Just a Matter of Time

Off Topic Politics and World Issues
1

NORAD had drills of jets as weapons
By Steven Komarow and Tom Squitieri,
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON- “In the two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted exercises simulating what the White House says was unimaginable at the time: hijacked airliners used as weapons to crash into targets and cause mass casualties. One of the imagined targets was the World Trade Center.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-18-norad_x.htm

Agency Was to Crash Plane on 9/11
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer
August 22, 2002

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

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

Adding to the coincidence, American Airlines Flight 77 -the Boeing 767 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon -took off from Dulles at 8:10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 50 minutes before the exercise was to begin. It struck the Pentagon around 9:40 a.m., killing 64 aboard the plane and 125 on the ground.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/2002-08-22/usw_plane.asp

911 Panelist May Quit Over Bush Secrecy
By James Gordon Meek and Kenneth R. Bazinet
New York Daily News
2-28-4

WASHINGTON – Frustrated by Bush administration restrictions, a former senator said yesterday he might quit the special commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), now president of New York’s New School University, told the Daily News that resigning is “on my list of possibilities” because the administration continues to block the full panel’s access to top intelligence officials and materials.

“I am no longer… feeling comfortable that I’m going to be able to read and process what I need in order to participate in writing a report about how it was that 19 men defeated every single defensive system the U.S. put up to kill 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11,” said Kerrey."

9/11 Commission Funding Woes
Questions arise concerning the administration’s funding of the congressional investigation into the September 11th attacks
By TIMOTHY J. BURGER

"Is the Bush White House trying to put the brakes on the congressional panel created last fall to investigate the 9/11 attacks? Sources tell TIME that the White House brushed off a request quietly made last week by the 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean, the Republican former governor of New Jersey, to boost his budget by $11 million.

The panel has until the end of May 2004 to complete its work, but it will spend the $3 million it was originally allotted by around August 2003 - if it doesn’t get the supplement.

They’ve never wanted the commission and I feel the White House has always been looking for a way to kill it without having their finger on the murder weapon."
http://www.time.com/time/nation/printout/0,8816,437267,00.html

As a side note, the PODIUM at the Republican convention cost $2.5 million.

President Bush Thwarted Our Attempts at Every Turn
By Mary Jacoby
September 15 2004

"The widows known as the “Jersey Girls” changed history by demanding an independent 9/11 investigation. Now they want to change who’s president though some voted for Bush four years ago.

Along the way, the women have learned about coverups, obfuscation, political cowardice, deceptions and the dangers of eschewing international alliances for a go-it-alone foreign policy.

And their conclusion: For the sake of the country’s future, John Kerry must replace George W. Bush. Gathering at the National Press Club in Washington on Tuesday, the widows announced their endorsement of the Massachusetts Democrat for president, a move made “in good conscience and from our hearts,” as former Bush supporter Kristen Breitweiser told the news cameras.

“In the three years since 9/11, I could never have imagined I would be here today, disappointed in the person I voted for, for president,” she said. Added fellow Jersey Girl Patty Casazza: “It was President Bush who thwarted our attempts at every turn.”

“The widows said they endorsed Kerry because three years of studying the facts has convinced them he will do a better job than Bush at protecting the nation.”
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604B.shtml

Hopefully this audio interveiw won’t be too much of a surprise after that…
http://www.photographyandartbycarl.com/911/7b_lawsuit3.mov

2

Condi Rice testified under oath in front of a senate committee that the idea of terrorists using an airplane to attack buildings was “unimaginable”

I saw her say it, on C-SPAN.

Either she perjured herself when she said that, or she is totally incompetent as National Security Advisor to the president.

Personally, I think she is both a liar AND incompetent as the National Security Advisor. If there is a second Bush term, Condi Rice will not be back… thank God.

Anyone truly paying attention to what Team Bush has said and done over the past four years is forced to choose between deciding if they are LIARS or are they just INCOMPETENT.

3

On 9-11, our miltary was engaged in two MAJOR homeland security exercises. One operation was called “Vigilant Guardian” and I forget the name of the other exercise.

That’s why military jets were unable to intercept the four hijacked airliners… our jets were way out of position that morning, doing drills.

There were only 3 jets guarding the airspace of the entire east coast, that morning.

If you recall, when NORAD was notified of the hijacking, their first response was to ask “Is this a drill?”

Now I would never say that anyone in our government had anything to do with planning 9-11. I am not a conspiracy buff. But there must have been a major security breach, that Al Qaida was able to learn that on 9-11 our miltary would be all wrapped up doing drills, and that there would be a massive opening for an attack. It’s impossible to believe that it’s just a coincidence that was the day al Qaida chose to attack.

Anyone know if the 9-11 “Vigilant Guardian” drills are discussed in the 9-11 Commission’s official report (the 9-11 book)?

4

Linlk that discusses Vigilant Guardian and the NORAD drills that were scheduled for several consecutive days:

5

Your right Lumpy, even if you don’t believe in the alternate story, at the VERY LEAST they perjured themselves big time. In a situation far less worse than 9/11, they wanted Clinton’s head for that.

That’s why it’s so incredible to believe that if it was Bin Laden, why wouldn’t they not want to know how he got this information. They don’t even try to explain that one, they just want you to believe it was all a “bizarre coincidence”. Do you know that none of the hijackers names show up on the passenger lists? Or that about 7 of the supposed hijackers are still alive?

These were all the drills running simultaneously that morning:

NORTHERN VIGILANCE

BIOWARFARE EXERCISE TRIPOD II
(In another “bizarre coincidence” FEMA had set-up an entire command post on Pier 29 on Sept 10, 2001 as part of this exercise)

OPERATION VIGILANT GUARDIAN

OPERATION NORTHERN GUARDIAN

OPERATION VIGILANT WARRIOR

The problem is, if you believe the hijacker story, then you have to convince yourself of all these coincidences, AFTER they said they never thought about it.

That’s why the Jersey Girls are against Bush, the 911 Commission didn’t answer hardly any of the hard questions brought up by independent researchers and victim’s families. The fact that the administration initially only granted $3 million for the entire investigation and only begrudgingly upped it to $15 million for the worst act of terrorism ever, I think just speaks volumes and I think it’s insulting to the American public.

6

FAA Manager Mangled, Cut, Destroyed 9/11 Tapes
By Liz Swaine
Newswriter, Editor
May 10, 2004

Information provided to the commission investigating the U.S. government’s response to terrorist threats prior to September 11, 2001, names an FAA quality manager in the destruction of an audiotape made in the aftermath of the 9/11 hijackings.

Each of at least six air traffic controllers and some ten other employees who were on the job at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., during the World Trade Center attacks gathered several hours after to recall their version of events. But that tape, which could have helped determine how the agency responded to clues that four planes had been hijacked, was destroyed before it was ever heard.

In fact, officials at the ARTCC were never even told of the tape’s existence. According to the report given to the 9/11 Commission by Department of Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead, the audiotape was crushed in the hand of the unnamed FAA employee, then cut into small pieces and tossed into different trash cans around the ARTCC building.

Despite the fact that the quality assurance officer had been told to retain all records pertaining to 9/11, he told inspector general investigators he destroyed the tape because he felt making it was contrary to FAA policy, which calls for written statements.

He is also quoted to have said the controllers “were not in the correct frame of mind to have properly consented to the taping” because of the stress of the day, and told investigators that faced with a similar situation, he would repeat his actions.

Inspector General Mead told the 9/11 commission the employee showed “poor judgment,” and in calling for administrative action, said the employee’s attitude about the destruction was “especially troubling.” The FAA confirms disciplinary action has been taken against the employee, but will not say what that action was, or identify the employee. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) says the matter could be investigated further.

7

Selling Out the Investigation
January 4, 2002
By Bill Manning - editor in chief
Fire Engineering Magazine

Did they throw away the locked doors from the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire? Did they throw away the gas can used at the Happyland Social Club Fire? Did they cast aside the pressure-regulating valves at the Meridian Plaza Fire? Of course not. But essentially, that’s what they’re doing at the World Trade Center.

For more than three months, structural steel from the World Trade Center has been and continues to be cut up and sold for scrap. Crucial evidence that could answer many questions about high-rise building design practices and performance under fire conditions is on the slow boat to China, perhaps never to be seen again in America until you buy your next car.

Such destruction of evidence shows the astounding ignorance of government officials to the value of a thorough, scientific investigation of the largest fire-induced collapse in world history. I have combed through our national standard for fire investigation, NFPA 921, but nowhere in it does one find an exemption allowing the destruction of evidence for buildings over 10 stories tall.

As things now stand and if they continue in such fashion, the investigation into the World Trade Center fire and collapse will amount to paper- and computer-generated hypotheticals.

Fire Engineering has good reason to believe that the “official investigation” blessed by FEMA and run by the American Society of Civil Engineers is a half-baked farce that may already have been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure.

Except for the marginal benefit obtained from a three-day, visual walk-through of evidence sites conducted by ASCE investigation committee members- described by one close source as a “tourist trip”-no one’s checking the evidence for anything.

However, respected members of the fire protection engineering community are beginning to raise red flags, and a resonating theory has emerged: The structural damage from the planes and the explosive ignition of jet fuel in themselves were not enough to bring down the towers.

The destruction and removal of evidence must stop immediately.

The federal government must scrap the current setup and commission a fully resourced blue ribbon panel to conduct a clean and thorough investigation of the fire and collapse, leaving no stones unturned.

http://fe.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=OnlineArticles&SubSection=Display&PUBLICATION_ID=25&ARTICLE_ID=131225

8


http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/04/08/edi04057.html#video

An Excuse-Spouting Bush Is Busted by 9/11 Report
By Robert Scheer
The Los Angeles Times
Tuesday 27 July 2004

There was simply no excuse for the near-total indifference of the new president and his top Cabinet officials to strenuous warnings from the outgoing Clinton administration and the government’s counter-terrorism experts that something terrible was coming, fast and hard, from Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden’s gang, they said repeatedly, was planning “near-term attacks,” which Al Qaeda operatives expected “to have dramatic consequences of catastrophic proportions.”

As early as May 2001, the FBI was receiving tips that Bin Laden supporters were planning attacks in the U.S., possibly including the hijacking of planes.

On May 29, White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke wrote national security advisor Condoleezza Rice that “when these attacks [on Israeli or U.S. facilities] occur, as they likely will, we will wonder what more we could have done to stop them.”

At the end of June, the commission wrote, “the intelligence reporting consistently described the upcoming attacks as occurring on a calamitous level.” In early July, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft was told “that preparations for multiple attacks [by Al Qaeda] were in late stages or already complete and that little additional warning could be expected.” By month’s end, “the system was blinking red” and could not “get any worse,” then-CIA Director George Tenet told the 9/11 commission.

It was at this point, of course, that George W. Bush began the longest presidential vacation in 32 years. On the very first day of his visit to his Texas ranch, Aug. 6, Bush received the now-infamous two-page intelligence alert titled, “Bin Laden Determined to Attack in the United States.” Yet instead of returning to the capital to mobilize an energetic defensive posture, he spent an additional 27 days away as the government languished in summer mode, in deep denial.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/072804B.shtml#1

9

[quote]Or that about 7 of the supposed hijackers are still alive?
.[/quote]

Yup. and there goes any shred of credibility you might have had left. Thanks for playing, be sure to sign up with a new screen name so people might read your drivel a few times before they realize its the same kook behind a new name.

10

Geez,

And don’t forget - aliens ate Bush’s brain.

11

[quote]biltritewave wrote:
Or that about 7 of the supposed hijackers are still alive?

Yup. and there goes any shred of credibility you might have had left. Thanks for playing, be sure to sign up with a new screen name so people might read your drivel a few times before they realize its the same kook behind a new name. [/quote]

All I did was list actual news articles that throw gobs of suspicion at, and directly contradict the official story.

So you believe that NORAD just happened to be running drills that day of flying hijacked planes into buildings and in an incredible coincedence bin Laden picked that VERY day to do just that very same thing.

Then, a story of an FAA official chopping up a tape with crucial evidence of 9/11 and spreading it out among several different waste cans seems perfectly “normal”.

Or that Bush never wanted the 911 commission and only alloted an inital $3 million to investigate the worst act of terrorism ever. Or that neither Bush nor Cheney would testify under oath and would only be interviewed together.

Or that respected fire engineers practically begged for a thorough investigation of evidence from ground zero, but instead it was hauled away as scrap in record time.

Or that some of the hijackers really are still alive…

Hijack ‘suspects’ alive and well
23 September, 2001

Waleed Al Shehri left the US a year ago, he says

Another of the men named by the FBI as a hijacker in the suicide attacks on Washington and New York has turned up alive and well.

The identities of four of the 19 suspects accused of having carried out the attacks are now in doubt.

Saudi Arabian pilot Waleed Al Shehri was one of five men that the FBI said had deliberately crashed American Airlines flight 11 into the World Trade Centre on 11 September.

Expert: Hijackers likely skilled with fake IDs
By Daniel Sieberg

(CNN) --FBI Director Robert Mueller has acknowledged that some of those behind last week’s terror attacks may have stolen the identification of other people, and, according to at least one security expert, it may have been “relatively easy” based on their level of sophistication.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/21/inv.id.theft/

BTW, here are the passenger lists of all the flights.
Seems funny how they could board planes with Arab passports and not show up on any of the lists…
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/main.html

Of course after Rice testified they never thought of this scenerio, a direct quote from the 9/11 Commission itself said, "In early July, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft was told "that preparations for multiple attacks [by Al Qaeda] were in late stages or already complete and that little additional warning could be expected."By month’s end, “the system was blinking red” and could not “get any worse,” then-CIA Director George Tenet told the 9/11 commission.

I guess if using common sense makes me a kook, so be it. BTW, aren’t you one of those that believes Iraq is almost liberated… : o