March 2012

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Silverstein To Refinance $577M in Bonds at 7 WTC

http://www.globest.com/news/12_309/newyork/office/Silverstein-To-Refinance-577M-in-Bonds-at-7-WTC-319716.html

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Last Updated: March 19, 2012 11:26am ET
Silverstein To Refinance $577M in Bonds at 7 WTC
By Jacqueline Hlavenka

CMBS and Liberty Bonds
secured by 7 WTC will be
refinanced.

NEW YORK CITY-After reaching 100% occupancy late last year, Silverstein Properties will be refinancing the liberty bonds and a commercial mortgage-backed security secured by Seven World Trade Center, according to a report from Fitch Ratings.

The total loan includes $577.8 million of liberty bonds and a CMBS loan secured by a mortgage backed by two cross-defaulted loans on 7 WTC. The senior loan is a $452.8 million tax-exempt liberty bond financing designated loan and the junior loan is a $125 million CMBS loan, according to Fitch.

Rogers’ 'Cybersecurity' Bill Is Broad Enough to Use Against WikiLeaks and The Pirate Bay

Congress is doing it again: they’re proposing overbroad regulations that could have dire consequences for our Internet ecology. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (H.R. 3523), introduced by Rep. Mike Rogers and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, allows companies or the government1 free rein to bypass existing laws in order to monitor communications, filter content, or potentially even shut down access to online services for “cybersecurity purposes.” Companies are encouraged to share data with the government and with one another, and the government can share data in return. The idea is to facilitate detection of and defense against a serious cyber threat, but the definitions in the bill go well beyond that. The language is so broad it could be used as a blunt instrument to attack websites like The Pirate Bay or WikiLeaks. Join EFF in calling on Congress to stop the Rogers’ cybersecurity bill.

Read more: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/03/rogers-cybersecurity-bill-broad-enough-use-against-wikileaks-and-pirate-bay

Murder Is Not an Anomaly in War By Chris Hedges 3/19/2012 Truthdig

Murder Is Not an Anomaly in War By Chris Hedges

Illustration by Mr. Fish

By Chris Hedges

The war in Afghanistan—where the enemy is elusive and rarely seen, where the cultural and linguistic disconnect makes every trip outside the wire a visit to hostile territory, where it is clear that you are losing despite the vast industrial killing machine at your disposal—feeds the culture of atrocity. The fear and stress, the anger and hatred, reduce all Afghans to the enemy, and this includes women, children and the elderly. Civilians and combatants merge into one detested nameless, faceless mass. The psychological leap to murder is short. And murder happens every day in Afghanistan. It happens in drone strikes, artillery bombardments, airstrikes, missile attacks and the withering suppressing fire unleashed in villages from belt-fed machine guns.

Pentagon says it has no records of bin Laden's death; CIA hasn't answered open records request

Article by: RICHARD LARDNER , Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The hunt for Osama bin Laden took nearly a decade. It could take even longer to uncover U.S. government emails, planning reports, photographs and more that would shed light on how an elite team of Navy SEALs killed the world's most wanted terrorist.

Ten months after that electrifying covert mission, an administration that has pledged to be the most transparent in American history is refusing to release documents about it under the Freedom of Information Act. The records could provide insights into how bin Laden died, how the U.S. verified his identity and how it decided to bury him at sea, as well as photographs taken during and after the May 2011 raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Government officials have openly discussed details of the mission in speeches, interviews and television appearances, but the administration won't disclose records that would confirm their narrative of that fateful night. The Obama administration has not said even where in Washington's bureaucracy all the documents might be stored.

New 9/11 Timeline Entries: Fighters on Training Mission, Special Ops Exercise, Intercepts over the Atlantic, and More

From the History Commons Groups blog:

Entries have been added to the Complete 9/11 Timeline at History Commons, which, in particular, reveal new details about events from the day of September 11.

Several entries describe how a group of fighter jets from Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts were taking part in a training mission when the terrorist attacks began. Although the pilots of these jets had seen two other fighters taking off from their base in response to the hijacked Flight 11, they were unaware of the reason for the scramble. They therefore continued with their training mission--described as a "mock war scenario"--over the Atlantic Ocean.

The fighters were recalled to Otis Air Base after the base started preparing all of its fighters for takeoff. At least one of the pilots involved in the training mission soon took off again. Along with another pilot, his first task was to intercept a military cargo plane over the Atlantic. The two fighters were subsequently sent to New York, where they helped patrol the airspace over the city. Before returning to their base, they were directed to inspect a supposedly suspicious aircraft that turned out to be just a tanker plane that had been providing them with fuel.

Military personnel were also concerned about a convoy of aircraft approaching America across the Atlantic, which repeatedly failed to respond to radio communications. But when fighters intercepted the convoy, they found it was just some military planes coming back from Europe.

WTC 7 Blueprints Exposed Via FOIA Request: Building Plans Allow for Deeper Analysis of Skyscraper's Destruction

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march172012/wtc_7_blueprints.php

Mar-17-2012 13:23
WTC 7 Blueprints Exposed Via FOIA Request: Building Plans Allow for Deeper Analysis of Skyscraper's Destruction

Ron Brookman, Structural Engineer Special to Salem-News.com
Structural Drawings / Shop Drawings Available for Download.

WTC-7 sequence

(SAN FRANCISCO) - Editor’s note: The release of detailed construction documents and shop drawings for WTC Building 7 is the latest in a series of FOIA successes by AE911Truth supporters. Recent efforts have also led to the acquisition of revealing video recordings of the WTC catastrophe, and forced the NYC Department of Buildings to claim that the release of WTC renovation plans for the years leading up to 9/11 would “endanger the life or safety of any person.” If you are interested in helping us examine these important construction drawings, please consider joining our Volunteer Team.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Office at NIST recently released over 2,600 electronic files pertaining to the NIST NCSTAR 1A: Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, and NCSTAR 1-9: Structural Fire Response and Probable Collapse Sequence of World Trade Center Building 7. These files include original structural design drawings, shop fabrication drawings and steel erection drawings of the third skyscraper to fall on 9/11, and are ready for architectural and engineering professionals and students to analyze.

Anyone can file a FOIA request. FOIA #11-209, shown below, was a simple and specific request:

Catherine S. Fletcher, FOIA & Privacy Act Officer
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, STOP 1710
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1710

Sent via email to: foia@nist.gov
Re: Freedom of Information Act Request, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552

Dear Ms. Fletcher:
I respectfully request complete copies of the following documents pertaining to the NIST NCSTAR 1A ''Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7'', November 2008.

• Irwin G. Cantor P.C., Structural Engineers (1985). Structural Design Drawings, 7 World Trade Center

• Irwin G. Cantor P.C., Structural Engineers (1985). Structural Calculations, 7 World Trade Center

I am a licensed civil and structural engineer in California (licenses C44654 and S3653, expiration date 3/31/2012). This request is made for a scholarly purpose; it is not for any commercial use.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,
Ronald H. Brookman, S.E.

Muslims did not attack the U.S. on 9/11

http://digwithin.net/2012/03/17/muslims-did-not-attack-the-u-s-on-911/

Muslims did not attack the U.S. on 9/11
Posted on March 17, 2012 by Kevin Ryan

Since September 11, 2001, the United States has initiated a number of wars in Muslim countries. These wars, which would be more correctly called massacres, have resulted in the deaths of countless innocent Muslims. In some cases, attempts have been made to present these aggressions in the guise of humanitarian efforts to promote democracy. But the limited public support for U.S. military action around the world goes back to the U.S. government claim that Muslims were responsible for 9/11. This claim is untrue and it is past time for people to recognize that fact.

There are many ways to see that Muslims were not responsible for 9/11. Author David Ray Griffin has previously made arguments in this regard.[1] As time goes on, however, more facts lead people to realize that claims of Muslim responsibility for terrorism in the U.S. should be highly suspect. These facts include that the October 2001 anthrax attacks were blamed on Muslims only to be later traced to a U.S. military facility and to non-Muslim, U.S. scientists. Moreover, a number of FBI-planned acts of terrorism since 2001 have been falsely attributed to young Muslims who were victims of appalling acts of entrapment by the FBI.[2]

According to the official account of 9/11, nineteen young Arab Muslims were responsible for the entirety of the mass murder that day. The FBI accused these young men within 72 hours of the attacks and, although the list changed slightly at first, it has remained the same since shortly after the attacks. To support the accusations, U.S. authorities pointed to passports that were found under implausible circumstances, luggage containing unbelievably convenient documents, and other dubious evidence.

Occupy Robo-calls, Richard Gage & 9/11 "This is what civil information actions look like"


I came out of retirement as a 9/11 truth activist for the next 2 weeks to help promote Richard Gage's "9/11 Blueprint for Truth" speaking event in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (one stop along Richard's cross Canada Tour). This is one more example of how to put the issues of 9/11 on the hearts and minds of Canadians using the highly effective civil information[ing]. All I did was show up with some leaflets at to a rally here in Edmonton organized by the Occupy Edmonton movement. One Year ago February 21, 2011 Dr Niels Harrit, his wife and I did 9/11 civil info actions at this exact same square when the Libyans were rallying to oust Gaddafi from Libya...

More on 9/11 Civil Information Activism - http://www.ciactivist.org/

civ·il
Befitting a citizen: a civil duty.

in·for·ma·tion
The act of informing.

ac·tiv·ism
The practice of vigorous action.

If you want the public to hear you once, you have to say what you're saying five or 10 times. Canadian media mogul Izzy Asper

Jon Gold's C-SPAN Collection

For the last year or so, one of my "pet projects" has been to search the video archives of C-SPAN for statements made about different people, different events, and make short movies out of them. They cover a multitude of topics, including NORAD's response, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the Israeli Art Students, Saudi Arabia, and many others. Here is my C-SPAN Movie Collection, in the order they were created.

Praise For The 9/11 Report



Kristen Breitweiser's Testimony Before The Joint Congressional Inquiry Into 9/11 - 9/18/2002



People Need To Be Held Accountable For 9/11



Opening Statement Of Eleanor Hill At The Joint Congressional Inquiry Into 9/11 - 9/18/2002

Peter Dale Scott: Launching the U.S. Terror War (Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus)

Launching the U.S. Terror War: the CIA, 9/11, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
(full paper is available at the Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus http://japanfocus.org/-Peter_Dale-Scott/3723)

Bush’s Terror War and the Fixing of Intelligence

On September 11, 2001, within hours of the murderous 9/11 attacks, Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney had committed America to what they later called the “War on Terror.” It should more properly, I believe, be called the “Terror War,” one in which terror has been directed repeatedly against civilians by all participants, both states and non-state actors. It should also be seen as part of a larger, indeed global, process in which terror has been used against civilians in interrelated campaigns by all major powers, including China in Xinjiang and Russia in Chechnya, as well as the United States.2 Terror war in its global context should perhaps be seen as the latest stage of the age-long secular spread of transurban civilization into areas of mostly rural resistance -- areas where conventional forms of warfare, for either geographic or cultural reasons, prove inconclusive.

Terror War was formally declared by George W. Bush on the evening of September 11, 2001, with his statement to the American nation that "we will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."3 But the notion that Bush’s terror war was in pursuit of actual terrorists lost credibility in 2003, when it was applied to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, a country known to have been targeted by terrorists but not to have harbored them.4 It lost still more credibility with the 2005 publication in Britain of the so-called Downing Street memo, in which the head of the British intelligence service MI6 reported after a visit to Washington in 2002 that "Bush wanted to remove Saddam Hussein, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."5 False stories followed in due course linking Iraq to WMD, anthrax, and Niger yellowcake (uranium).

This essay will demonstrate that before 9/11 a small element inside the CIA’s Bin Laden Unit and related agencies, the so-called Alec Station Group, were also busy, “fixing” intelligence by suppressing it, in a way which, accidentally or deliberately, enabled the Terror War. They did so by withholding evidence from the FBI before 9/11 about two of the eventual alleged hijackers on 9/11, Khalid Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, thus ensuring that the FBI could not surveil the two men or their colleagues.

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