Why I became a September 11 truther

by Hereward Fenton

12 Sep 05:50am – Source -ThePunch.com.au

On this sad anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in post-war history I am reminded of the prophetic words spoken by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address to the nation in 1961: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist”.

Eisenhower was the supreme commander in western Europe who had led America to victory against one of the most evil regimes in history, a man who had witnessed the depths of human depravity, and wanted finally to warn us that the war machine which had been created to defend freedom in WWII could equally be used for the opposite purpose, and that it was up to the American people to guard against this possibility.

Eisenhower coined the phrase “military industrial complex” which became the catch-cry of the anti-war movement of the 1960s, describing an economic and political fusion of power involving armaments manufacturers, construction companies, banks, democratic governments and puppet dictatorships.

As Marine Major General Smedley Butler put it, “War is a Racket”. In his seminal book on the subject Butler declares, “I spent 33 years in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints.”

These and other observations about the racketeering, lying and theft that is the essence of war have informed many of us around the world who today call ourselves “9/11 truthers”.

The central argument of the movement is that 9/11 was a staged, false flag operation designed to propel the US and its allies into war for the sake of profit, oil and empire. False flags are defined in Wikipedia as “covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities”.

There are numerous examples in modern history where clandestine government agencies or rogue operatives have acted in this way, collaborating in the hatching of staged terrorist plots, the launching of self-inflicted military assaults to be blamed on the enemy, and in the formation of domestic terrorist organisations.

There is not enough space here to address these complex cases, but I encourage the reader to do an internet search on phrases like “false flag”, “strategy of tension”, “operation gladio”, “operation northwoods”, “attack on the Maine”, “Gulf of Tonkin incident”, “reichstag fire”, and “the power of nightmares”, to find historical precedents which have a chilling resemblance to the events and aftermath of 9/11.

Some readers may be indignant at the suggestion that a modern democracy would permit its military arm to sacrifice innocent citizens for the sake of a political, economic or military imperative. If you are one of those people then I’m sorry but you have some hard lessons to learn. Use the search terms above and you will discover that I am not lying . You will find this information confirmed by many scholarly sources, and in some cases by impeccably researched BBC documentaries.

So far I have been trying to illustrate the context and precedents for looking at 9/11 as a false flag attack, but let’s now take a look at the specific evidence we have about 9/11, and let’s agree on what we can agree on:

• Planes were flown into the twin towers.
• Towers 1, 2 and 7 collapsed, symmetrically, at close to free fall, pulverising most of the concrete of those buildings into a fine dust which covered Manhattan.
• The Pentagon was hit by a third plane.
• A fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
• Around 3,000 people died as a direct result of the attacks.

We can all agree with the mainstream account up to this point. Some have conjectured that the Pentagon may have been hit by something other than a Boeing 757, which is reasonable considering the US government’s refusal to release any video footage from dozens of security cameras, but this view is no longer widely held in the 9/11 truth movement.

It is when we consider the “why”, the “how” and the “who” of these events that I and many others radically depart from the mainstream narrative of 9/11.

I have already hinted at the answer to the “who” part. The evidence points to rogue networks within the military industrial complex and intelligence agencies who were using co-opted Islamic extremists as patsies. This view is corroborated by documented evidence that a key planner of the 9/11 plot and trainer of the hijackers was simultaneously an informant for the FBI, and other evidence that the NSA had been closely monitoring the alleged hijackers prior to 911.

In regard to the “how” questions, the only topic I will address in this piece is the collapse of the towers. All three collapsed at close to free fall, including Building 7, which was not even hit by a plane. There are numerous testimonies from first responders who saw heard and felt explosions before the buildings went down.

The free fall rate of collapse is strong proof that explosives were used, and there is no alternative to this conclusion that is consistent with the laws of physics.

This is not just my opinion, it is also the opinion of close to 2,000 qualified architects and engineers. Steel framed buildings do not simply crumble into dust as a result of fire. In the entire history of modern construction, including exhaustive large scale tests on real steel-framed structures, there is no precedent for this type of event.

The exact details of how the demolitions were carried out have not been proven, but what is clear beyond all reasonable doubt is that they were not brought down simply as a consequence of plane impacts and fires.

Currently there is one, and only one, peer reviewed scientific paper which addresses the question of whether explosives were used to bring down the towers.

The researchers, using electron microscopy, found that a residue of a high tech incendiary, nano-thermite, was present in all the dust samples retrieved from New York on 9/11. They also found iron micro-spheres in the dust, an indicator of intense heat way beyond that attained by office fires.

If you are curious to know more about the collapse of the towers, please visit Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth and the Remember Building 7 campaign.

Let’s now return to the “why” of it all, which is the most controversial question of all. Apart from the conquests and theft of resources in the middle east, at home we have been incrementally losing our freedoms too. In Australia, the government has given itself the power to detain suspects without charge, wiretap without warrants, secretly search people’s homes and blast travellers with radiation at airports.

The secret detention laws are so extreme that even telling someone that you were detained is a federal offence. Those subject to these measures have no right to silence and can only use a legal counsel approved by the government. People can be put under “control orders”, a form of house arrest, even though they have committed no crime. Non-suspects can be detained by force for interrogation, and we have sedition laws which can imprison people merely for their speech rather than for their actions.

According to a recent ABC law report there have been 54 new anti-terror laws passed since 9/11 and 37 prosecutions under these new laws – they are not merely for show.

People have been convicted and given harsh sentences merely for thinking about terrorist attacks. These anti-terror laws were designed to intervene in a “predictive way”, which calls to mind science fiction dystopias like Minority Report. Although the changes have been happening incrementally, the effects are very real and the trend is away from democracy, toward a type of society which can only be called totalitarian.

In short, there has been a power grab, using the fear of terrorism as its justification, and I would argue that this was the plan all along. The power structure which has asserted itself, often described as a “New World Order”, is global in scope, and treats national sovereignty with contempt. It is therefore crucial that upstanding citizens begin to realise the danger we are in and take action to reclaim our national sovereignty and reverse these trends.

Ultimately, 9/11 truthers are average people who are willing to stand up and say that two plus two makes four and who will not be bamboozled by the corporate media or intimidated by Big Brother. Evil triumphs because good people do nothing.

We are trying to do something. Future generations will remember us.

Learn more at truthnews.com.au

Shannon Deery, Stephen McMahon From: Herald Sun October 20, 2010 12:27PM

Source: Herald Sun

UPDATE 7.51pm: JULIA Gillard has dismissed as “stupid and wrong” a senior union official’s belief that the 9/11 attacks were a conspiracy but has refused to discipline him.

Kevin Bracken, the president of the Victorian Trades Hall and secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, sparked anger this morning after claiming the attacks were not the result of terrorist activity.

“I believe the official story is a conspiracy theory that doesn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny,” Mr Bracken told ABC talk-back host Jon Faine.

“In my mind the buildings were imploded.”

Faine initially thought the call was a hoax.

“I challenge you to a public debate,” Mr Bracken said to Faine.

“Aviation fuel doesn’t get hot enough to melt steel and no high rise steel frame building before or after September 11 has ever collapsed due to fire.”

Faine described the claim as a “nutter theory”.

The Federal Opposition seized on the comments in Parliament today, with Victorian MP Josh Frydenberg asking Ms Gillard what action she would take against Mr Bracken “to send a message that such remarks are unacceptable”, The Australian reported.

“Obviously I don’t agree with the remarks, obviously they are stupid and wrong,” Ms Gillard said.

“The Labor Party is a large organisation, people join it as individuals – we don’t dictate what people think.”

After being accused by Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne of not answering the question on discipline, Ms Gillard said: “If it is the intention of the Leader of the Opposition to expel every member who says something stupid, I’ll start sending him a weekly list.”

In Victoria, Shadow Attorney General Robert Clarke said Mr Bracken’s comments were a direct insult to Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

“It strikes at the very heart of the West’s struggle against terrorism and it is a disgrace that while Australian soldiers are serving and dying in Afghanistan that Mr Bracken make these wild claims that undermine the very reason for their presence in Afghanistan,” he said.

Mr Clarke called on Premier John Brumby to condemn these comments in the strongest possible terms and for the outspoken union leader to be disciplined.

“The Trades Hall Council needs to consider Mr Bracken’s future as its president and the MUA needs to consider his future as their secretary,” he said.

“These comments can’t stand they need to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”

Trades Hall secretary Brian Boyd said Mr Bracken did not speak on behalf of the organisation.

“The official Trades Hall position is not to entertain that theory,” Mr Boyd said.

“We had almost 3000 working people killed in that terrorist attack. It was a terrorist attack, and we condemn it.”

Mr Boyd said Mr Bracken’s views had caused many debates behind the walls of Trade Hall.

“He is welcome to his views and we’ve discussed his theories,” he said.

“But I totally disagree.”

Mr Boyd said he stood by his colleague despite his extremist views.

“99 per cent of the time Kevin’s a very good president,” he said.

MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin distanced the union from the comment, releasing a statement saying its position on the attack was “unambiguous”.

“The 9/11 tragedy was a result of a terrorist attack by international terrorists who claimed responsibility,” he said.

“It is the MUA’s position – one that I passionately support as national secretary – that this attack is one of the greatest affronts and abuses of human and civil rights in contemporary history.”

This is not the first time Mr Bracken has voiced his controversial opinions on the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.

In 2006 he told The Australian he believed the attacks only worked because the US Government was in some way involved.

“If they want to stop terrorism they’ve got to look at who was really behind September 11,” Mr Bracken said at the time.

“It couldn’t have happened unless there was participation from key elements of the American military and government and security services. I am not saying the whole lot were involved. But I believe the official story for September 11 doesn’t stack up.”

Mr Bracken said in 2006 his views on the terror laws and September 11 were his own, and he was not speaking on behalf of the union.

Article by John Bursill

So why should we believe that “9/11 Truth” can stop the war in Afghanistan and bring the “War on Terrorism” to an end?

I will lay out below the non-conspiratorial reasons why it is vitally important that we continue to demand accountability from our governments, on why it is they went to war on our behalf in 2001. I will also argue why I am correct to strongly assert that the pursuit of 9/11 truth and a criminal investigation of those events is the only practical path to peace today. Details of an upcoming Sydney “9/11 Truth for Peace” Protest on September 11th, 2010 are at the bottom of this article.

On the 11th of September 2001 the world entered a very dark chapter of its history! We were promised a 100 years of war in this “New American Century” fighting “the terrorists” wherever the American Empire deemed they were, and at the time of their choosing. We were told that this “New Pear Harbor” event carried out on 9/11 by the CIA born Al-Qaeda was a fair and reasonable reason to carry out a preemptive strike against their supporters the Taliban, by the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

The vast majority of the world’s population and its governments rallied behind the US determined to fight Islamic terrorism together world wide. Although some more skeptical commentators and governments were cautious with their support for this so called “War on Terrorism”, they found themselves intimidated into silence. For the Bush/Cheney Administration and its powerful media supporters made it abundantly clear “that you are with us or you are with the terrorists” GWB.

The newly elected (?) Bush Administration and its Neo-Con agenda (Rebuilding America’s Defenses) went into full swing in the last few months of 2001 by the use of this powerful new catalyst of fear, 9/11. The American public was so angry and shocked by 9/11 that they were literally cheering for revenge and in full support of military retaliation. Innocently and traumatized they trusted the story they were told about 9/11 without evidence, and also trusted that George W. Bush would lead them to victory against the terrorists and capture Osama Bin Laden “dead or alive”! Still for the Bush Administration to be able to see their new “pre-emptive war doctrine” slide into position with an Afghan War, rather than being seen as a “war crime”, the US Government had to give many assurances to the world and it’s governments. Assurances that evidence would be produced to prove their Bin Laden Al-Qaeda “conspiracy theory” in a White Paper and that they would investigate how it was that the attacks happened. Making that investigation the basis of their policy to stop such terrorism into the future. They would with out a doubt address their massive military and intelligence failures on 9/11 and make changes to prevent any further now expected attacks.

They also made many hollow promises to the American people. Like they would look after the welfare of the 9/11 First Responders, who are still waiting for basic health care as they fall in the thousands to the effects of the toxic dust they were told was safe! They also said they would get to the bottom of the massive and unprecedented structural failures of the three WTC towers 1, 2 and 7. Those towers that fell that day at near or actual free fall speeds led to the death of 343 New York Firefighters and thousands of civilians who never imagined the buildings would collapse at all. Today a growing number of Firefighters, Engineers, Architects, Scientists and building professionals question these collapses as inconsistent with being caused by fire and aircraft damage alone. The collapse of building 7 (not hit by a plane) and the discovery of Nano-Thermite in the collapse dust being the clearest evidence that pre-planted explosives and incendiaries charges within the buildings assisted in their destruction. Who did this and why and how it happened is clearly needed to be investigated in a criminal court immediately.

Unfortunately it is true and un-controversial to state unequivocally that we, the public have received none of what the US Government assured us they would deliver. Rather we have seen in an unprecedented manner the most obvious and ruthless cover up and destruction of evidence and testimony around the events of 9/11. This lack of accountability is most starkly supported by the statement by the chairs of the 9/11 Commission Report, that “they were set up to fail” and that NIST the National Institute of Science and Technology is unable to explain many aspects of the building collapses. Some of the things they can not and will not explain include; the actual collapse sequence of the Twin Towers, the molten iron found at ground zero and the simply unbelievable “absolute” free fall of building 7 for over 100ft of its fall! To this day, we the people of the world have no idea based on official “testable” reports of what really happened on 9/11! Who is responsible for those heinous crimes is a question that simply can not be answered without a criminal investigation. Secrecy is everywhere and truth, transparency and justice are nowhere to be seen?

The 9/11 Truth Movement world wide have been demanding a new investigation of the events of September 11, 2001 for 9 years now and have continuously pointed out that we should withdraw the troops from Afghanistan immediately until we know who is responsible for the 9/11 Attacks. The FBI still have not indicted Bin Laden for 9/11 as the say they have “no hard evidence” connecting him to those events? Disturbingly Khalid Sheikh Mohammed the so called “mastermind” of the 9/11 attacks, whose tortured testimony is the basis of the official 9/11 “conspiracy theory” in the “9/11 Commission Report” remains un-charged to this day for those crimes?

Although much work has been done by citizen researchers to discover who may or may not have been involved with carrying out the 9/11 Attacks, such endeavors are impossible to fulfill without subpoena power in a courtroom.

Recently two more Australians died in Afghanistan fighting a provably illegal war on behalf of the Australian Government’s support for the “War on Terrorism”. This Government support of the war is based on the the understanding that the 9/11 Attacks were a direct result of the Taliban supporting and harboring the terrorists responsible for the crimes committed on 9/11. Remove this justification and their is absolutely no reason for any further support! This 9/11 war in Afghanistan has now taken 20 of Australia’s finest in the field, which is double the number of Australians that where killed on 9/11. How many innocent Afghans have died because of the invasion and occupation is anyone’s guess as the media and the military have little interest in finding out the true figures to date. Estimates put it at approximately 30,000 people, although it’s probably a much greater number?

The Australian 9/11 Truth Movement are determined to expose to the Australian people the facts that dispute the legitimacy of the official story of 9/11! They continue to demand that Australian troops are immediately removed from Afghanistan until 9/11 is properly investigated and evidence is produced to demonstrate Afghanistan is responsible in any way for those attacks!

It is clear from the simple facts that are on the public record that nine years on there is no mandate or excuse for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and that 9/11 truth is the only practical path to peace today. With out exposing that the pretext to this war is simply not based in reality, the anger and hatred of the people in the west ignorant of the facts will allow the bloodshed to continue.

A protest will be held in Sydney’s Hyde Park in the vicinity of the War Memorial (Map) on the 9th anniversary of the September 11th Attacks. Hereward Fenton the organizer and member of “We Are Change – Sydney” says “this protest will be held in honor of the Australian lives lost on 9/11 and the brave soldiers who have fallen since in Afghanistan in their name. We also will remember the innocent Afghan deaths and hope that we can help bring Afghanistan to peace!”. The protest will be static in nature commencing at 11am on Saturday the 11th of September and continuing to approximately 2pm that day. Hereward can be contacted at hereward@911oz.com or call him on +61415059675