Dear Subscribers,   This week's briefing has been delayed due to many breaking news stories.  This story is far from over and much information will be forthcoming in future weeks.  The brief is also 4 times longer than normal.  However, the subject matter is so significant, I felt it necessary to deviate from the normal "briefing" format.  I have cancelled my planned trip to Europe in the wake of this week's events, and I suggest that everyone be very cautious about travel in the future.  Our government's use of arbitrary power to shut down any portion of the nation they wish is particular disturbing.  The threat of being stranded in some far away location is still very real.  Take care to listen to those small warning signals from conscience--more than a few people evaded death or injury last week by heeding that "still small voice."   --Joel Skousen, editor

World Affairs Brief, September 14, 2001 Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (http://www.joelskousen.com)

There is something very dangerous and wrong about this new war fever being pushed upon the American people. Taking advantage of a nation shocked and shaken after being "under attack," the Bush administration is showing every sign of marshaling a much larger military force than necessary to tackle the stated enemy--international terrorism. Terrorism is a distributed and dispersed threat. It is not concentrated in any single country. There are perhaps two dozen significant terrorist training camps in the world, and any one of them can be neutralized by the judicious use of point air strikes and special forces. There are hundreds of smaller terrorist cells in all western countries. Some are too well hidden to be found, but many can be tackled by existing intelligence and police agencies. The point I am making, as forcefully as possible, is that this problem does not have to be attacked with a Gulf War style mobilization--which is precisely what President Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld are building. Something is very wrong with the growing beat of Republican war drums. The 50,000 reservists being mobilized alone exceed by almost 10 times the number of known terrorists in the world. There appears to be a hidden agenda behind these major war preparations--and fighting terrorism may well be only the excuse.

First, I want to establish that the official US response to this terrorist attack showing surprise, shock and indignation is, in part, a sham. For years the US government has known and tracked every significant terrorist organization to raise its head, and yet has done little to impede their growth or target their weapons procurement lines (with the exception of one attack on a Libyan terrorist training camp in the 80's, and those camps were back in operation within months). There is even evidence of US intelligence agencies turning a blind eye on terrorist preparations for just such an attack as happened this week. As Reed Irvine, writing for NewsMax.com, reported,

"In 1995, when one of his (Osama bin Laden’s) followers, Abdul Hakim Murad, was arrested in Manila, the Philippine authorities discovered a plot on his laptop computer that called for hijacking US airliners and bombing them or crashing them into targets, including the CIA. It was called Project Bojinka, and US officials were made aware of it at that time. Murad admitted that he was being trained for a suicide mission. He was extradited to the US and convicted, together with Ramzi Yousef, of participating in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. That should have focused the attention of the CIA, FBI and NSA on any indications that bin Laden had not abandoned Project Bojinka. Reports that bin Laden was training pilots should have set alarm bells ringing. Only a few months ago an American Airlines crew had their uniforms and ID badges stolen from their hotel room in Rome. At the end of August, the airline alerted its employees to be on the lookout for impostors, but apparently no one saw this as a possible link to Project Bojinka. Airport security remained as lax as ever. Next came bin Laden's warning in mid-August that there would be 'an unprecedented attack on US interests.' With Bojinka in mind, the government should have taken the strongest possible measures to prevent hijackings."

So, why should this nation be surprised when it finally falls victim to an enemy the US has allowed to prosper? It's partially because Americans always believe the half-truths about our government’s efforts to stamp out terrorism, or even drugs, for that matter. Simply put, the people don't realize that the government both harbors terrorism and fights terrorism with two different sides of its police power. It both facilitates drug importation (to fund black budget activities) and fights against drugs using competing portions of separate federal agencies. Naturally, the public only sees the "good guy" operations. But the dark side exists, and now predominates--under the surface.

Terrorists have had the motive, the hatred, the weapons and the will to attack the US for many years. Indeed, we in this nation are very vulnerable. So, why has America been spared for so many years? As I have pointed out before in these briefs, the only reason that Islamic terrorism has not struck before (with the exception of the failed bombing of the WTC in 1993) is that someone within the US who controls these terror networks has had a "hold" on any attacks on the US, accomplished by buying off terrorist groups with money, drugs and weapons. Part of the reason for that hold was to reserve the US for "domestic terrorism" that could be fomented by the dark side of government to blacken the reputation of the American right wing. That hold is now obviously gone as the government's ploy to make an enemy out of the right wing has run its course. Accordingly, we can expect Tuesday's attack to be just the beginning. Next, I expect to see terrorists use biological and chemical weapons, or even Stinger missiles left over from the Afghanistan war, to shoot down more airliners. Again, we'll hear the same "wake-up call" that is being trumpeted by government this week. Naturally, we will be unprepared for each new form of attack and as each new threat looms greater, some new and powerful legislative or military solutions will be promulgated--complete with more and more restrictions of liberty.

Sadly, the most ominous effect of this latest attack has been the negation of all the distrust of government that had been properly building during 8 years of the Clinton corruption. I am saddened by the abject submission of the American people to any edict the government attempted to justify in the wake of these attacks. It amounted to a partial use of martial law and the government didn't even have to use the term to enforce its edicts. Now President Bush has declared a National Emergency--without telling the people that former executive orders give the President unlimited powers in such situations. He won't use them just yet--but people will get used to living under an "emergency" form of law, without realizing the full implications. In future attacks people will already have become accustomed to seeing the government shut down any sector of the nation that is affected, just as we saw the virtual shutdown of the air traffic system--including private aircraft flying to private fields. However, the price in billions of dollars lost to the economy will not go unnoticed as the recession deepens.

In the final analysis, I hold the US government in large part responsible for the events of September 11, because they have paid off, trained, swapped favors with, and even saved from destruction terrorist leaders like Osama bin Laden and Yassir Arafat for decades. If they didn't have intelligence specifically pointing to the use of hijacked airliners as weapons of destruction, they are at least guilty of having abetted this form of terror.

Conjecture abounds as to how, when and where the US intends to retaliate, but it's clear now that the US intends to make a BIG military statement to the world, and Osama bin Laden is to be the whipping boy. Frankly, I'm not sure what the Bush CFR team is up to, but whatever it is, it is looking ominous. My best guess is that they are going to take on Afghanistan with both air and ground troops. This is a foolish quagmire that the Russians stepped into and you'd think the US would be smart enough not to go down that road. But I suspect Bush may be promoting another agenda, which dovetails with the US/NATO intervention in the Balkans during the last decade--fomenting hatred of the US among the Eastern Bloc of Slavic peoples. If NWO powers intend to use a world War to accelerate the transition to world government, they need to help the attackers (Russia and China) to justify the attack on the West. US meddling and bullying around the world creates that hatred. Obviously, the Islamic world is aligned with the Russians, and thus I suspect that in this upcoming "war" the Powers That Be may have decided to spread even more hatred of America among the Muslims by taking on Afghanistan, in what will appear to the Arab world as a giant unjustly terrorizing a helpless and poor land.

If the insiders at the National Security Council (who really call the shots for Bush) want an even larger war than Afghanistan would provide, they could go after the dozen or so terrorist camps in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, the Sudan, and Libya. But this would surely usher in a major Middle East war, involving Israel. It would also pit the US directly against Yassir Arafat and his Palestinians--which the US is continually trying to protect from ultimate annihilation. I don't think the insiders want a full scale war in that region just yet.

Lastly, Bush could go after Iraq, like his father. However, there doesn't seem to be any new evidence of direct Iraqi involvement in this terror attack. Besides, attacking Iraq is old news and will hardly give a sense of "justice done" that Americans are so wistfully yearning for.

I originally suspected that all this "war preparation" was mere propaganda to justify the $40 billion Congress has agreed to fund this bottomless cause. I have since concluded that these leaders are investing much more money and effort into this military buildup for simple sabre-rattling. They really do intend to go to war with someone larger than Osama bin Laden. A declaration of war, frankly, is meaningless unless you have an identifiable enemy to name as the object of the war. A one-sided declaration of war in this case would probably serve to justify more US interventionist warmongering at home and abroad, rather than fight terrorism. The secondary agenda is surely the consolidation of executive authority in the US. The predictable reactionary legislation to beef up US war-making powers in the name of fighting terrorism is already at Congress' door. The "Elimination of Terrorism Act" is being readied for a fast track treatment in both houses. Lost in the rhetoric, of course, is the fact that no additional powers are necessary to fight terrorism. Nevertheless, this bill gives the Executive Branch permanent powers to engage in warfare at any time without Congressional approval--an approach to which the founders of this nation would have vigorously rejected.

I am saddened to see how unscrutinizing people have become about the motives of government in a crisis. The reason so many people in the US are vulnerable to manipulation by the media in this regard is that they don't compare what the government does in any battle with what they could be doing--what the alternatives are. They only look at the government's story in isolation, as if its reasons stand alone and should be taken at face value. To a certain extent the public can't judge what's real because most people don't have much experience working inside government. Those of us who have been inside know how things work. When things don't follow according to how they are supposed to, experienced people see red flags indicating something unusual is occurring. There are red flags cropping up all over this excessive reaction to the events of September 11th. Let's look at the inconsistencies in the government investigation and its various pronouncements.

America is full of a strange mixture of shock, sadness, indignation and bravado in the wake of the aerial suicide attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) twin towers and the Pentagon. We have heard countless leaders vowing that "terrorism will not stand," and that Americans will bounce back and rebuild these symbols of American economic and military power--if nothing else, to deny the terrorists the joy of seeing America down and discouraged. All this is typically American in its arrogance and is very naive. Terrorism has only begun to strike America and we are terribly exposed--not only because of the free and open access which we rightfully cherish, but also because the political establishment has for years refused to interdict the training and arming of the known terrorist groups they now claim have committed an "act of war on America."

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ANATOMY OF MASS MURDER USING CIVILIAN AIRLINERS

This terrorist act was a master stroke of planning and execution. It was a complex attack which could not have been done without the participation of larger groups already tracked by US intelligence. Yet there were at least three advantages to this strategy the perpetrators could count on. For one thing, the tactic itself came as a complete surprise. Attacking buildings via commandeered airliners is a tactic that had never been used before, and was nearly impossible to foresee. Counter-terrorist experts were all caught flat-footed. The perpetrators correctly realized that this kind of aerial attack is possible because of vulnerabilities in the airline security system. Once would-be perpetrators get past the airport security checkpoints the crews have no means of defense against them. Such an attack is also difficult to stop due to the presence of large numbers of hostages on board a hijacked airliner, coupled with the uncertainty about whether the hijackers intend on crashing it into a target or simply flying to an asylum destination (as in prior hijackings). How and when do you decide to shoot down a loaded airliner before the hijackers’ intentions are known? And how do you confirm their intentions to crash into a target as it is descending incommunicado? Tough call!

Commandeering a huge aircraft full of fuel creates damage effects far exceeding the powers of a lone suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body--or even a vehicular bomb as used in the failed attempt to bring down the WTC in the parking garage in February 1993. In this case, at least four commercial airline flights were targeted for hijacking--all within a 20 minute time frame for departure, in order to ensure the maximum impact of a coordinated attack. This all-at-one-time attack would preclude US forces from reacting and mounting an armed airborne patrol around targeted cities as a deterrent. I suspect there was a 5th or 6th flight destined to attack the White House and the US Capitol as well, but these were fortuitously delayed at the gate for some reason and missed their time slot. They were later canceled in the FAA grounding of all aircraft so that some of the potential hijacking never reached its grisly fulfillment. One such flight that was canceled had several Arab passengers aboard who vigorously protested the cancellation. An airline official said, according to the NY Times, "These guys got belligerent, and said something like, ‘We've got to be on this plane’...They expressed a desire to remain on the plane and resisted getting off." The men left the area quickly after leaving the plane before police or the FBI could interrogate them.

All flights had things in common. First, they were all transcontinental flights. The two aircraft that hit the WTC were the larger Boeing 767 and the other two were Boeing 757 aircraft. Second, they were all taking off with a full load of fuel necessary to get to the West Coast. A full fuel load on the 767s ensured the maximum fireball in the subsequent explosions within the WTC. Let me explain why this was important. The perimeter steel pillars and cross bracing in the twin towers provided almost all the structural strength. The initial crashes partially severed one side of the perimeter support structure in each case, but the crashes alone would have been insufficient to destroy the towers. The subsequent fuel-fed fires heated the remaining pillars to the point of structural failure so that the entire buildings eventually came down. Steel beams and columns sag when exposed to fire--especially when an explosive impact strips away the protective fireproof coverings surrounding the steel. When the pillars on the damaged floors buckled from the heat, the falling weight of the imploding top portions of each building was enough to overstress all the steel in each succeeding floor beneath--that’s why we observed the vertical domino effect. There was even sufficient collateral force from the falling debris as it spread outward at ground zero to heavily damage all surrounding buildings. The dramatic collapsing forces of the two towers caused the additional collapse of a neighboring 26-story building in the World Trade Center complex.

<snip>

In terms of getting weapons past security, the hijackers primarily brought makeshift and non-metallic knives in order to successfully evade discovery by airport metal detectors. Another potential tactic is to pose as a pilot or air crewman with false ID, but it does not appear at this time that any of the successful hijackings were done with weapons smuggled aboard by this method.. The Arab man arrested in NY two days later, as the airports reopened, was wearing a pilot’s uniform and in possession of some identification not his own. He was also one of those who had a reservation on a transcontinental flight that didn’t make it into the air on Tuesday. The FBI claimed on Friday that this man had no links to the terrorist act.

To achieve control over the aircraft, the hijackers, in at least one case, began stabbing stewardesses in order to lure one of the pilots out of the cockpit. Others may have made a direct attack on the cockpit door (which is fairly lightweight in composition). Pilots could then be overwhelmed, killed by stabbing, and the plane piloted by the hijackers to the targeted building.

The hijack planners most likely specified that the attack would take place on a cloudless day so as to make sure they could visually navigate to their destinations. While it is now known that the suicide-hijackers received some training in US simulators, run by private contractors, the variety of possible aircraft to train for and the complexity of the systems meant that such training would only lead to partial qualification at best. But full qualification or certification was not necessary. The hijackers did not have to deal with take-offs and landings, the most critical tasks. Taking over a flying aircraft and handling only the yoke and throttles to control altitude and airspeed is a relatively simple process.

While government and media sources continue to point the finger at US-trained terrorist Osama bin Laden, when pressed, all have to admit that there is only circumstantial evidence linking him to this act. That isn’t stopping the Bush administration from acting as if bin Laden is guilty and leaning heavily on Pakistan to induce the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan to extradite him to the US.

In response to US demands, Pakistan and the Taliban have told the US they will be only too happy to comply with US demands for bin Laden’s extradition if the US presents credible evidence of his involvement--which may be tough to come by. One former US CIA official was even more candid. He said, "no specific evidence is necessary since we’ve proven the case against bin Laden’s cohorts in court recently and no one will question us if we go after him again." Sad, but true--Americans are all too willing to give unquestioned support to government in these times. I was also distressed to see a CNN internet poll showing that almost 80% of Americans condoned the bombing of the Afghanistan capitol of Kabul should the Taliban refuse to hand over Osama bin Laden. Where is America’s compassion for innocent citizens? Would they become terrorists themselves in bombing innocent civilians simply to assuage their ruffled national sensibilities?

Focusing on Osama bin Laden may be a red herring meant to divert attention from the Palestinians, support for whom provides the fire and drive behind almost all other Islamic terrorist groups. I have no doubt that these terrorist acts were committed by Arab Islamic extremists with a mix of Palestinians who may or may not feel the need to hide behind religious motives. This radical branch of Arabs is the only culture on the planet intentionally producing committed suicide bombers and kamikaze pilots to slaughter innocent civilians. We also have specific evidence on the ethnicity of the attackers from cell phone callers on the doomed airlines who uniformly described the hijackers as Middle Eastern males, some wearing the tell-tale red bandannas identifying a unique terrorist group.

The FBI also claims to now know the identifies of 19 hijackers--all with Middle Eastern origins. Strangely they refuse to release the entire list publicly. Some of the 19 are Palestinians with links to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and US officials appear to be steering the blame away from them. I believe there exists a hidden protective inclination towards the Palestinians in our government operations--despite public support for the state of Israel. At least one Palestinian journalist filmed jubilant Palestinians rejoicing at the news of the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon (this is not the same film from 1993 erroneously broadcast as if it were taking place now). Israeli correspondent Oded Granot reported that Yasser Arafat's Tanzim have kidnapped the Palestinian cameraman who filmed a report for a major news agency showing Palestinians in Ramallah celebrating the attacks against the United States as hundreds cheered. He said that the news agency was warned that the cameraman would be killed if they dared to air the item. Other films have been released and photos from these films can be viewed at http://www.gamla.org.il/english/feature/cel.htm These threats are very real and are carried out ruthlessly from time to time. To demonstrate how far the Palestinians will go to perpetuate the appearance of innocence in this affair, PLO leader Yasser Arafat arranged to have film crews roll the cameras while he gave blood for the victims of NY. Even if his blood was destined for NY (which I doubt), I certainly wouldn’t want to be the recipient of this hypocrisy.

So, who is responsible? It’s going to be very difficult to find that out in a timely manner. Even a US defense source admitted to the International Herald Tribune, "We're talking about an operation that was extremely well-planned and compartmentalized...Such a case could take years to complete and we simply don't have that amount of time." That is why the US has decided to go after Osama bin Laden. Israeli intelligence, on the other hand, says (correctly) that all terrorist cells are supported and sponsored by one or more governments. Terrorist organizations need a steady flow of money, arms and explosives to do their work. Terrorist groups also need a broad base of intelligence operatives throughout the world to keep tabs on their targets. Governments provide this kind of support, but never allow those links to surface so as to avoid blame. Since the Bush administration keeps trying to build an Arab coalition against Iraq, it can’t afford to go after any of the legitimate governments harboring terrorists--Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Iran. So that leaves Afghanistan to attack. But, just remember, unless the US goes after all the terrorist camps (including most refugee camps) in Arab countries, it isn’t really serious about carrying on a war against terrorism.

It really isn’t all that important to know who, at the lower and middle levels, planned and carried out this attack. Fact is, the US is hated by all the major Arab nations (except Kuwait) for its superficial support of Israel. Even Saudi Arabia is only feigning friendship with the US. The motive for Arab antagonism against the US does not really rests of the issue of Iraq, for Saddam Hussein has made his share of enemies in the Middle East. The real unifying motive of all the Arab terrorist organs is the Arab hatred toward the state of Israel, camped right in their midst. There are many factions of terrorists, and some are bitter enemies, but they can all unite on the desire to see the Israel and the US brought down. That is why the pictures of US destruction were so heartily applauded by young and old alike in the Middle East. In the final analysis, any war on terrorism is ultimately futile unless it punishes all terrorists uniformly, and the Palestinians specifically.

As the story of the tragedy unfolded, media talking heads were seemingly in the dark about what was happening and who was responsible for these crashes. The first collision with the WTC was viewed as a possible accident. By the time the second happened, some 16 minutes later, everyone began to suspect terrorism. Yet from the very beginning, many moments before any building was hit, there was one very public government body that had crucial information that a hijacking had taken place, or at the very least that an aircraft was veering away from its destination and heading for NY--the FAA. Airline crashes and hijackings ring big alarm bells at the FAA which monitors and controls all commercial traffic. By law, all commercial aircraft flying in controlled airspace are in constant communication with Air Traffic Control (ATC). Thus, the FAA is going to know when something goes wrong.

A hijacking takes time to complete. Pilots are behind a locked cockpit door, so hijackers cannot burst in without flight attendants having a least a few seconds to alert the flight deck. There are intercom stations at both ends of each aircraft accessible to the flight attendants. Even if the hijackers aimed their first actions at the flight deck, it takes time to break down the door. In any case, with the onset of any hijacking emergency it is standard operating procedure for one of the flight crew to key the mike and make a call to ATC. Pilots are also trained to switch the aircraft radar transponder to code 7500 or 7700 indicating (silently) a hijacking or an emergency in progress. In addition, any time the aircraft deviates from its designated route of flight it must contact ATC or ATC will give them a call--all of which is tape recorded.

I find it impossible to believe that ATC did not have tape recordings of these emergency calls alerting them to a hijacking. Even during something catastrophic such as an explosion in the air, most pilots still have time to make an emergency call. A hijacking allows more time to react, especially when the only weapons in use are knives. The FAA would have turned these recordings over to the NTSB or FBI, but no federal agency has made mention of their contents even days after the events, and the FBI spokesman in NY specifically told at least one reporter that he had no knowledge of FAA reports. But even that same FBI official made statements at another session about pilot communication and routes changes that could only have been known through FAA provided tape recordings--so we can assume they exist. Strangely, none of the news media asked the FAA if such recordings exist, even though it is common knowledge that ATC communicates with aircraft. Why? The media continues to talk about waiting till the onboard voice and data recorders are found to find out what happened--as if that is the only available source of information. Even after the first voice recorder was located (at the Pentagon crash site), it was announced by one television station that it was blank. This is also strange since these recorders have a 30 minute continuous loop tape that should have some older recorded information on it, even if it failed to record the current flight. Even if the hijackers learned which circuit breakers to pull to disconnect power to the recorder, it would still contain old recorded data.

The FBI has already demonstrated a propensity to alter and hide evidence in politically charged cases. They did so in the OKC investigation, working overtime to make it appear as McVeigh and Nichols acted alone, even though there were numerous Middle Eastern accomplices seen by numerous witnesses. In the TWA 800 crash, the cockpit data recorder was found the first day by special Navy divers, altered, and then put back into the sea for later retrieval. Sounds bizarre, but the FBI and CIA took control of the investigation from the NTSB, corrupted the evidence pointing to a missile attack and concocted a fuel tank explosion scenario so bizarre that it took a $2 million computer generated phony reenactment to make this story half-way believable to a gullible public. While I don’t believe the federal government was involved directly in any form of instigation of this particular attack, there are some indications they might want to skew the direction of blame away from the Palestinians.

The FBI claimed on the day of the terrorist attacks that they found a car at Boston’s Logan Airport containing written materials in Arabic as well as flight training manuals, which led them to a small pilot training facility in Florida. Jared Israel tracked down the owner of manuals, Huffman Aviation, and quickly determined that his company provided only small aircraft flight training. Rudi Dekker, the owner, did have information, however, about a company in Popana Beach, Florida that could have provided follow-on commercial pilot training with flight simulators. The FBI also claimed that surveillance cameras of the parking structure in the previous weeks showed the same car making multiple trips to the airport, perhaps to scope out the terrain. According to Stratfor.com, they also found a van with pictures of Osama bin Laden and copies of the Koran--an all too convenient link to a sought-after conclusion.

Within 2 days of the tragic events of Tuesday (that supposedly caught every intelligence agency completely by surprise), the FBI claimed they had identified 50 participants, including all 18 hijackers, and have accounted for the whereabouts of 40 out of the 50--leaving only ten unaccounted for. In the 1993 WTC bombing investigation, it took years to find less than half a dozen leads. Something doesn’t compute. In order to judge how much of this recent magic is probable or possible one has to know something about the Bureau’s investigative capacity. No agency starting from nothing finds this much evidence so fast. It’s simply too good to be true. Here is what was legitimate. They did do a cross check of the passenger manifest lists with CIA, FBI, and INS "watch lists" of terrorists. Bingo, lots of matches. They also checked on how payment was made for the tickets of these passengers. Apparently, they were able to trace the purchase of all 5 hijackers on the Boston plane to a single credit card--which yields an obvious accomplice.

But, here’s the rub. If federal agencies had most of the hijackers and accomplices already in their database of dangerous suspects, why is it that they were not under surveillance and wiretapping? The FBI tapes thousands of innocent American phone conversations without a warrant according to telephone sources, searches through millions of emails via its Carnivore software, and echelon taps virtually everything going overseas.

Furthermore, if this large, complex and sophisticated operation was so sophisticated as to evade total scrutiny by the CIA, FBI, INS and NSA, why would the perpetrators be stupid enough to leave a car at Logan airport with telltale flight manuals inside? Why not take a taxi? This operation apparently took place over a 5 year period. Considering the expense of training pilots they could certainly have afforded a taxi ride to the airport. Tickets could have been purchased with cash at separate travel agencies. Either someone is planting evidence to send the FBI off after low-level accomplices (to shield others), or the feds are bringing up predictable suspects that will point to Osama bin Laden--the scapegoat. I have no doubt that Osama bin Laden, after dealing with the double-crossing CIA in his early years, is very anti-American, but I’m suspicious about the US rush to judgment on this issue.

One of the main reasons why I do not believe the US government was in any way involved in this terrorist act directly--despite strong past evidence of agent provocateur activities in Waco and Oklahoma City--is that the government at all levels was obviously totally unprepared for what happened. Every agency seemed to over-react and go into panic mode. The Secret Service went berserk in their reaction to the possibility of Pres. and Mrs. Bush being specifically targeted. One agent guarding Mrs. Bush recounted to a relative that while moving Mrs. Bush from the halls of Congress to a secret underground bunker in the sub-basement of a Washington building, loaded guns were pointed a Congressional staff members, warning them to clear the way for the First Lady’s entourage--hardly a civil way to treat people on our own side who were trying to leave the Capitol quickly, as they had been instructed. Amid heavy traffic, the caravan reached speeds of nearly 60 mph, and at a grid locked intersection, police cars leading the First Lady’s limo bashed other cars out of the way in order make way--all this without any specific evidence of an enemy lurking nearby to justify such rash actions on innocent citizens. The President was flown from Miami to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana and then to the deep nuclear bunkers in Omaha, Nebraska before coming back to Washington. Vice President Cheney was shipped off to bunkers in Camp David to keep him separate from the President (admittedly, a good precaution).

<snip>

A CRITIQUE OF THE PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

Suddenly America has a crisis. It gets caught flat-footed and it over-reacts. Jets are now roaming the skies on 24 hour patrols at great expense and with inadequate numbers of pilots and planes to continue this practice indefinitely. The FAA continues to ban VFR flying by civilian aircraft. Currently, everything that flies has to be under a flight plan, and the ATC system isn’t equipped to handle the added load of all the nation’s small planes. I fear that this ban on free private flying may become permanent.

<snip>

Security at the airports is being beefed up to the point that passengers must arrive 2 hours in advance of each flight just to make it through the detailed bag searches being mandated by the FAA. One cannot carry scissors, small pocket knives, needle nose pliers, multi-tools, or perhaps even large fingernail clippers. Billions of man hours are being lost simply because the federal government refuses to consider a simple, rational solution--that is politically incorrect.

In the 50’s and 60’s airline pilots would sometimes carry a revolver in their flight bag, albeit unknown to the company--kind of a don’t ask, don’t tell policy. When the first hijackings occurred, all on flights going to Havana, pilots became more open about carrying weapons for protection. The airlines, with government prodding, disarmed the pilots as a matter of formal policy. Airlines wouldn’t even allow pilots to carry a non-lethal stun gun to subdue a hijacker. The results were predictable when the word got out that airlines are a guaranteed "gun-free" zone. Hijackings skyrocketed. The FAA respondd with metal detectors, which are OK, but they’re not foolproof, as we now know. They never have been foolproof. People can still hijack planes with even the threat of a bomb in their carry-on bag, because of airline policies directing flight crews to simply submit to hijackers. Now, its a different ball game. To submit to a hijacker is to die. The only solution is to give crews the means to fight back.

<snip>

...Pilots could fill the role with no additional expense and are, I believe, capable of receiving training and acting as the ultimate guardians of the aircraft. Indeed, after this week’s experience, they are probably anxious to do so for their own safety. Above all, the deterrent affect of knowing that every aircraft has an armed crew would be dramatic. Best of all, most of these new and costly air travel restrictions could be removed once again. If you agree, let the FAA hear from you.

see:
http://www.greaterthings.com/News/911/
Prophetic Ramifications of the 911 Attack (Index)