911 – the Need for an Independent Investigation Written by: Keith Perkins 11 September 2001, the day the world changed forever. If ever there was a time of innocence it was no longer. We already know that the official account of 9/11 cannot possibly be correct. That account contends that 19 Arabs, with feeble ability to pilot aircraft, hijacked four airliners and then executed demanding maneuvers in order to impact the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; that the damage created by their impact combined with the heat from burning jet fuel brought down WTC1 and WTC2; that WTC7 was the first building in history to be brought down by fire alone; and that the Pentagon was struck by United Flight 77, which was a Boeing 757. The basic problem with this "conspiracy theory", as in the case of JFK, is that its truth would violate laws of physics and engineering that cannot be transgressed.' -- James H Fetzer, McKnight Professor, University of Minnesota 'This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq ... This is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and ... just wage a total war ... our children will sing great songs about us years from now.' -- Richard Perle 11 September 2001, the day the world changed forever. If ever there was a time of innocence it was no longer. On the day it happened, 11 September 2001, when it flashed across our TV screens on every single news channel, it all seemed plausible enough what we were told: a bunch of hate-filled Muslim terrorists hijacked four commercial aircraft with the intention of slamming them into high profile buildings on a suicide mission. That is what we were told, that is what became the official story (with a few variations), it got the official seal of approval from the 9/11 Commission reluctantly established by George W Bush, it became accepted wisdom. Only .... only if we start to ask searching questions, we find nothing adds up, it is all smoke and mirrors, one huge big con trick. Four planes hijacked on a single day, but not a single one intercepted. No steel-framed building has before collapsed, and yet in a single day three collapsed. The Twin Towers were designed to withstand a crash by a Boeing 707. The fires from the aviation fuel were not hot enough or of sufficient duration to bring down the Twin Towers. A third tower, two blocks away, the 47-storey WTC 7, also collapsed that day. The hole in the Pentagon is not of sufficient size to accommodate a Boeing 757. There was no wreckage of a Boeing 757 outside the Pentagon. When we examine what flowed from 911 – illegal wars against both Afghanistan and Iraq, the carve-up of Iraq to benefit oil companies and other multinationals and global corporations, massive military expenditure to benefit arms contractors, clampdown on civil liberties – then we begin to get suspicious. When we learn that the Project for the New American Century, the neo-cons who now surround George W Bush, called for a new Pearl Harbor 'The process of [ military] transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.'' then the alarm bells start ringing. Extremist Muslim terrorists, wishing to kill the maximum number of the hated infidel, filled with rage and malice without limit, one would imagine, have gone for the maximum death toll. Ramsi Yousef, convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, had hoped to kill 250,000 people. Had the hijackers struck the Twin Towers later in the day, they would have killed many more people, as not everyone had yet got in to work. The Pentagon attack, after executing a near-impossible maneuver hit the one part of the Pentagon that was under renovation. Had it hit the Pentagon on approach, it would have taken out Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon top brass. There were plans in place before 911 to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq. Afghanistan is of strategic importance for oil and gas pipeline routes. Iraq is of strategic importance for its oil reserves and for control of the Middle East. A writer in an Israeli newspaper commented: 'If one looks at a map of the big American bases created, one is struck by the fact that they are completely identical to the route of the projected oil pipeline to the Indian Ocean ... If I were a believer in conspiracy theory, I would think that bin Laden is an American agent.' As early as 10 October 2001, the US State Department had advised the Pakistani Minister of Oil that 'in view of recent geopolitical developments', Unocal was ready to go ahead with the pipeline project.. Plans were in place to invade Afghanistan before the winter snow came. Pakistani officials were aware of plans to invade Afghanistan before 911. The Taliban, as with Al-Qaeda, were a creation of the American CIA and Pakistani ISI, financed with Saudi money. When the Taliban refused to play ball, they had to go. The Taliban were warned, either play ball, behave as you should or the military option would be exercised. They were given a choice: 'Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs.' The new Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai and Bush's special envoy to Afghanistan Zalamy Zhalilzad were both previously on the Unocal payroll. Unocal being the key player in pipeline routes through Afghanistan. Project for the New American Century: 'The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.' -- Project for the New American Century. Dick Cheney, when he moved into his new office when the Bush administration took office, had a map of Iraq neatly carved up. Stephen Gowans writing on ZNet commented: '... the top item on the Pentagon's agenda, once it gave the order for the jackboots to begin marching on Baghdad, was to secure the oil fields in southern Iraq. And when chaos broke out in Baghdad, US forces let gangs of looters and arsonists run riot through “the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Irrigation, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information.” ... But at the Ministry of Oil, where archives and files related to all the oil wealth Washington had been itching to get its hands on, all was calm, for ringing the Ministry was a phalanx of tanks and arnoured personnel carriers.' A key US military document Vision 2020 recognises: 'The globalization of the world economy ... will continue with a widening between 'haves' and 'have-nots'' In other words, the rich will continue to get richer and the poor poorer under neo-liberal globalisation. The same document, Vision 2020, is equally explicit in its mission statement: 'US Space Command – dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect US interests and investment.' In other words, the role of the US military is not to defend democracy, to protect the American people, but to protect American corporate interests. A key question to ask when any crime has been committed is who benefits? A question that investigative reporter Patrick Martin asked: 'In examining any crime, a central question must be “who benefits?” The principle beneficiaries of the destruction of the World Trade Center are in the United Sates: the Bush administration, the Pentagon, the CIA and FBI, the weapons industry, the oil industry. It is reasonable to ask whether those who have profited to such an extent from this tragedy contributed to bringing it about.' Walden Bello, an expert on Third World affairs and leading critic of globalisation, commented: 'The Al Qaeda New York mission was the best possible gift to the US and the global establishment. ... As for the crisis of political governance in the US, September 11 has turned George W Bush from a minority president whose party lost control of the Senate into arguably the most powerful US president in modern times.' Karen Talbot, Director of the International Center for Peace and Justice, echoed a similar sentiment: 'The September 11th terrorist attacks have provided a qualitatively new opportunity for the US, acting particularly on behalf of giant oil companies, to permanently entrench its military in the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia, and the Transcaucusus where there are vast oil reserves – the second largest in the world. The way is now open to jump start projects for oil and gas pipelines through Afghanistan and Pakistan ... The big payoff for the US is the golden opportunity to establish a permanent military presence in oil-rich Central Asia.' John Pilger simply noted that: 'Time and again, 11 September is described as an “opportunity.”' Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein provided the necessary bogey-men. Was 911 the 'catastrophic and catalyzing event', the 'new Pearl Harbor'? It was with reluctance that George W Bush launched the 9/11 Commission, now seen as a cover-up, not an investigation. The 9/11 commission was flawed from the start, it was starved of funds, lacked sufficient time for a proper investigation, many of its members had strong connections to the airline industry, oil industry, or companies on the Afghanistan or Iraq gravy train, the executive director of the commission Philip Zelikow was a Bush insider, the commission was denied access to sensitive documents, there was intimidation of commission members by the FBI, testimony and evidence that did not fit the 'official' story was either ignored or relegated to footnotes. For example, Sibel Edmonds, who gave over three hours of testimony behind closed doors on FBI corruption and cover-up was relegated to a footnote. Sibel Edmonds has since been gagged by Attorney General John Ashcroft. There is now the need for a fully independent investigation, under the auspices of the UN. www.heureka.clara.net/911
so what were the bombings in Madrid and London about. Was it a case of "we are being blamed for something we didn't do" so now we are going to bloody well do it? There are as many holes in most unofficial stories as well. Of course it could have been David Ike's shape changing lizard people
I would not trust the U.N. with any sort of "investigation". They need to investigate themselves for coddling terrorists and accepting bribes in the Oil-for-Food Scandal
I agree with you Piney. Gary...the lizard thing was, at least I hope, a joke not to be taken seriously. Even "conspiracy theorists" need to let out a laugh once in awhile.
