Monday, September 25, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Governments
If we were asked, and sometimes even if we were not asked, about what we believe to be the problem, if any, with the way various public officials go about their duties, most of us would be quite prepared to share our opinions on this matter. We all seem to feel we have some insight to offer about the difference between good and not-so-good government.
Interestingly enough, whatever the accuracy of our perceptions about the political process may be, many of us tend to be oblivious to the quality and character of governmental operations within ourselves. This lack of awareness could be because many of us may not consider what goes on inside of us to be much like a governmental process. However, the politics which goes on in the external world does not rise ex nihilo. It comes from within us. I ndeed, external politics is, in a sense, internal politics writ large.
The characteristics of internal politics are quite similar to properties found in external political processes. For example, there is a need for decision-making and the implementation of such decisions. In addition, within us, there are activities which resemble: think-tanks, spin doctors, lobby groups, image consultants, intelligence-gathering operations, ethics committees, regulatory agencies, judicial review boards, dirty tricks operations, military forces, legislative bodies, prison systems, and revenue generating enterprises. All of the foregoing internal processes affect the character and quality of the decisions made by the individual.
Moreover, because of the problems and pressures generated by the dynamics of the decision-making process, one finds many other features of our inner government which share some common themes with certain aspects of politics. For instance, many of our internal governments are capable, in various ways and degrees, of: biased agendas; partisan politics; corruption; dereliction of duty; human rights violations; grid-lock; revolution (both peaceful and violent); fraudulent conduct; cover-ups; repressive measures; irresponsible spending programs; breaking promises; and both minor as well as major scandals of one sort or another.
Like external governments, our internal governments: make both good and bad decisions. Similarly, our internal governments, like their external counterparts, get both good and bad advice from a variety of sources. Again, like external governments, our internal political systems often are involved in crisis management operations. These operations, frequently, are as much a reflection of the problematic way we govern ourselves than they are an expression of life problems arising independently of our style of mismanaging our internal government.
When the ego is running our internal government, our affairs are in the hands of a politician exemplifying all of the characteristics we tend to associate with the stereotypical bad politician. Indeed, bad politics on whatever level is, in general, a function of the activities of the ego. The ego, like many politicians, tends to be very charismatic and polished in public situations. However, at the same time, the ego is ambitious, vain, and arrogant. The ego knows, as almost any politician does, how to get things accomplished through pushing the right emotional and psychological buttons. In fact, a considerable portion of the resources available to the ego, are expended to gather intelligence about the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the various players in the political game.
In addition, the ego has the gift of gab and is always on the stump making internal political speeches, filled with stirring platitudes, about this and that issue or situation or person. Like its external world twin brother, the ego is forever making solemn promises and undertakings which are rarely kept. The ego, as either head of the internal government or as leader of the 'loyal' opposition, knows how to threaten, cajole, manipulate, flatter, pressure, compromise, bribe, neutralize, and cheat for purposes of political gain.
Political gain, however, is not necessarily measured in terms of worthwhile accomplishments. More often than not, political gain is a matter of doing whatever is required to stay in power or to be able to influence the decision making process in a manner which is favorable to one's interests. The doing of things, whether good or bad, are merely means to the more important issue of securing or maintaining control.
The ego, of course, is not as much in charge of things as it often likes to give the impression is the case. The ego is under constant pressure from a variety of intense lobbying groups that are extremely demanding, temperamenta,l and fickle. Some of these lobby groups are: jealousy, revenge, malice, prejudice, hostility, lethargy, lust, greed, and desire.
When the ego blunders and commits public relation gaffes in its dealings with the external world, the spin doctors of the ego go to work. Their assignment is to try to make things appear as if what everyone knows is the case is not the case. The spin doctors are incessantly trying to give a take or a slant on things which puts the ego in the best possible light with respect to its intentions, motives, and conduct.
In ways reminiscent of its external, political counterpart, the ego is subject to becoming entangled in bribery, corruption, scandals and kick-backs of one sort or another. For the ego, such things are just unfortunate risks it runs, on occasion, in order to get, or keep, its government up and running.
Like many politicians in the external world, the ego doesn't really care what damage it does to others or to the environment in the pursuit of its political agenda. Compassion, generosity, fairness, kindness, servitude, sincerity, honesty, integrity, justice, equality, rights, freedom and so on are, all too frequently, just empty words which are trotted out every so often to enhance the image and dazzle the suckers.
Nonetheless, the ego understands, as do many politicians in the external world of government, some degree of discretion must be exercised in the implementation of its governmental policies. If one steps on too many toes or ruffles too many feathers, there will be negative, perhaps, embarrassing, political fallout. Consequently, the ego tends to play a maxima/minima game. The object of this game is to generate strategies which will permit the ego to give up the least for the most return on its efforts.
Quite a few rational think-tanks in the employ of the ego are set to work on this task. In an attempt to establish, at least, the appearance of order and intelligibility within the world of internal politics, the ego sets up: various planning groups; watchdog committees on ethics; regulatory agencies, and assorted judicial bodies. Unfortunately, like its external world Doppelganger, plans are not carried out; violations of the ethical codes are often overlooked; regulations are not enforced, and a great many arbitrary, unjust, and inconsistent judgements emerge from the appointed judicial bodies.
The ego's short-term and long-term goal is control along with the perks which come with such power. Everything and everybody else must be accommodated to this program.
One of the biggest fears of the ego in this respect concerns the possibility that the rightful heir to leadership of the internal government should seek to return from the exile to which it is has been banished by the ego. The rightful heir is the spiritual essence of the individual.
The ego has powerful resources and allies on which it can call if there is such an uprising. The body, emotions, desires, and the rational mind can all be employed to suppress any move toward spiritual liberation of the homeland. Dirty tricks, negative campaigning, disinformation, filibusters, procedural delays, and terror campaigns can all be used by the ego to prevent the rightful heir from returning to the seat of executive power.
Moreover, the ego can lead the internal government into an emotional and intellectual gridlock so that nothing gets accomplished and, thereby, the status quo is preserved. Fiery, impassioned addresses will be given by the ego. In these speeches, numerous charges of censorship, repression, rights abuses, and curtailment of freedoms will be leveled against the spirit and its supporters. The spirit will be painted as a threat against all that is good and right with the present, incumbent government of the ego.
If necessary, steps will be taken to imprison, or lay siege to, the one who would depose the ego. Various deployment of troops, blockades, minefields, and ambushes can be arranged by the ego for these purposes.
Through years of mismanagement, bungling, neglect, short-sightedness, selfishness, and corruption, the ego has done tremendous damage to the spiritual infrastructure and the ecological balance of the internal world. Therefore, a tremendous amount of work is necessary to bring about a reform of government.
There are many frustrations, setbacks, difficulties, and obstacles involved in such a spiritual reclamation project. Many sacrifices will have to made before the internal government starts operating according to its potential. This, too, the ego will try to use to its tactical advantage. As with all corrupt governments, there is an inertia and malaise which settles on the land. The ego has distributed patronage in various forms. Pleasures, ease influence, status and comfort are at risk if the ego loses control. To resist the flow of things in such a world is extremely hard, dangerous work. It takes a lot of effort.
The ego can offer, in the present, ease, comfort, gratification, diversions, and so on. Alternatively, the spiritual side only can offer a future dream of realizing our essential potential through struggle and sacrifice in the present. The psychological and emotional advantages all seem to be on the side of the ego. Yet, the spirit has a nobility of cause and purpose which resonates very deeply and powerfully in the halls of internal government. The call of spirituality has a purity and integrity which is very appealing and alluring. Furthermore, there is a sense of justice, beauty, and truth inherent in the call of spirituality which cannot even be remotely simulated by the tawdry, impoverished political style of the ego.
The possibility of happiness, peace, satisfaction, contentment and love which are part of the platform on which spirituality runs is very attractive.
Restoring decency, honor, and integrity to internal government is a very complex task. The magnitude of the challenge intimidates many of us. Many of us believe reforming external government is somewhat easier and more practical than to attempt to reform internal government. We often tend to believe, under the influence of the ego, that the problems of the world are generated, for the most part, by others and not by ourselves. Consequently, many people direct their efforts, energies, time and resources toward working on the problems of the governments of the external world. In effect, we embark on a quest which is dedicated to get other people to change in certain desirable ways, when we, ourselves, often are not prepared to change in equivalently desirable ways.
However, according to the Sufi masters, this kind of thinking has its priorities confused. We will not be able to reform the governments of the world until we have reformed our own internal governments. The chaos of the world is but a reflection and projection of the chaos of our internal worlds.
The foregoing priority of the Sufi masters does not mean we have to abandon the external world until after one has completed the task of reforming the internal government. Instead, they suggest we see our interaction with the outside world as opportunities to work toward developing programs, policies, and projects which operate in line with, and give expression to, the spiritual principles necessary for the reform, care, and maintenance of good internal government.
Acting in accordance with the foregoing dialectic cannot help but have, if God wishes, positive, constructive ramifications for enhancing the quality of the social and political atmosphere in the external world. The development of better communities and governments in the external world requires that we repair the problems in our spiritual infrastructure. We, then, need to take the benefits which are made possible by these repairs and invest them in, among other things, rebuilding our families and communities through the spiritual lessons learned while reconstructing the infrastructure of our souls.
Interestingly enough, whatever the accuracy of our perceptions about the political process may be, many of us tend to be oblivious to the quality and character of governmental operations within ourselves. This lack of awareness could be because many of us may not consider what goes on inside of us to be much like a governmental process. However, the politics which goes on in the external world does not rise ex nihilo. It comes from within us. I ndeed, external politics is, in a sense, internal politics writ large.
The characteristics of internal politics are quite similar to properties found in external political processes. For example, there is a need for decision-making and the implementation of such decisions. In addition, within us, there are activities which resemble: think-tanks, spin doctors, lobby groups, image consultants, intelligence-gathering operations, ethics committees, regulatory agencies, judicial review boards, dirty tricks operations, military forces, legislative bodies, prison systems, and revenue generating enterprises. All of the foregoing internal processes affect the character and quality of the decisions made by the individual.
Moreover, because of the problems and pressures generated by the dynamics of the decision-making process, one finds many other features of our inner government which share some common themes with certain aspects of politics. For instance, many of our internal governments are capable, in various ways and degrees, of: biased agendas; partisan politics; corruption; dereliction of duty; human rights violations; grid-lock; revolution (both peaceful and violent); fraudulent conduct; cover-ups; repressive measures; irresponsible spending programs; breaking promises; and both minor as well as major scandals of one sort or another.
Like external governments, our internal governments: make both good and bad decisions. Similarly, our internal governments, like their external counterparts, get both good and bad advice from a variety of sources. Again, like external governments, our internal political systems often are involved in crisis management operations. These operations, frequently, are as much a reflection of the problematic way we govern ourselves than they are an expression of life problems arising independently of our style of mismanaging our internal government.
When the ego is running our internal government, our affairs are in the hands of a politician exemplifying all of the characteristics we tend to associate with the stereotypical bad politician. Indeed, bad politics on whatever level is, in general, a function of the activities of the ego. The ego, like many politicians, tends to be very charismatic and polished in public situations. However, at the same time, the ego is ambitious, vain, and arrogant. The ego knows, as almost any politician does, how to get things accomplished through pushing the right emotional and psychological buttons. In fact, a considerable portion of the resources available to the ego, are expended to gather intelligence about the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the various players in the political game.
In addition, the ego has the gift of gab and is always on the stump making internal political speeches, filled with stirring platitudes, about this and that issue or situation or person. Like its external world twin brother, the ego is forever making solemn promises and undertakings which are rarely kept. The ego, as either head of the internal government or as leader of the 'loyal' opposition, knows how to threaten, cajole, manipulate, flatter, pressure, compromise, bribe, neutralize, and cheat for purposes of political gain.
Political gain, however, is not necessarily measured in terms of worthwhile accomplishments. More often than not, political gain is a matter of doing whatever is required to stay in power or to be able to influence the decision making process in a manner which is favorable to one's interests. The doing of things, whether good or bad, are merely means to the more important issue of securing or maintaining control.
The ego, of course, is not as much in charge of things as it often likes to give the impression is the case. The ego is under constant pressure from a variety of intense lobbying groups that are extremely demanding, temperamenta,l and fickle. Some of these lobby groups are: jealousy, revenge, malice, prejudice, hostility, lethargy, lust, greed, and desire.
When the ego blunders and commits public relation gaffes in its dealings with the external world, the spin doctors of the ego go to work. Their assignment is to try to make things appear as if what everyone knows is the case is not the case. The spin doctors are incessantly trying to give a take or a slant on things which puts the ego in the best possible light with respect to its intentions, motives, and conduct.
In ways reminiscent of its external, political counterpart, the ego is subject to becoming entangled in bribery, corruption, scandals and kick-backs of one sort or another. For the ego, such things are just unfortunate risks it runs, on occasion, in order to get, or keep, its government up and running.
Like many politicians in the external world, the ego doesn't really care what damage it does to others or to the environment in the pursuit of its political agenda. Compassion, generosity, fairness, kindness, servitude, sincerity, honesty, integrity, justice, equality, rights, freedom and so on are, all too frequently, just empty words which are trotted out every so often to enhance the image and dazzle the suckers.
Nonetheless, the ego understands, as do many politicians in the external world of government, some degree of discretion must be exercised in the implementation of its governmental policies. If one steps on too many toes or ruffles too many feathers, there will be negative, perhaps, embarrassing, political fallout. Consequently, the ego tends to play a maxima/minima game. The object of this game is to generate strategies which will permit the ego to give up the least for the most return on its efforts.
Quite a few rational think-tanks in the employ of the ego are set to work on this task. In an attempt to establish, at least, the appearance of order and intelligibility within the world of internal politics, the ego sets up: various planning groups; watchdog committees on ethics; regulatory agencies, and assorted judicial bodies. Unfortunately, like its external world Doppelganger, plans are not carried out; violations of the ethical codes are often overlooked; regulations are not enforced, and a great many arbitrary, unjust, and inconsistent judgements emerge from the appointed judicial bodies.
The ego's short-term and long-term goal is control along with the perks which come with such power. Everything and everybody else must be accommodated to this program.
One of the biggest fears of the ego in this respect concerns the possibility that the rightful heir to leadership of the internal government should seek to return from the exile to which it is has been banished by the ego. The rightful heir is the spiritual essence of the individual.
The ego has powerful resources and allies on which it can call if there is such an uprising. The body, emotions, desires, and the rational mind can all be employed to suppress any move toward spiritual liberation of the homeland. Dirty tricks, negative campaigning, disinformation, filibusters, procedural delays, and terror campaigns can all be used by the ego to prevent the rightful heir from returning to the seat of executive power.
Moreover, the ego can lead the internal government into an emotional and intellectual gridlock so that nothing gets accomplished and, thereby, the status quo is preserved. Fiery, impassioned addresses will be given by the ego. In these speeches, numerous charges of censorship, repression, rights abuses, and curtailment of freedoms will be leveled against the spirit and its supporters. The spirit will be painted as a threat against all that is good and right with the present, incumbent government of the ego.
If necessary, steps will be taken to imprison, or lay siege to, the one who would depose the ego. Various deployment of troops, blockades, minefields, and ambushes can be arranged by the ego for these purposes.
Through years of mismanagement, bungling, neglect, short-sightedness, selfishness, and corruption, the ego has done tremendous damage to the spiritual infrastructure and the ecological balance of the internal world. Therefore, a tremendous amount of work is necessary to bring about a reform of government.
There are many frustrations, setbacks, difficulties, and obstacles involved in such a spiritual reclamation project. Many sacrifices will have to made before the internal government starts operating according to its potential. This, too, the ego will try to use to its tactical advantage. As with all corrupt governments, there is an inertia and malaise which settles on the land. The ego has distributed patronage in various forms. Pleasures, ease influence, status and comfort are at risk if the ego loses control. To resist the flow of things in such a world is extremely hard, dangerous work. It takes a lot of effort.
The ego can offer, in the present, ease, comfort, gratification, diversions, and so on. Alternatively, the spiritual side only can offer a future dream of realizing our essential potential through struggle and sacrifice in the present. The psychological and emotional advantages all seem to be on the side of the ego. Yet, the spirit has a nobility of cause and purpose which resonates very deeply and powerfully in the halls of internal government. The call of spirituality has a purity and integrity which is very appealing and alluring. Furthermore, there is a sense of justice, beauty, and truth inherent in the call of spirituality which cannot even be remotely simulated by the tawdry, impoverished political style of the ego.
The possibility of happiness, peace, satisfaction, contentment and love which are part of the platform on which spirituality runs is very attractive.
Restoring decency, honor, and integrity to internal government is a very complex task. The magnitude of the challenge intimidates many of us. Many of us believe reforming external government is somewhat easier and more practical than to attempt to reform internal government. We often tend to believe, under the influence of the ego, that the problems of the world are generated, for the most part, by others and not by ourselves. Consequently, many people direct their efforts, energies, time and resources toward working on the problems of the governments of the external world. In effect, we embark on a quest which is dedicated to get other people to change in certain desirable ways, when we, ourselves, often are not prepared to change in equivalently desirable ways.
However, according to the Sufi masters, this kind of thinking has its priorities confused. We will not be able to reform the governments of the world until we have reformed our own internal governments. The chaos of the world is but a reflection and projection of the chaos of our internal worlds.
The foregoing priority of the Sufi masters does not mean we have to abandon the external world until after one has completed the task of reforming the internal government. Instead, they suggest we see our interaction with the outside world as opportunities to work toward developing programs, policies, and projects which operate in line with, and give expression to, the spiritual principles necessary for the reform, care, and maintenance of good internal government.
Acting in accordance with the foregoing dialectic cannot help but have, if God wishes, positive, constructive ramifications for enhancing the quality of the social and political atmosphere in the external world. The development of better communities and governments in the external world requires that we repair the problems in our spiritual infrastructure. We, then, need to take the benefits which are made possible by these repairs and invest them in, among other things, rebuilding our families and communities through the spiritual lessons learned while reconstructing the infrastructure of our souls.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Terrorism, 9-11, and Flights 11, 77, 93, and 175 - Did You Know?
- Did you know that prior to September 11, 2001 there were 682 hijackings in the United States -- all of which were responded to appropriately with respect to FAA regulations and Department of Defense protocols covering such situations?
- Did you know that in the year leading up to 9-11, there were at least 56 instances (and by some accounts 67) in which jet interceptors were scambled within minutes of air emergencies being detected?
- Did you know that the White House does not have to give approval for such interceptions to take place and, instead, all such air emergencies are automatically handled by a set of established procedures?
- Did you know that all commerical air flights must adhere to what are called Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) and that all such flights are required to file a flight plan prior to takeoff?
- Did you know that if an air traffic controller determines that radio contact is lost with a flight, or if the flight deviates from its flight plan, or if the transponder for the flight is turned off or becomes inactive, then, the air traffic controller is to immediately contact a superior in the air traffic control center?
- Did you know that if any of the foregoing three problems cannot be resolved within a few minutes, then, the air traffic control center is supposed to contact NORAD and request that jet fighters be scrambled to investigate the matter further and determine by visual contact and on-site (i.e., in-air) inspection the nature of the problem?
- Did you know that if a flight deviates from a filed flight plan by, for example, taking a wrong turn at designated 'fix' points along the flight plan or if such flights deviate from their flight plan by as little as two miles, then, air traffic controllers will contact the plane to advise them of such deviations or to inquire why such deviations have occurred?
- Did you know that if contact with the deviating flight is not established, then, the next step is for the relevant air traffic control center to request that jet fighters be scambled to make a direct, close, on-site (that is, in-air) inspection of the problematic flight?
- Did you know that once a scramble order is given F-15s can reach an altitude of 29,000 feet within two and one-half minutes and attain speeds of over 1800 mph?
- Did you know that when the Lear jet of golfer Payne Stewart missed one of its scheduled fix points by flying north rather than heading west and radio contact could not be established, fighter jets were immediately scrambled to 'eyeball' the situation?
- Did you know that Payne Stewart's plane was a private airplane, carrying only a few passengers, and constituted no immediate threat to: property, large-scale lost of life, or other imminent danger, and, yet, jets were scrambled because the flight was not operating in accordance with its filed flight plan?
- Did you know that within approximately thirty minutes of the time there first were indications of problems with the Stewart flight, military planes were pursuing the errant flight?
- Did you know that response times of the military to air emergencies will vary with the perceived seriousness of the emergency, and, generally speaking, the more resticted the air space in which an emergency occurs, the faster will be the military's response time?
- Did you know that the airspace over, for example, New York and Washington, D.C. is designated as 'prohibited airspace' which constitutes the highest level of restricted airspace, and in incidents involving restricted air space the military response to errant flights in such sectors is supposed to be within minutes?
- Did you know that the FAA usually has a defense liason officer attached to NORAD (North American Aerospace Dense Command) headquarters whose responsibility is to help coordinate and faciliate communications between the FAA and the militatary in order to properly handle air emergencies?
- Did you know that the FAA also has a hijack liason officer (consisting of a Director of the Office of Civil Aviation Security ... or his or her designate) stationed in Washington D.C. and who directly requests the National Military Command Center (NMCC) of the military to scramble jet fighters in the case of confirmed hijackings?
- Did you know that with the exception of situations requiring an immediate response (that is, situations in which lives are likely to be lost, or considerable property damage may occur or human suffering is likely to ensue, or there is some imminent threat), then, FAA requests made to NMCC are passed on to the Department of Defense for further processing by the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other relevant officials?
- Did you know that upon intercepting an errant flight that is non-responsive to radio contact, a jet usually will fly a little above, in front of, and to the left of the errant flight, followed by a rocking of the fighter plane's wings -- which is the established sign that the commercial flight has been intercepted and that the appropriate response is for the plane being signaled to rock its wings acknowledging that it has been intercepted?
- Did you know that if the commercial flight responds properly, then, the jet flighter will perform a slow left turn and will escort the plane back to a proper heading?
- Did you know that if an errant flight does not properly respond to its jet fighter escort's signals, then, there are a set of graduated responses which have been established to induce compliance, such as: making passes in front of the errant plane, firing tracer bullets across the flight of the errant flight, and, under certain conditions, downing the errant flight with a missle?
- Did you know that American Airlines Flight 11 took off at 7:59 a.m. and that United Airlines Flight 175 took off at 8:14 a.m. -- both out of Boston's Logan Airport (each headed for the twin towers) -- while American Airlines Flight 77 out of Dulles Airport took off at 8:20 a.m. (and would, supposedly, eventually target the Pentagon) and United Flight 93 had lift-off around 8:42 a.m.?
- Did you know that American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north side of the north tower at 8:46 a.m., and United Airlines Flight 175 struck the south tower at 9:02, and American Airlines Flight 77 allegedly hit the Pentagon at 9:38 a.m.?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission report, American Airlines Flight 11 missed its first air controller mark at 8:13 when it was instructed to climb to 35, 000 feet and did not respond?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission report, American Airlines Flight 11 turned off its responder (which identifies a plane's location and altitude) at 8: 21 a.m. and that Air Traffic Manager Glen Michael indicated they thought at the time that the turning off of the transponder may have been an indication of a hijacking?
- Did you know that that by 8:24 a.m. the first radio communications were heard by the Boston air control center that Flight 11 had been hijacked?
- Did you know that Boston air traffic control center finally -- after initially failing to follow established FAA protocol -- made contact with the military's NEADS at 8:37 a.m. requesting that planes be scrambled (and according to some NORAD accounts, notification was actually given as early as 8:31 a.m.)?
- Did you know that even after American Flight 11 had not responded to an air traffic control directive, had turned off its identification responder, had given radio communication evidence that the plane was being hijacked, and even after the Boston center had contacted the military that a hijacking was in progress, nonetheless, no jets were scrambled to intercept the commercial flight until approximately 8:46 a.m. (and 8:53 a.m. according to the Commission's report) when jets were scrambled from Otis Air Force Base, some 9 - 15 minutes (depending on whose time line one follows) after being informed that a hijacking was in progress in prohibited air space?
- Did you know that Otis Air Force base is in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but there are a number of Air Force bases much closer to New York such as McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission report Colonel Robert Marr of the New England Air Defense System had to phone General Larry Arnold, head of NORAD's Continental Region center, in order to obtain permission to scramble jets, and, yet, the 9-11 Commission referred to a document from the Department of Defense which stipulates that anyone in the chain of command may authorize the scrambling of jets in response to an air emergency when a request for assistance is made by civil authorities?
- Did you know that the American Airlines headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas has master tapes of the transmissions concerning Flight 11 which have been listened to by some of the families who lost loved ones on 9-11 and which indicate that authorities knew of multiple hijackings considerably before authorities officially acknowledged that such knowledge existed and in contradistinction to the findings of the 9-11 Commission?
- Did you know that John Ogonowski, the captain of American Airlines Flight 11, had activated a 'push-to-talk' switch undetected and that as early as 8:14 a.m. air traffic controllers in Boston were hearing voices from Flight 11 speaking in Arabic and heavily acceted English saying, among other things, that "we have more planes. We have other planes"?
- Did you know that the FAA superiors of the aforementioined air traffic controllers in Boston forbade the latter to talk to anyone about what they had heard from Flight 11?
- Did you know that, based on the foregoing, by 8:14 a.m. the FAA had evidence that at least one plane, and possibly more, had been hijacked, that the multiple hijackings might be connected, and all of this evidence conflicts with the findings of the 9-11 Commission?
- Did you know that prior to being ordered not to talk with anyone about what they (the air traffic controllers at the Boston center) had heard in conjunction with Flight 11, some of those air traffic controllers contacted a manager at Systems Operation Control about what had happened and, yet, several of the managers at SOC indicated that they were going to sit on this information?
- Did you know that if steps had been taken at 8:14 a.m. to authorize commercial flights still on the ground to delay take-off in order to try to counter other possible hijackings, then, at least two, and possibly three, of the other flights involved in the events of 9-11 might have been advantageously affected since Flight 77 out of Dulles (which allegedly hit the Pentagon) did not take off until 8:20 a.m., and United Flight 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania), did not lift off until 8:42 a.m., and even United Flight 175, which took off at 8:14 a.m., could have been authorized to return to the airport?
- Did you know F-15 jet fighters were ordered scambled from Otis Air Force base at 8:46 a.m., and because NEADS supposedly did not know where to direct these fighters (because NEADS officials claimed that the transponder for Flight 11 had been turned off) and, inexplicably, directed the fighters to not only take up a holding pattern of the coast of Long Island but to avoid the New York City area altogether despite the fact that one plane already had crashed into the north tower of the WTC?
- Did you know that transponders are actually not needed to either locate or track a plane by radar?
- Did you know that a number of NORAD officials who were on duty the morning of September 11, 2001 -- including Col. Robert Marr, Lt. Col. Dawne Deskins, and Major General Larry Arnold -- indicate that word of a possible hijacking had reached NORAD between 8:31 and 8:34 a.m. -- some 12-15 minutes before any planes were scrambled from Otis?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission report NORAD did not have knowledge of the hijacking of United Flight 175 until 9:03 a.m. when a phone call reportedly came into NEADS from the New York air traffic control center, and, yet, according to Master Sargent Maureen Dooly, a NORAD official on duty during the morning of September 11, 2001, she and other technicians with her were both tracking Flight 11 as well as connected with the Boston center and were aware by no later than 8:43 a.m. that United Flight 175 had been hijacked -- some 20 minutes before the time stated by the 9-11 Commission report -- and that Maureen's Dooly account is backed up independently by other reports to NORAD by the FAA concerning the hijacking of Flight 175?
- Did you know that F-15s have the capability of reaching speeds of 1875 miles per hour and, therefore, could have reached New York City in as little as 6 minutes and, as a result, arrived as much as 4 minutes before the crash of Flight 175 into the south tower of the WTC?
- Did you know that according to NORAD's data, the F-15s were still 71 miles away at the time of the second crash into the WTC buildings, and these fighters were 71 miles away because they had been ordered not to fly over New York City and because they had been diverted to a holding pattern off the coast of Long Island?
- Did you know that if jet fighters had been scrambled as soon as there was evidence planes were being hijacked with a heading toward New York City (which was between 8:31 and 8:34 a.m.) both of the WTC-headed flights could have been intercepted prior to reaching their targets?
- Did you know that President Bush was aware of the first airplane hitting the north tower of the WTC prior to going to the elementary school in Florida ( around 8: 53 a.m.) and he was aware that it was a commercial flight, and, therefore, when Andrew Card later came into the classroom and whispered in the ear of President Bush that a second plane had hit the WTC and that the country was under attack, the President did nothing for approximately 10 to 20 minutes even as he knew that the United States was being threatened except to remain in the classroom?
- Did you know that, apparently, despite knowing that the World Trade Center had been hit twice (according to Vice President Cheney the Secret Service had established open communications with the FAA as early as 8:46 a.m.) and that the President of the United States was in a vulnerable position, nothing was done by the Secret Service to whisk the President away to a safe and secure location?
- Did you know that according to Richard Clarke at 9:10 a.m. on September 11, 2001, senior officials (including, among others, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice George Tenet, Director of the CIA, Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State, Jane Garvey, FAA Administrator, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, Richard Myers, Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Robert Mueller, Director of the FBI, and officials from NORAD) were hooked up in a video conference to deal with the on-going crisis, and, yet, despite having over 36 minutes to deal with Flight 77 which allegedly crashed into the Pentagon around 9:38 a.m. and nearly an hour to deal with Flight 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania somewhere between 10:03 and 10:10 a.m.), this select group of leaders was, apparently, able to accomplish little or nothing with respect to defending the United States?
- Did you know that American Airlines Flight 77 -- which eventually is supposed to have struck the Pentagon at 9:38 a.m. -- lifted off from Dulles at 8:20 a.m. and that the last transmission from Flight 77 was at 8:50 a.m. when the pilot for that flight acknowledged a directive from air traffic control to climb to a higher altitude?
- Did you know that at 8:56 a.m. Flight 77 was detected deviating from its filed flight plan and moving in a southwesterly direction?
- Did you know that the transponder went off at around 8:56 a.m.?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission report, the radar information concerning Flight 77 was not being displayed to air traffic controllers for a period supposedly lasting at least from 8:56 a.m. to 9:05 a.m., and, therefore, air traffic controllers would not have seen Flight 77 turn back toward Washington, D.C.?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission, Flight 77 traveled through US airspace undetected by FAA radar for some 36 minutes and, yet, no request for assistance was directed to NORAD which is reported to have the most sophisticated and advanced radar system in the world and, in addition, NORAD was not able to detect the fact that there was an unidentified bogey (which is what a plane without an active transponder would be) that was flying toward Washington, D.C. ?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission explains the 'disappearance' of Flight 77 as a matter of software problems that was causing radar information to not be properly processed, but the 9-11 Commission has no evidence to back up its assertion concerning the existence of software problems and, furthermore, the Commission has no explanation for -- nor did it pursue the matter -- of how both FAA primary radar and NORAD's independent radar system were simultaneously having the same kind of 'technical' problems?
- Did you know that there is independent evidence (including radar reconstructions which took place after 9-11) from both the FAA and NORAD which are in contradistinction to the 9-11 Commission's declaration that no one knew that Flight 77 had turned back toward Washington and was enroute toward that city and that, in point of fact, both FAA and NORAD had been tracking most, if not all, of Flight 77's flight path for the entire period which the 9-11 Commission claims that Flight 77 had dropped off the radar screen?
- Did you know that there are some reports indicating that, at the very least, the FAA re-established radar contact with Flight 77 as it flew east over West Virginia ... a full 28 minutes before its alleged rendezvous with the Pentagon -- and in contradistinction to the 9-11 Commission's assertion that NORAD was not informed about Flight 77 until 4 minutes prior to impact (that is, 9:42 a.m.)?
- Did you know that following the testimony of Jane Garvey -- the, then, Administrator for the FAA -- to the Commission, an official statement was read out which indicated that NORAD had been apprised of the hijacking of Flight 77 at 9:24 a.m. -- a full 10 minutes before the time stated by the Commission -- and that, in addition, the FAA had been fully disclosing information to NORAD about events even prior to the 9:24 a.m. point in the time line?
- Did you know that despite the fact that radio contact with Flight 77 had been lost, and despite the fact that Flight 77 deviated from its filed flight plan, and despite the fact that the transponder for Flight 77 was no longer on, and, despite the fact that --according to the 9-11 Commission report -- radar contact with Flight 77 'disappeared' altogether for a period of 32 minutes, no jet fighters were scrambled to investigate the matter -- all in contravention of established protocols for dealing with such emergencies?
- Did you know that F-16s were finally ordered by Major James Fox to scramble from Langley at 9:30 a.m. but were not given a specific target to intercept and, instead, were directed to fly toward Baltimore (not Washington, D.C.) which is the opposite direction in which they should have been flying?
- Did you know that the pilots involved in this scramble order somehow interpreted their mission to go into a holding pattern some 60 miles out to sea rather than fly to Baltimore?
- Did you know that by the time the Pentagon was struck at 9:38 a.m., the F-16s from Langley were 150 miles away from being able to protect Washington, D.C.?
- Did you know that Andrews Air Force base in Maryland is much closer to Washington, D.C. (10 miles) than is Langley Air force Base in Virginia?
- Did you know that unlike the airplane crashes at the World Trade Center towers, the impact at the Pentagon did not produce any significant or noticeable seismic signature, and, yet, supposedly, large commercial airliners were involved in each of the three incidents?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission states that Vice President Cheney was in the Emergency Operations bunker below the White House at 10:00 a.m.?
- Did you know that in contradistinction to the unsubstantiated claim of the 9-11 Commission, both Richard Clarke, Head of Counterterrorism at the White House, and Norman Mineta, the Secretary of Transportation, place Vice President Cheny in the bunker below the White House some 35 minutes earlier than the 10:00 a.m. time line of the 9-11 Commission report?
- Did you know that at 9:25 a.m., after receiving clearance from the White House (in all likelihood Vice President Cheney), Jane Garvey, then Administrator of the FAA, issued a national ground stop order which directs all aircraft -- whether private, commercial, military, or police enforcement -- to land as quickly as is feasibly possible or to refrain from taking off?
- Did you know that the air ban on military fighters was only retracted at 10:31 a.m. September 11, 2001?
- Did you know that according to a 9-11 Commission staff report (17), Vice President Cheney received an order from President Bush to shoot down any hostile aircraft, commercial or otherwise, sometime between 10:10 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. -- after all four hijacked planes had crashed?
- Did you know that while the 9-11 Commission claims that Richard Clarke did not receive the shoot down order until 10:25 a.m., Richard Clarke, himself, reported that he had received a shoot down authorization somewhere between 9:45 and 9:50 a.m.?
- Did you know that according to the standard operating protocols of the Department of Defense and the FAA, it is not necessary to receive an authorization from the President in order for jet fighters to either intercept 'deviant' flights or to proceed through the graduated set of established steps for responding to an air emergency such as a hijacking?
- Did you know that Federal Aviation Deputy Chief Monty Belger was monitoring a target on radar approaching Washington, DC and that a young man was communicating this tracking information to both Cheney and Rice in the Emergency Operations Center beneath the White House, and, yet, no orders were given to evacuate any buildings including the White House, the Capitol building, or the Pentagon?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission report claims that no one in the government knew that an aircraft was approaching the Pentagon until 9:36?
- Did you know that Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, who was in the Emergency Operations Center beneath the White House with Vice President Cheney, testified before the 9-11 Commission that he witnessed a young man continue to update the Vice President about the manner in which the incoming craft was fast approaching Washington, D.C., and Secretary Mineta furthered witnessed the young man ask the Vice President "Do the orders still stand?", to which the Vice President responded by turning his neck around in order to face the man and said: "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?" and this conversation took place between 9:25 a.m. and 9:26 a.m.?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission report simply ignored this testimony of Secretary Mineta in its final report?
- Did you know that the Secret Service who was accompanying the President on his trip to Florida has some of the most advanced telecommunications equipment in the world, and, despite this, the President did not issue his shoot down order until more than an hour and a half after knowledge that hijackings had occurred was well established by both the FAA and NORAD?
- Did you know that NORAD was notified at 10:07 a.m. by the FAA that Flight 93 had been hijacked, but air traffic controllers had known that the plane had been hijacked since at least 9:30 a.m. (CNN reported that the FAA passed on this information as early as 9:16 a.m. and this was corroborated by both the FAA and NORAD), and no one, including the 9-11 Commission, was able to determine why there was a delay of between 37 and 47 minutes minutes in both communicating this information and following established procedures with respect to hijackings?
- Did you know that without evidential justification, the 9-11 Commission simply dismissed the 9:15 a.m. timeline with respect to the Flight 93 hijacking as being "incorrect"?
- Did you know that Flight 93 is reported to have crashed at 10:06 a.m.?
- Did you know that Major David Nash, one of the pilots who had been dispatched from Otis Air Force base in Massachusetts to fly to New York City, indicated that upon returning to base he was informed that an F-16 had shot down an airliner over Pennsylvania?
- Did you know that secondary debris and human remains, as well as part of a jet engine, were found scattered along a path of up to eight miles from the alleged crash site in Pennsylvania of Flight 93 -- facts which are not consistent with a plane having crashed in a field as passengers fought for control of the plane but, on the other hand, such facts are consistent with a plane having been shot down in mid-air?
- Did you know that Major David Nash, one of the pilots who had been dispatched from Otis Air Force base in Massachusetts to fly to New York City, indicated that upon returnining to base he was informed that an F-16 had shot down an airliner over Pennsylvania?
- Did you know that the Bergen County Record in New Jersey reported that five people who live and work near to the crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania said they saw a small, white, unmarked Lear jet flying in an erractic fashion and extremely close to the ground in the vicinity where, and at the time when, Flight 93 was said to have crashed?
- Did you know that the Nashville Register reported that an air traffic controller, despite being instructed to say nothing, stated that there had been an F-16 on the radar screen which was circling, and within visual range of, Flight 93 at the time of its crash in Pennsylvania?
- Did you know that as of September 12, 2006, the Data Recorder for Flight 93 has not been released to the public and that the Voice Recorder, to which some members of the 9-11 families have listened, is inconclusive as to whether, or not, passengers actually were able to gain access to the cockpit prior to the time of the flight's reported crash?
- Did you know that on a consistent basis with respect to each of the four hijackings which took place on 9-11, jet fighters were either not scrambled in a timely fashion, or they were not given the position of the targets that they were suppose to intercept, or were inexplicably sent to air space where they would be ineffective, or they were ordered to stand down, or they were authorized to shoot down a commercial aircraft which the military insists did not take place despite the fact there is considerable evidence which runs counter to the military's position?
- Did you know that there are at least three official stories concerning what happened in relation to the scrambling of jets on September 11, 2001: (1) the one put forth by General Richard Myers, then acting chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Mike Snyder, a spokesperson for NORAD, that no military aircraft were scrambled until after the crash at the Pentagon; (2) the version officially released by NORAD on September 18, 2001 which claimed that FAA failed to inform NORAD in a timely fashion about any of the hijackings and, thereby, made interception of the hijacked planes impossible; and, (3) the position of the 9-11 Commission report which places much of the responsibility for failure to scramble on the incompetance of the FAA -- but all three of these versions are contradicted by established facts?
Did you know that on September 11, 2001, the intelligence community and the military were engaged in at least three war game scenarios -- such as Vigilant Guardian and Northern Vigilence -- which were probing various logistical and strategic themes that had to do with hijackings, air attacks, and terrorism and were were designed to, among other things, test American readiness to effectively deal with such threats?
Did you know that the 9-11 Commission refused to explore the possibility that any of these war games may have interfered, to varying degrees, with the ability of the FAA and the military to efficaciously respond to the 'real' threats of 9-11 -- especially in the light of the fact that some of these war games were using scripted software which would produce simulated attacks on radar screens and in light of the fact that both the FAA and NORAD had reports of several 'phantom' planes which appeared on the radar screens during the interval between 8:45 a.m. and 10:15 a.m.?
Did you know that these war games were planned and implemented despite the fact that both the intelligence community and the Department of Defense were receiving multiple indications from numerous countries (such as Britain, Italy, Germany, France, Russia, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, and Afghanistan) that a terrorist threat was imminent in early September, 2001?
Did you know that there is, supposedly, a missle defense system which is in place which is intended to protect the Pentagon from aerial attack, and if this is true, then, one wonders why that system did not get activated when the Pentagon was attacked?
If you wish to read further on these matters, then, there are a number of books and web sites which not only corroborate the material covered in the foregoing "Did you know" queries, but, as well, these books and websites critically analyze many more issues surrounding the events of 9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond. Even if one wishes to adopt a skeptical stance concerning the implications of the foregoing queries (or the following books/websites), there are a vast array of crucial questions which are left that still require answers -- too many questions of substantial, abiding importance to just let slip away.
Crossing the Rubicon - Michael C. Ruppert, New Society Publishers
The New Pearl Harbor - David Ray Griffin, Olive Branch Press
Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11 David Ray Griffin, John Knox Press
The War On Freedom - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, Tree of Life Publications
The War on Truth - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, Olive Branch Press
Behind the War On Terror - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, New Society Publishers
In addition to the foregoing, you may want to visit the following web sites:
9-11 Video - Raises a lot of important questions
From The Wilderness
911 Truth
Global Outlook - The Magazine of 9-11 Truth Movement
9-11 Research
9-11 Citizen's Watch
- Did you know that in the year leading up to 9-11, there were at least 56 instances (and by some accounts 67) in which jet interceptors were scambled within minutes of air emergencies being detected?
- Did you know that the White House does not have to give approval for such interceptions to take place and, instead, all such air emergencies are automatically handled by a set of established procedures?
- Did you know that all commerical air flights must adhere to what are called Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) and that all such flights are required to file a flight plan prior to takeoff?
- Did you know that if an air traffic controller determines that radio contact is lost with a flight, or if the flight deviates from its flight plan, or if the transponder for the flight is turned off or becomes inactive, then, the air traffic controller is to immediately contact a superior in the air traffic control center?
- Did you know that if any of the foregoing three problems cannot be resolved within a few minutes, then, the air traffic control center is supposed to contact NORAD and request that jet fighters be scrambled to investigate the matter further and determine by visual contact and on-site (i.e., in-air) inspection the nature of the problem?
- Did you know that if a flight deviates from a filed flight plan by, for example, taking a wrong turn at designated 'fix' points along the flight plan or if such flights deviate from their flight plan by as little as two miles, then, air traffic controllers will contact the plane to advise them of such deviations or to inquire why such deviations have occurred?
- Did you know that if contact with the deviating flight is not established, then, the next step is for the relevant air traffic control center to request that jet fighters be scambled to make a direct, close, on-site (that is, in-air) inspection of the problematic flight?
- Did you know that once a scramble order is given F-15s can reach an altitude of 29,000 feet within two and one-half minutes and attain speeds of over 1800 mph?
- Did you know that when the Lear jet of golfer Payne Stewart missed one of its scheduled fix points by flying north rather than heading west and radio contact could not be established, fighter jets were immediately scrambled to 'eyeball' the situation?
- Did you know that Payne Stewart's plane was a private airplane, carrying only a few passengers, and constituted no immediate threat to: property, large-scale lost of life, or other imminent danger, and, yet, jets were scrambled because the flight was not operating in accordance with its filed flight plan?
- Did you know that within approximately thirty minutes of the time there first were indications of problems with the Stewart flight, military planes were pursuing the errant flight?
- Did you know that response times of the military to air emergencies will vary with the perceived seriousness of the emergency, and, generally speaking, the more resticted the air space in which an emergency occurs, the faster will be the military's response time?
- Did you know that the airspace over, for example, New York and Washington, D.C. is designated as 'prohibited airspace' which constitutes the highest level of restricted airspace, and in incidents involving restricted air space the military response to errant flights in such sectors is supposed to be within minutes?
- Did you know that the FAA usually has a defense liason officer attached to NORAD (North American Aerospace Dense Command) headquarters whose responsibility is to help coordinate and faciliate communications between the FAA and the militatary in order to properly handle air emergencies?
- Did you know that the FAA also has a hijack liason officer (consisting of a Director of the Office of Civil Aviation Security ... or his or her designate) stationed in Washington D.C. and who directly requests the National Military Command Center (NMCC) of the military to scramble jet fighters in the case of confirmed hijackings?
- Did you know that with the exception of situations requiring an immediate response (that is, situations in which lives are likely to be lost, or considerable property damage may occur or human suffering is likely to ensue, or there is some imminent threat), then, FAA requests made to NMCC are passed on to the Department of Defense for further processing by the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other relevant officials?
- Did you know that upon intercepting an errant flight that is non-responsive to radio contact, a jet usually will fly a little above, in front of, and to the left of the errant flight, followed by a rocking of the fighter plane's wings -- which is the established sign that the commercial flight has been intercepted and that the appropriate response is for the plane being signaled to rock its wings acknowledging that it has been intercepted?
- Did you know that if the commercial flight responds properly, then, the jet flighter will perform a slow left turn and will escort the plane back to a proper heading?
- Did you know that if an errant flight does not properly respond to its jet fighter escort's signals, then, there are a set of graduated responses which have been established to induce compliance, such as: making passes in front of the errant plane, firing tracer bullets across the flight of the errant flight, and, under certain conditions, downing the errant flight with a missle?
- Did you know that American Airlines Flight 11 took off at 7:59 a.m. and that United Airlines Flight 175 took off at 8:14 a.m. -- both out of Boston's Logan Airport (each headed for the twin towers) -- while American Airlines Flight 77 out of Dulles Airport took off at 8:20 a.m. (and would, supposedly, eventually target the Pentagon) and United Flight 93 had lift-off around 8:42 a.m.?
- Did you know that American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north side of the north tower at 8:46 a.m., and United Airlines Flight 175 struck the south tower at 9:02, and American Airlines Flight 77 allegedly hit the Pentagon at 9:38 a.m.?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission report, American Airlines Flight 11 missed its first air controller mark at 8:13 when it was instructed to climb to 35, 000 feet and did not respond?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission report, American Airlines Flight 11 turned off its responder (which identifies a plane's location and altitude) at 8: 21 a.m. and that Air Traffic Manager Glen Michael indicated they thought at the time that the turning off of the transponder may have been an indication of a hijacking?
- Did you know that that by 8:24 a.m. the first radio communications were heard by the Boston air control center that Flight 11 had been hijacked?
- Did you know that Boston air traffic control center finally -- after initially failing to follow established FAA protocol -- made contact with the military's NEADS at 8:37 a.m. requesting that planes be scrambled (and according to some NORAD accounts, notification was actually given as early as 8:31 a.m.)?
- Did you know that even after American Flight 11 had not responded to an air traffic control directive, had turned off its identification responder, had given radio communication evidence that the plane was being hijacked, and even after the Boston center had contacted the military that a hijacking was in progress, nonetheless, no jets were scrambled to intercept the commercial flight until approximately 8:46 a.m. (and 8:53 a.m. according to the Commission's report) when jets were scrambled from Otis Air Force Base, some 9 - 15 minutes (depending on whose time line one follows) after being informed that a hijacking was in progress in prohibited air space?
- Did you know that Otis Air Force base is in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but there are a number of Air Force bases much closer to New York such as McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission report Colonel Robert Marr of the New England Air Defense System had to phone General Larry Arnold, head of NORAD's Continental Region center, in order to obtain permission to scramble jets, and, yet, the 9-11 Commission referred to a document from the Department of Defense which stipulates that anyone in the chain of command may authorize the scrambling of jets in response to an air emergency when a request for assistance is made by civil authorities?
- Did you know that the American Airlines headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas has master tapes of the transmissions concerning Flight 11 which have been listened to by some of the families who lost loved ones on 9-11 and which indicate that authorities knew of multiple hijackings considerably before authorities officially acknowledged that such knowledge existed and in contradistinction to the findings of the 9-11 Commission?
- Did you know that John Ogonowski, the captain of American Airlines Flight 11, had activated a 'push-to-talk' switch undetected and that as early as 8:14 a.m. air traffic controllers in Boston were hearing voices from Flight 11 speaking in Arabic and heavily acceted English saying, among other things, that "we have more planes. We have other planes"?
- Did you know that the FAA superiors of the aforementioined air traffic controllers in Boston forbade the latter to talk to anyone about what they had heard from Flight 11?
- Did you know that, based on the foregoing, by 8:14 a.m. the FAA had evidence that at least one plane, and possibly more, had been hijacked, that the multiple hijackings might be connected, and all of this evidence conflicts with the findings of the 9-11 Commission?
- Did you know that prior to being ordered not to talk with anyone about what they (the air traffic controllers at the Boston center) had heard in conjunction with Flight 11, some of those air traffic controllers contacted a manager at Systems Operation Control about what had happened and, yet, several of the managers at SOC indicated that they were going to sit on this information?
- Did you know that if steps had been taken at 8:14 a.m. to authorize commercial flights still on the ground to delay take-off in order to try to counter other possible hijackings, then, at least two, and possibly three, of the other flights involved in the events of 9-11 might have been advantageously affected since Flight 77 out of Dulles (which allegedly hit the Pentagon) did not take off until 8:20 a.m., and United Flight 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania), did not lift off until 8:42 a.m., and even United Flight 175, which took off at 8:14 a.m., could have been authorized to return to the airport?
- Did you know F-15 jet fighters were ordered scambled from Otis Air Force base at 8:46 a.m., and because NEADS supposedly did not know where to direct these fighters (because NEADS officials claimed that the transponder for Flight 11 had been turned off) and, inexplicably, directed the fighters to not only take up a holding pattern of the coast of Long Island but to avoid the New York City area altogether despite the fact that one plane already had crashed into the north tower of the WTC?
- Did you know that transponders are actually not needed to either locate or track a plane by radar?
- Did you know that a number of NORAD officials who were on duty the morning of September 11, 2001 -- including Col. Robert Marr, Lt. Col. Dawne Deskins, and Major General Larry Arnold -- indicate that word of a possible hijacking had reached NORAD between 8:31 and 8:34 a.m. -- some 12-15 minutes before any planes were scrambled from Otis?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission report NORAD did not have knowledge of the hijacking of United Flight 175 until 9:03 a.m. when a phone call reportedly came into NEADS from the New York air traffic control center, and, yet, according to Master Sargent Maureen Dooly, a NORAD official on duty during the morning of September 11, 2001, she and other technicians with her were both tracking Flight 11 as well as connected with the Boston center and were aware by no later than 8:43 a.m. that United Flight 175 had been hijacked -- some 20 minutes before the time stated by the 9-11 Commission report -- and that Maureen's Dooly account is backed up independently by other reports to NORAD by the FAA concerning the hijacking of Flight 175?
- Did you know that F-15s have the capability of reaching speeds of 1875 miles per hour and, therefore, could have reached New York City in as little as 6 minutes and, as a result, arrived as much as 4 minutes before the crash of Flight 175 into the south tower of the WTC?
- Did you know that according to NORAD's data, the F-15s were still 71 miles away at the time of the second crash into the WTC buildings, and these fighters were 71 miles away because they had been ordered not to fly over New York City and because they had been diverted to a holding pattern off the coast of Long Island?
- Did you know that if jet fighters had been scrambled as soon as there was evidence planes were being hijacked with a heading toward New York City (which was between 8:31 and 8:34 a.m.) both of the WTC-headed flights could have been intercepted prior to reaching their targets?
- Did you know that President Bush was aware of the first airplane hitting the north tower of the WTC prior to going to the elementary school in Florida ( around 8: 53 a.m.) and he was aware that it was a commercial flight, and, therefore, when Andrew Card later came into the classroom and whispered in the ear of President Bush that a second plane had hit the WTC and that the country was under attack, the President did nothing for approximately 10 to 20 minutes even as he knew that the United States was being threatened except to remain in the classroom?
- Did you know that, apparently, despite knowing that the World Trade Center had been hit twice (according to Vice President Cheney the Secret Service had established open communications with the FAA as early as 8:46 a.m.) and that the President of the United States was in a vulnerable position, nothing was done by the Secret Service to whisk the President away to a safe and secure location?
- Did you know that according to Richard Clarke at 9:10 a.m. on September 11, 2001, senior officials (including, among others, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice George Tenet, Director of the CIA, Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State, Jane Garvey, FAA Administrator, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, Richard Myers, Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Robert Mueller, Director of the FBI, and officials from NORAD) were hooked up in a video conference to deal with the on-going crisis, and, yet, despite having over 36 minutes to deal with Flight 77 which allegedly crashed into the Pentagon around 9:38 a.m. and nearly an hour to deal with Flight 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania somewhere between 10:03 and 10:10 a.m.), this select group of leaders was, apparently, able to accomplish little or nothing with respect to defending the United States?
- Did you know that American Airlines Flight 77 -- which eventually is supposed to have struck the Pentagon at 9:38 a.m. -- lifted off from Dulles at 8:20 a.m. and that the last transmission from Flight 77 was at 8:50 a.m. when the pilot for that flight acknowledged a directive from air traffic control to climb to a higher altitude?
- Did you know that at 8:56 a.m. Flight 77 was detected deviating from its filed flight plan and moving in a southwesterly direction?
- Did you know that the transponder went off at around 8:56 a.m.?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission report, the radar information concerning Flight 77 was not being displayed to air traffic controllers for a period supposedly lasting at least from 8:56 a.m. to 9:05 a.m., and, therefore, air traffic controllers would not have seen Flight 77 turn back toward Washington, D.C.?
- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission, Flight 77 traveled through US airspace undetected by FAA radar for some 36 minutes and, yet, no request for assistance was directed to NORAD which is reported to have the most sophisticated and advanced radar system in the world and, in addition, NORAD was not able to detect the fact that there was an unidentified bogey (which is what a plane without an active transponder would be) that was flying toward Washington, D.C. ?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission explains the 'disappearance' of Flight 77 as a matter of software problems that was causing radar information to not be properly processed, but the 9-11 Commission has no evidence to back up its assertion concerning the existence of software problems and, furthermore, the Commission has no explanation for -- nor did it pursue the matter -- of how both FAA primary radar and NORAD's independent radar system were simultaneously having the same kind of 'technical' problems?
- Did you know that there is independent evidence (including radar reconstructions which took place after 9-11) from both the FAA and NORAD which are in contradistinction to the 9-11 Commission's declaration that no one knew that Flight 77 had turned back toward Washington and was enroute toward that city and that, in point of fact, both FAA and NORAD had been tracking most, if not all, of Flight 77's flight path for the entire period which the 9-11 Commission claims that Flight 77 had dropped off the radar screen?
- Did you know that there are some reports indicating that, at the very least, the FAA re-established radar contact with Flight 77 as it flew east over West Virginia ... a full 28 minutes before its alleged rendezvous with the Pentagon -- and in contradistinction to the 9-11 Commission's assertion that NORAD was not informed about Flight 77 until 4 minutes prior to impact (that is, 9:42 a.m.)?
- Did you know that following the testimony of Jane Garvey -- the, then, Administrator for the FAA -- to the Commission, an official statement was read out which indicated that NORAD had been apprised of the hijacking of Flight 77 at 9:24 a.m. -- a full 10 minutes before the time stated by the Commission -- and that, in addition, the FAA had been fully disclosing information to NORAD about events even prior to the 9:24 a.m. point in the time line?
- Did you know that despite the fact that radio contact with Flight 77 had been lost, and despite the fact that Flight 77 deviated from its filed flight plan, and despite the fact that the transponder for Flight 77 was no longer on, and, despite the fact that --according to the 9-11 Commission report -- radar contact with Flight 77 'disappeared' altogether for a period of 32 minutes, no jet fighters were scrambled to investigate the matter -- all in contravention of established protocols for dealing with such emergencies?
- Did you know that F-16s were finally ordered by Major James Fox to scramble from Langley at 9:30 a.m. but were not given a specific target to intercept and, instead, were directed to fly toward Baltimore (not Washington, D.C.) which is the opposite direction in which they should have been flying?
- Did you know that the pilots involved in this scramble order somehow interpreted their mission to go into a holding pattern some 60 miles out to sea rather than fly to Baltimore?
- Did you know that by the time the Pentagon was struck at 9:38 a.m., the F-16s from Langley were 150 miles away from being able to protect Washington, D.C.?
- Did you know that Andrews Air Force base in Maryland is much closer to Washington, D.C. (10 miles) than is Langley Air force Base in Virginia?
- Did you know that unlike the airplane crashes at the World Trade Center towers, the impact at the Pentagon did not produce any significant or noticeable seismic signature, and, yet, supposedly, large commercial airliners were involved in each of the three incidents?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission states that Vice President Cheney was in the Emergency Operations bunker below the White House at 10:00 a.m.?
- Did you know that in contradistinction to the unsubstantiated claim of the 9-11 Commission, both Richard Clarke, Head of Counterterrorism at the White House, and Norman Mineta, the Secretary of Transportation, place Vice President Cheny in the bunker below the White House some 35 minutes earlier than the 10:00 a.m. time line of the 9-11 Commission report?
- Did you know that at 9:25 a.m., after receiving clearance from the White House (in all likelihood Vice President Cheney), Jane Garvey, then Administrator of the FAA, issued a national ground stop order which directs all aircraft -- whether private, commercial, military, or police enforcement -- to land as quickly as is feasibly possible or to refrain from taking off?
- Did you know that the air ban on military fighters was only retracted at 10:31 a.m. September 11, 2001?
- Did you know that according to a 9-11 Commission staff report (17), Vice President Cheney received an order from President Bush to shoot down any hostile aircraft, commercial or otherwise, sometime between 10:10 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. -- after all four hijacked planes had crashed?
- Did you know that while the 9-11 Commission claims that Richard Clarke did not receive the shoot down order until 10:25 a.m., Richard Clarke, himself, reported that he had received a shoot down authorization somewhere between 9:45 and 9:50 a.m.?
- Did you know that according to the standard operating protocols of the Department of Defense and the FAA, it is not necessary to receive an authorization from the President in order for jet fighters to either intercept 'deviant' flights or to proceed through the graduated set of established steps for responding to an air emergency such as a hijacking?
- Did you know that Federal Aviation Deputy Chief Monty Belger was monitoring a target on radar approaching Washington, DC and that a young man was communicating this tracking information to both Cheney and Rice in the Emergency Operations Center beneath the White House, and, yet, no orders were given to evacuate any buildings including the White House, the Capitol building, or the Pentagon?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission report claims that no one in the government knew that an aircraft was approaching the Pentagon until 9:36?
- Did you know that Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, who was in the Emergency Operations Center beneath the White House with Vice President Cheney, testified before the 9-11 Commission that he witnessed a young man continue to update the Vice President about the manner in which the incoming craft was fast approaching Washington, D.C., and Secretary Mineta furthered witnessed the young man ask the Vice President "Do the orders still stand?", to which the Vice President responded by turning his neck around in order to face the man and said: "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?" and this conversation took place between 9:25 a.m. and 9:26 a.m.?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission report simply ignored this testimony of Secretary Mineta in its final report?
- Did you know that the Secret Service who was accompanying the President on his trip to Florida has some of the most advanced telecommunications equipment in the world, and, despite this, the President did not issue his shoot down order until more than an hour and a half after knowledge that hijackings had occurred was well established by both the FAA and NORAD?
- Did you know that NORAD was notified at 10:07 a.m. by the FAA that Flight 93 had been hijacked, but air traffic controllers had known that the plane had been hijacked since at least 9:30 a.m. (CNN reported that the FAA passed on this information as early as 9:16 a.m. and this was corroborated by both the FAA and NORAD), and no one, including the 9-11 Commission, was able to determine why there was a delay of between 37 and 47 minutes minutes in both communicating this information and following established procedures with respect to hijackings?
- Did you know that without evidential justification, the 9-11 Commission simply dismissed the 9:15 a.m. timeline with respect to the Flight 93 hijacking as being "incorrect"?
- Did you know that Flight 93 is reported to have crashed at 10:06 a.m.?
- Did you know that Major David Nash, one of the pilots who had been dispatched from Otis Air Force base in Massachusetts to fly to New York City, indicated that upon returning to base he was informed that an F-16 had shot down an airliner over Pennsylvania?
- Did you know that secondary debris and human remains, as well as part of a jet engine, were found scattered along a path of up to eight miles from the alleged crash site in Pennsylvania of Flight 93 -- facts which are not consistent with a plane having crashed in a field as passengers fought for control of the plane but, on the other hand, such facts are consistent with a plane having been shot down in mid-air?
- Did you know that Major David Nash, one of the pilots who had been dispatched from Otis Air Force base in Massachusetts to fly to New York City, indicated that upon returnining to base he was informed that an F-16 had shot down an airliner over Pennsylvania?
- Did you know that the Bergen County Record in New Jersey reported that five people who live and work near to the crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania said they saw a small, white, unmarked Lear jet flying in an erractic fashion and extremely close to the ground in the vicinity where, and at the time when, Flight 93 was said to have crashed?
- Did you know that the Nashville Register reported that an air traffic controller, despite being instructed to say nothing, stated that there had been an F-16 on the radar screen which was circling, and within visual range of, Flight 93 at the time of its crash in Pennsylvania?
- Did you know that as of September 12, 2006, the Data Recorder for Flight 93 has not been released to the public and that the Voice Recorder, to which some members of the 9-11 families have listened, is inconclusive as to whether, or not, passengers actually were able to gain access to the cockpit prior to the time of the flight's reported crash?
- Did you know that on a consistent basis with respect to each of the four hijackings which took place on 9-11, jet fighters were either not scrambled in a timely fashion, or they were not given the position of the targets that they were suppose to intercept, or were inexplicably sent to air space where they would be ineffective, or they were ordered to stand down, or they were authorized to shoot down a commercial aircraft which the military insists did not take place despite the fact there is considerable evidence which runs counter to the military's position?
- Did you know that there are at least three official stories concerning what happened in relation to the scrambling of jets on September 11, 2001: (1) the one put forth by General Richard Myers, then acting chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Mike Snyder, a spokesperson for NORAD, that no military aircraft were scrambled until after the crash at the Pentagon; (2) the version officially released by NORAD on September 18, 2001 which claimed that FAA failed to inform NORAD in a timely fashion about any of the hijackings and, thereby, made interception of the hijacked planes impossible; and, (3) the position of the 9-11 Commission report which places much of the responsibility for failure to scramble on the incompetance of the FAA -- but all three of these versions are contradicted by established facts?
Did you know that on September 11, 2001, the intelligence community and the military were engaged in at least three war game scenarios -- such as Vigilant Guardian and Northern Vigilence -- which were probing various logistical and strategic themes that had to do with hijackings, air attacks, and terrorism and were were designed to, among other things, test American readiness to effectively deal with such threats?
Did you know that the 9-11 Commission refused to explore the possibility that any of these war games may have interfered, to varying degrees, with the ability of the FAA and the military to efficaciously respond to the 'real' threats of 9-11 -- especially in the light of the fact that some of these war games were using scripted software which would produce simulated attacks on radar screens and in light of the fact that both the FAA and NORAD had reports of several 'phantom' planes which appeared on the radar screens during the interval between 8:45 a.m. and 10:15 a.m.?
Did you know that these war games were planned and implemented despite the fact that both the intelligence community and the Department of Defense were receiving multiple indications from numerous countries (such as Britain, Italy, Germany, France, Russia, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, and Afghanistan) that a terrorist threat was imminent in early September, 2001?
Did you know that there is, supposedly, a missle defense system which is in place which is intended to protect the Pentagon from aerial attack, and if this is true, then, one wonders why that system did not get activated when the Pentagon was attacked?
If you wish to read further on these matters, then, there are a number of books and web sites which not only corroborate the material covered in the foregoing "Did you know" queries, but, as well, these books and websites critically analyze many more issues surrounding the events of 9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond. Even if one wishes to adopt a skeptical stance concerning the implications of the foregoing queries (or the following books/websites), there are a vast array of crucial questions which are left that still require answers -- too many questions of substantial, abiding importance to just let slip away.
Crossing the Rubicon - Michael C. Ruppert, New Society Publishers
The New Pearl Harbor - David Ray Griffin, Olive Branch Press
Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11 David Ray Griffin, John Knox Press
The War On Freedom - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, Tree of Life Publications
The War on Truth - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, Olive Branch Press
Behind the War On Terror - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, New Society Publishers
In addition to the foregoing, you may want to visit the following web sites:
9-11 Video - Raises a lot of important questions
From The Wilderness
911 Truth
Global Outlook - The Magazine of 9-11 Truth Movement
9-11 Research
9-11 Citizen's Watch
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Terrorism, 9-11, World Trade Center - Did You Know?
- Did you know that prior to, and following, the September 11, 2001 destruction of the north and south towers of the World Trade Center (along with the 47-storey Building 7 -- some 350 yards away), there has not been one high-rise, steel-framed building anywhere in the world which collapsed due to burning?
- Did you know that according to the "official, government" account of the events of September 11, 2001 all three of the foregoing steel-framed buildings had metal pilings which were weakened due to extreme heat and these weakened pilings led to the eventual 'pancake' collapse of all three World Trade Center buildings?
- Did you know that both the north and south towers of the World Trade Center were constructed using a set of 47 massive steel columns running around the inner core of these buildings and, in addition, there were 236 steel columns running along the periphery of each of these buildings?
- Did you know that Building 7, a 47 storey-building and part of the World Trade tower complex, was constructed with 24 massive steel columns running around the core of the building, together with 57 perimeter steel columns?
- Did you know that Building 7, which is some 350 yards from the twin towers, was not struck by an airplane, but it collapsed?
- Did you know that the "official" government story is that the diesel fuel stored in Building 7 somehow caught fire and engulfed the building in a raging inferno?
- Did you know that according to photographic evidence, the fires which were burning at Building 7 were not substantial and were limited to scattered areas on only a few floors?
- Did you know that in the report prepared by FEMA concerning, among other things, the collapse of Building 7, very little credibility was given to the idea that the diesel fuel being stored in Building 7 caught fire and caused the building to collapse, and part of the reason for the low credibility of that hypothesis is no one has advanced a plausible explanation about how the diesel fuel stored in the building caught fire?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission did not explore the circumstances surrounding the collapse of Building 7?
- Did you know that very few of the peripheral steel columns of either of the twin tower buildings were lost due to the impact of the planes and that the building was specifically designed to retain their structural integrity by means of the remaining, intact peripheral and core columns in the event of damage due to commercial airline crashes, hurricanes, and other calamities?
- Did you know that steel starts to melt around 2800 degrees Fahrenheit, but hydrocarbon fires arising from, say, burning jet fuel would not reach more than 1700 degrees Fahrenheit ... or 1100 degrees Fahrenheit less than what would have been necessary to melt any one section of the 47/24 core columns or the 236/57 perimeter columns, let alone all 47/24 of the core columns or all 236/57 of the perimeter columns of the three World Trade Center buildings?
- Did you know that in order for steel to melt, the steel would have to be exposed to a sustained source of, at least, 2800 degrees Fahrenheit ... brief or very limited exposure to such high temperatures is not enough?
- Did you know that some experts who support the government's "official story" concerning the events of 9-11 say that if steel is heated to a temperature of 1300 degrees Fahrenheit, then, the steel will lose 80 percent of its strength? But, did you know that these same experts tend to leave out the fact that one would have to subject such steel to a very, very high source of heat for a considerable period of time in order to heat even one portion of a massive column of steel to 1300 degrees Fahrenheit?
- Did you know if one were to heat one section of a steel column that heat transfer would tend to radiate away some of the heat from the section being heated, thereby, making it harder to attain and sustain 1300 degrees Fahrenheit at any given point?
- Did you know that in 2004 a fire raged for 17 hours in a 54-story steel-frame building in Caracas, Venezuela and that the intensity of the fire was such that it completely gutted the top 23 stories of the building, and, yet, the building did not collapse?
- Did you know that in 1991 a fire burned in a steel-structure building (One Meridian Plaza) in Philadelphia for 18 hours with such intensity that 8 out of 38 stories were gutted and even though many of the building's beams and girders sagged and twisted due to being exposed to the intense heat for such a long period of time, yet, the building did not collapse?
- Did you know that less than fifteen minutes after the second of the twin towers was hit, photographs of the towers, as well as the testimony of both firefighters and people temporarily trapped in those buildings, indicate that the fires in the buildings were only scattered and slight, as well as not being even sufficiently hot, in most places, to either melt or break the exterior glass of the buildings?
- Did you know that although the south tower of the WTC was hit second, suffered less structural damage than the north tower, and exhibited fewer fires than the north tower, nonetheless, the south tower collapsed first, some 56 minutes after being struck by the airplane?
- Did you know that the north tower collapsed 1 hour and 42 minutes after being struck ?
- Did you know that tests were carried out in Great Britain during the 1990s in order to investigate the extent of damage which might occur if steel beam structures were enveloped in high-intensity heat (1500 - 1700 degrees Fahrenheit) for many hours (4), and no collapse of the steel beams was observed in any of these experiments?
- Did you know that video and photographic evidence indicates that when the south tower started to collapse, the collapse began at a point much lower than the point where the airplane struck the building and much lower than where fires were burning?
- Did you know that there was a rumor (started by whom?) circulating in conjunction with the events of 9-11 at the World Trade Center that the fuel from the commercial jets which struck the buildings leaked into the pit formed by the core of the building and started intense fires throughout the twin towers, and, yet, there is not any evidence supporting this rumor or any evidence to indicate how the fuel was ignited on the lower levels or how the fire escaped from the core into the interior of the buildings or what the fire fed on until it could find its way into the offices on the lower levels?
- Did you know that even if it were the case that some steel pilings -- whether peripheral or core -- were heated sufficiently so that they lost a substantial portion of their strength and, as a result, buckled, thereby, starting a pancake-domino effect which brought the buildings down, nonetheless, the pancaking would not have been symmetrical (which would require that all 47 core and all 236 peripheral steel columns weakened and buckled at precisely the same time and in precisely the same way) but would have been highly asymmetrical and that this is direct contradiction of the video evidence with respect to the collapse of the two twin towers?
- Did you know that there is absolutely no evidence that any of the 47/24 massive core columns in the three WTC buildings that collapsed were subjected to the sort of intense heat for extended periods of time which would have been necessary to weaken those columns?
- Did you know that of the 16 perimeter beams from the World Trade Center that were examined, only three showed evidence of having been subjected to temperatures higher than 482 degrees Fahrenheit ( far below the 1300 degrees Farenheit needed to structurally weaken steel provided that the steel is heated for a a sufficiently long enough period at such an elevated temperature) and, in addition, there is absolutely zero evidence that any of the core steel columns were subjected to temperatures even as high as 482 degrees of Fahrenheit?
- Did you know that criminal evidence was removed from the World Trade Center complex (and ramming two commercial jets into buildings resulting in substantial lost of life is a criminal offense many times over) when the metal wreckage from the buildings (more than 100 tons of it) was carted away and sold to companies overseas before the evidence could be rigorously analyzed to be able to reconstruct exactly what did cause the WTC buildings to collapse?
- Did you know that all three of the World Trade Center buildings which collapsed did so at very close to free-fall rates of speed (i.e., free fall would occur if one were to drop an apple off the top of any of these buildings and there was nothing, but air, resisting the fall of this body)?
- Did you know that if the pancake theory of collapse for the three buildings were correct, then, the steel frame and concrete materials below each collapsing floor should have provided resistance to the collapse and, thereby, produced a rate of collapse much slower than what was actually observed and recorded by video with respect to each of the WTC buildings?
- Did you know that when tall, many-storied buildings fall at, or very near, to a free-fall rate that this is evidence for concluding that the building collpsed due to "implosion", or controlled demolition, rather than as a result of a random, pancaking effect due to fire-weakened, buckling beams and girders?
- Did you know that there are only a few companies in the world with the experience and expertise necessary to collapse tall skyscapers in a controlled way that directs the building to collapse straight down into its own "footprint" -- that is the area circumscribed by the buildings foundation?
- Did you know that part of the art and science of implosions or controlled explosions in relation to collapsing skyscrapers is to set the explosive charges so that they go off in a precise sequence that removes the concrete, steel girders and beams from the floor below the one which is collapsing in order that the collapsing floor will meet with neither resistance (and, thus, the free-fall-like signature of imploding skyscrapers) nor anything which would interfere with the symmetrical collapse of each floor (and, thus, the symmetrical collapse into the building's footprint)?
- Did you know that the report issued by the NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology) put forth a theory -- entirely unsupported by any forensic evidence -- that the destruction of the twin towers came about as collapsing floors tugged on the perimeter columns of each of these buildings, resulting in a structural instability in these peripheral beams that increased the overall gravity load on the core columns, thereby, leading to a 'global' collapse of the buildings?
- Did you know that besides lacking any actual evidence to substantiate the NIST theory for building collapse, the NIST theory cannot explain either the quality of near free-speeds of the collapse of the three WTC buildings nor can that theory explain the symmetrical footprint property of all three collapsing WTC buildings -- in fact, the NIST theory would only be consistent with a non-free-fall-like collapse which was very asymmetrical ... neither of which was observed in the collapsing WTC buildings?
- Furthermore, did you know that if the government's "officially-adopted pancake theory" were true, then, there very likely would have been massive, largely intact, steel columns -- both core and peripheral -- that still would be standing (albeit, possibly, bent and twisted a little) from the 110 story original structures and that these steel columns would likely extend upward many, many stories into the sky rather than having collapsed into a relatively small, compact, several story-high heap of wreckage?
- Did you know that in controlled demolitions of skyscrapers high explosives such as RDX are used in order to slice through the steel beams and girders like a hot knife through butter and, in the process, cut the beams and girders into much smaller manageable lengths of steel that will both take away resistance to the free-fall-like collapse of the building and, as well, help bring the building down in a symmetrical way within a relatively well-defined, compact footprint landing area?
- Did you know that the same high explosives which are used to slice up the core and peripheral steel columns of a skyscraper are powerful enough to reduce all non-metallic components of the building (such as poured concrete) into powder?
- Did you know that a certain amount of evidence concerning the presence of evaporation as well as sulfidation of steel was found amidst the wreckage of the World Trade Center and that both of these findings are consistent with the idea that there was a detonation of high explosives in the three WTC buildings but inconsistent with a pancake theory driven entirely by the theory that allegedly weakened beams and girders created instability which led, in turn, to a global, gravitational-based collapse of the buildings?
- Did you know that the "official" pancake theory adopted by the government would not have reduced the concrete portions of the three WTC buildings to powder but, instead, would have yielded much larger chunks of concrete because the energy generated through the force of gravity of uncontrolled collapsing buildings would not have been sufficient to be able to produce pulverized powder particles?
- Did you know that for the most part, evidence indicates that the non-metallic portions of the three WTC buildings which collapsed were pulverized into relatively small particles rather than the much larger chunks of concrete one would expect to find if the "official" story concerning the collapsed buildings were true?
- Did you know that there were a large number of independent reports (many from firefighters who were familiar with such phenomena) indicating that people heard a collection of explosions, along with flashes, prior to the collapse of the twin towers -- reports which are consistent with what is known as a "demolition ring" -- that is a series of explosions running around a building during a controlled demolition or implosion?
- Did you know that many of the foregoing reports came from an oral history of 9-11 (consisting of some 503 firefighters and medical workers who responded to the World Trade Center tragedies) compiled by the New York City Firefighters (FDNY) which was released to the public on August 12, 2005 but only after a suit was brought, under the Freedom of Information Act, against Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration in 2002 by The New York Times together with a number of the families who lost loved ones on 9-11, and only after the New York Court of Appeals sided with the Times/9-11 families following a three year legal tug of war concerning the public release of the oral histories?
- Did you know that on the weekend of September 8th and 9th prior to September 11th, 2001, there was a power down in the south tower of the WTC so that there was no power from floor 50 to the top of the building (over half of the tower) which means that this portion of the building was entirely without surveilance cameras or other forms of electronic security, and for about 35-36 hours there were many 'engineers' and 'technicians' who were going in and out of the building for some sort of 'upgrading' of the tower?
- Did you know that in the weeks prior to Septemeber 11, 2001, both of the twin towers were evacuated on a number of occasions?
- Did you know that the company which is in charge of security for the World Trade Center is now called Stratesec, but from 1993 until 2000, this company was known as Securacom and Marvin Bush, brother of President Bush, was on the Board of Directors for this company, while from 1999 until 2002, Wirt Walker III, a cousin of President Bush, was the CEO of Statesec, and, yet, none of this appears in the 9--11 Commission's report?
- Did you know that the "official story" of the government concerning the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2001 was that an entirely random pancake collapse of three skyscrapers took place, producing near-free-fall rates of collapse (meaning a complete lack of resistance from the floors below), as well as a symmetrical footprint (meaning that there was absolutely nothing skewing the fall and preventing the collapse from proceeding straight down -- including the seventy to eighty floors below where the planes crashed that had none of its beams and girders melted or weakened by the heat from alleged, intense fires in these buildings)?
- Did you know that the "official story" of the government requires one to believe that on one and the same day, within a matter of hours of one another, and within a few hundred yards of one another, three buildings at the World Trade Center collpased, independently of one another, due to a "perfect" storm of chance factors and collapsed in such a way that, in the entire history of humankind, such results have, heretofore, only been able to be generated by very, very highly skilled and expert technicians in a meticulously planned and precisely controlled fashion?
- Did you know there is both video and photographic evidence showing that heavy steel beams were ejected from the collapsing twin towers in a variety of directions -- ranging up to nearly two hundred yards -- and these directions of ejection included both horizonal and upward lines of trajectory ... something that a building which was collapsing in accordance with the pancake theory could not replicate since the only force at work in the pancake theory is gravitation which pulls things downward, and does not push material horizontally outward or in an upward direction for hundreds of feet?
- Did you know that the law of conservation for momentum states that a rotating body will continue to rotate at the same speed and with the same direction of rotation unless acted upon by an external torque force, and, yet, although, initially, when the south tower began to collapse, the floors above where the airplane impacted the south tower of the WTC began to move and rotate in a direction toward the hole created by the airplane, nonetheless, subsequently, video evidence shows that, first, the speed and rotation of this portion of the building collapse began to decelerate as well as reverse its direction of rotation (both of which violate the law of conservation of momentum unless one posits a force outside of gravity that caused this), and, then, all of the floors above the point of impact turned into pulverized powder in mid-air, allowing the building to collapse relatively symmetrically into its foundational footprint.
- Did you know that both photographic and eyewitness testimony indicate that whatever struck the Pentagon on 9-11, it was not a Boeing 757 (American Airlines Flight 77, which supposedly struck the Pentagon on 9-11, is a Boeing 757) because the size of the hole created in the Pentagon is not big enough to be consistent with being hit by a 757 jet liner and the nature of the debris created by the impact is not consistent with the wreckage of a Boeing 757?
- Did you know that within minutes of the Pentagon being hit, video tapes from surveilance cameras positioned on various buildings across the street from the west side of the Pentagon were confiscated by the FBI and with the exception of about 5-6 seconds of totally inconclusive, ambiguous footage, has never been released to the public?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission did not use its powers of subpoenea to gain access to this video material?
- Did you know that unlike the airplane crashes at the World Trade Center towers, the impact at the Pentagon did not produce any significant or noticeable seismic signature, and, yet, supposedly, large commercial airliners were involved in each incident?
- Did you know that Hani Hanjour, the al-Qaida member who allegedly piloted the Boeing 757 that supposedly struck the Pentagon, was, according to all evidential accounts a terrible pilot who had difficulty operating even small planes, and, yet, this fledgling pilot was reported to have performed a 270-degree downward spiral while lining up to strike the Pentagon -- something which even seasoned, expert pilots are not likely to be able to accomplish?
- Did you know that Flight 77, the Boeing 757 that supposedly hit the Pentagon on 9-11, was, apparently, able to go undetected through U.S airspace for roughly forty minutes despite the fact that the US. military is reported to have the most sophisticated and advanced radar systems in the world and that during this forty minute undetected period the jet airliner turned around somewhere in the Midwest, headed back to Washington, D.C., and performed its final aerial acrobatics before slamming into the Pentagon?
- Did you know that Phillip Zelikow was appointed as the executive director of the 9-11 Commission -- a position which was authorized to direct the research of 75 Commission staff members and, as such, was responsible for determining what issues would, and would not, be pursued by that staff -- or how rigorously -- and what 'facts' and witnesses would, and would not, be examined by the commissioners who conducted public hearings?
- Did you know that Phillip Zelikow had previously worked with Condoleezza Rice in the National Security Council during the presidency of George H. W. Bush and later co-authored a book with her during the 90's, and, then, helped Rice organize the National Security Council during the presidency of George W. Bush, and, then, was appointed to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board where he was the primary author of NSS 2002 (The National Security Strategy of the United States of America] which laid out, in detail, the position first enunciated by President Bush at West Point in June of 2002 concerning the alleged right of the United States to attack anyone who was perceived to represent a potential threat to U.S. interests even if such countries, states, or groups did not currently constitute a 'clear and present danger' to the integrity of the continental United States and had not attacked America or Americans and, consequently, Zelikow had a vested interest in ensuring that the 9-11 Commission reached conclusions which were consonant with NSS 2002 ... which is exactly what happened?
- Did you know that prior to his position as executive director of the 9-11 Commission, Phillip Zelikow had a number of conversations with Richard Clarke, the former National Security Counterterrorism director in 2000 and 2001, about al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, but Zelikow was never called as a witness by the 9-11 Commission concerning the nature of those discussions?
- Did you know that at least half of the ten commissioners, both Democrats and Republicans, who conducted the televised public inquiries had the sort of associations, ties, histories, and conflicts of interest (either with oil companies, Saudi Arabia, George Tenet, the intelligence community, the Iran-Contra cover-up scandal, the Bush administration, or who were active proponents for attacking Iraq long before 2003) which should have precluded them from serving as members of such an inquiry ... especially, if one wanted to avoid even the appearance of impropriety and, thereby, eliminate the possibility of questions being raised in relation to the integrity of the conclusions and findings of such a commission?
- Did you know that on many occasions, official commissions are often not meant to arrive at the truth but are, instead, a political tool used to give the impression of seriousness without much underlying substance?
- Did you know that such commissions are often exercises in misdirection away from root problems and causes so that vested interests will remain protected despite an illusory veneer of critical investigation and thoroughness?
- Did you know that every theory, without exception, concerning the causes of the events of 9-11 is a conspiracy theory, including the "official" theory of the U.S. government which maintains that 19-plus individuals conspired together as members of al-Qaeda to attack the United States on Septemeber 11, 2001, and, therefore, the task of any such conspiracy theory is to be able to plausibly account for all or the vast majority of the available data and evidence?
- Did you know that the official theory of the United States government concerning the events of 9-11 cannot plausibly and reasonably account for all of the foregoing facts and evidence in a way that is consistent with their theory?
- Did you know that in the coming days more "Did you knows" will be published which also indicate that the official theory of the United States government concerning the events of 9-11 does not reasonably, plausibly, or credibly account for the available facts and evidence with respect to the pre-September environment leading up to the events of 9-11, as well as in relation to the failure of the military to follow standard operating procedures in conjunction with dealing with hijackings on 9-11?
- Did you know that 40 % of those who view Fox television on a regular basis still believe that Saddam Hussein was behind 9-11 and/or conspired with al-Qaeda to set the events of 9-11 in motion despite the fact that after much disinformation, misinformation, hemming, hawing, and evasion from members of the Bush administration, even President Bush finally admitted in a September-2006 interview with Brian Williams of NBC that the President knows that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11?
There were a lot of innocent people who were murdered on 9-11 by someone ... by a group of conspirators. Everyone agrees that conspirators were responsible for these murders, but there is a difference of opinion concerning the precise identity of such conspirators.
The ones who died left behind families, friends, and colleagues. I believe all Americans have a duty of care toward those who died on September 11, 2001, as well as their families, to bring to justice those who are responsible for the events of 9-11.
I do not think that it is an overstatement to say that the viability of democracy in America may very well be at stake if steps are not taken to redress the wrongs which have been done to the American people and to people in other lands due to the events of 9-11. This is all far from over, unless, of course, one just wishes to go back to sleep or be annoyed that someone has disturbed his or her somnambulating ways.
If you wish to read further on these matters, then, there are a number of books and web sites which not only corroborate the material covered in the foregoing "Did you know" queries, but, as well, these books and websires critically analyze many more issues surrounding the events of 9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond. Even if one wishes to adopt a skeptical stance concerning the implications of the foregoing queries (or the following books/web sites), there are a vast array of crucial questions which are left that still require answers -- too many questions of substantial, abiding importance to just let slip away.
Crossing the Rubicon - Michael C. Ruppert, New Society Publishers
The New Pearl Harbor - David Ray Griffin, Olive Branch Press
Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11 David Ray Griffin, John Knox Press
The War On Freedom - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, Tree of Life Publications
The War on Truth - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, Olive Branch Press
Behind the War On Terror - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, New Society Publishers
In addition to the foregoing, you may want to visit the following web sites:
9-11 Video - Raises a lot of important questions
From The Wilderness
911 Truth
Global Outlook - The Magazine of 9-11 Truth Movement
9-11 Research
9-11 Citizen's Watch
- Did you know that according to the "official, government" account of the events of September 11, 2001 all three of the foregoing steel-framed buildings had metal pilings which were weakened due to extreme heat and these weakened pilings led to the eventual 'pancake' collapse of all three World Trade Center buildings?
- Did you know that both the north and south towers of the World Trade Center were constructed using a set of 47 massive steel columns running around the inner core of these buildings and, in addition, there were 236 steel columns running along the periphery of each of these buildings?
- Did you know that Building 7, a 47 storey-building and part of the World Trade tower complex, was constructed with 24 massive steel columns running around the core of the building, together with 57 perimeter steel columns?
- Did you know that Building 7, which is some 350 yards from the twin towers, was not struck by an airplane, but it collapsed?
- Did you know that the "official" government story is that the diesel fuel stored in Building 7 somehow caught fire and engulfed the building in a raging inferno?
- Did you know that according to photographic evidence, the fires which were burning at Building 7 were not substantial and were limited to scattered areas on only a few floors?
- Did you know that in the report prepared by FEMA concerning, among other things, the collapse of Building 7, very little credibility was given to the idea that the diesel fuel being stored in Building 7 caught fire and caused the building to collapse, and part of the reason for the low credibility of that hypothesis is no one has advanced a plausible explanation about how the diesel fuel stored in the building caught fire?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission did not explore the circumstances surrounding the collapse of Building 7?
- Did you know that very few of the peripheral steel columns of either of the twin tower buildings were lost due to the impact of the planes and that the building was specifically designed to retain their structural integrity by means of the remaining, intact peripheral and core columns in the event of damage due to commercial airline crashes, hurricanes, and other calamities?
- Did you know that steel starts to melt around 2800 degrees Fahrenheit, but hydrocarbon fires arising from, say, burning jet fuel would not reach more than 1700 degrees Fahrenheit ... or 1100 degrees Fahrenheit less than what would have been necessary to melt any one section of the 47/24 core columns or the 236/57 perimeter columns, let alone all 47/24 of the core columns or all 236/57 of the perimeter columns of the three World Trade Center buildings?
- Did you know that in order for steel to melt, the steel would have to be exposed to a sustained source of, at least, 2800 degrees Fahrenheit ... brief or very limited exposure to such high temperatures is not enough?
- Did you know that some experts who support the government's "official story" concerning the events of 9-11 say that if steel is heated to a temperature of 1300 degrees Fahrenheit, then, the steel will lose 80 percent of its strength? But, did you know that these same experts tend to leave out the fact that one would have to subject such steel to a very, very high source of heat for a considerable period of time in order to heat even one portion of a massive column of steel to 1300 degrees Fahrenheit?
- Did you know if one were to heat one section of a steel column that heat transfer would tend to radiate away some of the heat from the section being heated, thereby, making it harder to attain and sustain 1300 degrees Fahrenheit at any given point?
- Did you know that in 2004 a fire raged for 17 hours in a 54-story steel-frame building in Caracas, Venezuela and that the intensity of the fire was such that it completely gutted the top 23 stories of the building, and, yet, the building did not collapse?
- Did you know that in 1991 a fire burned in a steel-structure building (One Meridian Plaza) in Philadelphia for 18 hours with such intensity that 8 out of 38 stories were gutted and even though many of the building's beams and girders sagged and twisted due to being exposed to the intense heat for such a long period of time, yet, the building did not collapse?
- Did you know that less than fifteen minutes after the second of the twin towers was hit, photographs of the towers, as well as the testimony of both firefighters and people temporarily trapped in those buildings, indicate that the fires in the buildings were only scattered and slight, as well as not being even sufficiently hot, in most places, to either melt or break the exterior glass of the buildings?
- Did you know that although the south tower of the WTC was hit second, suffered less structural damage than the north tower, and exhibited fewer fires than the north tower, nonetheless, the south tower collapsed first, some 56 minutes after being struck by the airplane?
- Did you know that the north tower collapsed 1 hour and 42 minutes after being struck ?
- Did you know that tests were carried out in Great Britain during the 1990s in order to investigate the extent of damage which might occur if steel beam structures were enveloped in high-intensity heat (1500 - 1700 degrees Fahrenheit) for many hours (4), and no collapse of the steel beams was observed in any of these experiments?
- Did you know that video and photographic evidence indicates that when the south tower started to collapse, the collapse began at a point much lower than the point where the airplane struck the building and much lower than where fires were burning?
- Did you know that there was a rumor (started by whom?) circulating in conjunction with the events of 9-11 at the World Trade Center that the fuel from the commercial jets which struck the buildings leaked into the pit formed by the core of the building and started intense fires throughout the twin towers, and, yet, there is not any evidence supporting this rumor or any evidence to indicate how the fuel was ignited on the lower levels or how the fire escaped from the core into the interior of the buildings or what the fire fed on until it could find its way into the offices on the lower levels?
- Did you know that even if it were the case that some steel pilings -- whether peripheral or core -- were heated sufficiently so that they lost a substantial portion of their strength and, as a result, buckled, thereby, starting a pancake-domino effect which brought the buildings down, nonetheless, the pancaking would not have been symmetrical (which would require that all 47 core and all 236 peripheral steel columns weakened and buckled at precisely the same time and in precisely the same way) but would have been highly asymmetrical and that this is direct contradiction of the video evidence with respect to the collapse of the two twin towers?
- Did you know that there is absolutely no evidence that any of the 47/24 massive core columns in the three WTC buildings that collapsed were subjected to the sort of intense heat for extended periods of time which would have been necessary to weaken those columns?
- Did you know that of the 16 perimeter beams from the World Trade Center that were examined, only three showed evidence of having been subjected to temperatures higher than 482 degrees Fahrenheit ( far below the 1300 degrees Farenheit needed to structurally weaken steel provided that the steel is heated for a a sufficiently long enough period at such an elevated temperature) and, in addition, there is absolutely zero evidence that any of the core steel columns were subjected to temperatures even as high as 482 degrees of Fahrenheit?
- Did you know that criminal evidence was removed from the World Trade Center complex (and ramming two commercial jets into buildings resulting in substantial lost of life is a criminal offense many times over) when the metal wreckage from the buildings (more than 100 tons of it) was carted away and sold to companies overseas before the evidence could be rigorously analyzed to be able to reconstruct exactly what did cause the WTC buildings to collapse?
- Did you know that all three of the World Trade Center buildings which collapsed did so at very close to free-fall rates of speed (i.e., free fall would occur if one were to drop an apple off the top of any of these buildings and there was nothing, but air, resisting the fall of this body)?
- Did you know that if the pancake theory of collapse for the three buildings were correct, then, the steel frame and concrete materials below each collapsing floor should have provided resistance to the collapse and, thereby, produced a rate of collapse much slower than what was actually observed and recorded by video with respect to each of the WTC buildings?
- Did you know that when tall, many-storied buildings fall at, or very near, to a free-fall rate that this is evidence for concluding that the building collpsed due to "implosion", or controlled demolition, rather than as a result of a random, pancaking effect due to fire-weakened, buckling beams and girders?
- Did you know that there are only a few companies in the world with the experience and expertise necessary to collapse tall skyscapers in a controlled way that directs the building to collapse straight down into its own "footprint" -- that is the area circumscribed by the buildings foundation?
- Did you know that part of the art and science of implosions or controlled explosions in relation to collapsing skyscrapers is to set the explosive charges so that they go off in a precise sequence that removes the concrete, steel girders and beams from the floor below the one which is collapsing in order that the collapsing floor will meet with neither resistance (and, thus, the free-fall-like signature of imploding skyscrapers) nor anything which would interfere with the symmetrical collapse of each floor (and, thus, the symmetrical collapse into the building's footprint)?
- Did you know that the report issued by the NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology) put forth a theory -- entirely unsupported by any forensic evidence -- that the destruction of the twin towers came about as collapsing floors tugged on the perimeter columns of each of these buildings, resulting in a structural instability in these peripheral beams that increased the overall gravity load on the core columns, thereby, leading to a 'global' collapse of the buildings?
- Did you know that besides lacking any actual evidence to substantiate the NIST theory for building collapse, the NIST theory cannot explain either the quality of near free-speeds of the collapse of the three WTC buildings nor can that theory explain the symmetrical footprint property of all three collapsing WTC buildings -- in fact, the NIST theory would only be consistent with a non-free-fall-like collapse which was very asymmetrical ... neither of which was observed in the collapsing WTC buildings?
- Furthermore, did you know that if the government's "officially-adopted pancake theory" were true, then, there very likely would have been massive, largely intact, steel columns -- both core and peripheral -- that still would be standing (albeit, possibly, bent and twisted a little) from the 110 story original structures and that these steel columns would likely extend upward many, many stories into the sky rather than having collapsed into a relatively small, compact, several story-high heap of wreckage?
- Did you know that in controlled demolitions of skyscrapers high explosives such as RDX are used in order to slice through the steel beams and girders like a hot knife through butter and, in the process, cut the beams and girders into much smaller manageable lengths of steel that will both take away resistance to the free-fall-like collapse of the building and, as well, help bring the building down in a symmetrical way within a relatively well-defined, compact footprint landing area?
- Did you know that the same high explosives which are used to slice up the core and peripheral steel columns of a skyscraper are powerful enough to reduce all non-metallic components of the building (such as poured concrete) into powder?
- Did you know that a certain amount of evidence concerning the presence of evaporation as well as sulfidation of steel was found amidst the wreckage of the World Trade Center and that both of these findings are consistent with the idea that there was a detonation of high explosives in the three WTC buildings but inconsistent with a pancake theory driven entirely by the theory that allegedly weakened beams and girders created instability which led, in turn, to a global, gravitational-based collapse of the buildings?
- Did you know that the "official" pancake theory adopted by the government would not have reduced the concrete portions of the three WTC buildings to powder but, instead, would have yielded much larger chunks of concrete because the energy generated through the force of gravity of uncontrolled collapsing buildings would not have been sufficient to be able to produce pulverized powder particles?
- Did you know that for the most part, evidence indicates that the non-metallic portions of the three WTC buildings which collapsed were pulverized into relatively small particles rather than the much larger chunks of concrete one would expect to find if the "official" story concerning the collapsed buildings were true?
- Did you know that there were a large number of independent reports (many from firefighters who were familiar with such phenomena) indicating that people heard a collection of explosions, along with flashes, prior to the collapse of the twin towers -- reports which are consistent with what is known as a "demolition ring" -- that is a series of explosions running around a building during a controlled demolition or implosion?
- Did you know that many of the foregoing reports came from an oral history of 9-11 (consisting of some 503 firefighters and medical workers who responded to the World Trade Center tragedies) compiled by the New York City Firefighters (FDNY) which was released to the public on August 12, 2005 but only after a suit was brought, under the Freedom of Information Act, against Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration in 2002 by The New York Times together with a number of the families who lost loved ones on 9-11, and only after the New York Court of Appeals sided with the Times/9-11 families following a three year legal tug of war concerning the public release of the oral histories?
- Did you know that on the weekend of September 8th and 9th prior to September 11th, 2001, there was a power down in the south tower of the WTC so that there was no power from floor 50 to the top of the building (over half of the tower) which means that this portion of the building was entirely without surveilance cameras or other forms of electronic security, and for about 35-36 hours there were many 'engineers' and 'technicians' who were going in and out of the building for some sort of 'upgrading' of the tower?
- Did you know that in the weeks prior to Septemeber 11, 2001, both of the twin towers were evacuated on a number of occasions?
- Did you know that the company which is in charge of security for the World Trade Center is now called Stratesec, but from 1993 until 2000, this company was known as Securacom and Marvin Bush, brother of President Bush, was on the Board of Directors for this company, while from 1999 until 2002, Wirt Walker III, a cousin of President Bush, was the CEO of Statesec, and, yet, none of this appears in the 9--11 Commission's report?
- Did you know that the "official story" of the government concerning the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2001 was that an entirely random pancake collapse of three skyscrapers took place, producing near-free-fall rates of collapse (meaning a complete lack of resistance from the floors below), as well as a symmetrical footprint (meaning that there was absolutely nothing skewing the fall and preventing the collapse from proceeding straight down -- including the seventy to eighty floors below where the planes crashed that had none of its beams and girders melted or weakened by the heat from alleged, intense fires in these buildings)?
- Did you know that the "official story" of the government requires one to believe that on one and the same day, within a matter of hours of one another, and within a few hundred yards of one another, three buildings at the World Trade Center collpased, independently of one another, due to a "perfect" storm of chance factors and collapsed in such a way that, in the entire history of humankind, such results have, heretofore, only been able to be generated by very, very highly skilled and expert technicians in a meticulously planned and precisely controlled fashion?
- Did you know there is both video and photographic evidence showing that heavy steel beams were ejected from the collapsing twin towers in a variety of directions -- ranging up to nearly two hundred yards -- and these directions of ejection included both horizonal and upward lines of trajectory ... something that a building which was collapsing in accordance with the pancake theory could not replicate since the only force at work in the pancake theory is gravitation which pulls things downward, and does not push material horizontally outward or in an upward direction for hundreds of feet?
- Did you know that the law of conservation for momentum states that a rotating body will continue to rotate at the same speed and with the same direction of rotation unless acted upon by an external torque force, and, yet, although, initially, when the south tower began to collapse, the floors above where the airplane impacted the south tower of the WTC began to move and rotate in a direction toward the hole created by the airplane, nonetheless, subsequently, video evidence shows that, first, the speed and rotation of this portion of the building collapse began to decelerate as well as reverse its direction of rotation (both of which violate the law of conservation of momentum unless one posits a force outside of gravity that caused this), and, then, all of the floors above the point of impact turned into pulverized powder in mid-air, allowing the building to collapse relatively symmetrically into its foundational footprint.
- Did you know that both photographic and eyewitness testimony indicate that whatever struck the Pentagon on 9-11, it was not a Boeing 757 (American Airlines Flight 77, which supposedly struck the Pentagon on 9-11, is a Boeing 757) because the size of the hole created in the Pentagon is not big enough to be consistent with being hit by a 757 jet liner and the nature of the debris created by the impact is not consistent with the wreckage of a Boeing 757?
- Did you know that within minutes of the Pentagon being hit, video tapes from surveilance cameras positioned on various buildings across the street from the west side of the Pentagon were confiscated by the FBI and with the exception of about 5-6 seconds of totally inconclusive, ambiguous footage, has never been released to the public?
- Did you know that the 9-11 Commission did not use its powers of subpoenea to gain access to this video material?
- Did you know that unlike the airplane crashes at the World Trade Center towers, the impact at the Pentagon did not produce any significant or noticeable seismic signature, and, yet, supposedly, large commercial airliners were involved in each incident?
- Did you know that Hani Hanjour, the al-Qaida member who allegedly piloted the Boeing 757 that supposedly struck the Pentagon, was, according to all evidential accounts a terrible pilot who had difficulty operating even small planes, and, yet, this fledgling pilot was reported to have performed a 270-degree downward spiral while lining up to strike the Pentagon -- something which even seasoned, expert pilots are not likely to be able to accomplish?
- Did you know that Flight 77, the Boeing 757 that supposedly hit the Pentagon on 9-11, was, apparently, able to go undetected through U.S airspace for roughly forty minutes despite the fact that the US. military is reported to have the most sophisticated and advanced radar systems in the world and that during this forty minute undetected period the jet airliner turned around somewhere in the Midwest, headed back to Washington, D.C., and performed its final aerial acrobatics before slamming into the Pentagon?
- Did you know that Phillip Zelikow was appointed as the executive director of the 9-11 Commission -- a position which was authorized to direct the research of 75 Commission staff members and, as such, was responsible for determining what issues would, and would not, be pursued by that staff -- or how rigorously -- and what 'facts' and witnesses would, and would not, be examined by the commissioners who conducted public hearings?
- Did you know that Phillip Zelikow had previously worked with Condoleezza Rice in the National Security Council during the presidency of George H. W. Bush and later co-authored a book with her during the 90's, and, then, helped Rice organize the National Security Council during the presidency of George W. Bush, and, then, was appointed to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board where he was the primary author of NSS 2002 (The National Security Strategy of the United States of America] which laid out, in detail, the position first enunciated by President Bush at West Point in June of 2002 concerning the alleged right of the United States to attack anyone who was perceived to represent a potential threat to U.S. interests even if such countries, states, or groups did not currently constitute a 'clear and present danger' to the integrity of the continental United States and had not attacked America or Americans and, consequently, Zelikow had a vested interest in ensuring that the 9-11 Commission reached conclusions which were consonant with NSS 2002 ... which is exactly what happened?
- Did you know that prior to his position as executive director of the 9-11 Commission, Phillip Zelikow had a number of conversations with Richard Clarke, the former National Security Counterterrorism director in 2000 and 2001, about al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, but Zelikow was never called as a witness by the 9-11 Commission concerning the nature of those discussions?
- Did you know that at least half of the ten commissioners, both Democrats and Republicans, who conducted the televised public inquiries had the sort of associations, ties, histories, and conflicts of interest (either with oil companies, Saudi Arabia, George Tenet, the intelligence community, the Iran-Contra cover-up scandal, the Bush administration, or who were active proponents for attacking Iraq long before 2003) which should have precluded them from serving as members of such an inquiry ... especially, if one wanted to avoid even the appearance of impropriety and, thereby, eliminate the possibility of questions being raised in relation to the integrity of the conclusions and findings of such a commission?
- Did you know that on many occasions, official commissions are often not meant to arrive at the truth but are, instead, a political tool used to give the impression of seriousness without much underlying substance?
- Did you know that such commissions are often exercises in misdirection away from root problems and causes so that vested interests will remain protected despite an illusory veneer of critical investigation and thoroughness?
- Did you know that every theory, without exception, concerning the causes of the events of 9-11 is a conspiracy theory, including the "official" theory of the U.S. government which maintains that 19-plus individuals conspired together as members of al-Qaeda to attack the United States on Septemeber 11, 2001, and, therefore, the task of any such conspiracy theory is to be able to plausibly account for all or the vast majority of the available data and evidence?
- Did you know that the official theory of the United States government concerning the events of 9-11 cannot plausibly and reasonably account for all of the foregoing facts and evidence in a way that is consistent with their theory?
- Did you know that in the coming days more "Did you knows" will be published which also indicate that the official theory of the United States government concerning the events of 9-11 does not reasonably, plausibly, or credibly account for the available facts and evidence with respect to the pre-September environment leading up to the events of 9-11, as well as in relation to the failure of the military to follow standard operating procedures in conjunction with dealing with hijackings on 9-11?
- Did you know that 40 % of those who view Fox television on a regular basis still believe that Saddam Hussein was behind 9-11 and/or conspired with al-Qaeda to set the events of 9-11 in motion despite the fact that after much disinformation, misinformation, hemming, hawing, and evasion from members of the Bush administration, even President Bush finally admitted in a September-2006 interview with Brian Williams of NBC that the President knows that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11?
There were a lot of innocent people who were murdered on 9-11 by someone ... by a group of conspirators. Everyone agrees that conspirators were responsible for these murders, but there is a difference of opinion concerning the precise identity of such conspirators.
The ones who died left behind families, friends, and colleagues. I believe all Americans have a duty of care toward those who died on September 11, 2001, as well as their families, to bring to justice those who are responsible for the events of 9-11.
I do not think that it is an overstatement to say that the viability of democracy in America may very well be at stake if steps are not taken to redress the wrongs which have been done to the American people and to people in other lands due to the events of 9-11. This is all far from over, unless, of course, one just wishes to go back to sleep or be annoyed that someone has disturbed his or her somnambulating ways.
If you wish to read further on these matters, then, there are a number of books and web sites which not only corroborate the material covered in the foregoing "Did you know" queries, but, as well, these books and websires critically analyze many more issues surrounding the events of 9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond. Even if one wishes to adopt a skeptical stance concerning the implications of the foregoing queries (or the following books/web sites), there are a vast array of crucial questions which are left that still require answers -- too many questions of substantial, abiding importance to just let slip away.
Crossing the Rubicon - Michael C. Ruppert, New Society Publishers
The New Pearl Harbor - David Ray Griffin, Olive Branch Press
Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11 David Ray Griffin, John Knox Press
The War On Freedom - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, Tree of Life Publications
The War on Truth - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, Olive Branch Press
Behind the War On Terror - Nafeez Mosaddaeq Ahmed, New Society Publishers
In addition to the foregoing, you may want to visit the following web sites:
9-11 Video - Raises a lot of important questions
From The Wilderness
911 Truth
Global Outlook - The Magazine of 9-11 Truth Movement
9-11 Research
9-11 Citizen's Watch
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