9/11 Thoughts

On this horrible anniversary, I find myself again feeling sick and angry all over again at the events, and coverage, of 9/11.

MSNBC is replaying their original coverage, which is fascinating. I had never read before that the FBI's antiterrorism team, the same people who had been involved in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, were off in Monterey, California, far from the scene.

This was confirmed by this USA Today report:

The attack was so unexpected that a joint FBI/CIA anti-terrorist task force that specifically prepared for this type of disaster was on a training exercise in Monterey, Calif. As of late Tuesday, with airports closed around the country, the task force still hadn't found a way to fly back to Washington.

It's hard to believe the plotters did not have links deep inside the US Government. Picking this day ensured the FBI and CIA counterterrorist experts would be far from the scene. It also ensured that the Air Force, which was busy conducting military exercises, would not note a threat in advance, perceiving any radar anomolies to be part of the war game exercises they were conducting on that day.

John Newman, who wrote the very best examination of the CIA's paper trail re Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination, found that the paymaster to the hijackers was likely a triple agent working for Pakistani and British and/or American intelligence as well.

All I know is that Allen Dulles, the Godfather of the CIA, taught all new recruits, "There are no coincidences."

Clearly, the attacks of 9/11 were planned and executed with a precision requiring operational expertise not available from caves in Afghanistan.

This comment, from the USA Today article above, has proven prescient:

The effect of this, however, both psychologically and in how the government decides to change the way the country protects itself, likely will transform America's way of life forever.

America HAS changed. We have become a meaner, poorer nation. We have become a more racist nation. Anti-Muslim sentiment should be shrinking, in an enlightened society, not growing. And Americans by and large fell for the call to go to war in Iraq, even though ALL the reasons for that war have proven to be a lie save one - the obvious but still unacknowledged (officially) one - the need for more oil.

Something is rotten in Denmark, so to speak. And it's all our responsibility to root it out and bring it to justice. At the very least, we must bear witness to our own crimes and own some responsibility for the murder of the innocent Iraqis WHO NEVER ATTACKED US ON 9/11 OR EVER.

I'm saying a lot of prayers this morning, and I'm not particularly religious. We have much to atone for.