Nine-one-one truth

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“Whoa people, look around you. The signs are everywhere.
You’ve left it for somebody other than you to be the ones’ to care!”.

Jackson Browne sings this in ROCK ME ON THE WATER. I named my son after him. And that is just what I thought of on September 11th. How could something like this, that terrible, happen in and to AMERICA? The fact is it did and for me, I was enduring my own personal sadness as well. What I was experiencing personally was devastating enough, but for a national/world wide event seemingly only comparable to JFK’s assassination or the Challenger shuttle loss to coincide with it, well it was almost too much to deal with. I’ve often joked that had I read the brochure on this planet before I dropped in, I probably would have passed it by. On 9/11, I really did feel like moving on. I mean I felt the kind of irony and despair one should not have to feel. Thankfully, spontaneous recovery was still available and I survive to rationalize (give hope?) all that has transpired. Now… I relate my personal loss of that day/week with Robert W. Service’ DANGEROUS DAN MACGREW saying “ You felt that your life had been looted clean of all that it once held dear…..that your guts were gone and the best for you was to crawl away and die!”. On a national scale, I likened it to John Prine singing, “Christ I’m so mixed up and lonely, I can’t even make friends with my brain. I’m too young to be where I’m going and too old to go back again”.

Our new national DAY OF INFAMY was a terrorist attack in country. Something we were warned of, yet simultaneously told would not happen. This is in light of at least three separate Congressional studies that have warned of specific danger here at home. Terrorism is the only means available to those who believe they are completely shut out of the process. Any and all. Terrorism has historically had some outrageous roots and with strange bedfellows. In our very own American Revolution, our Minutemen sniped to death thousands of men Britain sent to preserve her Colonies! Israel had a military unit called the Irgun before it was politically expedient to be supported and recognized as a state. Northern Ireland has the IRA. Ironically, all had issue with Britain. Non-the-less how does one compare and contrast these groups as more acceptable than say Osama Bin Laden and the like? Get me right on this. American I am and grateful to be, by birth. I support Israel as a state and a unified “troubles” free Ireland. And I denounce violence (as opposed to force) at every level. (And these days brother, with road rage and those who speed up to the next red light, that’s not an easy proposition!) In the United States, our Founding Fathers (remember them? Those were the guys who lived the creed, “Our lives, Our fortunes and Our sacred honor” were smart enough to include a provision in the Constitution about freedom of speech, assembly etc…so that when our system excluded one or more unjustly, they would have an avenue of redress of grievance called PROTEST. Not that all Americans live within these parameters, but the rest of the world does not have the guarantee.

I grew up in a time that great hope fought the good fight against big despair. As a child I played in the same snow that JFK gave his Inaugural speech in. Remember “Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike…” and “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!”. As kids, when we skipped school, we went downtown (Washington D.C., my birth place also. Thank you.) and looked at the monuments and I can’t tell how many times I stood in front of THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE and THE CONSTITUTION and read them. I can tell you that I signed a copy once or twice when it was passed around in class!
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Hey! It will happen if it can. Anyway, I took this democratic heritage seriously (for granted?) and was proud and I thought, patriotic. As in, my freedom ends where your safety (not comfort) begins and “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to my death, your right to say it!”. Protest does not exclude whatever zealotry (either antagonistic or patriotic) might bellow. The Supreme Court defines the limiting concept as a “clear and present danger” and likened it to yelling fire in a movie theater. It does exclude urging and supporting violence. On June 10th 1963, JFK gave a televised address at American University on the first missile Test Ban Treaty. In it he said, “We all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s futures’ and …we are all mortal!”. Maturing in this era gave us a first hand experience of the heritage of our continual struggle toward a more perfect democracy. Not only did we survive the Cuban Missile Crisis, but we prevailed for the better part, in other areas like Civil Rights (remember the Freedom Riders?) and gender rights etc…

I trust you see what I am getting at. Many of us bought into the great concept of freedom as a right and not a privilege. Most of us did not understand it should be a participatory democracy, not just representative and that the concept of relentless vigilance should accompany our views and efforts to preserve and protect it from erosion. That same view often equates patriotism with citizenship. In my world, patriotism is an earned badge of honor. Citizenship is a responsibility and an obligation. If all of this sounds kind of high falootin’, it shouldn’t. It’s really a combination of 9th grade Civics, 10th grade Literature and 12th grade English Composition. The only reason I write on it is because I don’t hear or read anywhere else these basic tenets of which our society is built upon. Why not?
Hell, I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t even have all of the questions! Last night President Bush spoke in Atlanta and said something to the effect that the other countries of the world perceive Americans to be self indulgent, consumption minded, acquisition oriented and short on attention to details of their government. He then said that is not true. Well, you be the judge. But when is the last time you heard an American President tell you what you needed to hear rather than what you wanted to hear? I would have preferred to hear him say that America is the world’s truest test of democracy yet and it is pass or fail at that. More so, that our success is so important to our planet that the future of freedom and liberty hang in its balance. Furthermore, I would say we should have been told that on September 11th, our government institutions once again failed us and that we are all responsible. Ultimately, if we are to prevent anymore or worse, of the cruel and terrible realities of that day from re-occurring, it will take a united national consciousness. That’s what I would like to hear from those in so important a position.

Just what happened to a generation of people who were inspired by things like, “We go to the moon, we go the moon in this decade and we do the other things’! Not because they are easy, but because they are hard!”. Weren’t we sure back in the late sixties, we’ be on Mars by 2001 with a lunar base and World peace to boot? Hunger would be gone, the population explosion halted, fatal disease eliminated, equality in human rights and on and on and….Surely we are capable of such simplistic matters and concerns? Aren’t we? Capable, yes. Committed, no. The great hope was countered by the big despair- one of political assassinations, Vietnam, Watergate and Cold War. Tell ME that if JFK’s assassination had been investigated like Watergate, with open Senate hearings, our nation wouldn’t have been told the truth and we wouldn’t all be the better for it? Tell me if people understood Vietnam was a French colony exporting opium and the liberated France
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had asked us to help them regain their colony in the name of defeating communism we would have fought a war there?! Tell me about why a second coming of Richard Nixon was allowed with his “secret plan” to end the war in Vietnam? Revisionism isn’t. Reality is and it comes out only slowly and in bits and pieces. You might consider that what is suppose to be recorded history is not always the reality of the event(s) but more often the politically expedient crafted version of that period. Yeah, I know. If only we didn’t know now what we didn’t know then! How about one more that’s like? Free trade with China but none with Cuba! Who really is the big threat or is it…who has a legion of re-criminative exiles as constituents? Oh, does that sting or what? A lot of us recognize some of this and some of us know a lot of the above, but most all of us are not sure how to avoid more of the same, only worse. As a nation, our people have been side tracked by and inculcated in, the Big Lie and the requirement/desire/necessity (?) to acquire and consume. We have been finessed, cajoled, placated, seduced, bribed, appeased, manipulated, mollified…you name it…just to divert our attention from those things really important. Add drugs and booze then finagle and confuse! The consequences of our collective abdication from responsible vigilance are becoming an increasingly unpleasant and imminently dangerous legacy. Just understand that those who are dedicated to wrong have no compunction when it comes to full filling their agenda(s). Does the term helplessness come to mind? The arrogance of power and the ignorance of automation (what happened to HUMAN plan B?) are gradually eroding our individual confidence and making each and everyone of us feel less and less significant. Even though I dwell in the “land of the free and the home of the brave” and “all men (and women) are created equal!”, I sometimes have to remind myself as a U.S. citizen, I still am as important as the next person.
“If a nation thinks it can be both ignorant and free,
It never was and certainly never will be!” (Unk. maybe T.J.)

Of all of what I am discussing (my opinion), I am reminded of what an esteemed U.S. History professor at my alma mater, TESTUDO U. once told me back in the 70’s. He said that in his opinion, it was too late, at that juncture, to turn things around so we could guarantee the human race could succeed itself! Hey! I’m not Chicken Little but….this most advanced effort democracy has evolved to is being stulted. For those of you in the dumb down generation, it means we’re stalled and we can not afford to stall because that is precipitating the harbinger of complete failure!
This failure as I perceive it, is as fundamental as Frank Capra’s original anti-hero John Doe. Frank Capra made a number of fine films years ago, dealing with government, society and the human spirit. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE and MEET JOHN DOE were among his credits. JOHN DOE was the ole pegaroo as he was created in a last article by a laid off newspaper woman (Barbara Stanwyck). She claimed she received a letter signed John Doe, who was tired of civilizations’ inhumanity toward his fellow man. Consequently, he was going to protest the condition of society by jumping off the state building at midnight Christmas Eve! The reaction to the article was so favorable that it saved her job because the newspaper had to come up with a real John Doe to give speeches (save face?). Gary Cooper gives a high noon performance in gradually becoming the real McCoy. Well, the way I see it there are a lot of Americans who feel the same way. I mean if jumping off a building or a bridge were the simple answer to making things right, there would be long lines…because I still believe when it comes down to it, we really do love our country and cherish our freedom and our special place in the history of the world (herstory? Well whosever story it is…) and we would just like to know how to
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continue making it more of a success and preserve it for our posterity! We know enunciating this desire by singing the National Anthem or partying on Memorial Day or the 4th of July makes us feel good. But it just doesn’t achieve what we know is necessary. We still like the rattle of the saber, the sensation of the cavalry charge and the ubiquitous satisfaction of raising the Stars and Stripes. Because deep down inside, we remember our nation is suppose to be about peace and truth and justice and charity for all and this American experiment is the hope of the world. But it appears we are not only failing them, but ourselves as well. Miserably.

Does it have to be this way? Is it really inevitable? What can we do to turn it around? My answer is a return to the fundamentals of the foundation upon which our society is based. It has been said that in a democracy people generally get the kind of government they deserve. Suppose…Let’s just say what if?; What if we had laws about truth in advertising? What if we had federally limited and supplied campaign funds for all representation? What if we did not allow lobbyists to give any type of political contributions at all, accompanied with stiff penalty? What if we demanded more truth from our government? What if education was our main funding priority to every American and the Criminal Justice System was revamped to vastly eliminate recidivism and increase re-habilitation? And what if we established by mutual interest, the true test of patriotism as influencing people to view and review the actions of their representation in such ways as to make the like of such as directly responsible to these stated needs and desires as humanly possible? What if we established space exploration on a world wide scale of participation and recognized the economic benefits from such a collective venture? JOBS. What if,…..this is where you, if you are still reading, insert your own idea that would be of a positive national consequence. Yeah what if? Suppose vigilance and participation increased to the point where it was possible/plausible for God to bless America again? Dreams, right? Just what this country was built on!
“Tell me not in mournful numbers, life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead who slumbers and things are not as they seem!” LONGFELLOW

Quick quiz here: How many of you caught that I left out the PLO in the beginning? MmmHmmm!
Well, I also believe the Palestinians have a right to a homeland. But I can’t put down everything I think. This is, after all, about terrorism and what we all should perhaps think- or at least consider in the overall scheme of things. Obviously, terrorism and violence must be met with force and dispatched quickly. But as history has taught, when you create a vacuum or void, you must be careful to fill it or that which the effort you are trying to rid, will reappear in aberration and worse. The world community must consider the why’s and needs of the issue that manifested the original monster and find acceptable resolution for all concerned. I raised my kids on the concept that if one looks long enough you can find at least one acceptable solution to any and all problems. Patience, diligence, persistence, knowledge of the issue and genuine concern are temporal ingredients necessary in this formula; but they do work. Anything less than a shared responsibility that leads to inclusion in the process which precipitated the violence, will fall short.

My expounding on what I term fundamental civic virtues must end but I am going to address three different levels for closing. The first influence would be for those who would be in government. I quote from H. Frank Wright from his book entitled LIBERTY IN THE BALANCE; “The exercise of liberty does not require that all of the participants be gentlemen. It does however, require that
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each participant recognize his adversary as a man. Liberty entitles one to hold a position firmly and feverently in the face of prevailing opinion. It does not entitle one to become a political gladiator. Liberty cannot survive in an arena of hate. It can only survive where the actions of man are broadened by the horizons of humanity.”
The second level would be an appeal to our national consciousness, individually as well as a whole and addressing adversity in the same sentence as social responsibility. The quote is purposefully left un-credited. “To be courageous…requires no exceptional qualifications, no magic formula, no special combination of time, place and circumstance. It is an opportunity sooner or later that is presented to us all…In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces, if he follows his conscience-the loss of friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men-each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. Stories of past courage can define the ingredient…but they cannot supply courage (read heart) itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.”
The third level is on a more personal note. At the end of MEET JOHN DOE, John Doe has been exposed for the true fake he is. By now, he has come to embrace the concerns initially attributed to him and finds himself on the building top Christmas Eve. It turns out that his genuineness has been convincing enough for the bad guys and some of the good people to still believe he will be there anyway! Stopping him at the very last is the female protagonist (in a convoluted way). She tells him she loves him and that he has come to embody all of what she wrote and then pleads with him that, “If its worth dying for, then it’s worth living for!”. I think this concept goes right to the heart of the matter here and with all. If it is worth dying-suicide, terrorism or martyrdom etc.-then why can’t it be worth living for? Life is a struggle. “Photographs, show the laughs recorded in between the bad times, happy sailors dancing on a sinking ship…” More John Prine. We’ve come too far and spent so much of the human blood and flesh and spirit to surrender at a point where we can see success possible. Think how many of our ancestors toiled and struggled, not to mention fought and suffered and were tortured and died for us, their children, grandchildren, great grand….ad infinitum. Not to mention the fact most probably never traveled five miles further than their birth place, never drank Coca-cola, never had a Big Mac, or had indoor plumbing or air conditioning or drove their own (a) car or smoked or had a cold beer, or, or… any of the luxuries or common materials that are part of our daily life, which we take for granted. Who are we that we could feel comfortable in abdicating from the responsibility to guarantee the continuation of which all who have come before have us bequeathed to us, with their last full and final measure? Myself? I cannot imagine humankind, especially we Americans, presiding over this dreaded decline/demise and remain quiet and inactive. I believe it is time for the dedicated right to influence the needed effort. Can we afford to go quietly… considering the alternative? Yeah, you answer me that one or if you can’t or you won’t, maybe I should say, “See you at the bridge!”. For now though…
“Let us now be up and doing,
with a heart for any fate.
Still achieving, still pursuing,
learn to labor and to wait.” LONGFELLOW
I remain just another brother,
JOHN DOE
PROPRIO VIGORE QUIDAM

NATIONAL POLITICAL HISTORY: US CAMPAIGNS

NATIONAL POLITICAL HISTORY: US CAMPAIGNS

nine-one-one truth

411 ON 911
Since I wrote 911 so much has happened to include heightened fear, prejudice and a very deliberate and contrived diminishment of our Constitution’s Bill of Rights. First and foremost in my mind is the continual obfuscating nomenclature of that day as nine eleven and its terribly tragic events. The day should be referred to as Nine-One-One as in dialing for emergency help. To anyone, even from the “dumb down generation” and those who haven’t figured out television stations co-ordinate their commercials to be simultaneously shown in order to retain their audience, it should be abundantly clear that September 11th was specifically chosen as the day to inflict this harm on our homeland, as an incisive derisive mocking statement. Yet the media and government use “nine eleven” rather than the correct and meaningful nine-one-one intended reference. Why? Since this new day of “national infamy”, we’ve had much discussion on who, what, when and why. We’ve had a woman named Ann Coulter write a condemning book attacking “the Jersey Girls”, widows of the twin tower hits, chastising their efforts to have a more objective and inquisitive ( read integral) investigation of all the events before, during and after 9-1-1. Thomas Jefferson said, “Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error”. Yet this Colter woman chastises these widows as only being selfish, indulgent, publicity seekers stirring up sad memories. As a point woman for the dedicated wrong, one might think she could have been a bit more considerate, compassionate and commiserative toward these ladies and respect for their effort. Anyone who has read their book or having seen their interviews, see beyond a shadow of a doubt they indeed are, the genuine article, trying to use our system of checks and balances (what’s left of it, that is) in seeking the deserved justice, still not achieved. Whatever Colter’s purpose is, it proves there must be much left unexposed, for her to libel, slander and mudsling to the degree she has viciously anointed the “JERSEY GIRLS” with in an effort to refocus and debunk.
As with any national event, there are always nuts and kooks coming out of the wood work to give disinformation or gain fortune and fame with their latest crazy version of what really did transpire. They are lumped together as “conspiratorialists”. There are though, credible and responsible books, articles and web sites which give reason to our worst fears of government collusion, if not cover over. Just put it in the context that if a President of the United States can be gunned down on an open public street with a Disney World fairy tale, called the WARREN REPORT as the official explanation and is still accepted (taught in school) and let stand for forty-four years with no valid disclosure, it is unfortunately, not such a stretch.
I have had problems with the credibility of President Bush long before 911. In 2,000, after a strong showing by Senator John McCain in the New Hampshire Primary, George Bush had to handily win the South Carolina primary to position himself for the Super Tuesday of primaries just weeks away. Instead of going straight to South Carolina, Bush’s handlers regrouped with him in Crawford, Texas and re-invented, so
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to speak, their candidate, with just having him practice reading and delivery from almost invariably the same short speech, with the suggested nuances and emphasis and told him they would have a constant group of your supporters sitting down front to his right. After each declarative quasi-patriotic sentence, a prompt would be issued and wild delirious cheering would be exhibited, as if spontaneous. Watch the videos and see after each pre-arranged point, he’d look down at his “fan club” and give that smirk/smile as in the little boy who has just pleased his mother and teacher. Positive reinforcement with brief select worded spiels gave him a new political life and shielded him from the “gotcha questions”. Not to mention the dirty tricks his handlers pulled on the Honorable Senator John McCain. Then the Republicans, in his governor brother Jeb’s state, stole the 2,000 election fair and square, with a little Supreme Court improper and illegal opinion. Speaking of JEB!, had he won the Florida Governorship in 1994, preventing “Walkin” Lawton Chiles (he walked across the state to earn his political shoes, no pun intended) from being elected to a second term, JEB! would have been 2,000’s front runner. As slow as #43 (kegboy) is on the uptake, brother Jeb is fast and formidable. He is also bi-lingual in Spanish and has proven himself many times over, especially during the hurricanes. While during gubernatorial media info’s, Jeb has insisted the networks give him extra time to relay the same directives in Spanish! He is also adamant about being a non-candidate in 2008! Who’s kidding who?
Fast forward to a Sarasota elementary classroom and Press Secretary Andrew Card coming in, while President #43 is attentively listening to children reading MY PET GOAT and telling him that yet a second plane had hit the other Twin Tower and watch Bush #43’s face for seven (7) long minutes. It shows he has no clue what to do sitting frozen (watch him in Fahrenheit 911) until a staffer comes in to yank him. What other real U.S. President in our brief history have witnessed such obvious bellicose acts and have shown demonstrated such non-response to obvious ongoing terrorist action of the highest degree??? My first question after the failure to even allude to nine-one-one, is that if these terrorists were so intent on maximum damage effect, then why not wait until the hours of 11A.M. to 2 P.M. when the Towers would be full to their complement of workers and an additional three to five thousand tourists? Thank God they didn’t, but why did they not?
Among the questions and/or inconsistencies associated with responsible criticism of the Official Versions of the 911 Commission Report are the tracking of Flight 93 when it turned in the radar shadow of another jet liner, is the contention it followed it in its radar swath and landed in Cleveland on a parallel runway. The pit in Shanksville, Pa. where Flight 93 allegedly crashed after heroic efforts to deter its terrorist mission, was so obliterated, no items of particular (suitcases, briefcases parts of the wreckage etc..) were said to be found and the coroner quit searching for body parts when he could not after an hour, even find traces of blood! One engine was found some two miles from the pit, suggesting maybe the courageous passengers were successful and since there could not be any contradictive witnesses, Flight 93 was indeed, shot down. The absence of any identifying parts, luggage and/or human effects etc… save the “black
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boxes”, in such a crash debris field is, incredible. At the Pentagon (five sides), a five ring stone and steel re-enforced building, for some odd reason, there exist very few odd reason there exist very few eye witnesses claiming to have seen a 767 jet airliner come out of the blue at a height of 20 to 30 feet and crash into its side. The explosion left a much smaller gap than theoretically should have been wrought. I would be irresponsible if I agreed with the conclusions of some of the skeptics who claim a missile hit it, but I do know a jet airliner of such capacity cannot fly that low to the ground for long before inertia and gravity stalls it out and the only available video clip of the strike shows a projectile hitting the Pentagon wall almost perpendicular to the ground and in an area that was under redecoration. The tape recorders, giving constant view of the area, were pulled by the FBI almost immediately after the event and have been suppressed. With the Twin Towers, a number of hierarchy of Fire Officials and ex-military security people all witnessed sharp brief glows of light (read explosions) at corners of the buildings just prior to both collapses. In a rather persuasive argument, made by a number of knowledgeable people, all claim towers of such solid structure should collapsed and neither of them would have had the tendency to implode symmetrically and fall down so efficiently upon their self. We had explosive riggers here in St. Petersburg who discussed in depth the techniques they would use to destroy (implode) an old eight (8) story hotel upon it self without damaging anything near by. But yet we witnessed perfect implosions on two heavily constructed buildings because the heat from aviation jet fuel melted random steel frames. Experts in this field agree the plane fuel could not reach the heat degree necessary for the collapse. These assertions/questions here are viably responsible, yet none were properly addressed in 911 Commission Hearings. Try reading THE SECOND PEARL HARBOR.
Then there is the alarming reality that FBI Special Agent Harry Samit arrested Zacarias Massaoui 26 days before the attacks yet the investigation of all his background activity from flight school training (flying, not takeoff and landing and absent a real pilot’s license) on a Boeing 747 simulator and other spurious activity, was summarily dismissed at some level of hierarchy and the agent was stymied in his effort to search Massaoui,s belongings and lap top computer. A request to put an Arab speaking ringer in a cell next to his to try and glean information on his unrealistic activity was denied. He was to be the 20th hijacker on 911. The absence of these questions are reminiscent of the Warren Commission’s failure to identify who was responsible for changing JFK’s motorcade route the morning of the 22ND so it would run through Dealy Plaza with its slow turns, making for a perfect ambush forum. The Dallas newspaper had published the motorcade route that very morning, with the path avoiding any such non protocol turns going straight to the under pass to the Stemmons Freeway to his Trade Mart speech! Read people, there is so much more inconclusiveness and unanswered questions, more so, those unasked! Oh yeah, and what about the people told not to report that day in the Pentagon, Armed Forces, New York Port Authority and Security. I don’t have the space to enumerate all. You look it up. I will say, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the well known “Gonzo” political author (“Hells Angels, A Strange and Terrible Saga”, “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” and Fear and Loathing On The
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Campaign trail, 1972” are among his many books) and was reputedly, the only man to ever ride with both Hells Angels and Richard Nixon, expressed his opinion that our BUSH #43 government caused or allowed 911 to happen. He used the lawyer axiom of “qui bono” to justify his doubt. From a man with such an astute and experienced knowledge of our government, in and out, I have no doubt in respecting his view and seeking commensurate fact.
To understand how the mid east and Moslem fanatics play such a large role, I believe one must understand Iran as a key. First, Iranians are not Arabs nor are they Arabian in any sense. They are a Shiite Moslem based religious country. PERSIA is the original name and the Persians/Iranians have maintained a sovereign, integral border with the same indigenous people, for over twenty-five hundred years. Alexander the Great, during his eastward conquest campaign, chose not to destroy Baghdad and Persia and particularly its ever growing Library and Archives of antiquity. The Persian poet, Omar Khayam, may ring a bell with his famed Rhubyat, of some 80 verses. One of my more favored is, “The moving finger writes and having writ, moves on. Nor all your piety or wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it”. In 1941, with WW ll ongoing, at the age of twenty one, Mohaamad Reza Shah Pahlavi took over the Peacock Throne from his deceased father. Strong ties with the United States Military Industrial Intelligence Community aided him in preserving power, particularly over Prime ministers of its Parliament and Moslem fundamentalist religious clerics. The U.S. helped the “Shah” (king) organize a dreaded secret police called the Savak. In fear for his life, the main cleric player, Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shiite fundamentalist with a large following, left Iran in 1951, for exile in France. In 1967, Shah Pahlavi declared himself Emperor.
I served in the United States Naval Air in the late ‘60’s to early ‘70’s attached to a jetfighter squadron called VF-84 (the Jolly Rogers) which flew F-4J Phantoms. At sea, we were attached to the aircraft carrier U.S.S. FDR and I made two Mediterranean cruises, which proved to be a vast learning experience. The year after I got out, the Air Force and Navy Air switched its main fighter jet to the new F-14 Tomcat. In 1974, the U.S. sold the Shah, 80 of these state of the art fighters (Air Force version), along with its sophisticated armament and advisers to train their air force in all its features. This made Iran (our proxy in that region) the pre-imminent power in the mid east along with its much despised neighbor, the democracy of Israel which becoming a state, displaced the Palestinians, creating refugees. If the powers that be had preserved land for them, I believe peace could have prevailed. Iran also happens to be one of the top three oil rich producing countries on the earth. I believe Gerald Ford (the only man never elected to serve as either Vice president or President of our United States) was in Office agreeing to the sale. Oh yeah, he was one of the seven members of the infamous Warren Commission! AND by the way, the price of oil in 1973 was $2.59 a barrel. In 1974, it jumped to $10.95 and the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC or cartel!) now was realizing over $100 billion a year in American dollars! Supposedly, the jump was from an oil (OPEC) embargo in the fall of1973. By 1980, a barrel of crude sold for
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only $30 and Iran was the only mid-east country with a blossoming industrial base to build on. The other countries could only invest in real estate etc…(read U.S. interests) or bank deposit profits. In 2005 -2006, a barrel of crude fluctuated between $70 and $75. As of this writing (1/14/08) a barrel of crude has passed $100 a barrel!
As a returned vet, I worked as a mailman and went to college at night, until I could afford to finish out my degree at the University of Maryland, in my hometown of College Park, Maryland. My first semester there was January of 1975. In March of 1975, Geraldo Rivera, hosting a late night show called Good Night America, showed for the first time, the one known film of John Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, November 22, 1963.The film was made by a dressmaker named Abraham Zapruder, from the so-called “grassy knoll”and the original had been held in the National Archives by officialdom on the premise of preserving the dignity of the Kennedy family. Obviously, it showed just the opposite of what the Warren Commission had maintained of there being a lone gun man shooting the president from the rear. From the beginning, as a 15 year old kid, I had many questions about the report which bothered me as unanswered or nasked. It was then that I came upon a book called WHITEWASH by one Harold Weisberg, at the off campus book store. He had to publish it with his own funds and sold on consignment, because, in his own words, “no publisher would dare print the truth”! The book was critical of the Report and every sentence had a documented footnote, mostly from the twenty six volumes of evidence, documents and testimony upon which the Report was based. Even more credible was the responsibility it used in not theorizing, but comparing and contrasting the finding with the body of evidence. He had published two more books on the Warren Report and one on the investigation of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination by this time. The showing of the film caused such an uproar (read cause of the moment) that I called Mr. Weisberg, who fortunately lived just seventy miles north in Frederick, Md., and I asked him to come speak at the Campus, not having any plan A or idea how I would accomplish such a feat. But Harold said yes and asked me to visit him to go over details. A week later and much preparation (read perspiration and anxiety), I drove to his home to discuss the details. On April 14, 1975 Harold spoke to an overflow crowd of 2,000 and as a result of the interest, a group of us started a petition drive to have Congress hold open hearings on just the Investigation. There were several Resolutions of such, in the House of Representatives, at the time. One was by The Honorable Thomas Downing of Virginia and the other House member was Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, who by the way, had ridden in the motorcade that fateful day in Dallas. Our Congresswoman, the late Gladys Spellman from our Fifth District agreed, after some urging, to join as a co-signer of the Resolutions and enter mention of our 7,000 plus, petition signatures in the Congressional Record. She did ask me if I could provide some type of substantiation to justify her entry. I gave her a document Harold had just recently received under a Freedom of Information Act request. It was notes of the Warren Commission and counsel, in executive session (verbatim) on January 22, 1964 (this was before them reviewing any documents, evidence or the hearing of any testimony) discussing explicitly, that there was to be no real investigation and they
-6-
were to rubber stamp the FBI’s version of Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone and unassisted, in accomplishing the murder. Read it for yourself in The Congressional Record of May 14, 1975 on page E2442 in the Extension of Remarks. This all ties together that May, when my long time friend Dan and I went to Georgetown University in NW Washington D.C. to visit our contact, Jenifer, representing a group of interested students there. We parked on “N” street and walked a block to the Administration Building entrance. The campus had an old wrought iron fence and gate surrounding the area, probably for ambience. As we approached, we could hear vehement chants of a marching demonstration on the out sidewalk, of maybe a thousand people. They had brown bags over their heads and slits cut to see through. Some were painted various colors. They were protesting the Shah of Iran and his Savak’s atrocious acts on his own citizens. They obviously were afraid to reveal themselves, to prevent harm to them and their relatives back home. This made me realize that there were indeed thousands of students in the U.S. on visas attending some of the most prestigious Universities in America, paid for by their oil rich families. This was apparently true of all the oil wealthy mid east countries. Engaging in conversation, I began to learn they believed the U.S. Government had controlling interests in these nations and did not wish to see democracy take root. These people loved our society 411 ON 911
Since I wrote 911 so much has happened to include heightened fear, prejudice and a very deliberate and contrived diminishment of our Constitution’s Bill of Rights. First and foremost in my mind is the continual obfuscating nomenclature of that day as nine eleven and its terribly tragic events. The day should be referred to as Nine-One-One as in dialing for emergency help. To anyone, even from the “dumb down generation” and those who haven’t figured out television stations co-ordinate their commercials to be simultaneously shown in order to retain their audience, it should be abundantly clear that September 11th was specifically chosen as the day to inflict this harm on our homeland, as an incisive derisive mocking statement. Yet the media and government use “nine eleven” rather than the correct and meaningful nine-one-one intended reference. Why? Since this new day of “national infamy”, we’ve had much discussion on who, what, when and why. We’ve had a woman named Ann Coulter write a condemning book attacking “the Jersey Girls”, widows of the twin tower hits, chastising their efforts to have a more objective and inquisitive ( read integral) investigation of all the events before, during and after 9-1-1. Thomas Jefferson said, “Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error”. Yet this Colter woman chastises these widows as only being selfish, indulgent, publicity seekers stirring up sad memories. As a point woman for the dedicated wrong, one might think she could have been a bit more considerate, compassionate and commiserative toward these ladies and respect for their effort. Anyone who has read their book or having seen their interviews, see beyond a shadow of a doubt they indeed are, the genuine article, trying to use our system of checks and balances (what’s left of it, that is) in seeking the deserved justice, still not achieved. Whatever Colter’s purpose is, it proves there must be much left unexposed, for her to libel, slander and mudsling to the degree she has viciously anointed the “JERSEY GIRLS” with in an effort to refocus and debunk.
As with any national event, there are always nuts and kooks coming out of the wood work to give disinformation or gain fortune and fame with their latest crazy version of what really did transpire. They are lumped together as “conspiratorialists”. There are though, credible and responsible books, articles and web sites which give reason to our worst fears of government collusion, if not cover over. Just put it in the context that if a President of the United States can be gunned down on an open public street with a Disney World fairy tale, called the WARREN REPORT as the official explanation and is still accepted (taught in school) and let stand for forty-four years with no valid disclosure, it is unfortunately, not such a stretch.
I have had problems with the credibility of President Bush long before 911. In 2,000, after a strong showing by Senator John McCain in the New Hampshire Primary, George Bush had to handily win the South Carolina primary to position himself for the Super Tuesday of primaries just weeks away. Instead of going straight to South Carolina, Bush’s handlers regrouped with him in Crawford, Texas and re-invented, so
-2-
to speak, their candidate, with just having him practice reading and delivery from almost invariably the same short speech, with the suggested nuances and emphasis and told him they would have a constant group of your supporters sitting down front to his right. After each declarative quasi-patriotic sentence, a prompt would be issued and wild delirious cheering would be exhibited, as if spontaneous. Watch the videos and see after each pre-arranged point, he’d look down at his “fan club” and give that smirk/smile as in the little boy who has just pleased his mother and teacher. Positive reinforcement with brief select worded spiels gave him a new political life and shielded him from the “gotcha questions”. Not to mention the dirty tricks his handlers pulled on the Honorable Senator John McCain. Then the Republicans, in his governor brother Jeb’s state, stole the 2,000 election fair and square, with a little Supreme Court improper and illegal opinion. Speaking of JEB!, had he won the Florida Governorship in 1994, preventing “Walkin” Lawton Chiles (he walked across the state to earn his political shoes, no pun intended) from being elected to a second term, JEB! would have been 2,000’s front runner. As slow as #43 (kegboy) is on the uptake, brother Jeb is fast and formidable. He is also bi-lingual in Spanish and has proven himself many times over, especially during the hurricanes. While during gubernatorial media info’s, Jeb has insisted the networks give him extra time to relay the same directives in Spanish! He is also adamant about being a non-candidate in 2008! Who’s kidding who?
Fast forward to a Sarasota elementary classroom and Press Secretary Andrew Card coming in, while President #43 is attentively listening to children reading MY PET GOAT and telling him that yet a second plane had hit the other Twin Tower and watch Bush #43’s face for seven (7) long minutes. It shows he has no clue what to do sitting frozen (watch him in Fahrenheit 911) until a staffer comes in to yank him. What other real U.S. President in our brief history have witnessed such obvious bellicose acts and have shown demonstrated such non-response to obvious ongoing terrorist action of the highest degree??? My first question after the failure to even allude to nine-one-one, is that if these terrorists were so intent on maximum damage effect, then why not wait until the hours of 11A.M. to 2 P.M. when the Towers would be full to their complement of workers and an additional three to five thousand tourists? Thank God they didn’t, but why did they not?
Among the questions and/or inconsistencies associated with responsible criticism of the Official Versions of the 911 Commission Report are the tracking of Flight 93 when it turned in the radar shadow of another jet liner, is the contention it followed it in its radar swath and landed in Cleveland on a parallel runway. The pit in Shanksville, Pa. where Flight 93 allegedly crashed after heroic efforts to deter its terrorist mission, was so obliterated, no items of particular (suitcases, briefcases parts of the wreckage etc..) were said to be found and the coroner quit searching for body parts when he could not after an hour, even find traces of blood! One engine was found some two miles from the pit, suggesting maybe the courageous passengers were successful and since there could not be any contradictive witnesses, Flight 93 was indeed, shot down. The absence of any identifying parts, luggage and/or human effects etc… save the “black
-3-
boxes”, in such a crash debris field is, incredible. At the Pentagon (five sides), a five ring stone and steel re-enforced building, for some odd reason, there exist very few odd reason there exist very few eye witnesses claiming to have seen a 767 jet airliner come out of the blue at a height of 20 to 30 feet and crash into its side. The explosion left a much smaller gap than theoretically should have been wrought. I would be irresponsible if I agreed with the conclusions of some of the skeptics who claim a missile hit it, but I do know a jet airliner of such capacity cannot fly that low to the ground for long before inertia and gravity stalls it out and the only available video clip of the strike shows a projectile hitting the Pentagon wall almost perpendicular to the ground and in an area that was under redecoration. The tape recorders, giving constant view of the area, were pulled by the FBI almost immediately after the event and have been suppressed. With the Twin Towers, a number of hierarchy of Fire Officials and ex-military security people all witnessed sharp brief glows of light (read explosions) at corners of the buildings just prior to both collapses. In a rather persuasive argument, made by a number of knowledgeable people, all claim towers of such solid structure should collapsed and neither of them would have had the tendency to implode symmetrically and fall down so efficiently upon their self. We had explosive riggers here in St. Petersburg who discussed in depth the techniques they would use to destroy (implode) an old eight (8) story hotel upon it self without damaging anything near by. But yet we witnessed perfect implosions on two heavily constructed buildings because the heat from aviation jet fuel melted random steel frames. Experts in this field agree the plane fuel could not reach the heat degree necessary for the collapse. These assertions/questions here are viably responsible, yet none were properly addressed in 911 Commission Hearings. Try reading THE SECOND PEARL HARBOR.
Then there is the alarming reality that FBI Special Agent Harry Samit arrested Zacarias Massaoui 26 days before the attacks yet the investigation of all his background activity from flight school training (flying, not takeoff and landing and absent a real pilot’s license) on a Boeing 747 simulator and other spurious activity, was summarily dismissed at some level of hierarchy and the agent was stymied in his effort to search Massaoui,s belongings and lap top computer. A request to put an Arab speaking ringer in a cell next to his to try and glean information on his unrealistic activity was denied. He was to be the 20th hijacker on 911. The absence of these questions are reminiscent of the Warren Commission’s failure to identify who was responsible for changing JFK’s motorcade route the morning of the 22ND so it would run through Dealy Plaza with its slow turns, making for a perfect ambush forum. The Dallas newspaper had published the motorcade route that very morning, with the path avoiding any such non protocol turns going straight to the under pass to the Stemmons Freeway to his Trade Mart speech! Read people, there is so much more inconclusiveness and unanswered questions, more so, those unasked! Oh yeah, and what about the people told not to report that day in the Pentagon, Armed Forces, New York Port Authority and Security. I don’t have the space to enumerate all. You look it up. I will say, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the well known “Gonzo” political author (“Hells Angels, A Strange and Terrible Saga”, “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” and Fear and Loathing On The
-4-
Campaign trail, 1972” are among his many books) and was reputedly, the only man to ever ride with both Hells Angels and Richard Nixon, expressed his opinion that our BUSH #43 government caused or allowed 911 to happen. He used the lawyer axiom of “qui bono” to justify his doubt. From a man with such an astute and experienced knowledge of our government, in and out, I have no doubt in respecting his view and seeking commensurate fact.
To understand how the mid east and Moslem fanatics play such a large role, I believe one must understand Iran as a key. First, Iranians are not Arabs nor are they Arabian in any sense. They are a Shiite Moslem based religious country. PERSIA is the original name and the Persians/Iranians have maintained a sovereign, integral border with the same indigenous people, for over twenty-five hundred years. Alexander the Great, during his eastward conquest campaign, chose not to destroy Baghdad and Persia and particularly its ever growing Library and Archives of antiquity. The Persian poet, Omar Khayam, may ring a bell with his famed Rhubyat, of some 80 verses. One of my more favored is, “The moving finger writes and having writ, moves on. Nor all your piety or wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it”. In 1941, with WW ll ongoing, at the age of twenty one, Mohaamad Reza Shah Pahlavi took over the Peacock Throne from his deceased father. Strong ties with the United States Military Industrial Intelligence Community aided him in preserving power, particularly over Prime ministers of its Parliament and Moslem fundamentalist religious clerics. The U.S. helped the “Shah” (king) organize a dreaded secret police called the Savak. In fear for his life, the main cleric player, Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shiite fundamentalist with a large following, left Iran in 1951, for exile in France. In 1967, Shah Pahlavi declared himself Emperor.
I served in the United States Naval Air in the late ‘60’s to early ‘70’s attached to a jetfighter squadron called VF-84 (the Jolly Rogers) which flew F-4J Phantoms. At sea, we were attached to the aircraft carrier U.S.S. FDR and I made two Mediterranean cruises, which proved to be a vast learning experience. The year after I got out, the Air Force and Navy Air switched its main fighter jet to the new F-14 Tomcat. In 1974, the U.S. sold the Shah, 80 of these state of the art fighters (Air Force version), along with its sophisticated armament and advisers to train their air force in all its features. This made Iran (our proxy in that region) the pre-imminent power in the mid east along with its much despised neighbor, the democracy of Israel which becoming a state, displaced the Palestinians, creating refugees. If the powers that be had preserved land for them, I believe peace could have prevailed. Iran also happens to be one of the top three oil rich producing countries on the earth. I believe Gerald Ford (the only man never elected to serve as either Vice president or President of our United States) was in Office agreeing to the sale. Oh yeah, he was one of the seven members of the infamous Warren Commission! AND by the way, the price of oil in 1973 was $2.59 a barrel. In 1974, it jumped to $10.95 and the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC or cartel!) now was realizing over $100 billion a year in American dollars! Supposedly, the jump was from an oil (OPEC) embargo in the fall of1973. By 1980, a barrel of crude sold for
-5-
only $30 and Iran was the only mid-east country with a blossoming industrial base to build on. The other countries could only invest in real estate etc…(read U.S. interests) or bank deposit profits. In 2005 -2006, a barrel of crude fluctuated between $70 and $75. As of this writing (1/14/08) a barrel of crude has passed $100 a barrel!
As a returned vet, I worked as a mailman and went to college at night, until I could afford to finish out my degree at the University of Maryland, in my hometown of College Park, Maryland. My first semester there was January of 1975. In March of 1975, Geraldo Rivera, hosting a late night show called Good Night America, showed for the first time, the one known film of John Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, November 22, 1963.The film was made by a dressmaker named Abraham Zapruder, from the so-called “grassy knoll”and the original had been held in the National Archives by officialdom on the premise of preserving the dignity of the Kennedy family. Obviously, it showed just the opposite of what the Warren Commission had maintained of there being a lone gun man shooting the president from the rear. From the beginning, as a 15 year old kid, I had many questions about the report which bothered me as unanswered or nasked. It was then that I came upon a book called WHITEWASH by one Harold Weisberg, at the off campus book store. He had to publish it with his own funds and sold on consignment, because, in his own words, “no publisher would dare print the truth”! The book was critical of the Report and every sentence had a documented footnote, mostly from the twenty six volumes of evidence, documents and testimony upon which the Report was based. Even more credible was the responsibility it used in not theorizing, but comparing and contrasting the finding with the body of evidence. He had published two more books on the Warren Report and one on the investigation of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination by this time. The showing of the film caused such an uproar (read cause of the moment) that I called Mr. Weisberg, who fortunately lived just seventy miles north in Frederick, Md., and I asked him to come speak at the Campus, not having any plan A or idea how I would accomplish such a feat. But Harold said yes and asked me to visit him to go over details. A week later and much preparation (read perspiration and anxiety), I drove to his home to discuss the details. On April 14, 1975 Harold spoke to an overflow crowd of 2,000 and as a result of the interest, a group of us started a petition drive to have Congress hold open hearings on just the Investigation. There were several Resolutions of such, in the House of Representatives, at the time. One was by The Honorable Thomas Downing of Virginia and the other House member was Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, who by the way, had ridden in the motorcade that fateful day in Dallas. Our Congresswoman, the late Gladys Spellman from our Fifth District agreed, after some urging, to join as a co-signer of the Resolutions and enter mention of our 7,000 plus, petition signatures in the Congressional Record. She did ask me if I could provide some type of substantiation to justify her entry. I gave her a document Harold had just recently received under a Freedom of Information Act request. It was notes of the Warren Commission and counsel, in executive session (verbatim) on January 22, 1964 (this was before them reviewing any documents, evidence or the hearing of any testimony) discussing explicitly, that there was to be no real investigation and they
-6-
were to rubber stamp the FBI’s version of Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone and unassisted, in accomplishing the murder. Read it for yourself in The Congressional Record of May 14, 1975 on page E2442 in the Extension of Remarks. This all ties together that May, when my long time friend Dan and I went to Georgetown University in NW Washington D.C. to visit our contact, Jenifer, representing a group of interested students there. We parked on “N” street and walked a block to the Administration Building entrance. The campus had an old wrought iron fence and gate surrounding the area, probably for ambience. As we approached, we could hear vehement chants of a marching demonstration on the out sidewalk, of maybe a thousand people. They had brown bags over their heads and slits cut to see through. Some were painted various colors. They were protesting the Shah of Iran and his Savak’s atrocious acts on his own citizens. They obviously were afraid to reveal themselves, to prevent harm to them and their relatives back home. This made me realize that there were indeed thousands of students in the U.S. on visas attending some of the most prestigious Universities in America, paid for by their oil rich families. This was apparently true of all the oil wealthy mid east countries. Engaging in conversation, I began to learn they believed the U.S. Government had controlling interests in these nations and did not wish to see democracy take root. These people loved our society 411 ON 911
Since I wrote 911 so much has happened to include heightened fear, prejudice and a very deliberate and contrived diminishment of our Constitution’s Bill of Rights. First and foremost in my mind is the continual obfuscating nomenclature of that day as nine eleven and its terribly tragic events. The day should be referred to as Nine-One-One as in dialing for emergency help. To anyone, even from the “dumb down generation” and those who haven’t figured out television stations co-ordinate their commercials to be simultaneously shown in order to retain their audience, it should be abundantly clear that September 11th was specifically chosen as the day to inflict this harm on our homeland, as an incisive derisive mocking statement. Yet the media and government use “nine eleven” rather than the correct and meaningful nine-one-one intended reference. Why? Since this new day of “national infamy”, we’ve had much discussion on who, what, when and why. We’ve had a woman named Ann Coulter write a condemning book attacking “the Jersey Girls”, widows of the twin tower hits, chastising their efforts to have a more objective and inquisitive ( read integral) investigation of all the events before, during and after 9-1-1. Thomas Jefferson said, “Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error”. Yet this Colter woman chastises these widows as only being selfish, indulgent, publicity seekers stirring up sad memories. As a point woman for the dedicated wrong, one might think she could have been a bit more considerate, compassionate and commiserative toward these ladies and respect for their effort. Anyone who has read their book or having seen their interviews, see beyond a shadow of a doubt they indeed are, the genuine article, trying to use our system of checks and balances (what’s left of it, that is) in seeking the deserved justice, still not achieved. Whatever Colter’s purpose is, it proves there must be much left unexposed, for her to libel, slander and mudsling to the degree she has viciously anointed the “JERSEY GIRLS” with in an effort to refocus and debunk.
As with any national event, there are always nuts and kooks coming out of the wood work to give disinformation or gain fortune and fame with their latest crazy version of what really did transpire. They are lumped together as “conspiratorialists”. There are though, credible and responsible books, articles and web sites which give reason to our worst fears of government collusion, if not cover over. Just put it in the context that if a President of the United States can be gunned down on an open public street with a Disney World fairy tale, called the WARREN REPORT as the official explanation and is still accepted (taught in school) and let stand for forty-four years with no valid disclosure, it is unfortunately, not such a stretch.
I have had problems with the credibility of President Bush long before 911. In 2,000, after a strong showing by Senator John McCain in the New Hampshire Primary, George Bush had to handily win the South Carolina primary to position himself for the Super Tuesday of primaries just weeks away. Instead of going straight to South Carolina, Bush’s handlers regrouped with him in Crawford, Texas and re-invented, so
-2-
to speak, their candidate, with just having him practice reading and delivery from almost invariably the same short speech, with the suggested nuances and emphasis and told him they would have a constant group of your supporters sitting down front to his right. After each declarative quasi-patriotic sentence, a prompt would be issued and wild delirious cheering would be exhibited, as if spontaneous. Watch the videos and see after each pre-arranged point, he’d look down at his “fan club” and give that smirk/smile as in the little boy who has just pleased his mother and teacher. Positive reinforcement with brief select worded spiels gave him a new political life and shielded him from the “gotcha questions”. Not to mention the dirty tricks his handlers pulled on the Honorable Senator John McCain. Then the Republicans, in his governor brother Jeb’s state, stole the 2,000 election fair and square, with a little Supreme Court improper and illegal opinion. Speaking of JEB!, had he won the Florida Governorship in 1994, preventing “Walkin” Lawton Chiles (he walked across the state to earn his political shoes, no pun intended) from being elected to a second term, JEB! would have been 2,000’s front runner. As slow as #43 (kegboy) is on the uptake, brother Jeb is fast and formidable. He is also bi-lingual in Spanish and has proven himself many times over, especially during the hurricanes. While during gubernatorial media info’s, Jeb has insisted the networks give him extra time to relay the same directives in Spanish! He is also adamant about being a non-candidate in 2008! Who’s kidding who?
Fast forward to a Sarasota elementary classroom and Press Secretary Andrew Card coming in, while President #43 is attentively listening to children reading MY PET GOAT and telling him that yet a second plane had hit the other Twin Tower and watch Bush #43’s face for seven (7) long minutes. It shows he has no clue what to do sitting frozen (watch him in Fahrenheit 911) until a staffer comes in to yank him. What other real U.S. President in our brief history have witnessed such obvious bellicose acts and have shown demonstrated such non-response to obvious ongoing terrorist action of the highest degree??? My first question after the failure to even allude to nine-one-one, is that if these terrorists were so intent on maximum damage effect, then why not wait until the hours of 11A.M. to 2 P.M. when the Towers would be full to their complement of workers and an additional three to five thousand tourists? Thank God they didn’t, but why did they not?
Among the questions and/or inconsistencies associated with responsible criticism of the Official Versions of the 911 Commission Report are the tracking of Flight 93 when it turned in the radar shadow of another jet liner, is the contention it followed it in its radar swath and landed in Cleveland on a parallel runway. The pit in Shanksville, Pa. where Flight 93 allegedly crashed after heroic efforts to deter its terrorist mission, was so obliterated, no items of particular (suitcases, briefcases parts of the wreckage etc..) were said to be found and the coroner quit searching for body parts when he could not after an hour, even find traces of blood! One engine was found some two miles from the pit, suggesting maybe the courageous passengers were successful and since there could not be any contradictive witnesses, Flight 93 was indeed, shot down. The absence of any identifying parts, luggage and/or human effects etc… save the “black
-3-
boxes”, in such a crash debris field is, incredible. At the Pentagon (five sides), a five ring stone and steel re-enforced building, for some odd reason, there exist very few odd reason there exist very few eye witnesses claiming to have seen a 767 jet airliner come out of the blue at a height of 20 to 30 feet and crash into its side. The explosion left a much smaller gap than theoretically should have been wrought. I would be irresponsible if I agreed with the conclusions of some of the skeptics who claim a missile hit it, but I do know a jet airliner of such capacity cannot fly that low to the ground for long before inertia and gravity stalls it out and the only available video clip of the strike shows a projectile hitting the Pentagon wall almost perpendicular to the ground and in an area that was under redecoration. The tape recorders, giving constant view of the area, were pulled by the FBI almost immediately after the event and have been suppressed. With the Twin Towers, a number of hierarchy of Fire Officials and ex-military security people all witnessed sharp brief glows of light (read explosions) at corners of the buildings just prior to both collapses. In a rather persuasive argument, made by a number of knowledgeable people, all claim towers of such solid structure should collapsed and neither of them would have had the tendency to implode symmetrically and fall down so efficiently upon their self. We had explosive riggers here in St. Petersburg who discussed in depth the techniques they would use to destroy (implode) an old eight (8) story hotel upon it self without damaging anything near by. But yet we witnessed perfect implosions on two heavily constructed buildings because the heat from aviation jet fuel melted random steel frames. Experts in this field agree the plane fuel could not reach the heat degree necessary for the collapse. These assertions/questions here are viably responsible, yet none were properly addressed in 911 Commission Hearings. Try reading THE SECOND PEARL HARBOR.
Then there is the alarming reality that FBI Special Agent Harry Samit arrested Zacarias Massaoui 26 days before the attacks yet the investigation of all his background activity from flight school training (flying, not takeoff and landing and absent a real pilot’s license) on a Boeing 747 simulator and other spurious activity, was summarily dismissed at some level of hierarchy and the agent was stymied in his effort to search Massaoui,s belongings and lap top computer. A request to put an Arab speaking ringer in a cell next to his to try and glean information on his unrealistic activity was denied. He was to be the 20th hijacker on 911. The absence of these questions are reminiscent of the Warren Commission’s failure to identify who was responsible for changing JFK’s motorcade route the morning of the 22ND so it would run through Dealy Plaza with its slow turns, making for a perfect ambush forum. The Dallas newspaper had published the motorcade route that very morning, with the path avoiding any such non protocol turns going straight to the under pass to the Stemmons Freeway to his Trade Mart speech! Read people, there is so much more inconclusiveness and unanswered questions, more so, those unasked! Oh yeah, and what about the people told not to report that day in the Pentagon, Armed Forces, New York Port Authority and Security. I don’t have the space to enumerate all. You look it up. I will say, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the well known “Gonzo” political author (“Hells Angels, A Strange and Terrible Saga”, “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” and Fear and Loathing On The
-4-
Campaign trail, 1972” are among his many books) and was reputedly, the only man to ever ride with both Hells Angels and Richard Nixon, expressed his opinion that our BUSH #43 government caused or allowed 911 to happen. He used the lawyer axiom of “qui bono” to justify his doubt. From a man with such an astute and experienced knowledge of our government, in and out, I have no doubt in respecting his view and seeking commensurate fact.
To understand how the mid east and Moslem fanatics play such a large role, I believe one must understand Iran as a key. First, Iranians are not Arabs nor are they Arabian in any sense. They are a Shiite Moslem based religious country. PERSIA is the original name and the Persians/Iranians have maintained a sovereign, integral border with the same indigenous people, for over twenty-five hundred years. Alexander the Great, during his eastward conquest campaign, chose not to destroy Baghdad and Persia and particularly its ever growing Library and Archives of antiquity. The Persian poet, Omar Khayam, may ring a bell with his famed Rhubyat, of some 80 verses. One of my more favored is, “The moving finger writes and having writ, moves on. Nor all your piety or wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it”. In 1941, with WW ll ongoing, at the age of twenty one, Mohaamad Reza Shah Pahlavi took over the Peacock Throne from his deceased father. Strong ties with the United States Military Industrial Intelligence Community aided him in preserving power, particularly over Prime ministers of its Parliament and Moslem fundamentalist religious clerics. The U.S. helped the “Shah” (king) organize a dreaded secret police called the Savak. In fear for his life, the main cleric player, Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shiite fundamentalist with a large following, left Iran in 1951, for exile in France. In 1967, Shah Pahlavi declared himself Emperor.
I served in the United States Naval Air in the late ‘60’s to early ‘70’s attached to a jetfighter squadron called VF-84 (the Jolly Rogers) which flew F-4J Phantoms. At sea, we were attached to the aircraft carrier U.S.S. FDR and I made two Mediterranean cruises, which proved to be a vast learning experience. The year after I got out, the Air Force and Navy Air switched its main fighter jet to the new F-14 Tomcat. In 1974, the U.S. sold the Shah, 80 of these state of the art fighters (Air Force version), along with its sophisticated armament and advisers to train their air force in all its features. This made Iran (our proxy in that region) the pre-imminent power in the mid east along with its much despised neighbor, the democracy of Israel which becoming a state, displaced the Palestinians, creating refugees. If the powers that be had preserved land for them, I believe peace could have prevailed. Iran also happens to be one of the top three oil rich producing countries on the earth. I believe Gerald Ford (the only man never elected to serve as either Vice president or President of our United States) was in Office agreeing to the sale. Oh yeah, he was one of the seven members of the infamous Warren Commission! AND by the way, the price of oil in 1973 was $2.59 a barrel. In 1974, it jumped to $10.95 and the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC or cartel!) now was realizing over $100 billion a year in American dollars! Supposedly, the jump was from an oil (OPEC) embargo in the fall of1973. By 1980, a barrel of crude sold for
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only $30 and Iran was the only mid-east country with a blossoming industrial base to build on. The other countries could only invest in real estate etc…(read U.S. interests) or bank deposit profits. In 2005 -2006, a barrel of crude fluctuated between $70 and $75. As of this writing (1/14/08) a barrel of crude has passed $100 a barrel!
As a returned vet, I worked as a mailman and went to college at night, until I could afford to finish out my degree at the University of Maryland, in my hometown of College Park, Maryland. My first semester there was January of 1975. In March of 1975, Geraldo Rivera, hosting a late night show called Good Night America, showed for the first time, the one known film of John Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, November 22, 1963.The film was made by a dressmaker named Abraham Zapruder, from the so-called “grassy knoll”and the original had been held in the National Archives by officialdom on the premise of preserving the dignity of the Kennedy family. Obviously, it showed just the opposite of what the Warren Commission had maintained of there being a lone gun man shooting the president from the rear. From the beginning, as a 15 year old kid, I had many questions about the report which bothered me as unanswered or nasked. It was then that I came upon a book called WHITEWASH by one Harold Weisberg, at the off campus book store. He had to publish it with his own funds and sold on consignment, because, in his own words, “no publisher would dare print the truth”! The book was critical of the Report and every sentence had a documented footnote, mostly from the twenty six volumes of evidence, documents and testimony upon which the Report was based. Even more credible was the responsibility it used in not theorizing, but comparing and contrasting the finding with the body of evidence. He had published two more books on the Warren Report and one on the investigation of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination by this time. The showing of the film caused such an uproar (read cause of the moment) that I called Mr. Weisberg, who fortunately lived just seventy miles north in Frederick, Md., and I asked him to come speak at the Campus, not having any plan A or idea how I would accomplish such a feat. But Harold said yes and asked me to visit him to go over details. A week later and much preparation (read perspiration and anxiety), I drove to his home to discuss the details. On April 14, 1975 Harold spoke to an overflow crowd of 2,000 and as a result of the interest, a group of us started a petition drive to have Congress hold open hearings on just the Investigation. There were several Resolutions of such, in the House of Representatives, at the time. One was by The Honorable Thomas Downing of Virginia and the other House member was Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, who by the way, had ridden in the motorcade that fateful day in Dallas. Our Congresswoman, the late Gladys Spellman from our Fifth District agreed, after some urging, to join as a co-signer of the Resolutions and enter mention of our 7,000 plus, petition signatures in the Congressional Record. She did ask me if I could provide some type of substantiation to justify her entry. I gave her a document Harold had just recently received under a Freedom of Information Act request. It was notes of the Warren Commission and counsel, in executive session (verbatim) on January 22, 1964 (this was before them reviewing any documents, evidence or the hearing of any testimony) discussing explicitly, that there was to be no real investigation and they
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were to rubber stamp the FBI’s version of Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone and unassisted, in accomplishing the murder. Read it for yourself in The Congressional Record of May 14, 1975 on page E2442 in the Extension of Remarks. This all ties together that May, when my long time friend Dan and I went to Georgetown University in NW Washington D.C. to visit our contact, Jenifer, representing a group of interested students there. We parked on “N” street and walked a block to the Administration Building entrance. The campus had an old wrought iron fence and gate surrounding the area, probably for ambience. As we approached, we could hear vehement chants of a marching demonstration on the out sidewalk, of maybe a thousand people. They had brown bags over their heads and slits cut to see through. Some were painted various colors. They were protesting the Shah of Iran and his Savak’s atrocious acts on his own citizens. They obviously were afraid to reveal themselves, to prevent harm to them and their relatives back home. This made me realize that there were indeed thousands of students in the U.S. on visas attending some of the most prestigious Universities in America, paid for by their oil rich families. This was apparently true of all the oil wealthy mid east countries. Engaging in conversation, I began to learn they believed the U.S. Government had controlling interests in these nations and did not wish to see democracy take root. These people loved our society