Tag: 9/11

Closing Thought–11Sep17

There have been two horrific attacks on American soil…..Pear Harbor and 9/11……

Sixteen anniversaries of 9/11 have now come. Sixteen. For many reasons, mostly obvious, we place the attacks of that day in a category with Pearl Harbor: both were national tragedies, both inflicted unprecedented death tolls on American soil, both were criticized as intelligence failures, and both launched America into war. Of course, for most Americans, December 7 passes each year with maybe a general awareness, perhaps a moment of acknowledgement when FDR’s words—“a day that will live in infamy”—work their way into our consciousness.

But on each anniversary of 9/11, a host of TV networks still show documentaries about the attacks and their aftermath. It is still occasion for a multitude of think pieces to emerge into the sunlight—some new and important, others less so. Of course, sixteen anniversaries are a lot fewer than seventy-five. Yet, it’s hard not to wonder whether on December 7, 1957, the sixteen-year anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks was marked as prominently as that of 9/11 is today. I don’t expect that it was.

Source: Understanding 9/11 and the Terrorist Threat Today | RealClearDefense

That’s it for me…..I shall return tomorrow with more and better stuff….chuq

Sixteen Years After 9/11, How Does Terrorism End?

Sixteen and counting…….it was a Tuesday morn about 10 when the world change in a matter of moments.

War was declared and we have been fighting ever since.

AS we look back on that fateful day…..there is a question the lurks deep in the mind……will this ever end?

The current spasm of international terrorism, an age-old tactic of warfare, is often traced to a bomb mailed from New York by the anti-Castro group El Poder Cubano, or Cuban Power, that exploded in a Havana post office, on January 9, 1968. Five people were seriously injured. Since then, almost four hundred thousand people have died in terrorist attacks worldwide, on airplanes and trains, in shopping malls, schools, embassies, cinemas, apartment blocks, government offices, and businesses, according to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. The deadliest remains the 9/11 attack, sixteen years ago this week, which killed almost three thousand people—and in turn triggered a war that has become America’s longest.

I’ve covered dozens of these terrorist attacks on four continents over that half century. After the Barcelona attack and the U.S. decision to send more troops to fight the Taliban, I began to wonder how terrorism ends—or how militant groups evolve. In her landmark study of more than four hundred and fifty terrorist groups, Audrey Kurth Cronin found that the average life span of an extremist movement is about eight years. Cuban Power c

Source: Sixteen Years After 9/11, How Does Terrorism End? | The New Yorker

Take a few moments and say a silent prayer for the families that have been effected by this horrendous act.

9/11 Anniversary–2017

Today we recognize that 16 years ago a handful of whacked out turds flew planes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania….the worse case of terrorism to ever hit the shores of America.

This is an op-ed written for the Washington Times……a look at what has become of the society since that fateful day…..(I do not totally agree with some of their assumptions but a pretty good piece all around)…….

The approach of an anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 always concentrates my mind. It was, astonishingly, 16 Septembers ago that a team of foreign terrorists hijacked three American passenger planes and used them as weapons of mass destruction. Can anyone forget the images of people leaping to their deaths to avoid being consumed by fire and smoke, the twin towers collapsing, the ashes rising, children struggling to come to terms with the fact that they’d never see their mothers and fathers again?

Actually, some people can. The tiki-torch Nazis and the black-shirted anarcho-communist Antifa have moved on. What excites them and, frankly, too many others, is pitting Americans against Americans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender — whatever. As though we hadn’t an enemy in the world.

Source: 9/11 anniversary shows some things remain the same – Washington Times

Take a moment to remember those that gave their lives on that day and pray for their families…..

Closing Thought–09Aug17

Another Soul Finds Its Way Home!

We will soon find ourselves on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in NYC and the Pentagon.

Many Americans were killed on the fateful day….some still have not been identified….but there is some good news to report (if anything can be said to be good after that attack)……

Almost 16 years after the 9/11 attacks, another family has been given the news that the remains of their loved one have been identified. New York City’s medical examiner said Monday that the man has been identified as the 1,641st person killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, PIX11 reports. The medical examiner’s office says the man’s name is being withheld by request of his family. This is the first time another victim has been identified since March 2015, when Matthew David Yarnell, a 26-year-old who worked on the 97th floor of the South Tower, was identified with the help of DNA, the New York Daily News reports.

The 1,641th victim was identified through DNA retesting of remains recovered from the site, reports NBC News. Out of the 2,753 people killed in the New York attacks, 1,112, or around 40%, are still unidentified, but the medical examiner’s office says it plans to keep using the most modern methods to identify as many as possible. The medical examiner’s office says it has been retesting remains found during the original recovery operation at Ground Zero.

May the spirit now rest in peace and the family can have the closure that they have needed for these long years.

Time for me to call it a day……I have a couple of buffalo steaks for the grill and a bottle of good Spanish red wine…..now that is how you end the day….with a perfect meal.

Tomorrow my friends……chuq

Sept. 11 Legacy: One Endless War Against Many Radical Enemies

Last Sunday we observed the 9/11 attacks that caught the country by surprise…..those attacks led to the endless wars that we are fighting today and will probably last for a generation or more……

I read an excellent piece in NPR (you know them…the demon that the GOP has been fighting for decades)…..the article talks about our endless war of revenge (or some may call justice)……

The U.S. went to war after Sept. 11 and has now been fighting for 15 years, the longest unbroken period in its history. Despite disappointing results, there’s broad consensus it should continue.

Source: Sept. 11 Legacy: One Endless War Against Many Radical Enemies : Parallels : NPR

More perspective on the years following the attacks of 9/11……

From its opening salvo, in other words, this conflict has been an air war. With its 75% success rate, al-Qaeda’s 9/11 mission was a historic triumph, accurately striking three out of what assumedly were its four chosen targets.  (Though no one knows just where that plane in Pennsylvania was heading, undoubtedly it was either the Capitol or the White House to complete the taking out of the icons of American financial, military, and political power.)  In the process, almost 3,000 people who had no idea they were in the bombsights of an obscure movement on the other side of the planet were slaughtered.

Source: Bombs Away! A 9/11 Retrospective of America’s 15-Year Air War | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

Sad thing is that there is NO end in sight…..is our wars after 9’11 actually done anything to benefit the planet?

Declassified But Redacted

For months now the world has been waiting for the release of those damn 28 pages of the 9/11 report which some thought would implicate the Saudis in the attack……

Wait no longer…those damn pages are now in the public domain…..

The House Intelligence Committee on Friday released 28 previously classified pages from a 2002 congressional investigation into the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Some suspected the document contains information linking Saudi Arabia to the attackers.

The Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Abdullah Al-Saud said he welcomed the release of the redacted pages.

“Saudi Arabia has long called for the release of the classified ‘28 Pages,’ We hope the release of these pages will clear up, once and for all, any lingering questions or suspicions about Saudi Arabia’s actions, intentions, or long-term friendship with the United States,” he said in a statement.

“Saudi Arabia is working closely with the United States and other allies to eradicate terrorism and destroy terrorist organizations,” he added.

Here is the link for the pages released…….

Source: declasspart4.pdf

The pages are  redacted…..what part of that is declassified?

If you would like to refresh your memory on the 9/11 Report….the whole report then the link below is your source…..

Source: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States

And after all this we still do NOT have the whole story……

Does something smell fishy to you?  If so then please join the club.

“It is not who you know but rather who you blow”…….says it all for me.

Saudi Press Just Accused US Govt of Blowing Up World Trade Centers as Pretext to Perpetual War – The Free Thought Project

I recently wrote a couple of posts about those 28 pages of the 9/11 report that was somehow not part of the release to the public…..there is a move afoot now to have those pages “declassified” and released to the public….it seems that there is some evidence that the Saudis were somehow more involved than we were originally told…..

Let’s be honest….you thought you have heard just about everything that could be printed on the 9/11 incident that turn the world upside down, right? Maybe not so much?  There seems to b…

Source: Yet More 9/11 Stuff – In Saner Thought

And now there are Saudis that claim the 9/11 attacks were an American operation…….

I would like to thank my friend “Mr. Militant Negro” for bringing this article to my attention…..go to my blogroll and visit his site…you will not be disappointed…..

“9/11 was a purely American action, planned and carried out within the U.S.” Because the “U.S. cannot exist without an enemy.”

In response to the U.S. Senate’s unanimous vote to allow 9/11 victims’ families to sue Saudi Arabia in federal court, a report published in the London-based Al-Hayat daily, by Saudi legal expert Katib al-Shammari, claims that the U.S. masterminded the terror attacks as a means of creating a nebulous “enemy” in order garner public support for a global war on terror.

The report by al-Shammari, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), claims that long-standing American policy is “built upon the principle of advance planning and future probabilities,” which the U.S. has now turned toward the Saudi regime after being successfully employed against first th
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/saudi-press-drop-truth-bomb-america-u-s-govt-911-terrorist-attacks/#i2aRIT9S0U8PQShi.99

Source: Saudi Press Just Accused US Govt of Blowing Up World Trade Centers as Pretext to Perpetual War – The Free Thought Project

Okay….who wants to believe this version of the attacks?

House to debate repealing 2001 war authorization

Finally!  Someone has grown a set and stepped up to do the right thing……

After the 9/11 attacks the US Congress passed the 2001 war authorization…..and ever since it has been used for the constant wars that we are fighting for the last 15 years.

The House will debate an amendment on Wednesday whether to repeal a 2001 authorization for use of military force that the administration is using for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The amendment, introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), would take effect 90 days after the defense bill is passed, and force the administration to seek new authority from Congress to wage its military campaign against ISIS.

Source: House to debate repealing 2001 war authorization | TheHill

The debate does not mean that it will be repealed…but at least it is a start to control the endless wars that we are now involved in fighting.

From Under A Rock

The big story….not that the media wants to report it……is those 28 pages of the 9/11 investigation…..the story is that there is a debate on whether the American people should know the extent that the Saudis may have been involved in the attacks on that fateful day.

The question is…..should the American people know the whole story?  Should there be total transparency?

A member of the original investigation team has voiced his opinion…..

A member of the official commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks is ratcheting up pressure on the White House to make public 28 pages of a congressional report dealing with suspected Saudi involvement. In an interview with the Guardian, former Navy secretary John Lehman lays it out in blunt terms: “There was an awful lot of participation by Saudi individuals in supporting the hijackers, and some of those people worked in the Saudi government,” he says. “Our report should never have been read as an exoneration of Saudi Arabia.” Lehman adds that he’s not implicating members of the Saudi royal family or top civilian officials, but rather lower-echelon employees, perhaps in the Saudi ministry of Islamic affairs.

Last month, the leaders of the commission—former GOP Gov. Tom Kean of New Jersey and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton of Indiana—cautioned against releasing the 28 pages and noted that just one Saudi official had been implicated in the plot. (That was diplomat Fahad al-Thumairy, who was deported and remains a “person of interest,” notes the New York Times.) But Lehman says he knows of at least five other Saudi employees who were under suspicion. “They may not have been indicted, but they were certainly implicated,” he says. “There was an awful lot of circumstantial evidence.”

What say you?  Should we know the full extent of any participation by the Saudis in that horrendous attack?  Or should we just forget it because they are a valued “buddy”?

 

Saudis, Butt Covered….Period!

I turn from politics to report on the Saudi/9-11 situation…….

A few days ago I wrote about a special report that details the Saudi involvement in 9/11 and the deal to try and keep the cover-up in place…..(Read on)……

15 years after the fact the attacks on 9/11 are still making the news.  But the “news” has moved from the Congress inaction on the first responders bill to the country that may be at th…

Source: Hey A/holes, Better Do What The Saudis Say! – In Saner Thought

But in case that is not enough for the inquisitive mind….then maybe this will help somewhat……

Source: Did Saudi Arabia play a role in September 11? Here’s what we know. – Vox

Obama has gone to Saudi Arabia with his ass in his hands to plead for some favors…….but what will they, the Saudis, want in return?

Easy peazy!

Following Saudi threats to destabilize the financial system if the US were to enact a Bill that would allow an investigation into Saudi Arabia’s support of September 11 terrorist attacks, many were watching closely how Obama would react. The president made it clear last night when as CNN reports, the White House threatened to veto the bipartisan bill to let families victimized by the 9/11 terrorist attacks sue Saudi Arabia while a GOP senator privately sought to block the measure.

The White House and State Department are bluntly warning lawmakers not to proceed with the legislation due to “fears” it could have dramatic ramifications for the United States and citizens living abroad to retaliatory lawsuits.

Source: Obama Succumbs To Saudi Pressure, Will Veto Sept 11 Lawsuit Bill

He may not have to use his  precious veto after all……..

The battle over the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act continues to grow today, with co-sponsor Sen. Lindsey Graham (R – SC) announcing that he’s going to block his own bill, to “make sure that anything we do doesn’t come to bite us.”

It’s unspoken, but the admission is the latest response to Sunday’s threats by Saudi Foreign Minister Abu Jubeir to sell $750 billion in US treasury assets in response to the law, a move which if done rapidly could do massive damage to the US dollar and the American economy in general.

The act would allow victims to sue foreign countries in US courts if those countries are involved in terror attacks on American soil, with Saudi Arabia’s government’s involvement in 9/11 likely to be a major target for such lawsuits. The Saudi leverage over the US economy seems to have derailed the law outright, with the White House also indicating a probable veto of the measure over fears it would “harm taxpayers.”

Go figure!  Did you really think that it would turn out any other way?  Only a politician would use the “taxpayer” as the scapegoat……classic DC two step.

This Saudi love-fest is getting out of hand….Obama going to Saudi like Oliver asking for more gruel is picture I cannot get out of my head.

Do you still believe there will ever be true transparency?