Thursday, April 28 2011   -   Research/Evidence

by Kevin Ryan
April 27, 2011
ULTruth.wordpress.com

Of the many unanswered questions about the attacks of September 11, one of the most important is: Why were none of the four planes intercepted? A rough answer is that the failure of the US air defenses can be traced to a number of factors and people. There were policy changes, facility changes, and personnel changes that had recently been made, and there were highly coincidental military exercises that were occurring on that day. But some of the most startling facts about the air defense failures have to do with the utter failure of communications between the agencies responsible for protecting the nation. At the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), two people stood out in this failed chain of communications. One was a lawyer on his first day at the job, and another was a Special Operations Commander who was never held responsible for his critical role, or even questioned about it.

The 9/11 Commission wrote in its report that -- "On 9/11, the defense of U.S. airspace depended on close interaction between two federal agencies: the FAA and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)."[1]

According to the Commission, this interaction began with air traffic controllers (ATCs) at the relevant regional FAA control centers, which on 9/11 included Boston, New York, Cleveland, and Indianapolis. In the event of a hijacking, these ATCs were expected to "notify their supervisors, who in turn would inform management all the way up to FAA headquarters. Headquarters had a hijack coordinator, who was the director of the FAA Office of Civil Aviation Security or his or her designate.

The hijack coordinator would then "contact the Pentagon’s National Military Command Center (NMCC)" and "the NMCC would then seek approval from the Office of the Secretary of Defense to provide military assistance. If approval was given, the orders would be transmitted down NORAD’s chain of command [to the interceptor pilots]."[2]

 

Monday, April 25 2011   -   9/11 Consequences

by Andy Worthington
Published April 24, 2011
WikiLeaks.ch

On Sunday April 24, 2011 WikiLeaks began publishing 779 secret files from the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The details for every detainee will be released daily over the coming month.

WikiLeaks Reveals Secret Files on All Guantanamo Prisoners

PLEASE NOTE: This article has been published in languages other than English at WikiLeaks, linked here.

In its latest release of classified US documents, WikiLeaks is shining the light of truth on a notorious icon of the Bush administration's "War on Terror" -- the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which opened on January 11, 2002, and remains open under President Obama, despite his promise to close the much-criticized facility within a year of taking office.

In thousands of pages of documents dating from 2002 to 2008 and never seen before by members of the public or the media, the cases of the majority of the prisoners held at Guantanamo -- 758 out of 779 in total -- are described in detail in memoranda from JTF-GTMO, the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay, to US Southern Command in Miami, Florida.

These memoranda, which contain JTF-GTMO's recommendations about whether the prisoners in question should continue to be held, or should be released (transferred to their home governments, or to other governments) contain a wealth of important and previously undisclosed information, including health assessments, for example, and, in the cases of the majority of the 171 prisoners who are still held, photos (mostly for the first time ever).

 

Monday, April 25 2011   -   First Responders/Health Effects

by Donna Marsh O'Connor
Member, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows; Mother, Vanessa Lang Langer, WTC Tower II, 93rd floor
April 23, 2011
HuffingtonPost.com

Shame on Representative Cliff Stearns and shame on each and every one of the representatives who voted to make compensation for 9/11 first responders reliant upon a check for "terrorist" activities. Shame is a concept that blankets American actions as it responded to that grave day. I won't belabor the many instances where this nation either killed or maimed others either in retribution or in the pretense at keeping the rest of us "safe" but I will say that this last act of betrayal by elected officials places all of us in greater danger. Frankly, if we don't counter this betrayal, we deserve what we get.

What has come over us? Have we completely lost the ability to function as compassionate adults in an imperfect world? Think for one minute about the ramifications of such an act:

 

Tuesday, April 19 2011   -   9/11 A/V Galleries

1. The Bombing -- http://OKCBombing.net/

On April 19, 1995, around 9:03 a.m., just after parents dropped their children off at day care at the Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, the unthinkable happened. A massive bomb inside a rental truck exploded, blowing half of the nine-story building into oblivion. A stunned nation watched as the bodies of men, women, and children were pulled from the rubble for nearly two weeks. When the smoke cleared and the exhausted rescue workers packed up and left, 168 people were dead in the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

The 168 victims killed in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building included babies and grandparents, workers at their first days on the job and those on the verge of retirement.

One woman was seven months pregnant with her first child. Another had had her wedding four days earlier. One baby had celebrated her first birthday the day before. In addition to those who lost their lives, 500 people were injured. Countless others lost friends and relatives.

2. Top Ten Reasons to Question the Official Story

By: Holland O. Van den Nieuwenhof
OKCBombingTruth.com

1. John Doe #2 And Other Accomplices

Timothy McVeigh is supposed to be the only one who drove the Ryder truck full of explosives up to the Murrah building and detonated it. But the government only produced one witness during McVeigh's trial to place him in Oklahoma City. That witness, Daina Bradley, lost her children, her mother and her leg in the bombing. Under cross-examination, she admitted that she saw McVeigh with another man, the fabled John Doe #2, in the Ryder truck. Numerous (1 2 other witnesses state that they saw McVeigh with other perpetrators the day of the bombing. There are also numerous other witness accounts of McVeigh accompanied by other men during his preparation for the bombing and even when he rented the Ryder truck. In some cases, these suspects have been identified by witnesses and yet the government claims that McVeigh was the sole actor in the tragedy of April 19, 1995.

3. Information on the surveillance tapes and Kenneth Trentadue:
Kenneth Trentadue was murdered in the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center in August, 1995. The authorities ruled it a suicide. Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we explore the incredible story of Jesse Trentadue, Kenney's brother, who has spent the last two decades working to find out what really happened to his brother--and how it connects to the Oklahoma City Bombing. Episode 182 -- Requiem for the Suicided: Kenneth Trentadue - http://www.corbettreport.com/episode182-kenneth-trentadue/

 

Tuesday, April 19 2011   -   9/11 A/V Galleries

"Investigate Building 7", conference held at the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT on March 26, 2011, sponsored by Investigatebuilding7.org (formerly BuildingWhat? campaign)

Video of presentations from Investigate Building 7 Conference, March 26, 2011, graciously posted by Radical Pragmatist on his blog at 911blogger.com.

The Case for a New Building 7 Investigation (three parts):

I. Foreknowledge of Building 7's Collapse by Dr. Graeme MacQueen
II. The Evolution of the Fire-based Theory for Building 7 by Kevin Ryan
III. Structural Aspects of Building 7's Collapse: Why the NIST Report is Non-explanatory by Tony Szamboti

Failure to Report: A Panel Discussion Among Journalists 3/26/11

Investigate Building 7 conference audio

 

Tuesday, April 19 2011   -   Research/Evidence

April 18, 2011
History Commons

A large number of new entries have been added to the Complete 9/11 Timeline at History Commons. Most of these describe events from the day of 9/11 itself, although a few entries look at pre-9/11 and post-9/11 events.

This is one of an ongoing series of irregular email alerts notifying the community of additions to a specific project.

New Entries Added to the Complete 9/11 Timeline

One new entry reveals that in April 2001, CIA counterterrorism chief Cofer Black warned that "something big [is] coming and that it very likely could be in the US." Then, about a month before 9/11, White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke visited Wall Street,to investigate the security precautions there.

 

Wednesday, April 13 2011   -   Editorials

Lessons the 9/11 Truth Movement Needs to Consider With New Urgency

by John Parulis
April 13, 2011
TruthPhalanx.com

The talk, linked to here, given by the late Utah Phillips in the summer of 2004 in Berkeley, California, sets a pathway for a new direction for activism centered on creating world wide worker unions established in non-violence and wide scale organizing.

http://truthphalanx.com/mp3/Utah_Phillips.mp3
(Thanks to Maria Gilardin, TUCRadio )

Utah Phillips is right. The progressive left needs to change tactics. The 9/11 Truth Movement can learn from the left's failures. Street marches achieve little or nothing. Look at the global anti-war marches of 2003 to stop the Iraq Invasion. Millions flooded the streets around the world in days of historic popular uprisings and demonstrations, yet the war proceeded and ever expanding wars metastasized in Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Libya. Nearly a million people have died. People continue to die from the so called 9/11 wars and billions continue to be misspent on these failings.

 

Tuesday, April 12 2011   -   9/11 Consequences

By Agence France-Presse
Monday, April 11th, 2011
Rawstory.com

STOCKHOLM -- Growth in global military spending slowed to its lowest level since 2001 last year as the world economic crisis hit defence budgets, Swedish think-tank SIPRI said Monday.

World military spending rose only 1.3 percent in 2010 to $1.63 trillion (1.14 trillion euros), after average annual growth of 5.1 percent between 2001 and 2009, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said as it released its latest report on international military expenditures.

"In many cases, the falls or slower increase represent a delayed reaction to the global financial and economic crisis that broke in 2008," the group said in a statement.

The United States significantly slowed its military investments last year but remained by far the biggest defence spender in the world and still accounted for almost all of global growth.

 

Tuesday, April 12 2011   -   Legal Response to 9/11

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, April 10th, 2011
Rawstory.com

WASHINGTON -- US prosecutors compiled lots of evidence against the five men accused of having organized the September 11 attacks on the United States, but not until this week have details been fully revealed.

The indictment charging self-professed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others was unsealed when US Attorney General Eric Holder referred the case to the Defense Department for military trials instead of trials at a US federal court in New York.

Holder said Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustapha Ahmed al-Hawsawi could have been prosecuted in federal court and blamed Congress for imposing measures blocking civilian trials of Guantanamo Bay inmates.

They will be tried in military courts in the US naval base in southeastern Cuba.

 

Monday, April 11 2011   -   Civil Liberties-Police State

Obama professor among 250 experts who have signed letter condemning humiliation of alleged WikiLeaks source

by Ed Pilkington in New York
April 10, 2011
Guardian.co.ukApril 2011

More than 250 of America's most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his "degrading and inhumane conditions" are illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture.

The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America's foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.

Tribe joined the Obama administration last year as a legal adviser in the justice department, a post he held until three months ago.

He told the Guardian he signed the letter because Manning appeared to have been treated in a way that "is not only shameful but unconstitutional" as he awaits court martial in Quantico marine base in Virginia.

 

Thursday, April 7 2011   -   In the Media

Published: Thursday, 7 Apr 2011 | 7:30 AM ET
CNBC.com

NEW YORK, April 7, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Confounding lawyers and legal scholars all over the world, Judge John Walker, first cousin of former President George W. Bush, was one of three judges of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to hear argument Tuesday in Gallop v. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Myers.

The lawsuit was brought by a soldier injured during the attack on the Pentagon and accuses former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers, of conspiring to facilitate the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

The attacks killed 3000 Americans, plus many who have died from the toxic clean-up conditions at Ground Zero.

Attorney William Veale, acting for April Gallop, learned of the assignment the usual 5 days before the argument, and filed a motion to disqualify Judge Walker.

 

Wednesday, April 6 2011   -   Legal Response to 9/11

By Ray McGovern
April 6, 2011
Consortiumnews.com

The Obama administration's decision to use a military tribunal rather than a federal criminal court to try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others means the real motives behind the 9/11 attacks may remain obscure.

The Likud Lobby and their allied U.S. legislators can chalk up a significant victory for substantially shrinking any opportunity for the accused planners of 9/11 to tell their side of the story.

What? I sense some bristling. "Their side of the story?" Indeed! We've been told there is no "their side of the story."

For years, President George W. Bush got away with offering up the risible explanation that they "hate our freedoms." The stenographers of the White House press corps may have had to suppress smiles but silently swallowed the "they-hate-us-for-our-freedoms" rationale.

The only journalist I can recall stepping up and asking, in effect, "Come on; now really; it's important; why do the really hate us" was the indomitable Helen Thomas.

 

Tuesday, April 5 2011   -   Civil Liberties-Police State

By Eric W. Dolan
April 4, 2011
Rawstory.com

On Wednesday, the New York State Supreme Court will consider whether the state must investigate an ethics complaint filed against a New York State-licensed psychologist and major in the U.S. Army who allegedly co-authored, implemented, and monitored an abusive interrogation program at Guantanamo Bay.

The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) asked the court to direct the New York State Office of Professional Discipline (OPD) to investigate a misconduct complaint against Dr. John Francis Leso, who led the first Behavioral Science Consultation Team at Guantanamo Bay.

The OPD is responsible for regulating the ethical conduct of all New York-licensed psychologists, but has refused to investigate Dr. Leso's alleged role in the use of abusive interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay.

The office is accused of failing to investigate Leso's misconduct, despite being presented with numerous documented allegations of Leso's violations of professional standards.

 

Tuesday, April 5 2011   -   Legal Response to 9/11

April 4, 2011
NBCnewyork.com

The accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks will be tried in a military tribunal and not in Manhattan federal court blocks from the World Trade Center site, officials said Monday.

The Justice Department's announcement was a major reversal for the Obama administration, which had faced strong pressure to abandon its 2009 decision that it would seek to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators in civilian court downtown.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Congress has imposed restrictions on where Guantanamo detainees can be tried, and rather than fight those restrictions and delay the trial, he ordered prosecutors to dismiss the federal indictment in New York in favor of a military trial.

Holder emphasized that prosecutors had been "prepared to bring a powerful case" against the suspects and said he still believes a civilian trial would have been the best choice.

The 2009 announcement that the 9/11 suspects would be tried in New York was met with fierce opposition from many elected officials, families of victims and those who live and work in Lower Manhattan, who would have had to contend with several rings of heavy security for the months of the trial.

 

Monday, April 4 2011   -   Get Involved

Posted April 4, 2011
From We Are Change Oklahoma

Please see details here: http://www.facebook.com/CopBlock#!/event.php?eid=144542868945239

This year will be the 16th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. Please consider joining We Are Change Oklahoma along with other investigators, survivors, and victims' family members to help expose this cover-up. We have several banners and we will be handing out our flyer "Top ten reasons to question the official story of the Oklahoma City bombing". We hope to see you there! Without Truth there is no Justice!

Top 10 Reasons to Question the Official Story of The Oklahoma City Bombing
http://okcbombingtruth.com

We Are Change Oklahoma
http://wearechangeoklahoma.org
info@wearechangeoklahoma.org