Tag: 9/11

9/11/2001

Today we remember the cowardly attack on US soil by the bastards of AQ…..that attack changed America and the world forever.

September 11, 2001 is an inflection point—there was life before the terrorist attacks and there is life after them. Nearly 3,000 Americans were killed on that clear, sunny morning when two hijacked airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, another plowed into the Pentagon and a fourth was brought down in a crash on a Pennsylvania field by heroic passengers who fought back against terrorists.

“This was an attack unprecedented in the annals of terrorism in terms of its scale,” says Brian Michael Jenkins, a senior advisor to the president of the RAND Corporation and author of numerous reports and books on terrorism, including Will Terrorists Go Nuclear?. “It was the largest attack by any foreign entity on U.S. soil.”

The shock and horror of September 11th wasn’t confined to days or weeks. The attacks cast a long shadow over American life from which the nation has yet to fully emerge. What was once implausible and nearly unthinkable—a large-scale attack on American soil—became a collective assumption. The terrorists could very well attack again, perhaps with biological or nuclear weapons, and steps must be taken to stop them.

“Terrorism is aimed at carrying out acts of violence that will cause people to exaggerate the strength of the terrorist and the importance of their cause,” says Jenkins.

Consumed by fear, grief and outrage, America turned to its leaders for action. Congress and the White House answered with an unprecedented expansion of military, law enforcement and intelligence powers aimed at rooting out and stopping terrorists, at home and abroad.

“After the 9/11 attacks, the combination of fear and a recognition of various intelligence failures led to a range of policy changes that included restrictions on immigration, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and the expansion of the ‘no fly list’ from a very small number of people to thousands,” says David Sterman, a senior policy analyst at New America who studies terrorism and violent extremism.

And that was just the beginning. Here are five significant ways that America was changed by 9/11.

https://www.history.com/articles/september-11-changes-america

There are those that still suffer from the attacks….mostly the first responders who have some catastrophic health issues.

Please take a moment and think about those that died in that attack and as a result of the attacks.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Patriots Day–2023

Never Forget!

Today we set aside a day to remember the deadly attacks within the US and we have called it Patriots Day…..

Three terrorist attacks by extremists….most of us remember the day but do any remember why the attacks took place?

How did the terrorist decide on which targets to hit within the US?

On September 11, 2001, two symbols of American power were attacked. First, two hijacked planes — Flight 11 and Flight 175 — struck the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, causing them to collapse and killing thousands. Later that morning, a third plane, the hijacked Flight 77, hit the Pentagon in D.C., killing all aboard and 125 others in the building. In the minds of the terrorists involved, the Lower Manhattan Twin Towers represented Western economic might. Meanwhile, the Pentagon — where the U.S. Armed Forces command is headquartered — stood for Western military dominance. With those two locations taken out, they thought America’s impact on the world would be greatly diminished, according to the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

In 2004, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden affirmed his group’s responsibility for the deadliest terrorist attack in history, the CBC reported that year. In his video message, bin Laden said his organization sought to “destroy towers in America” because “we are a free people … and we want to regain the freedom of our nation.” Also on September 11, passengers and crew fought back against one other hijacking, and a fourth plane, Flight 93, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania near D.C., killing everyone on board, according to the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.

Decades later, Flight 93’s final destination remains uncertain — possibly the U.S. capitol — butthe Pentagon and the Trade Center were clear objectives that day. By 2002, the Pentagon was rebuilt, and since 2011, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum has stood where the Twin Towers were once located.

Read More: https://www.grunge.com/1386849/why-twin-towers-pentagon-targeted-september-11/

Then there is that third plane, Flight 93, and its supposed destination.

There is not clear consensus on the destination but there are a few theories.

The passenger plane that crashlanded in Somerset County, Pennsylvania 240 miles from Washington D.C. is assumed to have been intended for a specific target in the city. As the nation’s capital, there are a number of potential locations that the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93 may have had in mind as the ultimate target of their attack. The headquarters of the CIA, the Capitol building, and the White House have all been identified as possible targets for the attack — security expert Tyler Drumhiller has a hunch that the hijackers were aiming for the latter, per NBC News — but more than two decades on from the attacks nothing has been confirmed.

The hijackers, members of the radical Afghanistan-based terror group Al Qaeda, told the crew that they had a bomb on board. After the captain had informed the passengers of the hijacking and advised them to stay in their seats, the terrorists took control of the plane and turned it toward Washington D.C., where they intended to fly into a prominent building just as their murderous co-conspirators had done earlier that day.

But a number of Americans who found themselves at the mercy of the hijackers had other ideas. In a coordinated effort — the planning of which has been immortalized through a famous recording — several of those on board rushed the hijackers, forcing them to crashland the plane into a field in Somerset, Pennsylvania, killing all 33 passengers and seven crew members on board.

Read More: https://www.grunge.com/1386425/flight-93-intended-target-theories/

Please take some time during your day and remember the nearly 3000 Americans that died on that fateful day.

And pray that we never have to experience such a day again.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–04Oct21

I have read most of the conspiracies around the attacks of 9/11….I like to see just how far these idiots will go down that rabbit hole.

Over this pat weekend I read yet another outrageous conspiracy….this one by one of Trump’s babbling buffoons….Lin Wood……

A leading face of the effort to overturn the 2020 election results, attorney and Donald Trump loyalist Lin Wood put a different conspiracy theory forward in a clip going viral on Twitter when he suggested the planes that hit the World Trade Center towers on 9/11 were CGI and a missile was fired at the Pentagon as part of a plot to bring down a building containing financial records of “missing” trillions.

The missing money conspiracy theory is an old saw that the government lost a ton of money somehow, or that it was stolen as Wood put it, and that 9/11 covered it up. In light of the new spending bills before Congress, the idea that anyone would blow up buildings over $3 trillion dollars is practically quaint.

The money was neither stolen nor missing, of course. But Lin Wood took it to the next level anyway, saying that it was “a missile” that hit the Pentagon and suggesting the planes that hit the towers were computer graphics.

MAGA Attorney Lin Wood Tells Silent Crowd That 9/11 Was a Cover-Up Involving CGI and Missiles: ‘We Got Played’

These toads make me smile….but sadly too many mental midgets take these stupid conspiracies literally.

Just how far will these people go down that rabbit hole?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Long Awaited 9/11 Documents

This post is for those that have been selling the conspiracy that Saudi Arabia was part of the attack……

Biden decided to authorize the release of the FBI investigation into those that committed the attacks on 9/11…basically so he could have his photo op o the 20 year observance of the attack.

The link below is to the redacted report that was released….

Heavy redaction…..

declassified document

2015 interview with an official who worked at the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles. 

He was found to be an al-Qaeda “facilitator” by the FBI after admitting he allowed two of the hijackers to use his apartment and help them travel around LA.

Investigators believe the Saudi official provided “significant logistic support” to Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Midhar, who took part in the plot to hijack and crash four planes in New York and Washington.

The two men were on board American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

The document also revealed links between Omar Bayoumi, a student suspected to have been a Saudi intelligence operative, and Hazmi and Midhar.

Based on interviews in 2009 and 2015 with a source whose identity is classified, the FBI file details meetings between Bayoumi and the hijackers after the pair arrived in Southern California in 2000 ahead of the attacks.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/3645272/fbi-declassified-documents-saudi-embassy-official-hijackers/

Does this answer those probing questions?

Not for me….but it does open up a bunch more questions.

This is for those that want more information like me….

Shortly before 9/11 the National Security Agency (NSA) asked Thomas Drake to join its senior staff. As things turned out, Sept. 11 was his first day on the job. Already au courant with key NSA programs via his earlier contract work, Tom was immediately tasked to find out how much information NSA had on terrorist attacks before 9/11.

Drake found an embarrassing abundance of such information. But when he told top NSA management, his investigation was abruptly shut down. On Jan. 7, 2014 in a VIPS Memorandum prepared for President Obama, “NSA Insiders Reveal What Went Wrong.”

As the post-9/11 months dragged on, Drake had to listen to NSA Director Michael Hayden’s gloating over the ease with which he was able to hide NSA’s egregious performance. It is a good guess that a huge part of that “ease” can be attributed to protection by Hayden’s very powerful patron, Vice President Dick Cheney. It is clear that the Vice President played a key role in “authorizing” unconstitutional surveillance. It is also possible that, BEFORE the 9/11 attacks, Hayden shared with Cheney some of the alarming evidence NSA had collected but otherwise kept to itself. Tom continued:

Plenty of Intelligence To Prevent 9/11

Read the document….then add your thoughts.

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

9/11 Twenty Years on

Today we remember the attacks on 9/11….the attacks that lead this country down the road of a long war and a seemingly endless international intervention all in the name of a ‘War on Terror’…

Biden’s message on this solemn day…..

White House released a taped address late Friday in which Biden spoke of the “true sense of national unity” that emerged after the attacks, seen in “heroism everywhere—in places expected and unexpected.” “To me that’s the central lesson of September 11,” he said. “Unity is our greatest strength.” Biden’s task, like his predecessors before him, was to mark the moment with a mix of grief and resolve. He gave voice to the pain that comes with memories of 9/11 in his video message, saying, “No matter how much time has passed, these commemorations bring everything painfully back as if you just got the news a few seconds ago.”

Unity?

Sorry Joe that ship has sailed…unity is a pipe dream….

As we think about the events of twenty years ago we should also think about what lead up to these dastardly attacks…..

The story of 9/11 is filled with painful “what-ifs.” Among the most prominent:

  • What if the CIA hadn’t blocked two FBI agents from alerting Bureau headquarters that a future 9/11 hijacker had obtained a multi-entry U.S. visa?

  • What if the FBI hadn’t nixed agents’ request for a warrant to search the computer of “20th hijacker” Zacharias Moussaoui after his arrest in August 2001?

  • What if the FBI hadn’t ignored a Phoenix agent’s July 2001 recommendation to contact aviation colleges across the country, on suspicion that Osama bin Laden was preparing extremists to “conduct terror activity against civilian aviation targets”?

Those what-ifs give us all pause, but they weigh heaviest on those who were closest to them, such as retired FBI counterterrorism agent Ken Williams, author of the so-called “Phoenix memo.”

Though his unheeded warning about extremists at flight schools looms large in the saga of 9/11, Williams is haunted by two more what-ifs that are lesser-known but equally gut-wrenching:

  • What if his request for a surveillance team to monitor bin Laden disciples at an Arizona aviation school hadn’t been declined in favor of the FBI’s pursuit of drug smugglers?

  • What if he hadn’t been ordered to suspend his investigation of those extremists for several months to help with an arson case?

For Williams, the answer is all too clear: His investigation would have led to the scrutiny of two future 9/11 hijackers—and that scrutiny may have started unraveling the entire plot.

https://starkrealities.substack.com/p/how-the-fbis-war-on-drugs-helped

History is full of twists and turns….roads not followed…this time it had a disastrous end.

Please by all means remember those souls that perished during the attack and its aftermaths.

And please keep in mind that a War on Terror is a slogan….how do you defeat an idea?

Have a great weekend.

Be Well….Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Last 20 Years

Today we take some time to remember the dastardly attacks of 9/11…..

The years after the attacks have changed things for all of us…..but not for the better.

Looking back on it now, the 1990s were an age of innocence for America. The Cold War was over and our leaders promised us a “peace dividend.” There was no TSA to make us take off our shoes at airports (how many bombs have they found in those billions of shoes?). The government could not tap a U.S. phone or read private emails without a warrant from a judge. And the national debt was only $5 trillion – compared with over $28 trillion today.

We have been told that the criminal attacks of September 11, 2001 “changed everything.” But what really changed everything was the US government’s disastrous response to them.

That response was not preordained or inevitable, but the result of decisions and choices made by politicians, bureaucrats and generals who fueled and exploited our fears, unleashed wars of reprehensible vengeance and built a secretive security state, all thinly disguised behind Orwellian myths of American greatness.

Most Americans believe in democracy and many regard the United States as a democratic country. But the US response to 9/11 laid bare the extent to which American leaders are willing to manipulate the public into accepting illegal wars, torture, the Guantanamo gulag and sweeping civil rights abuses – activities that undermine the very meaning of democracy.

How Can America Wake Up From Its Post-9/11 Nightmare?

While the attacks were despicable….they did leave us with a certain legacy….

I am, of course, speaking of the post-9/11 surveillance state.

It started with the infamous and incongruously named PATRIOT Act, enacted just six weeks after the attacks and before any inquiry into how al Qaeda had managed to get past the FBI, CIA and NSA. The new law forced retailers and libraries to tell the FBI what books you’ve read or ordered, your internet service providers (ISPs) to cough up details on your website browsing history, and imposed new financial transaction reporting requirements on your bank or credit union. It was, however, just the public version of digital mass surveillance.

The hidden part of the federal electronic dragnet was NSA’s STELLAR WIND program, which would not come to light until a year after George W. Bush won reelection because the New York Times editorial leadership sat on the story for a year – one of the worst examples of editorial cowardice in the history of American journalism and the antithesis of the Times’ approach to the Pentagon Papers 40 years earlier.

To be fair, NSA hardly has a monopoly on helping create and sustain the new American surveillance state. The Department of Justice has done its part as well.

Twilight of Liberty: 9/11’s Legacy

With all the ‘preventive’ measures in place this type of attack should be a thing that could never happen again…..well that is the spin we get these days….but I have little faith in those types of promises.

It is not the day for pessimism….for that I apologize….but I feel that truth should be told wherever it is necessary and this is one of those times.

So please take some time and remember those that died on that fateful day and afterwards…..they did not deserve the events of that day.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Release The Damn Files On 9/11!

For years the families of those that died because of the attacks on 9/11 have wanted the files released to the public on those responsible for the deaths….

Back in August Pres. Biden asked permission of the families to speak at the 9/11 Memorial here is my post on their reaction…..

https://lobotero.com/2021/08/09/closing-thought-09august21/
 
Biden has decided that the photo op was just too good to pass up and relented and released those files….
President Biden signed an executive order Friday directing the declassification of certain documents related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a supportive gesture to victims’ families who have long sought the records in hopes of implicating the Saudi government. The order, coming just before the 20th anniversary of the attacks, is a significant moment in a yearslong tussle between the government and the families over what classified information about the run-up to the attacks could be made public, the AP reports. Last month, some 1,800 relatives, survivors, and first responders opposed Biden’s participation in 9/11 events if the documents remained declassified.

“The significant events in question occurred two decades ago or longer, and they concern a tragic moment that continues to resonate in American history and in the lives of so many Americans,” the executive order states. “It is therefore critical to ensure that the United States Government maximizes transparency, relying on classification only when narrowly tailored and necessary.” The order directs the Justice Department and other executive branch agencies to begin a declassification review and requires that declassified documents be released over the next six months.

The practical impact of any new documents was not immediately clear. Past investigations have outlined ties between Saudi nationals and some of the airplane hijackers but have not established the government was directly involved. The Justice Department revealed last month that the FBI had recently concluded an investigation that examined certain 9/11 hijackers and potential co-conspirators, and that it would now work to see if it could share information that it had previously determined could not be disclosed. But, the families said Thursday, “thus far, no additional substantive material has been produced, and the FBI has not agreed to make a further effort to find its missing documents.”

About damn time!

But my next question is will this be the entire report of will it be sanitized to protect the KSA?

Now that the report has been released(?) there will be three presidents at the 9/11 photo-op….

President Biden will visit all three 9/11 memorial sites to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and pay his respects to the nearly 3,000 people killed that day. Biden will visit Ground Zero in New York City, the Pentagon, and the memorial outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 was forced down, the White House said Saturday. He will be accompanied by first lady Jill Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for a separate event before joining the president at the Pentagon, the White House said. Harris will travel with her spouse, Doug Emhoff, the AP reports.

Biden’s itinerary is similar to the one President Barack Obama followed in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Obama’s visit to New York City coincided with the opening of a memorial at the site where the iconic World Trade Center towers once stood. Along with former first lady Michelle Obama, the former president will attend the remembrance ceremony on the upcoming anniversary in New York, per CNN. Former President George Bush, who was in office when the terrorists attacked, plans to speak to families of the Shanksville victims at a ceremony there, accompanied by former first lady Laura Bush.

Photo-ops and speeches do not make us safe and will not prevent another attack possibility in the future….what we need as a country is a sure fire plan to prevent this type of tragedy…..and I am not sure this country has such a plan.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–09August21

Biden has asked permission of the people of the 9/11 Memorial to visit…..it will be a typical speech and photo op that could well make it into some re-election video…..now the people have responded…..

President Biden has been informed that he won’t be welcome at events marking the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks unless he declassifies documents that could tie Saudi Arabian leaders to the terrorism. More than 1,800 relatives of victims, first responders, and attack survivors have signed onto the demand, NBC reports. “We cannot in good faith, and with veneration to those lost, sick, and injured, welcome the president to our hallowed grounds until he fulfills his commitment,” their statement says. The group maintains that Biden promised as a presidential candidate to release information but has since fallen silent on the issue and been unresponsive to its requests. The White House said Friday that staffers have met with members of the group. “Our hearts are with the families who lost loved ones on 9/11,” a spokesperson said.

The 9/11 Commission did not find evidence that Saudi leaders were involved in the attack, though its report called Saudi Arabia a “problematic ally.” But since the commission ended its work in 2004, the statement says, “much investigative evidence has been uncovered implicating Saudi government officials in supporting the attacks.” The commission did find that Saudi nationals funded al-Qaeda, per NBC. The Saudi government has denied involvement; 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 terrorists were Saudis. Some members of the group believe that Saudi leaders knew the attack, which killed about 2,500 people, was planned but didn’t try to stop it. Saudi Arabia, which did not issue a comment immediately Friday, faces lawsuits for billions of dollars from victims’ families, per the Guardian. Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump also would not declassify the records.

Bully for them!

It is high time the the US STOP caudling the murderous regimes like Saudi Arabia and Israel.

I say screw Biden until he releases those documents regardless what they say.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–01Jul21

Did you know that suicide since 2001 are 6 times higher than those killed in action?

Yes about 6 times higher to the tune of 30,000+ as opposed to about 7,000 killed in action.

New research released Monday shows the post-9/11 wars launched by the U.S. military since 2001 have resulted in over 30,000 suicides by active duty American solders and veterans—over four times the number killed in combat operations.

According to Brown University’s Costs of War Project—established in 2010 to account for the loss of lives and taxpayer dollars spent on U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—an estimated 30,177 veterans and service members have killed themselves over the last nearly two decades, compared with 7,057 members of the military who have been killed in combat. 

The findings were compiled from interviews, government data, and secondary literature.

“The V.A. 2020 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report reveals the suicide rate of veterans overall and adjusted for age and sex is 1.5 times that of the general population,” the report reads. “This rate is likely a conservative one because, unlike earlier reports, the V.A. only counts veterans who were federally activated, leaving out Reservists and National Guardsmen who were not federally activated.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/06/21/over-30000-us-veterans-post-911-wars-have-killed-themselves-2001

This is a growing problem and the Pentagon has done little to help…..

But why is this a growing problem?

While the Department of Defense, Veterans’ Administration, and other organizations are trying to address this alarming trend, one component that must be further integrated and supported is the family. Depression and suicide do not happen in a vacuum, and these events have a profound impact on those in the service member or veteran’s life. 

Military service members, war veterans, and their families carry the costs of war daily. Most civilians in our country have been fortunate to not have experienced, at least directly, the horror of the Global War on Terror. But many U.S. servicemembers — especially those who have done multiple tours of duty — have. Traumatic events like IED blasts (with accompanying traumatic brain injury) carry significant impact even after a deployment ends and service members return to American soil. This can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Rand Corporation, in a 2019 report entitled Improving the Quality of Mental Health Care for Veterans, identified that up to 20 percent of deployed individuals experience PTSD, up to 44 percent have a dependency on alcohol, and 48 percent of those who deployed experienced strains in family life

Why are tens of thousands of post-9/11 service members killing themselves?

We can find billions for new ways to kill but very little to help the veteran that is fighting inner battles because of those weapons.

Pathetic track record on veteran issues….the Pentagon treats veterans like broken tools…they discard them and find news one to screw up.

And yet our Congress throws their support behind veterans with every election and then soon forget them as quickly as they can in favor of more ‘popular’ issues…..and the voter allows this as well.

But the bigger question is….do Americans not involved in this situation actually care how many of our vets are taking their lives?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–22Jan21

Why would an American soldier want to destroy the memorial to those that died on 9/11?

I know with everything happening around the inauguration of Biden some news falls by the wayside…..

While we were distracted by the oath of office and the antics of the Trump supporters an American soldier has planned an attack on a national monument…..the 9/11 Monument.

An American soldier discussed targets for potential terror attacks in the United States and shared instructions for killing American troops in the Middle East with someone he believed was an Islamic State supporter, federal authorities said on Tuesday.

While stationed in Germany last fall, the soldier discussed possible targets, including the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan, a criminal complaint shows.

“Choose your targets wisely,” the soldier, Cole James Bridges, an Army private from Ohio, wrote to the person he believed was a woman working with the Islamic State. But it turned out that Private Bridges was messaging with an undercover employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to the complaint, which was made public on Tuesday by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

Why would any American want to destroy this monument to the dead?  Especially an American soldier that has taken the oath to protect and defend.

I have noticed that oaths do not mean a thing any more….people take them because the have to not because they want to.

This plan is disgusting and should not be condoned or explained away…..punish the planner.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”