The Smoking Gun

Posted by Cashflow420 on July 14, 2008, 06:42 AM | #

Conspiracy theory or real life? Whos to say but the man himself?

Posted by Lurker on July 14, 2008, 09:35 AM | #

If its a conspiracy the guy made up, he made it up on 9/11 so full marks for consistency at least.

Posted by Englander on July 14, 2008, 11:09 AM | #

This man spoke on an anti-conspiracy documentary shown on the BBC recently.  He distanced himself from the ‘conspiratorial interpretations’ of his words.

Posted by Alex on July 14, 2008, 10:45 PM | #

That is interesting.

The US government has historically had something of a pattern of sending its usually unwitting personnel into dangerous situations that are almost certain to end very badly...that, or creating for them the dangerous situation...going back perhaps as far as the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848.  Sure enough, an ‘act of terror’ often times takes place, which then provides the ‘catalyst’ which allows that government to fulfill a geopolitical objective.  In the case of the USS Maine, an explosion occurring in Havana’s harbor resulting in the sinking of the ship with a massive loss of life, the geo-political objective was the acquisition of Cuba as part of ‘Manifest Destiny’, that ideology being the belief that in time all of North America would be economically and politically integrated to the United States, thus forming a continental super-state. 

Some contemporary accounts from that tragic event below…

Excerpt from the letter of 17 year old Charles Hamilton mailed from the USS Maine on February 5, 1898, ten days before the Maine blew up ending his life along with those of 250 other sailers.

‘We steamed the whole length of Cuba and about every mile you can see puffs of smoke and the Spainards firing on the rebels...’

The USS Maine Enters Havana Harbor - January 25, 1898

We were out to sea when the orders came for us to proceed at once to Havana.  We are the first American ship that has been here in six years.  We are now cleared for action with every gun in the ship loaded and men stationed around the ship all night.  We are also ready to land a battalion at any moment.  By the looks of things now I think we will have some trouble before we leave.  We steamed the whole length of Cuba and about every mile you can see puffs of smoke and the Spainards firing on the rebels.  There are three German ships (?) loading.  here was Old Moro Castle stands at the entrance of the harbor, there are thousands of Spanish inside you can see them all sitting on the walls at any time of the day.  This is a landlocked harbor but I think we could get out of it all right although we are in a pretty dangerous position at the present time and we hardly know when we are safe.

The wreck of the ship after the explosion…

Investigation and Recovery operations of the USS Maine…

‘Their faces for the most part were bloated with decay or burned beyond recognition, but here and there the light of my lamp flashed upon a stony face I knew, which when I last saw it had smiled a merry greeting, but now returned my gaze with staring eyes and fallen jaw.’

A diver returning from the wreck of the MAINE is helped up a ladder as Ensign Powelson waits to interview him. In the foreground men man the diver’s air pump. In the background are Spanish warships.

Diver Charles Morgan, USS NEW YORK
Describes his Descent into the MAINE

The Account:

“It was horrible!…As I descended into the death-ship [MAINE’s wreckage] the dead rose up to meet me. They floated toward me with outstretched arms, as if to welcome their shipmate. Their faces for the most part were bloated with decay or burned beyond recognition, but here and there the light of my lamp flashed upon a stony face I knew, which when I last saw it had smiled a merry greeting, but now returned my gaze with staring eyes and fallen jaw. The dead choked the hatchways and blocked my passage from stateroom to cabin. I had to elbow my way through them, as you do in a crowd. While I examined twisted iron and broken timbers they brushed against my helmet and touched my shoulders with rigid hands, as if they sought to tell me the tale of the disaster. I often had to push them aside to make my examinations of the interior of the wreck. I felt like a live man in command of the dead. From every part of the ship came sighs and groans. I knew it was the gurgling of the water through the shattered beams and battered sides of the vessel, but it made me shudder; it sounded so much like echoes of that awful February night of death. The water swayed the bodies to and fro, and kept them constantly moving with a hideous semblance of life. Turn which way I would, I was confronted by a corpse.”

Naval Divers, Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly. Vol XLVII, No. 2, December, 1898, pg 170.

Source

Source

Posted by Alex on July 14, 2008, 11:10 PM | #

The New York Times

The Maine Blown Up

Terrible Explosion on Board the United States Battleship in Havana Harbor

MANY PERSONS KILLED AND WOUNDED

All the Boats of the Spanish Cruiser Alfonso XII, Assisting in the Work of Relief

None of the Wounded Men Able to Give Any Explanation of the Cause of the Disaster

Havana, Feb. 15 - At 9:45 o’clock this evening a terrible explosion took place on board the United States battleship Maine in Havana Harbor.

Many persons were killed or wounded. All the boats of the Spanish cruiser Alfonso XII. are assisting.

As yet the cause of the explosion is not apparent. The wounded sailors of the Maine are unable to explain it. It is believed that the battleship is totally destroyed.

The explosion shook the whole city. The windows were broken in nearly all the houses.

The correspondent of the Associated Press says he has conversed with several of the wounded sailors and understands from them that the explosion took place while they were asleep, so that they can give no particulars as to the cause.

WHAT SENOR DE LOME SAYS

He Declares That No Spaniard Would Be Guilty of Causing Such a Disaster

Senor de Lome, the departing ex-Minister of Spain to this country, who arrived in this city last night, and went to the Hotel St. Marc, at Fifth Avenue and Thirty-ninth Street, was awakened on the receipt of the news from Havana.

He refused to believe the report at first. When he had been assured of the truth of the story he said that there was no possibility that the Spaniards had anything to do with the destruction of the Maine.

No Spaniard, he said, would be guilty of such an act. If the report was true, he said, the explosion must have been caused by some accident on board the warship.

THE MAINE’S VISIT TO HAVANA

First American Warship to Visit Cuba Since the Struggle Began

The Maine was ordered to Havana on Jan. 24 last, and was the first American warship to visit that port since the outbreak of the Cuban rebellion. In explanation of the visit of the American battleship to Cuba Secretary Long issued the following statement:

“So far from there being any foundation for the rumors yesterday of trouble at Havana, matters are now in such condition that our vessels are going to resume their friendly calls at Cuban ports and go in and out just as the vessels of other nations do. The Maine will go in a day or two on just such a visit. The department has issued orders for vessels to attend the public celebrations in Mobile and the Mardi Gras at New Orleans.”

The Maine was commanded by Capt. Charles D. Sigsbee. Her other officers were Lieut. Commander Richard Wainwright, Lieuts. G. F. Holman, John Hood, and C. W. Yungen, Lieuts. (junior grade) G. W. Blow, J. T. Blandin, F. W. Jenkins, Cadets J. H. Holden, W. T. Cluverius, Amos Bronson, and D. F. Boyd, Jr.; Surgeon L. G. Heneberger, Paymaster C. W. Littlefield, Chief Engineer L. G. Nowell, Passed Assistant Engineer E. C. Bowers, Assistant Engineers J. R. Morris and D. R. Merritt, Cadet Engineers Pope, Washington, and Arthur Grenshaw, Chaplain J. P. Chidwick, and Lieutenant of Marines A. W. Catlin.

The commander of the Maine, Capt. Sigsbee, is a favorite in the Navy Department. For four years he was Chief of the Hydrographic Office, and by his energy brought the office up to a high standard.

He justified the department’s judgment in the selection by running his ship straight into a dock in New York harbor to avoid sinking a packed excursion boat. This was a display of quick judgment, nerve, and pluck that pleased the department so highly that the Captain was sent a complimentary letter.

ARMAMENT OF THE MAINE

A Second-Class Battleship Built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

The Maine was placed in commission Aug. 17, 1895. She is a twin-screw, armored turret ship, of the belted type, and is known as a second-class battleship. Like the Texas, the Maine was built at a Government navy yard. The Texas was built at Norfolk; the Maine at the New York Navy Yard. Both ships were authorized when Secretary Whitney began the work of rehabilitating a then degenerate navy.

The Maine is of Navy Department designs throughout. The hull was built by navy yard workmen, and the engines were constructed by the Quintard Iron Works. That firm obtained the contract on its bid of $735,000. There were no other bidders.

The vitals of the ship are protected from gun-fire by an armor belt 180 feet in length. This belt has a maximum thickness of 11 1/2 inches. Below the water line the armor tapers to a thickness of 6 inches. To deflect an end-on or a fore-and-aft fire, heavy armored and sharply inclined V-shaped bulkheads are placed forward and aft, the ends joining the armor belt. The bulkheads are 6 inches thick, and well backed.

In her main battery the ship mounts four 10 inch and six 6-inch rifles. A number of guns of smaller caliber are distributed in advantageous places. The 10-inch rifles are mounted in pairs in two steel turrets. One of these is situated aft, the other forward. The turret armor is 10 1/2 inches thick. The protective power of these massive shields is increased by their circular shape, which tends to deflect a missile unless the impact is directly given.

The guns are breech-loading rifles, with bores 10 inches in diameter. The length of each gun is 329 inches. The weight is a little more than 24 tons. From them a full-service charge of 250 pounds of powder throws a 500-pound shell a distance of nine miles, with an initial velocity of 2,000 feet per second.

The 6-inch rifles are of the breech-loading pattern. These weapons measure 196 inches in length and weigh five tons each. The powder charge is fifty pounds. The weight of the shell is 100 pounds.

The secondary battery consists of six 6-pounders, eight 1-pounders, two revolving cannon, and two Gatlings. The heaviest of the rapid-fire guns throws a six-pound projectile at a velocity of 1,870 feet per second. The Maine has twin screw, vertical triple-expansion engines of an aggregate indicated horse power, including air and circulating pumps, of 9,000. The cylinders are 35 1/2, 57, and 88 inches in diameter by 36 inches stroke, and make 132 revolutions per minute at full power. The principle of interchangeability of parts, so characteristic of American machinery, has in these engines been carried out to the fullest extent.

All the cylinders have piston valves of the same size- 22 inches in diameter- there being one for the h. p., two for the i. p., and three for the l. p. cylinders. The valves are worked by Stephenson double-bar links. The cylinders are jacketed and fitted with liners of hard cast iron. The condensers are of composition and are cylindrical, 6 feet 5 1/2 inches at internal diameter. There are 5,140 brass tubes in each condenser, 5/8-inch internal diameter, and 8 feet 4 inches long between tube sheets, giving a cooling surface in each condenser of 7,010 square feet. Each condenser has a Blake combined air and circulating pump. There are two vertical air pumps worked by a beam, one horizontal circulating pump, and a single steam cylinder which works all the pumps.

There are eight single-ended boilers of the usual cylindrical or “Scotch” type, each 14 feet 8 inches in diameter and 10 feet long, designed for a working pressure of 135 pounds. Each boiler has three corrugated steel furnaces, made, like all others in this country, by the Continental Iron Works of Brooklyn, 42 inches in internal diameter. Each boiler has 118 stay tubes and 401 plain tubes, all of mild steel, 2 1/4 inches external diameter and 6 feet 7 inches long. The total grate surface is 553 square feet, and the total heating surface about 18,800 square feet. The boilers are in two separate water-tight firerooms.

The forced draught is on the closed ash-pit system, the air being led to the ash pits by ducts under the fireroom floors. The blowers are driven by inclosed three-cylinder engines, and are arranged to draw the air from engine and firerooms so as to give thorough ventilation. This system of forced draught has been stated by Commodore Melville to be, in his opinion, preferable to that by closed firerooms, as it is under much more complete control, and when a fire is cleaned or coaled, the draught is shut off, thus preventing the chilling effect of the cold air on the hot tube sheets.

The Maine is the only one of the vessels of above 5,000 tons which is so fitted, and it will be noted that her firerooms are fore and aft. In large ships with athwartship firerooms, it is very difficult to locate the blowers and air ducts so that they will not interfere with overhauling and repairs and will also ventilate the firerooms, and for this reason the closed fireroom system is used on them. The screw propellers are of manganese bronze and are four-bladed. The diameter is 14 feet 6 1/2 inches; mean pitch, 16 feet 1 inch; developed area of each, 65.5 square feet.

The vessel is designed to carry a crew of 800 men. She has accommodations for a flag officer and staff.

SENOR DE LOME ARRIVES

He Reaches the City with His Family From Washington En Route for Spain

Senor Dupuy de Lome, the ex-Minister from Spain to the United States, arrived in New York last night en route for his home. He reached Jersey City by the Congressional Limited over the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks at 8:55 P. M. His wife and their two sons and a valet completed the party.

They were met at the station by J. V. Jordan, proprietor of the Hotel St. Marc at Thirty-ninth Street and Fifth Avenue, and an old friend of Senor de Lome. The arrival attracted little or no attention. Half a dozen newspaper reporters were the only persons present except Mr. Jordan and the train hands at the station. As he alighted from the Pullman car, Senor de Lome was accosted by the reporters. He raised his hat in reply to their salutation, and replied to all inquiries that he had nothing to say. Then he hurried across the platform after Senora de Lome and her boys to the elevator, which took him to the street level.

There Mr. Jordan’s private carriage, with two dark-brown horses, was awaiting them. Senor de Lome, with his elder son, occupied the front set, the valet sat on the box with the coachman, and Mr. Jordan remained afoot. The carriage boarded a Desbrosses Street ferryboat, and then learning that time would be saved by going by the Twenty-third Street line, the carriage turned and drove aboard the New Brunswick, which was lying in the slip. The New Brunswick is the ferryboat that was placed at the disposal of President McKinley when he visited the city to attend the banquet of the National Manufacturers’ Association.

At the New York ferry house two detectives from the Central Office, Campbell and Barrett, were on hand in case of necessity. There was no necessity. No one else was in waiting, Spaniard or Cuban. As the carriage dashed out of the ferry house the detectives jumped into a cab and drove after it. Three cabs full of reporters followed the detectives. They drove down Twenty-fourth Street to Fifth Avenue to Thirty-ninth Street, where the ex-Minister and his party alighted at the private door of the Hotel St. Marc.

They did not register, but went immediately to the rooms on the second floor which had been prepared for them, and ten minutes later Senora de Lome, in reply to a note, sent down word that Senor de Lome was very tired and had gone to bed. Mr. Jordan said he did not know what Senor de Lome’s immediate plans were, but his valet had told him that the party intended sailing for Europe by some steamer that started at 10 o’clock in the morning. The valet could not or would not remember the name of the steamer.

Thirty large trunks which the party brought with them from Washington were checked to the White Star pier, where the Britannic is moored, ready to sail at noon to-day.

Source

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Source

Posted by Robert Reis on July 15, 2008, 07:19 AM | #

http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=barry_jennings_1

Profile: Barry Jennings
Barry Jennings was a participant or observer in the following events:
(Shortly Before 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001: New York City Workers Reportedly Find Emergency Command Center Empty Before It Is Supposedly Evacuated After the first World Trade Center tower is hit, Barry Jennings, a City Housing Authority worker, and Michael Hess, New York’s corporation counsel, head up to the emergency command center of the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM), which is on the 23rd floor of WTC 7. [Associated Press, 9/11/2001] The center, opened in 1999, is intended to coordinate responses to various emergencies, including terrorist attacks (see June 8, 1999). [CNN, 6/7/1999] However, Hess and Jennings reportedly find no one there. [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 9/2005, pp. 109-110 ] According to the 9/11 Commission, “After the South Tower was hit [at 9:03], OEM senior leadership decided to remain in its ‘bunker’ and continue conducting operations, even though all civilians had been evacuated from 7 WTC.” The Commission claims the center is not evacuated until 9:30 a.m. (see (9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 305] But according to the London Independent, Hess and Jennings arrive there by the time the South Tower is hit, which suggests the center is evacuated earlier than officially claimed. [Independent, 9/13/2001] This possibility is partly confirmed by OEM Commissioner John Odermatt, who later says that after the first plane hit the WTC, he left only two staffers at the command center (see (Soon After 8:46 a.m.-9:35 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Barrett and Collins, 2006, pp. 34] Jennings and Hess subsequently become trapped in WTC 7, and have to be rescued by firefighters (see 12:10 p.m.-12:15 p.m. September 11, 2001). [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 9/2005, pp. 109-110 ]
Entity Tags: Office of Emergency Management, Barry Jennings, Michael Hess
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline

(Between 9:15 a.m. and 10:28 a.m.) September 11, 2001: New York City Workers Hear Explosion in WTC 7 Barry Jennings, a City Housing Authority worker, and Michael Hess, New York’s corporation counsel, went up to the emergency command center on the 23rd floor of WTC Building 7 after the first attack occurred (see (Shortly Before 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Associated Press, 9/11/2001; Independent, 9/13/2001] At some point, the power goes out in the building. They then start walking down the stairs to get out. According to Hess, when the two men get down to the eighth floor, “there was an explosion and we’ve been trapped on the eighth floor with smoke, thick smoke, all around us, for about an hour and a half.” [UPN 9, 9/11/2001] Jennings similarly describes, “We made it to the eighth floor. Big explosion. Blew us back into the eighth floor, and I turned to Hess. I said, ‘This is it; we’re dead. We’re not gonna make it out of here.’” [Penn State Public Broadcasting, 3/1/2002] The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) claims the two men head down the stairs after 9:59, when the first collapse occurs, and then become trapped around the time the second tower collapses, at 10:28. [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 9/2005, pp. 109-110 ] But according to the London Independent, they start heading down the stairs after the second attack at 9:03, which suggests the explosion occurs earlier on. [Independent, 9/13/2001] The cause of the explosion is unclear. Later on, firefighters rescue Hess and Jennings from the building (see 12:10 p.m.-12:15 p.m. September 11, 2001). [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 9/2005, pp. 109-110 ]
Entity Tags: Barry Jennings, Michael Hess
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline

12:10 p.m.-12:15 p.m. September 11, 2001: Firefighters Rescue Three People Trapped in WTC 7
Mike Hess. [Source: Harvard Law Bulletin]Most of Building 7 of the World Trade Center was evacuated around the time the South Tower was hit (see (9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001). However, firefighters find three individuals who have become trapped inside it. Among them are Barry Jennings, a City Housing Authority worker, and Mike Hess, New York’s chief lawyer who is also a longtime friend of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The two had gone up to the 23rd floor headquarters of the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management some time before 10 a.m., but found it empty. (It was evacuated at 9:30 a.m.; see (9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001.) They headed downstairs but became trapped around the sixth floor by smoke and debris that filled the staircase as a result of the North Tower collapsing at 10:28 a.m. After breaking a window and calling for help, they were spotted by firefighters outside. When the firefighters go in, they also find a security officer for one of the businesses based in the building, who is trapped on the 7th floor by the smoke in the stairway. Why this guard did not evacuate earlier, along with the rest of WTC 7, is unknown. All three men are escorted out of the building. [New York Times, 11/21/1997; Associated Press, 9/11/2001; Giuliani, 2002, pp. 20-21 and 244; Penn State Public Broadcasting, 3/1/2002; National Institute of Standards and Technology, 6/2004, pp. L-18 ; National Institute of Standards and Technology, 9/2005, pp. 109-110 ]
Entity Tags: Michael Hess, Barry Jennings
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline

Posted by Robert Reis on July 15, 2008, 07:53 PM | #

I do not want to turn this site away from it primary focus. This will bee my last post in this thread. The following video is both creative and thought provoking.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=72wfcpR_cnI
heavy weight REMIX
Ït’s about how hard you can get hit.”

Posted by 2R on July 15, 2008, 11:41 PM | #

My favorite is the Harley Davidson t-shirt guy.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YEgHU6pS-tg

Posted by Robert Reis on August 04, 2008, 07:52 PM | #

9/11: the towers of dust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPJUP-Ry7d0

Take three minutes and think about it.

Posted by Monty on August 11, 2008, 07:01 PM | #

Why wouldn’t you expect explosions to occur at that part of WTC7?

They were entering the lower 6 storeys, full of transformers, switchgear, and fuel tanks. When stuff like that gets exposed to fire and intense heat, there is every likelihood of an explosion. This is potentially very dangerous kit to have inside any building. Normally though, they are extremely well protected by fire suppression systems, and of course it is normal for the fire brigade to be in attendance whenever such an installation catches fire. And you have to put gear like that somewhere access is strictly controlled, because if it’s outside the vandals will find it.  On 9/11, the water mains had been severed, and the fire brigade had to concentrate their depleted water pressure on fires that were endangering the living. WTC7 was left to burn.

Some time after 9/11, I remember a scare about another terrorist attack in New York, which turned out to be a Con-Eddison transformer station catching fire, and blowing up. Bystanders were absolutely sure that a bomb had gone off, but they were wrong.

The bloke in WTC7 was very lucky to survive.

I did read that some engineers had been somewhat critical of the arrangement of diesel and electrical gear in WTC7, long before 9/11. Such criticism may have been well founded, because the Port Authority, which comissioned the WTC in the first place, was exempt from the NYC building code. I believe their staircases were not up to code for example.  No agency should be able to gain such exemption. It is stupid situations like that which kill people. Remember the Bradford stadium fire, the Heysel disaster, Aberfan? People being stupid, and complacent, caused them all. The 9/11 attacks were caused by terrorists. But the death toll was significantly amplified by stupid complacent people, who routed all the egress routes, and the rising water mains, in the same central core of the building, with no redundant standby anywhere else. And these same people had studied the effects of an airliner crashing into the building, without ever considering the possibility that airliners would continue to increase in size, power, and fuel capacity. That’s lazy thinking.

I wonder how many of our public buildings have serious safety flaws, which we won’t hear about until there is an inquest.

So no, I don’t see evidence of a fiendish plot. If the authorities were smart enough to do that, they wouldn’t have made such a complete dog’s dinner of the work they are really supposed to be doing.

Posted by Robert Reis on August 12, 2008, 06:18 AM | #

Mr. Jennings is referring to explosions before the big buildings went poof.

WTC7 was undamaged when he enterred it. Yet, the security office was already abandoned.

You are quite right in suggesting that exempting the connected from the building code was criminal.

The question is who were the terrorists?

By September 15th, 2001 it was clear to me that the United States government had permitted the aerial attacks to succeed. The miraculous discovery of the magical passport showed that the plotters were prepared in advance. The failure of any of the military and intelligence officials to be punished for “failures” all along the line confirmed that there had been no “failures”.

Where you see incompetence, I see a completely successful regime whose goals just don’t happen to be in the interest of any sane, normal Americans.

Posted by Robert Reis on August 12, 2008, 06:35 AM | #

http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2004/08/coincidence-theorists-guide-to-911.html
Sunday, August 15, 2004
The Coincidence Theorist’s Guide to 9/11
I posted an earlier version of this last week at Democratic Underground. I’ve added a number of more entries, and links for all.

Happy coincidenting!

That governments have permitted terrorist acts against their own people, and have even themselves been perpetrators in order to find strategic advantage is quite likely true, but this is the United States we’re talking about.

That intelligence agencies, financiers, terrorists and narco-criminals have a long history together is well established, but the Nugan Hand Bank, BCCI, Banco Ambrosiano, the P2 Lodge, the CIA/Mafia anti-Castro/Kennedy alliance, Iran/Contra and the rest were a long time ago, so there’s no need to rehash all that. That was then, this is now!

That Jonathan Bush’s Riggs Bank has been found guilty of laundering terrorist funds and fined a US-record $25 million must embarrass his nephew George, but it’s still no justification for leaping to paranoid conclusions.

That George Bush’s brother Marvin sat on the board of the Kuwaiti-owned company which provided electronic security to the World Trade Centre, Dulles Airport and United Airlines means nothing more than you must admit those Bush boys have done alright for themselves.

That George Bush found success as a businessman only after the investment of Osama’s brother Salem and reputed al Qaeda financier Khalid bin Mahfouz is just one of those things - one of those crazy things.

That Osama bin Laden is known to have been an asset of US foreign policy in no way implies he still is.

That al Qaeda was active in the Balkan conflict, fighting on the same side as the US as recently as 1999, while the US protected its cells, is merely one of history’s little aberrations.

The claims of Michael Springman, State Department veteran of the Jeddah visa bureau, that the CIA ran the office and issued visas to al Qaeda members so they could receive training in the United States, sound like the sour grapes of someone who was fired for making such wild accusations.

That one of George Bush’s first acts as President, in January 2001, was to end the two-year deployment of attack submarines which were positioned within striking distance of al Qaeda’s Afghanistan camps, even as the group’s guilt for the Cole bombing was established, proves that a transition from one administration to the next is never an easy task.

That so many influential figures in and close to the Bush White House had expressed, just a year before the attacks, the need for a “new Pearl Harbor” before their militarist ambitions could be fulfilled, demonstrates nothing more than the accidental virtue of being in the right place at the right time.

That the company PTECH, founded by a Saudi financier placed on America’s Terrorist Watch List in October 2001, had access to the FAA’s entire computer system for two years before the 9/11 attack, means he must not have been such a threat after all.

That whistleblower Indira Singh was told to keep her mouth shut and forget what she learned when she took her concerns about PTECH to her employers and federal authorities, suggests she lacked the big picture. And that the Chief Auditor for JP Morgan Chase told Singh repeatedly, as she answered questions about who supplied her with what information, that “that person should be killed,” suggests he should take an anger management seminar.

That on May 8, 2001, Dick Cheney took upon himself the job of co-ordinating a response to domestic terror attacks even as he was crafting the administration’s energy policy which bore implications for America’s military, circumventing the established infrastructure and ignoring the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman report, merely shows the VP to be someone who finds it hard to delegate.

That the standing order which covered the shooting down of hijacked aircraft was altered on June 1, 2001, taking discretion away from field commanders and placing it solely in the hands of the Secretary of Defense, is simply poor planning and unfortunate timing. Fortunately the error has been corrected, as the order was rescinded shortly after 9/11.

That in the weeks before 9/11, FBI agent Colleen Rowley found her investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui so perversely thwarted that her colleagues joked that bin Laden had a mole at the FBI, proves the stress-relieving virtue of humour in the workplace.

That Dave Frasca of the FBI’s Radical Fundamentalist Unit received a promotion after quashing multiple, urgent requests for investigations into al Qaeda assets training at flight schools in the summer of 2001 does appear on the surface odd, but undoubtedly there’s a good reason for it, quite possibly classified.

That FBI informant Randy Glass, working an undercover sting, was told by Pakistani intelligence operatives that the World Trade Center towers were coming down, and that his repeated warnings which continued until weeks before the attacks, including the mention of planes used as weapons, were ignored by federal authorities, is simply one of the many “What Ifs” of that tragic day.

That over the summer of 2001 Washington received many urgent, senior-level warnings from foreign intelligence agencies and governments - including those of Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Afghanistan and others - of impending terror attacks using hijacked aircraft and did nothing, demonstrates the pressing need for a new Intelligence Czar.

That John Ashcroft stopped flying commercial aircraft in July 2001 on account of security considerations had nothing to do with warnings regarding September 11, because he said so to the 9/11 Commission.

That former lead counsel for the House David Schippers says he’d taken to John Ashcroft’s office specific warnings he’d learned from FBI agents in New York of an impending attack – even naming the proposed dates, names of the hijackers and the targets – and that the investigations had been stymied and the agents threatened, proves nothing but David Schipper’s pathetic need for attention.

That Garth Nicolson received two warnings from contacts in the intelligence community and one from a North African head of state, which included specific site, date and source of the attacks, and passed the information to the Defense Department and the National Security Council to evidently no effect, clearly amounts to nothing, since virtually nobody has ever heard of him.

That in the months prior to September 11, self-described US intelligence operative Delmart Vreeland sought, from a Toronto jail cell, to get US and Canadian authorities to heed his warning of his accidental discovery of impending catastrophic attacks is worthless, since Vreeland was a dubious character, notwithstanding the fact that many of his claims have since been proven true.

That FBI Special Investigator Robert Wright claims that agents assigned to intelligence operations actually protect terrorists from investigation and prosecution, that the FBI shut down his probe into terrorist training camps, and that he was removed from a money-laundering case that had a direct link to terrorism, sounds like yet more sour grapes from a disgruntled employee.

That George Bush had plans to invade Afghanistan on his desk before 9/11 demonstrates only the value of being prepared.

The suggestion that securing a pipeline across Afghanistan figured into the White House’s calculations is as ludicrous as the assertion that oil played a part in determining war in Iraq.

That Afghanistan is once again the world’s principal heroin producer is an unfortunate reality, but to claim the CIA is still actively involved in the narcotics trade is to presume bad faith on the part of the agency.

Mahmood Ahmed, chief of Pakistan’s ISI, must not have authorized an al Qaeda payment of $100,000 to Mohammed Atta days before the attacks, and was not meeting with senior Washington officials over the week of 9/11, because I didn’t read anything about him in the official report.

That Porter Goss met with Ahmed the morning of September 11 in his capacity as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has no bearing whatsoever upon his recent selection by the White House to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

That Goss’s congressional seat encompasses the 9/11 hijackers’ Florida base of operation, including their flight schools, is precisely the kind of meaningless factoid a conspiracy theorist would bring up.

It’s true that George HW Bush and Dick Cheney spent the evening of September 10 alone in the Oval Office, but what’s wrong with old colleagues catching up? And it’s true that George HW Bush and Shafig bin Laden, Osama’s brother, spent the morning of September 11 together at a board meeting of the Carlyle Group, but the bin Ladens are a big family.

That FEMA arrived in New York on Sept 10 to prepare for a scheduled biowarfare drill, and had a triage centre ready to go that was larger and better equipped than the one that was lost in the collapse of WTC 7, was a lucky twist of fate.

Newsweek’s report that senior Pentagon officials cancelled flights on Sept 10 for the following day on account of security concerns is only newsworthy because of what happened the following morning.

That George Bush’s telephone logs for September 11 do not exist should surprise no one, given the confusion of the day.

That Mohamed Atta attended the International Officer’s School at Maxwell Air Force Base, that Abdulaziz Alomari attended Brooks Air Force Base Aerospace Medical School, that Saeed Alghamdi attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey merely shows it is a small world, after all.

That Lt Col Steve Butler, Vice Chancellor for student affairs of the Defense Language Institute during Alghamdi’s terms, was disciplined, removed from his post and threatened with court martial when he wrote “Bush knew of the impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism. What is...contemptible is the President of the United States not telling the American people what he knows for political gain,” is the least that should have happened for such disrespect shown his Commander in Chief.

That Mohammed Atta dressed like a Mafioso, had a stripper girlfriend, smuggled drugs, was already a licensed pilot when he entered the US, enjoyed pork chops, drank to excess and did cocaine, was closer to Europeans than Arabs in Florida, and included the names of defence contractors on his email list, proves how dangerous the radical fundamentalist Muslim can be.

That 43 lbs of heroin was found on board the Lear Jet owned by Wally Hilliard, the owner of Atta’s flight school, just three weeks after Atta enrolled – the biggest seizure ever in Central Florida – was just bad luck. That Hilliard was not charged shows how specious the claims for conspiracy truly are.

That Hilliard’s plane had made 30-round trips to Venezuela with the same passengers who always paid cash, that the plane had been supplied by a pair of drug smugglers who had also outfitted CIA drug runner Barry Seal, and that 9/11 commissioner Richard ben-Veniste had been Seal’s attorney before Seal’s murder, shows nothing but the lengths to which conspiracists will go to draw sinister conclusions.

Reports of insider trading on 9/11 are false, because the SEC investigated and found only respectable investors who will remain nameless involved, and no terrorists, so the windfall profit-taking was merely, as ever, coincidental.

That heightened security for the World Trade Centre was lifted immediately prior to the attacks illustrates that it always happens when you least expect it.

That Hani Hanjour, the pilot of Flight 77, was so incompetent he could not fly a Cessna in August, but in September managed to fly a 767 at excessive speed into a spiraling, 270-degree descent and a level impact of the first floor of the Pentagon, on the only side that was virtually empty and had been hardened to withstand a terrorist attack, merely demonstrates that people can do almost anything once they set their minds to it.

That none of the flight data recorders were said to be recoverable even though they were located in the tail sections, and that until 9/11, no solid-state recorder in a catastrophic crash had been unrecoverable, shows how there’s a first time for everything.

That Mohammed Atta left a uniform, a will, a Koran, his driver’s license and a “how to fly planes” video in his rental car at the airport means he had other things on his mind.

The mention of Israelis with links to military-intelligence having been arrested on Sept 11 videotaping and celebrating the attacks, of an Israeli espionage ring surveiling DEA and defense installations and trailing the hijackers, and of a warning of impending attacks delivered to the Israeli company Odigo two hours before the first plane hit, does not deserve a response. That the stories also appeared in publications such as Ha’aretz and Forward is a sad display of self-hatred among certain elements of the Israeli media.

That multiple military wargames and simulations were underway the morning of 9/11 – one simulating the crash of a plane into a building; another, a live-fly simulation of multiple hijackings – and took many interceptors away from the eastern seaboard and confused field commanders as to which was a real hijacked aircraft and which was a hoax, was a bizarre coincidence, but no less a coincidence.

That the National Military Command Center ops director asked a rookie substitute to stand his watch at 8:30 am on Sept. 11 is nothing more than bad timing.

That a recording made Sept 11 of air traffic controllers’ describing what they had witnessed, was destroyed by an FAA official who crushed it in his hand, cut the tape into little pieces and dropped them in different trash cans around the building, is something no doubt that overzealous official wishes he could undo.

That the FBI knew precisely which Florida flight schools to descend upon hours after the attacks should make every American feel safer knowing their federal agents are on the ball.

Posted by Robert Reis on August 12, 2008, 06:37 AM | #

That a former flight school executive believes the hijackers were “double agents,” and says about Atta and associates, “Early on I gleaned that these guys had government protection. They were let into this country for a specific purpose,” and was visited by the FBI just four hours after the attacks to intimidate him into silence, proves he’s an unreliable witness, for the simple reason there is no conspiracy.

That Jeb Bush was on board an aircraft that removed flight school records to Washington in the middle of the night on Sept 12th demonstrates how seriously the governor takes the issue of national security.

To insinuate evil motive from the mercy flights of bin Laden family members and Saudi royals after 9/11 shows the sickness of the conspiratorial mindset.

Le Figaro’s report in October 2001, known to have originated with French intelligence, that the CIA met Osama bin Laden in a Dubai hospital in July 2001, proves again the perfidy of the French.

That the tape in which bin Laden claims responsibility for the attacks was released by the State Department after having been found providentially by US forces in Afghanistan, and depicts a fattened Osama with a broader face and a flatter nose, proves Osama, and Osama alone, masterminded 9/11.

That at the battle of Tora Bora, where bin Laden was surrounded on three sides, Special Forces received no order to advance and capture him and were forced to stand and watch as two Russian-made helicopters flew into the area where bin Laden was believed hiding, loaded up passengers and returned to Pakistan, demonstrates how confusing the modern battlefield can be.

That upon returning to Fort Bragg from Tora Bora, the same Special Operations troops who had been stood down from capturing bin Laden, suffered a unusual spree of murder/suicides, is nothing more than a series of senseless tragedies.

Reports that bin Laden is currently receiving periodic dialysis treatment in a Pakistani medical hospital are simply too incredible to be true.

That the White House went on Cipro September 11 shows the foresightedness of America’s emergency response.

That the anthrax was mailed to perceived liberal media and the Democratic leadership demonstrates only the perversity of the terrorist psyche.

That the anthrax attacks appeared to silence opponents of the Patriot Act shows only that appearances can be deceiving.

That the Ames-strain anthrax was found to have originated at Fort Detrick, and was beyond the capability of all but a few labs to refine, underscores the importance of allowing the investigation to continue without the distraction of absurd conspiracy theories.

That Republican guru Grover Norquist has been found to have aided financiers and supporters of Islamic terror to gain access to the Bush White House, and is a founder of the Islamic Institute, which the Treasury Department believes to be a source of funding for al Qaeda, suggests Norquist is at worst, naive, and at best, needs a wider circle of friends.

That the Department of Justice consistently chooses to see accused 9/11 plotters go free rather than permit the courtroom testimony of al Qaeda leaders in American custody looks bad, but only because we don’t have all the facts.

That the White House balked at any inquiry into the events of 9/11, then starved it of funds and stonewalled it, was unfortunate, but since the commission didn’t find for conspiracy it’s all a non issue anyway.

That the 9/11 commission’s executive director and “gatekeeper,” Philip Zelikow, was so closely involved in the events under investigation that he testified before the the commission as part of the inquiry, shows only an apparent conflict of interest.

That commission chair Thomas Kean is, like George Bush, a Texas oil executive who had business dealings with reputed al Qaeda financier Khalid bin Mafouz, suggests Texas is smaller than they say it is.

That co-chair Lee Hamilton has a history as a Bush family “fixer,” including clearing Bush Sr of the claims arising from the 1980 “October Surprise”, is of no concern, since only conspiracists believe there was such a thing as an October Surprise.

That FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds accuses the agency of intentionally fudging specific pre-9/11 warnings and harboring a foreign espionage ring in its translation department, and claims she witnessed evidence of the semi-official infrastructure of money-laundering and narcotics trade behind the attacks, is of no account, since John Ashcroft has gagged her with the rare invocation of “State Secrets Privilege,” and retroactively classified her public testimony. For the sake of national security, let us speak no more of her.

That, when commenting on Edmond’s case, Daniel Ellsberg remarked that Ashcroft could go to prison for his part in a cover-up, suggests Ellsberg is giving comfort to the terrorists, and could, if he doesn’t wise up, find himself declared an enemy combatant.

I could go on. And on and on. But I trust you get the point. Which is simply this: there are no secrets, an American government would never accept civilian casualties for geostrategic gain, and conspiracies are for the weak-minded and gullible.

posted by Jeff at 5:15 PM

Posted by Robert Reis on August 17, 2008, 09:40 AM | #

250+ 9/11 ‘Smoking Guns’ Found in the Mainstream Media

http://killtown.911review.org/911smokingguns.html

Posted by Guest on August 17, 2008, 03:42 PM | #

A map with the best viewing spots for photographing the WTC, passports of many nations, many different names, boxcutters, etc. When stopped by cops their first words: your problem is the Palestinians.
Pre-positioned to film WTC as it happened. We have never been shown the footage of the Liberty Park MOSSAD assets.
After the USS LIBERTY why should they not have been emboldened?

http://users.cyberone.com.au/myers/wtc.html
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fiveisraelis.html
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/spyring.html

Posted by Robert Reis on August 22, 2008, 10:09 AM | #

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/corrs-guitarist-911-was-an-inside-job-13896301.html

Posted by Robert Reis on August 24, 2008, 05:33 AM | #

http://www.vimeo.com/1565381?pg=embed&sec=1565381

The Missing Link

New documentary on 911. Opinions are sought.

Posted by Robert Reis on August 25, 2008, 06:08 PM | #

http://factsnotfairies.blogspot.com/
Monday, August 25, 2008
Government Urges Return to Stone Age

The White House and U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are urging Americans to return to the stone age for their own safety.

“After discovering that ‘thermal expansion’ of steel from a low-temperature fire led to the collapse of World Trade Center building 7,” said NIST spokesperson Noh Wei, “we started realizing that other metal objects might also be at risk”.

So NIST scientists tested other metallic objects using state-of-the-art computer models. The models predicted that every oven and barbeque in the country could disintegrate at any time, leading to a progressive collapse of entire houses.

“We also determined that car engines, airplane engines, and boat engines could all suddenly fail due to thermal expansion,” said Wei. “Indeed, we soon realized that almost all industrial processes could lead to catastrophic failure, other than, perhaps, those used in freezers.”

White House spokesman Phil Johnson agreed, saying

“Once you understand this principle of thermal expansion, you start to realize that even household showerheads and faucets are dangerous. The hot water flowing through them could wreak havoc. The President is committed to leading the way back to a safer time, and a return to proven, traditional materials - which may not be flashy like metal - but remain rock-solid even when warm.”
A Fact Sheet from NIST provides recommendations and safety guidelines based on the new thermal expansion discoveries:

Is Metal Safe?
While it was previously assumed that metal was safe, scientists have now discovered that steel and other metals can suddenly fail due to exposure to heat. NIST urges everyone to stop using metal, and to reassess possible replacements with stone materials.

Sunlight

Sunlight can warm up metal. Therefore, no metal should be used where any sun exposure is possible.
If people choose to continue using metal, we urge them to live underground, to protect against the dangers of sunlight. George Washington’s Blog

Posted by Robert Reis on August 27, 2008, 07:44 PM | #

http://911blogger.com/node/17363
The following is a statement by the Section Chief of the Record/lnformation Dissemination Section ("RlDS") of the FBI regarding the unsuccessful search for records or facsimiles of records, pertaining the 4 aircraft identified by the FBI and NTSB as being used during terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 or wreckage generated by them, including 2 flight data recorders. This statement is a defense exhibit for use in an upcoming oral arguments hearing pertaining to a federal court case for records for the 4 aircraft used during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

SEARCH FOR RECORDS RESPONSlVE
TO PLAINTIFF’S REQUEST

Plaintiff’s original FOIA request sought “documentation pertaining to any formally and positively identified debris” from the aircraft used in the September 11th attacks. In response to this request, RIDS personnel at FBIHQ understood that any potentially responsive records would have been compiled for law enforcement purposes and would be located in a pending file because of an ongoing law enforcement investigation. RIDS personnel therefore determined that any records would be withheld in their entirety pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A). The FBI then received a copy of plaintiff’s complaint for injunctive relief, later amended, wherein plaintiff requested the FBI to “produce agency records, concerning documentation revealing the process by which wreckage recovered by defendant, from the aircraft used during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, was positively identified by defendant (with the aid of the National Transportation Safety Board) as belonging to the said aircraft, presumably through the use of unique serial number identifying information contained by the said aircraft wreckage, that was collected by defendant and which defendant has improperly withheld from plaintiff.” In response to this request, RlDS conducted a search for potentially responsive records at FBIHQ on February 11, 2008. A search of the CRS was conducted using the following subjects: “Airline Debris,” “Debris Identification,” “Commercial Aircraft,” “Aircraft Identification,” “Aircraft Debris,” “Aircraft Wreckage,” “Aircraft,” “Recovered Debris,” “National Transportation and Safety Bureau,” “National Transportation Safety Board,” “NTSB,” “American Airlines,” “American Airlines Flight,” “American Airlines Flight Eleven,” “American Airlines Flight Number 11,” “American Airlines Flight 77,” “N334AA,” “N612UA,” “N644AA,” “N591UA,” “Flight 175,” “Flight 11,” “Flight 77,” “Flight 93,” “Identifying Aircraft Parts,” “Factual Report Aviation,” “Federal Aviation Administration,” “Pentbomb,” “Ground Zero,” “Freshkills Landfill,” and “Fresh Kills Landfill.”

Despite this extensive and detailed search effort, RlDS has been unable to locate any FBI records responsive to plaintiffs request. RIDS’ search efforts included a verification by the case agent for the investigation. The case agent stated that since the identities of the four hijacked aircraft have never been in question by the FBI, NTSB or FAA (evidence collected after September 11, 2001 has corroborated the fact that American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Flight 93 were the aircraft hijacked), no records would have been generated responsive to plaintiffs request for documents.

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct, and that Exhibits A-J attached hereto are true and correct copies.

Executed this 8th day of August, 2008

David M. HARDY
Section Chief
Records/Information Dissemination Section
Records Management Division
Federal Bureau of lnvestigation Washington, D.C.

Posted by Robert Reis on August 28, 2008, 04:58 AM | #

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7U22m9xLrQ

Posted by Robert Reis on September 18, 2008, 04:50 AM | #

“The 9/11 Interview with Michael Hess: Evidence that NIST Lied about When He and Barry Jennings Were Rescued”
http://tinyurl.com/3nlgpp

by David Ray Griffin
September 17, 2008

Shortly after the first strike on the World Trade Center, which occurred at 8:46 AM on 9/11, Michael Hess, New York City’s corporation counsel, and Barry Jennings, the deputy director of the Emergency Services Department of the New York City Housing Authority, headed to the Office of Emergency Management’s Emergency Operating Center, which was on the 23rd floor of WTC 7, where they assumed that Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be. But when Hess and Jennings arrived, the place was empty. Jennings then telephoned someone to ask what they should do and was told that they should leave immediately. Finding that the elevators would not work, they started down the stairs. When they reached the sixth floor, however, there was a powerful explosion beneath them, which, Jennings told the makers of Loose Change Final Cut,1 caused the landing on which they were standing to give way. Making their way back up to the eighth floor, they were able to break a window and call for help. Hess later reported: “[W]e were trapped on the eighth floor with smoke, thick smoke, all around us, for about an hour and a half [before] the New York Fire Department . . . came and got us out."2

Hess made this statement while being interviewed by Frank Ucciardo of UPN 9 News “on Broadway about a block from City Hall,” almost a half mile from WTC 7. This interview began before noon, most likely at 11:34. The conclusion that it began at 11:34 is based on evidence derived from a DVD containing UPN 9 programs from that morning,…

However, NIST---the National Institute of Standards and Technology---which was tasked with providing the official explanation of the collapse of the Twin Towers and WTC 7, claimed that the two men were rescued at “12:10 to 12:15 PM."4 Why might NIST have made this claim? ...

“With the collapse of the two towers, a New York City employee and a WTC 7 building staff person became trapped inside of WTC 7. The two had gone to the OEM center on the 23rd floor and found no one there. As they went to get into an elevator to go downstairs the lights inside of WTC 7 flickered as WTC 2 collapsed. At this point, the elevator they were attempting to catch no longer worked, so they started down the staircase."5

According to NIST, therefore, Hess and Jennings, upon finding the OEM center vacated, started downstairs just after 9:59, when the second tower collapsed. It was this collapse, NIST suggested, that was responsible for the elevator’s failure to work.

As we saw earlier, however, Jennings said that they had arrived at the OEM center shortly after the strike on the North Tower, hence around 9:00 AM. He added, in fact, that he had to have been on the 23rd floor “when the second plane hit” (which was at 9:03).6 Besides contradicting Jennings’ testimony on that point, the NIST account went on to say:

“When they got to the 6th floor, WTC 1 [the North Tower] collapsed, the lights went out in the staircase, the sprinklers came on briefly, and the staircase filled with smoke and debris. The two men went back to the 8th floor broke out a window and called for help."7

According to NIST, therefore, what Hess and Jennings took to be an explosion in WTC 7 was really just an effect of the collapse of the North Tower…

NIST’s timeline is also directly contradicted by the testimony of Jennings, who said: “After getting to the 8th floor everything was dark . . . . [B]oth buildings were still standing. Because I looked . . . one way, looked the other way. . . . [B]oth buildings were still standing.”

Posted by Robert Reis on September 18, 2008, 04:55 AM | #

A pdf worth pondering.

http://www.israelshamir.net/Contributors/Collateral_Damage_911.pdf

However, if the perceived objective of the attack is re-defined from its commonly suggested ‘symbolic’ designation as either ‘a terrorist attack’ or a ‘new Pearl Harbor,’ and one begins by looking at it as purely a crime with specific objectives(as opposed to a political action), there is a compelling logic to the pattern of destruction. The September11th attacks were meant as a cover-up for financial crimes being investigated by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), whose offices in the Pentagon were destroyed on September 11th.1 After six years of research, this report presents corroborating evidence which supports their claims, and proposes a new rationale for the September 11thattacks. The hypothesis of this report is: the attacks of September 11th were intended to cover-up the clearing of $240 billion dollars in securities covertly created in September 1991 to fund a covert economic war against the Soviet Union, during which ‘unknown’ western investors bought up much of the Soviet industry, with a focus on oil and gas. The attacks of September 11th also served to derail multiple Federal investigations away from crimes associated with the 1991 covert operation. In doing so, the attacks were justified under the cardinal rule of intelligence: “protect your resources” and consistent with a modus operandi of sacrificing lives for a greater cause.

Posted by Robert Reis on September 18, 2008, 10:59 PM | #

Dan Rather Says Flight Recorder RECOVERED From Ground Zero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_RbtEkjqIU&feature=related#

The following query was mailed by an associate to

“I write to request all available information concerning the segment of archival CBS News footage that is currently available on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_RbtEkjqIU&feature=related#

Specifically, I seek answers to these questions:

1) What is the date and time of the original airing?

2) Is there any subsequent update, follow-up or correction in the archives regarding the contents of this bulletin?

3) Mr. Rather’s language indicates he has seen and intends to air a “video” of Rudolph Giuliani “holding up” a “flight recorder box” recovered from Gound Zero. Does CBS News possess video of Rudolph Giuliani matching Rather’s description? If not, did CBS News possess such video when Rather announced this bulletin? If CBS News no longer possesses such video, what became of it and who currently has custody of it?

4) If CBS still has custody of the video of Rudolph Giuliani described in #3, what steps might be taken to acquire a copy of this footage?

Thank you for your cooperation and kind attention.

Respectfully,”

The following response was received:

“Unfortunately we have no way of identifying this clip just by looking at it on YouTube. Also we have hours and hours of footage from 9/11 and it would be impossible to find what you want. We’ve done a search of our archive from the information you supplied below and have been unable to find anything.

Ann M. Fotiades
Unit Manager
CBS News Information Resources
”

So CBS News has fully searched its archive and has been “unable to find anything.”

Is it plausibly “impossible to find” even the footage of Rather issuing this bulletin within the CBS News archives of their 9/11 coverage? If so, how did the YouTube poster recover it? When CBS demands that YouTube remove the clip due to “copyright infringement”, will CBS still be “unable to find” it?

Perhaps some concerned citizen with appropriate skills can assist CBS in digitizing its news archive before any more history is lost.