9/11 coincidences and oddities page!
(and other note worthy tidbits.)
Oddity - The state or quality of being odd; strangeness.
Last updated: 04/06/2007
(Try using the Wayback Machine for expired links.)
•
February 27, 1933 - The
German parliament's Reichstag building is set ablaze
allegedly by a "crazed" young Dutch Communist in which
afterwards the Nazis would claimed the fire was part of a
"Communist conspiracy" to seize power in Germany and the
Nazis would use the incident as their launching pad to
dissolve civil liberties, ban opposition political parties,
and create a dictatorship in order to "resist" a Communist
takeover when evidence later pointed that the fire was
really perpetrated by leaders in the Nazi
Party.
"The
Reichstag fire, a pivotal event in the establishment of Nazi
Germany, began at 9:14 PM on the night of February 27, 1933,
when a Berlin fire station received an alarm that the
Reichstag building, assembly location of the German
Parliament, was ablaze. The fire seemed to have been started
in several places, and by the time the police and firemen
arrived a huge explosion had set the main Chamber of
Deputies in flames. Looking for clues, the police quickly
found Marinus van der Lubbe, naked, cowering behind the
building. Van der Lubbe was a Dutch insurrectionary council
communist and unemployed bricklayer who had recently arrived
in Germany.
Adolf Hitler and Hermann Gˆring arrived soon after,
and, when they were shown van der Lubbe, Gˆring
immediately declared the fire was set by the Communists and
had the party leaders arrested. Hitler took advantage of the
situation to declare a state of emergency and encouraged
aging president Paul von Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag
Fire Decree, abolishing most of the human rights provisions
of the 1919 Weimar Republic constitution.
...the Nazis had run on a platform of hysterical
anti-communism, insisting that Germany was on the verge of a
Communist revolution, and that the only way to stop the
revolution was to pass the Enabling Act. Hitler's platform
in the campaign comprised little more than demands that
voters increase the Nazi share of seats so that the Enabling
Act could be passed. In order to decrease the number of
opposition members who could vote against the Enabling Act,
Hitler had planned to ban the KPD, which at the time held
17% of the parliament's seats, after the elections and
before the new Reichstag convened. The Reichstag Fire
allowed Hitler to accelerate the banning of the Communist
Party and was used to confirm Nazi claims of a pending
Communist revolution. The Nazis argued the Reichstag fire
was meant to serve as a signal to launch the revolution, and
warned the German public about the grisly fate they would
suffer under Communist rule.
The Nazis alleged that Van der Lubbe was part of the Communist conspiracy to burn down the Reichstag and seize power, while the Communists alleged that Van der Lubbe was part of the Nazi conspiracy to blame the crime on them.
The
Leipzig Trial was widely publicized and was broadcast on the
radio. It was expected the court would find the Communists
guilty on all counts and approve the repression and terror
exercised by the Nazis against all opposition forces in the
country. It was clear the first time Georgi Dimitrov spoke
that would not happen. Dimitrov had given up his right to a
court appointed lawyer and defended himself successfully. He
proved his innocence and the innocence of his Communist
comrades and was set free. In addition, he presented
evidence that the organizers of the fire were senior members
of the Nazi Party.
Hitler was furious with the outcome of this trial. He
decreed that henceforth treason ñ among many other
offenses ñ would only be tried by a newly established
Volksgerichtshof (People's Court) which later became
infamous for the enormous number of death sentences it
handed down while led by Roland Freisler.
Historians generally agree that van der Lubbe was involved in the Reichstag fire. The extent of the damage, however, has led to considerable debate over whether he acted alone. Considering the speed with which the fire engulfed the building, van der Lubbe's reputation as a mentally disturbed arsonist hungry for fame, and cryptic comments by leading Nazi officials, it is generally believed the Nazi hierarchy was involved in order to reap political gain ó and it obviously did.
At Nuremberg, General Franz Halder stated in an affadavit that Gˆring had joked about setting the fire." - Wikipedia
"The Enabling Act was passed by the Reichstag on March 23, 1933. It was the second major step after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which the Nazis legally established Nazi Germany by providing the government with legislative powers, effectively handing dictatorial powers to then Chancellor Adolf Hitler." - Wikipedia
•
September
11, 1941 - Construction
on the Pentagon begins.
"The Pentagonóa building, institution, and symbolówas conceived at the request of Brigadier General Brehon B. Sommervell, Chief of the Construction Division of the Office of the Quartermaster General, on a weekend in mid-July 1941. The purpose was to provide a temporary solution to the War Departmentís critical shortage of space. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on September 11, 1941. The building was dedicated on January 15, 1943, nearly 16 months to the day after the groundbreaking." - Defense Link
•
October
25, 1944 - The first
use of airplanes in suicide attacks are preformed by the
Japanese "Kamikaze's".
"By extension, during World War II the word came to be used for desperate suicide attacks, particularly by aircraft assigned to destroy US and Allied ships by flying directly into them. Japan had lost any pretext of having competitive fighters by 1944, and were hardly able to service them, so expending them as bombs was suggested by Admiral Takijiro Onishi in October 1944. The first kamikaze strike came on October 25, 1944, off the Philippine island of Leyte." - Wikipedia
(See also: February 22, 1974 - Samuel Byck attempts to hijack a commercial plane and crash it into the White House)
•
July 28,
1945 - The only
previous time a plane has crashed into a U.S. skyscraper was
a military plane during the night through heavy fog.
"The last time a plane crashed into a New York City skyscraper was July 28, 1945. A U.S. bomber flying through thick fog at about 200 mph crashed into the Empire State Building, one of the most recognized structures in the world." - ABC (09/11/01)
(See also: 9/11 - The North WTC tower is allegedly hit by Flight 11)
•
1954
- Operation Suzannah, known as the "Lavon Affair," was a
covert operation by the Mossad to bomb U.S. installations in
Egypt and blame Arabs for it to harm Egyptian-American
relations.
"The aim of the Israeli
Operation Suzannah was to bomb United States installations
in Egypt, such as cinemas, and blame Arabs, hoping it would
harm Egyptian-American ties. It is also known as the Lavon
affair or Faulty Business (esek bish), after the Israeli
defence minister who was forced to resign because of the
incident, then deeply shocked the Israeli political system
by asking to review his case.
The operation was carried out by an Israeli military
intelligence unit ("Unit 131" [1]) in 1954, but
supposedly not backed by civilian Israeli leadership of that
time. The operation, which was commenced in an amateurish
fashion, led to the almost immediate identification and
capture of the Mossad agents before any lives were
taken.
Israeli agents working in Egypt planted bombs in several
buildings, including a United States diplomatic facility,
and left evidence behind implicating Arabs as the culprits.
The ruse would have worked, had not one of the bombs
detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to capture and
identify one of the bombers, which in turn led to the round
up of an Israeli spy ring. Some of the spies were from
Israel, while others were recruited from the local Jewish
population in Egypt.
The capture of the agents caused outrage among Egyptian
authorities. However, there was also great concern among the
Israeli public and lead to Israel's first major political
scandal." -
Wikipedia
(See also: March 13, 1962 - America's top military leaders drafted "Operation Northwoods" which were secret plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba; 9/11 - The most devastating and unprecedented terrorist attack in history happens against the United States of America allegedly committed by 19 radical Arab Muslims; 9/11 - A New Jersey homemaker witnesses a group of young men kneeling on a white van.)
• 1962 to 1970 - U.S. military secretly tests WMD's on over 5,800 soldiers, many of whom were unwitting guinea pigs.
"The Defense Department
released the final findings of an investigation into Project
112 and Project SHAD, which were conducted from 1962 to 1973
to test the combat capabilities of biological and chemical
agents and ways to protect U.S. troops from such
attacks.
Monday's report raised the number of U.S. troops identified
as having been present for one or more of the tests to
5,842, many of whom were not informed of their
participation.
Headquartered at Deseret Test Center at Fort Douglas, Utah,
tests were conducted in Hawaii, Alaska, Maryland, Florida,
Utah, Georgia, Panama, Canada, Britain and aboard ships in
the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales first reported in May
2000 on the more than 100 secret biological warfare tests
conducted at sea, including two ó code-named "Autumn
Gold" and "Copper Head" ó more than 1,000 U.S.
sailors were sprayed with materials thought to be
harmless.
Some of the tests Project 112 tests, which had names like
Flower Drum or Fearless Johnny, involved sarin or VX nerve
gas. At least one used a simulant that was thought to be
harmless but is now considered hazardous." -
CBS/AP
(07/01/03)
(See also: July 1, 2003 - U.S. military releases their final findings into the testing of WMD's on thousands of unsuspecting soldiers; January 16, 2004 - The U.S. military is continuing to withhold documents over Cold War WMD tests it conducted on over 5,800 soldiers)
•
March
13, 1962 - America's
top military leaders, who were staunchly right-wing,
drafted "Operation Northwoods" which were
secret plans to kill innocent people, commit acts of
terrorism in U.S. cities, hijack airplanes, plant evidence,
among other things, and blame it on Cubans to create public
indignation and support for a war against
Cuba.
Friendly Fire; Book: U.S. Military Drafted Plans to Terrorize U.S. Cities to Provoke War With Cuba
"In
the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly
drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of
terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war
against Cuba.
Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly
included the possible assassination of Cuban
ÈmigrÈs, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on
the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and
even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.
The plans were developed as ways to trick the American
public and the international community into supporting a war
to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.
America's top military brass even contemplated causing U.S.
military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship
in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in
U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national
indignation."
Details of the plans are described in Body
of Secrets
(Doubleday), a new book by investigative reporter James
Bamford about the history of America's largest spy agency,
the National Security Agency. However, the plans were not
connected to the agency, he notes.
The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy's
defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they
apparently were rejected by the civilian leadership and have
gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.
The Joint Chiefs even proposed using the potential death of
astronaut John Glenn during the first attempt to put an
American into orbit as a false pretext for war with Cuba,
the documents show.
Should the rocket explode and kill Glenn, they wrote, "the
objective is to provide irrevocable proof Ö that the
fault lies with the Communists et all Cuba
[sic]."
The plans were motivated by an intense desire among senior
military leaders to depose Castro, who seized power in 1959
to become the first communist leader in the Western
Hemisphere ó only 90 miles from U.S. shores.
The earlier CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by Cuban
exiles had been a disastrous failure, in which the military
was not allowed to provide firepower. The military
leaders now wanted a shot at it.
Reflecting this, the U.S. plan called for establishing
prolonged military ó not democratic ó control
over the island nation after the invasion.
The Joint Chiefs at the time were headed by Eisenhower
appointee Army Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer, who, with the signed
plans in hand made a pitch to McNamara on March 13, 1962,
recommending Operation Northwoods be run by the
military.
Whether the Joint Chiefs' plans were rejected by McNamara in
the meeting is not clear. But three days later, President
Kennedy told Lemnitzer directly there was virtually no
possibility of ever using overt force to take Cuba, Bamford
reports. Within months, Lemnitzer would be denied another
term as chairman and transferred to another job.
The secret plans came at a time when there was distrust in
the military leadership about their civilian leadership,
with leaders in the Kennedy administration viewed as too
liberal, insufficiently experienced and soft on communism.
At the same time, however, there real were concerns in
American society about their military overstepping its
bounds.
There were reports U.S. military leaders had encouraged
their subordinates to vote conservative during the
election.
And at least two popular books were published focusing on a
right-wing military leadership pushing the limits against
government policy of the day. The Senate Foreign Relations
Committee published its own report on right-wing extremism
in the military, warning a "considerable danger" in the
"education and propaganda activities of military personnel"
had been uncovered. The committee even called for an
examination of any ties between Lemnitzer and right-wing
groups. But Congress didn't get wind of Northwoods, says
Bamford.
Even after Lemnitzer was gone, he writes, the Joint Chiefs
continued to plan "pretext" operations at least through
1963.
One idea was to create a war between Cuba and another Latin
American country so that the United States could intervene.
Another was to pay someone in the Castro government to
attack U.S. forces at the Guantanamo naval base ó an
act, which Bamford notes, would have amounted to treason.
And another was to fly low level U-2 flights over Cuba, with
the intention of having one shot down as a pretext for a
war.
Afraid of a congressional investigation, Lemnitzer had
ordered all Joint Chiefs documents related to the Bay of
Pigs destroyed, says Bamford. But somehow, these remained."
- ABC
(05/01/01)
- Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962 - National Security Archive (actual documents; local) [Printed at: killtown.blogspot.com]
(See also: 1954 - Operation Suzannah, known as the "Lavon Affair", was a covert operation by the Mossad to bomb U.S. installations in Egypt and blame Arabs for it to harm Egyptian-American relations; August 4, 1964 - US agency concludes the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was used to escalate the Vietnam war, never happened; 9/11 - The most devastating and unprecedented terrorist attack in history happens against the United States of America allegedly committed by 19 radical Arab Muslims)
•
May 22, 1962 -
Continental Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 707, becomes
the first known commercial airliner to be sabotaged when a
bomb explodes onboard in mid-flight killing 45 people
aboard.
"A bomb exploded aboard this Continental Boeing 707, killing all 45 people aboard. This was the first known case of sabotage aboard a commercial jet airliner. The bomb was believed to have been carried aboard by a passenger in a suicide-for-insurance plot." - Plane Crash Info
"The aircraft crashed due to a bomb explosion at 39,000 feet. This was the first known bombing of a commercial jet airliner. Date: 22 May 1962; Airline: Continental Airlines; Flight No.: 11; Aircraft: B707-124; Location: Unionville, Missouri; Fatalities: 45:45" - AirDisaster.Com
(See also: 9/11 - The North WTC tower is allegedly hit by Flight 11)
•
1963
- The Milgram experiment was an "obedience to authority"
psychological experiment (which was trying to find out if
millions of accomplices in the holocaust were merely
following orders) demonstrated that the majority of
participants in the study were willing to inflict harm to
another person in the study at the orders of the authority
figure (experimenter), especially if the authority figure
demeaned the participant thought to be receiving pain in
front of the participant who thought they were really
inflicted pain to them.
"The
Milgram experiment was a famous scientific experiment of
social psychology. The experiment was first described by
Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University in an
article titled Behavioral Study of Obedience
published in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology
in 1963, and later discussed at book length in his 1974
Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. It was
intended to measure the willingness of a participant to obey
an authority who instructs the participant to do something
that may conflict with the participant's personal
conscience.
The experiments began in July 1961, a year after the trial
of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Milgram devised the
experiment to answer the question "Could it be that Eichmann
and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just
following orders? Could we call them all
accomplices?"
Before the experiment was conducted Milgram polled fellow psychologists as to what the results would be. They unanimously believed that only a few sadists would be prepared to give the maximum voltage.
The
experimenter (E) persuades the participant (S) to give what
the participant believes are painful electric shocks to
another participant (A), who is actually an actor. Many
participants continued to give shocks despite pleas for
mercy from the actor.
In Milgram's first set of experiments, 65 percent (27 out of
40) of experimental participants administered the
experiment's final 450-volt shock, though many were quite
uncomfortable in doing so; everyone paused at some point and
questioned the experiment, some even saying they would
return the cheque for the money they were paid. No
participant steadfastly refused to give further shocks
before the 300-volt level. Variants of the experiment were
later performed by Milgram himself and other psychologists
around the world with similar results.
Thomas Blass of the University of Maryland performed a
meta-analysis on the results of repeated performances of the
experiment (done at various times since, in the US and
elsewhere). He found that the percentage of participants who
are prepared to inflict fatal voltages remains remarkably
constant, between 61% and 66%, regardless of time or
location. -
Wikipedia
"Milgramís
obedience to authority experiment countered the
participantís moral beliefs against the demands of
authority. Participants were told that the study would look
at the relationship of punishment in learning, and that one
person would be the teacher, and the other would be the
learner (a confederate), and that these roles would be
determined by a random drawing. The learner was then
strapped into a chair, and electrodes are attached to their
arm. It was explained to both the teacher and the learner
that the electrodes were attached to an electric shock
generator, and that shocks would serve as punishment for
incorrect answers. The experimenter then states that the
shocks will be painful, but that they will not cause any
permanent tissue damage, while in reality no shocks would
actually be received. The teacher and learner are then
divided into separate rooms.
Milgram found that 65% of participants would render shock
levels of 450 volts, and that these were everyday normal
people. These interviews confirmed that everyday normal
people can cause pain and suffering to another person, under
the right set of circumstances. Milgram also found the
tendency of the teacher to devalue the learner, by saying
such phrases as, ìhe is so dumb he deserves to get
shocked,î which helped to interally justify the
teachers behavior of continuing to administer the shocks." -
Northern Illinois University
•
November
22, 1963 - President
John F. Kennedy (D-Mass) is assassinated allegedly by Lee
Harvey Oswald.
"United States President
John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Friday November 22, 1963
in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 PM Central time. He was on a
campaign and support trip through the Southern United States
in anticipation of the upcoming 1964 presidential election.
Kennedy was fatally wounded by multiple gunshot wounds while
riding in an open-top automobile. Texas Governor John B
Connally was also severely injured in the same assassination
attempt. Later that afternoon, U.S. Vice President Lyndon B.
Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United
States aboard Air Force One.
At 12:30 PM, with the presidential limo traveling an average
of 11.2 miles per hour through the plaza, at least two shots
are known to have struck the occupants of the car. The
Warren commission believed three were fired, all by Lee
Harvey Oswald from the Depository. Two of them hit, one
missed the car and its occupants. The first bullet that hit,
called the 'magic bullet' by critics of the Warren report,
was believed to have struck Kennedy in the back to exit at
his throat, then to bounce to hit Governor Connally in the
back and wrist. The subsequent bullet that hit, the shot
fatal to Kennedy, struck him in the back of the head. From
the evidence it is unclear whether it was the first, second,
or third shot that missed.
Immediately after the shots were fired and the gravity of
the situation became clear to the limo driver and the Secret
Service, the limo sped off out of Dealey Plaza on its way to
Parkland Hospital." -
Wikipedia
- Click here for ZToon slideshow of that Zapruder film. (Recommended read: The Kennedy Assassination: The Nixon-Bush Connection)
(See also: June 5, 1968 - JFK's younger brother Robert is assassinated; June 23, 1972 - Nixon uses the expression "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" in a recorded White House meeting with Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman which is revealed later that Nixon's references to the Bay of Pigs was code for the Kennedy assassination; March 6, 1975 - The Abraham Zapruder film is first shown on TV; 1976 - James R. Bath, a friend of George W. Bush from the Texas Air National Guard, opens an aircraft brokerage firm in which one of his investors is Gov. John Connally; March 29, 1979 - House Select Committee on Assassinations JFK assassination report)
•
November
22, 1963 - An hour
after JFK's shooting, police arrest 24 yr. old Lee Harvey
Oswald who vehemently denies shooting the President and says
he's just a "patsy."
"News of the president's
shooting had Dallas residents on high alert, and several
people noticed a suspicious man duck into a doorway eight
blocks from the shooting scene as cop cars passed.
One such witness was Johnny Brewer, a shoe store manager,
who saw the man slip into the Texas Theater.
More than a dozen officers converged on the theater. They
ordered the house lights turned up, and Brewer pointed out
the suspicious character. As cops moved in, the man
brandished his pistol but was subdued before firing a shot,
although some officers said they heard the "click" of a
misfire.
The suspect was 24 years old, 5-foot-9 and 150 pounds. His
name was Lee Harvey Oswald.
A misfit Marine Corps vet, the native of New Orleans had
been hired as a $1.25-an-hour order-filler at the Texas
School Book Depository six weeks earlier.
En route to the police station, Oswald asked over and over,
"Why am I being arrested?"
Oswald was taken to the Dallas Police and Courts Building
downtown.
At 7:10 that evening, a justice of the peace visited to
arraign Oswald on charges that he killed Patrolman Tippit.
Six hours later, at 1:30 a.m. November 23, he was arraigned
by the same justice in the murder of Kennedy.
Oswald was questioned at Dallas police headquarters for some
12 cumulative hours over the two days following his arrest.
Capt. J.W. Fritz of the Dallas police homicide bureau
conducted most of the interrogation.
FBI and Secret Service agents often were present and
sometimes asked questions of Oswald.
The Warren Commission said, "Throughout this interrogation
he denied that he had anything to do either with the
assassination of President Kennedy or the murder of
Patrolman Tippit." -
Crime Library
"Mr Oswald was arrested
about an hour after the assassination of John F Kennedy,
carried out as the President's motorcade passed through the
Dealey Plaza in Dallas.
He was initially taken into custody for the murder of a
policeman, JD Tippit, who appears to have recognised him and
approached him just 45 minutes after the killing of the
President.
Soon after, Mr Oswald was also charged with the President's
assassination.
He strongly denied that he carried out the assassination,
saying to reporters, "I'm just a patsy." -
BBC, On This Day
•
November
24, 1963 - Two days
after Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest, Jack Ruby (who had many
friends in the Dallas police department, links to organized
crime, and owed the government $45,000) shoots and kills
Oswald live on national TV when an estimated 75 cops were
assembled waiting for Oswald's transfer and would later make
a statement to reports that the people who had "so much to
gain" and put him in the "position I'm in," are in very high
positions and will never let the true facts come
out.
"Jack Ruby:
Everything pertaining to what's happening has never come to
the surface. The world will never know the true facts, of
what occurred, my motives. The people had, that had so much
to gain and had such an ulterior motive for putting me in
the position I'm in, will never let the true facts come
above board to the world.
Reporter: Are these people in very high
positions Jack ??
Jack: Yes." - (Click here
for video of Ruby's statement) [Thanks to:
JFK Assassination Video
Resources]
"At about 11 a.m. Sunday,
November 24, Oswald was to be transferred from the Police
and Courts Building to the Dallas County
Jailóstandard procedure once a crime suspect had been
charged with a felony.
Curry decided to make the move of Oswald a media event by
staging a photo opportunity in the basement of police
headquarters.
He indicated to reporters that the transfer would happen
after 10 a.m. Sunday, November 24.
After the basement was secure, cops allowed journalists to
re-enter.
By 11:20 a.m., an estimated 50 newsmen and 75 cops were
assembled waiting for Oswald.
On live national television, Oswald walked through the doors
surrounded by lawmen. After he had walked perhaps 10 feet, a
stout man stepped between newsman at the edge of the crowd.
He extended his right hand, which gripped a Colt .38-caliber
revolver, and fired "a single fatal bullet into Oswald's
abdomen," as the Warren Commission report put it.
The man was soon identified as Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub
owner who had many friends in the city's police
department.
He told the Warren Commission he was overwhelmed by "the
emotional feeling...that someone owed this debt to our
beloved President to save her the ordeal of coming back. I
don't know why that came through my mind." Ruby swore he was
not part of a conspiracy to silence Oswald.
Ruby was charged with murder and stood trial in February and
March 1964. His attorney, Melvin Belli, argued for an
insanity verdict, but the jury convicted Ruby and condemned
him to die.
He was drafted into the Army Air Forces in 1943 and spent
three uneventful years at military bases in the south.
The Warren Commission reported, "Ruby's police friendships
were far more widespread than those of the average
citizen."
The government also hounded Ruby for delinquent taxes,
including about $5,000 in income tax and $40,000 in federal
excise taxes he had neglected to charge patrons because he
claimed his establishments were restaurants, not
cabarets.
As a strip club owner, Ruby became acquainted with many of
the more unsavory individuals of the Dallas underworld.
The Warren Commission report said that while he was
"friendly with numerous underworld figures," "evidence does
not establish a significant link between Ruby and organized
crime. "
Ruby probably was allowed to stay in business by paying off
the Dallas mob, then led by Joseph Civello. Among his
closest friends was Civello's No. 2 lieutenant, and Ruby
also was tight with three brothers who led another Dallas
Mafia unit." -
Crime Library
•
August 4, 1964 - Based
on intercepted communications, U.S. military intelligence
claims there has been a second attack on the USS
Maddox by Vietnamese naval ships (the "Gulf of Tonkin
incident") which propels an outraged U.S. Congress to
overwhelmingly pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution three
days later that enables President Lyndon Johnson to employ
military force in Vietnam as he saw fit and becomes the
crucial turning point in escalating the war. However
after 40 years later, analysis from the U.S.'s own
intelligence agency concluded that this second attack on the
Maddox never actually took place.
Doubts cast on Vietnam War buildup
"A
just-released spy-agency analysis contends a second attack
on U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin never happened, which
casts further doubt on the main rationale for escalation of
the Vietnam War.
Much as faulty U.S. intelligence preceded the invasion of
Iraq, the mishandling of intercepted communications 40 years
earlier is blamed in a National Security Agency paper
released Thursday for giving President Lyndon B. Johnson
carte blanche to wage war in Vietnam.
The agency put out more than 140 long-secret documents in
response to requests from researchers trying to get to the
bottom of an episode that unfolded in the South China Sea on
August 4, 1964, and has been disputed since.
Among the documents is an article written by one of the
agency's historians for its classified publication,
Cryptologic Quarterly, which declared that his review of the
complete intelligence shows beyond doubt "no attack happened
that night."
Claims that North Vietnamese boats attacked two warships
that August 4, just two days after an initial assault on one
of the ships, rallied Congress behind Johnson's buildup of
the war. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which passed three
days later, empowered Johnson to take "all necessary steps"
in the region and opened the way for large-scale commitment
of U.S. forces.
"In truth, Hanoi's navy was engaged in nothing that night
but the salvage of two of the boats damaged on 2 August,"
Hanyok wrote.
The Maddox had come under fire from North Vietnamese patrol
boats August 2 and took only superficial damage." -
CNN (12/01/05)
[Cached]
Summary of the Tonkin Gulf Crisis of August 1964
"A clash between naval forces of the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) in August 1964 marked a significant turning point in the Cold War struggle for Southeast Asia.
In early August of 1964, destroyer USS Maddox (DD 731), under the operational control of Captain John J. Herrick, USN, steamed along the coast of North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin gathering various types of intelligence.
On the afternoon of 2 August, the Communists dispatched three Soviet-built P-4 motor torpedo boats against Maddox. Torpedoes launched from the P-4s missed their mark. Only one round from enemy deck guns hit the destroyer; it lodged in the ship's superstructure.
On
the night of 4 August, the warships reported making contact
and then being attacked by several fast craft far out to
sea. Officers in the naval chain of command and U.S. leaders
in Washington were persuaded by interpretation of special
intelligence and reports from the ships that North
Vietnamese naval forces had attacked the two destroyers.
More recent analysis of that data and additional information
gathered on the 4 August episode now makes it clear that
North Vietnamese naval forces did not attack Maddox and
Turner Joy that night in the summer of 1964.
In response to the actual attack of 2 August and the
suspected attack of 4 August, the President ordered Seventh
Fleet carrier forces to launch retaliatory strikes against
North Vietnam. Of greater significance, on 7 August the U.S.
Congress overwhelmingly passed the so-called Tonkin Gulf
Resolution, which enabled Johnson to employ military force
as he saw fit against the Vietnamese Communists. In the
first months of 1965, the President ordered the deployment
to South Vietnam of major U.S. ground, air, and naval
forces. Thus began a new phase in America's long, costly
Vietnam War." - Navy
Tonkin
Gulf Intelligence "Skewed" According to Official History and
Intercepts
- Newly Declassified National Security Agency Documents Show
Analysts Made "SIGINT fit the claim" of North Vietnamese
Attack
"The largest U.S. intelligence agency, the National Security Agency, today declassified over 140 formerly top secret documents -- histories, chronologies, signals intelligence [SIGINT] reports, and oral history interviews -- on the August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident. Included in the release is a controversial article by Agency historian Robert J. Hanyok on SIGINT and the Tonkin Gulf which confirms what historians have long argued: that there was no second attack on U.S. ships in Tonkin on August 4, 1964." - National Security Archive
The
Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 40 Years Later
- Flawed Intelligence and the Decision for War in
Vietnam
- Signals Intercepts, Cited at Time, Prove Only August 2nd
Battle, Not August 4; Purported Second Attack Prompted
Congressional Blank Check for War -
National Security Archive
(See also: March 13, 1962 - America's top military leaders, who were staunchly right-wing, drafted "Operation Northwoods" which were secret plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba)
•
January
3, 1967 - Jack Ruby
dies of cancer in prison.
"Ruby was charged with
murder and stood trial in February and March 1964. His
attorney, Melvin Belli, argued for an insanity verdict, but
the jury convicted Ruby and condemned him to die.
Ruby won an appeal on grounds of fairness because he had
been denied a change of venue. A Texas court ordered a new
trial, but Ruby died of cancer on January 3, 1967, before it
could be held." -
Crime Library
•
June
5, 1968 - Senator
Robert Kennedy, the favored Democratic candidate in the next
Presidential election, is shot by 24 yr. old Palestinian
immigrant Sirhan Sirhan who allegedly shoots him with a .22
cal gun, but conspiracy theories emerge when more bullet
holes were counted than Sirhan's gun had bullets, the fatal
bullet that hit RFK hit the back of his neck at very close
range yet Sirhan shot at him from the front, Sirhan was
seen whispering to a lady in a polka dotted dress who smiled
right before he began shooting and then the lady in the
dress was seen running away from the scene exuberantly
crying, "We shot Kennedy!", no formal security people were
hired to protect RFK at his event, and Sirhan's lawyer
claims he was "hypnotized" and didn't even shoot
RFK.
"Senator Robert Kennedy
has been shot and seriously wounded shortly after giving a
victory speech to celebrate his win in the California
Primary in a Los Angeles hotel.
The 42-year-old senator was greeting hotel workers while
being escorted through the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel
when a gunman, named as Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan,
fired shots from a .22 calibre gun.
The 24-year-old was immediately set upon by Mr Kennedy's
body guards and then arrested and taken away by police.
It is thought Mr Kennedy's well documented support for
Israel led to the attack.
Mr Kennedy is favourite in the running to be named as the
Democrat candidate in the next election.
(In Context)
Robert Kennedy's death was announced the following day.
There are many theories about the death of Robert Kenndy
disputing the conviction of Sirhan Sirhan.
Conflicting reports of events, the trajectory of the bullets
and the number of bullet holes found compared with the round
of bullets in the fired gun have all led people to suggest
possible conspiracy theories." -
BBC 'On This Day'
"Odd as it seems, no
formal security measurements were in effect during the
event...
A Gallup Poll showed that Americans believed "by a margin of
4 to 3 that the attack was a product of a conspiracy."
...the gunman was not hostile, nor impolite; he held
friendly discourse...and answered the detective courteously.
But, he seemed confused as if he really didnít
understand the seriousness of his crime.
The autopsy...also created a controversy. Sirhan Sirhan had
carried an Iver-Johnson eight-cylinder handgun...Four of
those had been fired at RFK...but there were five others who
had been wounded in the pantry. Because there were more
victims than accounted-for bullets, a "second gunman" theory
was born.
The shot that...killed Kennedy ñ the one that entered
the back of his neck,... was fired so close that it left
thick powder burns on the skin...the shot was fired at a
range no more distant than one-and-a-half inches. Yet,
according to all witnesses, Sirhan Sirhan shot in front of
Kennedy...
...a college kid and part-time waiter at the Ambassador
Hotel, who said he had spotted Sirhan Sirhan before the
shooting, standing near the tray table. What had drawn his
attention to the would-be assassin was the woman to whom he
was whispering...She...wore a "white dress with black or
purple polka dots". Moments before Sirhan leaped forward to
shoot, he murmured in her ear and she smiled.
That same night at the police station a 21-year-old campaign
worker named Sandra Serrano also told the investigators
about a mysterious polka dot-wearing lady...she said, a trio
comprised of a young...male who looked like Sirhan
Sirhan...entered the ballroom. Not long after, claimed
Serrano, the couple, minus the third party, came bolting
down the steps, exuberantly crying, "We shot Kennedy!"
The polka-dot lady had also been seen by a police sergeant
named Paul Sharaga...he overheard a giggling couple pass by
him, mumbling, "We shot Kennedy!" The female wore polka
dots.
Within weeks after the trial, the Los Angeles Free Press ran
a story by reporters Lillian Castellano and Floyd Nelson
that resurrected the possibility of another gunman at the
crime scene. They had photographic "proof" of two extra
bullet holes in the wooden divider...
There was a catch. The police had removed the door
jamb...When the Los Angeles City Council, under pressure,
demanded an answer...Assistant Police Chief Daryl Gates
responded...yes, the police thought they might have been
bullet holes.
Confounding the issue was the incessant question as to how
Kennedy was shot in the back by a man who approached him
from the front.
Stranger, all records of the trial proceedings referring to
the testimony of seven forensic experts about the crime
scene have disappeared.
"Attorney Lawrence Teeter, representing Sirhan Sirhan,
believes that his client was hypnotized that evening and
made to serve as someoneís puppet. "An unconscious
perpetrator does not commit a crime," Teeter expanded. "He
was not aware of what happenedÖ(He) was out of
position, out of range and could not have shot Senator
Kennedy."
Meanwhile, Sirhan Sirhan remains in prison, having been
denied his latest parole attempt in 1997, awaiting his next
hearing in the year 2000. He is a model prisoner who
continues to claim his innocence." -
Court TV
(See also: November 22, 1963 - Democratic President John F. Kennedy is assassinated)
• March 16, 1970 - Propane Blasts Hit Trade Center; 4 Explosions Are Described as an Industrial Accident
"Propane gas explosions, described by the Fire Department as accidental, shook the skeletal south tower of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan yesterday, injured six workmen and caused a suspension of operations for 2,000 other construction men and employees of nearby businesses." - New York Times (03/17/70)
(See also: February 14, 1975 - Trade Center Hit By 6-Floor Fire)
•
September
6-12, 1970 - Four New
York-bound airliners are hijacked over western Europe by a
militant Palestinian group and later three of the planes are
blown up on an airfield in Jordan.
"Four New York-bound airliners have been hijacked over
western Europe in an unprecedented operation carried out by
a militant Palestinian group.
Three of the planes taken over by the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) have been flown to two
different locations in the Middle East.
The TWA and Swissair planes were flown to an airfield in
Jordan and the Pan American airliner to Beirut." -
BBC
"Palestinian militants
have blown up the three planes they have been holding at an
airfield in the Jordanian desert.
Two of the planes had been captured by the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) six days ago.
The last plane was seized on 9 September on a flight from
Bombay to London and forced to join the others at Dawson's
Field airstrip - a former RAF base." -
BBC
(See also: 9/11 - The most devastating and unprecedented terrorist attack in history happens in the United States of America allegedly committed by 19 radical Arab Muslims who hijacked four commercial airliners)
• 1971 - Asbestos insulating material had only been sprayed up to the 64th floor of the World Trade Center towers.
"Until 30 years ago,
asbestos was added to flame-retardant sprays used to
insulate steel building materials, particularly floor
supports. The insulation was intended to delay the steel
from melting in the case of fire by up to four hours.
In the case of the World Trade Center, emergency plans
called for this four-hour window to be used to evacuate the
building while helicopters sprayed to put out the fire and
evacuated persons from the roof.
The use of asbestos ceased in the 1970s following reports of
asbestos workers becoming ill from high exposures to
asbestos fibers.
In 1971, New York City banned the use of asbestos in spray
fireproofing. At that time, asbestos insulating material had
only been sprayed up to the 64th floor of the World Trade
Center towers.
Levineís company, Asbestospray, was familiar with the
World Trade Center construction, but failed to get the
contract for spraying insulation in the World Trade Center.
Levine frequently would say that "if a fire breaks out above
the 64th floor, that building will fall down." -
FOX
News
(09/14/01)
•
June
17, 1972 - Five men,
one of whom says he used to work for the CIA, are arrested
trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National
Committee at the Watergate hotel.
"Five men, one of whom
said he is a former employee of the Central Intelligence
Agency, were arrested at 2:30 a.m. yesterday in what
authorities described as an elaborate plot to bug the
offices of the Democratic National Committee here.
Three of the men were native-born Cubans and another was
said to have trained Cuban exiles for guerrilla activity
after the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
They were surprised at gunpoint by three plain-clothes
officers of the metropolitan police department in a sixth
floor office at the plush Watergate, 2600 Virginia Ave., NW,
where the Democratic National Committee occupies the entire
floor.
All wearing rubber surgical gloves, the five suspects were
captured inside a small office within the committee's
headquarters suite.
Near where they were captured were two open file drawers,
and one national committee source conjectured that the men
were preparing to photograph the contents.
The five men were identified as:
• Edward Martin, alias James W. McCord, of New York
City and perhaps the Washington metropolitan area. Martin
said in court yesterday that he retired from the CIA two
years ago. He said he presently is employed as a "security
consultant."
• Frank Sturgis of 2515 NW 122d St., Miami. Prosecutors
said that an FBI check on Sturgis showed that he had served
in the Cuban Military army intelligence in 1958, recently
traveled to Honduras in Central America, and presently is
the agent for a Havana salvage agency.
• Eugenio R. Martinez of 4044 North Meridian Ave.,
Miami. Prosecutors said that Martinez violated the
immigration laws in 1958 by flying in a private plane to
Cuba. He is a licensed real estate agent and a notary public
in Florida.
• Virgilio R. Gonzales [Editor's Note: Spelling was
corrected in subsequent stories to Gonzalez] of 930 NW
23d Ave., Miami. In Miami yesterday, his wife told a
Washington Post reporter that her husband works as a
locksmith at the Missing Link Key Shop.
• Bernard L. Barker of 5229 NW 4th St., Miami. Douglas
Caddy, one of the attorneys for the five men, told a
reporter that shortly after 3 a.m. yesterday, he received a
call from Barker's wife. "She said that her husband told her
to call me if he hadn't called her by 3 a.m.: that it might
mean he was in trouble."
Silbert called the men professionals with a "clandestine"
purpose." -
Washington Post
(06/18/72)
- Watergate Chronology - Washington Post
(See also: August 9, 1974 - President Nixon resigns)
•
June
23, 1972 - In a
recorded meeting between President Nixon and Chief of Staff
H.R. Haldeman in the Oval Office about the Watergate
scandal, Nixon uses the expression "the whole Bay of Pigs
thing" in which Haldeman years later in his 1978 book, The
Ends of Power, revealed that Nixon's references to the Bay
of Pigs was "code" for the Kennedy
assassination.
"Nixon: When you
get in these people when you...get these people in, say:
"Look, the problem is that this will open the whole, the
whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the President just feels that"
ah, without going into the details... don't, don't lie to
them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just
say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without
getting into it, "the President believes that it is going to
open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again. And, ah because
these people are plugging for, for keeps and that they
should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country,
don't go any further into this case", period!
Haldeman: OK" -
Watergate.info
"Years
later, former C.B.S. correspondent Dan Schorr called me. He
was seeking information concerning the F.B.I. investigation
Nixon had mounted against him in August, 1971.
Schorr later sent me his fascinating book
Clearing the Air.
In it I was interested to find that evidence he had gleaned
while investigating the C.I.A. finally cleared up for me the
mystery of the Bay of Pigs connection in those dealings
between Nixon and Helms. 'It's intriguing when I put
Schorr's facts together with mine. It seems that in all of
those Nixon references to the Bay of Pigs, he was actually
referring to the Kennedy assassination." -
The Ends of Power,
by H.R. Haldeman, Joseph Dimona; 1978 [Reprinted at:
Spartacus Educational]
- Watch video clip of Haldeman interview - JFK Assassination Video Resources
(See also: November 22, 1963 - Democratic President John F. Kennedy is assassinated; August 9, 1974 - President Nixon resigns)
•
September 1972 -
President Nixon forms a high-level government panel to
develop plans to protect the nation against terrorist acts
ranging from "dirty bombs" to airline missile attacks and
the panel included such people as the first future 9/11
Commission head Henry Kissinger and future NYC Mayor Rudy
Giuliani who had suggested relaxing intelligence collection
guidelines on this panel which would eventually happen after
9/11 with the passage of the Patriot Act.
Nixon foresaw terrorist attacks
"Nearly
three decades before the September 11 attacks, a high-level
government panel developed plans to protect the nation
against terrorist acts ranging from radiological "dirty
bombs" to airline missile attacks, according to declassified
documents.
"Unless governments take basic precautions, we will continue
to stand at the edge of an awful abyss," Robert Kupperman,
chief scientist for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency,
wrote in a 1977 report that summarized nearly five years of
work by the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism.
The
group was formed in September 1972 by President Nixon after
Palestinian commandos slaughtered 11 Israeli athletes at the
Munich Olympic Games. The committee involved people as
diverse as Henry Kissinger to a young Rudolph W. Giuliani,
the once-secret documents show.
Eventually, the group's influence waned as competing
priorities, a change of presidents ushered in by Watergate,
bureaucratic turf battles and a lack of spectacular domestic
attacks took their toll.
But before that happened, the panel identified many of the
same threats that would confront President Bush at the dawn
of the 21st century.
Committee members identified commercial jets as a particular
vulnerability, but raised concerns that airlines would not
pay for security improvements such as tighter screening
procedures and routine baggage inspections.
"The trouble with the plans is that airlines and airports
will have to absorb the costs and so they will scream bloody
murder should this be required of them," according to a
White House memo from 1972.
Thousands of pages of heavily blacked-out records and memos
obtained by the Associated Press from government archives
and under the Freedom of Information Act show the task force
also discussed defending commercial aircraft against being
shot down by portable missile systems.
Though the CIA routinely updated the committee on potential
terrorist threats and plots, task force members learned
quickly that intelligence gathering and coordination was a
weak spot, just as Mr. Bush would discover three decades
later.
Long before he was mayor and helped New York recover from
the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Mr.
Giuliani told the committee in May 1976 that he feared legal
restrictions were thwarting federal agents from collecting
intelligence unless there had been a violation of the
law.
Mr. Giuliani, who at that time was the associate deputy
attorney general in President Ford's Justice Department,
suggested relaxing intelligence-collection guidelines
ó something that occurred with the Patriot Act three
decades later." -
Washington Times
(01/24/05)
(See also: 9/11 - Mayor Rudy Giuliani thinks the first crash into the WTC was an attack and not an accident; October 26, 2001 - Only a month and a half after 9/11, the 342 page USA PATRIOT ACT is signed into law; November 29, 2002 - Bush names Henry Kissinger to head 9/11 investigations)
•
September
11, 1973 - Chilean
armed forces headed by General Augusto Pinochet and
allegedly backed by the U.S. CIA take control of the country
in a coup d'etat against President Salvador
Allende.
"In 1973, when high
inflation and economic shortages had plunged the country
into near chaos, the Chilean military led by General Augusto
Pinochet Ugarte, staged a coup against President
Allende.
Following the coup many Allende supporters began to allege
that the president's overthrow had been the result of an
American orchestrated scheme. Although the CIA denies
actively supporting in the coup and claims that it was
merely informed of it, recently declassified documents have
raised the possibility that the CIA was much more actively
involved in the coup than it has previously admitted." -
Wikipedia
(See also: September 11, 1990 - President George H. W. Bush twice references the phrase "new world order" in an address before congress)
• December 12, 1973 - British spy chiefs secretly warned that the United States would be prepared to invade Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to seize their oilfields following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
"British spy chiefs
secretly warned that the United States would be prepared to
invade Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to seize their oilfields
following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, documents released
today disclose.
Files released to the British National Archives under the
30-year rule for classified documents show the intelligence
agencies believed the US was ready to take military action
to prevent further disruption to oil supplies.
It followed the decision in October 1973 by the Arab nations
to slash oil production, and send prices rocketing, while
imposing a complete embargo on the Americans over their
support for Israel.
Although the war in the Middle East was over after three
weeks, a secret assessment drawn up for government ministers
by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), including the
heads of MI5 and MI6, concluded the US would rather risk
military action than be held to ransom again by the
Arabs.
The report, dated December 12, 1973 and marked "UK Eyes
Alpha", described the seizure of the oil-producing areas in
the region as "the possibility uppermost in American
thinking".
The JIC calculated the US could guarantee sufficient oil
supplies for themselves and their allies by taking the
oilfields in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf state of Abu
Dhabi, with total reserves of more than 28 billion tons.
However, it said the Republican administration of President
Richard Nixon could be prepared to take the risks, if it was
faced with the "dark scenario" of renewed Arab-Israeli
conflict and further protracted oil restrictions.
It said that the United States would even consider
pre-emptive action if Arab governments, "elated by the
success of the oil weapon," began imposing new demands."
- Australian
Broadcasting Corp
(01/01/04)
• February 17, 1974 - Army Pvt. Robert Preston steals an Army helicopter from Fort Meade, MD, and flies it to the White House where he touches down briefly, then leaves back toward Fort Meade, then flies back to the White House after being chased by two Maryland State Police helicopters and lands on the grounds after being shot at by EPS officers.
Air Incursions and
Attempted Air Incursions
"Robert K. Preston (February 1974). On February 17, 1974,
Robert Preston, a private in the Army, stole an Army
helicopter from Fort Meade, Maryland, and flew it to the
White House Complex. He passed over the Executive Mansion
and then returned to the south grounds, where he hovered for
about 6 minutes and touched down briefly approximately 150
feet from the West Wing. Members of the EPS did not know who
was piloting the aircraft and were not aware that it had
been stolen from Fort Meade. They made no attempt to shoot
down the helicopter.
Preston left the area of the White House and flew the
helicopter back toward Fort Meade. He was chased by two
Maryland State Police helicopters, one of which he forced
down through his erratic maneuvers. Preston then returned to
the White House Complex. As he lowered himself to about 30
feet above the south grounds, EPS officers barraged the
helicopter with shotgun and submachine gunfire. Preston
immediately set the riddled aircraft down. He was injured
slightly." - Federation
of American Scientists.
See also: Wikipedia
White House has been scene of attacks, violence many times
"Army Pvt. Robert Preston got further with a similar plan that year. He stole a helicopter from Fort Meade, Md., flew to the White House, touched down briefly near the West Wing, then flew back toward Fort Meade with Maryland State Police helicopters in pursuit, returned to the White House and was shot down on the South Lawn." - Post-Gazette (02/08/01)
•
February
22, 1974 - Samuel Byck
attempts to hijack a commercial plane and crash it into the
White House in order to kill Richard Nixon.
"In 1974, a psychotic celebrity stalker named Samuel Byck ended his not-illustrious non-career as a homicidal maniac by attempting to storm a parked aircraft and hijack it, with the intent of crashing it into the White House in order to kill Richard M. Nixon. The plan was not well thought out. Rather than buy a ticket and hijack a plane in flight, he chose to shoot his way onto the plane at the airport with the predictable result that he was gunned down by the police. Wounded, he committed suicide rather than surrender." - Rotten.com
"...Samuel Byck, an unemployed salesman from Philadelphia who on Feb. 22, 1974 attempted to hijack an Atlanta-bound jet leaving Baltimore-Washington International Airport -- murdering a police officer and being shot to death himself. It was days before authorities discovered, via tape recordings left behind by the 44-year-old killer, that he had planned to fly the hijacked plane into the Nixon White House." - Newsday (12/19/04)
White House has been scene of attacks, violence many times
"In one, an unemployed Philadelphia salesman, Samuel Byck, got into a shootout with airports guards at Baltimore-Washington International Airport when he tried to hijack a Delta commercial airliner. After he committed suicide, officials learned that he had planned to crash the plane into the White House." - Post-Gazette (02/08/01)
(See also: October 25, 1944 - The first use of airplanes in suicide attacks are preformed by the Japanese "Kamikaze's"; 1978 - 'The Medusa Touch' is about a man who uses his telekinetic powers to cause a jumbo jet to crash into a building; December 29, 2004 - "The Assassination of Richard Nixon", a movie based on the real-life of Samuel Byck who tried to hijack a commercial jet and crash it into the White House in order to kill Richard Nixon)
•
August
9, 1974 - President
Nixon resigns because of the Watergate scandal, becoming the
first President in U.S. history to resign from
office.
"Richard Milhous Nixon
announced last night that he will resign as the 37th
President of the United States at noon today.
Vice President Gerald R. Ford of Michigan will take the oath
as the new President at noon to complete the remaining 2 1/2
years of Mr. Nixon's term.
After two years of bitter public debate over the Watergate
scandals, President Nixon bowed to pressures from the public
and leaders of his party to become the first President in
American history to resign.
Vice President Ford, who spoke a short time later in front
of his Alexandria home, announced that Secretary of State
Henry A. Kissinger will remain in his Cabinet.
Mr. Nixon said he decided he must resign when he concluded
that he no longer had "a strong enough political base in the
Congress" to make it possible for him to complete his term
of office.
While the President acknowledged that some of his judgments
"were wrong," he made no confession of the "high crimes and
misdemeanors" with which the House Judiciary Committee
charged him in its bill of impeachment.
Alexander M. Haig Jr., the former Army vice chief of staff
who was brought into the White House as staff chief
following the resignation of H.R. (Bob) Haldeman on April
30, 1973, has been asked by Mr. Ford to remain in his
present position.
The march of events that brought about the President's
downfall turned its last corner Monday when Mr. Nixon
released the partial transcripts of three taped
conversations he held on June 23, 1972 with Haldeman." -
Washington Post
(08/09/74)
- Nixon's Resignation Speech, Nixon's Resignation Letter - Watergate.info
(See also: June 17, 1972 - Watergate hotel burglarized)
•
September
8, 1974 - President
Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon of any wrongdoings in the
Watergate scandal.
"On September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon of any wrongdoings in the Watergate scandal. The pardon actually came out less than a month after Nixon resigned the presidency. Quoting his official pardon: "It is believed that a trial of Richard Nixon, if it became necessary, could not fairly begin until a year or more has elapsed. In the meantime, the tranquility to which this nation has been restored by the events of recent weeks could be irreparably lost by the prospects of bringing to trial a former President of the United States." - About.com
- President Ford's Pardon of Richard Nixon - Watergate.info
•
1975
- In the movie "Three Days of the Condor", Robert Redford
plays Joseph Turner (aka Condor) who works for the CIA
reading books to find information of plots and scenarios to
check against actual CIA Plans and Operations for leaks or
new ideas.
"A man named Turner works for the CIA reading books and postulating possible scenarios that could be applied to intelligence work. He goes out to get lunch but when he returns everyone at the center has been killed. He calls his superior and asks for someone to bring him in, he tells him that his section chief will get him but when he arrives, the man tries to shoot him, he manages to shoot back and escape. In an act of desperation, the abducts a woman and forces her to shelter him until he can figure out what is going on. When someone goes to the woman's house and tries to kill him, he kills the man and discovers that he has a connection to the CIA, which means that someone in the CIA is behind the attempt on him." - Internet Movie Database Inc.
"TURNER: Listen. I work for the CIA. I'm not a spy. I read mystery novels, adventures, journals, everything published all over the world. We feed the plots -- dirty tricks, codes, anything -- into a computer, to check against actual CIA Plans and Operations. We look for leaks. Or new ideas." - ScreenTalk.biz (Page 55 in the pdf.)
• February 14, 1975 - Trade Center Hit By 6-Floor Fire; Blaze Starts on the 11th 16 Men Are Injured
"A three-alarm fire broke out in the 11th-floor offices of the B.F. Goodrich Company in the north tower of the World Trade Center just before midnight last night, and spread through an inner-service core to the ninth and 14th floors." - New York Times (02/15/75) [Reprinted at: PrisonPlanet.com]
(See also: March 16, 1970 - Propane Blasts Hit Trade Center; May 19, 1975 - 7 Suspicious Fires Hit Trade Center)
•
March 6, 1975 - The
Abraham Zapruder film is first shown on TV, more than 11
years after JFK's assassination.
March 6, 1975
"ABC News reporter Geraldo Rivera convinced network executives to show Grodenís version of the film on his weekly Good Night America talk show. It was the first time the public saw the film in motion. Many believed the backward movement of the presidentís head and upper body "proved" the fatal shot came from the front, not from behind in the Book Depository." - jfk.org
"In March 1975, on the ABC late-night television show Good Night America (hosted by Geraldo Rivera), assassination researchers Robert Groden and Dick Gregory presented the first-ever network television showing of the Zapruder home movie. The public's response and outrage to that first television showing quickly led to the forming of the Hart-Schweiker investigation, contributed to the Church Committee Investigation on Intelligence Activities by the United States, and resulted in the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation." - wikipedia
(See also: November 22, 1963 - John F. Kennedy is assassinated allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald)
• May 19, 1975 - 7 Suspicious Fires Hit Trade Center; One Causes Wide Damage to 32d-Floor Lobby
"A series of seven suspicious fires, including an extensive two-alarm blaze, struck the World Trade Center in quick succession last night, keeping harried firemen scurrying from floor to floor and tower to tower for more than two hours." - New York Times (05/20/75)
(See also: February 14, 1975 - Trade Center Hit By 6-Floor Fire; February 26, 1993 - The WTC is bombed)
•
November 20, 1975 -
Donald H. Rumsfeld becomes the 13th U.S. Secretary of
Defense under the Ford Administration.
"To
replace Schlesinger, President Ford chose Donald H.
Rumsfeld. Born on 9 July 1932 in Chicago, Rumsfeld graduated
from Princeton University in 1954 and then spent three years
in the U.S. Navy as an aviator and flight instructor.
Following naval service, Rumsfeld worked in Washington as an
assistant to two different congressmen and then, between
1960 and 1962, at a Chicago investment banking firm. Elected
to the House of Representatives in 1962, he was reelected
for three more terms. In 1969 he resigned from Congress to
join the Nixon administration as an assistant to the
president and director of the Office Of Economic
Opportunity; later he served as counselor to the president
and director of the Cost of Living Council. In February 1973
he became U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, returning to Washington in August 1974 to head
Gerald Ford's transition team and then became assistant to
the president, directing the White House Office of
Operations and serving as coordinator of the White House
Staff. At the time of his designation as secretary of
defense, Rumsfeld was one of President Ford's closest
associates and advisers.
Sworn in on 20 November 1975, at age 43 the youngest
secretary of defense to date, Rumsfeld served exactly 14
months in the office. Although he instituted some
organizational changes at the Pentagon, including
appointment of a second deputy secretary of defense (a
position created in 1972 but never previously filled) and
consolidation of several offices in OSD, Rumsfeld
concentrated more on the political aspects of his job. More
than any of his predecessors, he served as a roving
ambassador for the Defense Department, traveling widely in
the United States and abroad and discussing defense issues
through numerous speeches, press conferences, and
interviews.
Although he supported the Ford administration's efforts at
detente, Rumsfeld, like Schlesinger, sought to reverse the
gradual decline in the Defense budget and to build up U.S.
strategic and conventional forces. He made clear his
agreement with Schlesinger's strategic and budget
initiatives and that he would press forward with them." -
DoD
(See also: March 21, 1989 - Dick Cheney becomes 17th U.S. Secretary of Defense; January 20, 2001 - Rumsfeld becomes U.S. Secretary of Defense for the second time)
•
January
30, 1976 - George Bush
Sr. becomes director of the CIA.
"George Herbert Walker
Bush
TENURE AS DIRECTOR 30 January 1976ñ20 January
1977
APPOINTED 3 November 1975 by President Gerald R. Ford;
confirmed by Senate, 27 January 1976; sworn in, 30 January
1976
EARLIER CAREER Served in World War II as naval aviator in
the Pacific; Member of Congress, 7th District, Texas,
1967-71; Ambassador to the United Nations, 1971-72;
Chairman, Republican National Committee, 1973-74; Chief, US
Liaison Office, Peopleís Republic of China, 1974-75"
- CIA
"William Colby led the
Central Intelligence Agency through some of its most
turbulent days during the 1970s.
But some people in the Ford administration had a problem
with how often Colby cooperated with Congress. For example,
he gave Congress a list of past CIA actions that were
unethical, unauthorized, or immoral. They included plans to
kill Cuban President Fidel Castro and other international
leaders; unauthorized perusal of Americans' mail, and
psychedelic drug experiments conducted without the consent
of the Americans being tested. In late 1975, President Ford
announced that George Bush would replace him." -
CNN
(05/06/96)
(See also: April 28, 1996 - Former CIA Director William Colby is reported missing after a Marine Colonel's wife came to him to whistle blow military corruption; April 26, 1999 - Bush Sr. gets the CIA's headquarters compound in Langley, Virginia named after him)
• 1976 - James R. Bath, a friend of George W. Bush from the Texas Air National Guard, opens an aircraft brokerage firm in which some of his investors are former Texas Gov. John Connally (who was shot riding with JFK), Saudi financier Ghaith Pharaon (an alleged B.C.C.I. front man), and Saudi banker Khaled bin Mahfouz (a major BCCI shareholder and husband to one of Osama bin Laden's sisters).
"The Harken Energy folks
are not the only Texas-based colleagues of George W. Bush
with fortuitous, if not extraordinary, Arab connections.
Another is the mysterious Houston businessman James R. Bath,
a deal broker whose alleged associations run from the CIA to
a major shareholder and director of the Bank of Credit &
Commerce International. The President's son has denied that
he ever had business dealings with Bath, but early 1980s tax
records reviewed by TIME show that Bath invested $50,000 in
Bush's energy ventures and remained a stockholder until Bush
sold his company to Harken in 1986.
Bath's penchant for secrecy has been frustrated by a feud
with a former business partner, Bill White, who claims that
Bath was a front man for CIA business operations. White
contends that Bath has used his connections to the Bush
family and Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen to cloak the
development of a lucrative array of offshore companies
designed to move money and airplanes between the Middle East
and Texas. White, an Annapolis graduate and former Navy
fighter pilot, claims it was Bentsen's son Lan who suggested
that White go into the real estate development business with
Bath, a former Air Force fighter pilot.
Bath, 55, acknowledges a friendship with George W. Bush that
stems from their service together in the Texas Air National
Guard, and says he is "slightly" acquainted with the
President. But Bath vehemently denies White's accusations.
"I am not a member of the CIA or any other intelligence
agency," he says, describing White's portrayal as a
"fantasy." Even so, Bath, while insisting he is nothing more
than a "small, obscure businessman," is associated with some
of the most powerful figures in the U.S. and Middle East.
Private records show, and associates co