The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-Page Lie
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37. The denial, by means of simply ignoring the distinction between private
and commercial flights, that the private flight carrying Saudis from Tampa
to Lexington on September 13 violated the rules for US airspace in effect
at the time (71-76).
38. The denial that any Saudis were allowed to leave the United States
shortly after 9/11 without being adequately investigated (76-82).
39. The omission of evidence that Prince Bandar obtained special permission
from the White House for the Saudi flights (82-86).
40. The omission of Coleen Rowley's claim that some officials at FBI
headquarters did see the memo from Phoenix agent Kenneth Williams (89-90).
41. The omission of Chicago FBI agent Robert Wright's charge that FBI
headquarters closed his case on a terrorist cell, then used intimidation
to prevent him from publishing a book reporting his experiences (91).
42. The omission of evidence that FBI headquarters sabotaged the attempt
by Coleen Rowley and other Minneapolis agents to obtain a warrant to search
Zacarias Moussaoui's computer (91-94).
43. The omission of the 3.5 hours of testimony to the Commission by former
FBI translator Sibel Edmonds—-testimony that, according to her later
public letter to Chairman Kean, revealed serious 9/11-related cover-ups
by officials at FBI headquarters (94-101).
44. The omission of the fact that General Mahmoud Ahmad, the head of
Pakistan's intelligence agency (the ISI), was in Washington the week prior
to 9/11, meeting with CIA chief George Tenet and other US officials (103-04).
45. The omission of evidence that ISI chief Ahmad had ordered $100,000
to be sent to Mohamed Atta prior to 9/11 (104-07).
46. The Commission's claim that it found no evidence that any foreign
government, including Pakistan, had provided funding for the al-Qaeda
operatives (106).
47. The omission of the report that the Bush administration pressured
Pakistan to dismiss Ahmad as ISI chief after the appearance of the story
that he had ordered ISI money sent to Atta (107-09).
48. The omission of evidence that the ISI (and not merely al-Qaeda) was
behind the assassination of Ahmad Shah Masood (the leader of Afghanistan's
Northern Alliance), which occurred just after the week-long meeting between
the heads of the CIA and the ISI (110-112).
49. The omission of evidence of ISI involvement in the kidnapping and
murder of Wall Street Reporter Daniel Pearl (113).
50. The omission of Gerald Posner's report that Abu Zubaydah claimed
that a Pakistani military officer, Mushaf Ali Mir, was closely connected
to both the ISI and al-Qaeda and had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks
(114).
51. The omission of the 1999 prediction by ISI agent Rajaa Gulum Abbas
that the Twin Towers would be "coming down" (114).
52. The omission of the fact that President Bush and other members of
his administration repeatedly spoke of the 9/11 attacks as "opportunities"
(116-17).
53. The omission of the fact that The Project for the New American Century,
many members of which became key figures in the Bush administration, published
a document in 2000 saying that "a new Pearl Harbor" would aid
its goal of obtaining funding for a rapid technological transformation
of the US military (117-18).
54. The omission of the fact that Donald Rumsfeld, who as head of the
commission on the US Space Command had recommended increased funding for
it, used the attacks of 9/11 on that very evening to secure such funding
(119-22).
55. The failure to mention the fact that three of the men who presided
over the failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks—-Secretary Rumsfeld,
General Richard Myers, and General Ralph Eberhart---were also three of
the strongest advocates for the US Space Command (122).
56. The omission of the fact that Unocal had declared that the Taliban
could not provide adequate security for it to go ahead with its oil-and-gas
pipeline from the Caspian region through Afghanistan and Pakistan (122-25).
57. The omission of the report that at a meeting in July 2001, US representatives
said that because the Taliban refused to agree to a US proposal that would
allow the pipeline project to go forward, a war against them would begin
by October (125-26).
58. The omission of the fact that Zbigniew Brzezinski in his 1997 book
had said that for the United States to maintain global primacy, it needed
to gain control of Central Asia, with its vast petroleum reserves, and
that a new Pearl Harbor would be helpful in getting the US public to support
this imperial effort (127-28).
59. The omission of evidence that some key members of the Bush administration,
including Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, had been agitating
for a war with Iraq for many years (129-33).
60. The omission of notes of Rumsfeld's conversations on 9/11 showing
that he was determined to use the attacks as a pretext for a war with
Iraq (131-32).
61. The omission of the statement by the Project for the New American
Century that "the need for a substantial American force presence
in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein"
(133-34).
62. The claim that FAA protocol on 9/11 required the time-consuming process
of going through several steps in the chain of command--even though the
Report cites evidence to the contrary (158).
63. The claim that in those days there were only two air force bases
in NORAD's Northeast sector that kept fighters on alert and that, in particular,
there were no fighters on alert at either McGuire or Andrews (159-162).
64. The omission of evidence that Andrews Air Force Base did keep several
fighters on alert at all times (162-64).
65. The acceptance of the twofold claim that Colonel Marr of NEADS had
to telephone a superior to get permission to have fighters scrambled from
Otis and that this call required eight minutes (165-66).
66. The endorsement of the claim that the loss of an airplane's transponder
signal makes it virtually impossible for the US military's radar to track
that plane (166-67).
67. The claim that the Payne Stewart interception did not show NORAD's
response time to Flight 11 to be extraordinarily slow (167-69).
68. The claim that the Otis fighters were not airborne until seven minutes
after they received the scramble order because they did not know where
to go (174-75).
69. The claim that the US military did not know about the hijacking of
Flight 175 until 9:03, when it was crashing into the South Tower (181-82).
70. The omission of any explanation of (a) why NORAD's earlier report,
according to which the FAA had notified the military about the hijacking
of Flight 175 at 8:43, was now to be considered false and (b) how this
report, if it was false, could have been published and then left uncorrected
for almost three years (182).
71. The claim that the FAA did not set up a teleconference until 9:20
that morning (183).
72. The omission of the fact that a memo by Laura Brown of the FAA says
that its teleconference was established at about 8:50 and that it included
discussion of Flight 175's hijacking (183-84, 186).
73. The claim that the NMCC teleconference did not begin until 9:29 (186-88).
74. The omission, in the Commission's claim that Flight 77 did not deviate
from its course until 8:54, of the fact that earlier reports had said
8:46 (189-90).
75. The failure to mention that the report that a large jet had crashed
in Kentucky, at about the time Flight 77 disappeared from FAA radar, was
taken seriously enough by the heads of the FAA and the FBI's counterterrorism
unit to be relayed to the White House (190).
76. The claim that Flight 77 flew almost 40 minutes through American
airspace towards Washington without being detected by the military's radar
(191-92).
77. The failure to explain, if NORAD's earlier report that it was notified
about Flight 77 at 9:24 was "incorrect," how this erroneous
report could have arisen, i.e., whether NORAD officials had been lying
or simply confused for almost three years (192-93).
78. The claim that the Langley fighter jets, which NORAD had previously
said were scrambled to intercept Flight 77, were actually scrambled in
response to an erroneous report from an (unidentified) FAA controller
at 9:21 that Flight 11 was still up and was headed towards Washington
(193-99).
79. The claim that the military did not hear from the FAA about the probable
hijacking of Flight 77 before the Pentagon was struck (204-12).
80. The claim that Jane Garvey did not join Richard Clarke's videoconference
until 9:40, after the Pentagon was struck (210).
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