by Jim Cooperman
There are not too many examples in history when a one-day event has shaped the course of an entire decade and perhaps even an entire century. What occurred on September 11, 2001 was that event and its repercussions impact the entire world and the environment. Some very disturbing questions about that day deserve more attention from the general public, the alternative media and all concerned about justice, human rights, peace and the environment.
Of all of human activities, it is perhaps war that has the greatest environmental impact. Besides the damage by bombs, armament and missiles, there are the impacts from the depleted uranium now used in armour and ammunition.
And there is the immense amount of carbon and other pollutants released by military ships, planes and vehicles. Then there are the oil spills and fires that plague the Mideast war scene.
The events of that day have been used by the powerful military-industrial complex as justification for the never-ending war on terror, as if the fictional forecasts by Aldous Huxley and George Orwell became reality. While too many people still believe that Afghanistan cave-bound Osama Bin Laden and his 19 box cutter-wielding terrorists were responsible, one needs only to follow the money to understand the likely real reasons behind the infamous day’s events.
Billions upon billions of dollars have gone into the supposed war on terror, including the five billion dollars spent in Afghanistan by Canada and over 300 billion dollars by the US in Iraq alone. Then there is the death toll: 32 Canadians in Afghanistan, 2601 US soldiers in Iraq and approximately 250,000 Iraq civilians. Wasted lives and wasted dollars that could have gone to solve more pressing problems or been used to pay off public debts. Much of this money has gone to the wealthy corporations that supply the military, such as Halliburton, Bechtel Group, Carlyle Group, General Dynamics, and the oil companies.
There is a growing movement that seeks the truth behind the events of 9/11 and there are dozens of websites, books, videos, and a magazine called Global Outlook that probe into the many disturbing questions surrounding the official version. Yet the mainstream media avoids the questions and marginalizes the movement as just more conspiracy theorists. The media seems to assist government’s perpetuation of the war on terror by focusing attention on more questionable potential terrorism plots in Canada, the US and the UK.
The list of 9/11 circumstances that are questioned by various sources is extensive, but here are a few highlights.
1. It was impossible for the fires from airplanes hitting the towers to cause the explosions that brought the towers down in just 10 seconds, as airplane fuel does not burn at the temperatures required to melt steel and molten steel was found under the debris many days later.
2. Video evidence shows explosions in the towers as they fell in what appeared to be a controlled demolition, and earthquake detection equipment recorded the two explosions.
3. The steel was quickly cut into truck-size lengths, removed from the site and shipped overseas without proper examination.
4. No military jets were scrambled to deal with the threat after the first plane hit, even though there was plenty of time and this would have been the standard operating procedure.
5. World Trade Center building seven also came down in seconds from an explosion many hours after the first two towers fell, even though there were small fires in the building, which housed offices of the CIA, the US Secret Service, Securities Exchange Commission and the city’s emergency management command centre.
6. The building’s owner, Larry Silverstein (who incidentally received 7.2 billion dollars in insurance) was quoted that the fire department decided to “pull” building seven and fire fighters were told to leave before it collapsed. “Pull” is the term used to describe a controlled demolition.
7. It seems impossible for a large airplane to create the small hole that penetrated deep into the Pentagon, especially since there was little debris on the lawn outside. US vice-president Dick Cheney was even once quoted as saying that a missile hit the Pentagon.
8. The plans for taking military control of Central Asia, including regime change in Iraq, were developed by the Project for the New American Century, a neoconservative think tank formed in 1997. The primary architects of these plans included Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, all part of the first Bush Administration and now in power with George W. Bush. The Project’s blueprint, published in September 2000, described the need for a “new Pearl Harbor” to create the public sentiment for such a war.
9. President Bush continued to read to schoolchildren for 25 minutes after he was told about the attacks, as seen in Michael Moore’s documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11.
10. Revelations of profits made by insider trading related to the 9/11 attacks point to the top levels of US business and the CIA.
11. There were plans to invade Afghanistan in July of 2001, as troops were called up and were ready to invade by October 7, 2001.
12. Motives for the Afghan war include building oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea.
13. FBI agents were prevented from pursuing investigations into the airline hijacking plot by senior staff in Washington DC.
14. The Bush administration repeatedly obstructed the efforts of the 9/11 Commission to learn how the attacks could have succeeded.
Most people cannot accept that government leaders could be responsible for such a heinous crime. Yet few people know that such crimes have been planned in the past and similar events have occurred. The use of the phrase, “the new Pearl Harbor,” refers to historical evidence that suggests the US government was aware of the potential for attack and allowed it to happen to get the country into World War II. The Kennedy assassination was convenient for those who profited from the Vietnam War. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was invented to get the public to support that war’s escalation. Then there was the Operation Northwoods proposal to fake an attack by Cuba so that country could be invaded, although Kennedy nixed the plan.
The 9/11 Truth movement is now making 9/11 an issue for this fall’s US elections. Numerous groups are working to initiate a new investigation into 9/11, including Scholars for 9/11 Truth and a group of family members who lost relatives in the towers and on the airplanes. Polls in the US show increased doubts about the official version. Despite all these efforts, questioning 9/11 has yet to become mainstream.
The events of that day, if properly investigated, could help to change the current course of history dominated by the never-ending war on terror. The repercussions of such a shake-up would trickle down to every level of society and could result in a new direction for the world, based on real human rights and justice that includes true environmental stewardship. Anyone who has any doubts about 9/11 should learn more about the issues and help spread the word.
Note: Most of the information in this article comes from The New Pearl Harbor by David Ray Griffin (Olive Branch Press, 2004) which provides all the sources in footnotes. Other information comes from the various 9/11 websites including www.whatreallyhappened.com, www.911truth.org, www.informationclearinghouse.info, www.wanttoknow.info, and one of the top google videos, Loose Change II, at www.loosechange911.com/ Look also for Towers of Deception: The Media Coverup on 9-11 from New Society Publishers this September.
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[From WS September/October 2006]