down as a result of a fire. Why 3 in one day now? Did buildings just collapse from fire or from demolitions? A high rise building in Spain burned all night in 2005 and the steel frame structure remained standing, never collapsed. It supported the weight of a large crane on the top of the building after the fire. The fuel from the plane burned off the Twin Towers after a few minutes leaving a big black hole showing in the building. There were only a few isolated fires burning in the building after the fuel burned off leaving black smoke which means cool oxygen poor fire, not hot flames. The North Tower was hit first and stood for 1 hour and 37 minutes, while the South Tower only stood for 57 minutes and collapsed before the north Tower did. The Commission stated the combination of plane crash and fire caused from fuel caused buildings to collapse, which is a lie. A lie is something this administration knows how to do and does it frequently to the public. Nothing in these building could have made the fires get hotter after the fuel burned off. These buildings had 47 steel columns formed from 4 inch steel as a core for the buildings; also it had 236 exterior columns around the outside frame. The core was designed so it would not have a chimney effect in case of a fire. These two towers had 110 stories consisting of 200,000 tons of steel, 425,000 square yards of concrete, 103 elevators, 43,600 windows, 60 tons of cooling equipment, and one had a 360 TV antenna on the top of it. These buildings could withstand winds of 140 miles per hour and would sway with the wind. They also swayed with the blast from the plane crash. The people who designed the buildings said they did not consider a fire from the fuel in the plane when designing the buildings. Can you believe all these lies that are being told one after another? Firemen stated they could feel explosions going off on the floors below them in their feet. On films you can see explosions blowing out the side of the buildings below the fires as the buildings collapsed. Why was smoke seen coming from the bottom of the building before the towers collapsed? 110 stories collapsed and fell straight down in 9 seconds, no pause when a floor fell on a lower floor, giving this an effect like dominoes falling over on each other. If you dropped a bowling ball from the top of the North Tower it would only take 8 to 10 seconds to hit the ground free falling. The plane fuel {kerosene}will not heat a ¬Ω inch plate hot enough to melt without the mixing with another element like compressed air, oxygen, nitrogen or some other source. Fuel oil has to have pressurized steam in order to heat anything to a melting point. Take 5 gallons or 500 gallons of kerosene or gasoline and pour a small amount on a 1/2 inch steel plate and keep the fire burning until you run out of fuel and you still not have melted the steel plate. I worked around furnaces in the local steel mill for several years. I know a little about the melting point of steel. I also know a little about the explosive power of gasoline. This I learned the hard way. I stayed in the hospital 3 days and walked on crutches for 5 weeks because of this careless incident. Firefighters claimed to have heard bombs going off, boom, boom, boom, from top to bottom of the tower like a controlled demolition. It was one year before the tapes of the firefighters in the buildings were released and on them were voices of firefighters stating that explosions were going off in several different places. All the carpet, computers, concrete, everything was turned into a powder or dust, the only piece of anything that was found was a small piece from phone dialer. Why were power-down and evacuation drills scheduled a week before the planes hit the towers? Was this to give the demolition men time to set their charges to demolish the building? Why one floor was completely vacated and doors locked to keep everyone off this floor? People working in this building could hear sounds like jackhammers and other noises coming from this floor, but no one knew what was going on. The only way possible for these buildings to fall straight down the way they did was by some careful planning by demolition experts. Could the smoke coming from the bottom of these building be from explosives planted by these people? Why was molten steel seen pouring from the upper floors of the tower before it collapsed to dust? The fire from the plane fuel could not have caused this. Thermite with sulfur heats to 4500 degrees in seconds and is used in the demolition of buildings. These buildings had five stories under-ground for support. Molten steel was seen by the men who were working with heavy equipment in the bottoms of the buildings 21 days after these buildings collapsed. These steel beams after falling were almost in uniform lengths of 30 feet making it easy to clean up and haul off. This had to be the work of pre positioned explosives. It was almost like they had trucks waiting to load the steel beams and haul them to ships waiting to take them overseas. Never was time given for an inspection to take place. Some of Ben Laden’ people were in the United States before the 9-11 event, but Bush made sure they were flown out of this country, even though there was a restriction on this. The Bush and Ben Laden families have been friends for years and often had dinner together. Some pictures in the news show that some of the beams had been cut at a 45 degree angle so they would start to slide apart easily. Only a few pictures were shown and the beams were moved out quickly. Did the Air Force go AWOL on this day? No planes were intercepted that day even though the planes flew wildly off course and also flew into restricted air zones. Are the people in our government incompetent or just plain fools? Why did George Bush keep reading the book “The Goat” for 7 minutes after he was told about the plane striking the tower? He was sitting in the classroom looking like the hound dog that had sucked the last egg. He sure had a look of guilt about him to me, as if he knew exactly what was going to happen. Bush stated that he saw the planes hit the towers on a TV in the hall, outside the classroom. This I am not to sure of, but I do not think that this was put on TV until the next day, the 12th. Conflicting and overlapping war exercises for the Air Force were going on at this time. Who planned the war exercises for this day? Perhaps this was carefully planned by someone like Cheney to confuse the air traffic controllers. Why were these war exercises by the Air Force not mentioned by the news media? This attack was well planned, they needed another Pearl Harbor in order to get the sympathy of the American people and make fools of them. These pilots were not good pilots, so flying above the clouds, how did they manage to locate the Twin Towers and the Pentagon without help from the air controllers? The government claim to know who these men are that flew into the towers. If there were 19 men aboard a plane during the crash, how do they know the whereabouts of 9 of the men today, and what kind of work they are doing? Not dead men. More lies. Building 7 was not hit by a plane, but collapsed straight down the same as the Twin Towers. It only took 6 seconds for this building to collapse and it would be the third steel building in history to collapse from a fire. This building was 47 stories high and only had two relative small fires. Silverstein owned these 5 buildings and had them insured for over 4.6 billion dollars. Building 7 only had a few small fires that should have been easily taken care of by the sprinkler system, but after a few hours Silverstein decided to “Pull It,” in other words bring it down to the ground. There is no way possible that demolition men would have time to set their charges in this length of time. It would take several days to accomplish this, so the explosives had to be preset before the planes hit the towers. Again why was smoke seen coming from the bottom of the building? People will believe people of authority, but what if they are lying? The flight that crashed near Pittsburg is another lie. The sheriff of that county said they were among the first to arrive at the scene. There was no sign of a plane crash, only a black crater in the ground. No signs of any parts of a plane anywhere, also said it looked as if there had been a fire in the hole in the ground. Rumsfeld stated in a speech to US troops in Iraq (24 December 2004) that United Airlines Flight 93 was “shot down” on 9/11: so easy to lie to the American public. Plane was shot down but there is no plane there, the ghost plane. Remember the plane that crashed in Green Pastures when I was a kid. Parts of the plane was scattered for several hundred yards and you knew that a plane had crashed here. Where is this plane and the people aboard it? Perhaps it is the bottom of the ocean somewhere. What about flight 77 and the 757 plane that we were told hit the Pentagon? Out of the 4 planes that were hi-jacked only 2 are really accounted for and the other 2 are just lies and no sign of the planes. Just how big a fool does the news media take the American people for? A 757 plane with approximately 8600 gallons of fuel aboard, weighting 334,000 pounds, flying just above car top level and not being seen or heard, crashed into the Pentagon leaving a hole in building about 16 feet in diameter. The upper floors were still intact and had glass still in the windows. This plane is 155feet and 3 inches long, with a wing span of 124 feet and 10 inches, a tail that is 44 feet and 6 inches high, with 2 motors approximately 9 feet in diameter crashes into a building and leaves a hole only 16 feet in diameter. Cordite and jet fuel have a distinct smell and several people smelled this after the plane hit the pentagon. There were also sounds of a second explosion at the pentagon. I say plane just for convenience. After crashing there were no signs of any parts of the plane inside or outside the building, no wings, tail, wheels, motors, nothing anywhere resembling anything about a plane. It was about 20 minutes before the roof fell in after the plane hit the building. The tail, as tall as it is, would have taken out a couple of stories of the building if it had hit the Pentagon, also the wings with a span o 124 feet could not fit in a 16 foot hole, yet there were no wings outside or inside of the Pentagon. Search dogs were taken in and no evidence of any bodies or blood was found by the dogs. Why was white markings seen by camera on satellite 4 days before plane hit the pentagon at the exact spot where the white markings were seen. Would you believe me if I told you this was a ghost plane. No. I am sure you would not, but if Bush told you the same thing on National TV you would believe him. Yet, I am not a liar and if he opens his mouth a lie would come out before the truth. The Pentagon is surrounded by cameras outside and also in the halls, yet only one camera was working at this time and it did not show a 757 hitting the Pentagon. A filling station across the street had a camera on the top of the building and the Secret Service men took control of this camera a few minutes after the crash. Could this have been a missile “Bunker Buster”? Support columns were still in force and were not taken out by the collision of the plane. Plane must have been coated with some of grandma’s salve to fit in a 16 foot hole and not leave any incriminating evidence. Something unusual and very big was attached to bottom of one plane that hit the towers and a bright flash was seen just before the plane made contact with the building. This flash was recorded on both planes just before they made contact with the buildings. I am very doubtful if there was anyone aboard these planes. Perhaps the planes were switched somewhere and the planes that hit the towers were radio controlled. We will probably never know where the planes with passengers are today. Like I said before, they are probably somewhere on the bottom of the ocean floor, never to be found. George Bush began planning the war as soon as he took over the president’s office. On March 17, 2003 Bush declared war on Iraq. In his speech he spoke directly to the Iraq people telling them to listen carefully, “Do not destroy oil wells.” In Bush’s business oil is thicker than blood. I believe there should be a thorough investigation of the 9-11 event and if any members of our government are found to be involved in this conspiracy they should be tried and if found guilty be sentenced to death. I believe that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, and several more people were all involved in this conspiracy. The reason we are having all the trouble in the world today is partly because in the early 1900 several of the richest men in this country had a meeting and proclaimed this world would be better off with a New World Order or a one world government and men like this are still pursuing this theory today. George Bush would like to be head of this organization. The American government has never provided proof that Ben Laden was the mastermind of this so called terrorist plot. 9-11 is the largest disaster that has ever happened in America, yet no one has been held accountable for this act, no one has been fired, no one locked up for the responsibility of 3000 murders. The Secret Service has closed several web-sites pertaining to 9-11 and searched the owners of the sites homes. This administration is turning America into a Police State where the people will have no freedoms or privacy. The American people deserve answers to some of these questions, not more secret organizations to lie to the American people. This for an example just happened the other day. Barry Bonds screened most of his calls Wednesday, but President Bush somehow managed to track him down. The commander in chief reached Bonds on a cell phone. “Nobody has my home number,” Bonds explained in the locker room later. If you think you still have some privacy in your homes, you are wrong and it will only get worse with people like we have in this administration. I hope that someday the news media will start publishing the facts and not just what they are allowed to now. A few people have already had micro chips inserted into their bodies and now the states are being forced to embed a micro chip into your drivers’ license by this administration, they claim for identification. Sometimes I am thankful that I am an old man and will not live long enough to see the future of this country if it keeps going in the directions it is heading today. I would also like to ask why Christian Organizations encourage people to vote for men of this caliber and still uphold them after all they have done, including robbing the Social Security system. Since President Bush took office in 2000, the federal government has borrowed more than $500 billion from the Social Security system. The President’s most recent budget projects that the federal government will borrow an additional $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years. This money will be used to pay for government expenditures that will included multiple rounds of tax cuts for the very wealthy. In his words, “there is no trust fund,” only “empty promises” that the government “cannot keep.” Now President Bush is saying that the Social Security trust funds won’t be paid back. The Bush tax cuts, in 2008 they will put some $100 billion into the pockets of the richest Americans. Bush seeks to make those tax cuts permanent while Democrats want to let tax reductions for the wealthiest expire The Bush budget strategy boils down to never-ending tax cuts for the rich, big increases for the Pentagon and spending cuts for everything else. The fact remains that Mr. Bush’s misguided war and his misguided tax cuts are what stand in the way of responsible, responsive budgeting. I do not believe these men are led by Christ but by Satan. I also ask these Christian Organizations, what would Christ do today if He were alive, take from the poor and give to the very rich? Our Judicial System was set up with a check and balance system so no one person would have absolute authority. To limit the power of one trying to overrun the other they placed the power in an executive, legislative, judicial and the individual to stop this from happening. Why are these people, who have the authority, not doing their job and letting this country be led by one person, of should I say two? Each is able to check and balance the other, yet they are just sitting back and letting our freedom and rights be destroyed. On September 10, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld held a press conference to disclose that over $2,000,000,000,000 in Pentagon funds could not be accounted for. Rumsfeld stated: “According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions.” After the 9-11 events on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, this news was forgotten quick time, not to be mentioned again. It is rumored that as much as $160 Billion in bullion was stored under the Trade Center. The sources said the gold was found in a delivery tunnel under 5 World Trade Center. “A ten-wheel lorry” was found in the tunnel - loaded with gold - and nobody there? Whoever was removing the gold was warned of the imminent collapse of the South Tower. Guarded by a small army of heavily armed federal agents, city policemen and firefighters began the task of moving about 12 tons of gold and 30 million ounces of silver. The hoard was estimated to be worth at least $230 million. Why has there not been anything in the news about all the gold, silver and other precious metals stored beneath these buildings? The president retains his constitutional authority to do whatever it takes to protect the country, regardless of any action Congress takes. I am greatly concerned with the executive powers that Bush has illegally expanded during his term. If the US is struck again by another so called “terrorist attack” or by a conspiracy planned by the people in the highest offices in our Federal Government, will you use it as an excuse to cancel the 2008 elections claiming that the country cannot afford to change leaders at such a critical time? Is Bush trying to play God? Anyone that bothers to read the Bible can clearly see that God has a plan for the Jews and their land and that interference in this plan brings punishment. Americans as a group will receive punishment for our leaders’ actions in dividing Israel. Wooten

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:14 am Finrod Felagund:

Gotta like how these bozos like Bill Bradley and Alan Miller wave what they think is evidence around, but when you look carefully, it’s all smoke and mirrors.

People thinking that the 9/11 commission did a poor job doesn’t prove anything at all about whether there was anything malicious going on in the government about knowing about 9/11 in advance. I’d bet money that if the ‘intelligence experts’ quoted were researched, they’re probably partisans who would like nothing better than to make the current President look bad. Mobying isn’t limited to just political websites, after all.

When you look at their evidence, there’s no ‘there’ there. If you want to have 9/11 ‘criminally investigated’, then you had better come up with something that a prosecutor wouldn’t laugh out of court. What, you don’t have anything? Then put up or shut up.

At least the people with the ‘grassy knoll’ theory of Kennedy’s assassination claim to have witnesses that say gunfire came from there. These 9/11 Truthers don’t even have that much; all they have is hearsay and conjecture. It’s all as credible as blaming the Bavarian Illuminati and the Gnomes of Zurich.

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:15 am jimbo:

has anyone read Jared Israel’s analysis of things? His is the only analysis based on facts.

There’s no hard proof of anything, but it is very fishy that on 9/11, Richard Myers testified that planes were not scrambled until the Pentagon was hit. On 9/14, the government decided retroactively that they had actually scrambled planes at 8:46am.

Why the change in the ‘facts’?

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:20 am Jon Gold:

Notice how Pat doesn’t even try to refute my above accusations? It’s because he can’t.

Notice how proudly Pat proclaims Stephen, the man that disrespected 9/11 family member Bob McIlvaine, and disrupted that press conference as his “buddy?”

Notice how Pat admits that no press showed up, but neglects to mention that this is always the case with our Controlled Media. Ask Sibel Edmonds, who recently challenged our media to break her story wide open, as to whether or not our media is controlled.

Yesiree, you gotta love “debunkers.” They are such “honest” individuals.

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:23 am Nick C.:

Listen kooks, bottom line, if you have proof that the government and Bush did thses acts then bring your proof forward. If not, then shut up already. Your all a bunch of losers with way too much time on your hands. You come up with conspiracies that are factless, and baseless. Not one of you, NOT ONE, has EVER come forward with proof for the American people to see. All you have are junk theories which have been debunked time and again from many very reputable sources. If this really did happen the way you say it did, don’t you think someone with knowledge of the situation or actual facts would have been convinced to tell the truth by now. Oh, I know there on mind control by our government too. And if they tell, then the government will erase their whole family, right? There you go, there’s another conspiracy to add your repertoire. Can you spell C-R-A-Z-Y!

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:25 am Love it or leave it:

Just a few observations:

First, do you really believe the U.S. government let the events of 9/11 happen? If you are Dem or Rep, conservative or liberal, or somewhere in between, people who actually believe this have gone off the deep end.

Second, if for some reason you do believe the government had something to do with these events, I believe you should move to a more trust worthy and safe country like Iran, Syria, Venezula, or North Korea. This way you do not have to complain about how the U.S. Government is treating you.

GOD Bless the U.S.A!

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:30 am John C:

All of this is very interesting.. who is right and who is wrong, bush did this, bush did that.. blah blah blah..

The humble opinion of this american is this.. the theorists out there.. you loose all credibility the moment you attack Bush, but ignore Clinton.. I am not defending Bush, just saying it is intellectually stupid to point the finger at one person and not the other.. making a comment about the head of the 911 commission being a Bush lackey, again, fine.. but why no outrage or comment about Jamie Gorellick, a Clinton lackey..

Sure, I have no doubt what-so-ever that the government has information that is not released.. SO WHAT.. (I wonder if you people were around during WW2.. what/how would you behaved then.. you would have called for every piece of information to be released, and so doing we would have lost the war, but hey, the american people need to know)

I don’t understand why is it so hard to think that we were completely taken by surprise on 9/11.. why is that so hard.. there is proof (hard evidence) that war was declared on the US years ago from these people, and BOTH presidents chose to ignore it, one did it for 8 years and another for 9 months.. the beauty of all this is that there are “facts” to support both schools of thought.. sure the government is covering up all kinds of stuff.. but do you really want to know.. no matter what the cost.. what if it starts a civil war, is it worth it, what if we wind up destroying our nation because of it, is it worth it..

I don’t think the towers were brought down by explosives, if so, that is pretty good talent to have a building collapse from explosives set in the same spot the plane crashed into.. also I wonder where all the people from the plane that hit the pentagon are at.. are they with all the oil we are stealing from Iraq.. the massive amount of planning and man power to bring down these towers and carry out the attacks and keep it all secret is just stupid thinking once you take the Bush Derangement syndrome out of it..

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:30 am Tina Kay:

Conspiracy theories abound…about FDR and Pearl Harbor…about the mob and JFK’s assassination…about 9/11…and why? Mainly because human nature can’t handle the reality that something like this could happen. With all of our knowledge, technology, etc. How on earth could a bunch of fanatics pull off something like this? We want to be able to pin it on Bush, when the ultimate responsibility always has and always will rest on those who carried out an act of war they had been planning for nearly 10 years. Those of you still denying that it was, in deed, an ACT OF WAR need your heads examined. Bin Laden has NEVER made any secret of his intentions. It is a demonstrable fact that he started declaring war on U.S., the ‘great satan’ as early as the late 80s or early 90s, and has repeated it numerous times. An inconvenient fact for conspiracy nutjobs everywhere! The problem was, we collectively denied that his rants were anything other than those of a crazed fanatic, and that he could ultimately pull it off.

But if you really want to blame somebody in the U.S. government, consider the denial of the Clinton administration that the 1993 attack on WTC was exactly that…an act of war, and that their naive treatment of that event as a ‘crime’ and refusal to go after Al Quaeda then and there was more to blame than anyone or anything else! Oh and don’t forget that he had 3-4 opportunities to take out Bin Laden, and didn’t do it!! And then there’s the other fact that one of Clinton’s appointees, Jamie Gorelick, was responsible for the barrier that prevented information sharing between the CIA and the FBI. And that, folks, is the REAL scandle when it comes to the 9/11 commission, that that woman was allowed to serve on it!!! Oh, and when it comes to cooperation with the commission, who could forget the infamous Sandy BURGLAR, stuffing classified documents into his shorts and spiriting them off to some construction sight to conveniently lose! There, you want conspiracy? Why don’t you try looking in the correct direction–LEFT!!!!!!!!!

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:32 am Conspiracy Theorist:

I have a new conspiracy theory. I believe that Democrats have put something in the water that will lower the IQ of the majority of Americans and make them want to blame everything on G.W. Bush.

At least I hope that is the case, and there are not this many totally ignorant dumb arse people in our Country. Then again, the Democratic party does have a lot of idiot members that believe global warming is more of a threat than Al Quaeda.

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:32 am Steve:

Some of you people are so ignorant and ill informed, it is frightening. Jon Gold and Wooten, top the list. These people get all their information from Rosie O’Donnell it appears. Any person with more than 3 operating brain cells (which eliminates all liberals) to debunk EACH AND EVERY CLAIM made by those who believe: 1) the government had anything to do with the planning or execution of 9/11 or 2) that the government could have stopped it.

But it does not surprise me. Anything that the left says can be debunked with 3 simple things: Facts, Logic and Common Sense.

I am not going to go into all the claims made by these mental midgets, but if you want real authority on this subject from smart people, pick up a book printed by Popular Mechanics which tears to shreds every theory ever purported by the “9/11 Truth” movement. Heck even the buffoons who made that pathetic movie Loose Change have already backed away from their claims.

But don’t worry, Gold and Wooten and the like will never be convinced. Seriously, read Wooten’s post, if you can stomach it. I started to take notes to keep track of all of his factual errors and after about 200 words I think I developed carpal tunnel! Does anyone wonder how people like this get jobs and hold them? These are the same people who think FDR let Pearl Harbor be attacked just to get us into a war and they think JFK was killed by the mafia, the Cubans, the government, LBJ, etc.

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:39 am Jon Gold:

“you loose all credibility the moment you attack Bush, but ignore Clinton”

First, Bush was in office on 9/11/2001, not Clinton. When do you take responsibility for the office of the President of the United States? On the day of your inauguration or on 9/12 of that year?

Secondly…

Who Is Bill Clinton?

Who Is Jamie Gorelick?

Who Is Sandy Berger?

9/11 Truth is an American issue. Party lines have nothing to do with it.

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:42 am MLTS:

This is the looniest this I have ever read. I truly hope that a democrat wins the white house, senate and congress.

If they do all of the following will be done based on the comments of the democratic runners.

1> Gas will be at a all time low

2> We will have peace in the world and make friends with the Middle East.

3> We will never be attacked

4> The borders will be open and free and every one will live in harmony

5> Every American will have health insurance and get the best health care.

6> Housing cost will go down and everyone will be able to make there house payment

If not the democratic winner will go down in History as the worst president ever. And trust me, we will be just as loud as they are when every something goes wrong. Remember the old saying; don’t wish for something, you just might get it.

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:44 am NthZign:

Free Masons

NOT ALL Americans are stupid!

“the” government has done a great job on dividing and conquering the sheep.

Debunk this ::1:: (finger flip)

XOXO,

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:44 am Tony Ryan:

Wow this really does just go round and round in circles doesn’t it?

JonGold, if a criminal investigation was carried out as you suggest (your comment at 8.26am)what would you do if the outcome still didn’t point the finger at the US Government? Who would then be behind THAT miscarriage of justice? Perhaps you’d claim that the trial never took place at all and it was in fact staged by the same crew who filmed the fake moon landing? Or that perhaps some chemtrails infected the jury’s mind to prevent them thinking clearly? Perhaps they were afraid of the ominous figures on the grassy knoll?

If there was any real meat to any of this “inside job” garbage then how could this enormous crime not be pursued by the bigwigs amongst the Democrats? Do you ever wonder why not despite their hatred of all things Bush?

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:51 am Steve:

>>First of all, 9/11 was never criminally investigated. Yes, it was a crime, and not an act of war.>Secondly, the 9/11 Commission was limited in time and funding by the Bush Administration.>Thirdly, the 9/11 Commission was run by a member of the Bush Administration, Philip Zelikow (someone the families’ wanted to resign, and he refused).>Fourthly, the Bush Administration was anything but cooperative during the 9/11 Commission hearings (they withheld pertinent documentation, fought tooth and nail against people testifying, etc…) There are many other problems with the “investigation.” >We didn’t have to create a new conspiracy for this. It is well known, and nothing new. The 9/11 Commission had a mandate to give a “full and complete accounting” of the attacks of 9/11. As Patty Casazza pointed out, they failed miserably at their task<

Ms. Casazza knows so little about everything, it’s frightening you have to use her as your source.

How about you fly to Pakistan and asking Osama himself whether he planned the attack or not. We will all be looking for the video of you being beheaded. Oh thats right, there is no Al Qaeda and there are no terrorists, so you should be ok.

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:53 am Jon Gold:

“I am not going to go into all the claims made by these mental midgets, but if you want real authority on this subject from smart people, pick up a book printed by Popular Mechanics which tears to shreds every theory ever purported by the “9/11 Truth” movement.”

I debunked Popular Mechanics’ book without even reading it.

Isn’t it funny that you can’t even rely on the 9/11 Report to “debunk” what the 9/11 Truth Movement is saying. I find it hysterical.

Nov 27, 2007 - 11:59 am KJ Stewart:

What a joke. This article may have well been written by the government. It proves and debunks nothing. It only restates the misinformation we’ve heard before. The heck of it is, I could rip this article apart with truth and prove it was an inside job - but then, who would print it. Im not a government mouthpiece.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:00 pm Jon Gold:

“what would you do if the outcome still didn’t point the finger at the US Government?”

Help us get a criminal investigation, and let’s find out.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:02 pm Jess Card:

Ok, so Bush planted bombs in the WTC ahead of time, cut the steel ahead of time, organized this with Bin Laden and his group ahead of time, and coordinated the bombs to go off twenty minutes after the planes crashed ahead of time.

The same President who is too dumb to get anything accomplished was smart enough to do all of this? And what of the terrorists? Why haven’t they come forward to tell us they conspired with Bush?

Why were there no bombs in the Pentagon?

Enough already. Use your hate for the current administration in a more positive manner.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:07 pm Russ:

Riddle me this, Batman - how could the same government that could pull this off, including necessarily keeping hundreds to thousands of people quiet, not also keep secret a bj between a President and a fat intern?

Basic difference between me and conspiracy theorists - I believe that our govrenment is filled with basically good intentioned people who are incompetent. They believe our govrenment is full of evil people who are the most competent folks in the world.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:10 pm BMOON:

There is a primal, adolescent comfort in all conspiracy theories as a way to deal with deep pain, or even guilt- a perverted application of the Levitical expiatory goat diappearing into the wilderness, the need to blame. “It’s not my fault for building or buying in a city with corrupt municipal government, below sea level in a flood-hurricane zone surrounded with inadequate dikes. It was caused by corporate America and global warming.”

“Pres. Kennedy was the best president ever and I loved him and we lost him. It must’ve been repblican cabal, the CIA and the Illuminatti., working in cahoots.”

“It’s too difficult and uncomfortable to understand modern geopolitics, history, and the pernicious influence of radical Islam. But, for some reason, I do not like Bush. That I understand.”

It is the result of a generation of intellectual adolescents who were raised on immediate gratification of every imulse, who spent the majority of their lives watching actors on screensets with fake backdrops portraying things and events that did not happen, as if it were true, who are barely literate, out of touch with history, rules of evidence, the nature of logic, but are extremely in touch with their woldly vacilating emotions.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:17 pm Jerry:

It is amazing how people like wooten think Bush is a lying idoit but then give him credit for planning and implementing this great conspiracy. How can anyone believe a conspiracy like this could happen with zero concerte evidence in a society that can tell you on a daily basis whether or not Brittany Spears is wearing underware.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:19 pm Jon Gold:

Purse snatching is a crime. Rape is a crime. Armed robbery is a crime. When a group of 20 men who belong to an terrorist organization that declared war on the US several years ago and has already launched about a half dozen attacks against US interests around the world, flies planes into buildings on US soil killing 3,000 US citizens..that is an ACT OF WAR, not some crime to be investigated by Grissom on CSI.

Psst… murder is also a crime. No matter who does it.

So you want an unending investigation with an infinite budget. Brilliant. I also believe Congress was involved in setting the time table and they received an extension.

You’re putting words in my mouth. I want as 9/11 Family Member Donna Marsh O’Connor said at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on 9/11/2006… “a new investigation into the events of September 11th, and this time, a truly bipartisan, global, with families invested from the beginning, middle, and throughout the end.”

With regard to time and funding, learn how to read. That’s just one example. There are MANY.

Another flat out lie. The commission was run by Tom Keane and Mr. Hamilton.

The Commissioners were window-dressing. Everyone who’s actually researched 9/11 knows that Zelikow was in charge.

“Though he has no vote, (Zelikow) arguably has more sway than any member, including the chairman. Zelikow picks the areas of investigation, the briefing materials, the topics for hearings, the witnesses, and the lines of questioning for witnesses. . . .In effect, he sets the agenda and runs the investigation.”

And the lies keep coming. What was withheld? Who was not allowed to testify? What “pertinent” information do they not have?

Many documents were withheld. Are you sure you’ve researched 9/11? Did I say people were not allowed to testify or that the Bush Administration “fought tooth and nail against people testifying?” I guess you don’t remember Richard Armitage subbing for Condoleezza Rice, or Bush and Cheney refusing at first to testifying, and then agreeing, but only behind closed doors, not under oath, and with no recordings.

Ms. Casazza knows so little about everything, it’s frightening you have to use her as your source.

Mmhmmm… I guarantee she knows more about the 9/11 attacks than anyone commenting about it on this site, and that includes myself.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:20 pm Tina Kay:

Steve, Tony Ryan, Conspiracy Theorist…thank you for excellent logic articulated brilliantly. Jon Gold, wooten, they have medication for disorders such as yours. No seriously now, wooten…dude!! I hope you cut and pasted that novel from an existing document! Ultimately, you who claim to be in pursuit of ‘Truth’ as pertains to 9/11…it will always illude you until you become willing to acknowledge the FACTS. The problem is, most of the kook-fringe left either does not believe in an objective and rational standard of TRUTH in the first place, or believe in their own nutty interpretation of it that is upside down and backwards from the rest of us. That must be a frightening world you live in!

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:22 pm Pat Curley:

“I debunked Popular Mechanics’ book without even reading it.”

LOL! That’s an exemplar of the kind of research we see from the Troofers.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:24 pm Kurt:

Your article did nothing to debunk the true major items that conspiracy believers run with. Not one. Your writeup was about as effective at debunking the conspiracy ‘myths’ as the Popular Mechanics effort. I hope you enjoy all the laps of luxuries you and your media teams get out of ignoring such things as the Bilderberger meetings and what not. How about this…work up a ‘complete’ expose on who the Bilderberger group is, what they do, who the attendees are and what their agenda is. See if your editor allows it to go down.

Peace,
Kurt

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:32 pm Jon Gold:

“LOL! That’s an exemplar of the kind of research we see from the Troofers.”

I even mentioned that in the article Pat. I didn’t have to read it because as I pointed out in the article I posted “it wasn’t Popular Mechanics that the family members lobbied to investigate the attacks of 9/11. It wasn’t Popular Mechanics that turned away whistleblowers with pertinent information regarding the attacks of 9/11. It wasn’t Popular Mechanics that was mandated to give a “full and complete accounting” of the attacks of 9/11. It wasn’t Popular Mechanics that was recently called “Derelict in its’ duties.”

In case you didn’t know Pat, “The families lobbied Washington D.C. and the media to implement an independent commission to investigate the attacks of 9/11. You may have heard of it. It was called The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, or if you prefer, The 9/11 Commission.

The 9/11 Commission, as you can see from their very own website, was mandated to:

provide a “full and complete accounting” of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and recommendations as to how to prevent such attacks in the future.”

It was the 9/11 Commission that the families called “derelict in its duties.”

What does it say that people like Steve need to refer to a book other than the 9/11 Commission’s report to “debunk” the 9/11 Truth Movement?

It says that the final report released by the 9/11 Commission isn’t worth the paper it was written on.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:32 pm Tina Kay:

Jess Card, good observation! And those would be the same people who at once belive Hillary Clinton to be the ’smartest woman in America’ also somehow has the worst memory! (see her testimony in the Whitewater investigation. Oh, and don’t forget the 700 or so FBI files she misplaced.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:42 pm Pat Curley:

And it wasn’t David Ray Griffin that the 9/11 families lobbied to investigate the attacks of 9/11. So poof, I’ve debunked all of DRG’s books. And it wasn’t Jon Gold that the 9/11 families lobbied to investigate the attacks of 9/11. So poof, I’ve debunked all of Jon Gold’s posts.

Hey, this is a lot easier than what we’ve been doing at Screw Loose Change!

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:44 pm Smokey:

Bill Bradley:

“You really ought to read everything that I wrote. Besides, I don’t read the Daily Kos. I’m not a fan of the yaposphere.”

And yet, here you are.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:45 pm John:

The 7th tower is a really good example of what happened that was covered up. It was not mentioned in the 9/11 report and if you go watch the video of it collapsing in slow motion you will notice that the middle supports of the building collapse and the building freefalls. Your standard example of a controlled demolition. A plane did not crash into it, and steel buildings dont collpase because of a “fire” no matter how intense. As stated before watch zeitgiest movie online. Then you will also know about how Bush is working for an open borders policy with Mexico and Canada called the North American Union, and how our currency will be the Amero once the fed lets the dollar lose all its worth. There you heard it from the theorists first. http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:50 pm Steve:

>>It is the result of a generation of intellectual adolescents who were raised on immediate gratification of every imulse, who spent the majority of their lives watching actors on screensets with fake backdrops portraying things and events that did not happen, as if it were true, who are barely literate, out of touch with history, rules of evidence, the nature of logic, but are extremely in touch with their woldly vacilating emotions.<

Excellent post. Unfortunately, you used way too many big words and liberals are too lazy to reach for the dictionary so they have no idea what you actually said.

Nov 27, 2007 - 12:54 pm Jon Gold:

Hey, this is a lot easier than what we’ve been doing at Screw Loose Change!

Nope, it was Washington D.C. and the media that they lobbied in order to get the 9/11 Commission created. However, because the 9/11 Commission was “derelict in its’ duties”, and because the families, and a great many Americans question the “entire veracity” of the 9/11 Report, the families and a great many Americans are calling for a new investigation.

Popular Mechanics doesn’t cut it. Sorry Pat, I hate to break it to you.

And you know what Pat? You’re right. DRG and my own work doesn’t cut it either as a substitute for a new investigation. It is only used to point out WHY we need one.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:00 pm Steve:

>>Psst… murder is also a crime. No matter who does it.>You’re putting words in my mouth. I want as 9/11 Family Member Donna Marsh O’Connor said at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on 9/11/2006… “a new investigation into the events of September 11th, and this time, a truly bipartisan, global, with families invested from the beginning, middle, and throughout the end.”<

Please tell us all what vital information that family members who lost their loved ones can provide to the investigation regarding who did it and why? Theodore Olsen who works for the Bush admin. lost his wife that day. What could he tell the commission about the people who killed his wife.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:03 pm Jim Rockford:

What was the political climate at the time Mr. Bradley?

“The Declining Terrorist Threat” by VIPS member Larry Johnson published in the NYT in July 2001 represented the Left-Center, Media-Liberal view that AQ and Jihadist terrorists were of no threat to the US. Johnson specifically states in the editorial that no Muslim terrorist threat in the US existed.

Quote: “Judging from news reports and the portrayal of villains in our popular entertainment, Americans are bedeviled by fantasies about terrorism. They seem to believe that terrorism is the greatest threat to the United States and that it is becoming more widespread and lethal. They are likely to think that the United States is the most popular target of terrorists. And they almost certainly have the impression that extremist Islamic groups cause most terrorism.

None of these beliefs are based in fact.”

Given the rather nebulous information available to the President, 9/11 could certainly have been averted, but Liberals would have howled and rushed impeachment.

Instituting profiling and summary bans on air travel for Muslims would have done the trick. Allowing gate agents, ticket agents, security screeners, air crews, and passengers to simply summarily ban Muslim men from flying would have kept the 9/11 hijackers off the planes. Thus, no plots.

Every liberal of course would rather have 9/11 than something like that, so there was no political before the fact to act to stop the plot.

If Clinton and Congress had acted to tighten ID requirements (the 9/11 pilot-hijackers had been issued Florida driver’s licenses and were registered to vote) the hijackers could possibly not have gotten on the planes, lacking valid IDs. Of course this would have impinged on illegal immigration (and Democrat illegal voting through Motor-Voter give Illegal Aliens the vote measures) so it was not done. Had it been done in say 1996, by the time the pilot-hijackers arrived they would have found the security environment very very hostile.

The poll and the conspiracy nuts and yourself Mr. Bradley are frankly, not adult but rather childish.

There is a trade-off between security and preventing attacks and the wide-open liberal society that Liberals want.

The 9/11 attacks certainly could have been prevented, if America had been serious about the threat: Muslims, and greatly reduced the ability of Muslims to live and move in the US without constant surveillance and many restrictions.

This of course would have also included a large domestic intelligence operation with paid informers, Hoover-like COINTELPRO operations, blackmail, “illegal activities” and the like.

No free lunch.

Otherwise, 9/11 was inevitable and a follow-on attack of even greater (and likely, nuclear proportions) even greater.

Much of the arguments here display fantasy projections. It’s not Muslim men on jihad who are the enemy (violates PC-Multiculti Liberal religion) but “evil GWB” who is a safe villain. Hence the “Truthiness” of the idiot conspiracy theories.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:05 pm Jim Nance:

Bill Clinton did such an excellent job on fighting terrorism.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:11 pm Steve Houghtaling:

There is definitely something fishy going on with the demolition of the twin towers. I think one of the most intriguing things about this whole debacle is the fact that the guy that bought the twin tower complex won billions in a law-suit against the insurance company stating he should get double since 2 airplanes hit the complex. And, the head of security for the complex is related to the Prez. This stinks of an insurance scam that goes all the way up to the top. Think about it. The president’s cousin says to the Prez, “Hey, I’ve got an idea that will be a perfect lead in to cleaning up Afghanistan and give us a good excuse to knock off Iraq too. It’s all about demolishing the world trade center, which is a huge money loser anyway. We crash a couple of big airliners into the towers and make it look like an islamic terrorist attack. And here’s the best part. We crash one into the Pentagon too to make it look like they were after our government, and even another one and make it look like the passengers took over and crashed the jet in a field in Pennsylvania where no one else could get hurt. Sounds pretty good, eh? What..what do you get out of it? How about a cool half a billion?” We need to ask questions. We need to demand that answers to these questions be given to not only the American public, but the thousands of families and loved ones who lost someone that horrible day. WTF!?

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:13 pm Thomas Foolery:

First off, who wrote this “Crap”
Second, Is anyone buying this?

NO!

There’s way too much info out already that you were too scared to even touch on!

PEOPLE, Stop going to Fox “News” for your “News”

Those who dig deep enough and care enough to, will learn the truth.

what a waste of space this article was.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:19 pm James:

First of all, 9/11 was never criminally investigated.

Not true, not only was it investigated, it was the largest investigation in the history of the US.

http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/penttbom/penttbomb.htm

9/11 Investigation (PENTTBOM)
They were the most lethal terrorist attacks in history, taking the lives of 3,000 Americans and international citizens and ultimately leading to far-reaching changes in anti-terror approaches and operations in the U.S. and around the globe.

Our ensuing investigation of the attacks of 9/11/01-code-named “PENTTBOM”-was our largest investigation ever. At the peak of the case, more than half our agents worked to identify the hijackers and their sponsors and, with other agencies, to head off any possible future attacks. We followed more than half-a-million investigative leads, including several hundred thousand tips from the public. The attack and crash sites also represented the largest crime scenes in FBI history.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:20 pm Crimson Ghost:

For those of you who want to believe something other than hard work and persistence from AQ, bad luck, and gov incompetence; is there ANYTHING that might convince you that it was not a conspiracy?

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:21 pm Freakboy:

I thought we spent the last 7 years believing that Bush was a complete idiot and can barely run a war, but to believe that the government had something to do with 911 would make him a genius, wouldn’t it? A conspiracy of this magnitude pulled off in less than eight months would require intelligence beyond this administrations abilities and incredible planning; planning they have demonstrated with the Iraq war that they do not have. I am sorry to say this kids, but Islamic Terrorists brought down those buildings.

In addition, the towers were operational office buildings and I can only imagine what excuse the people planting the “explosives” must have said to the occupants of the building as they were asked…”Um, what are you doing with that stuff with the wires sticking out of it?”

I recently watched a Discovery Channel show where it took a demolition crew 3 months to wire a building to implode, and they weren’t trying to hide it from anyone. I wonder how long it took the government to plant that much explosives? Bush was in office for only 7 ¬Ω months before the attacks. If you believe the building were brought down by controlled demolition, then you must admit that the planting of explosives mush have started in the Clinton administration.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:22 pm Jon Gold:

“Not true, not only was it investigated, it was the largest investigation in the history of the US.”

So you’re saying that everyone that was “incompetent” (as you think) within our Government was investigated as they should have been? I think not.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:33 pm Dan Quinn:

wow, i’ve changed my mind, especially after reading all the ‘incontrovertible’ evidence.

alan miller
former [tile] of [prestigious job]
meaning: i know have credentials or clearance and my opinion no longer matters so i’ll weigh in on my blog.

“We very seriously need an entirely new…investigation”
meaning: i didn’t like what i read so we’ll keep trying until i like what i see.

bill bradley
“A fact which I have direct knowledge of…”
i guess that settles that. why bore us with details.

xmax
run and hide at your nearest underground bunker - they’re coming for you!

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:33 pm Dani D.:

The problem that I have is not with the story itself, but with some of the comments I have read so far.

To blame an administration for the problems of the world is a little silly… To go further and say Democrats should win the election thus solving all of the “world” problems is even sillier. I am going to assume the majority of the people who left such comments are either really young or completely unintelligent. Study your history on various administrations of both parties and then decide who has historically led the American people strongly, correctly and dilligently.

I read one comment saying that Bush has been the worst President ever… Hmmmm… How about Harding, Hoover, Taft or Coolidge? Come on, people. Educate yourselves before making such statements. Or perphaps, if you’re not satisfied with our leadership, register to VOTE and make changes.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:37 pm Bill:

I know our government is crooked. Not some sort of “get all the people in a room and figure out how we can screw the world over to our benefit” kind of crooked. More like, here’s a bunch of money for your campaign, now help me out” kind of crooked.

I would love to find out that there was some sort of conspiracy in our Federal government… then we could impeach all of them and start over….

BUT…

You have to be idiot to believe any of the points brought out by conspiracy theorist about the 911 tragedy. If they could find ONE solid piece of evidence that could not be refuted by someone who actually knows what they’re talking about, I’d jump on the bandwagon. But their theories… and their explanations of those theories… are so far-fetched and out in left field that it boggles the imagination.

Our governement can’t balance a budget, provide us with affordable health care, or kill one man hiding in a cave… and you guys think they can pull off the “911 conspiracy” and get away with it?? There would have to be thousands of people invloved… all keeping quiet. Come on people. Get a life.

As far as the building’s collapse goes… I’ve seen plenty of proof that the crash and resulting fire COULD cause the collapse, but I haven’t seen any PROOF that it was caused any other way.

For example: Plumes of smoke (dust) coming out of holes as the building collapsed is not evidence of explosives… rather it’s evidence that the inside of the structure was collapsing faster than the outside, forcing dust out of the holes. (Also causing the building to drop straight down… alomst like a free-fall. After all, the inside of the WTC’s was 95% air.

And a steel building never has never collapsed due to fire… HA! Some actually have partially collapsed, but you don’t hear the conspiracy theorists mention those. It’s always, “NO steel building has ever collapsed due to fire.” How many buildings have been hit by 747’s flying at 500 mph?? How many of the buildings that didn’t collapse due to fire were 110 stories high, built with a “tube inside a tube” constuction??
You can’t compare apples to automobiles. (They aren’t even trying to compare apples to oranges, that would be to close.)

Give it a rest people. I hear nothing but plausible explanations from the 911 myth debunkers, and from the conspiracy theorists? … A bunch of repeated BS that has already been disproven. And the fact that they continuously use statements taken out of context, and stupid theories that don’t hold water… and even after they get debunked they keep repeating the same old rhetoric… just goes to show you. Sucker born every minute.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:47 pm Jon Gold:

To expand on…

“So you’re saying that everyone that was “incompetent” (as you think) within our Government was investigated as they should have been? I think not.”

Was anyone held accountable James for the “incompetence” that was shown regarding 9/11?

No. No one was held accountable James for the “incompetence” that was shown regarding 9/11.

Nov 27, 2007 - 1:56 pm cyberjacques:

There are two reasons that people believe in conspiracy theories. The first is that it makes them feel like they’re part of some mysterious little in-crowd, a select group of people that know the real truth while everyone else is in the dark. It makes them feel special. The second reason is fear. They are too afraid to admit that there really is a larger evil out there somewhere, and so they blame things on our own government. Because deep down, they already know that they have very little to fear from our current government, and it makes them feel safer to pretend to fear a false threat than to face the actual threat. To put it another way, for all my fellow geeks out there, Voldemort really is back, and Dumbledore has no intention of taking over the Ministry.

Nov 27, 2007 - 2:24 pm Rat Poof:

Here, Here Jim Rockford! Excellent post.

Nov 27, 2007 - 2:28 pm DallasMike:

What about the fact that explosions can be seen coming from the sides of the twin towers before the collapse cycle reached that particular point.

Um, maybe it’s because the frame of the building is tied together by girders. Put a pencil on your desk and then push the eraser. Notice that the pencil point moves before your hand reaches the original location of the pencil point. It’s called Physics for 3-Year Olds.

What about the fact that the heat from jet fuel cannot melt steele.

Steel generally begins to weaken and de-temper at 540 F. Typical construction steel loses half its strength at approximately 1,090 F and virtually all of its strength at 1,300 F. In a completely open area, aviation fuel burns at anywhere from 500 to 599 degrees. In an enclosed space that has enough oxygen, the burn temperature is close to 1,800 F. The plane that hit the North Tower cut through the utility shafts, allowing fuel to spill to floor below and also causing an updraft through the shaft and windows that drew fresh air into the burn area, thus increasing the burn temperature.

Not only that, but the crashes themselves broke or twisted the columns and girders on a number of floors. WTC 1 sustained structural damage on 8 levels while WTC 2 sustained structural damage on 6 levels. The remaining structure was simply not strong enough to support the weight of the floors above.

By the way, my degrees are in chemistry and chemical engineering and I worked at an aviation firm for 4 years and have extensive experience with Jet-A, JP-5, and JP-8 fuels.

Before that, I was the lead chemical engineer for a large plating firm that specialized in aircraft components. After plating, most steels need to be heated for a period of time at 380 F to prevent hydrogen embrittlement. If the records from the oven showed that the temperature was somewhat higher, the parts had to be scrapped because the heat had weakened them.

In other words, I know what I’m talking about and you Truthers don’t.

And if you’re going to attack Bush politically, please explain why Sandy Berger found it necessary to steal and destroy on multiple occasions highly-secret documents in his socks and pants from the National Archives that dealt with Clinton’s record on terrorism. Somebody’s hiding something and it ain’t the Bushes. It was also the Clinton administration that erected a wall between the FBI and CIA as well as walls within those organizations.

Nov 27, 2007 - 2:38 pm Big Iron:

You want a good laugh? Go to Portland independent media center (http://portland.indymedia.org/). There, you not only get the tinfoil truthers but about 50 other types of the mentally impotents. it’s a laugh a minute.

Buy early, buy often and avoid the rush.

Nov 27, 2007 - 2:43 pm SanityNow:

Freakboy, you are dead on target. I’d add to your comments that these theorists also believe that Bush & co. could plan 9/11 near perfectly but too stupid to plant WMDs in Iraq. And to those claiming he tricked us into a war in Iraq - are you telling us that you were tricked by an moron?

Nov 27, 2007 - 3:02 pm Steve:

Freakboy..to answer your good question about how they got all of the explosives into the towers, it is documented that there was an unprecidented closure of the entire twin towner complex for an entire weekend where all electricity and security was shut down. There were several floors that were completely empty at different intervals in both towers where a lot of activity was heard by those on the floors beneath, yet nothing appeard to be being constructed. And, tower 7 was imploded. There is video that shows the building going down in the exact manner that an imploded building goes down. A building doesn’t just collapse with minor damage done to its exterior and a couple of fires in it. WTF?

Nov 27, 2007 - 3:02 pm Jon Gold:

Nothing to say James about how no one was held accountable for the “incompetence” you cling to for the 9/11 attacks?

I thought so.

Nov 27, 2007 - 3:16 pm dan:

For my money, the most fascinating thing about the “cover up” theme is that the unmentioned party behind the gaps in the 9/11 report is supposed to be Bush & Co. - or Cheney, or Rumsfeld, or whomever. Is this the only possibility?

Personally, I think the unnamed party, if there is one, is the FSB - ykno