Former 9/11 commission director Philip Zelikow talks at lecture
Monday, November 7, 2011
By Travis Alford
As the crowd of students, professors and Houstonians brushed off the cold, Philip Zelikow stepped to the podium in The Honors College Commons on Thursday to discuss the US government’s defense against terrorism.
Zelikow, the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, an executive on the President Intelligence Advisory Board and a history professor at the University of Virginia, focused his lecture, “The Twilight of War,” on America’s resiliency and his experience with the horrific events of 9/11.
“It’s my job to make meaning of 9/11,” Zelikow said.
During the lecture, Zelikow spoke of his personal experiences on the scene during Sept. 11.
“I can still smell the sulfur, it stands out,” Zelikow said. “It was as if the terrorist opened up a special path to hell.”
“After the attack, the event entered popular culture,” Zelikow said. “9/11 opened up our eyes to zealousy.”
In the days following the attack, President Bush labeled Osama bin Laden as America’s enemy and the ringleader of 9/11.
“I disagreed with President Bush when he openly pointed the finger at bin Laden,” Zelikow said.
“It made Osama glorious and that’s what he wanted, to be glorified. These people think we are important and they develop complexes about us, so for our President to recognize one of them was a big deal.”
Since Sept. 11, officials have charged Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in connection with the attack, labeling him as the mastermind. Mohammed is being held in Guantanamo Bay for alleged acts of terrorism.
“Bin Laden was a pinnacle for fantasist, like Mohammed – who identify with a creed vs. a nation,” Zelikow said.
“Once bin Laden said, ‘lives would become true and meaningful at the explosive moment of the deed,’ fantasists began to plot.”
Zelikow placed emphasis on these fantasists and said they were the cause of Sept. 11.
“They were a group of young people, 20 to 30 of them,” Zelikow said. “We tried to make 9/11 a grand narrative, but it’s not. It was a group of alienated young people.”
According to Zelikow, a graduate of the UH Law School, our government has become reactionary rather than proactive.
“The measure of a government is how it handles failure,” Zelikow said.
“Culturally we defend and adapt to failure.”
Though fears of an attack have diminished, Zelikow insisted that contemporary society will remain vulnerable.
“We are still vulnerable,” Zelikow said. “We need to be resilient as a society against systematic threats.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is a government organization built to examine the systematic threats and to manage risks. According to Zelikow, risk management is our government’s principle function.
“This organization represents thought and earned trust,” Zelikow said. “Its sole purpose is to explain what went wrong and why.”
As the hour lecture drew to an end, Professor Zelikow’s voice was still strong.
“Al-Qaeda is the enemy,” Zelikow said. “They are an unslayable power.”
http://thedailycougar.com/2011/11/07/former-911-commission-director-talks-at-lecture/
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Just lost my lunch
Why did I have to read that?
Warn people when there is a danger of nausea and vomiting.
“I can still smell the sulfur, it stands out,” Zelikow said.
So -- where did the sulfur come from, Mr. Zelikow?
Thermate perhaps?
Here we have a nose-witness, who can't follow his nose to the truth!
When I have added sulfur to thermite to make thermate, then touch it off (with a sparkler worked great)
in actual experiments, the sulfur smell was strong -- it stands out!
OTOH, when I poured molten aluminum onto wallboard -- there was NO sulfur smell whatsoever.
Whoever came up with the idea that heated wallboard releases sulfur just has not done the experiment!
It's our responsibilty to make sense out of 9/11 too.
Except we stand for reality and sanity and wisdom and compassion.
Can you smell that? I do.
Smell The Sulfur
Smell the sulfur? I guess he was having a dream of what he will smell while he roasts in hell after he dies.
Perhaps, like some first responders…
… he also inhaled residue from nano-thermite, and those carbon nanotubes lodged deep in his lungs. And years from now, when he crosses the River Styx on his special path to hell, he may look down at his reflection and clearly see the key accomplice that hid the crimes of the terrorists who murdered so many.
The obvious will stare him in the face.
Funny, I don't recall any sulfur smell either...
..from all that gypsum drywall surrounding that wide flange burning for days in my "Mysterious Eutectic steel" video.
Perhaps Mr. Zelikow can assist me in igniting some thermate blasting through steel, and see if it brings back those reminiscent pungent smells, or opens a special path for him to follow down, in his never ending quest to search for terrorists.
Do correct me if this is
Do correct me if this is wrong... but from what I recall, gypsum/calcium sulfate is chemically a very stable compound, and is used for fire protection, in that it can withstand intense heat without breaking down. Wallboard - a very common product, is used in all manner of buildings throughout the world and there must be thousands of structural fires each day in which all manner of elements and compounds are subjected to intense heat in the presence of wallboard. Is the smell of sulfur a common occurrence in building fires? I was looking for references in fire fighting etc publications ... but without much luck so far.
Zelikow was obviously referring to the sulfur smell *after* the Twin Towers came down... meaning that gaseous sulfur compounds (H2S? SO2?) were being produced by the underground fires. In addition to thermate, I thought that maybe the Vice President had something to do with it, but then remembered he was in his secure, undisclosed location in Washington...
Maybe he smelled W
Didn't Hugo Chavez say he could smell it too, right after W spoke at the UN a few years back?
It sickens me...
It sickens me...
that amongst us are people like Zelikow whose function in the world is to deceive.
That is about the lowest thing on Earth.
In the houses of shadow, everybody Lies.
the public myth maker.
smelling sulfur.
making myth.
"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
karl rove.
They are the sulfur.
Chavez called it right.
Former Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission...
Jon Gold's Who Is Philip Zelikow?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_D._Zelikow
War without end
'As the hour lecture drew to an end, Professor Zelikow’s voice was still strong.
“Al-Qaeda is the enemy,” Zelikow said. “They are an unslayable power.”'
Boy, inspiring rhetoric sure ain't what it used to be. Imagine the following:
George Washington: 'The Redcoats are an unslayable power!'
Winston Churchill: 'Nazi Germany is an unslayable power!'
'Leaders' today don't seek to inspire, but to instill fear: 'Be afraid, be very afraid!'
Might as well face it--they're addicted to war.
Just amazing!
Cheney's comments about the War on Terror being "a war that won't end in our lifetime" and Bush's "they hate us for our freedoms" are two of the most inane comments I have ever heard, and Zelikow's "“Al-Qaeda is the enemy. They are an unslayable power." now belongs with them.
It is amazing that people like Zelikow, Bush, and Cheney get away with comments like this without the press pushing them to explain.
" Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."
Ranks up there on the list. I wouldn't be surprised if public myth-maker Zelikow actually wrote this shit for Bush. It was all part of selling the myth via intimidation and repetition and probably a major reason why otherwise rational people shriveled at questioning 9/11:
Several variations of this were put out right after the event, before anything was known about what happened. "With us or against us," "With us or with the terrorists." "Good vs. Evil."
You have a shock-and-awe event.... followed by these psychological statements to presuppose the myth and make it stick.... followed by pundits and people like Christiane Amanpoure saying "Osama Bin Laden," "Al-Qaeda" with conviction and confidence thousands of times over in the media.... then the Myth-maker and the Maestro colluding together to, not just cover up the truth, but to set forth a fairy tale of fabled enemies and "unslayable" powers. Combined with FEAR, FEAR, and THREATS by freedom-haters who took away our freedoms.
More on the Evil-Doer:
http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Philip-D-Zelikow-The-Myt-by-Saman-Mohammadi-110325-341.html
Zelikow's Fairy Tales
“Al-Qaeda is the enemy,” Zelikow said. “They are an unslayable power.”
Al Qaeda has no Navy, Air Force, armoured fighting vehicles or weapons industry. They don't even have shoe bombers or underwear bombers who can successfully carry out a mission.
All they have is decade old footage of shoeless masked men running through obstacle courses in the desert, replayed without end by cable TV.
Zelikow says:
"It is my job to make meaning of 9/11."
I wonder who gave him this job?
It's amazing how these con artists and deceivers admit what they are doing out in the open.
Another example?
Speaking of admitting things plainly and out in the open, the following--even though it's not a direct quote attributed to Zelikow--looks to me like another example of that:
'According to Zelikow, a graduate of the UH Law School, our government has become reactionary rather than proactive.'
The opposite of 'proactive' is actually 'reactive'; yet even if 'reactionary' may not have been intended, it somehow fits perfectly in that sentence. Yes--the U.S. government since 9/11 can certainly be described as 'reactionary'!
"...Scarcely Imagine Right Now"
Here is Sir Phillip, on September 14, 2001, giving the masses their first dose of reality about the coming war on terror.
He says, "The American people need to understand that this is going to take a long time and require military operations of a kind and variety that they can scarcely imagine right now."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_I2OpA2hsk
Now what I want to know is where Sir Phillip was exactly on 9/11 that permitted him to smell sulfur?
According to WikiPedia
In 1998, Zelikow moved to the University of Virginia, where he directed, until February 2005, the nation's largest center on the American presidency...
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Philip_D._Zelikow
So my question is, "How the heck could Sir Phillip smell that sulfur all the way from the Pentagon? The U of V is many, many miles away in Charlottesville.(and upwind)
And this little tidbit:
In the November-December 1998 issue of Foreign Affairs, Phillip D. Zelikow co-authored an article with Ashton B. Carter, and John M. Deutch entitled “Catastrophic Terrorism” describing a “Pearl Harbor” type of event that might occur in the United States that would result in the suspension of civil liberties and the increased surveillance of citizens. It seemed to describe exactly what has come to pass under the Bush Administration. They speculated that if the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center had succeeded, “the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it. Such an act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed event in American history. It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented in peacetime and undermine America’s fundamental sense of security, as did the Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949. Like Pearl Harbor, the event would divide our past and future into a before and after. The United States might respond with draconian measures scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects and use of deadly force. More violence could follow, either future terrorist attacks or U.S. counterattacks.”
New Pearl Harbor Prescience
2008: Zelikow's "Catastrophic Terrorism" article referenced a new Pearl Harbor attack that would lead to militarism, crush civil liberties and divide the country into a "before and after."
2000: PNAC document famously stated that a New Pearl Harbor attack would be necessary for the Neocons to achieve their agenda.
2001: Wolfowitz gives a speech at West Point on June 6, 2001 in which the themes were "surprise and courage," which centered on Pearl Harbor and how the graduating class were to soon be tested.
9-11-01: Bush records via Ari Fleischer that the US experienced the New Pearl Harbor of the 21st century later that evening.
We have eerie prescience about a Pearl Harbor attack which we were told was the result of a 'failure of imagination.'
Correction
Check that first entry again--1998, not 2008.
False flag rhetoric
"“Al-Qaeda is the enemy,” Zelikow said. “They are an unslayable power.”"
The nature of evil, prior to victory, is to pretend that they are good...in order to deceive those who are truly good. So Zelikow here, along with his minions since 9/11 have placed themselves into the role of "wolves in sheep's clothing". They use accurate and truthful rhetoric to describe the enemy while never attempting overtly to reveal that they are consciously referring to *themselves*. These are the terrorists; they say that "Al Quada" is the terrorist...so perhaps "al quada" is the exoteric name for what they call themselves. They view themselves as "an unslayable power". But the "false flag' aspect of this jargon is that they are not admitting to us that *they* are this "unslayable power" to which he is referring.
These people are so mad with confidence that they actually feel that their plan is "unslayable".
Put Zelikow on the couch ...
... and listen exactly to what he says. The statements and Freudian slips are most revealing.
TruthandJustice - you make a good psychological assessment of what is at play here.
It's reverse psychology, the psychology of obfuscation and twisted semantics. The truth is out there, as they say. The psychopath or serial killer will - at some point or another - tell you exaclty what they are doing. If your ears are alerted, you will hear it.
Very revealing if you listen carefully to what people like Zelikow say. I find Donald Rumsfeld and Condi equally fascinating to listen to - for what they reveal (almost despite themselves) between the lines.
The 9/11 Commission and it's evil genius, Philip Zelikow
While, this is interesting it is also tragic. Philip Zelikow presided over one of the most corrupt investigations and commissions in history. The results of this investigation had been predetermined from the start, so as not to find anyone guilty of any criminal conduct. Unfortunately at this time there is more than enough evidence, from official US government documents, of exactly what had taken place prior to the attacks on 9/11 so that it is now possible today to put together the actual account of why these attacks were allowed to take place. From these documents it is now clear that:
The CIA deliberately withheld the information on Mihdhar and Hazmi, the two al Qaeda terrorists on AA 77, for over 21 months in the beginning from the FBI and later from the FBI criminal investigators on the FBI Cole bombing investigation. There is abundant evidence that the CIA did not want the FBI criminal investigators on the Cole bombing, and the lead Cole bombing investigator FBI Agent Ali Soufan and his assistant FBI Agent Steve Bongardt to have this information for fear they might expose the CIA criminal culpability in allowing the attack on the USS Cole. The CIA had photographed 12 al Qaeda terrorists at a Kuala Lumpur al Qaeda planning meeting in Kuala Lumpur in early January 2000, and then let them all walk away to carry on the attack on the USS Cole even though the CIA knew that several of these al Qaeda terrorists were directly connected to the east Africa bombings, and even knew that future al Qaeda attacks were being planned at this meeting.
On January 4, 2001 the CIA identified Walid Bin Attash, the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing, at this al Qaeda planning meeting, with Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar actually planning the Cole bombing. At this point the CIA, first by itself and later using FB HQ agents they had subjugated, desperately tried to keep this information from the FBI criminal investigators on the Cole bombing, to hide their criminal culpability in allowing the bombing of the USS Cole. To keep this information secret they with held this information from Soufan, Bongardt, and their FBI investigating team numerous times in what is now known to be a massive criminal conspiracy.
But what is most disturbing is however when the CIA and FBI HQ discovered that both Mihdhar and Hazmi were inside of the US on August 22, 2001, they desperately tried to keep this fact a secret from the FBI criminal investigators on the USS Cole bombing, and Bongardt . However on August 28, 2001, when the EC written by one of the FBI HQ agents subjugated by the CIA, FBI HQ Agent Dina Corsi, was sent to the New York Office to start a low priority intelligence investigation for Mihdhar and Hazmi, it accidentally went to Bongardt when FBI mangers, Craig Donnachie and John Liguori, at the New York office thought there was enough evidence in Corsi’s EC to connect both Mihdhar and Hazmi to the planning of the Cole bombing.
But when Bongardt called Corsi on that same August 28, 2001, just after he found out from Corsi’s EC that Mihdhar and Hazmi were inside of the US, to demand that this investigation be given to him and his criminal investigators, Corsi said that because some of the information in her EC had been taken from a NSA cable, that this EC was not allowed to be sent to FBI criminal investigators, and therefore he could not take part in any investigation for Mihdhar and Hazmi. This was in spite of the fact that Bongardt knew full well that Mihdhar and Hazmi were inside of the US for no other reason than to take part in a massive al Qaeda attack that would kill many Americans, and in spite of the fact that Corsi’s request to pass this information to Bongardt and his team in New York FBI field office had already been approved in writing on August 27, 2001.
When Bongardt requested that Corsi get a ruling from FBI HQ attorneys at the NSLU unit at FBI HQ, because he thought there was no way this NSA information was connected to any FISA warrant, Corsi told him on August 29, 2001 that attorney Sherry Sabol had ruled he could not take part in any investigation for Mihdhar and Hazmi. But according the 9/11 Commission report, on page 538, Footnote 81, Sabol testified to DOJ IG investigators on November 7, 2002 that she told Corsi that since the NSA information had no connection to any FISA warrant, Bongardt could take part in any investigation for Mihdhar and Hazmi.
These two lies alone cost almost 3000 people their lives on 9/11. But Corsi and her boss Rod Middleton, who also helped Corsi shut down Bongardt’s investigation of Mihdhar and Hazmi were acting under orders from Tom Wilshire, a former CIA officer who had been moved over to the FBI HQ in mid-May 2001 to spy on the FBI Cole bombing investigators , and find out what they knew about the Kuala Lumpur meeting and Mihdhar and Hazmi. The CIA wanted to know if the FBI Cole bombing investigators had found out about that Mihdhar and Hazmi had taken part in the planning of the Cole bombing and were they going to expose the CIA criminally culpability in allowing the attack on the Cole.
What is even more horrific is it now clear from the now available documentation, that Wilshire was acting under orders from Richard Blee, Chief of the CIA Bin Laden unit, his boss, Cofer Black head of the CIA CTC unit and his boss, the Director of the CIA, George Tenet, the hierarchy right up to the very highest level managers at the CIA. From the DOJ IG report we know that Wilshire had emailed Blee, Black and Tenet on July 23, 2001, in an email that requested permission to turn the Kuala Lumpur information over to the FBI Cole bombing investigators, and stated that Khalid al-Mihdhar would be found at the next big al Qaeda attack.
On August 22, 2001 when FBI Agent Margrete Gillespie, working at the CIA Bin Laden unit found out from the INS that both Mihdhar and Hazmi were inside of the US she took this information to Wilshire, and Corsi, and this information went to Blee, Black and Tenet the next day. So on August 23, 2001, all of these high level CIA managers not only knew that Mihdhar and Hazmi were inside of the US, but even knew they were in the US in order to take part in a massive al Qaeda attack that would kill thousands of Americans.
So what then did Tenet tell the President. We don’t know because Tenet said he had not spoken to the President in all of August 2001. He had even stated that at the April 14, 2004 public 9/11 hearings. But we now know from a White House press release issued on August 25, 2001 that President Bush and George Tenet had a 6 hour meeting on August 24, 2001. To this day we still do not know what Tenet told Bush about this upcoming attack that Tenet knew was going to kill thousands of Americans or about the fact that Mihdhar and Hazmi were inside of the US in order to take part in this attack.
The recent interview of Richard Clarke, the highest White House official on terrorism, that is was Blee, Black and Tenet that had withheld this information from him and the FBI and FBI Agent Ali Soufan’s new book that lays the blame for 9/11 right at the feet of the CIA and their withholding of this information from him and the FBI on Mihdhar and Hazmi even further confirms this massive criminal conspiracy that had deliberately allowed the attacks on 9/11 to take place.
Since all of this information is today in the public domain and almost all of it comes from official US government documents, including the DOJ IG report, reports the 9/11 Commission and Zelikow stated that had, the big question is why did they not come to these same conclusions, instead of “no one is to be blamed for allowing the attacks on 9/11”. When you see the picture of Zelikow smiling at this speech at the University of Houston, you have to think it is because he thinks he has cleverly pulled the wool over the eyes of all Americans in what is now proven to be a criminally corrupt 9/11 Commission investigation of 9/11. All of the detailed information on this can be found at http://www.eventson911.com, or search Amazon for the books “Countdown to the attacks on 9/11”, and “Prior Knowledge of 9/11”, now iconic works that detailed for the first time in late 2006,the entire account on 9/11 and include the actual documents that thoroughly back up all of this information.
9/11 Truth For The Win
Controlled Demolition Of a 9/11 Conspirator.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG6cXM8P_eg&feature=player_profilepage
Zelikow Confronted by 9/11 Truth Chicago - WeAreChangeChicago.co
Zelikow Confronted by 9/11 Truth Chicago - WeAreChangeChicago.com
Embarrassed by the sunlight of truth
Notice Zelikows' face when the speaker informs the man on line in front of him of who Zelikow is , and what he co-authored. He's shocked. He knows he has to stay absolutely silent. He doesn't make a scene because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself. This is a very shrewd and calculating man. But a man nonetheless.
Later in the footage , When the speaker askes Zelikow to remember the family's, Zelikow does seem to take that in for a second, and then push it aside.
Leaning into a hotel worker.."This man is harassing me". Totally cold, totally nonchalant. But you know what? We got to you asshole.
Thanks a million to whomever did this work.