Convenient tragedy ignored by fed
Michael Lupacchino / Guest Commentary
Issue date: 10/2/03 Section: Commentary
On Sept. 11, 2001, America was stunned from a surprise attack on the WTC and Pentagon. According to our officials, the incompetence of government and its lax methods were to blame. Two years after that fateful day, many inconsistencies remain. Government officials claimed to have had no prior knowledge of any Sept. 11 style attacks, stating it caught them totally unaware. However, what they failed to mention was how intelligence officials from the Philippines, Germany, France, Jordan, and Russia had contacted CIA and FBI officials, specifically warning them that Middle Eastern terrorists had plans to hijack US airliners and use them to hit the pentagon and civilian targets. During an MSNBC interview, Russian President Vladimir Putin told of how he personally ordered Russian intelligence to warn the United States government "in the strongest possible terms" of an imminent attack on airports and government buildings during the months leading up to Sept.11.
Why were Pentagon officials carrying out detailed emergency drills based upon crashing a hijacked airplane into the Pentagon one year before the attacks? Why on Sept. 11, the very date of the attacks, was the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) running an exercise involving a plane crashing into one of the agency's buildings? Also, why did the National Command Authority take over 75 minutes to scramble jets to intercept the hijackers when standard procedure dictates that jets be notified after six minutes of lost voice contact? One hour and fifty-three minutes went by between the time flight 11 lost contact and Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. During all of that time, not one jet intercepted any of the airplanes.
As Bob Arnott of MSNBC stated, "Pilots are supposed to hit each fix with pinpoint accuracy. If a plane deviates by 15 degrees, or two miles from that course, the flight controllers will hit the panic button.... It's considered a real emergency." Four hijacked jumbo jets were able to fly off-course, across several states, within close distance of multiple military bases (Syracuse, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, etc.) without any opposition from the most attentive and powerful air force in the world. As a NORAD spokesman stated in The Boston Globe, "Routine response to such emergencies is to order 'fighter-intercepts' into the air, to regain contact with the pilot." Between Sept. 2000 and June 2001, fighters were scrambled 67 times.
There were multiple reports of top government officials suddenly canceling all public flight plans right before Sept. 11. CBS News reported that John Ashcroft stopped flying commercial in late July due to a threat assessment. Newsweek leaked out a story of how a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly cancelled travel plans because of security concerns. Mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown received an anonymous phone call telling him not to fly on that fateful Tuesday. What exactly did they know? How did NORAD have such a lapse in security when a known threat was on the horizon?
Secret Service agents also en-countered problems while trying to apprehend the terrorists. FBI and intelligence agents were actually threatened with arrest if they tried to apprehend al-Qaeda, according to FBI testimony reported by UPI, Judicial Watch, BBC, and others. The piece of legislation which was responsible for this treachery, secret presidential decision directive W199I, was signed by President Geore W. Bush to prevent any serious investigations into the terrorist networks. Multiple agents, including David Schippers, Robert Wright, and former director of the FBI, John O'Neal, were outraged over being obstructed from detaining the terrorists. Agents were even ordered to withdraw investigations involving two of Osama Bin Laden's relatives (Abdullah and Omar) who were living right next to CIA headquarters in Va., according to Newsweek. O'Neal was so fed up that he actually resigned due to what he saw as treason, and had planned to file a lawsuit and go public. Unfortunately, Mr. O'Neal died before he was able to do so-his new job was working as head of security at the WTC. He died during the collapse of the towers, his first day on the job.
Suspicious activity in government wasn't the only anomaly incorporating the attacks. There was also a highly irregular amount of insider trading involving the affected air liners. Between the dates of Sept. 5 and Sept. 10, 2001, 4,744 put options (speculation that the stock will plummet) were placed on United Airlines stock, opposed to only 396 call options. This is a highly irregular increase in put option sales, many of which were purchased by Deutschebank/A.B.Brown, a firm managed until 1998 by A.B. Krongard, the current executive director of the CIA, information confirmed by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and San Francisco Chronicle. On Sept. 10 2001, American Airlines also experienced an abnormal amount of put options.
Exactly what information was known and who was allowed to profit it?
Guest commentaries do not reflect the opinions of The Cowl.
Submit guest commentaries to cowlcommentary@yahoo.com
Why were Pentagon officials carrying out detailed emergency drills based upon crashing a hijacked airplane into the Pentagon one year before the attacks? Why on Sept. 11, the very date of the attacks, was the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) running an exercise involving a plane crashing into one of the agency's buildings? Also, why did the National Command Authority take over 75 minutes to scramble jets to intercept the hijackers when standard procedure dictates that jets be notified after six minutes of lost voice contact? One hour and fifty-three minutes went by between the time flight 11 lost contact and Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. During all of that time, not one jet intercepted any of the airplanes.
As Bob Arnott of MSNBC stated, "Pilots are supposed to hit each fix with pinpoint accuracy. If a plane deviates by 15 degrees, or two miles from that course, the flight controllers will hit the panic button.... It's considered a real emergency." Four hijacked jumbo jets were able to fly off-course, across several states, within close distance of multiple military bases (Syracuse, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, etc.) without any opposition from the most attentive and powerful air force in the world. As a NORAD spokesman stated in The Boston Globe, "Routine response to such emergencies is to order 'fighter-intercepts' into the air, to regain contact with the pilot." Between Sept. 2000 and June 2001, fighters were scrambled 67 times.
There were multiple reports of top government officials suddenly canceling all public flight plans right before Sept. 11. CBS News reported that John Ashcroft stopped flying commercial in late July due to a threat assessment. Newsweek leaked out a story of how a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly cancelled travel plans because of security concerns. Mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown received an anonymous phone call telling him not to fly on that fateful Tuesday. What exactly did they know? How did NORAD have such a lapse in security when a known threat was on the horizon?
Secret Service agents also en-countered problems while trying to apprehend the terrorists. FBI and intelligence agents were actually threatened with arrest if they tried to apprehend al-Qaeda, according to FBI testimony reported by UPI, Judicial Watch, BBC, and others. The piece of legislation which was responsible for this treachery, secret presidential decision directive W199I, was signed by President Geore W. Bush to prevent any serious investigations into the terrorist networks. Multiple agents, including David Schippers, Robert Wright, and former director of the FBI, John O'Neal, were outraged over being obstructed from detaining the terrorists. Agents were even ordered to withdraw investigations involving two of Osama Bin Laden's relatives (Abdullah and Omar) who were living right next to CIA headquarters in Va., according to Newsweek. O'Neal was so fed up that he actually resigned due to what he saw as treason, and had planned to file a lawsuit and go public. Unfortunately, Mr. O'Neal died before he was able to do so-his new job was working as head of security at the WTC. He died during the collapse of the towers, his first day on the job.
Suspicious activity in government wasn't the only anomaly incorporating the attacks. There was also a highly irregular amount of insider trading involving the affected air liners. Between the dates of Sept. 5 and Sept. 10, 2001, 4,744 put options (speculation that the stock will plummet) were placed on United Airlines stock, opposed to only 396 call options. This is a highly irregular increase in put option sales, many of which were purchased by Deutschebank/A.B.Brown, a firm managed until 1998 by A.B. Krongard, the current executive director of the CIA, information confirmed by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and San Francisco Chronicle. On Sept. 10 2001, American Airlines also experienced an abnormal amount of put options.
Exactly what information was known and who was allowed to profit it?
Guest commentaries do not reflect the opinions of The Cowl.
Submit guest commentaries to cowlcommentary@yahoo.com