pduveen's blog

Description of the use of thermite in WWII

PETER'S NEW YORK, May 12, 2012--I recently procured a volume entitled "Modern Chemical Discoveries" by Richard Clements (1954, E.P. Dutton, 290 pgs.). It describes the advent of many new industrial processes at the time, and explains the manner in which they operate. It is a book targeted to the educated layman.

In a chapter entitled "Some metals and their compounds," it describes what we generally know as thermite, the nature of the chemical reaction associated with it, and its effects (p117-118).

"A mixture of aluminum powder heated with the oxide of another metal gives a violent chemical reaction. The aluminum is converted into oxide while the other metal is left in the metallic state. The action is so violent in some cases, copper oxide, for example, that a kind of explosion occurs and part of the metal is volatilized. Chromium is obtained in this way in a pure state, as also manganese which previously had been known only in combination with carbon or iron.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and company resist kangaroo court

It would appear that, contrary to statements previously attributed to them, the alleged "mastermind" of 9-11 and his alleged cohorts will not plead guilty, but will resist. Their attorneys likewise appear to be providing them with an aggressive defense.

***

5 charged in 9/11 attack resist Gitmo hearing
By Ben Fox
-
Associated Press
Saturday, May 5, 2012
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — The self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks repeatedly declined to answer a judge’s questions Saturday and his co-defendants knelt in prayer in what appeared to be a concerted protest against the military proceedings....

***

The entire article can be found at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/5/911-mastermind-back-guantanamo-judge/

Zelikow laments the monster he helped create

Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the 9-11 Commission who is credited by some commentators with creating a detailed outline of the commission's report before the data were in, seems to think that too much antiterrorist momentum has built up in Washington, and that the train needs to slow down in some respects. In a five-minute video interview with a staff member of the foreign policy magazine "Foreign Affairs" (www.cfr.org), Zelikow indicated that the bureaucracy put into place after 9-11 by Washington to deal with the [practically nonexistent] "terrorist" threat ought to change policy direction, but is resistant to doing so.

Zelikow patted himself and the commission on the back for what he deemed the commission's successes. "The country is safer than it was," Zelikow claimed. He crowed loudly at the balance that has been struck between civil liberties and security, saying the worst blow to freedom would be another "terrorist" attack like the one on 9-11.

According to the interview, Zelikow has recently authored an update to the 9-11 Commission Report, and has also posted an article with similar content for "Foreign Affairs."

BBC presents program on 9-11 "conspiracy theories" tonight

"A decade after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the Conspiracy Files looks at why some people still question what really happened on 9/11."

So reads a description of tonight's BBC segment on skeptics of the official version of the events of 9-11 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0148yz5).

BBC radio featured a segment this morning about 9-11 "conspiracy theories." Interviewees were Alex Jones and Neils Harrit, among several others, including some Brits whose names I did not catch. The thrust was that young people are more gullible and more likely to question government accounts than older, more sensible people. The spokespeople for 9-11 truth movement did a great job, sounding quite normal and presenting good arguments.

CIA FOIA Database with 9-11 entries

A blog entry brought to my attention the existence of a CIA database of declassified documents at http://www.foia.cia.gov/search.asp. I have begun searching through it, and thought 911blogger members may find it of some use. One must be creative in finding search terms that yield material. I found no entries, for example, under "world trade center," or "wtc," so I got out my copy of the 9-11 Commission report to get ideas, and put in Kean, which yielded an assessment of CIA performance on 9-11, dated June 2005, which I am reading through now.

Blogger at Foreign Policy magazine takes a jab at "truthers"

I came across this interesting blog on Foreign Policy magazine. Thought it, and the comments it generated, might be of interest to readers at 911Blogger.

"Passport"
A blog by the editors of Foreign Policy

After truthers and birthers, deathers?
Posted By Joshua Keating

There's a lot we still don't know about how the death of Osama bin Laden will impact the future of global terrorism and U.S. national security policies, but there's one prediction I feel pretty comfortable making: Large numbers of people are not going to accept that he is dead.

Considering the number of high-ranking officials who have questioned whether bin Laden is alive over the years, Bin Laden's own lies about his locations and activities in his public statements, the number of people who doubt the official story about his signature achievement, and the increasingly decentralized and online nature of al Qaeda supporters, this situation creates a perfect recipe for conspiracy theories.

Blog continues here: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/05/02/after_truthers_and_birthers_deathers

For the Love of Gaddafi!

An examination of the role of the United States in revolutions of the recent past may shed light on the origin and intent of the current upheaval in Libya.

Ghailani verdict may pave the way for new avenue of exploration for 9-11 Truth

Obama Administration wins one with Ghailani verdict

By Peter Duveen

PETER'S NEW YORK, Thursday, November 18, 2010--The jury verdict in the Ahmed Ghailani "terrorism" case yesterday signals a broad victory for the Administration of President Barack Obama, which has consistently championed the use of civilian courts to try the alleged crimes of Guantanamo detainees. Many, if not most or even all of the detainees rounded up in the wake of September 11, 2001 and accused of various offenses have been subjected to torture during their long confinements.

"The experts" and 9-11 Truth

I came across this interesting article in today's New York Post entitled "Why experts are usually wrong" by David H. Freedman. I'm passing it on because I think it has particular applicability to the discu"expert" opinion on what brought down the World Trade Center towers. I hope some will enoy it, and even get a chuckle out of it, true as it is.

 "Every day, expert advice assaults us from newspapers, websites and televisions. But judging by the state of the world and our lives, it doesn’t seem to be doing us much good.

"Blame the media (of course), but know that’s only a small part of the problem. Experts — that is, actual scientists, not just Dr. Phil — are often wrong, more often than we might think.

"Scientists themselves have examined the reliability of their own findings, and have come to some sobering conclusions. Take medical research, which has been especially well-scrutinized. About two-thirds of the findings published in top medical journals end up being refuted within a few years. "

9-11 Commission Report misinformation on evacuation drills

9-11 Commission Report misinformation on evacuation drills
By Peter Duveen

When the 9-11 Commission Report came out in 2004, I was not particularly sanguine regarding its prospects in terms of accuracy. I did not bother to wade through the entire work, which was billed as well-written and exciting reading. Nothing bores me more than a perversion of the truth. I did, however, check out a portion of the document that related to a personal experience.

In 1999, I was working at Fuji Bank, on the 79th Floor of World Trade Center 2. During my short tenure there, I participated in a drill in which I along with about fifty other employees descended all 79 floors through the stairwells and exited the building. It was this kind of preparation that I believed was responsible for so many people being able to escape from the Twin Towers on 9-11, and I wanted to see what the 9-11 Commission report said about it. Sure enough, the document devotes some sentences to the type of drill I had experienced.

On pages 280-281, the report states: [1]

Prosecutorial missteps could lead to lighter sentence for activist attorney

Prosecutorial missteps could lead to lighter sentence for activist attorney
Two lawyers whose actions may have paved the way for Lynne Stewart's "crimes" were not charged.

Analysis
By Peter Duveen

PETER'S NEW YORK, December 1, 2009--Lynne Stewart, activist attorney, is to be re-sentenced tomorrow for crimes the government claims Stewart committed, and that a jury convicted her of. She was basically accused of engaging in a conspiracy to manipulate the policies of the Egyptian government through coercion, and of breaking her promise to abide by agreements she signed that would have restricted her client, the famous "Blind Sheikh," Omar Abdel Rahman, from communicating his allegedly terrorist intentions to the outside world.

The government, as represented by the U.S. Justice Department attorneys who pursued the case against Stewart, alleged that by issuing a press release announcing the Sheikh's intention to withdraw his support for a suspension of hostilities between the Egyptian government and groups friendly to him, Stewart was part of a plot "calculated to affect the conduct of the Egyptian government through intimidation and coercion."

Scientific paper points to possible laboratory origin of swine flu

Scientific paper points to possible laboratory origin of swine flu

By Peter Duveen

PETER'S NEW YORK, Tuesday, November 24, 2009--A just-released scientific paper spells out the hypothesis, first suggested in the weeks following the initial outbreak of swine flu in humans in the Spring of 2009, that the flu emerged from a laboratory.

The peer-reviewed paper, published today in the Journal of Virology, analyzes the makeup of the genes of the now-famous A H1N1 virus, and concludes that, although it could possibly have come about through cross-contamination among flocks of birds or herds of swine, an equally, or perhaps more probable explanation is that it emerged from laboratories that store viruses for research or vaccine production.

Activist attorney: Chances slim for fair trial of 9-11 defendants

Writing for Slate, Attorney David Feige explains how KSM's upcoming trial will ultimately erode the efficacy of the American judicial system.

An excerpt:

"In an idealized view, our judicial system is insulated from the ribald passions of politics. In reality, those passions suffuse the criminal justice system, and no matter how compelling the case for suppressing evidence that would actually effect the trial might be, given the politics at play, there is no judge in the country who will seriously endanger the prosecution. Instead, with the defense motions duly denied, the case will proceed to trial, and then (as no jury in the country is going to acquit KSM) to conviction and a series of appeals. And that's where the ultimate effect of a vigorous defense of KSM gets really grim."

Activist attorney who supported a new 9-11 investigation reports to prison

Lynne Stewart, an activist attorney whose vigorous defense of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman earned her a prison term, reported to authorities after her appeal was denied. Stewart was a supporter of a new 9-11 investigation. Here is what AP had to say:

NY ex-lawyer surrenders to serve prison term
By LARRY NEUMEISTER (AP) – 16 hours ago

NEW YORK — Promising "you haven't seen the last of me," a 70-year-old disbarred lawyer convicted in a terrorism case surrendered to U.S. marshals Thursday to begin serving her prison term after a New York appeals court upheld her conviction.

A smiling Lynne Stewart walked with several dozen supporters to a collection of cameras on her way into U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Thursday, shaking a fist in the air to chants of "Free Lynne Stewart."

"It's very hard to feel downhearted today," she said. "I can take whatever they dish out. I am not going to back off ever."

Stewart said she would become a jailhouse lawyer to the extent her disbarment will allow, helping other inmates with their legal fights.

Continued at http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iqFFRaxZKfmO7QApHCKcMjydegTgD9C2TK200

NYC CAN drops ballot intitiative strategy for PR effort

Group promoting vote on new 9-11 probe will switch to PR effort
by Peter Duveen

PETER'S NEW YORK, Friday, October 16, 2009--Political activists promoting a ballot initiative to establish a new investigation into the events of September 11, 2001 have abandoned that effort in favor of a public relations push, according to an email sent out by the group today.

NYC CAN, which mounted a petition drive among New York City voters for a ballot initiative to establish a commission to reinvestigate 9-11, had gathered 80,000 signatures of registered New York City voters in support of the measure. A judge recently shot the petition down, meaning that the measure will not appear on the New York City ballot this November.

Instead of mounting a new petition drive, the organization has chosen to pursue other avenues to broaden public acceptance for the need for a new 9-11 investigation, according to a statement emailed to supporters.

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