I don’t know how old this tape is. Kinda interesting.
And here’s a good montage of early reportage re explosions in the buildings that eventually fell.
Bonus Clip: Michael Scheuer, former CIA bin Laden hunter and author of Imperial Hubris and Marching Toward Hell, faces off with Bill Maher.
I didn’t know this was on the web. A documentary from 1976, featuring hero Roger Craig, by hero Mark Lane.
Very much worth watching. Five parts, all there on YouTube.
Hard to look away all the time …
The sudden heat in Pakistan has McCain and Obama stomping and swearing to get Osama next year.
But it seems most likely that Osama died around the time of the Tora Bora bombings in late 2001, when this video was released:
Around the same time, the CIA said it found on a Jalalabad computer another video of Osama.
But the blubbery fellow therein was probably somebody else.
True, this Fatty Osama (left above, right below) has appeared twice, if memory serves, since. He’s just doesn’t seem to be bin Laden. His nose, to begin. His jocular manner. His jewelry. Supposedly he’s writing with the wrong hand …
Moreover, he neither sounds like nor uses language like Osama, who, acccording to arabist Bruce Lawrence, speaks in an elevated, pious and poetic style most distinct. Neither Fatty Osama’s vulgar gloating over the attacks in his first video, nor the voice on recent tapes discussing world affairs like Wolf Blitzer, come close.
Lawrence has published a book of Osama’s messages and is one of Uncle Sam’s experts on his language, diction, and their meanings. During 2006 he came to think something was fishy. Then went on radio in 2007 to spread the news:
Lawrence, citing informants in the US intelligence apparatus’s Bin Laden units, told [radio host] Kevin Barrett that everyone knows the tape is fake, adding that the hoax has been kept alive because it is politically useful to those who wish to bolster the official 9/11 conspiracy that 19 hijackers directed by Bin Laden from a cave carried out the attacks.
Here’s another arabist, once employed in the 90s to translate and analyze a real Osama tape. He agrees with Lawrence, and is good to recall that shortly after the attacks in 2001 Osama told a Pakistan paper that he had nothing to do with them.
And here’s an overview of the question, including what purports to be a facsimile of an Egyptian newspaper that on December 26, 2001 reported bin Laden’s death. The next day what seems like the last genuine video (first photo above) was released.
If indeed he’s long gone, then who’s pulling our leg?
Both sides have reason to keep the hero alive.
If Al Qaeda’s behind the curtain, then …
It’s El Cid. Charlton Heston, as the legendary spanish hero in the wars with the Moors.
He dies one night, recall, in a besieged fortress, the battle far from won. So his people prop the corpse on his horse. Tie a cross to his arms and back Jesus style. Then as dawn breaks they open the gates, slap the horse’s ass … and El Cid rides again.
But if it’s Uncle Sam behind the scam, then …
It’s Goldstein, from 1984:Â the phantom jewish bolshevik terrorist on every telescreen noon and night, whose (non) existence grounds the propaganda of the police state and its perpetual war:
Edward R. Cronkite: We are at war with Eurasia and have always been at war with Eurasia. But then, a week later: We are at war with East Asia and have always been at war with East Asia.
El Cid. Goldstein. But not bin Laden. He probly dead.
So one wishes Obama would stop talking about Osama. Talk about what is and will be.
Has everyone already seen this?
At attempt to deconstruct powers at war with humanity.
Seems the work of Libertarians (just a guess), with whom IÂ never quite agree.
Nevertheless worth chewing on.
Smaller bits of the whole are available on YouTube.
Steve Alten, the author of a fictional novel about the attacks, The Shell Game, apparently made some progress on CBS radio.
The fellow writing this up also says that Bob Kerrey (former 9/11 Commission member) is moving to set up a permanent commission to deal with the continual inflow of evidence and the like. ??
Here’s a clip of the tip of the wing of a trundling 737-700 knocking over a truck without pause, and with hardly any damage to the wing (see closeup late in the clip).
Recall that the wings of the 757-200 — a heftier jet (255,000 lbs vs 155,000) — that supposedly flew into the Pentagon on 9/11 supposedly folded up like closing scissors upon hitting the concrete walls and disappeared into a 16-20 foot wide hole (there to disintegrate), with little damage to the walls where the length of the wings and the engines made contact.
Wing span 124 feet.
I had heard about this Lone Gunmen episode before but never saw any of it until today. It was actually the series pilot, and aired March 4, 2001.
The story was about terrorists seizing control of an airliner with remote avionics, and flying it into the World Trade Center.
And it turned out that the terrorists were native: a “faction” within the U.S. national security apparat.
Their motive: to restart the cold war arms merchandizing. This seems (IMHO) the only element of the forecast to have been a bit off.
Recall Rice’s statement while testifying before the 9/11 Commission that no one in U.S. intel had anticipated terrorists flying jetliners into buildings. Seems the Octopus doesn’t watch television.
The series was an X-Files spinoff featuring the cool nerds (known to friends as the Lone Gunmen) who’d occasionally hack computers to aid the X-Files FBI paranormal team.
The X-Files (for those even less familiar with TV than me) was mostly about aliens in league, since Roswell, with certain Washington powers.
Here’s something: Journal of 9/11 Studies
These rather unknown but fine films are all about people on the rack of life post 9/11, sliding down into their seats as they enter the Terrordrome.
The first two, however, are gentle things that work toward healing.
The last — like most mental illnesses you’ll find in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual — runs a chronic course.
1. Land of Plenty — by Wim Wenders — is a low-key gem about a young woman (Michelle Williams — wonderful) returning from Israel to find her last known relative: a Vietnam-vet uncle on a self-appointed mission to secure Los Angeles County from terror.
Note: It was shot with a Panasonic DVX-100, an inexpensive digital video camera that I used in a filmmaking course this summer. Looks great; end of debate.
Wim has made two of my favorite films, Wings of Desire and Until the End of the World.
Bonus: His recent Don’t Come Knocking got creamed by critics — but having just seen it I don’t see why. Sam Shepard as an aging Western star who flees the set to find what’s missing. Tim Roth as the completion-bond bounty hunter sent to track him down. They wind up in Butte, Montana, where Jessica Lange and others are waiting.
2. Fay Grim is a superior sequel — by Hal Hartley — to his odd success Henry Fool. The story takes a turn into the 21st century when it turns out Henry was not a mad drunk after all, but a CIA fool once tight with the charismatic leader of the mujahadin in Afghanistan during the 80s, and now on the run from his employers, in the person of Jeff Goldblum.
Parker Posey plays Henry’s honeypie wife, Fay. Sweetly stimulating.
And James Urbaniak is great as a garbageman turned poet and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature who defines a cool New Jersey state of mind.
3. Sorry, Haters stars Robin Wright Penn as a NYker who works for a reality TV show — Sorry, Haters! — that showcases the lives of the rich and famous of Hip Hop and what not. No wonder she’s going mad, and daydreams while jamming forks into her palms about fixing 9/11. She seems to have a plan — but needs a nice Arab cab driver to carry it out.
For the first time the anniversary falls on a Tuesday.
Tuesday six years ago was a crisp, clear day in New York. Today the pall of Mordor has issued forth, oppressing the city, and one daydreams of the Shire.
It seems that September 11 has supplanted July 4 as our national day.
What then has supplanted the Declaration of Independence?
The Patriot Act?
Has the country been born again?
What does its future look like, when the hearts & minds stray from the day the Declaration was signed to embrace a martial defeat that breeds ever more momentous defeats?
The remainder of this rather lengthy piece, enhanced with many a curious link, has been filed elsewhere – click here to read.
And then please feel happy to post comments below.
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/7/emw537622.htm
NIST Exploring 9/11 “Blast Events” for WTC-7; New Witness Confirms Scholars Previous Findings
The National Institute for Standards and Technology appears to be moving in the direction of a conspiracy theory about the destruction of WTC-7. This comes as a new witness reports explosions inside the building early that morning, long before the building would be destroyed at 5:20 PM. This reinforces Scholars for 9/11 Truth previous finding that WTC-7 was a controlled demolition, which they believe the government is trying to conceal.
Madison, WI (PRWEB) July 5, 2007 — The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) appears to be moving in the direction of a “conspiracy theory” about the destruction of WTC-7 on 9/11 just as a new witness has emerged reporting extensive destruction inside the building many hours before it would be demolished. According to James Fetzer, the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, these turns of events provide further confirmation for the conclusion that WTC-7 was brought down by a controlled demolition at 5:20 PM/ET. “Anyone who googles WTC-7 will see an event that looks exactly like a controlled demolition, just as Peter Jennings and Dan Rather reported at the time. That is why this event makes NIST so uncomfortable.” Controlled demolitions require elaborate preparation.
WTC-7, a 47-story building also known as the Soloman Brothers Building, collapsed about 7 hours after the Twin Towers were demolished. It was hit by no jet aircraft and had no jet-fuel based fires. “It did have a few modest fires, which could have been easily contained but were allowed to burn,” Fetzer said. “Remarkably, the fire alarm system in WTC-7 was turned off at 6:47 AM/ET and placed on ‘TEST’ status for a period of eight hours.” In its latest press release (29 June 2007), NIST acknowledges that NIST is “considering whether hypothetical blast events could have played a role in initiating the collapse . . . (and) led to (WTC-7’s) structural failure” (http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/wtc_062907.html). Blast events would be consistent with a controlled demolition.
A new eyewitness inside WTC-7 on the morning of 9/11 heard explosions before either of the Twin Towers collapsed. He was summoned to the Office of Emergency Management Operating Center (OEMOC), also known as “Rudy’s Bunker,” on the 23rd floor of the building. The center had been especially prepared for the Mayor and other officials to gather in case of a terrorist attack or other emergency. Some have wondered why Giuliani did not go to the OEMOC but instead remained some distance from the World Trade Center. This witness, who testified at official hearings and whose identity will be revealed in the general-theater-release version of “Loose Change,” has information that sheds light on this and other questions about WTC-7.
Rolf Lindgren, former Vice-Chair of the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin and independent scholar of the events of 9/11, transcribed the testimony and edited it for clarity of English. The complete transcript is below. The witness went to WTC-7 after the first plane struck the North Tower and before the second hit the South Tower. When he arrived at the 23rd floor, he found half-eaten sandwiches and still-steaming coffee. He made some phone calls and was told to leave “right away.” Someone ran into the Center and led him to a stairwell. “When we reached the 6th floor, the landing that we were standing on gave way; there was an explosion and the landing gave way.” He had to climb back up to the 8th floor to find a way out. When he got to the lobby, “the lobby was totally destroyed. It looked like King Kong had come through and stepped on it.. And it was so destroyed I didn’t know where I was . . . (and) they had to take me out through a hole in the wall, . . . a hole that I believe the fire department made to get me out.”
WTC-7 has been widely regarded within the 9/11 research community as the most blatant of all “smoking guns” that disprove the official account. According to David Ray Griffin, a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and the movement’s leading representative, the building showed all the characteristics of a controlled demolition: an abrupt, complete, and total collapse at freefall speed, which was perfectly symmetrical and into its own foundation, as he has explained in his latest book, Debunking 9/11 Debunking (2007). “NIST has yet to explain it,” Fetzer observed. “The ‘blast events’ this witness is describing are not ‘hypothetical’ but actual. Only actual events can bring about effects. So it’s a bit labored for NIST to say it’s considering whether ‘hypothetical’ blast events could have played a role in initiating the collapse. They could not. That requires real blast events.”
The witness, who was interviewed by Dylan Avery (with audio clips played on Alex Jones’ and on Dylan’s shows), has expressed his puzzlement over the destruction of the building. “Well, I’m just confused about one thing and one thing only,” he said, “why World Trade Center 7 went down in the first place? I’m very confused about that. I know what I heard; I heard explosions. The explanation I got was it was the fuel oil tank. I’m an old boiler guy. If it was the fuel oil tank, it would have been one side of the building.” But the collapse was symmetrical. “There was a large tank of diesel in the building,” Fetzer said, “but diesel burns at a low temperature and diesel is not explosive. It cannot have brought about this collapse.”
In his opinion, anyone who has watched the building come down can appreciate that it has all of the characteristics of a controlled demolition. Even James Glanz, a reporter for The New York Times, admitted in an early story (29 November 2001) that the collapse of WTC-7 is even more perplexing than is the destruction of the Twin Towers, because no reinforced, steel structure high-rise building had ever collapsed due to fire in the history of structural engineering. “Indeed, no steel structure high-rise collapsed due to fire before 9/11 nor after 9/11 - nor, if our research is correct, on 9/11,” Fetzer said. “None of these fires burned long enough or hot enough to cause steel to weaken, much less melt. It must be embarrassing for the scientists at the NIST to defend these ridiculous theories.”
Lindgren, who has extensive experience with press releases, added, “Friday afternoon is the best time of the week for the government to bury unpleasant news. Since NIST insists it has found ‘no evidence’ of a controlled demolition, it must not consider the videos of WCT-7’s collapse as ‘evidence,’ because they leave no room for doubt. The fires in Building 7 provide a good cover story to hide the fact that powerful explosives brought it down.” He is also not impressed with Giuliani’s excuse for not going to his command center, which is that another plane could have been headed for it. “But if another plane was headed toward the World Trade Center, then he should have directed that the firemen be removed from all the buildings, which he did not do.” (See http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=rudolf_(_rudy_)_giuliani ).
There were other oddities related to WTC-7, including Larry Silverstein reporting (during a PBS interview) that he had suggested to the fire commander that the best thing to do might be to “pull it” (where, he said, “They made the decision to pull, and we watched the building come down”) and the BBC broadcast of a report of the collapse of “the Solomon Brothers Building” at least 23 minutes before the event would actually occur. “This was stunning,” Fetzer said, “because you could see WTC-7 in the background over her left shoulder as she reported its collapse. It is hard to imagine a more revealing demonstration of the entanglement of the intelligence agencies, the administration, and the mass media. And a ‘terrorism drill’ was scheduled for the next day.” The PBS interview and the BBC report are archived on the Scholars site at http://911scholars.org
“If Rosie O’Donnell had talked about ‘blast events initiating the collapse of WTC-7,” Fetzer said, “she would have been labeled a ‘conspiracy theorist.’ But then the official government account of 19 Islamic fundamentalists hijacking four commercial airlines, outfoxing the most sophisticated air defense system in the world to perpetrate these atrocities under the control of a guy in a cave in Afghanistan is only the most ‘outrageous’ conspiracy theory of them all. I guess we should be grateful that NIST is moving inch by inch toward a more adequate explanation of what actually happened on 9/11, which bears no relationship at all to what we have been told. Given the cumulative evidence, we are not ‘conspiracy theorists’ but ‘conspiracy realists.’”
WTC 7 Eyewitness Testimony Transcribed by Rolf Lindgren (edited for clarity with notes): Go to http://911scholars.org and click on “Press Releases” at the top.
