Rice warns of another 9/11 if US leaves Afghanistan

Former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has sharply criticized the idea of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

If you want another 9/11, leave Afghanistan, Rice says

presstv.ir | Sep 22, 2009

Former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has said that the United States could experience another terrorist attack like 9/11 if troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan.

“If you want another terrorist attack in the US, abandon Afghanistan,” she said in an interview with Fortune magazine on Tuesday.

“The last time we left Afghanistan, and we abandoned Pakistan, that territory became the very territory on which al-Qaeda trained and attacked us on September 11th.

“So our national security interests are very much tied up in not letting Afghanistan fail again and become a safe haven for terrorists,” Rice added.

President Barack Obama is considering his options after the US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, said on Monday that extra troops are needed within the next year or else the war “will likely result in failure.”

Rice made the remarks after new threats of a possible terrorist attack emerged following a series of arrests in Denver and New York related to an alleged bomb plot.

“Counterterrorism officials have issued security bulletins to police around the nation about terrorists’ desire to attack stadiums, entertainment complexes, and hotels,” the Associated Press reported.

September 11 defendants get “My Lai” massacre film

Reuters | Sep 21, 2009

By Jane Sutton

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks were given a copy of a Hollywood movie about a U.S. massacre of Vietnamese civilians to help them prepare their defense in their mass murder trial, a prosecutor said on Monday.

Self-described 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants, who are acting as their own attorneys, asked for and were given copies of several movies, prosecutor Robert Swann told the Guantanamo war crimes court.

Among them were “Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley,” a 1975 Stanley Kramer film about a U.S. soldier held responsible for the murder of Vietnamese civilians in what came to be known as the My Lai massacre. Harrison Ford played the title character’s superior officer in the movie.

“The camp provided them,” Swann told the court, referring to the movie request. Also provided were copies of the National Geographic films “Inside Mecca” and “Inside the Vatican.”

It was unclear why the defendants wanted the films, though they could be trying to equate the killing of U.S. civilians with the killing of civilians by the U.S. military at My Lai.

Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged al Qaeda co-conspirators are charged with 2,973 counts of murder and could be executed if convicted.

President Barack Obama asked last week for a 60-day freeze in the proceedings and said he would decide by November 16 whether to try them in a revised version of the much-maligned military tribunals or move the cases to regular civilian courts.

The U.S. military judge granted the freeze in the 9-11 case shortly before Monday’s hearing at the U.S. naval base in southeast Cuba. But he held the hearing anyway to hear outstanding requests from the defendants, who opted not to attend.

The chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo tribunals, Navy Captain John Murphy, said federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., New York and Virginia were already reviewing the case files and vying to try the accused September 11 plotters if the cases are moved into the civilian courts.

FRUSTRATED BY DELAYS

The Obama administration has ordered the Guantanamo detention camp shut down by January 22 and is still debating what to do with the 226 detainees it holds. Murphy said he still hopes to try 65 of them in military tribunals and that “We are ready to prosecute this case in this court, now.”

Obama has said he considers military tribunals to be an appropriate forum for terrorism trials of Guantanamo captives but would prefer to try them in federal courts if feasible.

The delays frustrated September 11 victims’ relatives who came to Guantanamo to watch the hearing. Several said they felt their loved ones had been forgotten as the years dragged on without trials.

“We are just damned disgusted with the whole business,” said Bob Hemenway, whose son Ronald was killed when a hijacked plane slammed into the Pentagon. “We need some justice. We need it now.”

Talat Hamdani, whose paramedic son Salman Hamdani was killed in the World Trade Center, said she was disappointed at not being able to see the defendants she called “those demented people who distorted the faith of Islam.”

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Giuliani joins new program to teach students about 9/11

AP | Sep 8, 2009

By CRISTIAN SALAZAR

NEW YORK — Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani joined Sept. 11 family members and college professors on Tuesday at a hotel blocks from the World Trade Center site to unveil a plan to teach middle and high school students about the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The 9/11 curriculum, believed to be the first comprehensive educational plan focusing on the attacks, is expected to be tested this year at schools in New York City, California, New Jersey, Alabama, Indiana, Illinois and Kansas.

It was developed with the help of educators by the Brick, N.J.-based Sept. 11 Education Trust, and was based on primary sources, archival footage and more than 70 interviews with witnesses, family members of victims and politicians, including Giuliani and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a New York senator at the time of the attacks.

The curriculum is taught through videos, lessons and interactive exercises, including one that requires students to use Google Earth software to map global terrorist activity.

One of the main goals is to help students entering middle and high school, who may been too young to have strong memories of the attacks, to develop a tangible connection to what happened.

“In a few years, we will be teaching students who were not even alive at the time of the attacks,” said Anthony Gardner, the executive director of the Sept. 11 Education Trust.

The nonprofit group is run by victims’ families, survivors and rescue workers who worry that educators don’t teach about the attacks because they don’t have the educational tools to do so.

Giuliani said that the curriculum can help students to think critically about the attacks as both a historical event and one that shapes the present, noting the continued threat of terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“This is one of the critical subjects on which young people should develop some ideas and thoughts. They’re going to have to live with this for quite some time,” he said. “It gives young people a framework in which to think about Sept. 11, all that it meant and all that it means to the present.”

For the professors who helped to develop the plan through the Taft Institute for Government at Queens College, creating that framework to understanding how 9/11 affects today’s policies was critical to the endeavor, and part of the challenge.

“The real trick is to get kids to see that it’s not just a dramatic event like 9/11 that connects them to these issues, it’s connected to their lives in the everyday, said Michael A. Krasner, a political scientist at Queens College. He said a range of viewpoints are reflected in the curriculum, including from Muslim scholars, to enrich the discussion.

The curriculum was designed so that teachers could tailor it to their own classrooms, but it gives an open-eyed view of 9/11, Gardner said.

“We’re not sugarcoating the event,” said Gardner, whose brother died in the World Trade Center. “We’ve included images that are challenging.”

Students and professors are invited to participate on a Web site developed around the curriculum, where they can share their own videos, lesson plans and discuss the questions raised in their classrooms.

The curriculum was tried out in 2008 at the River Dell Regional High School, a roughly 1,000-student high school in Oradell, N.J., about 20 miles north of Manhattan.

It costs $99 per license through Sept. 18, 2009. After that, it will cost $129. The money will go toward the development of more teaching materials on 9/11.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has also developed educational materials for high schools, which are intended to augment classroom discussions, not to serve as an in-depth curriculum.
On the Net:

* http://www.sept11educationtrust.org
* http://www.learnabout9-11.org/

9/11 attacks shaped South Florida anti-terror partnership

“They have all these deputized agents with lots of powers but without much oversight,”‘ said Ahmed Bedier, a member of the Florida ACLU.

“It was all a scam,” said Miami police detective Jorge L. Gonzalez, a longtime JTTF member.

Miami Herald | Sep. 11, 2009

BY JAY WEAVER

The threatening caller, a woman miffed about her tax increase, called the Broward County property appraiser to say “you now have anthrax spores.” She sounded credible because she referred to “infectious agents” stored at the National Institutes of Health.

The message, left by Michelle Ledgister in 2005, triggered a call to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, then to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, and finally to the NIH — where Ledgister indeed worked. “Putting it all together, we thought we had the real deal here,” said Warren Emerson, a BSO detective with the task force, known as the JTTF.

But the JTTF in South Florida — one of 56 nationwide linked to the FBI’s counterterrorism center in Washington — soon discovered that Ledgister had no access to the lethal anthrax. It was a false alarm, but it highlighted the terrorism task force’s mission: to chase possible threats to national security by combining the vast power of the FBI with the street smarts of local cops.

It’s a partnership born of necessity, made more urgent since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks jolted the country and exposed law enforcement’s failure to share evidence that might have stopped the plot.

“The perception before 9/11 was that terrorism didn’t happen here, but it did happen,” said J. Chris Klettheimer, acting supervisor of the JTTF in South Florida. Through the task force, “now everybody’s dialed in.”

HOW IT WORKS

In South Florida, the task force has eight terrorism squads, with 130 federal agents and police officers — double the total before 9/11 — assigned full time to the FBI’s office in North Miami Beach. Because they all work under one roof, they can tap into resources and exchange information instantly. They are supported by 250 other local and state police officers with security clearances.

The JTTF’s range is both domestic and international. Among its cases: the post-9/11 investigation into the South Florida-based al Qaeda hijackers behind the attacks; the kidnappings of three U.S. defense contractors in Colombia rescued with politician Ingrid Betancourt; and security preparations for the upcoming Super Bowl in Miami.

By its very nature, the focus is often long-term, secretive stuff.

“My mom is fascinated by what I do, but I cannot talk to my mom about what I do,” quipped Klettheimer, an Indy Car engineer in his prior life.

The squads target state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran and Syria, and U.S.-designated terrorist groups, including Islamist extremists such as al Qaeda and Palestinian terrorists like Hamas. Cuba is still on the radar screen — despite a dramatic drop in paramilitary activities — but not as high a priority as the Middle Eastern nations.

The task force keeps a close eye on certain countries and groups to scrutinize possible illicit activities in South Florida, particularly suspicious financial transactions.

The FBI’s authority was expanded by the Patriot Act, approved by Congress after the 9/11 attacks. The law created a subpoena-like tool known as a National Security Letter, which allows the FBI to search telephone, e-mail, Internet and financial records without a court order. The American Civil Liberties Union has challenged the law.

The FBI declined to provide the number of national security letters used by the JTTF here, but said the task force has investigated 130 terror threats over the past year.

A representative of the Islamic community in Florida who has dealt with the JTTF on two major terrorism prosecutions in Tampa said the task force is “like a super police department within the FBI.”

“They have all these deputized agents with lots of powers but without much oversight,” said Ahmed Bedier, a member of the Florida ACLU board and former executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Tampa.

Erin Beckman, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterterrorism section in Miami, said the JTTF is subject to intense scrutiny by Congress and the Justice Department’s inspector general. She said the task force’s main goal is to thwart a national security threat before people’s lives are endangered.

Beckman said the task force monitors the potential “radicalization” of teens and young men at mosques and schools. Among its other priorities:

• Weapons of mass destruction, including white-powder chemicals like anthrax;

• Bomb threats to ports, airports and other major public sites;

• Threats to President Barack Obama, which have escalated during the bad economy;

• Ecoterrorism by radical environmental and animal-rights groups.

HIGH-PROFILE CASES

In South Florida, in addition to the 9/11 pilots, the JTTF investigated a former Broward Community College student of Saudi descent, Adnan El Shukrijumah, who is still the subject of a global manhunt because of his alleged ties to al Qaeda. Shukrijumah disappeared from South Florida weeks before the attacks.

The task force also has worked on two of the nation’s most publicized cases: Jose Padilla and the Liberty City Seven.

Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, was recruited at a Broward County mosque and traveled overseas to train with al Qaeda. He was convicted with two others in 2007 of conspiring to commit murder while providing material support such as money, recruits and equipment for “violent jihad” overseas.

The Liberty City Seven, a group of inner-city men including some in their early 20s, were arrested in 2006 on charges of plotting with al Qaeda to blow up high-profile buildings. Five of the men were convicted and two acquitted after three trials.

WORK NEVER DONE

While it works on long-term probes that don’t always make headlines, the task force also devotes significant time responding to false alarms — chasing credible tips that prove untrue, or probing incidents that appear to be terrorism but aren’t.

Take a tip called in to the FBI’s Miami office in 2007: Bombers were plotting to target Miami, New York and Chicago. The anonymous caller told the FBI the explosives were stashed in Miami. But he wanted money before coughing up details.

The FBI immediately alerted local law enforcement agencies and scrambled to locate the bombs around town. The FBI traced the caller to Venezuela, uncovered his identity and found he had played the same trick on another federal agency.

“It was all a scam,” said Miami police detective Jorge L. Gonzalez, a longtime JTTF member.

Ledgister’s phone call, also a false threat, resulted in her conviction and a two-year probationary sentence.

Another example: This summer, a call came into the FedEx office in Fort Lauderdale about packages containing explosives headed for New York City. FedEx contacted BSO and the FBI, which called the company’s headquarters in Memphis, where an FBI agent is stationed. Authorities also called other law enforcement agencies and delivery companies.

Within 24 hours, investigators concluded the call was a hoax, but they were unable to identify the caller.

“We have to chase every lead down,” the JTTF’s Klettheimer said. “We have to look at it as a national security matter.”

Queen makes former NYPD commissioner Bratton Commander of the British Empire on September 11th

LAPD Chief Bill Bratton is now an Honorary Commander of the British Empire

Daily News | Sep 11, 2009

LAPD Chief Bill Bratton today received an award from the United Kingdom making him an Honorary Commander of the British Empire.

In a ceremony at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., Ambassador Sir Nigel Shewinwald bestowed the award to Bratton. The official title is Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

The award was presented in recognition of Bratton promoting cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom.

“For 15 years, Bill Bratton has been the foremost leader of the transformation of policing in the United States,” Sheinwald said. “As chief of police in Boston, in New York and now, in Los Angeles, he has changed the way in which police go about their work.”

Bratton also has worked closely with the London police and Scotland Yard in helping them tighten their security and work with U.S. law enforcement.

Bratton, who is leaving the LAPD on Oct. 31 to go into private industry, said it was a great honor.

“To be honored by Queen Elizabeth II with an award first created by King George V nearly a century ago is a humbling experience,” Bratton said.

“When I first pinned on a badge nearly 40 years ago, my hopes and dreams were to contribute to local law enforcement.

“Now as a recipient of the high honor Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, I see that woven into each success are the dedication and commitment of my partners here and abroad.”
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The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire was created in 1917 and honors civilians and service personnel for public service or other achievements. It is widely used by the British to honor non-Britons.

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Related

LAPD Chief Bratton honored by Queen of England

British tabloids have speculated for years on rumors that Bratton is going to someday take over the top job at Scotland Yard.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton is being honored by the queen of England for his contributions to law enforcement.

At a ceremony Friday in Washington, Bratton was named an Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. The award is one step shy of knighthood and is widely used to honor non-Britons for public service.
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Further Research

“Terrorism is theater”

- Brian Jenkins, Kroll Associates.

Backdrop – Detecting The Puppet Masters

With the above-stated hypothesis in mind, one should perhaps cast a discerning eye toward those manning the counter-terror posts in Los Angeles today – for an important element in John O’Neill’s New York circle has recently relocated to the West Coast. In particular, O’Neill’s friend, John Miller, has left a lucrative job at ABC News in order to work under William Bratton in the Los Angeles counter-terror office. Miller, some might recall, was one of the very few Americans to conduct a face-to-face interview with bin Laden before September 11 (see Bin Laden Statements -ed). Before he had come aboard as a correspondent for ABC News, Miller had worked under Bratton in the NYPD. Bratton, through his acquaintance with O’Neill’s friend Jerry Hauer, has also had intimate business dealings with Kroll Associates, the World Trade Center security firm which hired O’Neill.

LAPD Chief Bratton is asked about mercenaries and Jerome Hauer WeAreChangeLA

AIG cheats police and fireman – LAPD Chief William Bratton works for AIG

“AIG awarded Larry Silverstein BILLIONS of dollars for the destruction of the entire World Trade Center complex. Kroll Associates is a subsidiary of AIG. Kroll Associates was in charge of security at the entire World Trade Center complex from 1993 through September 11, 2001. Kroll Associates is currently ‘consulting’ the LAPD over its entire operations. LAPD Chief William Bratton was working for Kroll Associates on September 11, 2001. The Queen of England is awarding Chief William Bratton as a member of the British Empire at the British Embassy in Washington D.C. on September 11, 2009. On September 11th. Chief William Bratton is another treasonous 9-11 criminal.”

LAPD Chief Bratton is questioned about Bin Laden and Black Ops

Who Killed John O’Neill? The Twisted Web They Weave

Maybe they didn’t run the psy-op, but they sure as hell did cover it up. Kroll is bigger than you could possibly imagine. Kroll Associates is a global security and intelligence company. Publicly traded and privately managed, Kroll specializes in large building security and industrial espionage. In 1993, Kroll got a contract to manage security at the World Trade Center. They held that position up until the moment the Towers fell. The current CEO of Kroll is Michael Cherkasky. Cherkasky is a former assistant district attorney under Robert Morgenthau in Manhattan. Former employees of Kroll include people like, William Bratton, former police Commissioner in Boston and New York City, and now Chief of the LAPD.

9/11 panic on Potomac

A U.S. Coast Guard boat participates in a training exercise on the Potomac River in Washington, September 11, 2009, setting off a security scare as the United States marked the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates had been attending a ceremony nearby at the Pentagon when the Coast Guard incident took place. The Virginia shoreline is at rear. Reuters

Coast Guard exercise, false media reports fuel fear on commemoration day

Baltimore Sun | Sep 12, 2009

By Paul West

WASHINGTON — – The Coast Guard promised a full investigation Friday after a training exercise on the Potomac River grounded flights at Reagan National Airport amid media-fueled fears of another Sept. 11 incident.

False TV reports about machine gun-equipped Coast Guard vessels firing on a suspicious craft in a security zone not far from a 9/11 commemoration at the Pentagon prompted sharp criticism of the government for staging the drill at such a sensitive moment. In turn, the White House pushed back against cable TV networks for erroneous “breaking news” reports.

Vice Adm. John P. Currier said the Coast Guard would conduct “a top-to-bottom review” of the exercise, which had been authorized by its commander in Baltimore.

Democratic Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees the Coast Guard, said he could not understand why the service would be simulating an incident on the Potomac “when the nation was on high alert, when families of 9/11 victims were nearby and when the president was either in the vicinity or had just left,” without at least notifying relevant authorities in advance.

The Baltimore congressman said that he was listening, with alarm, to CNN’s live coverage on his car’s satellite radio, “and I was wondering, ‘Do we have another terrorist-type situation where they want to commemorate 9/11?’ ” He said his committee would look into the incident.

During the exercise, which began about 9:30 a.m., four 25-foot patrol craft churned up the surface of the river while a Coast Guard helicopter zoomed low overhead.

Unaware that it was only a simulated confrontation, CNN, which was monitoring police radio frequencies, relayed the Coast Guard conversations to its audience. Within minutes, Reuters news agency and Fox News Channel picked up the CNN story.

FBI and local police vehicles rushed to the scene, apparently in response to the CNN report. The Federal Aviation Administration halted takeoffs at National Airport, whose flight paths follow the river, for about 20 minutes.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs harshly criticized the news coverage.

“Before we report things like this, checking would be good,” he said.

CNN said it called the Coast Guard public affairs office in Washington before airing its initial report and was told by a spokeswoman that she was unaware of anything happening on the Potomac. It took about 30 minutes before the network let viewers know that it had raised a false alarm.

“Given the circumstances, it would have been irresponsible not to report on what we were hearing and seeing,” the network said in a statement.

At a hastily called noon news conference, Currier, the Coast Guard’s chief of staff, said there had been “really no reason” to provide any advance warning to other law enforcement agencies or the public about the drill, which he called an “everyday exercise.”

Public advisories are routinely issued in advance about exercises involving military flights over the Washington area, to help avoid unnecessary confusion.

President Barack Obama, who attended the Pentagon ceremony with his wife, Michelle, crossed a Potomac bridge close to the scene around the time that the exercise was under way.

Currier said the exercise had been authorized by the Coast Guard unit in Baltimore that is responsible for operations in the national capital region. The Baltimore office is commanded by Captain Mark P. O’Malley, a 28-year Coast Guard veteran. A call to O’Malley’s office was not returned.

The incident “sounds very much like the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing,” Sen. George V. Voinovich of Ohio said in a statement.

Voinovich, senior Republican on a homeland security subcommittee, said that the “anxiety caused by this situation on such a solemn day is extremely disturbing.”

A military families’ advocacy group that has been critical of Obama administration policies, including its handling of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, issued a statement deploring the training exercise as “absolutely inexcusable.” It called on the government to hold accountable those responsible for authorizing the Coast Guard training.

“This training exercise not only caused unwarranted stress for [9/11] families but it was a distraction from the purpose of today,” the group Military Families United said in a prepared statement.

The incident had echoes of a White House photo shoot last spring, in which two fighter planes and an Air Force jumbo jet from the presidential fleet flew low over New York harbor, panicking residents who feared a repeat of the 9/11 attack. A White House aide who authorized the flight subsequently resigned.

Charlie Sheen urges Barack Obama to reopen 9/11 investigation in video message

Charlie Sheen urges Barack Obama to reopen 9/11 investigation in video message

Actor Charlie Sheen has issued a video message urging President Barack Obama to reopen investigation into the 9/11 attacks.

Telegraph | Sep 12, 2009

By Subhajit Banerjee

Sheen had earlier written an open letter to the President in which he claimed that there was cover-up by the Bush administration over the 2001 attacks that claimed the lives of several thousand people.

The six-and-a-half minute video – released on the eighth anniversary of the disaster – opens with news reports and footage of the incident with Sheen’s voiceover: “The questions Mr President, the questions.”

Charlie Sheen’s Video Message to President Obama

He then runs through the various “unanswered questions” such as World Trade Center workers and rescuers claiming the building imploded as if with detonations, sections of the media reporting the collapse before it actually happened and FBI translator Sibel Edmonds claiming Osama Bin Laden was working for the CIA up until 9/11.

The Two and a Half Men actor is then seen sitting in a garden as he addresses Barack Obama: “Good afternoon Mr President, I come to you today representing the families of the victims of September 11th as well as millions of my fellow Americans.”

“Hopefully by now you’ve had a chance to read my letter to you – Twenty Minutes with the President – and if not at least had its contents brought to your attention.”

The letter addresses 20 key points that Sheen feels need to be answered by a truly independent investigation.

“As my letter chronicles, Sir, 9/11 commission itself says they were lied to, deceived and essentially prevented from carrying out a real investigation.”

He then urges Mr Obama to use his “power as well as the responsibility to initiate a truly independent congressional investigation into the events of 9/11 as well as its aftermath.”

Sheen ends his message with the words: “We’re counting on you Mr President. Be on the right side of history.”

The highest paid actor on US television has also challenged 9/11 debunkers to a live debate.

He called out those who have publicly attacked him for speaking out on 9/11, particularly Meghan McCain, Rush Limbaugh Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, to debate him on CNN’s Larry King Live.

911 reasons why 9/11 was (probably) an inside job

9/11 was the day steel-framed buildings fell like sandcastles, the law of physics worked in reverse and the United States Air Force went missing in action. So what is the real story?

RT News | Sep 10, 2009

By Robert Bridge

Before attempting to identify “nine hundred and eleven reasons why 9/11 was an inside job” (which will start tomorrow as part of an investigative, four-part report), I would like to briefly mention my own “where-were-you-on-9/11-moment” since it has a lot to do with my reasons for rejecting the official version of events that fateful day.

On the evening of September 11, 2001, as fate would have it, I was sitting inside of Uncle Sam’s restaurant in the heart of Moscow, enjoying dinner with a Russian friend. In the middle of our now-forgotten conversation, some commotion on the overhead television caught my friend’s attention. I turned around just in time to see an airplane careening into the World Trade Center in a magnificent ball of fire.

And that was it: in that split second, a dividing line had been crudely carved down the middle of the world’s mind between “Before 9/11” and “After 9/11.” For the majority of people who saw those horrific images from various time zones around the planet, the world suddenly felt like a very different, even unrecognizable place. But thanks to the availability of those raw video images, as well as new-found physical and chemical evidence, the truth may finally rise up from the ashes of Ground Zero.

A group of diners that had gathered around the television heard the CNN anchor say that “the South Tower has just collapsed.” I asked one of the people standing close to the screen: “How much of the building is still standing?” He responded with barely a trace of emotion, “Nothing. It’s completely gone.”

In hindsight, news of the total collapse of the South Tower represented the first seed of doubt in my mind concerning 9/11. It seemed unfathomable that the seemingly indestructible North and South Towers, which I had just toured the summer before, had been reduced to a pile of dust and rubble level with the horizon line. Surely at least part of the building was left standing!

For many “9/11 truthers” that seed of doubt has grown into an oak tree that can no longer be ignored. If Internet traffic is any real indication, the movement is quickly outgrowing its electronic borders and eventually some serious questions will have to be answered by some serious people in the real world.

I excused myself from my dinner companion, who somehow failed to appreciate the global ramifications of two commercial jets slamming into America’s financial heart, and headed to yet another popular hangout for Moscow expatriates. I took a seat at the corner of the bar at the American Bar & Grill and watched until well past midnight as one analyst after another tried to make some sense of the wreckage still smoldering on the ground in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

A United States flag waves over the construction site at Ground Zero during the 7th annual 9/11 memorial ceremony September 11, 2008 in New York City (Photo from daylife.com)

Not surprisingly, the only suspect that was mentioned, before any investigation had begun, was Osama bin Laden. This announcement, predictable though it may have been, sparked a heated barstool debate between me and my neighbor, who couldn’t understand how I could question the news that bin Laden was the culprit. “It’s too early to say anything with certainty,” was my only reply. The premature blame that was heaped on this admittedly evil guy (bin Laden) represented the second seed of doubt.

As it turned out, those red flags that popped up in my mind concerning the events as explained by “the experts” in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 were shared by many other individuals around the world. In fact, the only things that really added up on 9/11, for those who were keeping score, were the incredible number of inconsistencies.

Today, researchers from various walks of life are demonstrating that it was highly improbable that the upper sections of the North and South Towers were able to topple the massive, largely undamaged structures below without some sort of other variables in the equation. Meanwhile, large traces of thermite, an extremely rare and dangerous material used by the military and professional demolitionists, have been found in dust samples taken from the WTC buildings. This discovery itself warrants a criminal investigation.

But this is undoubtedly the greatest irony of them all: Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of 9/11, does not even appear on the FBI’s most wanted list. Why? Officials at the Bureau admit that there is simply not enough evidence to arrest him! So if the FBI is not satisfied with the US government’s explanation for the events that transpired on 9/11, why should the public be satisfied?

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FBI took informant off Mohammed Atta’s trail

FBI Informant Says Agents Missed Chance to Stop 9/11 Ringleader Mohammed Atta

Undercover Operative ‘One Million Percent Positive’ Attacks Could Have Been Prevented

ABC News | Sep 10, 2009

By BRIAN ROSS and VIC WALTER

On the eve of the eight year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an FBI informant who infiltrated alleged terrorist cells in the U.S. tells ABC News the FBI missed a chance to stop the al Qaeda plot because they focused more on undercover stings than on the man who would later become known as 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta.

In an exclusive interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline, former undercover operative Elie Assaad says he spotted and became suspicious of Atta in early 2001, when he was sent by the FBI to infiltrate a small mosque outside Miami. Atta was there with Adnan Shukrujuman, an al Qaeda fugitive who now has a $5 million U.S. reward on his head.

“There was something wrong with these guys,” Assaad, a 36-year-old Catholic native of Lebanon who pretended to be an Islamic extremist, says.

The FBI initially declined to comment but released a statement following the ABC News report, saying: “The 9/11 investigation, the most extensive ever conducted by the FBI, has been reviewed in its totality by the 9/11 Commission, Congress and others. The claims made in the news report and the factual conclusions contained in the story are not supported by the evidence.”

The FBI did not specify which claims or conclusions it referred to.

Asaad said he told ABC News the truth and stands by his story.

According to Assaad, Shukrujumah, whose father ran the mosque, invited the undercover FBI operative to meet him at his home, but the FBI told him to stay away. Instead, Assad says the agency assigned him to set up and sting what he calls wannabe terrorists, ending any hope of infiltrating the real al Qaeda terrorists.

Former national security official Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant, said the case is “yet another example of the way the system broke down prior to 9/11.”

“If the system had worked,” Clarke said, “we might have been able to identify these people before the attacks.”

After 9/11

Assaad, who posed as “Mohammed” a personal representative of Osama bin Laden, says he’s a “million percent positive” the 9/11 attacks could have been stopped if the FBI had gone after Atta and Shukrujumah. But because Atta and his men were suspicious of the FBI undercover operative, and secretive, Assaad says his FBI agent handlers sent him after the easier target two wannabe terrorists whose cases were easy to crack and who were both eventually convicted and sent to prison.

“I was right, I was a hundred percent right,” Assaad says of his suspicions. He says that when he learned that Atta was one of the 9/11 hijackers, when the FBI asked if he could identify any of the attackers, he was “very upset, angry” and cried.

“I curse on everybody,” Assaad says. “I destroyed half of my furniture. Uh, I went crazy.”

The FBI’s focus on stings, which Assaad has worked in at least 10 states and overseas since becoming an operative in 1996, are being questioned by many counter-terrorism authorities, who wonder what the true value of the stings are. Since 9/11, the stings have largely targeted people that are more aspirational than operational.

“A lot of the cases after 9/11 were manufactured or enormously exaggerated and were announced with great trumpets by the attorney general and the FBI director so that we felt that they were doing something when, in fact, what they were doing was not helpful, not relevant, not needed,” said Clarke.

While Assaad’s undercover work has been called invaluable by the government in making the U.S. safer and has resulted in successful stings of alleged terrorist cells across the country, defense attorneys call him a master of entrapment against what they consider harmless targets.

After a 2006 sting, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez praised Assaad who was still unnamed at the time  for disrupting a group preparing a violent attack, resulting in the indictments of seven men on terror charges.

FBI undercover video from the case, obtained by ABC News, shows Assaad leading seven young men from Miami’s inner city in a loyalty oath to Osama bin Laden, in which he persuaded them he had been sent by al Qaeda with tens of thousands of dollars to spend on them for weapons and training. The tape shows Assaad , who was working with the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force at the time, hugging his targets and welcoming them to al Qaeda.

Another video of a later meeting shows Assaad counting out $1000 for the leader of the Miami group.

After three trials, including two mistrials, five of the seven men were convicted.

Alleged Law Enforcement Entrapment

Defense lawyers including attorney Richard Houlihan, who represented Naudimar Herrera one of the two men who were found not guilty, called the case a classic example of law enforcement entrapment.

“Without [Assaad's] performance, none of this would have happened,” Houlihan told ABC News. “He’s dealing with seven basically inner-city kids from Liberty City. Poor, uneducated, looking for money.”

Herrera said he and the others played along with Assaad because of the financial incentives promised by him.

“He was like, “Oh your name here. You say your name here.” It was more like, it was more like a movie script,” Herrera told ABC News. He said that anyone “blind about greed” would be “vulnerable to [Assaad's] intelligence.”

Assaad said some tactics like suggesting targets, as he did in this case with FBI offices in Miami are necessary in undercover stings.

“Sometimes you have to see what he’s willing to do what’s he’s capable of doing,” says Assaad of suspected terrorists.

“When you are working undercover,” Assaad says, “your job is to lie.”

Megan Chuchmach contributed to this report.

Obama Extends Bush 9/11 National Emergency

NewsRoom | Sep 10, 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama has extended the state of emergency put in place by President George W. Bush following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue.

President Obama says consistent with this provision, he has sent a notice to the Federal Register stating that the emergency declared with respect to the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, is to continue for an additional year.

He said the terrorist threat that led to President Bush declaring a national emergency on September 14, 2001 continues, and for this reason it is necessary to continue the national emergency in effect after September 14, 2009.

“Consistent with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States,” the President said.

The National Emergencies Act of 1976 eliminated or modified some statutory grants of emergency authority and required the President to declare formally the existence of a national emergency and to specify what statutory authority, activated by the declaration, would be used. It also provided Congress a means to countermand the President’s declaration and the activated authority being sought.

In a paper prepared for Congress a specialist in American National Government, Harold C. Relyea, said Federal law provides a variety of powers for the President to use in response to crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances threatening the nation.

Mr Relyea said when the President formally declares a national emergency, he may “seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United States citizens.”

However he says there are limits and restraints upon the President in his exercise of emergency powers.

“With the exception of the habeas corpus clause, the Constitution makes no allowance for the suspension of any of its provisions during a national emergency. Disputes over the constitutionality or legality of the exercise of emergency powers are judicially reviewable. Indeed, both the judiciary and Congress, as co-equal branches, can restrain the executive regarding emergency powers. So can public opinion,” he wrote.