Bishop on Air
columnist: Bishop on Air dot com

Topic: 9/11 Remembered
The Official Story

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An analysis of the September 11th Commission Report.

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by Bishop on Air dot com
(Libertarian)
Monday, December 10, 2007

The 9-11 Commission Report was one of the most important and anticipated government investigations since the Warren Commission; the report that gave us the "facts" surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The "Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States" was enacted in late 2002, over 400 days after the attack of September 11, 2001. President Bush had originally tapped Henry Kissinger to lead the investigation but Kissinger later resigned facing questions about potential conflicts of interest.

Commission Chairman Thomas Kean (Governor of New Jersey) led the investigation to interview over 1,200 people from 10 different countries and looked over two and a half million pages of documents, including classified national security documents.

The 9-11 Commission was originally allotted 3 million dollars to conduct an investigation into the largest crime scene in American history, an event that took nearly 3,000 lives within hours. Kean had asked that the commission's funds be boosted by 11 million dollars from a 75 billion dollar supplemental spending bill for the war against Iraq in May of 2003 for fears that the commission's funds would dry up by August of 2003.

The initial dismissal of extra funds was sidestepped by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan saying "We have received a request from the Commission for additional funding, and we are working with them to determine what additional resources they need. We want to make sure they have all the necessary resources, including ample funds, to get the job done."

They heard from family members, government officials, rescue workers and even protesters from concerned citizens. One gentleman in particular shouted during questions with now Presidential Candidate Rudy Giuliani, "Why don't you ask him some real questions? ...You didn't ask him about the bunker, the Office of Emergency Management bunker on fire?" As he is dragged away by security, he continues "Remember this, your government funded and trained al-Qeada!"

President Bush and Vice President Cheney met with the 10 members of the commission behind the closed doors of the Oval Office along side of then White House council Alberto Gonzales and 2 other staffers. This was called a candid conversation by the Bush administration.

The final report was issued on July 22, 2004.

The findings stated that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, all 19 were members of al-Qaeda and found no credible evidence that Saddam Hussein had assisted al-Qaeda. There was a list of recommendations issued by the commission to make the U.S. more safe against terrorism, including breaking the barrier of foreign and domestic intelligence gathering, information sharing, stronger congressional oversight of intelligence and homeland security, and creating a smoother transition from one administration to the next.

Anyone can read the report online at www.9-11commission.gov in its entirety and will receive the official story. By opening the document as an Adobe PDF file, you can freely search the text for keywords. This article will point out a few keyword searches from the 9-11 Commission Report.

The keywords to be searched will be: collapse (120 instances), Shoot Down or Shootdown (19 instances), drills (14 instances), explosion (13 instances), 7 WTC (5 instances), Norman Mineta, the United States Secretary of Transportation (3 instances), Sibel Edmonds, FBI translator (2 instances), demolition (1 instance), TRIPOD (1 instance), Securacom (0 instances), Marvin Bush (0 instances), the Project for the New American Century (0 instance) and Able Danger (0 instances), and let us not forget insider trading (1 instance).

The following page numbers are those of the PDF file, not of the actual printed copy.

Collapse: 120 instances found. Many instances are found in the foot notes of chapters. Here we will cover the most significant uses.

From page 120 - "...While some criticize the intelligence community for failing to forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union ..."

From page 140 - "...bin Laden...'Their state (USA) will collapse, too'..."

The word collapse then continues to describe the fall of regional governments including those in the Middle East.

Not until page 302 does the report discuss the collapse of the World Trade Center.

From page 302 - "...at 9:03 until the collapse of the South Tower... until the collapse of the North Tower at 10:28..."

From page 305 - Discussion about call to tenants of South Tower to remain or return to their offices or floors "... We do not know the reason for the announcement, as both the deputy fire safety director believed to have made it (announcement of safety) and the director of fire safety for the WTC complex perished in the South Tower's collapse..."

From page 308 - "... They also received advice from the senior FDNY chiefs that while the building might eventually suffer a partial collapse on upper floors, such structural failure was not imminent. No one anticipated the possibility of a total collapse."

From page 312 - "...There were reports of tremendous smoke on the floor, but at least one area remained less affected until shortly before the building collapsed."

From page 313 - ".. But just before the tower collapsed, a team of NYPD ESU officers encountered a stream of civilians descending ..."

From page 313 "... but most of them died in the collapse of the North Tower..."

From page 319 "...To our knowledge, none of the chiefs presented believed that a total collapse of either tower was possible..."

From page 319 - "At about 9:57, an EMS paramedic approached the FDNY Chief of Department and advised that an engineer in front of 7 WTC had just remarked that the Twin Towers in fact were in imminent danger of a total collapse..."

Who was this engineer?

From page 320 - "...injured or exhausted collapsed at the foot of these stairs..."

From page 321 - "...Prior to 9:59, no NYPD helicopter pilot predicted that either tower would collapse..."

From 322 - "...At 9:58:59, the South Tower collapsed in ten seconds...The building collapsed into itself..."

From page 323 - "...The Marriott hotel suffered significant damage as a result of the collapse of the South Tower...Immediate Impact of the Collapse of the South Tower. ... staging area on West Street south of Liberty all ceased to operate upon the collapse of the South Tower...North Tower lobby had no way of knowing that the South Tower had suffered a complete collapse... the South Tower collapsed, firefighters on upper floors of the North Tower heard a violent roar...had no way of knowing that the South Tower had collapsed; many surmised that a bomb had exploded, or that the North Tower had suffered a partial collapse...The South Tower's total collapse was immediately communicated on the Manhattan dispatch...a chief in the process of evacuating the North Tower lobby sent out an order within a minute of the collapse..."

From 324 - "...Evacuation orders did not follow the protocol for giving instructions when a building's collapse may be imminent...most of the evacuation instructions did not mention that the South Tower had collapsed...three firefighters heard evacuation instructions which stated that the North Tower was in danger of imminent collapse'...separate radio communication stating that the South Tower had collapsed ...trying to use tactical 1 after the South Tower collapse may have drowned out some evacuation instructions...whose officer knew that the South Tower had collapsed - either delayed or stopped their evacuation...others would have evacuated more urgently had they known of the South Tower's complete collapse..."

From 325 - "...(firefighters) who had earlier seen from a window that the South Tower had collapsed - urged that they all leave...While they were doing so, the North Tower began its pancake collapse...The Marriott Hotel suffered significant damage in the collapse of the South Tower..."

Notice the term pancake collapse.

From page 326 - "...one senior FDNY chief who knew that the South Tower had collapsed strongly expressed the opinion that the North Tower would not collapse...NYPD aviation reported that the top 15 stories of the North Tower were glowing red' and that they might collapse...The ESU team on the 31st floor found the full collapse of the South Tower so unfathomable ..."

From page 328 - "...The North Tower collapsed at 10:28:25 a.m., killing all..."

From page 337 - "...Though almost no one at 9:50 on September 11 was contemplating an imminent total collapse of the Twin Towers..."

Shoot down or shootdown: What information can we gather about the shootdown orders on September 11, 2001. Who was the provider, when were they given and how were they communicated?

From page 34 - "...Prior to 9/11, it was understood that an order to shoot down a commercial aircraft would have to be issued by the National Command Authority (a phrase used to describe the president and secretary of defense.)..."

From page 54 - "...(Richard) Clarke reported that they were asking the President for authority to shoot down aircraft. Confirmation of that authority came at 10:25..."

From page 57 - "...The President emphasized to us that he had authorized the shootdown of hijacked aircraft..."

From page 58 - "...Ari Fleischer recorded that at 10:20, the President told him that he had authorized a shootdown of aircraft if necessary..."

From page 59 - "...The commander of NORAD, General Ralph Eberhart, was en route to the NORAD operations center in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, when the shootdown order was communicated on the air threat conference call...It is not clear how the shoodown order was communicated within NORAD...10:31...Vice president has cleared to us to intercept tracks of interest and shoot them down...Floor Leadership: You need to read this....The Region Commander has declared that we can shoot down aircraft that do not respond to our direction. Copy that?..."

From page 60 - "...The President apparently spoke to Secretary Rumsfeld for the first time that morning shortly after 10:00." here is the funny part "No one can recall the content of this conversation, but it was a brief call in which the subject of shootdown authority was NOT discussed....Secretary Rumsfeld was not in the NMCC when the shootdown order was first conveyed."

From page 61 - "...The Vice President was mistaken in his belief that shootdown authorization had been passed to the pilots flying at NORAD's direction..."

From page 62 - "...did not know where United 93 was located, and did not have shootdown authorization...Shootdown authority was first communicated to NEADS at 10:31...NORAD commanders would have ordered a shootdown in the absence of the authorization communicated by the Vice President, but given the gravity of the decision to shoot down a commercial airliner...It is possible that NORAD commanders would have ordered a shootdown in the absence of the authorization communicated by the Vice President, but given the gravity of the decision to shoot down a commercial airliner, and NORAD's caution that a mistake not be made, we view this possibility as unlikely..."

Drill(s) - Was there any talk of the military drill taking place before September 11 and on that day of suspected hijacked air craft?

From page 297 - "...Deputy fire safety directors conducted fire drills at least twice a year...The standard procedure for the fire drills was for the fire wardens to lead co-workers ..."

From page 298 - "...But during these drills, civilians were not directed into the stairwells, or provided with information about their configuration...Neither full nor partial evacuation drills were held...participation in drills that were held varied greatly from tenant to tenant... standard fire drill announcement advised participants..."

From page 300 - "...by planning and conducting exercises and drills that would involve multiple city agencies..."

From page 303 - "...as they had been advised to do in fire drills..."

From page 333 - "...some tenants relied on procedures learned in fire drills to help them to safety..."

From page 335 - "...civilians were not informed in fire drills that roof doors were locked..."

Notice that there is no mention of the drills taking place of hijacked aircraft that were conducted before and on September 11, 2001 ()

Explosion, 13 instances:

From page 40 - "...By 9:08, the mission crew commander at NEADS learned of the second explosion at the World Trade Center ..."

From page 88 - In context of WTC bombing of 1993 "...The ensuing explosion opened a hole seven stories up...."

From page 297 - In context of WTC bombing of 1993 "...The explosion killed six people, injured about 1,000 more, and exposed vulnerabilities in the World Trade Center's ..."

From page 303 - "...The deputy fire safety director has told us that he began instructing full evacuation within about ten minutes of the explosion..."

From page 304 - "...Some believed an incident had occurred in their building; others were aware that a major explosion had occurred on the upper floors of the North Tower..."

From page 307 - "...They did know that the explosion had been large enough to send down a fireball that blew out elevators and windows in the lobby and that conditions were so dire that some civilians on upper floors were jumping for falling from the building..."

The remaining instances are in the notes.

What about the countless media reports and eye witnesses on record talking about explosions?

7 WTC:

From page 301 - "...The OEM's (Office of Emergency Management) headquarters was located at 7 WTC..."

From page 310 - "By 8:48, officials in OEM headquarters on the 23rd floor of 7 WTC - just to the north of the North Tower - began to activate the Emergency Operations Center ..."

From page 319 - "...an EMS paramedic approached the FDNY Chief of Department and advised that an engineer in front of 7 WTC had just remarked that the Twin Towers in fact were in imminent danger of a total collapse..."

Once again, who is this engineer?

From page 322 - "...After the South Tower was hit, OEM senior leadership decided to remain in its "bunker" and continue conducting operations, even though all civilians had been evacuated 7 WTC..."

From page 322 - "...after a Secret Service agent in 7 WTC advised him that additional commercial planes were not accounted for..."

There is no mention of World Trade Center building 7's collapse at 5:20 p.m. on September 11, 2001. How come?

The Secretary of Transportation, Norman Mineta:

From page 343 - "...Following his speech, President Bush met again with his National Security Council (NSC), expanded to include Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and Joseph Allbaugh, the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

From page 449 - "...Norman Mineta - Secretary of Transportation, 2001 -..."

From page 458 - "...The Honorable Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation..."

There is no mention of Norman Mineta's testimony to the Commission in the final report where he testifies "...during the time when the airplane coming into the Pentagon, there was a young man saying to the Vice President the plane is 50 miles out, the plane is 30 miles out' and when it got down to the plane is 10 miles' out the young man also said to the vice president do the orders still stand', and the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said of course the orders still stand have you heard anything to the contrary?' "

Sibel Edmonds:

Both instances from page 490 - "...A Review of the FBI's Actions in Connection with Allegations Raised by Contract Linguist Sibel Edmonds.'July 1, 2004; Sibel Edmonds interview (Feb. 11, 2004)"

Sibel Edmonds is a Turkish-American former FBI translator who was fired in march of 2002 after she accused a colleague of covering up illicit activity, alleging security breaches and blocking intelligence that presented a danger the U.S. Even though she was hired on September 20, 2001, just 9 days after 9-11, she was able to give insight on the incompetence of the FBI and even criminal intent. She has been gagged by Attorney John Ashcroft under State Secret Privileges.

Demolition - did they investigate the possibility of controlled demolitions?

From page 311 - "...The only survivor known to have escaped from the heart of the impact zone described the 81st floor - where the wing of the plane had sliced through is office - as a demolition' site ..."

Nope.

TRIPOD - FEMA's bio terror drill put them in NYC on September 10, 2001. Was there mention of that in the Report?

From page 380 - "...What is needed is a broad political-military strategy that rests on a firm tripod of policies..."

Nope.

Securacom: Securacom, now named Stratesec, provided security for the World Trade Center, Dulles Airport and United Airlines. Stratesec had a 'completion contract' to handle some of the security at the World Trade Center 'up to the day the buildings fell down.' Marvin Bush (President Bush's brother) and Wirt Walker (cousin) both had sat on the board of Securacom.

No mention

The Project for the New American Century (PNAC): This neo-conservative think tank released a report in September 2000 called "Rebuilding America's Defense" where they state "Further, the process of 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."

No mention.

Able Danger: This was a SOCOM sponsored intelligence group that was trailing al-Qaeda before September 11. According to Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, Able Danger pinpointed Mohamed Atta and several others in the U.S. a year before 9-11.

No mention.

What about the record number of put options on United Airlines and American Airlines days before September 11, 2001 that would warrant an insider trading investigation? Was this looked into?

Insider trading:

From page 516 - "...Highly publicized allegations of insider trading in advance of 9/11 generally rest on reports of unusual pre-9/11 trading activity in companies whose stock plummeted after the attacks. Some unusual trading did in fact occur, but each such trade proved to have an innocuous explanation. For example, the volume of put options - investments that pay off only when a stock drops in price - surged in the parent companies of United Airlines on September 6 and American airlines on September 10 - highly suspicious trading on its face. Yet, further investigation has revealsed that the trading had no connection with 9/11. A single U.S.-based institutional investor with no conceivable ties to al Qaeda purchased 95 percent of the UAL puts on September 6 as part of a trading strategy that also included buying 115,000 shares of American on September 10..."

No link to al-Qaeda, therefore not important.

This article does not dig into the accusations of a power down in the WTC complex the weekened before September 11, 2001 or the fact that ISI (Pakistan's equivalent to the CIA) Director Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed met with Senator Bob Grahm and Representative Porter Goss the morning of Setptember 11. Ahmed wired 100,000 dollars to Mohamed Atta a year prior.

The 9-11 Commission graded the U.S. Government on the 41 recommendations and they, the U.S. Government, has received two incompletes, five F's, twelve D's, eight C's, twelve B's and one A. The one A was in an A minus from recommendation number 37 - Reinvigorate anti-terrorist financing efforts. We can stop and freeze assets linked to terror, but we cannot stop billions being lost by Halliburton.

One can only assume how much more time and money would be needed for an independent investigation into the attacks of September 11, 2001. If there were such a commission, could we ensure that those who need to testify would?

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2007 Bishop on Air dot com, all rights reserved.
Published: Monday, December 10, 2007
Last modified: Tuesday, December 11, 2007

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