9/11 Questions (Almost) Nobody's Asking
September 5, 2011 by Bob Livingston
Sunday will mark the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. And although the official version of what happened that day has more holes than a Revolutionary soldier’s sock in Valley Forge, it is now accepted as fact and without question.
The reason for this goes back to what I wrote last week in Prima Facie. There is no inquiry by the American people. What their “leaders” feed them is automatically believed to be true.
Conventional wisdom has it that 19 hijackers of Middle Eastern origin — primarily Saudi Arabians — outwitted the vast United States intelligence network and the worldwide intelligence network for months while preparing to carry out the largest attack ever on American soil. The attack was planned from Afghanistan by a bunch of cave-dwellers and financed by the son of a Saudi billionaire who had an ax to grind with America for occupying Muslim holy ground.
The 19 hijackers conducted extensive training, including learning to fly — but not land — airplanes so they could pull off the attacks. The hijackers split into four teams and, armed only with box cutters, each overpowered the crew and a planeload of passengers and hijacked a plane. There weren’t 20 hijackers and four equal teams because one of the hijackers, Zacarias Moussaoui, was in jail in Minnesota on an immigration violation.
During the ordeal, passengers used cell phones and airplane seat-back phones to call loved ones to tell them of their plight.
After two of the planes struck the towers of the World Trade Center and erupted into huge fireballs, the passport of one of the accused hijackers was found, intact, lying on the sidewalk, virtually unsinged and undamaged but soaked in jet fuel. This “lead” put the FBI on the trail of the hijackers and their co-conspirators right away.
The fires resulting from the crash, fed by jet fuel, brought down the two towers within hours and even brought down an adjacent building that was undamaged by the planes and had sustained only minimal fire damage.
In a field over Shanksville, Pa., a group of passengers decided to overpower their hijackers and regain control of the plane. One of the passengers, Todd Beamer, uttered the now famous words, “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll,” according to a customer service representative Beamer had reached while using a credit card phone in the back of an airplane seat.
As the passengers wrestled with hijackers for control, the aircraft plunged into the ground in a field and disintegrated into millions of pieces, most of which were small enough to fit into a carry-on bag. The largest piece found at the site was a section of fuselage about the size of a car hood. A section of the engine was found more than a mile away, and debris from the crash was found as far as eight miles away, blown there by the prevailing 10-mph winds after being tossed into the air by the crash.
The fourth airliner crashed into the Pentagon’s wall, leaving an impact hole about 20 feet wide and only slightly higher. Again, only small fragments of the plane remained after the crash and ensuing fire.
Although the South Tower of the WTC was the second to be struck at 9:02 a.m., it fell first, pancaking down in its own footprint approximately 57 minutes after the plane flew into it between the 78th and 84th floors. About 29 minutes later the North Tower of the WTC collapsed. It came down at 10:28 a.m., one hour and 42 minutes after it was struck between the 94th and 98th floors. It also fell straight down into its own footprint.
The attacks killed 2,996 people: airline passengers, building occupants, rescue workers and the hijackers.
By 3:30 p.m. CIA Director George Tenet had fingered Osama bin Laden as the culprit (thanks to the miraculous find of the terrorist passport), telling President George W. Bush and his National Security team that a check of the passenger manifests had turned up the names of three known al-Qaida operatives.
At 5:20 p.m. WTC Building 7 collapsed. It had suffered only minimal fire damage, but the official word is that fire caused the building to come down.
Three days later, Bush was standing atop a pile of rubble at ground zero making a speech through a bullhorn. A rescue worker yelled out that he couldn’t hear Bush. Bush spontaneously replied, “I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people—and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”
On Oct. 7, less than a month after four hijacked airliners crashed into the WTC, the Pentagon and a field, the “War on Terror” began in Afghanistan with the purported goal of dismantling the al-Qaida terror network and finding and killing bin Laden.
On Oct. 26, 2001, Bush signed into law the Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorist Act of 2001; aka the USA PATRIOT Act. The Act passed the house by 357-66 and the Senate by 98-1.
On Nov. 27, 2002, a commission called the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission) was formed to “prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks.” It was also charged with looking into preparedness and response to the attacks.
The commission issued its final report and closed on Aug. 21, 2004. In a nutshell, it blamed failures on the part of the CIA and the FBI and said had the agencies acted more wisely and more aggressively, the attacks could have been prevented.
Case closed for the media and the vast majority of the American public.
But there are questions, many questions. And fewer and fewer are they who are asking.
In the months leading up to 9/11, the United States’ vaunted intelligence agencies lost track of 19 foreigners, most of whom had overstayed their visas, and could not catch up to them even though some of them were living with FBI informants and others were enrolling in flight schools where they sought to learn to fly — but not land — airplanes. They were living the high life and not showing any evidence of trying to hide. In July 2001, according to an article in Germany’s daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies received warning signals through the Echelon spy network that Middle Eastern terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons against important symbols of American and Israeli culture. Yet we are told the attacks came as a complete surprise. How could this happen?
Recent papers released by WikiLeaks indicate that in the weeks before 9/11, American intelligence services were on the trail of another group of five men with terrorist ties who were staying in California. They slipped away in the days after 9/11. Were they a fifth team of hijackers who did not complete their mission for some reason? How were they able to escape the massive U.S. dragnet?
Two days before the 9/11 attacks, the “Lion of Panjshir,” Ahmad Shah Massoud Khayin, who was the leader of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, was assassinated by two suicide bombers posing as journalists. In the early morning hours of Sept. 11, a van occupied by Middle Eastern men pulled up to The Colony Beach and Tennis Resort in Florida, where Bush was staying. They said they were there to interview the President, but didn’t have an appointment. They were turned away. Are these two incidents related?
Two hours before the planes slammed into the Twin Towers, two employees of the Israeli instant messaging service Odigo received messages warning of the coming attacks, according to the Israeli publication Haaretz. Who sent the messages and why? Who else was warned ahead of the attacks?
At 8:44 a.m., during a working breakfast on missile defense with Congressional leaders, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld predicted a terrorist attack would come, saying, “Let me tell you. I’ve been around the block a few times. There will be another event.” Did he know about the attack in advance?
How did that passport of Satam al-Suqami survive the crash? The plane was exploded into a giant fireball upon impact with WTC 1. Yet the passport exited his pocket or luggage and fell unharmed to the ground near the tower, where it was spotted by a passerby and turned over to police despite the bedlam going on all around? How is it that his was the only identification found out of all the passengers on the plane?
At 8:50 a.m., four minutes after the first plane struck, Tenet was made aware of the crash and realized it was no accident. Yet there is no indication he made an effort to stop Bush from making a scheduled appearance at Booker Elementary School in Florida, despite the danger he may have been facing were a highly coordinated attack being carried out. Before entering the classroom, Bush paused to speak with then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Later, Bush said he learned of the first crash before entering the classroom when he saw the plane crash into the building on television. There was no video of the first crash until much later in the day, and the school principal said there was no television in the area that Bush could have seen anyway. Why this discrepancy? Was Bush lying?
According to media reports, a number of the passengers on the hijacked airliners supposedly used cellphones to call loved ones and authorities. But cellphone technology in 2001 didn’t allow the use of phones above 10,000 feet. How were the calls possible?
Witnesses reported seeing a white jet that looked like a fighter plane trailing United Airlines Flight 93, and a sonic boom was reported in the area over Pennsylvania. Was there a second plane? If so, where did it come from?
Some witnesses also reported seeing Flight 93 on fire before it crashed into the field. Why were these witnesses hushed up and why weren’t they allowed to testify for the 9/11 Commission? What was the plane they saw and did it shoot down Flight 93 upon orders from Vice President Dick Cheney?
If the plane flew into the ground intact, how did a large portion of the engine fall more than a mile away from the crash site? How did lighter debris wind up as far as eight miles away?
In the days following the attacks, at least 60 Israeli citizens were arrested and held secretly — some of them with ties to Israeli military and intelligence. Fox News’ Carl Cameron was the first mainstream reporter to break the news. It was weeks later before other mainstream news outlets picked up on it. His four-part series that provided evidence that the Israelis had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks has been scrubbed from Fox News’ website. Who were these Israelis, what did they know and what became of them? Why did Fox News scrub the stories?
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is tasked with protecting American airspace. Yet even though the Federal Aviation Administration notified NORAD of the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11 at 8:38 a.m. and other flights in the minutes that followed, it wasn’t until long after the last plane hit the ground that NORAD planes showed up. Where were they and why did NORAD sit on news of the hijacked planes for several minutes (which NORAD admits to but won’t explain) before scrambling any fighters?
When the 9/11 Commission tried to get answers to these questions, NORAD stonewalled and its representatives lied. What were they covering up and why? Why do they continue to stonewall to this day?
Firefighters and reporters arriving on the scene of the WTC fires claim to have heard numerous explosions before the buildings collapsed. What caused the explosions? Were they deliberately set to bring down the twin towers?
How did fires cause two skyscrapers to fall? It’s the first time fire ever brought down a skyscraper, and it happened to three buildings in one day. Why did they pancake down as if in a controlled demolition? If fire weakened the support beams, as the official stories suggest, why didn’t the towers fall to one side or the other rather than pancake down as if in a controlled event? Many engineers and architects at AE911truth.org say it could not have happened as we’re told. Why are they being ignored? Better yet, if these architects and engineers are lying about their theories, ask yourself what they stand to gain from lying and what is their motive?
Traces of an explosive called thermite were found in the rubble of the WTC and melted steel was found beneath the columns. What is the source of the thermite and what caused the steel to liquefy? Burning jet fuel does not reach a temperature high enough to liquefy steel.
What caused WTC Building 7 to fall?
The maneuver required to fly an airliner at the trajectory of the one that hit the Pentagon would be difficult for an experienced pilot, and some of the air traffic controllers watching the flight believed it to be a military aircraft at the time. How did a terrorist with limited — and by all accounts very poor — flying ability pull off such a maneuver without crashing into the ground prior to reaching the Pentagon?
Why was the hole in the Pentagon wall too small to accommodate an airliner — both in width and height? Why were no identifiable parts of a Boeing 757 found at the crash site? Why was an engine turbofan from an A3 Skywarrior found at the crash scene? If Flight 77 did not crash into the Pentagon, what happened to it and its passengers and crew?
In the weeks and months after the attack, men alleged to have been the hijackers and supposed to have died in the attacks began turning up alive. At least seven of them have been seen since 9/11 and one was found to have died prior to 9/11 in an airplane crash. What is the explanation for this?
Why did Bush begin talking to cabinet members about attacking Iraq while the Afghanistan attack was being formulated?
If we attacked Afghanistan with the intention of defeating al-Qaida and killing Osama bin Laden, why are we still there? Al-Qaida is no longer in Afghanistan and bin Laden is reportedly dead.
Why did the Pentagon participate in a cover-up and attempt to mislead the 9/11 Commission?
Why do members of the 9/11 Commission believe there are still many unanswered questions regarding the events of that day? Why did Commission members say they believed the Commission was set up to fail? Why have there been no charges of obstruction filed against those who stonewalled and lied to the Commission?
Did someone or someones in government or within some shadowy quasi-governmental agency participate in or facilitate the attacks? Was it a coup against the Bush regime? Could that explain Bush’s seeming confusion and his trips crisscrossing the Southern portion of the U.S. before going back to Washington, D.C.? What other lies are we being told?
Why aren’t you asking some of these same questions?
(Other sources include: http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j030802.html, http://www.911timeline.net/, http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/booker_time.html, www.prisonplanet.com, 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made In USA.)
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