Sufi Amanesis

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

The Pentagon and 9-11 -- Did you know? A Sufi Perspective

- Did you know that, initially, the military listed the time of impact of Flight 77 at the Pentagon as around 9: 43 a.m. on September 11, 2001, and although this initial time of impact has been pushed back to 9: 37 a.m. (the 9-11 Commission Report), the actual time of the Pentagon event may actually be 9: 32 a.m. because that is when a number of battery-operated wall clocks in the west wing of the Pentagon, as well one at the heliport, near the west wing, stopped due to a violent event of some kind?

- Did you know that the official government account of what happened at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 is that the west side of the building was struck by Flight 77, a hijacked American Airlines 757 Boeing airplane?

- Did you know that the US military maintains that Flight 77 hit the ground floor of the Pentagon?

- Did you know that although a number of lamp standards near the Pentagon were knocked down because they were allegedly in the flight path of the Boeing 757, there were other objects (for example, a construction site surrounded by a high chain link fence, a large generator, and tall spools of wire) in the same projected flight path of the Boeing 757 that were untouched?

- Did you know that there are photographs of the Pentagon showing that the rear portion of the first and second floor are still intact while the upper three floors were demolished?

- Did you know that the Pentagon is a concrete -- not steel-framed -- building which is 5 stories or 77 feet tall at the highest point of the roof?

- Did you know that a Boeing 757-200, the American Airlines version which supposedly hit the Pentagon, is 155 feet long, has a wingspan of 125 feet, and measures 18 feet from the bottom of the engine to the top of the fuselage, with a fuselage that is 13 feet in diameter, engines which are nine feet in diameter, and there is a distance of 45 feet from the bottom of the engine to the top of the tail?

- Did you know according to the US military and press reports, the object which struck the Pentagon hit at an oblique, 45 degree angle, which, if true, means that the surface area of the Pentagon that allegedly was impacted by a Boeing 757 would have increased to about 177 feet?

- Did you know that even if the engines of a Boeing 757-200 were dragging along the grass, the plane is tall enough that it would have impacted at least two floors of the Pentagon?

- Did you know that there is absolutely no evidence of a Boeing 757 having made contact with any portion of the grass which is in front of the Pentagon, and this means, depending on how high off the ground the Boeing was when it allegedly hit the building, more than two stories of the Pentagon should have been impacted by the plane?

- Did you know that the impact hole in the front exterior of the Pentagon building was estimated to be between 15 and 18 feet wide – that is, not even as wide as the collective diameter of two jet engines, and, more importantly, not as wide as the collective width of such engines plus the portions of the wings and the fuselage that separate the engines from each other?

- Did you know that even after a portion of the Pentagon collapsed from the collective forces of fire and firefighting techniques, the collapsed section, which is broader than the original impact hole, only measures half of the wing width of a Boeing 757?

- Did you know that there are photographs of the Pentagon which were taken just after the collision showing an intact wall, approximately 25 feet above the ground which is just over the point of impact on the west side of the Pentagon, and this intact wall shows no evidence of having been struck by the tail of a commercial jet (and the distance from the bottom of the engine to the tip of the tail is 45 feet) traveling at some 3- 400 miles an hour?

- Did you know that Francois Grangier, who is an expert on air crashes, and who examined photographs of the Pentagon crash site, has stated that no Boeing 757 airplane caused the observable damage to the façade of the west wing of the Pentagon?

- Did you know that a Boeing 757 weighs some 60 tons when empty and that luggage and human beings add many more tonnage to the weight of the plane?

- Did you know that there was, with one exception, no evidence of any debris resembling engines, wings, fuselage, luggage, or body parts to be found outside of the Pentagon near the point of impact?

- Did you know that an engine, a portion of the fuselage, as well as landing gear survived at the World Trade Center collisions?

- Did you know that one piece of skin, bearing some of the colors of an American Airlines vehicle, was supposedly recovered on the lawn outside the Pentagon but the manner in which this coloring is configured cannot be made to match any portion of the exterior of an actual American Airlines Boeing 757?

- Did you know that the aforementioned piece of debris shows none of the black coating, soot, or fire damage which would have been characteristic of an object that had been exposed to a jet fuel fire?

- Did you know that while the official government account of the Pentagon event maintains that the Boeing 757 completely disintegrated on impact, there is absolutely no plausible or technical explanation which is provided that would account for how the above mentioned piece of debris would have been able to escape the disintegrating fate which befell the rest of the 60 ton Boeing plane and, thereby, been available to be found all by itself on the lawn of the Pentagon?

- Did you know that a photograph was published in conjunction with the Pentagon event on 9-11which purportedly depicted the turbofan of a 757 but, subsequently, a team of researchers, led by Karl Schwartz, identified the photographed item as a front-hub assembly of a front compressor from an IT8D turbojet A3 Skywarrior jet fighter which is much smaller than a 757?

- Did you know that prior to 9-11, A3 Skywarriors, although normally a piloted plane, were retrofitted at the Fort Collins-Loveland Airport in Colorado to serve as remote controlled, missile-carrying aircraft?

- Did you know that there is a photograph of a nearly round exit hole along the ground, which measures about seven feet in width, that appears in an interior ring of the Pentagon – a hole which the US military claims marks the point of innermost penetration of Flight 77?

- Did you know that the nature of the exit hole seems to indicate it was pierced not smashed?

- Did you know that there is no identifiable debris of an airplane to be found near this exit hole?

- Did you know that there are no scorch marks around the hole as one might anticipate from a jet fuel fire?

- Did you know that the size of this hole is too small to be caused by a jet engine (9 feet in diameter), or the fuselage (13 feet in diameter)?

- Did you know that the nose of a Boeing, referred to as the radome, contains electronic navigation gear, and it is made of carbon fiber so that it can permit passage of electronic waves?

- Did you know that the radome is far too fragile and lacks the sort of density which could have penetrated a succession of concrete ring-walls at the Pentagon to have caused the above mentioned exit hole in the interior C-ring of the Pentagon?

- Did you know that following the Pentagon collision, there were a group of about 20 uniformed men, none of whom were from the National Transportation Safety Board, who were photographed scouring the grass in front of the west wing of the Pentagon and, eventually, taking away a large, but relatively light, tarpaulin-covered object?

- Did you know that in the case of all air crashes, the National Transportation Safety Board has primary jurisdiction and that removing evidence from a crash site constitutes a prosecutable felony?

- Did you know that despite being a crime scene in which hundreds of people were murdered and millions of dollars of damage inflicted, all forensic evidence was removed from the scene of the crime, in and around the Pentagon, within a matter of days?

- Did you know that because the Pentagon is situated in Arlington County, Virginia, jurisdiction for fighting the fire should have belonged to the Arlington County Fire Department, but their fire fighters were not permitted to get near to the primary impact site and, instead, had to fight the fire from a distance?

- Did you know that the Arlington County firefighters were kept away from the location where the airliner was supposed to have been by the Urban Search and Rescue Team of FEMA?

- Did you know that within minutes of the Pentagon event on 9-11, all external surveillance videos covering the west façade of the building were confiscated by the FBI?

- Did you know that surveillance video was confiscated from most, if not all, of the area businesses on the west side of the Pentagon, including the Sheraton Washington Hotel, a gas station directly beneath the flight path of the object which struck the Pentagon and, as well, another gas station some hundred yards to the west of the previously noted gas station?

- Did you know that with the exception of five frames of a video released by the military on March 7, 2002, purportedly showing the Pentagon crash event of 9-11, none of the confiscated video has been released to the public by the FBI?

- Did you know that the five released frames show an incorrect date stamp of September 12, 2001 and, as well, the time stamp for the released frames indicates a time of 17: 37 rather than 9: 38 a.m. or thereabouts when the actual event took place?

- Did you know that Pierre-Henri Bunel, an artillery and explosives expert who served as an ally with General Schwartzkopf during Desert Storm, has examined the foregoing video footage as well as other photographic evidence concerning the Pentagon event and has concluded that the Pentagon event gave evidence (such as the color – indicating temperature -- of the fireball, its manner of expansion, the kind of fire equipment used in combating the fire) of a high-yield explosive denotation at the Pentagon and not the sort of deflagration which would have arisen from a jet fuel fire caused by the impact of a large commercial airliner?

- Did you know that during the press conferences held at the Pentagon between September 12 and 15, 2001, no one reported seeing any large pieces of evidence (such as fuselage, engines, or the like) indicating that the Pentagon had been struck by a Boeing 757?

- Did you know that the voice and flight data recorders which were purportedly from Flight 77 were found on September 14, 2001, along with a light beacon, but that, allegedly, the two recorders were too severely damaged by the fires to yield recoverable data?

- Did you know that Ed Plaugher, the fire chief for the Arlington County Fire Department, who originally reported (between September 12 and 14, 2001) seeing no large portions of a 757 Boeing in the fire debris at the Pentagon, subsequently (some 6 months after September 11, 2001), changed his account to say that he recollects having seen portions of wings, fuselage, engine, landing gear, seats, and one of the two black boxes from the airplane?

- Did you know that according to the official government account of the Pentagon strike on 9-11, the impact was of such intensity that not only did the plane disintegrate but the aluminum portions of the plane melted when, reportedly, the temperature of the fire reached more than 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit?

- Did you know that there has been no technical explanation forthcoming of how the foregoing disintegration would have occurred and still produced a small exit hole in the interior, third ring of the Pentagon?

- Did you know that when 60-plus tons of melted plane were not found at the Pentagon event, the story began to circulate that at 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit, aluminum turns into a gas, and, so, one would not find much aluminum tonnage remaining?

- Did you know that no one has come up with a plausible explanation of how temperatures of 5,400 degrees were reached, let alone sustained for a sufficiently long period of time, to gasify the aluminum from the alleged Boeing plane?

- Did you know that even if someone were to come up with a plausible explanation for the generation of such sustained temperatures, there is no concomitant explanation for why this sort of extensive temperatures and heat did not do more damage to the rest of the building surrounding the hole of impact or why the grass outside of the west side of the Pentagon remained un-singed?

- Did you know that there is photographs of office equipment which is visible near the point of impact and which should have been incinerated if there were temperatures in the building that were high enough to gasify all, or large portions, of the 60 tons of aluminum and metal portions of the plane as some have tried to argue?

- Did you know that even if someone were to come up with a plausible explanation for the generation of sustained heat capable of liquefying and gasifying 60 tons of aluminum, nevertheless, they have not been able to account for how – given the presence of such heat – that authorities were able to identify some of the people who died in the wreckage from their fingerprints?

- Did you know that despite the accounts of disintegration, liquefying, and gasifying of the Boeing 747, the FBI claims that it was able to recover a large portion of the 757 debris and that this all has been marked with the serial number of Flight 77 and has been stored in a warehouse – although pictures of this catalog of debris have never been released to the public?

- Did you know that there were witnesses to the Pentagon event who claim that there were identifiable pieces of debris some hundred yards, or so, from the Pentagon which were supposedly photographed, but till this day, few of these alleged photographs have been made public – one exception being a photograph by Mark Faram which was of the aforementioned piece of American Airline-like colored portion of airplane skin – a piece of debris that has problems surrounding it concerning its authenticity?

- Did you know that one of the first people to claim that a plane had hit the Pentagon was Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who claimed that the walked the 2000 feet from the east side to the west side of the Pentagon to examine the damage and who, supposedly, saw thousands of pieces of debris which were identifiable as from an airplane?

- Did you know evidence presented by Richard Clarke in his book Against All Enemies, as well as during his testimony before the 9-11 Commission, directly contradicts the foregoing account given by Secretary Rumsfeld, because according to Clarke, Rumsfeld was participating in a teleconference with him during this time?

- Did you know that on the day before 9-11, Secretary Rumsfeld reported that 2.3 trillion dollars was missing from the Pentagon accounts?

- Did you know that the west wing contained the financial management sections, accountants, financial data which were to be used in trying to track down the missing 2.3 trillion dollars?

- Did you know that April Gallop, who had Top Secret security clearance and who was employed by the Army in the administrative section situated in the west part of the Pentagon, testified that she heard and felt a bomb go off, smelled no jet fuel, and saw no debris from an air crash inside the Pentagon?

- Did you know that when April Gallop was recovering in the hospital, she was visited by men who never identified themselves but who strongly suggested that she take the package from the Victim Compensation Fund, keep her mouth shut, and who emphasized again and again that a plane had hit the Pentagon?

- Did you know that an Army employee, who was on temporary assignment in accounting at the Pentagon and who was just returning to a south wing office that was adjacent to the west wing, stated that a number of people came running by yelling “bombs” and a “bomb went off”?

- Did you know that a number of Pentagon witnesses indicated that they heard two explosions on the morning of 9-11?

- Did you know that a number of witnesses at the Pentagon indicated that they smelled cordite, not jet fuel, following the initial explosion?

- Did you know that it is possible that an initial explosion could have produced a heat signature which could have served as a homing device for a subsequent heat-seeking guided missile?

- Did you know that on 9-11 there was a taxi driver who was one of the last people to be let on to I-395 which overlooks the west face of the Pentagon before the highway was closed by police, and this taxi driver said that he saw no evidence of either an airplane crash that had impacted the Pentagon or visible plane debris on the grounds in front of that building?

- Did you know that there are conflicting eyewitness accounts of whether what was seen and/or heard near the Pentagon on the morning of September 11, 2001, was an American Airlines Boeing 757, a small 10-seater jet plane – possibly with American Airlines-like coloring, or a missile?

- Did you know that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld referred to the object which hit the Pentagon as a “missile” during an interview with Parade magazine?

- Did you know that Major General Larry Arnold, commander of NORAD had ordered a fighter jet which was in the vicinity to fly over the west face of the Pentagon shortly after the explosion on September 11, 2001, and the pilot indicated there was no evidence that a plane had struck the Pentagon?

- Did you know that some people may have confused the aforementioned fly-by of a fighter jet with Flight 77, and this could be why the 9-11 Commission Report cites 9: 37 a.m. as the time of impact rather than the time of 9: 32 a.m. which is indicated by the battery-operated wall-clocks in the west wing of the Pentagon that stopped at 9: 32 due to a violent event?

- Did you know that no one seems to have asked Major General Arnold the following question: namely, if there was a jet-fighter close enough to inspect damage just shortly after 9: 32 a.m. on the morning of September 11, 2001, then, why was this plane not able to shoot the Boeing 757 down prior to hitting the Pentagon?

- Did you know that according to the 9-11 Commission Report the Pentagon did not know it was under attack until 9: 36 a.m., and, therefore, just a minute or two before impact?

- Did you know that according to military officials since they only had one or two minutes of prior notification before the Pentagon event at 9: 37 a.m., and, since, apparently, the only asset in the vicinity at the time was an unarmed C-130H cargo airplane, it was ordered to locate, identify, and track the suspicious object appearing on the radar screens?

- Did you know that the pilot of the C-130H was able to accomplish all of the foregoing plus watch the plane crash into the west wing of the Pentagon, and, then, report all of this to the Pentagon?

- Did you know that, apparently, none of the military officials specified where in the air, precisely, this cargo plane was in relation to the Pentagon or Washington DC, or, how, all within a minute or so, the pilot of the cargo plane was able to locate, identify, follow, and watch the crash of a plane that was doing a 270 degree downward spiral through 7,000 feet?

- Did you know that, apparently, none of the military officials have been able to reconcile the reports of this C130H cargo plane pilot watching a plane crash into the Pentagon at 9: 37 a.m. with the report of the Major-General-Arnold-ordered-fly-by of a jet fighter over the west wing of the Pentagon shortly after 9: 32 a.m., and why the jet fighter rather than the cargo plane was not ordered to pursue the approaching object, or why nothing was said by either the C130H cargo plane pilot or the jet fighter pilot about the existence of one another since they would have been flying near the west wing of the Pentagon at about the same time?

- Did you know that American Airlines Flight 77 originally went off course and displayed other characteristics of a possible hijacking as early as 8: 46 a.m.?

- Did you know that, supposedly, all civilian contact with Flight 77 was lost around 9: 09 a.m.?

- Did you know that the US military is not dependent on the FAA to know the whereabouts of planes within US air space?

- Did you know that the Pentagon was reportedly hit at 9: 43 a.m. (and later 'fixed' at 9: 37 a.m. by the 9-11 Commission Report), and this is nearly an hour after Flight 77 displayed characteristics of an airplane which required investigation from both the FAA and NMCC (National Military Command Center)?

- Did you know that the transponder for Flight 77 was cut off more than 40 minutes prior to the Pentagon event, and that by cutting off the transponder this accomplished two things: (1) it drew attention to Flight 77 as a very likely hijacking that needed to be intercepted by jet fighters; (2) when a flying object is missing a transponder signal, it becomes an automatic object of interest to the military?

- Did you know that no one has been able to explain why the transponder was shut off because this would not have prevented either the military or the Secret Service from being aware of the plane's location via radar systems which are far superior to those of the FAA?

- Did you know that radar logs indicate that the object which was reported to be Flight 77 performed a downward spiral, of roughly 270 degrees, that dropped approximately 7000 feet in two and a half minutes before skimming along the top of the grass prior to allegedly striking the Pentagon on the first floor?

- Did you know that this sort of aerial maneuver would have been a challenge to even the most experienced of pilots?

- Did you know that well-experienced air controllers who were watching the Pentagon-related object on radar said that the pivot of the object was so tight that it reminded them of a maneuver that might be made by a jet fighter?

- Did you know that Hani Hanjour, the purported hijacking pilot of Flight 77, was by all accounts a terrible pilot who, after several lessons at the Sorbi Flying Club in San Diego, was advised by the instructors to quit because he had no understanding of what he was doing in a cockpit, was subject to panic attacks while in the cockpit, and couldn't even properly draw a picture of the plane … configuring the wings in a backward position?

- Did you know that according to reports filed by The Prince George's Journal in Maryland Hani Hanjour had visited the Bowie Maryland Freeway Airport in mid-August of 2001 in order to be permitted to rent an airplane but on three different occasions he was judged by those at the airport who checked him out to be too clumsy and inept a pilot even in relation to a Cessna 172, which is miniscule compared to a Boeing 757 and far easier to operate, to be given rental privileges at the Bowie Maryland Freeway airfield?

- Did you know that Flight 77 was reported to have flown for 35 minutes through US air space on a heading for Washington, D.C. without being detected?

- Did you know that despite the fact that the transponder for Flight 77 was not turned off until the plane had made a U-turn from west to east, nonetheless, air traffic controllers continued to hunt for Flight 77 on the radar screens in a westerly direction rather than in an easterly direction?

- Did you know that whatever problems the FAA may have been having with their secondary radar systems -- which cannot track planes whose transponders have been turned off -- nevertheless, the FAA also has primary radar systems distributed around the country that are able to track aircraft irrespective of whether their transponders are on or off, and, as well, NORAD and the Secret Service radar systems also can track air traffic quite independently of transponder identification?

- Did you know that Norman Mineta, the Secretary of Transportation, testified that he witnessed reports being given to Vice President Cheney as early as 9: 25 or 9: 26 a.m. in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the White House in relation to an approaching aircraft headed for Washington, and, that, therefore, rather than a mere moment or two of prior notification, officials in the government had some twelve minutes, or so, of advanced warning concerning the in-coming flight even if one were to accept the rather implausible account that previous to its detection near Washington, D.C., Flight 77 was able to fly across the United States for 35 minutes undetected by the military?

- Did you know that Secretary Mineta's testimony was not included in the final 9-11 Commission Report?

- Did you know that the autopsy reports for the body remains found in the Pentagon show no evidence of there being any individuals who were among the dead and found amidst the ruins of the Pentagon who displayed genetic markers indicating Arab descent?

- Did you know that there are batteries of anti-aircraft missiles deployed around the Pentagon?

- Did you know that these missiles were not triggered by an in-coming aircraft despite the fact that this plane's transponder was supposedly turned off and, therefore, could not be identified as a friendly craft by the electronic identification program of the missile system?

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 9-11 Commission Report David Ray Griffin, Olive Branch Press, 2005.

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

9-11 Synthetic Terror: Made In the USA, Webster Griffin Tarpley, Progressive Press, 2006.

Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-up of 9-11, Barrie Zwicker, New Society Publishers, 2006.

Painful Questions: An Analysis of the September 11th Attack, Eric Hufschmid, 2002.

The Terror Conspiracy, Jim Marrs, The Disinformation Company Inc., 2006

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

Friday, November 17, 2006

Hope

When Sufi masters speak about hope, they are not referring to a condition of merely longing for something to be the case. Hope which is not rooted in a foundation of struggle, work and sacrifice is nothing but an idle fantasy.

From the perspective of Sufi masters, hope gives expression to a certain kind of working relationship with God. On the one hand, as indicated above, hope cannot exist in a context devoid of the individual's spiritual efforts. We must seek out, and strive for, God in a sincere fashion. Our struggle in this respect must be persistent. We should not be stingy in either the personal or material resources we expend on this undertaking.

On the other hand, we must have a very clear understanding that our efforts, in and of themselves, are not enough.

If our spiritual hope lies in our abilities and possessions we are sadly deluding ourselves.

Practitioners of the Sufi path maintain that what comes to us from God is far more important than what goes to God from us. Effort, struggle and sacrifice are merely sincere signs of our working relationship of hope with God.

Besides our efforts, the essence of hope is a trust or confidence in God. Sufi masters indicate we must have confidence God did not create us arbitrarily or as a whim or as part of some game. We must have confidence God created each of us for a spiritual purpose. To be confident our existence has spiritual meaning and value, is to invest hope in our relationship with God. Among other things, this means there are reasons for our struggling toward God. Sufi masters maintain God wishes to be known by us. They stipulate that although God will always know us, God especially would like to know us when we are in the condition of knowing Divinity.The shaykhs of the Sufi path indicate God wishes to be loved by us.

They point out that while God always will love us, God especially would like to love us when we are in the condition of loving Divinity. Practitioners of the mystical path note that God wishes to be served by us. They specify that even though God always will provide for us, God especially would like to provide for us when we are in the condition of serving Divinity.

Sufi masters contend each of us has a unique capacity for knowing, loving and serving God. By realizing the purpose of our life, we realize the unique potential which God has intended for us.

In a sense, God is investing hope in us, just as we are investing hope in God. More specifically, God has provided each of us with a unique spiritual potential. On the basis of this potential, God hopes we will struggle to realize its value. God is trusting us and is placing confidence in us to do the right thing with respect to our spiritual potential. The right thing is to trust in God to help us realize the secrets and value of our spiritual potential in the way in which God intended should be the case.

Sufi masters indicate we must have confidence God is busy with the work of providing us with everything necessary to help us free ourselves from our ego and, thereby, help us realize our essential identities. We must have confidence God already is doing what needs to be done in this respect, even before we have done our part.

We must have confidence God wants us to succeed in the purpose of life. We are the ones who fail God in this process. God never fails us.

The ups and downs of life, the contractions and expansions, the pains and pleasures, the satisfactions and frustrations, the guidance and ignorance, the light and darkness, the veiling and the unveilings, the giving and the taking away, as well as the success and failures of life, are all loci of manifestation of God's Names and Attributes. They are all part of the spiritual curriculum of Divinity with which we must struggle in order, hopefully, to reflect on, contemplate, learn, remember and implement the spiritual lessons of life.In providing us with the aforementioned curriculum, God's hope for us is that we come to understand: (a) we have never been away from Divinity, despite appearances to the contrary; and (b) Divinity has never been away from us.

God's hope for us is that we come to realize: (a) we constantly have been meeting with God all of our lives through the forms of the different Names and Attributes by which God relates to us in our day-to-day lives; and, (b) all of these meetings have been arranged for our spiritual benefit.

God's hope for us is that we will return to Divinity well pleased by, and well-pleasing to, God. The books of revelation sent to us by God, as well as the prophets, saints and spiritual guides provided for us by God, are all signs of, so to speak, bilateral hope. On the one hand, God hopes we will take advantage of the guidance being offered through these different modalities of Divine assistance in order to realize our essential purpose for being. On the other hand, we can hope guidance is being extended to us as an expression of the Divine wish for us to permit our lives to be transformed in a manner which actively and accurately would reflect God's hope for us.

Our hope is nourished by God's Compassion, Beneficence, Mercy, Forbearance, Forgiveness, Love, Kindness, Strength, and Protection. Our hope is sustained by the many opportunities God gives us to move toward Divinity.

Our hope is activated by the manner in which God encourages us to have pure, sincere intentions toward Divinity. Our hope is decorated when God grants us good actions with which to clothe our naked intentions.

Our hope is given tensile strength by the way God calls us to task in this life while we still have time to work on correcting our weaknesses. Our hope is raised up in spiritual flight when God grants us spiritual states and stations of nearness in response to our hope.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Sufi Reflections Podcast No. 14 is now available

This episode of Sufi Reflections includes music, poetry, a story entitled Fantasy, an essay entitled Hope, and a commentary entitled Common Roots, Part 3. To download, click here.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Curiosity Shop (A Story)

Most things in life defy full and, sometimes, even partial explanation. Of course, we have our theories, biases, sciences,theologies, philosophies, ideas, and opinions, but in the end,something always eludes us and, as a result, events often are otherthan we suppose them to be.

For example, there may be certain events which we replay over and over again in our minds, trying to figure out how they came about or why we had them rather than someone else. On a certain level, we know such events are real because we were there, yet we are creatures who tend to be in need of consensual validation, and, as a result, when we can’t find anyone else to verify that, yes, such and such an event went on at such and such a time, we become uncertain – wavering between wanting, on the one hand, to hold our existential ground with respect to the proposed reality of an event and, on the other hand, wanting to fold up our tents and disappear into the night, leaving a disputed occurrence to be blown away by the winds of time.

Hank Cummings was struggling with just such an event via the instant replay machine of his mind and for the 50th time, he was walking himself through an event – actually, several linked events -- which had happened to him – at least, he thought they had.

Tuesday afternoon, following work, he had decided to walk home because it was a beautiful fall day – the kind that makes one glad to be alive ... not that every day shouldn’t be viewed this way. The sun was shining; the wind was light and playfully engaged in a game of tag with the leaves on the ground; the temperature was slightly chilled but inviting.

He remembers walking down Plymouth Avenue and cutting through the market area near Concord Street. He liked this part of the city because it was always so vibrant and filled with interesting places to browse through and, occasionally, buy an item or two.

Something had drawn his attention to a shop on the corner of Lexington and Green. He had tried to slow down his memory tapes and do a frame-by-frame analysis of this part of things, but no matter how closely he scrutinized the tapes, he really couldn’t figure out why he paid any attention to the store. There was nothing about its exterior which was remarkable or out of the ordinary. It was just a store, like hundreds of others in the area.

Yet, the next thing he knew, he was inside looking around. Apparently, it was some sort of ‘box’ store ... Hank didn’t quite know how else to describe it. There were, seemingly, endless shelves filled with boxes of all different descriptions. Wooden boxes of various sizes -- some quite plain, and some very ornately decorated or carved – were staring at one from every corner of the store ... it was nearly overwhelming.

Hank could remember the tightness in his stomach. He always felt this when he walked into a situation which, in some indefinable manner, felt threatening to him. Normally, this sense of vague foreboding would have been enough to make him retreat to the relative safety of the streets. However, resisting the urge to bolt, he stayed and began to wander about the store. There didn’t seem to be any one else in the store, not even a clerk. Perhaps, the person or people running the place were in a back room.

Consequently, after one box in particular had drawn him for an encounter of the closer kind, he was startled when, just as he was about to touch it, a voice from behind said: “That’s a very nice piece of workmanship, don’t you think?” Inside, Hank jumped, but his fright was hardly visible on the surface. Nonetheless, the voice said: “I’m sorry. I’ve startled you.”

Hank turned and was face to face with a tall, thin man who seemed to be around forty-something. The man was smiling in an apologetic sort of fashion. The man pointed down to his feet. Hank saw socks but no shoes.

“Very comfortable,” the man said, “but, sometimes, they are too quiet. You are not the first person to have fallen victim to my primitive form of stealth technology.”

Recovering, Hank smiled and managed: “That’s OK,” and he turned his attention to the box which he had been trying to examine. Hank remembered the man’s question and silently agreed that,yes, the craftsmanship of the box was exquisite. Hank had never seen anything quite like it. Still looking at the box, Hank asked over his shoulder: “How much?”

“Oh, that one goes for, let’s see, ... ah, $10.00,” the shopkeeper replied.

Hank turned around again and said: “In view of its quality, that’s pretty inexpensive. How come?”

“Well, to be frank with you, sir,” the man said, “I was thinking of taking it off the shelf in the next day or so. I don’t like to keep boxes hanging around here for more than a day or so. Whenever boxes remain here too long, I find they sort of lose their usefulness and appeal. “You’ve come at just the right time, as far as this box is concerned. It’s going at a bargain price.”

As the man was speaking, Hank’s eyes had been glancing at a nearby table, laden with several boxes, roughly the same size as the one he liked and, seemingly, just as nicely down.

“How much for either of those?” Hank inquired, nodding in the direction of the table.

The man followed Hank’s gaze, paused briefly, and replied: “Each of those goes for $125.00.”

Taking a step closer to the table for a more careful look, Hank said: “They all appear to be pretty much the same. Why the price difference?”

“Your question is quite reasonable,” the man remarked, “but a reasonable answer is much harder to give. Let’s just say there are subtle differences between the boxes which would be readily apparent to a trained observer but not so apparent to someone who is unfamiliar with the story of how these boxes came into being.”

Hank thought over the man’s reply and accepted it even though he really didn’t know what the shopkeeper actually meant. Hank removed his wallet from his jacket pocket and plucked out a twenty dollar bill.

“I’ve got just the place for this box in my living room,” Hank said as he returned his attention to the first box at which he had been looking. He handed the money to the shopkeeper. The man lifted Hank’s box off the shelf and carried it over to the cash register. He rung up the purchase, took what was owed to Hank from the drawer, and gave the change to Hank.

As the man gave Hank his money, the shopkeeper said: “WhatI’m going to say may sound strange, but you shouldn’t open the box until midnight.”

“Why?” Hank asked. “Will it turn into a pumpkin or something if I do?”

“Not quite,” the man countered. “Rather, we have found that customers tend to get their full purchase value only if they follow the instructions accompanying the box. But i'ts yours now, so you do what you want with it. I’m, just trying to offer a helpful suggestion.”

Actually, Hank hadn’t even been thinking about the box’s interior. He liked its exterior craftsmanship, and, therefore, he only had been thinking of putting it in the living room as a piece of art and a conversation piece, and the idea of what might be inside the box never crossed his mind.

The man said: “Can I put this in a bag for you?” Hank shook his head and responded with: “No, it’s fine as it is. I don’t have far to go.”

The two men exchanged final post-transaction pleasantries, andHank left the store with the box under his arm.

He was home in ten minutes. He went into the living room and placed the box on the coffee table. Some people had books on the coffee table. He had a box ... a very attractive box. He sat on the couch admiring his new acquisition. While doing this, a number of thoughts occurred to him: ‘I wonder what’s inside and why I should wait until midnight before opening it? The whole idea of waiting seems ludicrous ... what difference could waiting possibly make? ... surely, whatever is in the box now will be in the box at midnight.’

Going with his rational judgment, Hank reached over and opened the box. He was unprepared for what happened next. His eyes and nose were assaulted by an array of sensations. Strange colored lights emanated from inside and various kinds of smells as well. The interior of the box seemed to be sectioned off into cubbyhole-like compartments -- maybe twenty or more -- except that the top of each section was open. Lights were shining from only some of the compartments, and when Hank tried to see the nature of the light source, something prevented him from examining that part of the box, as if there were a force-field of some kind in place.

Some of the compartments seemed quite dark – a sort of preternatural darkness. When he poked his index finger into one of these holes, that part of his hand seemed to become engulfed in shadows which couldn’t be penetrated by normal vision, despite the fact there was still plenty of daylight seeping into the room.

He brought his nose down near the box. There was no doubt about it – some of the compartments had smells and some didn’t. The ones which had an aroma arising out of them varied in character. Hank tried to look down into these holes to see what was generating the smell, and he also felt around with some of his fingers, but in neither case could he get to the bottom of things. Some of the compartments had a very pleasant smell, although he couldn’t identify what the smell was. His nose wrinkled with disagreeableness in relation to some of the other holes, and in a few cases, his head involuntarily shot back because the stench was so strong.

A few of the compartments had a sort of grayish hue to them. When he dipped his index finger into these holes, his fingertip didn’t disappear as in the case of the ‘black’ holes, but his fingertip did seem to be washed in a grayish kind of aura.

The whole experience was unnerving. Hank didn’t have a cluewhat to make of the situation. He decided to contact his next-door neighbor and have him take a look at things. For whatever reason, events always seem more real when they are shared by two or more people, even when everybody disagrees about what they believe the nature of that commonly-held experience may be.

He left his house, went to the one on his right, knocked on the door, and waited for the knock to be answered. As he waited, he suddenly remembered his friend had a meeting that night and wasn’t going to be home until very late. Hank turned around on the porch of his friend’s house, surveyed the neighborhood, and briefly considered going to another house but rejected the idea. He wouldn’t feel comfortable approaching anyone else with this – at least, not quite yet.

He headed back to his house, went through, and closed the front door he had left open, and returned to the couch. Hank would wai tfor his friend and ask him to come over after he got back from his meeting.

Throughout the evening, Hank stared at the item on his table. He fixed and ate his supper, preoccupied with his new box the entire time, hardly tasting anything. As the evening wore on, Hank became convinced the box’s interior was changing in various subtle ways. The lights were altered somehow, and there were a few new smells which were somewhat nondescript in character.

Around 11 p.m. Hank saw the lights of his neighbor’s car flash past the window as his friend pulled into the garage area. Immediately, Hank jumped up and rushed out of the house, hoping to reach his friend before the latter disappeared into the house. His friend waved to Hank as Hank rounded the corner. Hank merely said: “I need to show you something. Please come with me.”

His friend was obviously tired, but he trudged along behind Hank like good friends are sometimes called upon to do.

The two men entered Hank’s house, and Hank ushered his friend into the living room and pointed to the box on the coffee table. His friend approached the box, picked it up, looked it over for a few moments, and, then, placed it back on the table. “Nice,” he said. “Where did you get it?”

Ignoring his friend’s query, Hank looked at him and asked: “Do you see anything strange about it, or do you smell anything out of the ordinary when you are near the box?”

His friend looked at the box and back at Hank. He shook his head. “Not really,” he said, and then quickly added: “It’s a nicely-done box, but that’s about as far as it goes.”

“How would you describe the interior of the box?” Hank inquired nervously.

His friend returned his gaze to the box and studied it for a few seconds. Shrugging, he said: “There are a bunch of compartments.” He paused and said: “Am I missing something here?”

Hank was lost in thought. He came out of his reverie long enough to smile somewhat embarrassedly, replying: “No, it must be just me. I thought there was something odd about the box and wanted to get your take on it, that’s all. It’s just one of those things, I guess. I’m sorry to have dragged you over here.”

As an afterthought and a way of changing focus, Hank asked:“How’d your meeting go?” His friend rolled his eyes and smiled: “You know meetings. They go on forever and never seem to accomplish much except paving the way for further meetings. I think meetings use humans to make other meetings possible, like flowers use bees.” His friend waved goodbye to Hank and said: “I can show myself out, thanks.”

Hank gave a weak imitation of a wave and watched his friend leave. He sat on the couch, looking at the box again and sniffing at it here and there. The smells were still there, but the lights had nearly vanished. In addition, Hank noticed that most of the areas which previously seemed to be protected by some sort of force-field were now accessible to him. Most of these compartments had become dusted with a greyish tinge similar to the aura that characterized a number of the other compartments.

Suddenly, Hank was very tired. He gave one last, long look at the bo and, then, went off to bed.

When Hank awoke the next morning, he rushed downstairs to view his box. It was pretty much as he had left it last night, except that, now, all the light had disappeared, leaving only the smells. Hank dressed quickly, picked up the box, and headed for the store where he had purchased it.

He covered the distance quickly and entered the shop and saw the same man who had assisted him the previous day sweeping the store floor. The man acknowledged his entrance, noted the box beneath his arm, and continued to sweep.

Finally, the shopkeeper said: “Can I help you with anything?”

Hank put the box down on the counter and said: “So, what’s going on?”

The man went behind the counter and commented: “I take it, against advice, you opened the box before midnight. Is that right?” he said with one eyebrow raised as if a prosecutor were making a charge.

Momentarily flustered with the man’s question, Hank hemmed and hawed. Shortly later, he confessed.

The man waved his hand in a dismissive way. “Well, there’s no real harm done, but I warned you about not getting full value for your money.”

Hank was mystified. Again, he asked: “What’s going on?”

Finally, the dam broke and a flood of questions burst forth: “What is this all about? Why am I, apparently, the only one who can see the lights and smell the aromas arising out of the box? Why canI put my fingers in some of the compartments and not others? And,why does the box appear to change? What does it all mean?”

The man had an amused expression on his face, followed by a mock sense of surprise as he said: “My, my, so many questions.”

The shopkeeper took the box which Hank had brought with him and threw it in a garbage bin, commenting, as he did this: “I guess you’re all through with this one.”

Hank was upset: “Wait! What are you doing? That’s my box. Why are you throwing it out?”

“Don’t worry,” said the man. “I’ll give you a discount on your next box.”

The shopkeeper stopped, hesitated, and, then, asked cautiously: “You do want another one, don’t you?”

“Not without an explanation, I don’t,” Hank said defiantly.

“Very well,” the man said. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything!” demanded Hank.

The shopkeeper shook his head and replied: “Sorry. I don’tknow everything. I can only tell you what I know. You’ll have to be satisfied with that.”

Hank thought this over and said: “All right. Tell me what you know.”

The man shook his head again: “Sorry. I’m not allowed to tell you everything I know ... I can only tell you some things.”

Frustrated, Hank exploded: “Then, for God’s sake, tell me what you can.”

A very pleased expression came over the man’s face. “I would be happy to do that,” he said. Clearing his throat, the shopkeeper began: “The box has 24 compartments. Each compartment contains one hour of your life. If you had waited until midnight, the box would have had 24 fresh opportunities shining forth for you to take advantage of, but since you opened the box prematurely, the box could only show what was left of your day and what already had transpired.

“You couldn’t access certain areas of the box because that time was not, yet, yours. Those compartments glowed with the light of potential but otherwise were off limits to you.

“The black holes which you saw give expression to the time when you were sleeping and doing nothing with the time allotted you. The gray-tinged areas encompassed the times when you did nothing with the hours of the day to either help, or hurt, your seeking to realize the purpose of your life, and since last night you wasted a lot of time just looking at the box and wondering about things, there are a lot of gray areas in your box.

“The smells coming from the box constitute the things you have done throughout the day which have either aided the purpose of your life or have served to undermine it. If you will think back to what took place yesterday and are honest with yourself, I believe you will be able to map various smells onto different deeds which you did during those particular hours.

“As far as why no one but you can see what is in the box is concerned, well, they are your hours, after all, aren’t they? You’reresponsible for them, and out of courtesy, certain forces are present which help keep those contents hidden from the view of others ... but the smells, well, sometimes even those can’t be camouflaged, and, I should warn you that, under certain circumstances, those smells may follow a person through eternity.”

The man smiled in summation, adding: “So, would you like to get another box for tomorrow, or would you prefer another bargain box like you purchased yesterday – the kind with respect to which you don’t follow instructions, and, therefore, lose the value of the box?” The shopkeeper’s eyebrows were both raised to punctuate his question.

Hank stood in a sort of stupor. He was nonplused by the whole situation. The man noted Hank’s condition and said: “If you purchase something other than one of our daily bargains, there are differen tcosts associated with any of the selections which you might make. IfI were you, I would choose carefully.”

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Military Commissions Act - The Day America Died - A Sufi Perspective

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Heedlessness

The Prophet said: 'Shall I tell you about your illness and its remedy?' They replied: 'Indeed, O Messenger of Allah.' He said: 'Your illness is your sins, and your remedy is repentance.' - Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)
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Heedlessness is a quality of our spiritual darkness. To be heedless is to be a servant of the ego. Heedlessness is to prefer our own ideas to Divine meanings. Heedlessness is to favor our own opinions over the teachings of the Prophets, saints, and spiritual guides.

To be heedless is a clear sign of our deep addiction to our false self. To be heedless is to be preoccupied with the whims and fantasies of the ego. Heedlessness entails denying the rights which God has over us. Heedlessness involves denying the rights which our families and neighbors and all of creation have over us.

To be heedless, we must reject the call of our spirit. To be heedless, we must abandon our hearts to the decay and corruption of our egos. Heedlessness gives expression to criticism of God's creation. Heedlessness exists in our finding fault with God's way of handling and managing our affairs.

To fail to realize the purpose of our existence is to be heedless. To continue to allow the activities of our passion and anger to transfix us is to be heedless. Heedlessness blinds us to the signs of God. To be heedless is to be mute in our praise of God. To be heedless is to not realize God is closer to us than life itself.

Heedlessness means we do not understand our essence is rooted in Divinity. To ignore the countless forms of kindness God extends to us every day is to be heedless. To fail to cherish the spiritual opportunity which this life offers is to be heedless. To fail to assume our responsibilities with respect to the care and protection of nature is to be heedless. To allow the soil of soul to remain fallow is to be heedless.

Heedlessness is to treat love as if it were a four-letter word. Heedlessness is to be attracted to hostility, hatred, and malice. Heedlessness is to have lost access to our capacity to distinguish between the real and the illusory. To be heedless is to savor the taste of worldly things. To be heedless is to be willing participants in the spread of the diseases of the ego.

Heedlessness is to be inactive in helping the poor, the hungry, and the homeless. To believe we are independent of God, is to be heedless. To prefer gratification to sacrifice is to be heedless.

Heedlessness consists in placing trust in ourselves rather than God. To be heedless is to prostitute our spiritual potential. To separate ourselves from Divine guidance is to be heedless. To go through life intoxicated with our own likes and dislikes is to be heedless.

Heedlessness is to show inadequate respect for sacred ground. Heedlessness is to confuse our false self for our real self. To be heedless is to take license with God's forgiveness. To be heedless is to seek worldly knowledge rather than gnosis.

Heedlessness is to believe we will not be held accountable for what we omit and commit in this life. Heedlessness is to waste our lives worshiping the idols of the ego.

To not understand the depth of our vulnerability to the forces within and without us is to be heedless. To believe we are awake when we are fast asleep is to be heedless.

To ridicule, and show contempt for, the servants of God is to be heedless. To take the world as a friend is to be heedless.

Heedlessness is to prefer rebellion over obedience in relation to God. Heedlessness is to betray one's essential identity.T o be caught up with the diversions of avocations rather than the work of our spiritual vocation is to be heedless.

To treat time as if it were a renewable resource, is to be heedless. To consider truth to be relative to one's point of view is to be heedless. To believe there are no absolutes is to be heedless.

Heedlessness is to object to the imposition of constraints on the activities of the ego. Heedlessness is to suppose we are the source of our rights and not God. To be heedless is to rest our hope on other than God. To be heedless is to suppose that our successes are the direct result of our efforts.

To be indifferent to the misery and pain we cause others, is to be heedless. To believe God is not intimately aware of all that we do is to be heedless.

To suppose the answers to the problems of life can be found in science, medicine, economics, psychology, politics, mathematics, theology, and/or philosophy is to be heedless.

To set about changing the world before we transform ourselves is to be heedless. To mouth spiritual platitudes without sincere commitment to implementing spiritual principles in our lives is to be heedless. To be preoccupied with finding fault with others rather than ourselves is to be heedless.

To believe a life of spirituality can be gained without struggle is to be heedless. To assume one's struggles are sufficient for spiritual success is to be heedless.

To be heedless is not to be immersed in the remembrance of God. To be heedless is to consider our death to be far away. To be heedless is to assume anything can occur without permission of God. To be heedless is to blame God for what we permit to come into our lives.

Heedlessness is to believe we can realize Divinity in our lives while holding on to our false selves.

Heedlessness is to be inattentive to the fact all things pass away.

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.

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?

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