It wasn’t just me of course. It was an entire nation that was callously manipulated in the aftermath of that tragedy. The courage and generosity exhibited by so many New Yorkers and others throughout the country and indeed the world was rapidly transformed into terrifying fear. Fear that was intentionally injected repeatedly into our daily lives. Fear that translated into pointless wars and countless deaths. Fear that was used to justify the destruction of our precious civil rights. Fear that was used to initiate a gigantic power grab and the source of tremendous profits for the corporate-statists and crony-capitalsits. Unfortunately, that is the greatest legacy of 9/11.
– From my 2013 post: How I Remember September 11, 2001
Unless we come to terms with 9/11 and the obvious fact that the official government story is a ridiculous fairytale, it’ll be hard for our nation to move forward in an intelligent, courageous and ethical manner. Many of the most destructive trends which have defined our post September 11, 2001 environment, such as a loss of civill liberties and endless barbaric wars of aggression abroad, have been directly related to our false understanding of that awful terrorist attack. As I’ve always maintained, I have no idea what really went down on that day, I just know that the U.S. government and its intelligence agencies are not being honest.
Although it’s been a long time coming, we’re finally uncovering some kernels of truth about the attack and the role Saudi Arabia played in carrying them out. Much of this progress has been driven by family members of those who died, some of whom are suing the Saudis for their role in that despicable slaughter of civilians.
I’ve written about these lawsuits on several occasions, but here’s an updated summary from Common Dreams, published two days ago:
As our summer draws to a close and ushers in a cool and rainy September, there is a solemn chill in the air marking the approaching anniversary of the infamous attacks on the World Trade Center that took place September 11th, 2001 – nearly sixteen years ago. The memories are still fresh for the survivors and the family members of victims who are to this day living with their losses while continuing to fight for accountability through both the military court in Guantanamo, where individuals involved in the attacks have been tried or are still facing painstakingly slow trials. This upcoming sixteenth anniversary of 9/11 will be the first time since the attacks that the families now have another legal recourse for seeking accountability not only from individuals but from a nation involved in the attack: Saudi Arabia.
Introduced in the Senate on September 16th, 2015, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) removed a major roadblock to justice by opening the way for private US citizens to file suit against the Saudi government, which was previously protected by the blanket immunity given to foreign governments. There is much that we do not yet know about what went on behind closed doors with regard to the orchestration of the 9/11 attacks, but the declassification of the portion of the 2002 Congressional Joint Inquiry known as the 28 pages on July 15th, 2016, after 14 years of secrecy, offered the preliminary hope of some much-needed answers. Of the 19 total hijackers who carried out the attacks, 15 were from Saudi Arabia, and evidence contained within the 28 pages pointed to financial connections between these individuals and members of the Saudi government.
Curiously, however, Saudi Arabia’s suspected culpability in the attacks has not been reflected in US response. From the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan to President Trump’s attempted travel ban affecting a list of seven Muslim-majority countries—from which Saudi Arabia is notably absent, it would appear that our government’s enthusiasm for retaliation against “Islamic terror” has a blind spot in the shape of the US alliance with Saudi Arabia.
Getting at the truth of the extent to which the Saudi government sponsored and aided in the attacks is a vital step towards justice and closure for families that, until JASTA, had the power of foreign sovereign immunity standing in its way. Despite fierce oppositionfrom Saudi lobbyists and a presidential veto that argued that it would invite similar lawsuits against the United States government from victims of US war crimes, JASTA was successfully passed into law on September 28th, 2016. Only two days later, the first lawsuit under this new act went forward. DeSimone v. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, filed by the widow of US Navy Commander Patrick Dunn, set the precedent for many other lawsuits of its kind to follow.
While some JASTA lawsuits came from single individuals or families as in the case of DeSimone v. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, others were filed in the form of consolidated complaints with hundreds of plaintiffs issuing shared demands. Ashton et al v. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the largest class action lawsuits of this kind, sporting the names of over 800 family members and 1500 survivors. Filed March 20th, 2017, the lawsuit as of the time of this publication is contending with a motion filed by Saudi Arabia to dismiss it from the court. Lawyers for the plaintiffs have until October 2nd to submit documents opposing the motion.
Evidence of at least some Saudi complicity in the attacks is pretty much undeniable at this point, and if you missed it the first time, I suggest you read my summary of what we learned in the infamous “28 Pages.”
But now we have even more information. A lot more. For instance, take a look at some of what the New York Post reported over the weekend:
Fresh evidence submitted in a major 9/11 lawsuit moving forward against the Saudi Arabian government reveals its embassy in Washington may have funded a “dry run” for the hijackings carried out by two Saudi employees, further reinforcing the claim that employees and agents of the kingdom directed and aided the 9/11 hijackers and plotters.
Two years before the airliner attacks, the Saudi Embassy paid for two Saudi nationals, living undercover in the US as students, to fly from Phoenix to Washington “in a dry run for the 9/11 attacks,” alleges the amended complaint filed on behalf of the families of some 1,400 victims who died in the terrorist attacks 16 years ago.
The court filing provides new details that paint “a pattern of both financial and operational support” for the 9/11 conspiracy from official Saudi sources, lawyers for the plaintiffs say. In fact, the Saudi government may have been involved in underwriting the attacks from the earliest stages — including testing cockpit security.
“We’ve long asserted that there were longstanding and close relationships between al Qaeda and the religious components of the Saudi government,” said Sean Carter, the lead attorney for the 9/11 plaintiffs. “This is further evidence of that.”
Citing FBI documents, the complaint alleges that the Saudi students — Mohammed al-Qudhaeein and Hamdan al-Shalawi — were in fact members of “the Kingdom’s network of agents in the US,” and participated in the terrorist conspiracy.
They had trained at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan at the same time some of the hijackers were there. And while living in Arizona, they had regular contacts with a Saudi hijacker pilot and a senior al Qaeda leader from Saudi now incarcerated at Gitmo. At least one tried to re-enter the US a month before the attacks as a possible muscle hijacker but was denied admission because he appeared on a terrorist watch list.
Qudhaeein and Shalawi both worked for and received money from the Saudi government, with Qudhaeein employed at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. Shalawi was also “a longtime employee of the Saudi government.” The pair were in “frequent contact” with Saudi officials while in the US, according to the filings.
During a November 1999 America West flight to Washington, Qudhaeein and Shalawi are reported to have tried multiple times to gain access to the cockpit of the plane in an attempt to test flight-deck security in advance of the hijackings.
“After they boarded the plane in Phoenix, they began asking the flight attendants technical questions about the flight that the flight attendants found suspicious,” according to a summary of the FBI case files.
“When the plane was in flight, al-Qudhaeein asked where the bathroom was; one of the flight attendants pointed him to the back of the plane,” it added. “Nevertheless, al-Qudhaeein went to the front of the plane and attempted on two occasions to enter the cockpit.”
The pilots were so spooked by the Saudi passengers and their aggressive behavior that they made an emergency landing in Ohio. On the ground there, police handcuffed them and took them into custody. Though the FBI later questioned them, it decided not to pursue prosecution.
But after the FBI discovered that a suspect in a counterterrorism investigation in Phoenix was driving Shalawi’s car, the bureau opened a counterterrorism case on Shalawi. Then, in November 2000, the FBI received reporting that Shalawi trained at terrorist camps in Afghanistan and had received explosives training to perform attacks on American targets. The bureau also suspected Qudhaeein was a Saudi intelligence agent, based on his frequent contact with Saudi officials.
More, investigators learned that the two Saudis traveled to Washington to attend a symposium hosted by the Saudi Embassy in collaboration with the Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America, which was chaired by the Saudi ambassador. Before being shut down for terrorist ties, IIASA employed the late al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki as a lecturer. Awlaki ministered to some of the hijackers and helped them obtain housing and IDs.
The FBI also confirmed that Qudhaeein’s and Shalawi’s airline tickets for the pre-9/11 dry run were paid for by the Saudi Embassy.
“The dry run reveals more of the fingerprints of the Saudi government,” said Kristen Breitweiser, one of the New York plaintiffs, whose husband perished at the World Trade Center.
Carter said in an interview that the allegations that the Saudi Embassy sponsored a pre-9/11 dry run — along with charges of other Saudi involvement in the 9/11 plot, from California to Florida — are based on “nearly 5,000 pages of evidence submitted of record and incorporated by reference into the complaint.”
They include “every FBI report that we have been able to obtain,” though hundreds of thousands of pages of government documents related to Saudi terror funding remain secret.
As I tweeted yesterday:
I suggest we remember 9/11 by never forgetting how frequently and pathologically our government lies to us.
— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) September 10, 2017
Finally, let me end this post by sharing a video put together by James Corbett, which has attained nearly 3 million views.
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For the most part I look forward to reading your notes – NOT this one – of course Saudi was complicit but saying ours were is going to far – If I wanted this commentary I would watch InfoWars with Mr. Jones
Clark, show me where I said the official U.S. government was involved in plotting the attack? I did not write that, nor have I ever written that.
What I claim, is that at the least, the U.S. government is covering up the real story. Specifically, the Saudi role. That is pretty much undeniable at this point, as several former Congressmen have explained in detail, and should be seen as utterly unacceptable to every single U.S. citizen.
Ok Clark. Mike didn’t say our government was complicit, but I will.
But my definition of our “government” is undoubtedly far different (and much more accurate) than yours.
You are a very naive individual Clark Lehman.
As you pointed out, we really don’t know what happened. This itself is very weird. Up until this point, the USG looked at terrorist attacks as criminal matters. They did a forensic investigation and went to trial with their evidence. This govt. had successfully put terrorists in prison using normal criminal procedures.
This successful criminal justice approach was abandoned and replaced by war and the elimination of our civil rights. One of the strangest things I learned was that at 1 p.m. that afternoon Dick and David Addington were down in the basement saferoom talking about Gitmo and how to get around the Geneva Conventions.
US intelligence some how bombed and destroyed the wrong country (actually wrong countries). Muslims who had nothing to do with anything were being dragged from their home and rendered for torture. I lived near Detroit. It happened there. Torture was ramped up, black sites instituted all over the place, and “the worst of the worst” (meaning a bunch of innocent men picked up far from any battlefield) were brought in to be torture and some died.
In the meantime, the Patriot act was given to Congress by the Executive Branch. Congress took the coward’s path and passed it. We now see how well that has turned out for our nation.
I hope these lawsuits will reveal what actually did occur. I hope that knowledge helps Americans to rethink what we have done to other nations and to our own. I hope we will stop the insanity and do right by those we harmed and do right by our nation by re instituting the rule of law.
Mike, another wrinkle on the story of Saudi involvement in the attacks on 9-11-2001 and the U.S. government is provided by Susan Lindauer. She was a CIA whistleblower. Yeah, she got just as nice treatment for that as you might imagine. In the video at the address below she says that Mohammed Atta, the infamous 9-11 hijacker was an agent for the U.S.
How is she still alive?
Only heretical Kulaks question any narrative put forth by our kind benevolent government who exists only to serve us comrades.
Mommygov loves you and the vodka rations will increase if you play your cards right.
Forward! The Great Leap Forward.
Let’s talk about HOW the towers fell. It appears to be a planned demolition where the towers collapse down. I don’t believe the story of how thousands of gallons of burning jet fuel weakened the beams after the plane crashed into the side of the building.
You say it is a ridiculous fairytale yet you seem to imply you believe in the whole terrorist attack aspect of it but just not that there wasn’t a foreign government supporting it and that maybe some in the U.S knew.
The official story is bullshit because it means these supposed terrorists defied the laws of physics a few times as well as defied simple logic.
The whole Saudi Arabia was involved narrative is just another distraction from the truth that they put out to appease those who were skeptical of some details but still believe it was a terrorist attack by some cave dwelling Muslims.
Of course, I am just some nut as I do not know how Saudi involvement means 3 steel highrises could all collapse because of fire (something that doesn’t happen as proven multiple times before 2001 and since then by a bunch of steel highrises that have caught fire for hours and hours and didn’t magically collapse within an hour) and they could all collapse at freefall or close to freefall speed all within their own footprint and in the case of the twin towers, have everything basically turn into dust and much of the steel melted.
Some like to bring up the jet fuel aspect yet jet fuel is just kerosene and it doesn’t have some magic super high temp. Some also like to bring up the jets crashing into the buildings aspect but that doesn’t explain Buidling #7 nor does it really explain the towers because of the way they were built (solid core with the floors attached around it) and the fact models show there was no way in one of the towers that the plane even touched the core.
Then there is how the pentagon hit magically happened on the just strengthened section where minimal people were and the pilot who allegedly sucked at flying could pull off that loop move and fly so close to the ground before hitting the building. The crash site of the supposed failed hijacking is also skeptical compared to images of other planes that crashed into the ground.
Won’t even touch on how 3 or 4 guys with tiny utility knives would be able to take over planes that have dozens of people and do this not once not twice not thrice but four times.
I also won’t touch the evidence like the untouched passport and other items that were conveniently found. So bodies and everything else burned up but not a passport or bandana from these physics defying cave dwelling Muslims. Gotcha.
I’ll say this…if somehow allllll those things did happen then there is no question Allah (Abrahamic God for those who think Allah is some different God than the God in the bible) is real and that Allah does apparently favor Muslims as that’s the only way all those things could have happened that morning as given by the narrative.
Yes, you are right, Fatsolio. It was not Saudis, it was inside job, perhaps done by team from that place over next to Jordan, as they were the ones celebrating when the towers went down. It was controlled demolition, as Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth have proved.
We were only allowed to watch 30 minutes of that day, so we were not caught up in belief system. The one image we later saw is indeliby etched into our memory. It is a picture of a gaping hole, very little smoke, no fire, one person standing on the edge, there were no plane parts, there were no bodies, just a huge hole.
We are also sure it was holographic projection as the planes melted into the buildings. Not possible. Not possible for buildings to fall at free fall rate.
It was an inside job to pass the Patriot Act and to increase our surveillance state, to get us involved in wars, because war is all that the Oligarch can do. That’s how thy control us, that’s how they steal from us, …..
When we went to war on Iraq and allowed President Bush to drow 320 tons of Depleted Uranium on the innocent Iraqi people, causing them now birth defects and more cancer, we lost God’s blessing because that is the great sin of Adultery. That DU will last for hundreds of years. God will not protect us and he will let the hordes come against us.
Attended the Newsbud 9/11 Titans of Truth webinar last night, pretty dam cool.
To think that our government wasn’t involved or at least complicit I believe is absolutely naive. The proven factual history of the CIA’s involvement in so many of the worlds conflicts and the fact that the CIA is almost certainly in charge of Saudi intelligence pretty much locks in at least our advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. Will we ever see the evidence, likely not, being that plausible deniability is the CIA’s modus-operandi. After attending the webinar at Newsbud my personal thoughts about 9/11 are still about the same, the involvement of at least portions of the U.S. , Saudi Arabian, Israeli and U.K. governments and intelligence agencies is quite likely and the sacrifice of 3000 American lives is an acceptable amount of collateral damage to maintain the above mentioned actors world hegemony. What really happened I don’t know, but I sure as hell don’t hold the assumption that our own government cares so deeply for us that it would be an impossible thought that they weren’t involved in the 9/11 attacks. Mike is correct until we have an honest investigation and people begin to accept at the very least we were utterly lied to about 9/11 there is not much hope for the awakening of the American people, 9/11 is the catalyzing event towards totalitarianism in our time.
For a nice, dry presentation absolutely impossible to face and come away accepting the official story, folks could try the italian produced documentary (don’t worry, it’s all in english) “September 11 – A New Pearl Harbor”.
After years of trying to get my immediate family to wake up, I got three of them at least half way there from viewing that documentary. There’s no conspiracy speculation in it, just a series of questions from the narrator that absolutely devastate the official story.
“I suggest we remember 9/11 by never forgetting how frequently and pathologically our government lies to us.”
We know beyond any doubt whatsoever that the government has done terrible things to the citizens of this country, the very people that they are SUPPOSED to be serving. We know that back in the 1950’s that they gave negro men diseases and then gave them placebos instead of the medicine to cure them. We know that in the 1960’s the CIA introduced bubonic plague germs into the NYC subway system. They have openly admitted this. So do I trust them now? Not on your life I don’t.
Certainly the biggest cover up in all this mess is not addressing Israeli/Mossad involvement in the operation. Generally, most “alt’ media won’t even touch it.
This comes to mind: https://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2017/09/05/why-arent-we-discussing-the-things-we-agree-on/
We can’t agree on anything because cognitive dissonance spurs folks to make comments like this:
“…of course Saudi was complicit but saying ours were is going to far…”
Which gets us eventually to this: https://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2017/09/06/the-political-environment-i-want-to-see/
Since when is it about what I want? Never has been. I didn’t even ask to be born. I certainly didn’t ask to be American. For most of my life I thought that was fortunate. Maybe it still is. We’ll have to see.
And what will we see? Likely not a thoughtful public debate about corruption in our government, because it’s only the other tribe that does such things. Investigating corruption in government cannot be done on a left-right basis. That’s a Hegelian trick. Unless there is one tribe to rule them all? And whether or not we are aware, we are members of tribes, probably lesser ones, because this: https://youtu.be/kXhZyAOuyhE (seeing purple, anyone? ‘My tribe is the U.S. of A., dammit! It has to be those damn Saudi’s…aka Mossad!’ http://new.euro-med.dk/wp-content/uploads/mossad.jpg)
Of course, until there is a fake crisis, none of this matters. In a real crisis, folks take care of one another. In a fake one, where nobody is really in any peril, we seem bent on killing. Fake news, fake crises, fake tribes, all fake, all-the-time: illusion.
What’s real? “We the People.” And what is that?
“When you realize it, you will never fall back into delusion; knowing it, you see all beings in yourself, and yourself in me.” Baghavad Gita 4-35 (translation by Stephen Mitchell)
Or, like the Beatles said:
“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. See how they run like pigs from a gun see how they fly. I’m crying.”
I lament the state of things, but I don’t imagine I can or should change it.
“You want to change the world? That is a preposterous claim!” H.H. Sri Svami Purna Maharaj
But, if you need a helping hand, or maybe I do, we can come together. We won’t need to discuss anything. The State will have nothing to do with it. It will be natural, organic even, and we will all be better for it. Then we look at each other, all of us, astonished that we ever imagined any other reality than We. Not they or them. No I or me. Better to consider you, and raise me up to the divine WE.
And,
We need to admit our inherent susceptibility to illusion (aka bullshit, aka sin), in general, before we can even begin to process what is going on in the world.
The supposed Israeli “art students” living in Hollywood Florida on the same street as Mohammed Atta and 3 of the hijackers were actually Mossad highly trained in electronic surveillance. They knew exactly what was going to happen.
Of course the CIA and the FBI have known this for years and have denied and buried this information. Now anyone who tries to shed light on it is branded as a conspiracy theorist.
The very fact that the American government is obstructing justice and with holding evidence, and has done so for three successive administrations spanning sixteen years while using the battle cry of 9/11/2001 for making unauthorized domestic Constitutional abridgements and international war on multiple nations means that those who constitute ruling government in all its facets have broken with lawful existence and are no longer fit to hold sway over the nation.
How and who is generally well known but without a court to which evidence can be brought the guilty remain free from any justice being served and are able to continue in their unlawful ways and will resort to any and all means to avoid being brought to justice. This imperils not only the American people but all peoples where American influence is felt.
9/11/2001 was a gambit among others for global hegemony. The same crime family that did this are also working on many other fronts simultaneously and on many levels within those fronts….trade deals as sovereignty for corporate rights [NAFTA renegotiated as the TPP], the global warming meme being used to restructure world wide human society in corporate and financial interests under Agenda 21, national bankruptcies – digital cash – a coming universal currency and universal taxation to back it, divide and conquer politics, police state emergence, cultural disorientation by massive immigration, instituting a one world standard of living for the masses and other tactics are being used and are aimed primarily at those democracy loving western populations. This is but a sample of what is taking place behind the scenes and 9/11/2001 was the orchestrated defining event for the beginning big push to accomplish their “one world order” ..
YOU..BRF are one damn smart SOB and dead on correct!!!!
Can’t you see…Saudi Arabia is a bunny trail. It is a diversion story, a psyop. Look over there not over here. The real direction you need to be looking at is Israel. That’s where you’ll find the true masterminds and hijackers of 9/11.
Islam is the enemy and you folks are barking up the wrong tree.
No Israeli research? No dancing Israelis? No art students? No jellatin B-Thing? No Urban Movers? No dual-Israeil citizenship? No Michael Chertoff? No Dov Zakheim? No Larry Silverstein? No WTC1&2 asbestos? No PNAC? No new Pearl Harbor? ahh No WTC 7 controlled demolition? It was the most masterfully orchestrated deciption and crime of the in a 1000 years.
Brovo Zionist NeoCons! Brovo!
Genie Oil: The Syria, Goldman Sachs, Israel, ISIS connection
http://www.trunews.com/article/genie-oil-the-syria-goldman-sachs-israel-isis-connection
BELIEVE IT OR NOT!
19 Arabs with WMD did 911!
WTF?
Yep!
19 Arabs with BOX-CUTTERS, beat the multi-billion defense system of America and carried out 911.
BE AFRAID!
BE VERY AFRAID!
If 19 Arabs, with BOX-CUTTERS, can carry out 911, what could 1,000 Arabs do?