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Did Bush Know?
More Questions About 9-11
by Tony Brasunas
The response to this issue of Garlic & Grass has been tremendous, and many people have posed questions to G&G that are beyond our limited space and scope to answer. Some unanswered questions have been posted to G&G's Sprouts discussion board, while the following is a synopsis of some of the others.
Although it seems impossible to consider that our government would allow something like 9-11 to happen, we do know the CIA has contemplated all sorts of acts of fake terror in the past, including shooting down airliners and murdering astronaut John Glenn to precipitate a war with Cuba in the 1960s (read the declassified Northwoods dossier [PDF]).
And when we take a step back to remove some of the emotion of 9-11, many facts about those September days do seem to jibe better
with a CIA-planned attack than with an Al-Qaeda-planned attack. There was the unbelievable failure of the US military to get fighter jets into the air to defend itself, even hours after the hijackings had occurred. There were
Bush's lies and strange behavior as the day unfolded. There were all the quashed FBI investigations.
And then there are the problems of access and resources. Obviously the US government has more access and resources than anyone on Earth, especially within the confines of our national borders, and could more easily have done this.
But let's move on.
Why Haven't They Told Us Who They Are?
Another salient but unanswered questions is: Why has no one come forward to take credit for the attacks? This
nearly always happens after terrorists strike, especially with a crime of
this magnitude, because terrorists then feel they are in a position to demand
concessions to their cause, and often the victimized populace is ready at least to listen.
No organization has yet claimed credit. | In that strange video footage, Osama bin Laden did indicate pleasure with
what had happened, but neither he nor anyone else ever actually took credit or issued any
demands. No organization called for a change in any part of American foreign
policy, or promised more attacks if changes weren't made. One would expect an organization of suicide bombers, who clearly
fear no one, to leap forward defiantly and take credit for such a bold attack. Instead, whatever organization committed this heinous massacre still wants to conceal its identity.
What's strange is,
everything we've heard about the terrorists has in fact come from our own US government. They're the ones telling us who the terrorists are, what they believe, where they come from. As for causes, we're told simply that the terrorists "have targeted our way of life" and "hate freedom." If the terrorists can pull off crimes of this magnitude without the government knowing, wouldn't they be able to communicate directly to us their demands, worldview, or whatever they feel so suicidally possessed about?
Questions of Evidence
What about the evidence that it was Al-Qaeda? There was the miraculous
discovery of Mohammed Atta's seemingly indestructible passport mere hours after the
crashes. The sheer improbability of recovering a tiny paper passport from the smoldering wreckage and
reams of paper that covered Manhattan like snow was never really
acknowledged in the press. It was simply passed along as fact by the media, despite the fact that both of each plane's titanium "black boxes" were destroyed in the fires. Likewise, when the 19 names of the terrorists were produced in short order, the media duly passed along the list and the government's photos. Never mind that at least 5 of the men named were clearly innocent
(some had died years before, others are alive today).
A full and open investigation of 9-11 is imperative -- not just as an intelligence failure, but as a crime.
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Then there's the flight manual in the parked car. This seems ridiculous too: would a pilot in such a meticulously-planned crime really have left
learning how to fly a plane until the morning of the crime? And unless he actually wanted the police to discover who had done the crime, he would certainly have left the manual elsewhere. And as we've seen, the organization who committed this crime wants to conceal its identity.
Other evidence includes a "Dear Allah" note and a photo of a Mohammed Atta (the one with the passport) entering the airport that morning. In all, the evidence presented looks a bit like Dick Tracy-comic book style "perfect finds." A paper passport survived when black boxes, which are designed to withstand twice the heat of jet fuel fires, were destroyed? It just smells planted.
Who's Better Off?
Another interesting approach is to look at who benefitted
from 9-11. Who's better off now? Detectives, after a crime, will often look for leads by considering who's in a better position now that the deed has been done.
The Bush Administration has been able to pass
the Patriot Act and build an oil pipeline through Afghanistan, both of which were dreams devised early in 2001 and then put into action immediately after 9-11. Now, with a US-friendly administration in Afghanistan, the pipeline is, sure enough, being built, and with the first Patriot Act passed, Attorney General John Ashcroft is now pushing "Patriot Act II," a further infringement on personal privacy that practically repeals the Bill of Rights to achieve omnipotent law enforcement. George W. Bush, for his part, gained much needed legitimacy as a president after his scandalous election, as well as a huge jump in popularity. And now the administration will seemingly get the war for Iraq's oil that they've coveted.
On the other hand, Al-Qaeda's goal of forcing
the withdrawal of American troops from the Middle East and from the holiest sites of Islam seems only further away. Osama bin Laden became the world's most wanted man, his network was disrupted and partly destroyed, and the women and children of his operatives have been maimed and killed. It seems strange that he would seek to disrupt and destroy his network to improve it. If, as some in this country have stated, Al-Qaeda's goal is in fact an East-West crusade-style World War III, that may indeed happen.
Maybe 9-11 was an "everyone wins" scenario?
Still No Full Investigation
In any event, thousands of us concerned Americans are left with this broad array of
unanswered questions about the events surrounding September 11, 2001. Those events continue to shape our modern lives in countless ways, and we deserve better knowledge of the facts.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance �- that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
� Herbert Spencer
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What we have is a presidential administration that has resisted
tooth-and-nail any further investigation or official fact-finding. You would think that had it been Al-Qaeda, Bush would've immediately welcomed a full investigation; instead, on 9-14-01 he issued an order making presidential papers secret and indefinitely classified, and then began to stonewall all requests for an open investigation of 9-11. We eventually had the Congressional Joint Inquiry that examined CIA and FBI intelligence failures -- and which helped to increase the budgets of these agencies -- but as for the crashes themselves there hasn't even been the routine FAA or NTSB inquiries that are carried out after all plane crashes in the United States. Conservatives and liberals alike have demanded an open investigation but gotten nowhere, because of Bush's intransigence. Family members of 9-11 victims themselves have also cried out for an investigation, but to no avail.
A full and open investigation of 9-11 is absolutely imperative -- not just as an intelligence failure, but as a crime.
9-11 was a crime against humanity and must be investigated as such. With a view to our country's current policies and decisions, too much is at stake to just move on. Part of any plan for national "homeland security" must be truth.
And should the president continue to stonewall an investigation, we should demand his impeachment for wanton obstruction of justice.
Tony Brasunas is publisher of Garlic & Grass. Reach him at tony@garlicandgrass.org.
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