9/11 coincidences and oddities page!
(and other note worthy tidbits.)
Pre 2001 • 2001 • 9/11 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 2005 • 2006
Last updated: 02/14/2007
(Use the Wayback Machine for expired links.)
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<![endif]>January 2002 - Steel from the wreckage of the
destroyed WTC will be shipped to China and India to be
melted down and recycled which has angered some
investigators, engineers and victim's families who say the
steel could hold vital clues about why the towers collapsed
and GPS tracking devices were installed on the trucks
hauling the "highly sensitive" steel scraps away to be
melted.
Ground Zero steel China-bound
"China's biggest steel firm says it will
receive its first shipment of scrap metal from the World
Trade Center wreckage soon and turn it into steel plates --
not, as some newspaper reports had suggested, souvenirs.
Chinese state newspapers had earlier reported that Shanghai
Baosteel Group Corp. planned to turn 50,000 tons of Ground
Zero steel into souvenirs -- including models of the twin
towers.
But a company spokesman told Reuters news agency on Wednesday that the shipment would not be treated any differently from ordinary purchases of scrap, and would be turned into steel plates.
The Beijing Youth Daily, one of the newspapers
to report the purported souvenir plan, said Baosteel was one
of the first companies in the world to contact the United
States about the scrap and consequently made a good
deal.
It bought 50,000 tons of steel scrap at a price of "less
than $120 per ton," the newspaper quoted Baosteel executives
as saying. It did not give an exact price figure.
India scrap dealers have already ordered four
steel consignments.
Two 33,000-ton consignments have already arrived in the
southern port of Madras, a third is on its way and a fourth
would arrive soon at the west coast port of Kandla.
The scrap was bought at $120 per ton and is to be recycled
into ingots to be sold to various industries, including
construction." - CNN
(01/23/02)
Baosteel Will Recycle World Trade Center Debris
"A shipment of scrap steel from New York's
collapsed World Trade Center will arrive in Shanghai
tomorrow, according to media reports. The steel was bought
by Shanghai Baosteel Group Corp. and several other domestic
mills, which are always eager to buy scrap metal.
Baosteel Group, the nation's largest steel firm, has
purchased 50,000 tons of the scrap steel from "Ground Zero,"
the ruins of the September 11 terrorist attack, at no more
than US$120 each ton, according to yesterday's Beijing Youth
Daily.
Most of the scrap will be recycled into ingots, but part of
the relics will be mold-ed into WTC souvenirs, the paper
said.
Another shipment of 10,000 tons of scrap from
the WTC arrived in India earlier this month, reported
Shanghai Morning Post. The metal will be melted down and
recycled into kitchenware and other household items, the
paper said.
India bought its lot at US$120 per ton from the New Jersey
scrap processor Metal Management, which purchased 40,000
tons of the debris at an auction held by the New York City
government. Dealers estimated that the WTC disaster created
more than 300,000 tons of scrap metal.
"All in all, China's purchase from the WTC
ruins counts for little to its steel industry, given the
nation's big consumption of scrap each year," said Qu Li, an
analyst with China Securities.
"But the price of US$120 per ton is, if not great, quite
reasonable," she added.
The average price paid by local mills last year for scrap
steel was 1,250 yuan (US$150.6) a ton.
New York authorities' decision to ship the
twin towers' scrap to recyclers has raised the anger of
victims' families and some engineers who believe the massive
girders should be further examined to help determine how the
towers collapsed.
But New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg insisted there are better
ways to study the tragedy of September 11.
"If you want to take a look at the construction methods and
the design, that's in this day and age what computers do,"
said Bloomberg, a former engineering major. "Just looking at
a piece of metal generally doesn't tell you anything." -
China.org
(01/24/02)
Congressional panel focuses on why WTC collapsed
"The investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center has been hampered by the destruction of steel wreckage that could hold vital clues about why the twin towers fell, a fire expert is telling a congressional panel.
Glenn Corbett, a fire science professor at John Jay College, was critical of New York City's decision to melt down and recycle tons of charred and twisted steel from the trade center.
The investigation into the trade center collapse is being conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Society of Civil Engineers. A FEMA assessment team is expected to release a report of its findings in April." - USA Today (03/06/02), CBS (03/06/02)
GPS ON THE JOB IN MASSIVE WORLD TRADE CENTER CLEAN-UP
"In late September of 2001, only weeks after
the World Trade Center disaster, officials uncovered a
criminal scheme to divert sheet metal beams from the Ground
Zero rubble to Long Island and New Jersey. In late October,
some 250 tons of scrap metal were found at unofficial dump
sites in both those areas.
On November 26, the city initiated use of an in-vehicle GPS
tracking system to monitor locations of trucks hired to haul
the debris to Fresh Kills, the official dump site on Staten
Island.
Within three weeks, the system elements were in place, and nearly 200 trucks in New York City were being tracked in real time. Installed by MIT with assistance from PowerLoc and four trucking contractors, the solution revolved around PowerLoc's Vehicle Location Device (VLD). Each VLD unit costs about $1,000.
Ninety-nine percent of the drivers were extremely driven to do their jobs. But there were big concerns, because the loads consisted of highly sensitive material. One driver, for example, took an extended lunch break of an hour and a half. There was nothing criminal about that, but he was dismissed. There were also cases where trucks did little detours from their routes, Shalmon says.
Thanks in large part to the efforts of IDC-Criticom and its two subcontractors, a clean-up originally projected to last until September was completed in May. Defying previous estimates of $7 billion, the total clean-up bill ran to just $750 million." - Access Control & Security Solutions (07/01/02)
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<![endif]>January 2002 - Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani
forms Giuliani Partners,
a lucrative investment and security consulting firm with key
figures from the 9/11 including the former NYC Police
Commissioner, NYC Fire Commissioner, and head of the NYC
Office of Emergency Management.
Tales of the City, Revisited
What's Happened to "America's Mayor"?
"After 9/11, anytime Americans encountered a really hard
problem, someone would nominate Rudy Giuliani to solve it.
There were calls for him to take over WorldCom, the SEC, the
state, even the country.
But by January 2002, Giuliani had already reinvented himself
as a businessman. The experiment has been extremely
lucrative. Giuliani Parnters, the consulting and investment
firm that he started by transplanting key members of his
administration into a dark wood paneled office on Times
Square, is bringing in just over a $100 million a year in
revenue, according to a source close to the company. That
would mean the firm is collecting over $2 million per
employee, which is phenomenal. (By comparison, Goldman
Sachs, the Wall Street banking giant, takes in roughly $1.2
million per employee.). Companies like Nextel, Purdue Pharma
and the nuclear-power plant operator Entergy hire the firm
to advise them on logistics and security. And, of course,
for the name Giuliani.
At a staff meeting last week, Giuliani's new world appeared seamlessly woven into his old. His former fire chief, former emergency management commissioner and longtime spokeswoman all sat at the table.
Giuliani continues to be one of the country's
most trusted voices on terrorism. And his leadership after
the attacks-along with his old stubbornness - still shield
him from criticism. When asked if it was a mistake to put
the city's emergency command center in 7 World Trade Center,
which collapsed on 9/11, he doesn't budge. "No. It was
placed there because that's where the Secret Service was,
that's where the CIA was," he says. "You had to put it
somewhere."
Meanwhile, Giuliani has been speaking across the globe for
fees of $75,000 and up-sometimes way up." - Giuliani
Partners/TIME (09/06/04)
Giuliani Partners - "Mr. Giuliani is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Giuliani Partners LLC, which he founded in January 2002."
Pasquale
J. D'Amuro - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of
Giuliani Security & Safety LLC, a division of Giuliani
Partners LLC dedicated to security consulting.
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Mr.
D'Amuro was appointed Inspector in Charge of the FBI's
investigation of those attacks.
Anthony V. Carbonetti - founding Partner and Managing Director of Giuliani Partners LLC. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Carbonetti served as Chief of Staff to Mayor Giuliani from 1999 to 2001. Mr. Carbonetti was serving as Chief of Staff on September 11, 2001, and was an integral part of the Giuliani team that helped guide New York City through the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history.
Richard
J. Sheirer - Senior Vice President at Giuliani Partners
and is New York Citys former Commissioner of Emergency
Management. Mr. Sheirer is a public safety expert with three
decades of experience in law enforcement and crisis
management, including having served as the Deputy
Commissioner for Administration for the New York City Police
Department and Chief of Staff to the Commissioner.
Before joining the Police Department, Mr. Sheirer served in
the New York City Fire Department for 20 years, with an
emphasis on emergency communication issues, and rose to the
level of Deputy Commissioner. In February of 2000, he was
named Director of the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management
where he was responsible for mitigation, preparedness,
response and recovery for all emergency conditions requiring
the involvement of multiple government agencies.
Thomas
Von Essen - Mr. Von Essen is a Senior Vice President at
Giuliani Partners and is Chief Executive Officer of
Giuliani-Von Essen LLC, which is an affiliate of Giuliani
Partners.
Mr. Von Essen was appointed New York Citys 30th Fire
Commissioner in 1996.
Dennison Young, Jr. - founding Partner and Managing Director of Giuliani Partners LLC. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Young served as Chief Counsel to Mayor Giuliani during his eight years at City Hall. During that time, he was the Mayors primary legal advisor on matters involving the City and was responsible for overseeing all public safety agencies including the New York Police Department, the Fire Department of New York, the Office of Emergency Management, and the Criminal Justice Coordinators Office.
Key Figures Of September 11 - CBS
"Although already well known outside of New
York before Sept. 11, the former mayor truly became an
international figure for his cool-headed response to the
attack.
After leaving office in 2002, Giuliani and several aides
formed a consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, which has taken
on assignments from crime-fighting in Mexico to
corruption-busting at horse-racing tracks. Giuliani, 59, has
become a major fund-raiser for the Republican Party, and is
often mentioned as a potential Senate or gubernatorial
candidate.
He married Judith Nathan in May 2003, less than a year after
an ugly public divorce from his former wife, Donna Hanover."
The Police Commissioner, Bernard Kerik
"When Kerik was appointed police commissioner
in August 2000, he was a little-known, low-key figure. After
the attack, the 48-year-old Kerik was a near-constant
presence at Giuliani's side, helping rally with his solemn
determination a department that had lost 23 members.
A consultant for Giuliani Partners, Kerik has been on
assignment in Iraq, where he is dubbed the "Baghdad
Terminator" for his no-nonsense style in rebuilding the
city's police force." - CBS
The
Search Coordinator, Richard Sheirer
"As head of the Giuliani-created Office of
Emergency Management, Sheirer had the mammoth task of
coordinating the search for the dead and the clearance of
the trade center site.
The job was widely assumed to take at least a year to
complete. It was finished in nine months at a fraction of
the estimated cost.
After leaving the office in March 2002, Sheirer joined
Giuliani's consulting firm."
The Fire Commissioner, Thomas Von Essen
"Von Essen, who had served for six years as
commissioner of the Fire Department of New York, directed
the department's response to the attack, which claimed the
lives of 343 firefighters.
At the end of the Giuliani administration, he joined
Giuliani's firm as a consultant."
Hiring Giuliani's consulting firm makes perfect horse sense
"Giuliani's group includes New York City former police commissioner Bernard Kerik, former fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen and former director of emergency management Richard Sheirer.
Giuliani's stock has risen to epic levels because of the strength and decisive leadership he showed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." - Review Journal (11/22/02)
(See also: December
3, 2004 - Bush nominates Bernard Kerik for
Homeland Security; December
22, 2004 - Bernard Kerik resigns from Giuliani
Partners after scandal; March
17, 2005 - Giuliani firm's deal to advise company
raises questions)
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<![endif]>January 1, 2002 - Bush appoints senior member of his
administration, current PNAC member, and former Unocal
advisor Zalmay Khalilzad to be U.S. special envoy to
Afghanistan.
"US
President George Bush has appointed an Afghan-American who
is already a senior member of his administration to be the
US special envoy to Afghanistan.
Zalmay Khalilzad will work with the interim government and
alongside the United Nations special representative to
Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi." - BBC
(1/01/02)
"Zalmay
Khalilzad is the highest-ranking native Afghan and Muslim in
the Bush administration.
Khalilzad served under former U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan
and George H. Bush as special assistant to the president for
Southwest Asia, the Near East and North Africa.
From 1985 to 1989, Khalilzad served as a senior United
States Department of State official advising on the Soviet
war in Afghanistan and the Iran-Iraq war, and from 1991 to
1992, he was a senior Defense Department official for policy
planning.
He served as a counsellor to United States Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Zalmay Khalilzad was an advisor for the Unocal
Corporation.
In the mid 1990s, while working for the Cambridge Energy
Research Associates, Khalilzad conducted risk analyses for
Unocal for a proposed 890-mile, $2-billion,
1.9-billion-cubic-feet-per-day natural gas pipeline project
which would have extended from Turkmenistan through
Afghanistan to Pakistan.
He has served in both the State and Defense Departments and
is a member of the National Security Council.
Khalilzad became the Bush administration's special envoy to
Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban as well as is
special envoy to the Iraqi opposition to Saddam Hussein." -
Wikipedia
Project for the New American Century who's who: Elliott Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Eliot A. Cohen, Midge Decter, Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes, Aaron Friedberg, Francis Fukuyama, Frank Gaffney, Fred C. Ikle, Donald Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad, I. Lewis Libby, Norman Podhoretz, Dan Quayle, Peter W. Rodman, Stephen P. Rosen, Henry S. Rowen, Donald Rumsfeld, Vin Weber, George Weigel, Paul Wolfowitz - PNAC Statement of Principles
(See also: November 8, 2001 - A war for the pipelines?; May 13, 2002 - Afghanistan plans gas pipeline)
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<![endif]>January 1, 2002 - Wife of FEMA Ground Zero
videographer Kurt Sonnenfeld is found shot in the head at
their Denver home in an apparent suicide act.
Sonnenfeld charges dropped; FEMA worker's wife was found shot in head at their Denver home on New Year's Day
"Prosecutors Thursday dismissed first-degree
murder charges against former FEMA videographer Kurt
Sonnenfeld in the early New Year's morning shooting death of
his wife.
Nancy Sonnenfeld, 36, died of a gunshot wound in the head
after she and her husband had celebrated New Year's Eve
together. Kurt Sonnenfeld told police that his wife
committed suicide.
Prosecutors wouldn't comment on specific reasons for the
dismissal, but the defense investigation found a note
written by Nancy Sonnenfeld which police had not taken into
evidence, said public defender Carrie Thompson.
"Our investigators found a letter written in Nancy's own
hand consistent with a suicide letter, although it was very
cryptic," Thompson said.
She said the letter said, "What is more beautiful than love
and death?" with the word "love" scratched out. "Kurt,
please get help." The letter was found behind a framed
photograph of Kurt Sonnenfeld.
Lepley said the case will remain under investigation and
could be refiled. Because of that, he said he couldn't
discuss the role specific evidence played in the
decision.
Kurt Sonnenfeld was a videographer who documented disaster
sites for FEMA, including the Sept 11 attacks in New York.
Nancy Sonnenfeld was a manager for BSA Advertising.
Denver police said they ruled out suicide because the wound
was in the back of the head and could not be self-inflicted.
But the coroner's report states that the bullet entered
about 2 inches above and behind her right ear.
Police also noted that the .45-caliber handgun was on the
floor 6 to 8 feet away from Nancy Sonnenfeld.
At a preliminary hearing in February, Thompson argued that
Nancy Sonnenfeld had been depressed in the preceding months
and had tried to commit suicide by overdosing on pills after
a trip to Thailand during which Kurt Sonnenfeld was using
heroin. Her sister, Leek, refuted that account.
Sonnenfeld told police that their 8-year marriage had soured
because of his drug use and drinking problem.
Kurt Sonnenfeld told police that he was checking his e-mail
in his bedroom after they returned home in the early morning
hours of New Year's Day when he heard a gunshot." -
Rocky
Mountain News (06/13/06)
Love and death; The tragic story of Kurt and Nancy Sonnenfeld - Rocky Mountain News (06/24/02)
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<![endif]>January 2, 2002 - Judge enters innocent plea on
Moussaoui's behalf, mother fears for him
"Zacarias
Moussaoui, the first person indicted in the Sept. 11
attacks, invoked the name of Allah and declared to a court
Wednesday "I do not have anything to plead." A judge entered
an innocent plea on his behalf.
"In the name of Allah, I do not have anything to plead. I
enter no plea. Thank you very much," Moussaoui told U.S.
District Judge Leonie Brinkema.
Brinkema set a trial date of Oct. 14, with jury selection to
begin Sept. 30. She rejected defense arguments that the date
would be too close to the one-year anniversary of the Sept.
11 attacks and the vast amount of publicity that could be
expected at that time.
The defendant, 33, is a French citizen of Moroccan descent
who received a master's degree in England.
Although Moussaoui has been in federal custody on
immigration charges since August, when he aroused suspicions
at a Minnesota flight school, the indictment says he
conspired with the Sept. 11 hijackers to kill and maim
victims in the United States. While accusing him of links to
Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, the indictment does not
explain his role in the terror attacks.
The indictment accuses Moussaoui of pursuing some of the
same activities as the hijackers by taking flight training
in the United States, inquiring about crop dusting and
purchasing flight deck training videos.
The indictment also said Moussaoui received money in July
and August from Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, an alleged member of a
German terrorist cell who was a roommate of Mohammed Atta,
the suspected ringleader in the attacks. The FBI believes
Bin al-Shibh may have been planning to be the 20th
hijacker.
A clear indication of the case's importance was Senate
passage of legislation to broadcast the trial on
closed-circuit television in the cities most affected by the
hijackings." - Detroit
News/AP (01/02/02)
"The
mother of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person indicted in
the September 11 suicide hijackings, says she fears her son
will become a scapegoat for America's pain and
suffering.
"Tell the American people that I share in their suffering,
particularly with those who lost their loved ones," Aicha
el-Wafi told The Associated Press as she arrived at Paris'
Charles de Gaulle airport on Thursday, after returning from
the United States.
"I don't want my son to be used as a scapegoat for the pain
and suffering of the American people," she said.
El-Wafi said that her son had told her he had proof of his
innocence. "He must be allowed to show proof," she said.
Moussaoui has been in U.S. custody on immigration charges
since August, when he aroused suspicions at a Minnesota
flight school where he was taking lessons.
He has been indicted on six conspiracy charges, four of
which could bring the death penalty, in connection with the
September 11 attacks.
"I will not accept the death penalty, I will fight it very
strongly," his mother told AP." - CNN
(01/03/02)
- More details: CNN Timeline: The Case Against Zacarias Moussaoui
(See also: December 11, 2001 - Moussaoui indicted for 9/11; March 28, 2002 - U.S. seeks the death penalty against Moussaoui)
January 4, 2002 - Fire Engineering says the official WTC investigation on why it collapsed is a 'half-baked farce' that may already have been 'commandeered by political forces' whose primary interests lie 'far afield of full disclosure.'
$elling Out the Investigation
"Did they throw away the locked doors from the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire? Did they throw away the gas can used at the Happyland Social Club Fire? Did they cast aside the pressure-regulating valves at the Meridian Plaza Fire? Of course not. But essentially, that's what they're doing at the World Trade Center.
For more than three months, structural steel from the World Trade Center has been and continues to be cut up and sold for scrap. Crucial evidence that could answer many questions about high-rise building design practices and performance under fire conditions is on the slow boat to China, perhaps never to be seen again in America until you buy your next car.
Such destruction of evidence shows the astounding ignorance of government officials to the value of a thorough, scientific investigation of the largest fire-induced collapse in world history. I have combed through our national standard for fire investigation, NFPA 921, but nowhere in it does one find an exemption allowing the destruction of evidence for buildings over 10 stories tall.
Comprehensive disaster investigations mean increased safety. They mean positive change. NASA knows it. The NTSB knows it. Does FEMA know it?
No. Fire Engineering has good reason to believe that the "official investigation" blessed by FEMA and run by the American Society of Civil Engineers is a half-baked farce that may already have been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure. Except for the marginal benefit obtained from a three-day, visual walk-through of evidence sites conducted by ASCE investigation committee members- described by one close source as a "tourist trip"-no one's checking the evidence for anything.
As things now stand and if they continue in such fashion, the investigation into the World Trade Center fire and collapse will amount to paper- and computer-generated hypotheticals.
However, respected members of the fire protection engineering community are beginning to raise red flags, and a resonating theory has emerged: The structural damage from the planes and the explosive ignition of jet fuel in themselves were not enough to bring down the towers.
The destruction and removal of evidence must stop immediately.
The federal government must scrap the current setup and commission a fully resourced blue ribbon panel to conduct a clean and thorough investigation of the fire and collapse, leaving no stones unturned.
Firefighters, this is your call to action. Visit WTC "Investigation"?: A Call to Action, then contact your representatives in Congress and officials in Washington and help us correct this problem immediately." - Fire Engineering (01/04/02)
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<![endif]>January 5, 2002 - In a speech in California, Bush
again claims to have seen one of the hijacked planes crash
into the WTC live on TV at the school he was at, but
this time he specifically claims that he witnessed the first
plane crash even though he hadn't even arrived at the school
yet.
"Anyway, I was sitting there, and my Chief of Staff -- well, first of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake. And something was wrong with the plane, or -- anyway, I'm sitting there, listening to the briefing, and Andy Card came and said, 'America is under attack.'" - White House (01/05/02)
"The first airplane hit the north tower at 8:46 a.m., as the president's motorcade crossed the John Ringling Causeway on the way to Booker Elementary from the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort on Longboat Key." - Washington Times (10/08/02)
"At 8:52 a.m. ET, ABCNEWS' Good Morning America broke in with a special report showing flames coming out of the World Trade Center. At the time, President Bush's motorcade was arriving at the Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., for a planned event..." - ABC (09/14/01)
(See also: December 4, 2001 - Bush claims he saw one of the planes crash into the WTC live on a TV in his holding room at Booker Elementary school; Killtown's: Did Bush see the 2nd WTC plane crash?)
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<![endif]>January 5, 2002 - Bush refers to the day of the 9/11
attacks as "an interesting day."
"And in
the meantime, this teacher was going on about the
curriculum, and I was thinking about what it meant for
America to be under attack. It was an amazing thought. But I
made up my mind that if America was under attack, we'd get
them. (Applause.) I wasn't interested in lawyers, I wasn't
interested in a bunch of debate. I was interested in finding
out who did it and bringing them to justice. I also knew
that they would try to hide, and anybody who provided haven,
help, food, would be held accountable by the United States
of America." (Applause.)
"Anyway, it was an interesting day." - White
House (01/05/02)
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<![endif]>January 5, 2002 - A stolen Cessna, allegedly
flown by 15 yr. old Charles J. Bishop, crashes into a Tampa
Bay office building which houses the local office of Sen.
Bob Graham (D-FL) after flying over MacDill Air Force Base
(home of the U.S.
Central Command which directs the U.S. forces operating in
Afghanistan and US Special Operations Command which does
psychological operations) and a suicide
note was allegedly found in the plane expressing
Bishop's sympathy for Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11
attacks.
"A note
written by the 15-year-old boy who crashed a Cessna into a
Tampa office building indicated he supported Osama bin Laden
and that the act was deliberate, authorities say.
Charles J. Bishop, who took the plane on an unauthorized
flight across Tampa Bay, died at the scene of Saturday's
crash into the 42-story Bank of America Plaza building. He
apparently made no attempt to avoid the structure, witnesses
said.
The note, which was found in the wreckage of the plane,
"clearly stated that he had acted alone, without any help
from anyone else," Holder said. "He did, however, make
statements expressing his sympathy for Osama bin Laden and
the events which occurred September 11, 2001." Several of
the pilots involved in those attacks trained at Florida
flight schools.
After a five-minute flight over Tampa Bay, the plane entered
MacDill Air Force Base's restricted airspace and flew over
the runway about 100 feet off the ground, Miller said.
MacDill is the home of the U.S. Central Command, which
directs the U.S. forces operating in Afghanistan.
MacDill contacted the U.S. Coast Guard, which had a
helicopter on routine patrol in the vicinity, and asked it
to investigate.
Minutes before the crash, the helicopter pilot made direct
eye contact with the student through the chopper's open side
door as crew members gestured for Bishop to land the plane,
police said. It was not clear what his response was.
After being notified Saturday by the FAA, the North American
Aerospace Defense Command ordered two F-15 combat jets at
Homestead Air Force Base in Miami to intercept the Cessna
around 5:15 p.m., NORAD Capt. Kirstin Reimann said.
The F-15s arrived on the scene too late to intervene, a
Homestead spokesman said." - CNN
(01/07/02)
"The
building's tenant roster reads like a Who's Who of Tampa
businesses, including Bank of America, Arthur Andersen and
MetLife. U.S. Sen. Bob Graham's local office is on the 32nd
floor.
Bank of America Plaza's top floor is home to The Tampa Club,
a popular meeting place for Tampa's business elite." -
Tampa
Bay Online (01/06/02)
"MacDill Air Force Base is also home to more than 40 Mission Partners, including United States Central Command and United States Special Operations Command [USSOCOM Mission: Prepare special operation forces for worldwide special operations, civil affairs and psychological operations in peace and war in support of regional combatant commanders and other government agencies]." - MacDill AFB
(See also: 9/11 - Rep. Porter Goss, Sen. Bob Graham, and Sen. John Kyl are in a meeting at the Capital with ISI director, Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmed, who authorized a $100,000 wire transfer to Mohamed Atta; February 23, 2003 - Sen. Graham runs for president)
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<![endif]>January 18, 2002 - Pakistan's Musharraf: Bin Laden
probably dead, unable to get dialysis treatment.
"Pakistan's
president says he thinks Osama bin Laden is most likely dead
because the suspected terrorist has been unable to get
treatment for his kidney disease.
"I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason he is a ...
kidney patient," Gen. Pervez Musharraf said on Friday in an
interview with CNN.
Musharraf said Pakistan knew bin Laden took two dialysis
machines into Afghanistan. "One was specifically for his own
personal use," he said.
"I don't know if he has been getting all that treatment in
Afghanistan now. And the photographs that have been shown of
him on television show him extremely weak. ... I would give
the first priority that he is dead and the second priority
that he is alive somewhere in Afghanistan."
The official said U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs
dialysis every three days and "it is fairly obvious that
that could be an issue when you are running from place to
place, and facing the idea of needing to generate
electricity in a mountain hideout."
Other U.S. officials contradicted the reports of bin Laden's
health problems, saying there is "no evidence" the suspected
terrorist mastermind has ever suffered kidney failure or
required kidney dialysis. The officials called such
suggestions a "recurrent rumor." - CNN
(01/18/02)
(See also: September 10, 2001 - Osama Bin Laden reportedly undergoes kidney dialysis at a Pakistani military hospital; December 2001 - Osama bin Laden reportedly dies; July 18, 2002 - FBI counter-terrorism chief, Dale Watson, thinks Osama bin Laden is "probably" dead; October 17, 2003 - Paskistan president says Bin Laden alive)
<![if !vml]>
<![endif]>January 21, 2002 - Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Bin Laden would
need help if on dialysis
"Speculation
about the whereabouts and health of Osama bin Laden picked
up over the weekend when Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez
Musharraf, said he thought bin Laden had likely died of
kidney failure.
CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke Monday with
CNN's Paula Zahn about bin Laden's appearance in recently
released videotapes and the possibility that the accused
terrorist leader was undergoing kidney treatment.
ZAHN: For a point of reference, I'd like for you to analyze
pictures of Osama bin Laden that apparently were taken prior
to September 11. Describe to us the color and the tone of
his skin, and then I want you to contrast that with pictures
we know to have been taken much later.
GUPTA: You can look [at pictures from a
December 2001 video] and notice that he has
what some doctors refer to as sort of a frosting over of his
features -- his sort of grayness of beard, his paleness of
skin, very gaunt sort of features. A lot of times people
associate this with chronic illness. Doctors can certainly
look at that and determine some clinical features.
But even more than that, it's sometimes possible to
differentiate the specific type of disease or illness that
he may be suffering from. The sort of frosting of the
appearance is something that people a lot of times associate
with chronic kidney failure, renal failure, certainly
someone who is requiring dialysis would have that.
He's also not moving his arms. I looked at this tape all the
way through its entire length. He never moved his left arm
at all. The reason that might be important is because people
who have had a stroke -- and certainly people are at
increased risk of stroke if they also have kidney failure --
he may have had a stroke and therefore is not moving his
left side. And in the rest of the videotape, he does move
his right side a little bit more than he does his left. So
those are some of the things that are sort of "of note" here
in this more recent videotape.
ZAHN: I think we need to remind the viewers once again that
the president of Pakistan talked about [bin Laden]
importing two dialysis machines into Afghanistan. Of course,
no one other than the president of Pakistan right now is
confirming that [bin Laden] in fact needed
dialysis.
GUPTA: That's right. And again, renal dialysis -- talking
about hemodialysis -- is something that really is reserved
for patients in end-stage renal failure. That means their
kidneys have just completely shut down.
The most common cause of something like that would be
something like diabetes and hypertension. Once that's
happened, if you're separated from your dialysis machine --
and incidentally, dialysis machines require electricity,
they're going to require clean water, they're going to
require a sterile setting -- infection is a huge risk with
that. If you don't have all those things and a functioning
dialysis machine, it's unlikely that you'd survive beyond
several days or a week at the most.
ZAHN: If he had all these things you're talking about to
keep the dialysis machine running, how much help does he
need around him to administer the treatment?
GUPTA: You certainly need someone who really knows how to
run that dialysis machine. You have to have someone who's
actually assessing his blood, Osama bin Laden's blood, to
see what particular dialysate he would need, and to be able
to change his dialysate as needed. So you'd need a kidney
specialist, a technician -- quite a few people around him."
- CNN
(01/21/02)
(See also: December 2001 - Osama bin Laden reportedly dies; December 26, 2001 - A video of Osama bin Laden, looking thin and weak, is released and officials suggest the video may have been recorded in November)
<![if !vml]><![endif]>January 29, 2002 - Bush asks Daschle to limit Sept. 11
probes.
"President Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle Tuesday to limit the congressional investigation into the events of September 11, congressional and White House sources told CNN." - CNN (01/29/02)
(See also: May 17, 2002 - Cheney Warns Democrats not to investigate the 9/11 attacks; May 19, 2002 - Cheney cautions Democrats who suggest Bush had advanced knowledge; May 23, 2002 - Bush Opposes 9/11 Query Panel)
<![if !vml]>
<![endif]>January
29, 2002 - Val
McClatchey registers her "End of Serenity" smoke plume photo
for copyright.
"Registration
Number: VA-1-128-462
Title: End of serenity.
Description: Photo.
Claimant: acValencia M. McClatchey
Created: 2001
Published: 1Oct01
Registered: 29Jan02" - copyright.gov
- See also: flight93photo.blogspot.com
February 2002 - US military intelligence warned the Bush administration that a captured Al Qaeda operative had given fabricated information that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members in how to make chemical and biological weapons, information the Bush administration would later use as the foundation for military action against Iraq.
Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence Suspicions
"A high Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.
The document, an
intelligence report from February 2002, said it was probable
that the prisoner, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, "was intentionally
misleading the debriefers" in making claims about Iraqi
support for Al Qaeda's work with illicit weapons.
The document provides the earliest and
strongest indication of doubts voiced by American
intelligence agencies about Mr. Libi's credibility. Without
mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick
Cheney, Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, and other
administration officials repeatedly cited Mr. Libi's
information as "credible" evidence that Iraq was training Al
Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons."
- NY
Times (11/06/05)
US intel on Iraq-Qaeda ties 'intentionally misleading': document
"US military intelligence warned the Bush administration as early as February 2002 that its key source on Al-Qaeda's relationship with Iraq had provided "intentionally misleading" data, according to a declassified report.
Nevertheless, eight months later, President George W. Bush went public with charges that the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein had trained members of Osama bin Laden's terror network in manufacturing deadly poisons and gases." - Yahoo/AFP (11/07/05) [Reprinted at: truthout.org]
(See also: October 16, 2002 - President Bush uses information he was warned may be faulty in a speech to try to link Iraq to Al Qaeda; February 5, 2003 - Colin Powell addresses UN about Iraq's alleged connections with Al Qaeda)
<![if !vml]>
<![endif]>February
1, 2002 - Rumsfeld wants to beef up high-tech
weapons
"Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants $9 billion in his new budget
to beef up the Pentagon's high-tech arsenal, but he is
squashing a push by the military's top brass to add more
than 50,000 troops to fight the war on terrorism, Pentagon
officials say.
Before Sept. 11, Rumsfeld wanted to cut troop strength and
increase spending on hi-tech weapons as part of a plan to
"transform" the military into a lighter, more mobile
fighting force for the 21st century. The service chiefs
argued for more troops and weapons.
Unmanned aerial vehicles, known as UAVs. More than $100
million to buy missile-firing Predator drones like those
used for the first time against the Taliban. Several hundred
million dollars will speed production of Global Hawk, the
long-range UAV that also debuted in Afghanistan. Also
stepped-up: work on a stealthy, bomb-dropping UAV.
Rumsfeld's budget request also includes $8.5 billion for
missile defense and $68 billion for new weapons, including
$5 billion for the Air Force's new F-22 fighter jet." -
USAToday
(2/01/02)
<![if !vml]><![endif]>February 1, 2002 - CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen:
Bin Laden has aged 'enormously.'
"On
Thursday night, CNN aired parts of an interview with Osama
bin Laden that the Arabic-language television network
Al-Jazeera recorded in late October.
CNN's Paula Zahn discussed the tape Friday with CNN
terrorism analyst Peter Bergen, who has been studying bin
Laden and his operation for several years.
CNN: The last interview you did with bin Laden was back in
1997. How different was the Osama bin Laden we saw in this
tape, the interview taped late in October of 2001?
BERGEN: He's actually quite similar. I mean, in terms of his
demeanor and his voice -- these kinds of things are quite
similar. The big difference is that he's aged enormously
between '97 and October of last year.
This is a man who was clearly not well. I mean, as you see
from these pictures here, he's really, by December he's
looking pretty terrible. But by December, of course, that
tape that was aired then, he's barely moving the left side
of his body. So he's clearly got diabetes. He has low blood
pressure. He's got a wound in his foot. He's apparently got
dialysis ... for kidney problems.
I mean, this is a man who has a number of health problems,
apart from the fact that anybody running around the Afghan
mountains is not going to be in great shape.
CNN: And, of course, the question that people continue to
debate is not only is he not well, is he still alive today?"
- CNN
(02/01/02)
(See also: December 2001 - Osama bin Laden reportedly dies; December 26, 2001 - A video of Osama bin Laden, looking thin and weak, is released and officials suggest the video may have been recorded in November)
<![if !vml]>
<![endif]>February 4, 2002 - The Defense Department's budget
request for fiscal year 2003 is a $40.1 billion (or 10.9%)
increase over last years budget.
DETAILS OF FISCAL 2003 DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE (DOD) BUDGET REQUEST
"The President's budget proposes $369 billion for Department
of Defense plus $10 billion, if needed, to fight the war on
terrorism-for a total of $379 billion. The budget fulfills
President Bush's pledge to win the war against terrorism,
defend America and its people, improve quality of life for
our men and women in uniform, and accelerate a bold
transformation of the U.S. military to counter 21st century
threats." - DoD
(02/04/02)
- FY 2002 request - $328.9 billion [ $37.8 billion, or 11.5% increase ] - DoD (06/27/01)
- FY 2003 request - $369.0 billion [ $40.1 billion, or 10.9% increase ] - DoD (02/04/02)
(See also: June 27, 2001 - '02 defense budget request is a $37.8 billion or 11.5% increase over '01)
February 10, 2002 - Bin Laden lieutenant "admits" to 9/11.
"A man
described as one of Osama bin Laden's closest aides, Abu
'Ubeid Al-Qurashi, has acknowledged that the terrorist
network al-Qaida carried out the Sept. 11 attacks against
the U.S.
The admission was made in an article he wrote for al-Qaida's
biweekly Internet magazine, Al-Ansar. The Middle East Media
Research Institute translated the article into
English." - WorldNetDaily
(02/11/02)
February 20, 2002 - Letters supposedly written by US troops in Iraq detailing their successes in the country were all written by their commander.
Lies, damned lies and Pentagon briefings
"Fresh from dropping anti-Taliban leaflets
over the mountains of Afghanistan, the secretive propaganda
arm of the US military is planning to bring the battle for
hearts and minds closer to home, by planting fake news
stories in the media outlets of America's allies, it was
reported yesterday.
Stung by criticism of the war against terrorism, the
Pentagon's little-known office of strategic influence is
preparing to feed misinformation to foreign news
organisations in friendly nations, military officials told
the New York Times. It quoted an unnamed senior Pentagon
official as saying the office's operations would go "from
the blackest of black to the whitest of white", using the
military's terms for false and true propaganda.
The plan has outraged other Pentagon
departments because it could undermine the credibility of
information given out by the defence department's press
spokespeople. "Everybody understands using information
operations to go after non-friendlies; when people get
uncomfortable is when people use the same tools and tactics
on friendlies," another military official told the
newspaper.
It might also be illegal: the US government is banned from
spreading misinformation at home, and some in the department
fear that stories planted in foreign publications might be
reproduced in America.
The Pentagon would not discuss the allegations yesterday,
but the cold war-style campaign seems well-advanced. The OSI
has hired a Washington consulting firm, the Rendon Group,
whose previous clients range from the Kuwaiti royal family
to the New Zealand milk marketing board, on a contract worth
about $100,000 (70,000) a month.
"We have a confidentiality agreement regarding our contract
with the department of defence," a spokeswoman for the group
said yesterday. "The contract really prevents me from
telling you anything, frustrating though that is."
The army's psychological operations command, or "psyops",
will also help to carry out the plan.
Among the OSI's other ingenious strategies, the newspaper
reported, is a plan to send emails to foreign leaders and
journalists presenting America in a good light and
disparaging its enemies.
Many senior defence personnel know little of the OSI, which
was established after September 11 to shore up support,
especially in Muslim countries, for the Bush
administration's war on terror. It is understood to have a
multi-million dollar share of the extra $10bn made available
to the Pentagon in the aftermath of the terrorist
attacks.
The president has not yet approved the misinformation
campaign, pending the go-ahead from the Pentagon lawyer." -
Guardian
(02/20/02)
US Army's 'fake' letters cause stir
"A series of letters supposedly written by US
troops in Iraq detailing their successes in the country were
all written by their commander, it has emerged.
The publication of the letters, in several US newspapers,
comes as the Bush administration has stepped up efforts to
win over an American public increasingly sceptical of its
handling of the situation in Iraq.
Critics said if the letters were found to be part of an
organised effort by the military to win over US hearts and
minds regarding the conflict it could be a violation of
military ethics.
However, the soldiers' commander, Lieutenant Colonel Dominic
Caraccilo, told ABC News on Tuesday his staff had written
the letters merely to get "good news" back to the US more
efficiently.
He says he then sent it round to his soldiers saying they
could send a copy home if they wanted to.
"We thought it would be a good idea to encapsulate what we
as a battalion have accomplished since arriving Iraq and
share that pride with people back home," he said." -
BBC
(10/14/03)
February 21, 2002 - U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl is dead, officials confirm
U.S.
Confirms Death of Kidnapped Reporter Daniel Pearl
"Following is the text of a statement from State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher February 21 confirming the death
of Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped in Pakistan while on
assignment for the Wall Street Journal:
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
February 21, 2002
Statement by Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Pakistan: Death of Daniel Pearl
Our Embassy in Pakistan has confirmed today that they have
received evidence that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel
Pearl is dead. We have informed Mr. Pearl's family and
expressed our sincere condolences." - US
Embassy Italy (02/21/02)
U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl is dead, officials confirm
"Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl,
kidnapped last month on his way to interview a Muslim
fundamentalist leader in Pakistan, has been killed by his
abductors, officials said Thursday. The U.S. government
condemned his killing as "an outrage" and his newspaper
called it an "act of barbarism."
FBI and Pakistani officials said they received a videotape
containing "indisputable" confirmation that the 38-year-old
Pearl had been killed.
Pearl's January 23 abduction prompted appeals from top U.S.
and Pakistani officials for his release, and resulted in the
arrests of several people believed to have been involved in
the kidnapping -- including the man Pakistani officials
identified as the ringleader, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.
His newspaper's headquarters near New York's World Trade Center was destroyed in the September 11 terrorist attack." - CNN (02/22/02)
<![if !vml]>
<![endif]>March 7, 2002 - A set of five frames taken from a
Pentagon security camera that supposedly shows Flight 77
crashing into it and erupting in a huge fireball are
released to the media, however the Pentagon says the photos
were not released "officially" by the Dept. of Defense.
"BROWN:
Now to the Pentagon, some remarkable pictures of American
Airlines Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon on September
11th.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, for six
months only a handful of people actually saw what it looked
like when that plane hit this building. When I first saw
those pictures today, I was surprised by something. You'll
see them. They were seen first on CNN today. Aaron.
MCINTYRE (voice over): The sequence of five photographs
obtained by CNN was taken by an automatic security camera at
a Pentagon checkpoint and shows what, up to now, was seen by
only a few eyewitnesses, that the American Airlines 757 came
in extremely low before hitting the ground floor of the
Pentagon.
MCINTYRE: At first glance, it's hard to see the jetliner in
the first frame, but it's there just a few feet off the
ground. The plane hit the Pentagon at a 45-degree angle, and
was reduced to tiny fragments by the impact. The biggest
piece of fuselage that could be found outside the Pentagon
was only about three feet long. The only other recognizable
feature can be seen in this exclusive CNN photograph, the
shattered cockpit window. One hundred eighty-nine people
were killed, 125 on the ground, 64 on the plane, including
the five hijackers.
MCINTYRE (on camera): These pictures are the first to be
made public, but they are not the only images of the plane
hitting the Pentagon." - CNN
(03/07/02)
"Officials
from the Pentagon said the photos were not released
officially by the Department of Defense. A Pentagon
spokeswoman could not verify that they came from
surveillance cameras.
"The Pentagon has not released any video or any photos from
security cameras from the terrorist attack of Sept. 11,"
said Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin.
A spokeswoman at the Department of Justice, which reviews
taped and photographed evidence obtained by federal security
cameras, said she could not comment on whether the photos
are legitimate, adding that the photos "were not
disseminated by the FBI or the Department of Justice." -
Washington
Post/AP (03/07/02)
"Images show September 11 Pentagon crash" - CNN (03/08/02)
(See also: 9/11 (9:37 am) - Flight 77 is said to have crashed into the only renovated section of the Pentagon being renovated to bolster it against an attack which at the time hous