posted 04-06-2002 12:37 PM            

Who we are.

USA Spy Forsaken by US Governement

Lt Delmart Vreeland has been imprisoned for 16 months in Ontario, Canada. He allegedly is a US spy forsaken by his own government. He wrote a letter to warn of impending terrorist attacks of September 11th, in August of 2001. The letter he wrote has been entered into court documents. He is fighting extradition to the US for fear of assassination. He has sold everything he owns for his defense. This website is dedicated to raising money for Lt Vreeland's Defense Fund.

Vreeland in Safe House, All Canadian Charges Dropped, Temporary Refugee Status Granted

© Copyright 2002, From The Wilderness Publications, www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved. May be reposted or distributed for non-profit purposes only.

by

Michael C. Ruppert

March 15, 2002, 10:50 AM PST (FTW) -- Delmart “Mike” Vreeland is out of danger for the time being.

9-11 whistleblower Delmart “Mike” Vreeland, the US Navy officer who wrote a written warning of the 9-11 attacks, a month before they occurred, was released on bail yesterday after a hearing in Toronto Superior Court in which he was ordered to reside at a Toronto apartment leased by his mother. At the time the bail release order was issued, the address was made part of the public record and announced in open court, raising immediate fears that Vreeland, who has expressed fear for his safety, would become easy prey for would-be assassins. The same pattern was followed immediately before the public execution of drug smuggler and intelligence operative Barry Seal in 1986.

Late yesterday afternoon, FTW Publisher/Editor Mike Ruppert spoke by telephone with both Vreeland and his attorney, Paul Slansky, and learned that Canadian authorities had agreed, shortly after the court hearing, to allow Vreeland to change his approved residence location to an undisclosed address in the Toronto vicinity in order to ensure his safety.

FTW has also learned that all Canadian charges connected to Vreeland’s December 2000 arrest have been dropped and that Vreeland, who is seeking permanent political refugee status in Canada, has been granted temporary refugee status until February 2003, or until his extradition case has been resolved in Canadian courts. Vreeland, who has also served as an informant on organized crime investigations in the US, allegedly while working as a Naval intelligence officer, has stated in Canadian court proceedings that he fears immediate assassination if forced to return to the US because of his ability to prove US government foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks and because of continuing threats from Russian and American organized crime.

Canadian courts have continually refused to allow Vreeland or his attorneys to present mounting evidence validating his assertions -- in many cases corroborated by official records -- that he was a Naval lieutenant conducting secret intelligence operations for the US government in Russia just before his Canadian arrest on Michigan fraud charges in December 2000. Vreeland’s claims that a Canadian diplomat, Marc Bastien, was murdered in Moscow, originally denied by Canadian officials, have since proven true as a result of autopsy findings. The Canadian government has since acknowledged that Bastien was murdered.

posted 04-06-2002 01:02 PM            

Sunday, 23 September, 2001, 12:30 GMT 13:30

UK Hijack 'suspects' alive and well

Another of the men named by the FBI as a hijacker in the suicide attacks on Washington and New York has turned up alive and well. The identities of four of the 19 suspects accused of having carried out the attacks are now in doubt.

Saudi Arabian pilot Waleed Al Shehri was one of five men that the FBI said had deliberately crashed American Airlines flight 11 into the World Trade Centre on 11 September. His photograph was released, and has since appeared in newspapers and on television around the world.

Now he is protesting his innocence from Casablanca, Morocco. He told journalists there that he had nothing to do with the attacks on New York and Washington, and had been in Morocco when they happened. He has contacted both the Saudi and American authorities, according to Saudi press reports.

He acknowledges that he attended flight training school at Dayton Beach in the United States, and is indeed the same Waleed Al Shehri to whom the FBI has been referring. But, he says, he left the United States in September last year, became a pilot with Saudi Arabian airlines and is currently on a further training course in Morocco.

He says he is an engineer with Saudi Telecoms, and that he lost his passport while studying in Denver. Another man with exactly the same name surfaced on the pages of the English-language Arab News. The second Abdulaziz Al Omari is a pilot for Saudi Arabian Airlines, the report says. Meanwhile, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, a London-based Arabic daily, says it has interviewed Saeed Alghamdi.

He was listed by the FBI as a hijacker in the United flight that crashed in Pennsylvania. And there are suggestions that another suspect, Khalid Al Midhar, may also be alive.FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged on Thursday that the identity of several of the suicide hijackers is in doubt.

Hijacking suspects
Flight 175: Marwan Al-Shehhi, Fayez Ahmed, Mohald Alshehri, Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed Alghamdi

Flight 11: Waleed M Alshehri, Wail Alshehri, Mohamed Atta, Abdulaziz Alomari and Satam Al Suqami

Flight 77: Khalid Al-Midhar, Majed Moqed, Nawaq Alhamzi, Salem Alhamzi and Hani Hanjour

posted 05-09-2002 07:42 PM            

FBI ignored appeal to probe suspicious pilot training before Sept 11

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation largely ignored an appeal from one of its field offices to investigate suspicious pilot training by Middle Eastern men weeks before the September 11 attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged.

The damaging admission came as the beleaguered agency scrambled to fight back allegations that it might have missed telltale signs of the coming tragedy.
"That was received at headquarters," Mueller said of the appeal as he testified Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It was not acted on by September 11."

The episode became the focus of congressional scrutiny over the weekend, when FBI officials acknowledged that two months before the attacks an FBI office in the US state of Arizona tried and failed to organize a nationwide probe of suspicious foreign students attending US flight schools.
Some of the 19 Islamist militants blamed for the attack with four hijacked airliners studied flying in the United States.

According to an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity, on July 2001, the bureau's office in Phoenix sent a memorandum to Washington informing it that a suspicious number of "people of interest" were enrolled in various aspects of civil aviation and pilot training in Arizona.

"FBI headquarters should discuss this matter with other elements of the US intelligence community and ask the community for any information than supports Phoenix's suspicion," said the memo.

The federal agents in Phoenix wanted their bosses in the capital to compile a nationwide list of flight schools and instruct local FBI offices to closely monitor them.

They also asked headquarters to seek from the State Department visa information on some of the foreign students coming to the United States to study flying.

Mueller said the FBI should have paid more attention to the document. But he made clear the agency could not have thwarted the terrorist operation, even if it had.

"I should say in passing that even if we had followed those suggestions at that time, it would not, given what we know since September 11, have enabled us to prevent the attacks of September 11," argued the FBI director.

He said plans for the assault on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon building here had been hatched overseas, beginning at least five years ago, in strictest confidence.

"In our investigation, we have not yet uncovered a single piece of paper -- either here in the US or in the treasure trove of information that has turned up in Afghanistan and elsewhere -- that mentioned any aspect of the September 11 plot," Mueller said.

None of the suspects identified in the Phoenix memorandum were connected to the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon building here, according to FBI officials.

But that did not deter committee chairman Patrick Leahy from pouring scorn on the bureau and other law enforcement agencies, which, in his view, might be abusing the contention that "the conspirators were too clever to have been caught."

posted 05-10-2002 02:39 PM            

Jackie Alan Giuliano writes in the Lycos website that two key figures have resigned from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the last month. Both officials, the chief investigator for the EPA's Ombudsman Office and the Ombudsman himself, stated in their resignation letters that the EPA has covered up the existence of deadly pollution in the area of the destroyed World Trade Center towers in New York.

At a New York public hearing in February, Hugh Kaufman, then chief investigator for the EPA's Ombudsman Office, told a group of scientists, residents, and small business owners that he believed the EPA was deliberately not testing the air quality in the World Trade Center area properly and covering up the reasons why. "I believe EPA did not do that because they knew it would come up not safe and so they are involved in providing knowingly false information to the public about safety," Kaufman says.

While the EPA continues to claim that the air around the site is safe, rescue workers, cleanup crews, and residents are reporting respiratory problems. Many believe something in the air from the collapse of the towers is making them sick.

U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, whose district includes the site, said at a public meeting he called at the Federal Courthouse in Lower Manhattan, "It's remarkable. Either they have something to hide or they don't give a damn." In November, 2001, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman issued an order to dissolve the ombudsman's position, an office created to give the public a forum for complaints about the agency’s actions.

When the Congressional order that established the office expired last fall, she decided not to ask for renewal. Many workers from FEMA, New York Fire Fighters and Urban Search and Rescue teams wore no protective masks. Many day laborers, including large numbers of immigrants who speak little or no English, were hired to clean up buildings covered with toxic dust.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has gathered data about the pollution levels at the site. The Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS), a scientific instrument designed to view the site in many different wavelengths, was flown on an aircraft by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA over the World Trade Center area on September 16, 18, 22, and 23, 2001. A two person crew from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected samples of dusts and debris from more than 35 localities within a distance of one kilometer from the World Trade Center site on the evenings of September 17 and 18, 2001.

The data showed elevated levels of asbestos and many other pollutants, including the heavy metals, aluminum, chromium, antimony, molybdenum, and barium. Government officials have tried to downplay the asbestos threat by claiming that it’s mostly chrysotile asbestos, a form considered to be less carcinogenic than other forms. The USGS document describing the results of their tests states that such a claim, “has not been universally accepted by the scientific community.”

Charisse Jones writes in USA Today that in the neighborhoods around the World Trade Center site, residents are still concerned about toxins such as lead, PCBs and asbestos that the terrorist attacks may have left behind.

Many recovery workers, residents and students downtown have complained of tightness in their chests, bloody noses, sinus infections and other respiratory ailments. Roughly one in four firefighters who have been working at Ground Zero have what some are calling "World Trade Center cough" or another respiratory complaint, fire department officials say. About 750 have had to take medical leave, according to the firefighters' union.

Tests of eight Port Authority employees working at Ground Zero showed elevated levels of mercury in their blood. Later tests found that the mercury levels of six workers returned to normal after they were reassigned.

The interiors of at least a few buildings, however, are coated with enough asbestos to be subject to EPA rules for asbestos cleanup. A private scientific firm hired by elected officials found high asbestos levels in dust at two apartment buildings near Ground Zero. EPA rules require that any dust or debris containing more than 1% asbestos be handled according to special rules. Many of these toxins can have serious effects. Asbestos can cause cancer. PCBs from electronic components and benzene from burning jet fuel are also carcinogens. Dioxins, particulates released in a fire, can be carcinogenic and cause reproductive problems. Long-term exposure to lead can cause neurological damage. And PBDEs — a flame retardant often found in computers, foam padding and plastics — act like PCBs and could also be present.

"Because there was absolutely no oversight on the city's part, we don't know what lurks in people's apartments or businesses," says Madelyn Wils, chairwoman of the local community's advisory committee. Wils lives six blocks from the World Trade Center and suffered a sore throat, laryngitis and a sinus infection for a few months after the attacks. "If you washed your walls and didn't clean your drapes, could you have asbestos on your drapes?" she asks. "If you didn't get rid of your children's toys, and they have stuffed animals, could they have asbestos? Probably."

The EPA claims the outdoor air downtown poses no long- term health risks. "Based on our findings, and now really more than 10,000 samples of a wide range of substances, we have found no significant long-term risk posed by the outdoor air," says EPA spokeswoman. Many ailments can be attributed to the pulverized concrete and fiberglass that filled the air after the twin towers collapsed, as well as the fires that burned at Ground Zero until late December, medical experts say.

Though some of the substances unleashed by the disaster are known to be long-term health hazards, "for the most part, people didn't get a high enough or long enough exposure for long-term concerns," says Paul Lioy, associate director of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. "But there's enough anecdotal information out there that some good solid studies need to be done to confirm or deny the effects being observed." Any potential risk to WTC toxins depends on the level of exposure and for how long. A worker caught in the first toxic plume on Sept. 11 might develop different health problems than a resident who was away but returned days later to an apartment coated with dust. Scientists are trying to figure out these different health risks. http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=1492

EPA to Clean WTC Apartments
NewsMax Wires
Thursday, May 9, 2002

NEW YORK -- After saying for eight months that there was no significant health risk from the dust from the collapsed World Trade Center, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it will clean the dust from apartments in Lower Manhattan.

"We are pleased that the EPA has decided to accept responsibility for the protection of residents of Lower Manhattan," said Joel Shufro, executive director of The New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), a coalition of unions and health professionals. "This is not only a step in the right direction, it is a reversal of EPA's policy."

During the 34 weeks that have passed since the attack on the World Trade Center, workers, residents and students in Lower Manhattan have been exposed to dust that is contaminated with asbestos, fiberglass, lead, highly alkaline concrete dust, and many other toxic substances, according to NYCOSH.

By the end of May, the EPA will have a hot line available for those who live in the estimated 15,000 potentially contaminated apartments in Lower Manhattan, to request testing and professional cleaning.
"This is to assuage concerns from residents in Lower Manhattan who continue to have concerns over air in their apartments," said Mary Mears, spokeswoman for Region II of the EPA.

"The plan -- covering Manhattan residential units south of Canal Street and the Manhattan Bridge approach, river to river -- was developed by the multiagency Task Force on Indoor Air in Lower Manhattan created by EPA Administrator Christie Whitman."

Asbestos Detected
Asbestos had been found in some of the dust and debris samples taken from Lower Manhattan.

"Most of the air samples taken have been below levels of concern and based on the asbestos test results received thus far, there are no significant health risks to occupants in the affected area or to the general public," the EPA had said last fall.

The dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center was largely composed of particles of glass fibers, gypsum, concrete, paper and other building materials so it's not surprising that the pH level was high or that high levels of glass fibers were found, according to Geoff Plumlee, a research geochemist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver.

"Most of the U.S.G.S. samples had a pH of 9.5 to 10.5, two taken inside a high-rise apartment and in a gymnasium across from the World Trade Center had a pH of 11.8 to 12.1 -- equivalent to that of liquid drain cleaner," said Plumlee.

"It is a shame that these measures were not taken at a time when they could have prevented the heavy exposure to the toxic dust that covered lowered Manhattan," said Shufro.

EPA Denied Authority
"For nearly 8 months, the EPA has denied that it has authority to protect people from exposure to toxic substances indoors," said Shufro. "Now the EPA is taking responsibility for protecting Lower Manhattan residents -- an action which it could have taken months ago."

If asbestos is found in an apartment, workers would have to use abatement measures such as wearing moon suits and respirators. The EPA said it didn't know how many people would request the professional cleaning or how much the cleaning effort would cost. Four private contractors will be assigned the work and paid by the federal government. No timetable for the cleanup was provided by the EPA.
No cap has been set on the funding for this effort, provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mears said.

"It's better late than never, it's a big step in the right direction but many problems remain and there are many details that have to be worked out," Sudhir Jain, of the Lower Manhattan Tenants Coalition, told UPI. "Schools, businesses and common areas have not been addressed, and there needs to be some type of oversight function."

The New York City Health Department advised tenants to clean apartments themselves using a wet rag or wet mop, but many tenants who attempted to do became ill.

Getting Sick While Cleaning
"When we cleaned our apartments, we'd get sick, and then we couldn't continue cleaning," Indira Singh, a Pearl Street resident, told UPI.
According to Shufro, the EPA plan should include the appointment of an independent advisory committee, with the authority to intervene if government agencies are not acting to protect public health, including representatives of tenants, workers, students and elected officials.

posted 05-15-2002 10:18 PM            

Subject: A very important radio program this

Wednesday!Former Naval Intelligence Officer Delmart "Mike" Vreeland talks about how he warned of impending terrorist attacks a month before 9-11.

On February 25, 2002, Bonnie Faulkner and I presented a 46 minute excerpt of Michael C. Ruppert's lecture: The Truth and Lies of 9-11 on Guns & Butter: The Economics of Politics and got a huge response (i.e. over $17K in pledges) from the KPFA audience.

GNB is not currently on the schedule, but we are pleased that our colleagues Wendell Harper and Amanda Elliott of "What's the Verdict?" are continuing our coverage of the 9-11 foreknowledge story.

On Wednesday, May 15th, "What's the Verdict?" will feature Delmart "Mike" Vreeland, the former Naval Lieutenant who tried to warn American and Canadian officials of an impending attack. One of his attorneys, Rocco Galati, will also be present to discuss court records in Vreeland's case. (Vreeland now has temporary refugee status in Canada and is fighting extradition to the U.S, where he believes he will be assassinated.)

Media critic Norman Solomon, who has branded Vreeland's warning note "an ambiguous mish-mash" will be given an opportunity to confront Vreeland (who will be on the phone from Canada).

You may see a copy of the note at http://www.rise4news.net/Vreeland.jpg

Other updates to the story are at http://www.rise4news.net/9-11.html and at Mike Ruppert's "From the Wilderness" web site at http://www.copvcia.com

That's this Wednesday, May 15th What's the Verdict? at 7 pm Pacific, on 94.1 FM or on www.kpfa.org. Webcasting also on www.kpfx.org.

Please tell your friends!
If you would like a "Pledge-breaks-deleted version" of this program for later broadcast on your station, please let me know. This is vital information that has to get out!

Thanks.
Kellia Ramares

9/11: Think the U.S. gov't might have had foreknowledge?
Go to: http://www.rise4news.net/9-11.html

posted 05-15-2002 10:27 PM            

Public Reaction to Rep. McKinney’s Call for 9-11 Investigation Quashes Intended Media Massacre

by Michael Davidson, FTW Staff Writer

May 6, 2002, 12:00 PM PDT (FTW) -- It's not a good idea to go up against the powers that be with an idea that calls into question generally accepted wisdom. Galileo contradicted the Roman Catholic Church when he said the Earth revolved around the sun. He was put in jail, and it took a few hundred years for the church to exonerate him and admit he was correct.

Hopefully, a fate similar to Galileo's will not befall Cynthia McKinney.

McKinney is the representative from the 4th district of Georgia. The district includes Decatur, just outside Atlanta. McKinney is a Democrat, black, and, obviously, a woman. Three strikes in an area that has sent the likes of Newt Gingrich and Bob Barr to Congress.

On March 25 McKinney was interviewed by telephone on Flashpoints, an independent radio program produced and hosted by Dennis Bernstein and broadcast on Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. The congresswoman read a roughly 10-minute statement, then answered questions and chatted with Bernstein for another 16 or so minutes. A major portion of McKinney's statement concerned U.S. actions in Africa, and contained stinging attacks of the Clinton administration, particularly former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She also discussed the high incarceration rate of blacks, their treatment by the police, and the actual mechanics of the massive voter fraud in Florida that benefited George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential election. Rep. McKinney also pointed out how the current administration has created a climate in which elected officials need to censor themselves lest their patriotism be questioned. Only a few sentences in the almost 30-minute segment were her comments about the need for an investigation into what the Bush Administration knew prior to the events of 9-11.

Two-and-a-half weeks later on April 12, an article appeared in the Washington Post about McKinney's appearance on Flashpoints. The article was written by Juliet Eilperin, a Post staff writer who says a colleague received the show's transcript in an anonymous e-mail, and passed it along to her. Eilperin's article was headlined, "Democrat Implies Sept. 11 Administration Plot."

What McKinney actually said was the American people deserve a full, complete and no-holds-barred investigation of the events involving 9-11, and what the Bush administration knew and when they knew it. Every single question McKinney raised was based on information readily available from mainstream media sources. Among the issues McKinney raised regarding 9-11 were:

- The warnings from several foreign governments to the highest levels of the U.S. government that were ignored;

- The huge profits made in sophisticated stock transactions involving several airlines, brokerages and insurance firms whose stock prices were affected dramatically by 9-11;

- The relationship between the oil company Unocal and the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan;

- The relationship between the administration and the Carlyle Group, an investment firm with major defense holdings for whom the president's father works;

- The requests by both the president and vice president that any congressional investigations into 9-11 not be particularly intense or lengthy;

- The huge profits persons close to the administration will make thanks to increased defense spending.

Let the games begin

Almost immediately after the Washington Post article, the administration, the mainstream media and its pundits shifted into overdrive, floored the pedal, and wound the smear engine right to the redline. Interestingly, no one has challenged the accuracy of a single word McKinney said. What has been said, in a variety of ways, is that her call for a complete investigation is an indication that McKinney is either "crazy" or "treacherous."

In the original Washington Post article, Bush spokesman Scott McLellan was quoted as saying “The American people know the facts, and they dismiss such ludicrous, baseless views." Carlyle Group spokesman Chris Ullman posed the question "Did she say these things while standing on a grassy knoll in Roswell, New Mexico?"

That same day, April 12, "Representative Awful” was posted on National Review Online by Jonah Goldberg, son of Lucianne Goldberg -- literary agent, Linda Tripp crony, and former Nixon dirty trickster. National Review was founded by William F. Buckley, whose family fortune was made in the oil business. Goldberg dismissed McKinney's suggestion for an investigation, saying "I am not aware of any evidence that Ms. McKinney has murdered several children or that she personally profited from sleeping with the entire defensive squad of the Atlanta Falcons." He then goes on to say that the congresswoman is suffering "paranoid, America-hating, crypto-Marxist conspiratorial delusions."

Anyone who remembers the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings will remember Anita Hill was described as "a little bit nutty, a little bit slutty." Apparently, Goldberg has learned some big words to repeat the easy smear used against any black woman to the left of Condoleezza Rice. Keep in mind that in an Oct. 29 attack piece on McKinney Goldberg wrote, "Taking black politicians seriously pays them a compliment."

Next, McKinney's hometown newspaper took up the charge. An April 13 Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) article by staff writer Melanie Eversley reported that Democratic Georgia Sen. Zell Miller issued a "bristling" statement saying her on-air comments were "dangerous and irresponsible." Not being content to dismiss the legitimate, American ideas of dissent and question, Miller made a sarcastic comment about McKinney attempting to get kissed by President Bush. Bush's press secretary, Ari Fleischer, is quoted: "All I can tell you is the congresswoman must be running for the hall of fame of the Grassy Knoll Society." Interesting that the "grassy knoll" allusion was made twice by people connected to the administration, yet they will not dispute her facts.

The AJC article also quotes Emory University political scientist Merle Black: "It reinforces the view among serious people in her district that she's a very ineffective representative if this is how she chooses to spend her political capital." Apparently there are very few "serious" people Black will be able to "reinforce" with his totally "unscientific" opinion, as McKinney has won five elections in a row, with her lowest margin of victory being 58 percent.

Along with Eversley's article, AJC put up a poll on its website asking the question, "Are you satisfied the Bush administration had no advance warning of the Sept. 11 attacks?" A visitor could vote "Yes," "No, I think officials knew it was coming" or "I'm not sure. Congress should investigate."

Big mistake

Within hours, the "No, I think officials knew it was coming" vote led the "Yes" vote 51 percent to 47 percent, with two percent "Not sure." The ultra-conservative website FreeRepublic.com alerted its viewers and encouraged them to vote against McKinney, to no avail. The vote seesawed back and forth across the 50 percent mark, each side holding a slim lead at various points throughout the day. By mid-afternoon 23,145 people had voted. "Yes" (anti-McKinney) had 52 percent, "No" (pro-McKinney) had 46 percent, and "Not sure" had one percent. Forty-seven percent of voters do not believe the story the world has been told by the Bush Administration.

Then, the poll vanished. Gone. Disappeared. Not there. People signed on to vote, but there was no poll to vote at. The article was there, but the poll was gone. There was no explanation.

On April 21, AJC columnist Mike King explained what happened. "The responses broke down the tabulator we use to keep track of the votes." So can we assume, then, when Mr. King gets a flat tire he throws the entire car away and abandons his trip?

King goes on at great length to inform the reader that even if the poll had not been taken down due to "mechanical problems," the poll was meaningless anyway because "groups and people who believe there is evidence of a conspiracy in the attacks urged friends to vote on ajc.com to send Congress a message of the need to investigate." This undoubtedly occurred, as did urging from the other side which King makes no mention of. He also says that voters were not "scientifically" chosen to represent a broad cross-section of views and that "most online polls are really just opportunities to register an opinion." How registering an opinion differs from a vote will be left for Noah Webster to explain.

Another online poll has been running regarding McKinney's call for a thorough investigation. This one is at truthout.com, an online digest of articles being published in the mainstream media. While truthout readers are undoubtedly more open to McKinney's ideas than the general public, at press time, the poll shows 5,616 supporting the congresswoman versus 80 opposing her. Truthout also reports McKinney's call for a 9-11 investigation is supported by two additional members of the House -- Democrats Loretta Sanchez of California and Major Owens of New York.

Interestingly, while truthout is a non-profit organization entirely dependent on donations, it has had no problems keeping its poll functioning, while the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a major for-profit entity, claims they could not.

WHERE ARE THE CLOWNS?

With the AJC poll having turned into a debacle, the forces arrayed against McKinney became desperate, and the smear became vicious. On April 16, the Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) released a report claiming 21 percent of McKinney's 1999-2000 campaign contributions of over $101 came from Arab or Middle-Eastern-connected individuals and organizations. The report states among the organizations donating to McKinney's campaign are "the American-Muslim Council and the Council on American/Islamic Relations, both of which maintain ties or have expressed support for terrorist organizations."

Phil Kent, SLF president, is quoted in the report: "If we are to give any credence to her baseless claims, the American people deserve to know that McKinney's financial 'relationships' -- her campaign contributors -- are heavily represented by Arab and Middle Eastern-connected individuals, as well as organizations which have expressed sympathy for terrorist organizations." Here we have examples of how McKinney's call for an investigation morphs into "claims," and how an investigation into her is acceptable, while one into the Bush Administration is not. The SLF report flew around the Internet, and was posted on several conservative websites. It was generally headlined to the effect, "McKinney Supported by Terrorists."

SLF was founded in 1976 and has received major financial support from Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire reactionary who funded the 10-year effort to destroy President Bill Clinton. In 2000 the Democratic National Committee accused the SLF of sending a quarter-million deceptive pieces of mail designed to interfere with that year's census and result in inaccurate congressional representation. In issue after issue during its 26 years, SLF has consistently taken vehement anti-black, anti-environment, anti-worker, anti-gay, and anti-public education positions. They are currently preparing litigation to invalidate portions of the Bush-signed McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan campaign reform legislation. Some in the Atlanta area believe SLF's long-range goal is overturning the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

SLF describes itself as "an Atlanta-based public interest law firm which advocates limited government, individual economic freedom, and the free enterprise system in the courts of law and public opinion.” SLF's website includes links to other reactionary groups including the Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute, Federalist Society, and the Conservative Caucus Foundation. Along with links to expected conservative media outlets such as WorldNetDaily, Drudge, and the Conservative News Service, SLF links itself to Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Matthew Glavin was SLF president and chief executive from 1994 to 2000, and devoted a tremendous amount of energy, and Scaife's money, trying to get Bill Clinton disbarred in Arkansas for his alleged perjury in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Glavin, however, was forced to abandon these efforts, and resign after he was arrested for fondling himself in public. According to an Oct. 4, 2000 report on CNSNEWS.com, an affiliate of the above-mentioned Conservative News Service, an undercover federal officer found Glavin masturbating near a parking lot in the Chattahoochee National River Park in Atlanta, an area said to be popular with homosexual cruisers. The arresting officer says that he, himself, was fondled lewdly when he spoke to Glavin on Oct. 13, 2000. The AJC reported Glavin had pled guilty and was sentenced to a year's probation.

On April 22 SLF sent a letter to House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt demanding McKinney be removed from her seats on both the House Armed Services and International Relations committees, citing the above-mentioned campaign donations from Middle Eastern contributors. That same day, an identical request using virtually identical language was made by the African-American Republican Leadership Council (AARLC). Like SLF, AARLC also requested an ethics investigation of McKinney. Additionally, AARLC has also asked the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Eddie Bernie Johnson, D-Texas, to suspend McKinney from that group. This is a transparent ploy to intimidate and divide black members of Congress, lest their patriotism be questioned.

Also on April 22, an article was posted on the website of Human Events, the National Conservative Weekly. Written by David Freddoso, it's headlined "Feds Searched Offices of Seven McKinney Donors." Many Arab names are listed as well as several organizations, some of which have names with Arab or Islamic references. Going into excruciating detail, Freddoso lists names of individuals, organizations, dollar amounts, dates of search warrants, judges signing search warrants (interestingly, copies of search warrants were allegedly obtained by Human Events), and the connections between all these details. Then, Freddoso writes, "None of the McKinney contributors has been charged with any crime, a Customs spokesman said." Apparently, Freddoso finds not being charged with a crime to be news.

HYSTERICAL BLINDNESS

Britain’s The Guardian reported March 25 on a recent FBI raid. The Republican Party was accepting sizeable donations to a political action committee called The Islamic Institute from an alleged terrorist support group, the Safa Trust. It seems that the Safa Trust had been sending money to both the Republican Party and to terrorist groups at the same time. This reported direct linkage between terrorist funding and the Republican Party was conveniently ignored, while McKinney was attacked with much weaker allegations. These backfired too.

SLF's report, AARLC's letter, and Freddoso's article all specifically discuss donations to McKinney from Abdurahman Alamoudi, founder and executive director of the American Muslim Council (AMC). According to an April 24 article at onlinejournal.com, AMC supported George W. Bush in the 2000 campaign and donated money to him. Bush also invited Alamoudi to the Sept. 14 prayer service for the 9-11 victims at the National Cathedral. Additionally, long-time Bush associate Grover Norquist has been doing business with Alamoudi, and is a registered lobbyist for the Islamic Institute. According to the Oct. 4 issue of the Boston Phoenix, Norquist's firm, Janus-Merritt Strategies LLC, has been paid over $20,000 by Alamoudi.

Despite Alamoudi's Republican connections, his donation to McKinney is used as the "smoking gun" in the April 22 column by nationally syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker. Parker has been one of the most prolific members of the "get McKinney" team, jumping into the smear campaign with all four paws. Parker wrote about McKinney's radio comments on April 17 and 22. She's very upset. In the April 17 column, Parker dreams of inaugurating "The McKinney Award -- for people too stupid to serve in public office." Further on, Parker, like everyone participating in the smear campaign, claims that McKinney said Bush knew of the impending 9-11 attacks, and accused the president of mass murder. She also picks up Jonah Goldberg's pathetic attempt at sarcasm, writing "A complete investigation also might prove that McKinney has been dropping acid and living with cross-dressing dental hygienists under the Brooklyn Bridge." What is it about outspoken black women that makes right-wing nut jobs attribute unusual sexual behavior to them?

In her April 22 column, Parker reiterates her lie as to what McKinney actually said. She goes on: "She's black, which means people give her a pass lest they be perceived racist." Parker quotes an unnamed "e-mailer" who quotes a friend in Ramallah: "If you see 'Cynth,' kindly tell her that Arab TV networks appreciate her comments for they now have the needed 'proof' that their paranoia is rational." Parker closes: "None of which is to suggest that Cynthia McKinney is a terrorist, or a terrorist sympathizer, or even a socialist rabble-rouser who despises her own country. On the other hand, using McKinney's own talent for inferential dot-connecting, she just might be."

Despite finding nice ways to call McKinney a terrorist and traitor, Parker strenuously defends her independence and complete lack of bias. In her April 24 column, which is about so-called "conspiracy theories," Parker wrote, "I'm told, for instance, that I'm paid by the right-wing propaganda machine, given my support of most Bush policies in the wake of 9-11 and my rejection of current conspiracy theories.’You're being paid to lie to the American people,' wrote one of my new friends. Here's the truth: I know of no reporter, editor or columnist in the Western hemisphere who wouldn't sell his mother's honeymoon pictures for a good story, no matter whose life gets ruined. No one, especially a president, is off limits when truth is at stake, not to mention Pulitzers." Perhaps Parker found a new dedication to Truth after writing two consecutive columns filled with lies, innuendo and character assassination.

The story about McKinney's comments on the Flashpoints radio show traveled around the media for about 12 days, then just petered out. Several newspapers ran editorials condemning her, including the AJC and the New York Post. Comments and asides were made about her on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Generally, she was described as crazy, pro-Iraqi, a conspiracy theorist, irresponsible or dangerous, but it didn't seem to work. The public wasn't responding with the sense of outrage the media is used to being able to create.

On April 17 ABCNews.com ran a piece by Dean Schabner headed, "What Consensus? Conspiracy Theorist Immune to the Widespread Support For War on Terror." First line: "When the government said evidence pointed to Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, other voices wondered why investigators weren't looking in other directions." The article, about three pages, lays out many of the beliefs that, apparently, a lot of people have, and discusses them in a calm, measured manner. While Schabner does eventually get around to dismissing everything but the official story as "conspiracy theories," his words and the words of the "experts" he quotes don't have the wild-eyed hatred and anger that the stories about McKinney generally do. Schabner comes close to giving the "non-believers" a degree of respect.

TRUE GRIT

The acceptability of alternate explanations for 9-11 may be growing for a very simple reason. According to a poll taken in late-April by Scott Rasmussen Public Opinion Research, 36 percent of Americans believe Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election. Over a third of America's citizens believe the man occupying the White House to be a fraud! With such a large portion of the country believing George W. Bush is not really the president, it's not hard to understand why almost half of the voters in the AJC poll indicated they do not believe the Bush Administration's story about 9-11, and support McKinney's call for a full investigation.

posted 05-16-2002 08:59 AM            

Armed pilots banned
2 months before 9-11
FAA rescinded rule allowing guns in cockpits just before terror attacks

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: May 16, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jon Dougherty
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

A 40-year-old Federal Aviation Administration rule that allowed commercial airline pilots to be armed was inexplicably rescinded two months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, leading aviation security experts to lay at least some of the blame for the tragedy at the feet of airlines, none of which took advantage of the privilege while it was in effect.

The FAA adopted the armed pilot rule shortly after the Cuban missile crisis of 1961 to help prevent hijackings of American airliners. It remained in effect for four decades.

But in July 2001 – just two months prior to the Sept. 11 attacks – the rule was rescinded.

According to FAA officials, the rule required airlines to apply to the agency for their pilots to carry guns in cockpits and for the airlines to put pilots through an agency-approved firearms training course.

The aviation agency said, however, that throughout the life of the rule not a single U.S. air carrier took advantage of it, effectively rendering it "moot," according to one agency official.

"In the past, FAA regulations permitted pilots to carry firearms in the cockpit provided they completed an FAA-approved training program and were trained properly by the airlines," FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto told WND in a voice-mail message. "That was never put into effect because no requests for those training programs were ever made. …"

Takemoto said the newly created Transportation Security Administration is now responsible for deciding whether pilots can be armed. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act signed into law by President Bush Nov. 19, 2001, has a provision allowing pilots to be armed, but the law does not mandate that the right be granted.

The FAA failed to return numerous follow-up phone calls requesting to know why the rule was rescinded, who was responsible for the decision, whether a particular incident spurred the decision and whether the aviation agency believes the airlines share some culpability for never taking advantage of it in the first place.

Some security experts speculate that had airlines taken advantage of the rule, it likely would not have been rescinded by the FAA. And if it had been implemented by the airlines, they say, the Sept. 11 hijackings – which led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. – may never have occurred.

"It's hard to say," said Capt. Robert Lambert, a commercial airline pilot and founding board member of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance. But in lieu of the attacks, he said he can't understand why airlines still refuse to support arming their pilots.

"We're convinced there was a myriad of reasons why the airlines refused to allow pilots to be armed" before the attacks, said Lambert. He said the airlines were likely concerned about liability issues, but "of course, they have a lot of liabilities after Sept. 11, too," he added.

"For airlines not to trust us [with a gun in the cockpit] is totally ludicrous," he said.

Other pilot advocacy groups have said arming pilots as a "last line of defense" against terrorist hijackings is a better option – even if some innocent passengers are inadvertently harmed – than having Air Force fighters blow entire airliners out of the sky, assuredly killing all aboard.

Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the TSA, said his agency wasn't aware of the FAA's former rule. But when asked if it could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks, he refused to speculate, saying, "I won't go there."

Melendez also refused to say when or whether the agency would sanction arming pilots. "That will be announced in due time," he told WND.

Airlines mum

None of the airlines WND attempted to contact for this story returned inquiries asking whether they believed they shared some culpability for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Bill Mellon, a spokesman for Northwest Airlines, initially responded but, after repeatedly declining to answer pointed questions as to why his company never applied for the FAA program, referred further inquiries to an airline industry group.

"Those are industry questions," he told WorldNetDaily in an e-mail response, "not Northwest Airline questions," referring the newssite to the Air Transport Association, or ATA, the industry's primary trade group.

But the ATA, along with America West, American Airlines and United Airlines, also failed to respond to numerous requests for comment.

APSA's Lambert said the ATA, which purports to speak for the entire airline industry, has "historically been against arming pilots," a position he said was "hard to understand."

According to published statements, the ATA said it has traditionally supported "more federal air marshals" instead.

Congressional help?

Some lawmakers are working to implement new legislation that would require federal officials to "deputize" airline pilots and allow them to be armed.

The House Transportation Committee is considering H.R. 4635, called the "Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act," which would make volunteer pilots Federal Flight Deck Officers, according to a published summary.

The bill would mandate – not simply ask – the "Under Secretary of Transportation for Security to … deputize qualified volunteer pilots as federal law enforcement officers to defend the cockpits of commercial aircraft in flight against acts of criminal violence or air piracy."

The program would go into effect 90 days after it is signed into law, and would be implemented in conjunction with the federal air marshal program.

The head of the Center for the Study of Crime, Randall N. Herrst – an attorney by trade who said his arguments have been used successfully in anti-gun control cases – disagrees with the government's intention of placing sky marshals on each flight. He says arming pilots would be a better, more cost-effective and faster plan to implement.

"At 35,000 flights a day, even if some marshals can cover two round trips per day on short routes, we will still need 90,000 sky marshals if we want at least two on each flight," taking into account days off, vacations and sick days, he said.

He agreed that "there are no guarantees" armed pilots would have prevented the Sept. 11 hijackings. But he added: "That is the only course of action that could have stopped the attacks."

Herrst said arming pilots would amount to a military principle known as "defense in depth."

"If you have a choice," he says, "you never depend on a single line of defense – you always have a second, third and fourth line as well."

He is also suspicious that despite Sept. 11, lawmakers, bureaucrats and the White House are still dragging their feet over arming pilots.

"The reasons must be purely political," he told WND. "[But] if there is another major round of hijackings, it will probably bankrupt the entire U.S. airline industry."

"People are so obsessed with banning guns that they are willing to sacrifice human lives and a huge portion of our economy to political correctness," he added.

Related stories:

20,000 pilots demand firearms in cockpits

Pilots' group petitions to arm air crews

Pilot groups unified on arming air crews

Senator calls for arming pilots

Ridge comment on arming pilots out of step

Pilots' group wants crews to be armed

Expert: 'No substitute' for firearms on aircraft

FAA seeks input on arming pilots

Bill would ensure pilots' right to be armed

Reform Party: Pilots should be armed

Boot camp for pilots?

Pilots offered free firearms training

Captains to FAA: Focus on cockpits

Related Special Offers:

posted 07-24-2002 01:43 AM            

Mayor: 9-11 Records Should be Secret

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK- The mayor's office says it plans to keep secret hundreds of written and audio records related to the fire department's response to the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

The documents include 911 calls from people trapped in the towers, radio transmissions between firefighters and taped oral histories with firefighters and emergency medical technicians recounting their experiences that day.

The material was requested by The New York Times, which has filed a lawsuit in state court to obtain the records.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has denied the paper's request. In court documents, the Bloomberg administration said it is not required to release the radio transmissions and 911 calls because it could hinder the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged as a Sept. 11 conspirator. He is in a Virginia jail.

City attorneys also said there a law enforcement exemption in the state's freedom of information law applies in this case because the U.S. attorney's office asked the fire department to gather the transmissions and calls to aid in Moussaoui's prosecution.

David McCraw, an attorney representing the newspaper, said similar details have already reached the public via a televised documentary and at least three books. "There is so much information out there that it would hardly change the balance of Moussaoui getting a fair or impartial jury in Virginia," McCraw said.

The city said releasing oral histories and transmissions would constitute an invasion of privacy for firefighters and their families. It also said the histories constitute interagency reports that will be used for devising policy - which exempts them from freedom of information laws.

"Both the oral histories and the radio transmissions, especially the 911 calls, contain highly personal and emotionally charged material," wrote Michael Cardozo, a city lawyer. "Victims were experiencing life-threatening circumstances, in some instances as they were dying."

The Times argues that firefighters were never informed that their testimony was to remain confidential. The paper also argues the histories were gathered for historical purposes, not to formulate policy. --

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2002/jul/23/072300599.html

posted 07-24-2002 05:31 PM            

This is a 12meg mp3 file that addresses many valid concerns regarding the events of 9 11 01. I recommend that we all take an objective look at what is said here-in.

i.e.

Israelie company pulls out of WTC on Sept 9th, at the same time Israel intelligence warns US of impending attack.

Us procedure scrambles fighters in the event of any airborne incident, unconditionally. However, on 9 11 01, after 4 known commercial airliners were known to have been hijacked, off route, and not responding, NO FIGHTERS WERE SCRAMBLED.

posted 08-21-2002 03:24 AM            

Gov't to Investigate WTC Collapse

By SHANNON McCAFFREY

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON- Hoping to make skyscrapers stronger, federal officials were to launch a two-year, $16 million investigation of the World Trade Center collapse on Sept. 11. But the probe by the National Institute of Standards and Technology could be hampered by the Senate's failure to pass legislation that would give federal building investigators subpoena power and other tools.

The National Construction Safety Act, sponsored by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., passed the House in July but has stalled in the Senate Commerce Committee.

In the aftermath of the trade center collapse, investigators struggled to gain access to the site and to key documents, like blueprints.

The NIST probe set to get under way Wednesday is designed to be broader and more detailed than a study conducted by the American Society of Civil Engineers and funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That study, concluded in May, determined that the 110-story twin towers could have survived the impact of the hijacked 767s but fell victim to the ensuing fire that lit office furniture and paper ablaze. That intense fire caused the buildings' steel columns to soften and buckle.

NIST Director Arden Bement has said the relationship between fire and structural collapses will be a major focus of the probe and the investigation "could lead to major changes in both U.S. building and fire codes and in engineering practice."

Fluffy fireproofing sprayed onto the trade center's steel beams was jarred loose by when the jetliners slammed into the trade center, the FEMA study found.

NIST investigators will look at ways to keep the fireproofing intact. Investigators are also interested in 7 World Trade Center, which is believed to have sustained little structural damage. It collapsed due to fire alone, the first fireproofed steel structure to do so.

NIST will also examine ways to harden exit stairways to make them less vulnerable to severe impact and plans to space those stairways out so one blow might not render them all impassable. Such designs might have allowed occupants to have escaped from the floors above where the planes hit.

Glenn Corbett, assistant professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, called NIST's undertaking "a landmark event."

"This is going to be the most extensive building disaster investigation ever performed," Corbett said. "The size of the disaster dictates that it has to be." But he said he was worried that without subpoena power the investigation could be limited.

Corbett and others were critical of the ASCE probe, saying it was too narrow in scope. He and others also complained that officials lost a crucial opportunity to examine most of the trade center's steel beams for clues, allowing them instead to be recycled.

Some of the remaining steel beams are already at NIST's Gaithersburg, Md., headquarters to be examined as part of the new probe.

----

On the Net:

National Institutes of Standards and Technology: http://www.nist.gov/

posted 08-22-2002 10:12 PM            

Only recommended if you have decent access. dial-ups don't bother....

THE ROAD TO TYRANNY EXPOSES:

*HOW DOZENS OF FBI AND DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENTS WERE THREATENED WITH ARREST BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IF THEY GOT IN THE WAY OF AL-QAEDA OPERATIONS

*HOW THE CIA TRAINED, FUNDED AND PROTECTED BIN LADEN

*THAT IMPEACHMENT LAWYER DAVID SCHIPPERS WARNED CONGRESS AND THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF THE IMPENDING TERRORISTS ATTACKS . (THE FILM INCLUDES AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SCHIPPERS ON THE ALEX JONES SHOW JUST 2 WEEKS AFTER THE ATTACKS. SCHIPPERS HAS SINCE BEEN THREATENED WITH ARREST IF HE CONTINUES TO SPEAK OUT, AND IS BEGGING THE MEDIA AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO GET THIS STORY OUT)

*HOW THE BLOODTHIRSTY GLOBALISTS ARE USING THE TERRORIST ATTACKS TO SCARE THE POPULATION INTO ACCEPTING HIGH-TECH SLAVERY AND A NEW WORLD ORDER POLICE STATE

* HOW THE RECENTLY DECLASSIFIED TOP-SECRET NORTHWOODS DOCUMENT WRITTEN BY THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF LAID OUT PLANS TO BOMB WASHINGTON AND TO HIJACK AIRPLANES AS A PRETEXT FOR WAR

*BILL CLINTON'S INVOLVEMENT IN THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING AND HOW IT WAS CARRIED OUT BY INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES TO BE BLAMED ON THE RIGHT-WING

*HOW THE FBI ORDERED THEIR INFORMANTS TO COOK THE BOMB AND TRAIN THE DRIVERS IN THE FIRST WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK IN 1993

*WHY THE USA PATRIOT ACT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND UN-AMERICAN

*WHY THE GOVERNMENT LEAVES OUR BORDERS WIDE-OPEN BUT TELLS US TO GIVE UP OUR LIBERTIES FOR SECURITY AND THAT MORE TERRORIST ATTACKS ARE IMMINENT

*FBI TRAINING MANUALS THAT ARE BEING GIVEN TO POLICE DEPARTMENTS THAT STATE THAT CHRISTIANS, GUN OWNERS, AND "THOSE WHO MAKE FREQUENT REFERENCES TO THE US CONSTITUTION" ARE TERRORISTS

*THE UNFOLDING CASHLESS SOCIETY BIOMETRIC CONTROL-GRID

AND MUCH, MUCH MORE...

THE GOVERNMENT NEEDED A CRISIS TO CONVINCE THE PEOPLE TO WILLINGLY GIVE UP THEIR LIBERTY IN EXCHANGE FOR SAFETY.

.....NOW THE PAINFUL FACTS ARE IN. THE DARK FORCES OF GLOBAL GOVERNMENT ARE FUNDING, TRAINING AND PROTECTING TERRORIST NETWORKS WORLDWIDE.

.....911 THE ROAD TO TYRANNY DOCUMENTS THE RUTHLESS HISTORY OF GOVERNMENTS ORCHESTRATING TERRORIST ATTACKS AGAINST THEIR OWN PEOPLE TO SCARE THEM INTO TOTAL SUBMISSION.

.....IN THIS BRUTAL EXPOSE YOU WILL WITNESS THE BIRTH OF A GLOBAL POLICE STATE THAT SURPASSES ORWELL'S NIGHTMARE VISION.

.....IT'S ALL HERE: THE HISTORY OF GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED TERRORISM, THE MODERN IMPLEMENTATION OF FEAR-BASED CONTROL AND, MOST FRIGHTENING OF ALL, THE NEW WORLD ORDER'S FUTURE PLANS.

.....THIS IS ONE FILM YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO IGNORE. THE FUTURE OF FREE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE IS AT STAKE.

BIG BROTHER IS AFRAID OF THIS DOCUMENTARY!!!
ORDER TODAY AND SPREAD THE WORD!

posted 08-22-2002 11:02 PM            

WASHINGTON (AP) — In what the government describes as a bizarre coincidence, one U.S. intelligence agency was planning an exercise last Sept. 11 in which an errant aircraft would crash into one of its buildings. But the cause wasn't terrorism — it was to be a simulated accident.

Officials at the Chantilly, Va.-based National Reconnaissance Office had scheduled an exercise that morning in which a small corporate jet would crash into one of the four towers at the agency's headquarters building after experiencing a mechanical failure.

The agency is about four miles from the runways of Washington Dulles International Airport.

Agency chiefs came up with the scenario to test employees' ability to respond to a disaster, said spokesman Art Haubold. No actual plane was to be involved — to simulate the damage from the crash, some stairwells and exits were to be closed off, forcing employees to find other ways to evacuate the building.

"It was just an incredible coincidence that this happened to involve an aircraft crashing into our facility," Haubold said. "As soon as the real world events began, we canceled the exercise."

Terrorism was to play no role in the exercise, which had been planned for several months, he said.

Adding to the coincidence, American Airlines Flight 77 — the Boeing 767 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon — took off from Dulles at 8:10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 50 minutes before the exercise was to begin. It struck the Pentagon around 9:40 a.m., killing 64 aboard the plane and 125 on the ground.

The National Reconnaissance Office operates many of the nation's spy satellites. It draws its personnel from the military and the CIA.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, most of the 3,000 people who work at agency headquarters were sent home, save for some essential personnel, Haubold said.

An announcement for an upcoming homeland security conference in Chicago first noted the exercise.

In a promotion for speaker John Fulton, a CIA officer assigned as chief of NRO's strategic gaming division, the announcement says, "On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team ... were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building. Little did they know that the scenario would come true in a dramatic way that day."

The conference is being run by the National Law Enforcement and Security Institute.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-08-22-sept-11-plane-drill-_x.htm

posted 09-10-2002 12:27 AM            

Mon Sep 9, 4:36 PM ET

By Paul Simao

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Hundreds of New York firefighters and emergency personnel have developed debilitating respiratory and stress-related disorders since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, U.S. health officials reported on Monday.

A study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that 358 firefighters and five emergency medical service personnel involved in the WTC rescue and recovery efforts had been placed on medical leave or light duty assignments due to respiratory problems.

The majority of the sick firefighters, many of whom had not used proper safety gear, have "WTC Cough," a condition that refers to a combination of sinus congestion and irritation of the throat, lower airways and esophageal tract.

Only 48 percent of those who had serious cases of WTC cough have improved enough to return to full-time work.

Dr. David Prezant, deputy chief medical officer for the New York City Fire Department, said the findings clearly backed up the belief that many of the 11,000 firefighters involved in the WTC rescue and recovery effort had been exposed to a massive toxic dust cloud. The destruction of the WTC twin towers produced more than 1.6 million tons of concrete, metal and other debris, prompting fears among rescue workers that dangerous gases and toxic dusts had been released into the environment.

"Large numbers are coming down with asthma or reactive airways dysfunction syndrome," said Prezant, who noted that lengthy exposure to air-borne particles could be toxic even if the particles did not contain asbestos or chemicals.

New York officials now estimate that 500 firefighters might eventually qualify for disability retirement because of chronic respiratory illnesses. In addition to those with respiratory illnesses, another 213 firefighters and rescue workers remain on leave with stress-related problems, according to the report published by the CDC.

Stress-related disorders in New York firefighters increased 17-fold in the 11 months after the attacks. Rescue workers were not the only ones to suffer WTC-related health problems.

A separate study published by the CDC on Monday suggested that hundreds of people living near the WTC site in the lower Manhattan area had experienced persistent physical problems including nose and throat irritation.

Thousands of others may have been at risk for post traumatic stress disorder, according to the study. Anxiety and stress, a natural response to any life-threatening event, are often greater in attacks involving mass murder, experts say. An estimated 2,726 people, including 343 rescue workers, died in the WTC attack.

"We saw thousands of innocent people massacred. Now of course we're living in a state of heightened awareness of terrorism, hyper-vigilance or startled response," said Laurie Nadel, a New York City-based psychotherapist specializing in stress issues and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Nadel said she has seen a dramatic increase in the number of children who need treatment for anxiety and phobias. As many as 200,000 New York City children may have developed psychiatric problems after Sept. 11, according to a recent study by the New York Psychiatric Institute.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020909/ts_nm/attack_health_dc_2

___________________________________________________________________

US Spy Agencies Had 30 Pre-9/11 'Chatter' Messages

September 09, 2002 05:05 PM ET

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Before Sept. 11, U.S. agencies collected about 30 communications from suspected al Qaeda operatives or other militants referring to an imminent event, but many were false alarms, a U.S. intelligence official said on Monday.

"You can't dismiss any of them, but it doesn't tell you tomorrow is the day," the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Messages from members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network included the phrases "Tomorrow is zero hour" and "The match begins tomorrow," which government sources have said were picked up on Sept. 10 by National Security Agency eavesdropping on global communications.

Those two messages were not translated from Arabic until Sept. 12.

Critics have called them examples of missed clues.

The United States has blamed al Qaeda for the Sept. 11 attacks that killed about 3,000 people. Intelligence officials say many such communications, called "chatter," end up being just a show of bravado or morale boosting. Without a specific location and time for a planned attack it was difficult to assess the threat, they say.

More recently, U.S. intelligence agencies have picked up a handful of al Qaeda communications making vague threats related to the Sept. 11 anniversary, but without any specific details. "You should not put a chatter meter on it," a U.S. official said.

"Just because you hear a lot doesn't mean it's going to happen. Just because you hear a little doesn't mean it's not."

NOT A PATTERN

Al Qaeda has not in the past pegged attacks to anniversaries, but rather conducts them when its plans are ready for execution, U.S. officials say. "If they could do something on 9/11 that they could do today, they will do it today," one official said.

"Anniversaries can be occasions -- not necessarily always -- can be occasions of heightened terrorist activity," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters traveling with President Bush to Detroit. "I can't characterize the chatter level as anything out of the ordinary at this time. But just given the fact that it's the one-year anniversary, we are going to be on our toes," Fleischer said.

U.S. officials characterized level of the recent communications as slightly higher than average, but considerably less than around the Fourth of July holiday and last summer before the Sept. 11 attacks. Al Qaeda has the pattern of being in the midst of planning another attack as one is being executed. When it attacked a U.S. warship in a Yemeni port almost two years ago it was already planning Sept. 11, U.S. officials say.

"Every time there was a terrorist attack in the past, they were already planning another," an intelligence official said. "We have to assume when they attacked the World Trade Center, they were planning something else, some of which may have been disrupted by the war on terrorism."

U.S. embassies are frequently mentioned as targets for attack. Since Sept. 11, plots against embassies in Rome, Singapore, and Paris and U.S. military facilities in Turkey have been uncovered.

posted 09-23-2002 04:00 PM            

By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 — The Central Intelligence Agency failed to adequately scrutinize information it received before Sept. 11 about the growing terrorist threat posed by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a leader of Al Qaeda now believed to have been a central planner of the attacks on New York and Washington, Congressional investigators have concluded.

The joint Congressional committee investigating intelligence failures that preceded the Sept. 11 attacks issued a report last week that included a cryptic reference to a "key Al Qaeda leader" whom the United States intelligence community had identified as early as 1995. The report was critical of the failure to "recognize his growing importance to Al Qaeda" and said the intelligence community "did not anticipate his involvement in a terrorist attack of Sept. 11's magnitude," even though information about him had been collected for at least six years.

United States officials say that reference was to Mr. Mohammed, but the joint committee was prevented from publicly identifying him because information about him remains highly classified.

Next to Osama bin Laden, Mr. Mohammed is probably the most wanted terrorist in the world, because of what officials believe is his central role in the Sept. 11 plot and in Qaeda operations today. American intelligence officials say he has emerged as Al Qaeda's new chief of operations, succeeding Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in Pakistan in March and is in United States custody.

The criticism of the intelligence community's handling of information about Mr. Mohammed was just one element in a weeklong series of Congressional reports and hearings by the joint committee. Operating under tough strictures imposed by the intelligence community on what it can declassify and make public, the panel has nonetheless provided a far more detailed and textured portrait of the way in which the C.I.A., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and other agencies handled information that might have tipped them off in time to prevent the attacks.

Even as the panel continues its work, with public hearings scheduled to start again on Tuesday, the White House on Friday agreed to a separate, independent commission to investigate Sept. 11 intelligence lapses.

Support for an independent inquiry began to build as a result of last week's hearings, the first in public, which revealed a series of previously undisclosed intelligence reports concerning terrorist threats to the United States and included testimony from relatives of Sept. 11 victims.

In addition, a New York F.B.I. agent recalled his anger and frustration that bureaucratic obstacles prevented him from tracking one of the hijackers in the weeks before Sept. 11.

Congressional criticism of the way the C.I.A. dealt with information about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed cuts to the heart of the intelligence community's handling of the growing terrorist threat before Sept. 11. Mr. Mohammed was first identified as a terrorist as a result of his role in an abortive 1995 plot to blow up American airliners flying over the Pacific. The plot was the brainchild of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who was also the leader of the group that bombed the World Trade Center in 1993.

Mr. Yousef was captured in Pakistan in 1996, but Mr. Mohammed remained at large, and the C.I.A. concluded that he had joined Al Qaeda.

The Congressional committee criticized the C.I.A.'s failure to pay much attention to Mr. Mohammed's growing role within Al Qaeda.

Before Sept. 11, the report stated, "there was little analytic focus given to him, and coordination amongst intelligence agencies was irregular at best."

In interviews, United States intelligence officials disputed the report's conclusions, and in the process disclosed for the first time some of the operations conducted before Sept. 11 to capture him. "We have been after him for years, and to say that we weren't is just wrong," one official said. "We had identified him as a major Al Qaeda operative before Sept. 11."

In the spring of 1996, these officials said, the F.B.I. sent a counterterrorism team to Qatar after receiving information that Mr. Mohammed was hiding there, but he escaped. In the fall of that year, the C.I.A. received information, including visa records, that showed Mr. Mohammed was traveling to a South American country, which the officials declined to identify. The C.I.A. arranged through its liaison with that country's security service to arrest him, but officials said the effort failed and he slipped away.

By 1999, Mr. Mohammed was believed to be living in Germany, but he has moved repeatedly, and American officials say he is extremely careful and security conscious. The classification of information about Mr. Mohammed — extending even to mention of his name in the Congressional report — made it impossible for the joint committee to publicly debate how the C.I.A. handled information about him.

Still, in two separate interim reports and three days of public hearings, the committee was able to document the escalating threat posed by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and Al Qaeda's growing interest by the late 1990's in launching an attack inside the United States, along with its desire to turn aircraft into terrorist weapons.

The committee concluded in its report that the C.I.A. and F.B.I. were slow to grasp Al Qaeda's capacity to strike inside the United States, even after a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport was prevented in December 1999. Samuel R. Berger, President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, told the committee last week that the F.B.I. had repeatedly assured the Clinton White House that Al Qaeda lacked the ability to launch a domestic strike.

But the committee also found that a long series of intelligence reports about Al Qaeda's intentions, coupled with its successful strikes against two American embassies in East Africa in 1998 and an American destroyer in 2000, never raised sufficient alarm within the government.

George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, issued a memorandum to his deputies in December 1998 declaring war on Al Qaeda, yet neither President Clinton nor President Bush went on a war footing against the terror network.

Without forceful direction from the White House, American intelligence and law enforcement officials handling counterterrorism cases were frequently short of resources and often distracted by competing tasks. Michael E. Rolince, a senior F.B.I. official, told the Congressional committee last week that there were fewer F.B.I. agents assigned to counterterrorism last Sept. 10 than there had been in August 1998, at the time of the embassy bombings in East Africa.

Inevitably, cases like those of Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaq Alhazmi, two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, fell through the cracks.

In January 2000, the C.I.A. arranged for Malaysian security to conduct surveillance of suspected Qaeda operatives meeting in Kuala Lampur. The C.I.A. soon identified one of the people at the meeting as a Saudi named Khalid al-Midhar and another as "Khallad," a name used by Tawfiq al-Atash, a Yemeni extremist. The C.I.A. was able to determine that Khalid al-Midhar had a multiple-entry visa to get into the United States, yet failed to ask that he be placed on a State Department watch list to stop him from coming into the country.

The C.I.A. also soon discovered that he was traveling with another Saudi, Nawaq Alhazmi. By March, the C.I.A. had found that Mr. Alhazmi had traveled to Los Angeles in January, yet neither man was placed on a watch list until August 2001, just weeks before the attacks. By that time, both were already in the country.

Lapses in the case of Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaq Alhazmi continued throughout the spring and summer of 2001, even as the intelligence community began to pick up a surge in reports of threatened attacks by Al Qaeda. In a briefing paper for senior government officials in July 2001, quoted in the Congressional report, intelligence analysts wrote, referring to Osama bin Laden: "Based on a review of all-source reporting over the last five months, we believe that UBL will launch a significant terrorist attack against U.S. and/or Israeli interests in the coming weeks. The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests. Attack preparations have been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning."

Finally, on Aug. 23, 2001, the C.I.A. asked that Mr. al-Midhar and Mr. Alhazmi be placed on a watch list. But by then it was too late to find them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/23/national/23INTE.html?ex=1033358400&en=6834b65bd6569112&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1

posted 09-30-2002 12:31 AM            

Unstable Building Near WTC Leveled

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK- Contractors leveled most of a two-story building near the World Trade Center site Sunday after cracks were found in an exterior wall. The rest of the lower Manhattan building was to be demolished Monday, said Frank McCarton, deputy commissioner for the city's Office of Emergency Management.

"The building has been brought down to a safe level," he said.

The building sits four blocks south of ground zero above a subway station. It was unclear what caused the cracks.

Contractors began demolition late Saturday with bulldozers and cranes, and had flattened most of the building by Sunday afternoon.

Occupants of the building, which houses a cafe and a salon, were evacuated Friday night.

The structural problems were noted shortly before when someone in the cafe had trouble with the rolldown security gate.

517.htmlhttp://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2002/sep/29/092901105.html