Attack on the towers: The doubts persist

9/11 Mythology: The Big Lie of Our Time –
A broad section of Americans (and many people around the world) continue to be divided about who exactly carried out the attacks, with the “Truthers” arguing it was all an inside government job, and others believing the facts remain inconclusive and often contradictory. One thing unites all critical factions, though: that the US government knows much more than it has admitted, that its actions bespeak complicity, at best, and that it has feloniously hidden vital information and blocked all significant inquiries into the events of September 11,  while hypocritically exploiting the tragedy for its own propaganda ends.  In the essay below, contributor editor Lendman sums up the situation as we approach the tenth anniversary of the assault. It should be noted that, to this day, TGP’s editorial team is deeply divided about this topic.—Eds

By Stephen Lendman

Winston Churchill rightly explained that “(a) lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” Today, of course, it circulates everywhere instantly.

Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s Reich Minister of Propaganda, once said: 

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

He added that “truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Corporate media manipulators love a big story they can hype, distort, and falsify to attract large audiences  supportively for the worst imperial crimes.  In fact, the bigger the event, the worse the reporting, sacrificing truth for managed news and opinions everyone should understand and avoid.

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Distinguished scholars like David Ray Griffin exposed the 9/11 lie in his exhaustive research and writings. In numerous books, articles, and lectures, he provided convincing evidence about an inside job, not an attack carried out by “crazed Arabs.”  In an April 5, 2006 lecture titled, “9/11: The Myth and the Reality,” he concluded saying:

“It would seem, for many reasons, that the official story of 9/11, which has served as a religious Myth in the intervening years (and still does), is a myth in the pejorative sense of a story that does not correspond to reality.”

It was Griffin’s polite way of calling it a Big Lie, the biggest of our time.

On September 11, 2008, his Global Research article headlined, “September 11, 2001: 21 Reasons to Question the Official Story about 9/11,” including: 

(1) Although the Big Lie holds Osama bin Laden accountable, the FBI admitted it “has no hard evidence connecting” him to the attack (NPHR 206-11).

(2) Although the 9/11 myth claims “devout Muslims (were) ready to die as martyrs to earn a heavenly reward, Mohamed Atta (their alleged leader) and the other alleged hijackers regularly drank heavily, went to strip clubs, and paid for sex (NPHR 153-55).”

(3) Claimed cell phone calls from above 30,000 feet to relatives were falsified as technology at the time made completely them impossible. Later, the FBI changed its story, saying only two were made “from United 93 after it descended to 5,000 feet (NPHR 111-17).”

(4) Then “US Solicitor General Tel Olson’s claim that his wife, Barbara Olson, phoned him twice from AA 77,” saying hijackers controlled the plane, “was also contradicted by this FBI report,” saying one call she attempted was “unconnected” and lasted “0 seconds (NPRH 60-62).” 

(5) The FBI lied, saying Atta’s left behind luggage included “decisive evidence that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attacks….(NPHR 155-62).”

(6) Evidence of alleged Al Qaeda videos, “passports discovered at the crash sites, and a headband discovered at the crash site of United 93 (showed) clear signs of having been fabricated (NPHR 170-73).” 

(7) Evidence shows hijackers WERE NOT on the planes. Moreover, if they broke “into cockpits, the pilots would have ‘squawked’ the universal highjack code,” a simple two second act. However, none aboard the four flights did it (NPHR 175-79).

(8) Standard operating procedures to intercept “planes showing signs of an in-flight emergency within about 10 minutes” weren’t followed. Instead, a “stand-down order prevented (them) from being carried out (NPHR 1-10, 81-84).”

(9) Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said Dick Cheney, inside the White House bunker, “apparently confirmed a stand-down order at about 9:25AM,” prior to an alleged plane striking the Pentagon. “Another man has reported hearing a member of LAX Security learn that a stand-down order (came) from the ‘highest level’ of the White House (NPHR 94-96).”

(10) The 9/11 Whitewash Commission ignored Mineta’s report, deleted it from the official record, “and claimed that Cheney did not enter the (bunker) until almost 10:00….” They lied (NPHR 91-94).

In fact, Philip Zelikow, head of the 9/11 Commission, was a member of the Bush White House.

(11) The 9/11 Commission even contradicted what Cheney told Tim Russett on “Meet the Press” on September 16 (NPHR 93).

(12) Hani Hanjour, the so-called terrible pilot unable to fly a single-engine aircraft, “could not possibly have executed the amazing (AA 77) trajectory….to hit Wedge 1 of the Pentagon” that even experienced airline pilots would have had trouble negotiating, and never would have tried, fearing they’d crash and burn (NPHR 78-80).

(13) Wedge 1 was the most implausible spot to be struck. It was furthest from offices of Rumsfeld and Pentagon top brass, presumably the targeted high-value officials. 

It was also “the only part of the Pentagon that had been reinforced.” Its reconstruction wasn’t finished, so few people were there. And it presented the most difficult flight path to execute (NPHR 76-78).

(14) Pentagon officials lied, saying they had no warning of an approaching aircraft. In fact, “a military E-4B – the Air Force’s most advanced communications, command, and control airplane – was flying over the White House at the time.” Astonishingly, the Pentagon “denied it belonged to them (NPHR 96-98).”

Moreover, the Pentagon is the most guarded structure in the world, complete with advanced radar and surface-to-air missiles, able to intercept and destroy any approaching threat.

(15) Without explanation, the Secret Service let George Bush remain at a Sarasota, FL school for 30 minutes after learning the second tower was struck, ignoring standard procedures to secure his safety as presumably high-value officials were targeted.

Only advance knowledge assured them of no danger at a time media reports circulated about America being under attack.

On 9/11’s first anniversary, a new White House story emerged, falsely claiming Bush left the school immediately. “The lie was told in major newspapers and on MSNBC and ABC television (NHHR 129-31).” 

(16) Their rigid steel columns made it impossible for the towers to crumble, let alone “at virtually free-fall speed – unless (they) had been sliced by means of explosives.” In other words, claims about impacting planes and resulting fires being responsible are “scientifically impossible (NPHR 12-25).”

(17) Other features of the towers’ destruction “can be explained only in terms of powerful explosives.” They include “horizontal ejections of steel beams, the melting of steel, and the sulfidation and thinning of steel.” Moreover, “fires could not have come within 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit of the temperature needed to melt steel (NPHR 30-36).”

(18) New York Fire Department “oral histories shortly after 9/11” provided testimonies of “having witnessed explosions in the Twin Towers. Others toppling WTC 7 as well as the towers were also reported by city officials, WTC employees, and journalists (NPHR 27-30, 45-48, 51).”

(19) On 9/11, Mayor Rudy Giuliani told” told ABC News anchor Peter Jennings that he was informed that the towers would collapse, despite no basis to think so. In fact, the so-called information came from his own Office of Emergency Management that either falsified it or had advance knowledge of the plot (NPH 40). 

(20) “NIST, which produced the official reports on the Twin Towers and (recently) WTC 7, has been fully hijacked from the scientific to the political realm….” In fact, its “scientists” are “hired guns (NPHR 11, 238-51).” 

(21) Growing numbers of “physicists, chemists, architects, engineers, pilots, former military officers, and former intelligence officers” reject the official 9/11 myth as a bald-faced lie (NPHR xi).

The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST – formerly the National Bureau of Standards, NBS) is a measurement standards laboratory, expected to produce scientifically verifiable, not falsified, analysis.   In other writing, Griffin exposed its 9/11 coverup role, saying it suggested that “fire-induced collapses of large steel-frame buildings (like the twin towers) are normal events,” when they knew it’s impossible.

NIST was also tasked to provide “the definitive explanation” of WTC 7’s collapse. Again, coverup was its unstated mandate.  It “committed two kinds of scientific fraud: Ignoring relevant evidence (showing explosives were used) and falsifying evidence.”

For example, it suppressed evidence revealed in a peer-reviewed University of Copenhagen report, showing “WTC dust contained unreacted nanothermite. Unlike ordinary thermite, which is an incendiary, nanothermite is a high explosive.”

Short of verifiable insider confessions, its presence is as close as it gets to smoking gun proof of controlled demolitions, destroying the twin towers and WTC 7, not fires or other causes.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth

James Fetzer founded Scholars for 9/11 Truth, a non-partisan association of faculty, students, and scholars, dedicated to exposing official lies, removing the shroud of deceit, and revealing truths behind 9/11.

Access his site through the following link:

http://911scholars.org/

A section on it headlines “Why Doubt 9/11,” providing 20 examples to debunk the official lie. They include:

(1) The Twin Towers were built to sustain impacts similar to large planes striking them. 

(2) Most jet fuel burned “in the first fifteen seconds or so. Below the 96th floor in the North Tower and the 80th in the South, those buildings were stone cold steel, unaffected by” fires above.

(3) Steel melts at 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit, “about 1,000 degrees higher than the maximum” burning jet fuel produces.

(4) “Underwriters Laboratory certified the” building steel to be able to handle temperatures up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit “for three or four hours without any significant effects.” 

The ignited 500 degree fires were more suitable for roasting marshmallows than melting steel.

(5) Had steel melted or weakened the buildings, “the affected floors would have displayed completely different behavior,” far short of collapsing that was impossible.

(6) Even when the top 30 floors of the South Tower “pivoted and began to fall to the side when the floors beneath gave way, it wasn’t enough “to exert downward pressure on the lower 80 floors.” 

Moreover, the top 16 floors of the North Tower, “as one unit of downward force,” was offset by “199 units of upward force….counteract(ing) it.”

(7) Last man out of the North Tower William Rodriguez “reported massive explosions in the sub-basements that (caused) extensive destruction….”

(8) He said “the explosion occurred prior to reverberations from upper floors, a claim…substantiated by a Craig Furlong and Gordon Ross” study, titled “Seismic Proof: 9/11 Was an Inside Job,” showing the “explosions actually took place as much as 14 and 17 seconds before the presumptive airplane impacts.”

(9) “Heavy-steel-construction buildings like” the towers are virtually immune from “pancake collapse,” unless rigged explosives cause it.

(10) Both towers collapsing from fires or on their own any other way at free-fall speed is impossible.

(11) Mechanical Engineering Professor Judy Wood compared the phenomenon of the towers collapsing to “two gigantic trees turning to sawdust from the top down.”

(12) WTC-7 was a “classic controlled demolition at 5.20PM….”

(13) The twin towers were “destroyed by different modes of demolition.” 

(14) “The hit point at the Pentagon was too small to accommodate a 100-ton airliner with a 125-foot wingspan and a tail that stands 44-feet high….” 

Moreover, the debris found had “no wings, no fuselage, no seats, no bodies, no luggage, no tail,” and no engines.

In other words, no plane struck the Pentagon. A likely cruise missile was used, a weapon unavailable to alleged terrorists anywhere, let alone the ability to launch one.

(15) Pentagon videotapes show no Boeing 757 striking the building. 

(16) The “official trajectory – flying at high speed barely above ground level – (was) physically impossible…” It was aerodynamically inconceivable to negotiate even for experienced airline pilots. None, of course, would have tried.

(17) Flight recorder data given to Pilots for 9/11 truth by the NTSB “corresponds to a plane with a different approach and altitude….” If followed by a Boeing 757, it would have overflown the Pentagon, not hit it. 

(18) If Flight 93 crashed as reported, efforts would have been made to find survivors post-haste. Instead, coverup to suppress the truth followed, suggesting an incident other than reported. 

(19) The alleged hijackers had minimal competence to fly single-engine aircraft, let alone be able to handle  commercial jets. Moreover, their “names are not on any original, authenticated passenger manifest.”

In fact, several “turned up alive and well and living in the Middle East.” Washington never even produced their tickets as evidence because they weren’t aboard the planes and had nothing to do with the incidents. 

(20) George Bush later acknowledged that Saddam Hussein “had nothing to do with 9/11. The Senate Intelligence Committee” said he had no connection to Al Qaeda. Moreover, the FBI admitted having no evidence linking bin Laden to 9/11. 

Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth

AE911Truth is a “non-partisan association of architects, engineers and affiliates dedicated to exposing the falsehoods and to revealing truths about” the Big 9/11 lie, substituting myth for reality.

Its growing membership “is devoted to:

(1) Dispelling misinformation with scientific facts and forensic evidence

(2) Educating and motivating thousands of architects and engineers and the public at large 

(3) Procuring a truly independent 9/11 investigation with subpoena power 

(4) Achieving 9/11 Truth mainstream coverage 

Access AE911Truth’s site through the following link:  http://www.ae911truth.org/en/about-us.html 

Growing numbers worldwide now dispute the official myth, including Muslims for 9/11 Truth, anyone can connect with through its site, accessed through the following link:  http://m911t.blogspot.com/ 

More than any others worldwide, Muslims unfairly paid the greatest price – vilified, persecuted and attacked for their faith, ethnicity, locations in resource rich countries, and domestically for political advantage.  The 9/11 lie bears main responsibility for launching a decade of war, persecution and other forms of abuse. Stopping it ahead is job one. Revealing the truth and holding those responsible is how.

In his new book titled, “9/11 – Ten Years Later,” David Ray Griffin said the following:

“Getting the 9/11 lie exposed is essential. One obvious reason is simple justice,” not only for 9/11 family members never told the truth or compensated in whatever way possible.

“There also needs to be justice in the sense of punishment for those who engineered this crime,” including top government and military officials. They perhaps consider themselves patriots. They’re, in fact, “guilty of murder and treason.” 

Revealing 9/11 truth is also vital “for the sake of preventing further crimes against democracy.” 

“Many lines of evidence show that 9/11 was an inside job.” It’s virtually indisputable. As a result, it needs to outed so everyone knows to give “never again” real meaning.

A Final Comment

9/11 was the transformative event of our time, for ill, not good. It sparked multiple wars producing more of them, as well as repressive domestic crackdowns.  It also launched a Global War on Terror (GWOT), another on truth, human and civil rights, social justice, rule of law principles, and democratic values wherever America and its NATO partners show up.

September 11, 2011, will mark the 10th anniversary of a day those old enough won’t ever forget. Nor should they forgive political Washington for using it to wage war on humanity.

All wars are for wealth and power, never for liberation or other social justice reasons. 

Debunking the official 9/11 lie is a vital first step to freeing America of a malignancy that’s destroying it and free people everywhere in its grip. 

Mark October 6 on your calendar. Stand with most Americans for “human needs, not corporate greed.”

“Stop the Machine! Create a New World!” Head to the nation’s capital where “hundreds of thousands are expected” to “occupy Freedom Plaza indefinitely until their demands have been met,” including: 

(1) Taxing the rich and corporations.
(2) Ending imperial wars, bringing US forces home, and cutting military spending.
(3) Protecting America’s social safety net, especially Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, as well as public and private pensions.
(4) Ending corporate and other forms of welfare for the rich at the expense of most others.
(5) Transitioning to a clean energy economy, as well as reversing environmental degradation.
(6) Protecting worker rights, including collective bargaining, decent wages and benefits, and initiatives to create jobs.
(7) Getting money out of politics, and
(8) Supporting social justice for everyone, not just too-big-to-fail banker crooks, other corporate favorites and America’s aristocracy.

Transforming America starts with putting our bodies on the line for change, and not quitting no matter the odds.

There’s no other way because the alternative is too grim to accept what only grassroots activism can achieve.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.   Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.