The U.S. government often plays the game of blaming “enemies” and excusing “friends,” a particularly ugly reality in the push to blame Iran and absolve Saudi Arabia for the 9/11 attacks, says 9/11 widow Kristen Breitweiser.
By Kristen Breitweiser
Largely unreported and widely unknown is the recent push to re-establish an Iranian role in the 9/11 attacks. To be more specific, some in Washington are currently trying to allege that Iran played a larger role in the 9/11 attacks than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Why this assertion about Iran — that has been lying fallow for years — is so recently being resurrected raises questions, bears scrutiny, and begs an examination.
The World Trade Center’s Twin Towers burning on 9/11. (Photo credit: National Park Service)
Prior to delving into the Iranian question, some background is needed to best understand the rather inorganic evolution of this Iranian “evidence.” As many know, the 9/11 Families have spent the past 16 years trying to hold the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks accountable for the mass murder of our loved ones.
First, we fought for the 9/11 Commission so that we might have an independent investigation into the attacks, learn lessons, fix problems, and hold those in government accountable for their failures that contributed to the vast devastation of that horrific day. Next, as an expressly granted right given to us by Congress in the creation of the 2001 Airline Stabilization Act (more commonly known as the 9/11 Victims’ Compensation Fund), we attempted to hold all the co-conspirators of the 9/11 attacks accountable in a federal court of law. Notably, to the 9/11 Families, the definition of “co-conspirators” was always a “both-and” situation, not the more exclusionary “either-or” scenario. In other words, we wanted any and all of those who played a hand (however large or small) in the murder of our loved ones held accountable.
Blaming ‘Enemies,’ Shielding ‘Friends’
Trying to hold co-conspirators of the 9/11 attacks accountable in federal court is not as easy as the public might think. First, the U.S. government plays a large role with a strong hand in determining who can be qualified as a “co-conspirator.” Notably, this decision historically hinges upon who is “in favor” or “out of favor” with the U.S. government. It can also depend on the foreign and domestic policy agendas of the U.S. government. (Ironically enough, both of these things — domestic and foreign policy agendas — are what created the 9/11 attacks in the first place but that is a much larger topic in need of a tome not a blog.)
Hassan Rouhani, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-first session. 22 September 2016 (UN Photo)
As an example of how the U.S. government and its agendas control who gets held accountable for bad acts and who doesn’t, in 2002, a lawsuit on behalf of some 9/11 families was filed against Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Obviously, this lawsuit fell in favor with the U.S. government, since at the time, President George W. Bush was trying to establish a connection between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks to serve as a basis for the war in Iraq. Meanwhile, nearly at the same time in 2002, another group of 9/11 family members (represented by yet another attorney) filed their lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This lawsuit was not looked upon as favorably by the U.S. government for several reasons: President Bush considered the members of the Saudi Royal Family to be close family friends; the United States was extremely dependent on Saudi oil; the U.S. had long been dependent on Saudi cash; and finally, perhaps most pragmatically, the U.S. needed Saudi military bases to stage its upcoming war in Iraq. It should come as no surprise then, that the Saudi lawsuit continues to falter to this day while the Iraq lawsuit had a favorable resolution.
Fifteen years later, the 9/11 families are still trying to hold the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia accountable in a federal court of law for the mass murder of our loved ones. And, unfortunately for us, the Kingdom seems to still remain “in favor” with the U.S. government — which is probably why our path to justice has taken so long and why our court case against the Saudis is constantly getting delayed and dismissed by the Judge.
To wit, 16 years after the cold-blooded murder of our loved ones, we have yet to even reach the discovery phase of our federal court case — the part of our case where we get to show our evidence (the money transfers, the checks, the FBI reports, the travel documents, the correspondence, the wiretaps, etc.).
As an aside, the U.S. government in its own criminal prosecution of the co-conspirators of the 9/11 attacks, via its use of the military tribunal system, is as largely unsuccessful as the 9/11 families have been in our federal civil court case. Notably, nearly all of the Guantanamo Bay cases haven’t even moved passed the pre-trial stages and/or hearings, yet.
Clearly, the government’s self-created military tribunal system has proven to be (much like its twin-sister program of enhanced interrogation) — just another ill-conceived, hastily done, colossal mistake, and abject failure. And more importantly, both of these post-9/11 U.S. government-created programs have, thus far, only obstructed our rocky path to justice.
Letting the Saudis Walk
The 9/11 Families’ case against the Saudis has been dismissed at the trial level for a myriad of reasons, more recently, because the Kingdom was not a named State Sponsor of Terrorism. In case you didn’t already know this horrifying dirty little secret, for the most part, getting on and off the official State Sponsor List is mostly a political decision, having very little to do with reality — i.e. whether you really deserve to be on the list in the first place.
King Salman of Saudi Arabia and his entourage arrive to greet President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 27, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
And typically, you can get off the list by buying your way off, just as long as you are deemed “in favor” with the right people and/or Presidents at the right time. This is what happened with Pan Am Lockerbie and Libya, by the way. Notably, while Libya took responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Lockerbie, more recent reports have shown that Iran was actually responsible for the terrorist attack.
Nevertheless, in response to being unable to hold the Saudis accountable for their role in the 9/11 attacks because the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was not an “officially named State Sponsor of Terrorism,” the 9/11 Families fought for and won JASTA (Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act). JASTA enables any victim of mass terrorism on U.S. soil to hold any nation accountable — regardless if that nation was on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
JASTA is a solid anti-terrorism law that can in some ways get around the “politics” that sometimes block the path to justice for victims of terrorism. Notably, the entities that fought most stridently against JASTA were certain key members of the Foreign Relations Committees and the Armed Services Committees; the U.S. State Department’s Near East Affairs Desk; former CIA Director John Brennan; former Attorney General Michael Mukasey; American Enterprise Institute’s John Bolton; Secretary of State John Kerry; and President Barack Obama. Obviously, each of these individuals and entities had their own agendas, but clearly their overall reason to oppose anti-terrorism legislation like JASTA should be fairly apparent to all. Sadly, saving lives from terrorist attacks and holding official and unofficial state sponsors of terrorism accountable for their role in supporting terrorism and/or terrorist groups — were not chief among their interests.
Finally, JASTA
Nevertheless, after overcoming such staunch “establishment” opposition, JASTA became the law of the land in October 2016. And, the 9/11 Families returned, once again, to federal court to hold one of the largest co-conspirators of the 9/11 attacks, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, accountable for its very well-documented and well-known logistical and financial support of the 9/11 hijackers and Al Qaeda.
President Donald Trump touches lighted globe with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi King Salman at the opening of Saudi Arabia’s Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology on May 21, 2017. (Photo from Saudi TV)
Finally last spring, directly due to the enactment of JASTA, the 9/11 Families filed our Complaint naming the Kingdom — regrettably, not specific Saudi Royal Family Members like Prince Bandar bin Sultan or his wife who sent money to the 9/11 hijackers — as defendants in our new lawsuit. In their answer to our complaint, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia claimed that the 9/11 Families’ lawsuit should be dismissed for several reasons, chief among them, that the 9/11 Commission exonerated the Saudis from any role in the 9/11 attacks.
This novel defense was not new to us. In fact, in 2016, when the infamous “28 pages” were finally released to the American public, many establishment-type folks — the Saudis, the Director of the CIA, the Obama Administration, etc. — said eerily similar things about that long-suppressed chapter of the congressional 9/11 report “exonerating the Saudis” and there being “no there, there” with regard to the evidence presented in the “28 pages” (actually 29 pages).
Of course, these statements were ridiculous since the pages themselves represented 29 f-u-l-l pages of facts and evidence detailing the Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks—indeed, even Forrest Gump could discern that there was plenty of “there, there.”
Limited Mandate
Nevertheless, hearing this same tired argument of “exoneration” now being put forth by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s attorneys as a legal basis to dismiss the Saudi lawsuit from federal court was received with exceptional incredulity by the 9/11 Families. After all, we were the very same people who had fought for the creation of the 9/11 Commission in the first place and we knew its limitations, including its consensus-seeking mandate not to find fault or point fingers. Now, the Saudis were using the 9/11 Commission against us because it didn’t find fault or point fingers?
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then Saudi ambassador to the United States, meeting with President George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas, on Aug. 27, 2002. (White House photo)
We knew everything about the Commission — we had fought over its creation; its members and make-up; its budget; its timetable; its access to documents and people; its subpoena power; its open hearings; its extension; its hampered and flawed final recommendations; and, perhaps, most notably its mandate. So, we knew — first hand — that the Commission’s mandate was to specifically not find fault or finger point in order to remove any taint of embarrassment and also to achieve consensus.
To quote the 9/11 Commission Chairmen in the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report’s Preface: “Our aim has not been to assign individual blame.” Logically speaking then, how could a Commission with a specifically tailored, strict and narrow mandate to not find fault or finger point, exonerate anyone? Plain and simple, it can’t.
(Note: we fought very hard to try to have the Commission’s mandate strong enough to hold people responsible and accountable but we lost that fight. Regrettably, to date, not one person in the U.S. government has been held accountable, fired, or reprimanded for their role in facilitating and/or failing to prevent the 9/11 attacks. In fact, some people like former Director of the CIA, George Tenet, were given medals.)
Knowing the preposterousness of this new Saudi defense, the 9/11 families reached out to the former 9/11 Commission members and made a simple request: Please sign an affidavit saying, “Our report speaks for itself. We did not exonerate the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” To us, it seemed a no brainer. Note, we did not ask the Commission to say the Saudis were guilty or responsible — we merely asked for them to say that they did not exonerate the Saudis.
We knew all of these men and women. We knew their work product. We knew the Commission’s Final Report and its footnotes inside and out. And, we knew the Staff Director, too. It was at this juncture that the 9/11 Families were informed by certain key members of the 9/11 Commission that they could not sign any affidavits and that they believed that Iran had more to do with the 9/11 attacks than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I–r–a–n????
Obviously, as key 9/11 family members who fought to have the Commission created, closely followed the Commission’s investigation, attended every hearing, testified before the Commission, held regular conference calls with the Commission throughout its existence, monitored their progress, and were actively engaged with the follow-up to the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report, we were stunned and confused in hearing this revelation about Iran. To us, it seemed both half-baked and very over–cooked. Frankly, we’d been down this road before.
The Usual Suspects
So, exactly where was this Iranian information coming from and how had it remained secret for 16 years? … We began to wonder: Had the FBI in its PENTTBOM investigation (the code name for the FBI’s massive 9/11 investigation) come across this same evidence?
Iranian women attending a speech by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (Iranian government photo)
Were there mountains of FBI 302’s involving: Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 Hijackers being Iranians; some of those 9/11 hijackers visiting the Iran Consulate and Embassy; Iranian officials meeting the hijackers at U.S. airports and escorting them through border security; Iranian officials paying rent, opening checking accounts, and getting drivers’ licenses for the 9/11 hijackers; an Iranian–visa-express program; the Iranian Ambassador’s personal checks and/or wire transfers to the 9/11 hijackers; an Iranian support network inside the United States for the 9/11 hijackers that was made up of Iranian officials on the Iranian payroll; evidence of Iranian FBI informants; evidence of Iranian-connected imams counseling and providing support to the 9/11 hijackers; evidence of phone calls made between the Iranian Embassy and the 9/11 hijackers; Iran paying for plane tickets for the dry-runs of the 9/11 hijackers; Iranians in U.S. flight schools; and/or, Iranian funding of the training camps in Afghanistan.
Is that why the U.S. military went to Afghanistan immediately after the 9/11 attacks — to ferret out Iranian funded Al Qaeda training camps? Was Iran mentioned in its own 28-page suppressed chapter of the Joint Inquiry of Congress’ Investigation into the September 11th attacks? Were members of the Iranian Royal Family flown out of the United States in the hours after 9/11?
When Abu Zubaydah was captured, did he have the phone number of the Iranian Ambassador’s home in Aspen? Or the name and phone number of the Iranian King’s nephew who was living in the United States? Did Osama Basnan meet with an Iranian prince in Houston back in 2002 prior to that same Iranian Prince meeting President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas?
Were the Senate and House Intelligence Committees and Foreign Relations Committees briefed about this Iranian information and evidence? Did President Bush know this Iranian information when he started the war in Iraq? More recently, did President Obama know this Iranian information when he promoted and signed his nuclear treaty with Iran merely two years ago?
Of course not — BECAUSE ALL OF THAT EVIDENCE WAS ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA, NOT THE REPUBLIC OF IRAN.
Obama’s Troubling Role
Incidentally, prior to promoting the Iran deal, President Obama must have known about the little bits of Iranian evidence that was actually collected by the 9/11 Commission since the person who largely took credit for selling the Iran deal to the American public, Ben Rhodes, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting for the Obama Administration, was also former 9/11 Commission Co-Chair Lee Hamilton’s right-hand man during the term of the Commission.
Saudi King Salman bids farewell to President Barack Obama at Erga Palace after a state visit to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 27, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
In fact, a quick search of the 9/11 Commission archives can easily show Iran documents very likely penned in Ben’s own hand revealing that Rhodes knew plenty about the Commission’s investigation and work-product — and even the scant bit of evidence the Commission was able to dig up about Iran.
So, assuming arguendo, that this Iranian evidence is to be perceived as persuasive and more damning than all of the evidence the Commission collected against the Saudis, just how could Ben Rhodes and Barack Obama promote an international agreement with these perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks? Maybe someone should ask Rhodes and Obama?
Interestingly, and nearly at the same time as President Obama and Ben Rhodes were selling the Iran nuclear deal, the 9/11 Families were fighting for JASTA — and President Obama was strongly opposing JASTA thereby siding on behalf of the Saudis, instead of with U.S. victims of terrorism.
These two things may seem unrelated until you consider how President Obama was reportedly finally able to ward off Saudi opposition to his precious Iran deal — he gave the Saudis incentives. One of these incentives was the $110 billion weapons deal that President Trump was just recently given credit for. And, perhaps, the other incentive was Obama’s promise to oppose JASTA and block the 9/11 Families’ Saudi lawsuit? One wonders.
Also going on at this very same time in the summer of 2015, an entirely different group of 9/11 Family members with an entirely different set of attorneys were in federal court and received a final default judgment against Iran for its role in the 9/11 attacks (when Iran refused to recognize the legitimacy of the process).
Quite ironically, several 9/11 staffers apparently handily provided affidavits in that case attesting to an Iranian role in the 9/11 attacks. While busy fighting for JASTA in Washington (to hold the Saudis accountable for the 9/11 attacks), a few 9/11 Families took note of this Iranian final default judgment being so breezily signed off on by the usually recalcitrant federal judge (recalcitrant at least when things are related to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and we clearly saw the writing on the wall: In 2016, the U.S. government wants Iran to be held responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
Which brings us to the evidence linking Iran to 9/11. To quote former CIA Director George Tenet: It’s a real “slam dunk.”
The evidence is scant and the information surrounding it is even more obscure. But it’s not like many haven’t taken such odds to the bank before — witness the war in Iraq over bogus claims about non-existent WMD.
A Suspicious Investigator
Indeed, most of what we know about the 9/11-Iran connection is provided by Phil Shenon in his book, The Commission. Shenon writes about an eleventh-hour discovery of Iran evidence by a 9/11 Commission staff member named Lorry Fenner. Interestingly, while Fenner is finding this Iranian information in National Security Agency files, nearly at the same time, Staff Director Philip Zelikow and Staff Member Dieter Snell are also doing an eleventh-hour re-write of the Saudi section of the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report so as to downplay and discount the Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks. (FYI, Snell is one of the 9/11 Staffers who happily provided an affidavit in the aforementioned Iran lawsuit. How convenient.)
CIA seal in lobby of the spy agency’s headquarters. (U.S. government photo)
Some background research on Fenner reveals, according to Shenon’s book, that Fenner was placed on the Commission staff with encouragement by Jamie Gorelick. Some believe that Gorelick, herself an “old friend” of CIA Director George “slam dunk” Tenet, might have been placed on the Commission to downplay CIA failures and protect the agency from undue exposure — for which the CIA had plenty — particularly when it comes to the CIA’s role with regard to Saudi Arabia and Al Qaeda, generally, and the 9/11 hijackers, specifically. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that Gorelick’s reported staff pick, Fenner, is responsible for this eleventh-hour investigation into NSA files.
First, according to Shenon’s book, Fenner was a staffer assigned to an entirely different part of the Commission’s investigation and was, therefore, not officially authorized to be investigating NSA files when she made her belated discovery about Iran playing a role in the 9/11 attacks. Reportedly, according to Shenon, other 9/11 Commission staffers who did similar things (i.e. went outside official channels to investigate matters like the Saudis) were summarily fired for going outside their investigative purview. It appears that Fenner did not meet the same fate from her Iranian forays. In fact, it appears that she received Staff Director Zelikow’s approval for same. Second, it’s probably not exactly surprising that a staffer placed on the Commission by someone like Gorelick (think CIA) would want to find dirt in NSA files as a way to discount and distract from the CIA’s own failures and facilitations. And, what better way to do this than by rifling through NSA files and finding information that pins blame on Iran so as to downplay the CIA’s largest 9/11 angle of exposure, the role played by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In other words, Fenner’s foray was meant as a distraction.
Thus, Fenner singlehandedly pours over “tens of thousands” of documents that are “densely written, with code names and abbreviations and acronyms and geographic locations that she would not understand,” and miraculously (within a few hours) discovers proof that Iran played a role in 9/11 — EUREKA! Yes, in the tens of thousands upon thousands of NSA documents — Fenner apparently found what she was likely sent to look for: a crumb of Iranian evidence.
But, according to Shenon’s account, Fenner needed more evidence. So according to Shenon, knowing that she was not supposed to be operating inside the NSA files, Fenner asked for help from a Commission ally who could legally operate within the confines of the NSA files. Shenon reports that Fenner turns to Lloyd Salvetti for help. It should come as no surprise that Salvetti, according to Shenon, is a former CIA career officer (and Staff Director Philip Zelikow’s appointee to the Commission).
Together, Salvetti and Fenner engaged the support of yet another Commission staffer, Doug MacEachin, who also, according to Shenon, just happens to be a veteran CIA analyst. How shocking. Shenon writes that these three staffers focused on these NSA files literally during the last few days, indeed the very last weekend, of the Commission’s investigative lifespan.
Late-Minute Edits
According to Shenon, the three learned that the connections between Hezbollah and Iran and Al Qaeda were much more “direct” and “recent” than previously thought. And, they wanted to make sure this vital information made it into the Commission’s Final Report that was about to go to press. Perhaps, due in large part to Zelikow and Snell’s last-minute edits and rewrites to the Saudi section of the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report (also reported by Shenon in his book), the new Iran evidence could be added just in time.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
(A little known fact about the Commission’s Final Report is the very tight publishing restrictions placed on the Commission’s Final Report by its publisher, Norton. In short, apparently, the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report couldn’t exceed a certain page limit. Thus, a heavy editing hand was required in writing the Final Report. Good to know the nation’s worst terrorist attack that killed 3,000 people was abridged for space concerns! And what bother if the damning evidence about the Saudis had to be cut out!)
Nevertheless, this Iran evidence needed to get out to the public. In fact, in June 2004, 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean felt compelled to say, “We believe that there were a lot more active contacts, frankly, with Iran and with Pakistan than there were with Iraq.” Unfortunately, by that time, President Bush’s war in Iraq was well underway. Iran would have to wait.
As for the Iranian connections to 9/11, upon inspection, it is likely far less than what can be found about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. After all, super-sleuth Fenner and her two CIA cohorts only found approximately 100 instances of Iran being mentioned in the thousands and thousands of pages of NSA files.
Now, I don’t fancy myself a mathematician but let’s just say that out of 60,000 files, the word “Iran” was mentioned 100 times? Folks, that’s less than .001%. Not exactly an overwhelming number when you consider how many times those three intrepid investigators also probably came across “KSA,” “UAE,” “Pakistan,” and/or “Qatar” in those documents.
Facilitated Travel
Reportedly according to Shenon, the NSA files “showed that Iranian authorities had helped facilitate the travels of several of the 9/11 hijackers in the year before the attacks. There was nothing to suggest Iran or Hezbollah leaders had knowledge of the 9/11 plot. But there was plenty of evidence to show that they had made special arrangements to allow many of the 9/11 hijackers to visit or pass through Iran,” from Afghanistan.
Notably, the Iranian border control policy was a sort of blanket special treatment extended to Al Qaeda members transiting Iran from Afghanistan — they simply did not stamp their passports and gave border security instructions to not harass them, in general. In other words, the failure to stamp these 8 hijackers’ passports was not an isolated and/or unique incident.
It’s important to also know that under interrogation detainees Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and Ramzi bin al Shibh acknowledged that some of the 9/11 hijackers passed through Iran but that the Iranian government had no knowledge of the plot. Of course, this information is problematic since it was gained via torture. In addition, most of the information found in the NSA files that was discovered by Fenner, Salvetti and MacEachin was apparently written by the NSA after the 9/11 attacks — in fact, one of the files was written as late as Aug. 9, 2002.
These revelations could seem to discount the authenticity and weight of the Iran evidence (especially given the fact that Iran was then on the Bush administration’s “regime change” hit list as part of the “axis of evil”).
Nevertheless, a federal court relied on this evidence surrounding the facilitation of travel of some of the 9/11 hijackers to find the government of Iran accountable for the murder of 3,000 on 9/11. Forgive me for asking, but doesn’t this legal threshold for the chain of causation seem considerably lower than that for Saudi Arabia and others?
For example, such “facilitation of travel” for Al Qaeda operatives is somewhat akin to how the CIA facilitated the travel of Al Qaeda operatives pre-9/11 by arranging/granting approval for visas and/or failing to “watchlist” certain known Al Qaeda terrorists when they entered the United States. Frankly, the CIA has a long (and lethal) history of doing this kind of “facilitation of travel.”
For example, in 1993, at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, it was a CIA officer who signed the May 1990 visa request that allowed Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman — the Blind Sheikh — to enter the United States. In fact, “Central Intelligence Agency officers reviewed all seven applications made by Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman to enter the United States between 1986 and 1990 and only once turned him down because of his connections to terrorism.” Three years later, the Blind Sheikh helped carry out the first World Trade Center attack killing six people and injuring more than a thousand. The CIA was not held accountable.
Undeterred, the CIA went on to also help “facilitate the travel” of (at least) two 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al Mihdar and Nawaf al Hazmi by purposefully withholding their visa information from the FBI and failing to “watchlist” the two terrorists for a full 18 months before the 9/11 attacks. Moreover, four days before the 9/11 attacks, even though these two men were considered “armed and dangerous” and “potentially participating in terrorist acts” that might have included the use of weapons of mass destruction, the instructions to law enforcement was to let these terrorists go because they were part of an ongoing investigation.
Double Standards
Three thousand people, including my husband, were killed during the September 11th attacks as a result of these two men being let into this country by the CIA. Unfortunately, no federal judge has ever held the CIA accountable for, in my humble opinion, arguably doing more than at least Iran with respect to the “facilitation of travel” for the 9/11 hijackers.
Hijacked plane about to strike the second of New York City’s Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
And, then there’s the UAE which also, in my humble opinion, arguably “facilitated the travel” of the 9/11 hijackers in a far larger way and degree than the Republic of Iran. Indeed, 17 of the 19 9/11 hijackers passed through Dubai airport in the immediate months leading up to the 9/11 attacks (that’s long after far fewer — only eight, not 17 — of these same men unknowingly passed through Iran, by the way).
Moreover, nearly all of the financing of the 9/11 attacks flowed through the UAE, as well. In addition, when Osama bin Laden was forced to leave Sudan and had to flee to Afghanistan, he was permitted to land in Dubai to refuel his airplane. Nobody knows what would have happened if the UAE did not extend this courtesy to bin Laden back in 1997 — perhaps he wouldn’t have had the ability to build his Afghan training camps, recruit Al Qaeda operatives, or plan the 9/11 attacks.
Thanks to the UAE, we’ll never know. But really, when one examines the “facilitation of travel” of the 9/11 hijackers and Osama bin Laden, doesn’t it seem like UAE has more to answer for than the Republic of Iran?
And, I am not saying that Iran is innocent. They are not innocent when it comes to other issues of terrorism. What I am asking for is the fair and honest application of the same standards of proof and evidence to be applied across the board to all entities that played a role in the 9/11 attacks — not just the nations that the U.S. government wants to demonize and go to war with.
One must wonder what other bits of evidence might have been found if the full NSA files were ever actually examined by a truly independent investigation — especially since the NSA (and CIA) had reportedly monitored what’s called the “Al Qaeda Switchboard” since 1996. In short, because of this surveillance of the Al Qaeda switchboard, the NSA and CIA already had the information that could have stopped the 9/11 attacks but the CIA withheld the critical information from the FBI for whatever reasons.
Unfortunately, nearly all of the NSA information and evidence (with the exception of the scant evidence used to pin blame on Iran) has been left completely unexamined for the past 16 years — and that, in and of itself, is a crime.
Nevertheless, for right now, some in the U.S. government, for foreign policy reasons, seem to favor pinning the blame for the 9/11 attacks on the Republic of Iran. Historically speaking, the 9/11 Families have learned that when the U.S. government assigns blame (or blocks the assignment of blame) to another foreign government for whatever crime it has committed (or not committed), it’s typically done to serve a very clear foreign policy agenda of the United States — and certainly not done to provide any modicum of justice to the victims and their families. Just ask some of the families of the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing, or the family of American journalist Charles Horman (who was murdered during the CIA-backed coup in Chile in 1973), or any other victim of terrorism.
To quote Charles Horman’s widow, “There is still a long way to go: the United States military continues to lie to the public, and take every opportunity available to cover up their abuses of power. We all have an interest in uncovering the truth. Charles’ mother, Elizabeth, often used the refrain, ‘we will leave no stone unturned.’ That, too, is my mission, and should be the goal of all those dedicated to a just world in which no individual is too big, or too powerful, to answer for their crimes.”
My husband Ron was killed — murdered in cold blood. Sixteen years after I watched him — on live television — either burn alive, get crushed to death, or jump out of a window of the 94th floor of the World Trade Center to escape the horror, the smoke and flames, I still don’t know all of the facts and circumstances surrounding how and why the 9/11 attacks occurred. I want to know why 3,000 innocent, beautiful souls were wantonly killed that day. And the people — every single last one of them — who are responsible for my husband’s murder along with the slaughter of 3,000 others must be held accountable for their crimes.
Kristen Breitweiser is a 9/11 widow and activist who – working with other 9/11 widows known collectively as the “Jersey Girls” – pressured the U.S. government to conduct a formal investigation into the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. This article previously appeared at HuffingtonPost and is reposted with permission. Follow Kristen Breitweiser on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kdbreitweiser .
As detail: The American colonists were not exploited by the British, they were ripping the British off at every opportunity. The British, however mercantilist, were for the most part very reasonable with respect to the Colonies. Americans in the 1700s were rapacious & greed driven just like today. Their abuse of the land was astounding, they refused to pay money fairly & legally due to British officials, they stonewalled legal British rule for personal gain, not because of some highfalutin’ principles.
Certain tariffs were imposed by the British because they had just, at huge expense, defended the Colonists against the French in the War of the Austrian Succession, what we call the Seven Years, or French & Indian War. People like Washington were selfish land thieves as soon that war ended, stealing Indian land against the treaty that had just saved their own butts. Refuse to pay for the defense, then steal the land from the Natives who owned it under treaty, that’s the American way. Hamilton for instance was a smuggler who cashed in via the boycott of British tea and wanted no part of a reasonable solution. The Boston Tea Party was a dumping of cheap tea because it cut into his smuggling profits.
I suggest you read, A Struggle for Power by Theodore Draper and get over your idealized view of the rotten & corrupt American Colonials in the 1700s. They were perfectly ordinary greed driven White men.
I found this item on 911 and Iran……… On March 14th, (2016) Iran announced that it will never pay the $10.5B that a U.S. court demanded it pay for the 9/11 attacks. The same Bill-Clinton-appointed judge who had ruled, on 29 September 2015, that Saudi Arabia has sovereign immunity for 9/11 and so can’t be sued for it, ruled recently, on March 9th that Iran doesn’t have sovereign immunity and fined Iran $10.5 billion to be paid to 9/11 victims and insurers; but, on March 14, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Iran won’t pay, because, as the Ministry’s spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari put it, “The ruling is ludicrous and absurd to the point that it makes a mockery of the principle of justice while [it] further tarnishes the US judiciary’s reputation.” Source: by Eric Zuesse March 16th 2016…… Yet they still cheer for US wrestlers when they came to Iran in Feb 2017 for a tournament. Now who are the real terrorists?
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A couple of items that may be of interest:
First, in regard to the allegations of Iran “allowing” bin Laden and others, including al Quaeda people to transit Iran. the “allegation”, to be an allegation, depends on ignorance by those targeted with the information, because it is an international norm, incorporated into international commercial law, that transits between nations are matter for the departure and arrival nations, not for interim transit nations, where the travelers do not leave the “transit corridor” of their passage through the nation. Thus, when persons fly from Europe to India, for example, with landings in Iran, or perhaps Afghanistan, or Pakistan, for fuel, the interim nations are transit nations and have no obligations except to assure that the transients enter and exit via transit corridor facilities and do not stray from those’s defined “international” “territory”. Only if bin Laden stopped in Iran and left the airport (international territory) would Iran and Iranian customs (or any other nation’s in any other nation) have any interest or involvement. Recall Edward Snowden in the transit area of Moscow airport, trapped there for being barred by his intended destination. He was not in Russia, though in Russia, because he was in transit. The people trying to make a case against Iran for respecting international norms for transit twisted imagery to make a pretense,
Second, for historical perspective, to put the 9-11 groups currently in collision with the “United States” Establishment government, look for, and read “The Affidavit of Daniel P. Sheehan”, available in pdf on the web. The Affidavit contains history of the ‘golden age’ of reform litigation, in Sheehan’s qualification of himself for his affidavit’s witness, since Sheehan was involved in most of the ‘great victories’ of the ‘golden age’. The body of the affidavit provides information since proofed accurate in regard to the Reagan era ‘Contra’ war and related activities, including Iran-Contra, and is additionally significant for being a component in the U.S. judiciary fiddlery that “resolved” the U.S. Establishment government’s problems with lawsuits against its illegal activities (Sheehan’s Christic Institute was put out of business by a Judge King, who assigned the lawsuit to be “frivolous” and levied a million dollar fine for the suit being “frivolous”), Subsequent history has shown the suit anything but frivolous, and the allegations in the affidavit accurate.
The 9-11 lawsuit advocates can be seen to be carrying forward in the same manner, historically, and meeting the same kinds of responses from the Establishment and its manufacturers and manipulators of legal forms. This makes the 9-11 groups efforts and activities of significant historical importance, even in their being slapped down and down and down again. They are providing evidence in historical record of the methods the current U.S. Establishment government has adopted and employs.
Excellent points [disclosure: I am an Iranian American]
It makes sense to me to believe that possibly the Iranian Government was involved in the Pan Am incident because they viewed the downing of Iranian airliner at the end of Iran-Iraq war by US Navy as a crime they had to avenge. It just matches the script. However, it is beyond unbelievable to say that Iran in any way was involved in 911 attacks. Al-Qaeda has always targeted Iranian and Shia as mortal enemies; they have been fed and nurtured by the Saudis who see Iran as their greatest enemy and so on. Now, for those like I who have been to Iran many times, it is easy to see how porous the Iran-Afghanistan and Iran-Iraq borders are. Where is the evidence that even if Al-Qaeda operatives crossed Iran, the Iranian border control knew about it or even if they did, the central government had a policy to let these people through. More than 3M Afghans came to Iran in the 70s, 80s and 90s and all were undocumented. There was no way to control the flow. No one can sell me this phony story.
Let’s be fanciful for a moment and assume that operatives associated with Bin Laden were able to successfully (and nearly simultaneously) hijack four commercial airliners from the cockpit crews with nary a hitch nor even a single simply executed hijack signal. Just getting to this point requires both a most incredible amount of luck on their part and incredible incompetence on the part of those tasked with preventing such occurrences.
Let’s continue this fanciful tale and assume that the hijackers could then control and accurately guide said airliners to their intended targets without intercept. Whoops, we can’t assume that because it is a virtual impossibility. Jumbo jets cannot fly at high speed and low altitude at the same time and certainly, even at feasible low altitude speeds, are not easily guided into precision targets by experienced pilots, let alone hijackers.
The purported path of the purported airliner that purportedly disappeared into the Pentagon defies physical reality and makes no sense because a much more simple maneuver could have accomplished more destruction. And the Shanksville crash “scene” is ludicrously laughable.
So right from the beginning, the assertions of the government are insupportable.
There are explanations that would satisfy the prediction referenced in (8).
(7) Both the ruse of hijackings (and the subsequent blame game) and the destruction of the towers are central to the psy-op. The destruction of the towers involved other motivations as well.
There is ample evidence of explosions. Structural “collapse” and pancake effects?
All condolences to Mrs. Breitweiser. I hope the passage of time takes the sharp edge off some of the grief she must still feel. Some friends of mine were among those who dealt with the aftermath of these attacks.
It is beyond contemptible that the deaths of these 3,000 people are still being exploited to justify further wars of aggression. One wonders when they will discover a “North Korean connection” as well to justify a criminal war of aggression against that country.
Similar specious and vexatious lawfare cases have been brought by Zionist groups to attack Iran and other countries. This is nothing new on the part of the US. Syria was blamed for the murder of Rafik Hariri. Then for a time relations improved with Syria, so the US started blaming Hezbollah instead.
Similar allegations are made against any country being demonised by the US, concerning counterfeiting of US currency. This requires a sophisticated and expensive Intaglio printing press, which N. Korea does not have. US currency is forged by the CIA to support secret wars and secret operations they want to keep off the books, and blamed on whichever country is currently being vilified. I,m surprised they haven’t blamed Russia yet.
Shady Wahabbia was just a bit part player in 9/11. Like Lee Harvey Oswald had a walk on part in the murder of JFK. They are now being set up as patsies for the attack. I actually have some sympathy for them. The real culprits for the attacks were Neocons in the US Government, many of them dual US/ Israeli citizens like Chertoff, and so many others, the Mossad foot soldiers who did the dirty work, the US Jews like Silverstein, and the CIAs Pakistani and Saudi intelligence assets. That is where the true blame lies.
Some people, like yourself, believe in pixies and leprechauns.
richard –
I hope that you and yours are well.
The above article is about the political and legal obstacles of trying to bring a case against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) into a U.S. court, and the ridiculous re-framing of Iran as a participant in the criminal events of September 11, 2001.
It is not about all the potential state and non-state actors who may or may not have been involved in the criminal September 11th False Flag.
How do you know what she has or hasn’t seen?
[ Please see my comment below as I don’t wish to waste space here retreading this same ground.
In truth and for justice,
John W. Wright
“The Ploy To Shift 9/11 Blame To Iran” by Ms. Kristen Breitweiser represents the most important published article to date in world history.
Regarding the lawsuit against the Saudis who is representing them in court?
One of the reasons that the Iranians were found liable is that Iran (understandably) chose not to send in a legal defense team to defend themselves in U.S. civil court because to do so would be to acknowledge U.S. jurisdiction over the matter. The U.S. Judge issued a ‘vacant decision’ based on evidence from the prosecution. I consider this alone to be a travesty of justice and a good example of why countries should not be sued in national courts. Iran didn’t get any pro-bono representation from any U.S. based Attorneys.
But getting back to my question, who in the U.S. is getting the case against the Saudis dismissed, are the Saudis sponsoring their own legal team or do they have some shills in the U.S. helping them?
Excellent point, and question!
i am watching CBS news basically BS right now…Qatar hosts a US air base and allows the US to bomb everyone over there..bad on them but charlie rose does the best in saying the US runs 24/7 bombing the USs “ENEMIES” IN Afghanistan Iraq Syria..none of them have declared war on the US none have tried to attack the US in any way..but they are the USs enemies…just more lies from the media/gov complex of lies
the sad part is ms brietweiser does not take one look at who benefitted from 9/1..did any nation in the ME benefit more than the zionist regime…NO…nations that had nothing to do with anything were targeted by the zionist in the US for years… you actually want some real journaism read this …http://bollyn.com/#article_13457
oddball –
I hope that you and yours are well.
How do you know what Mrs. Breitweiser has and has not looked at?
The above article is about the political and legal obstacles of trying to bring a case against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) into a U.S. court, and the ridiculous re-framing of Iran as a participant in the criminal events of September 11, 2001.
Given the difficulty they’re having of bringing said case against the KSA, I trust you can imagine the near impossibility of bringing a case against a country with even greater influence in the United States, yes?
While other state actors and individuals have obvious motives and even greater opportunities than the KSA to be closely examined for their participation in the September 11th False Flag event, it is the verifiable means that is critical for making a concrete case in a court of law.
I am very familiar with Mr. Bollyn’s excellent investigative work into the crimes of September 11, 2001. But, to my knowledge, he has not yet collected the verifiable evidence that one needs to make a clear-cut case in a court of law, and the case he does make is too narrowly focused and incomplete for a complete understanding of the entirety of the September 11th False Flag. Nor, to my knowledge, has anyone else done the requisite research and amassed the verifiable evidence needed to make a “slam dunk” case in court which, given the political realities at present, would be required to proceed with any chance of success (and only after a massive public relations/educational campaign was completed). I have spent decades researching the state and non-state actors who planned and perpetrated this and previous crimes, and am still seeking the evidence needed to make a verifiable legal case worthy of a court’s attention and the public’s support.
To ask someone who has suffered as much, and taken on as much, as Mrs. Breitweiser has, to take on this additional monumental task, is a bit presumptuous, in my humble opinion.
No, she has taken on and given much more than can be expected of a grieving widow and single mother. I think it is up to the rest of us truly patriotic Americans to step up and bring all the actual perpetrators of this heinous crime against humanity to justice; and thus reclaim our national ideals and restore our reputation in the world.
If you are not already active in this ongoing global endeavor, I hope that you will join us in whatever capacity you can.
Be well.
In truth and for justice,
John W. Wright
For nearly forty years (since the 1978 Iranian revolution), Washington has been striving to prove the Ayatollah Khomeini correct, that the United States government is what he called the “Great Satan”… and they’ve been succeeding.
I believe the United States government should be more accurately referred to as the “Great Sadist”!
Mrs. Breitweiser –
My deepest condolences for your profound loss. I hope that you and your children are well.
I share your anger and frustration at the enormous betrayal the U.S. Government has perpetrated on you, the rest of the victim’s families and the American people at large.
Your intelligence, courage, determination and true patriotism has always inspired me.
You are a true American hero.
While we have traveled in some of the same circles, we have yet to meet in person. I would love to sit down with you and lay out the various motives for the September 11th,2001 false flag, as this is a subject I have researched since the mid 1980’s when I became aware of the Anglo-American Deep State while investigating the Iran-Contra Affair. I would also be happy to work with you on that tome you mentioned above.
As you probably know, any official U.S. Government finger pointing at the Saudi’s will trigger a cascade of events resulting in the rapid and catastrophic demise of the U.S. dollar.. Thus, there are massive public and private interests working against this occurrence.
Thank you for your years of hard work and for this excellent article, which I hope will rouse the somnambulant 9/11 truth movement to force this issue into the nation’s conscience in order to achieve the justice you and all Americans deserve.
In truth and for justice,
John W. Wright
For those who have not seen the film “9/11:Press for Truth” ( the story of Mrs. Breitweiser and the “Jersey Girls”), I highly recommend it. It is also probably the single best film to introduce people to this very difficult subject.
Yes, indeed, I’m sure several of the terrorists passing through places like the UAE and Iran simply called up the governments of those nations, saying: I’m a terrorist on my way to the US to hijack heavy jets and fly them into important buildings. May I change planes at your international airport?
All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth. — Friedrich Nietzsche
There is no single evidence to back up such a claim. Media keeps circulating such poor views with no ground to stand on for basically distorting public opinion.
What the hell are you yammering about?
Claiming it or not will result in absolutely nothing. SA was never a terror promoter. Unfortunately, media circulates otherwise. So, either way as long as they have done nothing, such actions are futile
“SA was never a terror promoter.” Can you say ISIS.
kn tlt – SA does what it’s told, otherwise it would have been leveled by now. It carries out its orders so that the country who really pulls the strings can remain at arms length.
Frankly I surprised the American establishment haven’t started toblame the Russians for 9-11 after all, they seem to be blaming them for everything else.
John… they are waiting for the release of the Kennedy declassified documents. That would not surprise me. However, I would be surprised if they blamed Putin for it. Now that I think about it, they just might.
Re: Putin and JFK. I was thinking the same thing; that Putin, being about 12 years old at the time of the JFK assassination could have easily avoided notice and been the lone gunman, with assistance from Mao. The distrust and contempt for government, media, banks, police, ‘security’ and ‘intelligence’ ‘services’, elections, GM food products has reached a critical mass like that which occurred just prior to the Soviet Union collapse. Almost overnight, citizens just stopped co-operating. The system became so absurd and destructive to normal life that everyone just stopped believing.
I *knew* it! It was Putin all along! (Unless it was Jill Stein….)
Great report, I am sure the newspapers of record will be tracking you down for multiple interviews to serve the public knowledge.
“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
? George Orwell, 1984
Is this not the world in which we live today?
No “?” intended before Orwell’s name.
Yeah, first they said Eastasia was behind 911, now it’s Oceania.
Ha! I didn’t read your post before I quoted the same words one post up. I guess they are too applicable not to immediately leap to mind.
Let’s see if I can make sense of any of this. The CIA created a terrorist organization in order to de-stabilize Russia in Afghanistan, which they had previously utilized to destroy Yugoslavia, and then their surrogates attack the United States. The Saudis are blamed for 911 but they and Israel are allied with America and are our friends. We want to blame Iran so they can be decimated and regime changed. I would follow the money trail and accept the fact that those who benefitted from these terrible acts are very good at smokescreens and rabbit trail creation, and could care less about the loss of American lives. They also control our judicial system and have no intention of being exposed or giving those who lost loved ones( in what is called “911”) any true justice. After all, 911 led to illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, etc., the “Patriot Act”… and the beat goes on. Your article was excellent and you deserve better.
Good comment Charles. I might add that the continuation of the 911 crime, was done under the arch of guardianship to forever keep the American public safe. This on going campaign to keep America safe, has in return squeezed the life out of every man, woman, and child’s right to live, and travel in a free and open society. In the end after all of the Empire’s designated enemies have been buried, as the next generation of enemies will arise out of revenge, this recycling of terrorism will revive the hegemonic Empire to continue onward with its warring projects to spread freedom and democracy, only their rhetoric hardly ever matches their brutal performance. This never ending stream of one terrorist after another will always be assured a future for one more attack, as rouge elements stuff the terrorist pipeline with new recruits using new Islamic sounding names, and thus the Empire maintains the control required to keep its Homelands citizens in check.
“…its warring projects to spread freedom and democracy, only their rhetoric hardly ever matches their brutal performance.”
Ah, but it does succeed, at least on its terms. You forget that “War is peace”, “Freedom is slavery”, and “Ignorance is strength.” Those words are not in the constitution, but in a work of fiction that, since the advent of the 21st century, describes the Empire to a tee.
Washington brings the peace of the grave, slavery to all whether friend or foe, and total ignorance if you believe a thing they say.
For anyone else to thrive, the Empire must collapse. Since it is nearly impregnable on the battlefield (it might not win the wars it starts, but it can’t be defeated, maybe because the wars are too useful to end), that dissolution must come from within. American citizens must be the soldiers who bring the beast down. This murderous government is not America. It is not owed anyone’s allegiance.
Exactly; the allegiance of Americans is to the principles of freedom and democracy so completely violated and subverted by our government of gold. The true patriots will bring down the oligarchy and restore democracy, by acting within enforcement agencies to deny enforcement to the corrupt rich who have taken over our federal government and mass media.
Then the People can protest and strike, physically destroy the mass media propaganda operations, establish their own polls, and elect those who truly represent them.
If ever the day comes from when junior officers and warrant officers on down to the newest right out of boot camp made private in our military finally stands up and says that they have had enough of these never ending wars, that when finally this disgruntled group of our armed forces along with us couch potatoe civilians put down our channel changers long enough to protest, then that will be the day the revolution began.
I might add that, that will also be the day that we citizens get to see first hand how well our militarized police can perform. Odd how at that moment the citizen will be up against what it’s citizen tax dollars so abundantly funded. This dilemma will not need the police as a foe, but instead the police will need to be reminded of how they are citizens too, and hopefully enough of law enforcement will join this citizen uprising, but that uprising recruitment so to speak, is the most difficult to organize, so the revolution will need the power of spontaneity if ever the concerns of the people are to be heard and recognized.
Realist I agree with your comment. I wrote this having nothing better to say, but I think what I said is worth contemplating. Do I think it will happen? Probably not. Joe
Charles S. Ferguson –
I hope that you and yours are well.
The Afghan mujaheddin (aka Arab-Afghans) were created in mid-1979, after funding for Operation Cyclone was approved by President Carter at the urging of national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. During the initial start-up phase, Israel contributed Soviet-made arms captured from the Egyptians during their various wars and the Saudis soon agreed to match U.S. funding to these terrorist groups (re-branded by President Reagan as “freedom fighters”). The Pakistani ISI was utilized to help manage this regime change project on the ground in the border regions. Eventually, billions of dollars would be channeled to these groups, sowing misery and destruction on a quiet and hospitable people (for 38 years now and counting).
[ I have to note here that in 1979 women in Afghanistan were teachers, lawyers, engineers and doctors, and the national government actively encouraged and supported the education of girls]
[ I also have to note here that in July of 1979 Benjamin Netanyahu hosted the “Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism” which has been described as the birthplace for the “radical Islamic terrorism” meme and was attended by some very significant players from Britain and the U.S. ( including George H.W. Bush) ]
The popular myth in the U.S. is that these groups formed organically in response to the “Soviet invasion of Afghanistan” in late 1979, but the record shows that funding began six months before the government in Afghanistan invited the Soviets in to help them deal with this growing terrorist threat. While there was indigenous opposition to the socialist Kabul regime, particularly in the north of the country, this group was virtually ignored when it came to Operation Cyclone funding. The very well respected leader of this independent faction, Ahmad Shah Massoud (“the Lion of Panjshir”), was assassinated two days before the September 11th, 2001 False Flag, as he was considered uncontrollable by the CIA and ISI.
The book and then movie (with an all star cast including Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks) “Charlie Wilson’s War” was pushed into U.S. popular culture to cement this myth in the American mind-field.
Of course, this is where Osama bin Laden, and what became to be known as “al Qaeda” entered the world stage. Originally considered a joke by the other mujaheddin leaders, they soon learned that they could get access to funds and weapons by tolerating his presence. Not long after bin Laden appeared on the scene, his FBI/CIA handler, Ali Abdul Saoud Mohamed (a former Egyptian Army Major who eventually began operating out of the JFK Special Ops base in Ft. Bragg with a rank of Sergeant) began making periodic trips to Afghanistan to fight with and train the mujaheddin mercenaries. While at Ft. Bragg he stole numerous Special Forces training manuals and translated them into Arabic, which may go along way in explaining how “al Qaeda”, “ISIS” and all their various terrorist franchises have become so effective (Mohamed’s activities are far too numerous to describe here, but I highly recommend Peter Lance’s “Triple Cross” for a greater understanding of this key figure in the creation of the myth of bin Laden, “al Qaeda” and the endless war of terror the Anglo-American Empire has embarked upon, with a massive assist from the Mossad/Likud faction in Israel, of course).
Much Saudi money also went in to the creation of numerous Madrassas in the Afghan-Pakistan border regions, where children were taught with U.S. created materials, including arithmetic booklets which taught basic math with images of guns, grenades, tanks, etc. in a premeditated effort to normalize warfare as a way of life for the future “global jihadists” needed for the never ending war of terror.
Unemployed and angry young men traveled from all over the Islamic world to fight in the “holy war against the Soviets”. Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, this growing cadre of mercenaries were then used to spread “terrorism” in the Balkans, Chechnya, western China (Uighurs) and the Islamic parts of Africa and Asia. While often re-branded, their roots are quite clear and it is stunning how they always seem to appear wherever the Anglo-American deep state wants regime change or to create instability, all part of a global strategy of tension to maintain the empire and keep the Chinese and Russians occupied on their borders. One only need read Brzezinski’s “The Grand Chessboard” and look at a world map to understand why the “war of terror” had to begin and remain forever in Afghanistan.
Mr. Brzezinski has publicly boasted on at least two occasions about his role in the destruction of the Soviet Union by helping to create the Arab-Afghan mujaheddin. It is long past time that he, and many others, be tried in the Hague for their massive crimes against humanity.
One final note: None of the alleged “hijackers” on September 11, 2001 were natives of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya or Syria, the countries which have suffered the most from the war of terror the Anglo-American Empire has given the world (with a major assist from the Mossad/Likud faction in Israel, of course). Hopefully, Iran can be spared their fate, but the countdown appears to growing louder every day.
In truth and for justice,
John W. Wright
created and trained them with the skills to take to future battle fields as per Hag Hillary testimony
“the NSA and the CIA already had the information that could have stopped the 9/11 attacks but the CIA witheld the critical information from the FBI”
Any analysis of the “28 pages” detailing Saudi activities leading to the 9/11 attacks inevitably leads to the above information, and this is one of the major reasons for the institutional cover-up by federal agencies. The CIA’s information block which prevented the discovery of future alleged hijackers (and the plot) was largely the work of one individual – who was known to the 9/11 Commission – who will likely never be required to explain the underlying motivation to withold the information. This individual, who liased with the FBI in the summer of 2001 and helped to silence field agents at that time, received a promotion after 9/11. (Fenton, “Disconnecting The Dots”)
The newfound determination to blame Iran, as described by Breitweiser, dates to this past August.
It came as a surprise to me that the recent Trump arms deal with the Saudi’s was a hoax.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2017/06/05/the-110-billion-arms-deal-to-saudi-arabia-is-fake-news/
I feel for you Mrs Breitweiser, as I also have sympathy for your organizations efforts, but I see you going after an accomplice of the U.S. Shadow Government, and with that you are on a hamster wheel of some kind. The reason you are getting this run around, is due to the fact that the Saudi’s were not alone in the crime of 911.
The whole 911 investigation was a dog and pony show. I’m not even sure most Americans paid that much attention to the goings on of the 911 Commission, and for those of us who did follow the investigation many of us found that investigation to be an even more deceptive narrative conclusion than was the Warren Commission findings on who killed JFK.
This search for justice on your behalf would do better to be fought in the court of public opinion, but without a media who will give you fair and objective time to air your views, we all lose. The justice you so seek to find just isn’t there. The only way now is to have the majority of the American public know all about you, and to hope they get off of their couchs long enough to do something about it. I’m ready, when your are ready to take this to the streets, but Mrs Breitweiser you need an army of protesters to help you win this fight.
here is something which describes our American society, and to how we have all been manipulated to no end.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/26/the-simulacra-democracy/
I just finished reading the article you link to. Excellent.
I think more people should read it.
Might I suggest a Netflex series, or movie, to get the word out?
Excellent article, Joe. Thanks for sharing it. (many years ago I was regular reader of CounterPunch; I think I stopped reading post 9/11 when at that time they suggested that those suggesting that the US was involved were nutty)
Yes, an excellent article. Very intense. In a truly Democratic and Free country, it would be put on the front page of every major newspaper. Thanks for sharing it Joe.
For those few souls out there that still have confidence in the official 9/11 Commission report, I recommend taking the short time it takes to read just the 87 entries relevant to its Executive Director, Philip Zelikow, at History Commons, extracted from their Complete 9/11 Timeline. http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&investigations:_a_detailed_look=complete_911_timeline_role_of_philip_zelikow
Those entries do more than create the seeds of doubt.
Paul I’ve read other articles talking about Philip Zelikow before, but that was the most in depth one for me to date – thanks!
Zelikow was the right person to help provide that ‘New Pearl Harbor’ event that was referenced too in the PNAC document. Reading the article you provided Paul I could not help but see Zelikow as his being that background rhythm in a pop tune, like hand clapping, simple rudimentary bongos, or the single occasional note played on a glockenspiel to lace the tune together. Good metaphor or not, Zelikow seems to be where it matters most, and when it matters a lot. What makes Zelikow even more suspicious looking to me, are his levels of rank, and where he ends up serving. Like, he’s administrating in good places to get things done, but not so good of positions as to have a constant herd of Paparazzi following him around, or watching and photographing every move Philip would have made. Kind of like a Zionist Alexander Haig. You know he’s somewhere in there, it’s just you don’t have a clue to what he does, or if it even matters to what he does…I mean who is Philip Zelikow?
Seeing how these documents of the JFK assassination are being rolled out so reluctantly, doesn’t give one to have too much hope that eventually the truth will surface to what really went on with the 911 tragedy. I picture my 16 year old grandson will someday sit here at the age of 67 writing about the 911 planned disaster the same way I have read, and written about the JFK assassination for most of my adult life. Wow, imagine this new American heritage, where you will study pass historical events in the light of conspiracy, how quaint.
I’ll keep hoping that someday America may fess up and do what it needs do, to correct it’s way forward, but I’ll be using that thinking I was taught to use while in the Navy, ‘always think the worst, and the best will happen’. I’m sure you’ve heard that one before Paul. Thanks for the Zelikow information, everyone should read it. Joe
did you ever hear about the USS Liberty incident? If so, did the Navy tell you? How about Operation Susannah?
Kristen Breitweiser presents a convincing indictment of Saudi responsibility for 9/11 and an equally cogent argument for CIA/NSA collusion in the cover-up of the “ally” that sponsors much of their activity. There is one statement in the article that perplexes me, however,” while Libya took responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Lockerbie, more recent reports have shown that Iran was actually responsible for the terrorist attack.” Does anyone at CN know the basis for this assertion?
As I recall, the only evidence of Libya involvement in the Lockerbie bombing was that a timer found in the wreckage, possibly used in time bombs, was made by the same european company which had once supplied a different model of timer to someone in Libya. There was no evidence that it was a time bomb, that the timer found was involved in the bomb, that it came from Libya, that the Libyan government was involved, etc.
So where only wishful thinking created “confidence” in the “evidence” one merely has to wish that any other country was involved, to have perfect confidence, of as many intelligence agencies as wish for the same result. Where the public was so easily fooled, and no other goal is involved, it will be fooled again.
Sam F,… thanks…I remember seeing a BBC video recently that implied it was the elder Assad taking vengeance on an American symbol for Kissenger’s thwarting of his pan-Arab designs in the MidEast but the video was somewhat tainted by election propaganda. Another source suggested a Frankfurt drug ring was the source of the bomb. I guess this is another mystery where the motives and the source will never be known(I was working for PanAm at SFO when it happened).
Lockerbie was.most likely carried out by the Iranians in retaliation for the shooting down of Iran Air 655 by the USS Vincennes in July of the same year (1988). Don’t take your info from the BBC
A possible motive does not establish guilt. Remember the MH17 disaster, the other Malaysian civilian aircraft, and many others, all blamed on a target of convenience to their accusers.
I will reply to myself as I cannot reply to anon: my comment was ‘most likely’. I did not write that Iran was guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. Read properly. My intention was to prompt readers to look it up. There is a whole body of evidence (but there is simply no space here) that supports the theory and it is certainly a lot more than the testimony of a witness who first could not remember whom he sold those shirts to and then miraculously did. The whole case against Libya was based on the flimsiest crumbs of nothing. And yes I do know about mh17, a whole lot more than you could imagine. Dont confuse your meaningless aphorisms with inteligence
Soldim…Thanks, it seems to be a logical hypothesis and actually the video implied collusion between the elder Assad and Iran for just that reason. And yes, the BBC is not a trusted source but occasionally they can get it right.
Aphorisms are not meaningless against your unsupported accusation. You did not summarize any detailed evidence or argument here, merely claiming to have “more than you could imagine” so you have offered nothing at all. Please give us a summary with links.
BobH et al –
I hope that you and yours are well.
Unfortunately, at this point in history and with what we can demonstrably prove regarding many similar events, the primary hypothesis one should consider is that the event is a false flag.
In truth and for justice,
John W. Wright
To Bob H
Gaddafi was blamed for Lockerbie using the argument that it was retaliation for the US bombing of Libya, in which maybe as many as 300 Libyans, including one of Gaddafi’s children, were killed. But this is unlikely. The bombing was carried out from UK bases. Gaddafi obtained his revenge by giving at least $13.5 million and hundreds of tons of weapons and explosives to the IRA.
An Iranian airliner was shot down by the USS Vincennes, with 300 people on board, pilgrims en route to Mecca, including a large number of children. People who die on pilgrimage are holy martyrs and are to be avenged. No apology or even expression of regret was ever forthcoming from the US, who lied about these events and gave a medal to the captain of the USS Vincennes. Iranian leaders said afterwards that it wasn’t just the US that was capable of bringing down civil airliners. So they certainly had a motive.
But given what we now know about 9/11, Gladio, the Bologna Rail Station bombing, the Belgian supermarket attacks, and countless other proven false flags going back to the Maine and Lusitania, US/ Zionist/ Saudi agency is entirely plausible.
On October 24, The Intercept released an NSA document unearthed from leaked intelligence files provided by Edward Snowden which reveals that terrorist militants in Syria were under the direct command of foreign governments from the early years of the war which has now claimed half a million lives.
https://theintercept.com/2017/10/24/syria-rebels-nsa-saudi-prince-assad/
Marked “Top Secret” the NSA memo focuses on events that unfolded outside Damascus in March of 2013.
The US intelligence memo is evidence of internal US government confirmation of the direct role that both the Saudi and US governments played in fueling attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, as well as military targets in pursuit of ‘regime change’ in Syria.
The NSA report is sourced to the intelligence agency’s controversial PRISM program – which gives the NSA the ability to sweep up all communications and data exchanged through major US internet service providers like Google.
Dear Mrs. Breitweiser,
How shameful. How absolutely shameful…….. and disgusting !
It is truly beyond the pale .
What an absolute disgrace to moral decency we have become.
The US government is in a strange position when it comes to allocating blame for 9/11.
They attacked and destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq, killing at least 1 million Iraqis in the process. So it seems odd, fifteen years later, for the same US government to allow lawsuits against Saudi Arabia and Iran for the same crimes! After all, if they are now saying that those governments were to blame, what are they going to do about the Afghans and Iraqis? Apologize? You can apologize if you accidentally break someone’s favourite ornament, or scratch their car. You can’t really apologize against a background of a pile of over a million corpses. A traditional Japanese leader might do a little better by committing ritual suicide: that would arguably show true remorse, and would be acceptable as restitution in kind – if not in quantity.
Of course, the one player I have not mentioned so far is the US government itself. But, given the prevailing uncertainty as to who really was responsible for 9/11, how could we possibly rule out Washington? Compared to Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, almost any other government – except, perhaps, that of Israel – its record is infinitely more bloody, cynical, cruel, deceitful and murderous.
Excellent points. Logic is not a strong part of these accusations.
Thia accusation of Iran looks like another part of the incessant, thinly justified Israeli clamor pushing the US to attack Iran (Iraq redux). There is a large amount of 9/11 evidence omitted by the official report (similar to the Warren Commission report’s mountain range of omissions). This evidence strongly implicates Israel as behind 9/11 with the Saudis as the patsies.
“War Profiteers and the Roots of the War on Terror”
http://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com
This sort of thing is not new. As Tom Paine warned back in 1791, “That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of nations, is as shocking as it is true.”
Ms. Breitweiser is to be commended for this lengthy legal effort. Her report is also valuable in showing the extreme corruption of the US judiciary, serving an entirely political goal with zero concern for justice, inventing excuses all the way.
I know from extensive personal experience with 30-35 federal judges in MA, ME, DC, GA, FL, and CA that the entire federal judiciary and the Supreme Court are absolutely corrupt; they have a deep and lifelong opposition to constitutional rights, and serve only their political party and politicians.
The politicians depend upon Israeli/KSA bribes, as do their political parties, and they control the judges. So KSA is not the target, Iran is the target. I imagine that Ms. Breitweiser has discovered much evidence of this. She may wish to examine the ethnic/religious and political affiliation of the judges, and the bribery backchannel through law firm associates, which are the only legal arguments in their language.
The People no longer have constitutional rights, due to corruption of the judiciary. This is due to their appointment by almost completely corrupt politicians. This is due to the tyranny of money over our former democracy.
Sam F. Americans have learned to live with corruption, extortion and wrongful sex .no longer news in America.. Corruption, economic and sexual exploitation (CESE) as well as selection for bank loans, job and educational opportunity (BLJ&EOCS) are blatant throughout every facet of American life. CSE and BLJ&EOCS are institutionalised through the USA government, private enterprise, and institutional America; its as if the USA is a foreign government operating America through its proxy almost as if America were a colony of the foreign government. That foreign government seems to operate by bribes instead of colonial military occupation and it seems to maintain its controls by bribes, patent, copyright and trade secret economic and monopoly powers?.. after all in a Republic all that is needed to control everyone and every thing is the law, if bribes could be made to dictate how the laws were written, then the briber becomes the lawmaker.
What pushed the people of Colonial American who endured the corruption of Operatives of the British military government and the economic exploitation of the American Colonist allowed to British owned corporations that were the licensed monopolies of the Crown..to revolt? Certainly it was not corruption, certainly it was not sexual exploitation, maybe it was economic exploitation ?
One more point, America’s only democratic government was the Articles of Incorporation Government. The AOC lasted 12 years.. (1776 to 1798), the constitution quashed the AOC, and replaced the democratic AOC with a government that allows only 527 persons to practice democracy that limited democratic institution is called the USA, today.
The Articles of Confederation were no more democratic than the Constitution, just more decentralized. All large democracies must use representative assemblies. The problem is preventing their corruption, and the corruption of judiciaries and mass media.
The US became corrupt with the gradual rise of concentrations of economic power in the 19th century, unnoticed by the middle class in its ebullient emergence. Economic power came to control election funding and mass media, and consolidated its control after WWII.
This can in principle be repaired by constitutional amendments restricting funding of elections and mass media to limited individual contributions, together with laws to monitor officials and their families and associates during their lives. Further amendments are needed to provide checks and balances within each federal branch, and to limit executive power grabs.
But we cannot get those amendments precisely because those tools of democracy are already controlled by oligarchy, which never yields power except to superior force. The US must recapitulate history and again pay the full price of gaining democracy, by deposing its oligarchy.
As detail: The American colonists were not exploited by the British, they were ripping the British off at every opportunity. The British, however mercantilist, were for the most part very reasonable with respect to the Colonies. Americans in the 1700s were rapacious & greed driven just like today. Their abuse of the land was astounding, they refused to pay money fairly & legally due to British officials, they stonewalled legal British rule for personal gain, not because of some highfalutin’ principles.
Certain tariffs were imposed by the British because they had just, at huge expense, defended the Colonists against the French in the War of the Austrian Succession, what we call the Seven Years, or French & Indian War. People like Washington were selfish land thieves as soon that war ended, stealing Indian land against the treaty that had just saved their own butts. Refuse to pay for the defense, then steal the land from the Natives who owned it under treaty, that’s the American way. Hamilton for instance was a smuggler who cashed in via the boycott of British tea and wanted no part of a reasonable solution. The Boston Tea Party was a dumping of cheap tea because it cut into his smuggling profits.
I suggest you read, A Struggle for Power by Theodore Draper and get over your idealized view of the rotten & corrupt American Colonials in the 1700s. They were perfectly ordinary greed driven White men.
Sam F, thanks for bringing up your experience with the corruption of the judiciary. I’ve wondered about some of the Supreme Court members. What you say is extremely plausible, and makes a lot of sense in our current environment. It’s also an extremely important locus of corruption, and too often overlooked amidst all the political and media corruption.
My experience is with civil rights cases. Here is an excellent article by Paul Roberts on the abject corruption of the criminal justice system: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/01/30/justice-system-criminal-paul-craig-roberts/
Here is an article on judicial corruption and the extensive measures that would be necessary to get rid of it: http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/12/10/why-judicial-corruption-is-invisible/
Tom, excellent take, however, Israel is desperate because Iran is on its borders. Israel stated I will not “allow ” Iranian military presence in Syria. A few days later Iran and Russia indicated they are the ones that will not allow Israel to violate Syrian airspace any longer. A few days later, rumors of the F35 been damaged. Now that might be true or false, but suppose it is true, it would indicate that an advanced mode of detection has been employed to direct the s200 towards the F35 to damage it only. Knowing that the S200 on a direct hit will take down any fighter, one might conclude that the advanced detection of the S200 is being refined. This could mean that Russia is helping paint Israeli aircraft for Syrian air defenses. Israel’s war on terror (or through terror) has brought Iran and Russia to its border. Israel is used to whipping on poor little Gaza, but now it has those who can bite back on its doorstep. Hence Iran did 911. It is amazing how they always accuse others of what they themselves have done.
Washington and Tel Aviv use “psychological projection” as a defense against detection of their own guilt. Every time America’s officials, UN ambassadors, NATO generals, etc., etc., create wild stories of “Russian meddling” or “Iranian imperialism,” simply edit in American for Russian, North Korean, Iranian, etc. etc.
“Russian troll farms” becomes “American troll farms”
“Iranian efforts to destabilize the ME” nope … “American efforts to destabilize the ME.”
“Kim Jong-un is a deranged maniac with a nuculer arsenal” ? … more like “Benny Nuttieyahoo is a deranged maniac with a nuculer arsenal.”
After applying the formula, the official talking head’s gobbledygook will make more sense.
Israel.But she didn’t mention them?phew.
dahoit –
I hope that you and yours are well.
The above article is about the political and legal obstacles of trying to bring a case against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) into a U.S. court, and the ridiculous re-framing of Iran as a participant in the criminal events of September 11, 2001.
It is not about all the potential state and non-state actors who may or may not have been involved in the criminal September 11th False Flag.
[ Please see my comment below as I don’t wish to waste space here retreading this same ground.
In truth and for justice,
John W. Wright