Sander Hicks' "The Big Wedding" has been out for a year now. I just found time to read it recently. It is a good introduction to several aspects of the 9/11 story that I haven't seen discussed much lately on various message boards, as there has been so much focus on the physical anomalies of 9/11.

The most important chapter in Hicks' book may be the detailed portrait of truthteller Randy Glass, a former FBI informant who had prior knowledge about the 9/11 attacks. Part of Glass' story is revealed in the documentary, "9/11 Press for Truth", but there is more. Glass claims that he personally warned Senator Bob Graham's office of an impending terrorist attack, that there would an attempt to "blow up" the World Trade Center, and that airplanes would "be involved". The warnings were transmitted months before 9/11.

Glass also claims that he received the information that airplanes would be involved from the US State Dept., after he called the State Dept. bluffing about what he knew, based on the information he was getting from the loose lips of R.G. Abbas.

Following hot on the heels of 9/11 and American Empire Vol. I: Intellectuals Speak Out comes Vol. II: Christians, Jews and Muslims Speak Out.

Co-edited by Kevin Barrett, John B. Cobb Jr., and Sandra Lubarsky, Vol. II succeeds on several levels.

First, the quality of writing and serious contemplative nature of each essay builds on what has been an amazing year for written output about 9/11. Second, apart from Griffin's volume, Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11, Vol. II sets a standard for frank discussion of morality in the shadow of the US hegemon (in the wake of 9/11). Third, for someone who is devoutly or moderately religious, but has not examined the events of 9/11 in a critical light, Vol. II packs a powerful punch. Informed by Griffin's informative rundown of False Flag terrorism, and Nafeez Ahmed's thoroughly documented reinterpretation of "international terrorism", one cannot walk away from this book without being a little bit wiser about the Machiavellian nature of the War on Terror and the historical roots of state-sponsored terrorism.

I'm glad that dz posted hints and links to an incredible Amazon.com book review to the 911blogger.com front page.

The review is about Webster G. Tarpley's "9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA". Authored by Robert D. Steele, the Number 1 reviewer of non-fictional books at Amazon.com and a former CIA clandestine case officer, this is how he summarizes his impressions:

'I sit here, a 54-year old, liberally educated, two graduate degrees, war college, a life overseas, 150 IQ or so, the number #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction, a former Marine Corps infantry officer, a former CIA clandestine case officer, founder of the Marine Corps Intelligence Center, and I have to tell anyone who cares to read this: I believe it. I believe it enough to want a full investigation that passes the smell test of the 9/11 families as well as objective outside observers. I believe it sufficient to indict Dick Cheney and other neo-cons. Sadly, the Executive is now in the service of corporations that benefit from high crimes and misdemeanors, rather than in the service of the American people who suffer great ill from these terrible mis-deeds.'

Click here to read the full review at Amazon, plus some other reviewers' take s well.

Click here to digg this 911blogger story.

Amazon's #1 Non-fiction Reviewer: Tarpley's 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA is "strongest of the 770+ books I have reviewed"

Progressive Press announced that its "9/11 Synthetic Terror" has just been cited as the best non-fiction book ever by Amazon's top non-fiction book reviewer, intelligence professional Robert Steele, in a 5-star review at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0930852370 .

Progressive specializes in books that contend 9/11 was an "inside job." Publisher John Leonard says "it's a coup to have Steele with us on this. Here you have a level-headed, respected insider, lifelong Republican, veteran spy, and he's breaking the taboos. It's a great tribute and a vindication of the work we put into 9/11 Synthetic Terror."

Steele's statement that 9/11 was a "US-based conspiracy" may be a first coming from a senior US intelligence community figure. He came to this conclusion "with great sadness" after reading "9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA," which he praises as "without question, the most important modern reference on state-sponsored terrorism."

(visit the link for the full press release)

From wikipedia:

Robert David Steele Vivas (b. July 16, 1952 New York City), is a former Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer for twenty years and was the second-ranking civilian (GS-14) in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence from 1988-1992. Steele is a former clandestine services case officer Central Intelligence Agency.[1] He is the founder and CEO of OSS.Net, Inc. as well as the Golden Candle Society.[2] Steele also was a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Marine Corps University in the mid-1990's.

From Strategic Strategy Research Military site:

ROBERT D. STEELE is a retired Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer. He is the founder and president of Open Source Solutions, Inc., and is an acknowledged expert on computer and information vulnerabilities. Mr. Steele holds graduate degrees in International Relations and Public Administration from Leigh University and the University of Oklahoma. He has also earned certificates in Intelligence Policy from Harvard University and in Defense Studies from the Naval War College.

From Steele's Amazon review:

It is with great sadness that I conclude that this book is the strongest of the 770+ books I have reviewed here at Amazon, almost all non-fiction. I am forced to conclude that 9/11 was at a minimum allowed to happen as a pretext for war (see my review of Jim Bamford's "Pretext for War"), and I am forced to conclude that there is sufficient evidence to indict (not necessarily convict) Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and others of a neo-conservative neo-Nazi coup d'etat and kick-off of the clash of civilizations (see my review of "Crossing the Rubicon" as well as "State of Denial"). Most fascinatingly, the author links Samuel Huntington, author of "Clash of Civilizations" with Leo Strauss, the connecting rod between Nazi fascists and the neo-cons.

This is, without question, the most important modern reference on state-sponsored terrorism, and also the reference that most pointedly suggests that select rogue elements within the US Government, most likely led by Dick Cheney with the assistance of George Tenet, Buzzy Kronguard, and others close to the Wall Street gangs, are the most guilty of state-sponsored terrorism.

Big congrats to Webster Tarpley for this incredible review!

9/11 and American Empire Vol. I: Intellectuals Speak Out
Olive Branch Press (2006)
http://www.interlinkbooks.com

And so the Great War of Democracy ended - not with the catastrophic bang that so many had feared but with the imperceptible hum of a technological revolution. “We tried to give the Muslim world a political upgrade,” said U.S. President Jimmy McCain, son of the former Senator and a veteran of the Iraq war, on the 30th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. “I guess we failed. So instead we gave ourselves an economic upgrade. I guess we succeeded.” - Niall Ferguson (1)

This epoch of Neoconservative belligerence ushered in on 9/11/2001 will not be looked upon favorably by future historians, no matter how warmly Niall Ferguson reassures us. While Ferguson dabbles in speculative fantasy, the uncomfortable task of dissecting the horror-show of 9/11 falls to those with the intestinal fortitude and perceptive knack to get the job done.

Wednesday, 13 September 2006

Conspiracies Abound

Questioning everything about 9/11

By Kurt Brighton

“The Terror Conspiracy: Deception, 9/11, And The Loss Of Liberty”

By Jim Marrs, published by The Disinformation Company

The unthinkable happened five years ago on a balmy day in September, and reams of paper as well as thousands of terrabytes have been devoted to the subject. And when something unthinkable happens, people start to look outside of the realm of the thinkable.

In addition to triggering an instantaneous clamp-down on civil liberties, the expansion of domestic spying programs unheard of since the COINTEL program of the ’60s and ’70s, billions of dollars in increased Pentagon spending, billions of dollars dumped into private defense contracts, an ongoing war against a nebulous enemy that can never be shown to have been decisively defeated, and an ongoing war in a country that had little or nothing to do with the attacks, the events of 9/11 also spawned a surfeit of conspiracy theorists.

Funny thing is, once you get past the knee-jerk dismissal of alternative theorists as wild-eyed crackpots colluding in mom’s basement while wearing tinfoil hats, there’s a lot that doesn’t add up about the government’s official story. A whole lot.

Towers of Deception – a review by reprehensor

The Author

Barrie Zwicker is a household name among the growing chorus of people who have trouble accepting the “official story” of 9/11 – the story that is more or less embodied by the 9/11 Commission Report. Zwicker has been both a producer and critic of mainstream media for 30+ years.

Zwicker’s skepticism of the official story began on 9/11/2001, which puts him in a fairly small category of doubters. I think it’s fair to say that most people who take issue with the official narrative didn’t start seriously questioning things until later, some within days, for some it took years. For Zwicker, the alarm bells started going off after the second plane hit the Twin Towers. Zwicker has some related experience with air defense, he was an Air Cadet in Canada in his youth, and as a journalist he followed the evolution of NORAD very closely. To Zwicker, there is no incompetence theory that NORAD can concoct, which will explain away years of drills, SOP (Standard Operating Procedures), and literally hundreds of commercial aircraft intercepts that were successfully undertaken by North America’s air defense system prior to 9/11.

Rethinking 9/11

By Seth Sandronsky

Can time heal a democracy wounded by the September 11 attacks? Many Americans now distrust the Bush administration’s story of its need to invade Iraq for that nation’s ties to Arab terrorists who hijacked four planes to kill thousands of innocents.

A new volume of scholarly essays on 9/11, The Hidden History of 9-11-2001: Research in Political Economy, Volume 23, addresses what authors think is a deep government cover-up. “Let’s examine objective evidence,” writes Paul Zarembka, the volume’s editor and an economics professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Bryan Sacks, a professor of English at Philadelphia’s Drexel University, exposes the 9/11 Commission’s failure to gather crucial evidence. This was due to a lack of independence from the Bush I and Bush II White Houses. Philip Zelikow, the commission’s executive director, “was part of the Bush II transition team,” notes Sacks. Further, “Zelikow was instrumental in creating and maintaining an information vacuum regarding key evidence at the center of the 9-11 Commission.” The commission, for example, did not issue subpoenas for presidential daily briefings on Al Qaeda before 9/11.

(Originally posted at my blog at the guerrilla news network - Fri, 23 Jun 2006)

NINE-ONE-ONE This three number combination is etched into the public psyche and instantly conjures up images of America’s most recent Day of Infamy. The images of chaos and terror were speedily delivered via satellite to anyone near a television set. At first, these images burst into the minds of the TV audience without context, but television viewers were not left long to worry their beautiful minds with troublesome questions like: “Who perpetrated these crimes?”

The narrative vacuum was quickly filled by the “official” story. This version of the events of 9/11 is forever enshrined in the volume known as The 9/11 Commission Report.

Proceeding apace with the development of the official story was an entire universe of unofficial stories. These alternative points of view were helpfully framed by President George Walker Bush on November 10th, 2001;

“We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty.” (1)