The One Big Reason You Should Not Celebrate 9/11
Are you the kind of sick pervert that celebrates the murder of 3,000 civilians? More than likely the answer is “yes”.
“Hold on a minute, A-h*le,” you may counter. “It’s not a ‘celebration’. It’s a ‘commemoration’. It’s one of the few things that can bring divided America together as a nation. Mourning a shared tragedy, a loss of innocence. Expressing gratitude for the selfless courage of the first responders. Building community.”
Ah, not so much. In reality, it is a masterful manipulation of the complementary moral and intellectual weaknesses of the both extreme wings of the American body politic, a satanic appeal to our vanity and invitation to the destruction of our democratic institutions. Stupid right wingers love the 9/11 narrative because it’s a simple authoritarian parable providing clearly delineated foreign villains and glorifying nativist military authorities. Spineless left wingers love it because they get to light all their coolest scented candles around…
Toronto Hearings on the Events of 9/11 (Video)
This is the official broadcast site of the international hearings on the events of September 11, 2001, at Ryerson University from Sept. 8 to 11, 2011. The official website of the Hearings is torontohearings.org:
The Strange Case of Benazir Bhutto’s Claims and Osama bin Laden’s Death
Jennifer Briney wrote back in 2008 on Little Country Lost:
In a November 2, 2007 interview, less than two months before she would be assassinated, Benazir Bhutto was asked by reporter David Frost of Al-Jazeera English about a letter that she had sent to Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf. The letter outlined who she believed should be investigated in the event of her assassination. While giving her answer, she listed as one of the suspects a “key figure in security … a former military officer in Pakistan” who had dealings with, among others, “Omar Sheikh, the man who murdered Osama bin-Laden.”
If that name, Omar Shieikh, sounds familiar it’s because he was a key figure in some huge stories between 1999 and 2002. His full name is Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and multiple variations of those names are used to describe him including Omar Sheikh and Saeed Sheikh. Here’s how you may have…
New 9/11 Audio Tape Revelations
New York Times
Very interesting new 9/11 information reported by the New York Times:
For one instant on the morning of Sept. 11, an airliner that had vanished from all the tracking tools of modern aviation suddenly became visible in its final seconds to the people who had been trying to find it.
It was just after 9 a.m., 16 minutes after a plane had hit the north tower of the World Trade Center, when a radio transmission came into the New York air traffic control radar center. “Hey, can you look out your window right now?” the caller said.
“Yeah,” the radar control manager said.
“Can you, can you see a guy at about 4,000 feet, about 5 east of the airport right now, looks like he’s —”
“Yeah, I see him,” the manager said.
“Do you see that guy, look, is he descending into the building also?” the caller asked.
“He’s descending really quick too, yeah,”…
Lady Gaga Posts 9/11 Tribute Video
Lady Gaga, Fran Drescher, Pauly D, Nas, Juliane Hough and Drake Bell are featured in the 9/11 Tribute Movement’s new 30-second PSA. Anyone can post a video tribute on the Movement’s Facebook page.
Where Were You When You First Heard A 9/11 Conspiracy Theory?
Jeremy Stahl shares his first time, writing for Slate:
I remember precisely where I was and what I was doing when I heard: I was about three weeks into my first year at Emory University in Atlanta, and I was sharing a meal with my new dorm-mates in the DUC dining hall. In the manner of college freshmen everywhere, we were discussing current events. It was Sept. 12, 2001, less than 28 hours after the attacks, when I heard my first 9/11 conspiracy theory.
A friend was arguing that the plane that had crashed in Pennsylvania the previous day had been shot down by the U.S. military. His theory was not that the jet had been destroyed as part of some larger nefarious government plot, as some would later claim, but that it had been shot down to prevent another target from being hit. Furthermore, he argued, the Bush administration would never be able…
9/11 Coloring Book Sparks Controversy
Via The Raw Story:
A 9/11 coloring book has emerged on the brink of the tenth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center. It is entitled “We Shall Never Forget 9/11: The Kids’ Book of Freedom,” and was published by Missouri-based Really Big Coloring Books.
The color book begins with Osama bin Laden plotting to attack the United States and ends with bin Laden being shot by a Navy SEAL. A spokesperson for the publisher said that seeing bin Laden get shot “provides closure” for children.
Dawud Walid, Michigan representative for the Council on American Islamic Relations, called the book disgusting because it portrays all Muslims as terrorists.
9/11 Fiction
The BBC asks if there is a novel that defines the 9/11 decade. I’m tempted to nominate The 9/11 Commission Report – any other suggestions that the Beeb left out?
Many books have been written about 9/11 but is there one that embodies the era that the attacks inaugurated?
When Changez, the Pakistani hero of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, watches the Twin Towers come crumbling down, he smiles.
Little Oskar Schell, the nine-year-old at the centre of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, grapples with his father’s death by creating a flip-book – 15 blurry stills, arranged in reverse order, of a man falling to his death from the World Trade Center. When he flicks through the pages, the flailing figure is restored to the top of the building – safe.
In Open City, writer Teju Cole describes Colonel Tassin – a (real) 19th Century figure – who kept count of the number of birds killed by flying…
Alec Baldwin: 9/11 Truther?
New York Magazine’s Daily Intel asks why Alec Baldwin is alluding to 9/11 conspiracy theories on Twitter:
The actor and potential mayoral hopeful had a late Twitter session overnight, as he’s been known to do, in which he answered questions from followers. At the end, he went on a particularly uncomfortable tangent. “Do you think Bin Laden was behind 9-11?” he wrote, followed by two messages about the counter-terrorist exercise Amalgam Virgo, a favorite talking point of the truther movement. When Baldwin was asked if it was “a little late to make that accusation” by a follower, he replied, “what ‘accusation?’” and concluded: “9-11 …….. what have we learned?”
For one, we’ve learned that people are not generally thrilled when September 11 is invoked with doubt as to its perpetrators, whether it’s a joke or not. Baldwin, who’s hosting a public forum next month about 9/11, is a noted provocateur and a master with the press, so it’s possible that he’s poking fun at the truther…
NY Vintner Produces 9/11 Memorial Wines
How will you commemorate September 11 this year? You could buy 9/11 wine for $9.11 or a bottle of 9/11 Memorial wine. Each bottle bought is a donation towards supporting families and organizations still recovering from the 9/11 attacks. Via NY Daily News:
Rick Veitch’s ‘The Big Lie’ 9/11 Truth Comic (Interview)
As we approach the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, there still exists an almost complete blackout in mainstream media of the voluminous forensic evidence that demands an immediate and independent new investigation of that fateful day.
Enter The Big Lie a new comic book dealing with the September 11th attacks from the vantage point of a time traveller who has returned on 9/11 to try to warn her husband and avert the catastrophe. We here at We Are Change Atlanta were fortunate enough to be granted an interview with one of the creators, Rick Veitch, who partnering with other concerned artivists at Truth Be Told Comics promise to continue to ask the big questions and tackle more of the ‘The Big Lies’ of our time with their graphic novels.
We Are Change Atlanta (WACA): First of all I would like to say having read The Big Lie that you have done…
Mike Huckabee’s 9/11 Cartoon Movie
Curious how the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history will be taught to future generations? Here’s a clue via presidential candidate Huckabee, who’s hawking an educational 9/11 cartoon at $9.95 a pop. No mention of the two wars we entered into in the aftermath or even Osama bin Laden’s stated reason for the attacks (the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia). Refinery29 writes:
There’s now a 9/11 cartoon movie courtesy of Mike Huckabee, co-founder of Learn Our History, a for-profit company whose mission is to get kids excited and educated about history. The first initiative, an animated DVD series, has flicks on subjects like the American Revolution, and, perhaps more tellingly, “The Reagan Revolution.” The September 11th cartoon really explains, according to the literature, “How the ongoing War on Terror protects Americans at home and American ideals abroad.”
No 9/11 10th Anniversary Threats
From Reuters:
There have been no credible or specific threats against the United States yet ahead of the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday.
U.S. officials have been on high alert for possible plots to reprise in some form of the September 11, 2001 attacks in which al Qaeda operatives hijacked commercial airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
“We have no specific or credible threats involving the 9/11 anniversary to date,” she told reporters during a news conference on an unrelated subject…
Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth Documentary
Please take a moment to look with an open mind at the evidence that has been compiled by independent researchers around the world that calls into question The 9/11 Commission Report’s findings and omissions of key testimony, forensic evidence and other crucial information that calls into question the established story as explained by the U.S. government.
Atheist Group Sues Over ‘Ground Zero Cross’ At 9/11 Memorial
Reports the Associated Press via the Wall Street Journal:
NEW YORK — The installation of a cross-shaped steel beam at the Sept. 11 memorial at ground zero is unconstitutional, a national atheist group argued in a lawsuit filed Wednesday, asking a judge to order it removed or request that other religions and nonreligious views be equally represented at the site.
The museum is a public institution and should not reflect a specific religion, said the American Atheists, a nonprofit group aimed at safeguarding separation of church and state that filed the civil lawsuit in Manhattan State Supreme Court.
The cross was found amid the wreckage from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by a construction worker who said he stumbled onto a miracle. It was moved to the ground zero site last weekend from a temporary post after a blessing by a Catholic priest and is to become part of the permanent collection of the National…
‘Kill The Messenger’ A Documentary About Sibel Edmonds
Via Just A Citizen:
In the wake of September 11, 2001, Sibel Edmonds is approached by the FBI. As an American of Iranian and Turkish origin, Edmonds’ linguistic skill-set makes her a valuable asset to the Language Services Unit, where she spends months translating high-security clearance documents. One day shortly after reporting the possible infiltration of her unit by Turkish spies to her supervisors and their supervisors, Edmonds’ world is turned upside-down.
Instead of seeing her colleague become the target of an investigation, she is interrogated, then unceremoniously fired and warned not to pursue her claims any further as she would be watched and listened to. In the years that follow, Edmonds is transformed into the country’s first public National Security whistle-blower and a prominent First Amendment advocate (the ACLU calls her the “most gagged woman in America”).
Never Forget 9/11. Religion Was the Cause …
From NonBelievers.org, the only statement on the site. Of course, DISCUSS!
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The Cost of War: 225,000 Lives, $4 Trillion
Since 9/11, U.S. wars across the globe have cost at least a quarter million people their lives and will likely reach more than $4 trillion, a new research project reports. The Cost of War by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies details the toll the wars have taken in human, economic, social and political costs.
Some of the project’s findings:
- While we know how many US soldiers have died in the wars (just over 6000), what is startling is what we don’t know about the levels of injury and illness in those who have returned from the wars. New disability claims continue to pour into the VA, with 550,000 just through last fall. Many deaths and injuries among US contractors have not been identified.
- At least 137,000 civilians have died and more will die in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan as a result of the fighting at the hands of all parties to the conflict.
- The…
The Terror Chess Set: Taliban And World Trade Center Included
How terrorist attacks have become a game. The Telegraph reports:
The Terror Chess sets feature hand-painted Taliban militants with a woman in a burka as the queen.
In the British set, the king is Tony Blair and the queen is the Queen, while the rook is Big Ben.
Jeffrey Train, a 48-year-old former Canadian soldier who designed the figures, said he had sold around 1,500 sets, mainly as souvenirs to troops serving in the 140,000-strong international coalition in Afghanistan.
In the American set they are replaced by Barack Obama, the Statue of Liberty and the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.
Ranged against the insurgents are soldiers from a choice of coalition countries including American, Canada and Britain.
[Continues at The Telegraph]
Image Comics’ ‘The Big Lie’ Asks Some Big Questions
Brian Truitt writes in USA Today:
It has been nearly 10 years since 9/11, and the tragedy is still on the minds of many Americans. One of those, writer and artist Rick Veitch, is convinced we haven’t been told the complete truth about it.
The questions surrounding that fateful day power the themes and story of his new Image Comics series The Big Lie, which debuts Sept. 7 and reteams Veitch with fellow artist Gary Erskine.
Veitch structured the story similarly to the 1963 Twilight Zone episode “No Time Like the Past,” in which a man uses a time machine to try to “fix” three events: warning a Hiroshima policeman about the atomic bomb, assassinating Hitler before World War II and stopping the sinking of the Lusitania.
In The Big Lie, the heroine is a woman named Sandra, who lost her husband, Carl, during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.…
