Tag: 9/11

A 20 Year Delay

20 years since airplanes smashed into buildings in New York City and Washington DC, another US led disaster has come to a heart-breaking end with helicopters landing on an embassy roof and civilians desperately attempting to get aboard airplanes to escape.  

It was always going to end this way.  When we, in our collective grief, shock, and rage, decided to respond to a devastating criminal act by launching a global war on terror, we set the stage for the current catastrophe in Afghanistan.  The last 20 years only delayed this ending. 

A delay that cost hundreds of thousands of lives in Afghanistan alone.  A delay that did not spare Afghanistan from Taliban rule. A delay that cost trillions of dollars that could have been spent strengthening our societies’ resiliency against extremist ideologies, of any sort, that lead to terrorism.  A delay that has caused unknown harm to our own country’s morale, and morality.

This isn’t just a failure of the Biden administration.  To label it as such is to ignore the 20 years of government lies and secrecy, 20 years of “we’re turning the corner,” and 20 years of our own silence, our own willingness to show up for this global war on terror.

For what?

In those 20 years of death and destruction, we still have not successfully brought most of the criminals behind the crime of September 11, 2001 to trial.  We have only just begun to acknowledge in scattered reports that there are likely more criminals behind that crime that the US government has spent the past two decades diligently protecting.  

And we are only just beginning to see what two decades of war, a multi-generational war, will do to our own nation.

 

Rather than feeling completely helpless…


https://lirsconnect.org/get_involved/action_center/siv

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https://www.rescue.org/article/how-can-i-help-afghanistan

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9/11 victims’ family members speak out about recent secrecy ruling in lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

towersghostOn October 31, 2019, Fox News aired a short segment where Tucker Carlson spoke with Chris Ganci and Brett Eagleson who both lost their fathers in the attacks of September 11, 2001.  They discussed the US government’s decision to continue to keep information secret, 18 years after the attacks.  On September 12, 2019 the Department of Justice blocked the release of a 2012 FBI summary report about possible Saudi Arabian ties to the attackers.

Family members of victims of the 9/11 attacks sought the information as part of a long-running lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over allegations of the Kingdom’s involvement in the attacks.

Eagleson states in the interview that the Department of Justice invoked State Secrets Privilege in order to block the public release of the information.  The DOJ cites a reasonable danger that releasing the report risks significant harm to national security as justification for the rare invocation of the privilege.

When asked why he thought the DOJ blocked the release of information, Ganci says he thinks it is about one of two things.  Either they are “covering up their own malfeasance, or they are covering up the complicity of a foreign nation state.  Both of them are equally terrible.”

Saudi Arabia’s possible complicity in the attacks has been reported on numerous times in the years since the attacks.  But the reports are usually provided in a vacuum, with little to no connections that tie the information together into a complete picture.  This makes it all too easy to overlook these individual reports, or to miss their significance.

Similarly, the lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia gets little attention in the news.  Unfortunately, it seems to get most attention when it is an issue that can be trotted out for political purposes.  However, Dan Christensen at the Florida Bulldog has done a great job keeping up with the case, as has the website 28pages.org.

The Watchdogs Didn’t Bark–A Review

IMG_20190304_171357771.jpgI’ve recently finished a book I’ve been anxious to read since hearing of it’s release.  This book is The Watchdogs Didn’t Bark, by John Duffy and Ray Nowosielski.

I don’t remember where or how I first heard of Duffy and Nowosielski’s work.  It may have been through the excellent documentary 9/11:  Press for Truth.  This film tells some of the story behind the push for answers about the September 11, 2001 attacks through the perspectives of family members of victims.  It’s incredibly powerful.

It may also have been their interview with former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke, or their podcast, Who Is Rich Blee.  Around the same time I discovered those, I was also following the site Boiling Frogs Post* which published several reports and interviews about Duffy and Nowosielski’s work.   Their story is an important one that should be getting much more attention than it has.

When I found out they were releasing a book detailing their years of investigation that led to the above-mentioned productions, I knew it would be a must read.  And it is.

Duffy and Nowosielski describe in detail malfeasance, cover-ups, and outright criminal behavior, primarily within the Central Intelligence Agency, both before and after 9/11.  They discuss how the people responsible have been promoted into positions of power, in spite of, or perhaps even because of, their actions, rather than being held accountable.  They point out that these people are still influential and in power within the intelligence community today, a fact that should concern us all.

The Watchdogs Didn’t Bark calls into question the extent to which the government of the United States has used the September 11, 2001 attacks to justify and legalize activities I think most Americans would consider unconstitutional and appalling.  Nearly two decades on, this book should serve as a much-needed wake up call for us all.  It should have us asking if we are still willing to allow our government to continue along it’s increasingly authoritarian and destructive path.

I highly recommend The Watchdogs Didn’t Bark:  The CIA, NSA and the Crimes of the War on Terror.  It’s a courageous example of the incredible importance, the necessity, of good investigative journalism.  It should be required reading for all Americans.

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*Boiling Frogs Post is now Newsbud, a site I no longer follow or endorse.  More on that here.

Jon Gold releases book full of information about the September 11, 2001 attacks–and he’s giving it away for free.

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Jon Gold is an activist who describes himself as an advocate for truth and accountability for the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.  He has done extensive research on the subject and has been a vocal activist for years, demanding transparency regarding the attacks and everything that has happened as a result.  He is also a strong advocate for justice for those affected by the attacks.

Nearly four years ago, Jon began releasing a series of interviews titled We Were Lied to About 9/11.  In those interviews he speaks with many different people who present a variety of perspectives and knowledge about 9/11 and related events.  People such as whistleblowers, family members of victims of the attacks, scholars, authors and journalists, among others.

There is an incredible amount of information in these interviews, much of which received little to no news coverage in the years since the attacks.  Important, eye-opening information.

I and a number of my colleagues feel that much of this information has been suppressed or not widely circulated, leaving a large gap in what the general public knows about much of what occurred before and after 9/11.

Jon Gold

Now, Jon has compiled transcripts of these interviews into a book by the same name and he’s giving it away for free.  You can download a copy at wewereliedtoabout911.com.

This isn’t a book of wild theories about how the attacks occurred or who was responsible for them.  It is a book full of information the commonly accepted official narrative of September 11, 2001 leaves out.  Information that will change how you look at the events of that day, and all the events that have been a direct result of it.  Get a copy today, read it and share it.

Judge expected to make decision on dismissal motion in lawsuit regarding 9/11 attacks

Katie Aguilera

A long-running lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia brought by families of victims of the terror attacks on September 11, 2001 may be dismissed before it goes to trial.  In August 2017, Saudi Arabia filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the plaintiffs “could not show that any Saudi official, employee or agent planned or carried out the attacks.”

On January 18, 2018, Judge Daniels “sparred with an attorney representing insurance companies and businesses seeking damages from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., which took the lives of almost 3,000 people, over whether or not plaintiffs could bring claims against the Saudi government under the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA,” according to this New York Law Journal article by Andrew Denney.

That article goes on to say that Judge Daniels “questioned if the plaintiffs proved that providing funding to the group [Al Qaeda] specifically caused it to carry out the 9/11 attacks and if the Saudi government could be held liable for all attacks conducted under the banner of Al-Qaeda.”

Judge Daniels previously dismissed claims against Saudi Arabia in September 2015.  Daniels said that “Saudi Arabia had sovereign immunity from damage claims by families of nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks, and from insurers that covered losses suffered by building owners and businesses.”  However, the passage of JASTA, which narrows the scope of foreign sovereign immunity, enabled the families to sue the Saudi government.  This allowed the case to move forward.

The 9/11 Commission report stated that, “It does not appear that any government other than the Taliban financially supported al Qaeda before 9/11, although some governments may have contained al Qaeda sympathizers who turned a blind eye to al Qaeda’s fundraising activities.  Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of al Qaeda funding, but we have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization.  (This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al Qaeda).”

The commission report also stated, “to date, the US government has not been able to determine the origin of the money used for the 9/11 attacks.  Ultimately the question is of little practical significance.”

If the case goes to trial, it will give the families of victims of the attacks the opportunity to seek some justice for what happened.  It will also hopefully bring attention to, and connect, information that has come out in the years since the attacks that often gets little coverage.

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