as for the question why - wow..self evaluation as a country?..pretty hard..how about because we can piss off alot of people -

but consider this, these are fanatics..they killed thousands and call for the death of millions that don't see their view and we're supposed to see how it's our fault.. maybe they should ask why they respond in such a harsh uncivilized way to political agenda's

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Can I get a witness?

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Reading Matt is like opening a window in a stuffy room for a blast of cold air. He is the true journalistic successor to Hunter S. Thompson.

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Matt, I am a first time reader. A pal turned me on to AlterNet to broaden my perspective! Irreverent and a bit lacking in civility, but right now you are spot on when you question the intellectual capacity of our leaders to find any roadmap to the new realities we face. The coming election cycle will tell us more about who America really is than any election in my lifespan (60 years). Keep hammering away and maybe young guys like you will forge a new value system out of a worn out ideology.

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The real basis of the 9/11 attacks are rooted in the US cold war with the old Soviet Union. In an effort to "bleed the Soviet State through the Afghan wound", even as the Russians desparatly sought to extricate themselves from a conflict they only reluctanly entered, the US trained, armed, and provided logistical assistance to the most fanatical of the mujihadin forces. The US sought to engage only the most reactionary opposition forces in their effort to set up a government that would be "stable" and pro-western enough to (1) face down any secular nationalist opposition to US corporate interests, and (2) oppose the Russian supported National Alliance in the US effort to gain control of the Caspean Sea area and build oil and gas pipelines south and east toward the Indian Ocean to US controlled markets and terminal facilities and away from the Russian sphere. The US supported the Taliban until 9/11. Afterward, it switched to the northern alliance in order to defeat them. The NA human rights record even exceeded that of the Taliban in terms of savagery and violence. That 9/11 is cold war blow back is beyond dispute.

Obviously, US imperialism and its wretched policies led to the 9/11 attacks. Osama bin Laden and his $300 million fortune was turned against his former paymasters who he felt had, scourged Iraq with dire humanitarian consequences, used holy Saudi territory to do so, and supported Israel's ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine. This, not intelligance failures, are the real path to 9/11!

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Apparently freedom had been getting in the way of "full spectrum dominance". There's the nutshell.

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Osama said it himself. We were attacked because we insulted every muslim in Saudi Arabia except the royal family by putting a US military base on Saudi sands. That is an intolerable breach of respectful protocol in the muslim religion. It was to be our reward for "winning" the Desert Storm turkey shoot, "justified" by the false claim that Iraq had massed troops at the Saudi border. As soon as the old bin Laden family friend GW Bush was selected by the SCOTUS, the time was nigh for a return strike.
Yes, the whole Taliban set up from the Soviet incursion certainly provided the incubator, but the original insult came from GHW Bush after he fooled Saddam into attacking Kuwait.

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Matt gets it when so many others don't even come close. He asks the hard questions and answers them with a refreshing air of truth in a spin controlled era of double speak. The only thing Matt got wrong is the scene in airplane he mentions is with a Hindu holding a can of kerosene, the old lady hung herself.

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"The operating conflict on earth now is no longer capitalism vs. communism, but one pitting organization vs. anarchy. All over the world, the borders of nation-states are blurring and becoming more and more meaningless."

Unfortunately, this statement is only partly correct: The devolution of nation-states into failed states ruled by warlords does NOT constitute anarchy. While destruction of the state is one goal of anarchists, it is not the only goal, nor is terrorism - how ever defined - a method approved by most anarchists.

An adequate form of the quoted sentence would have substituted anarchy by 'chaos'.

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Taibbi is basically correct: our "leaders" are a bunch of clueless agents punching at numerous invisible punching bags and, incredibly, making everything worse for all of us (except the super rich). The real bottom line is that a bunch of war crimes by both sides can only make everything incredibly worse. We need to impeach the clueless lying Bushies and elect a top leadership that will do some positive things instead of just flailing around at phantoms.

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I agree: I can't believe how little analysis has gone into connecting the dots. From an outside-looking-in perspective, it seems as clear as daylight why the US was attacked, and why they would do it again. As long as the US tries to be the world's puppet master, many will seeth with anger.

I would have to include Brits in the denial and back to life mode. In the UK post-7/7, most people put it behind them and went back to the usual stuff: gossiping about TV and celebs. I remember one guy saying that he called his father after seeing all the dead bodies on the bus, and his father saying he hadn't heard of the bombing but had his sone been following the cricket. At that point he knew the banality of modern life would win in the end, that Osama would lose because the rich west couldn't even care enough to wage a battle of civilisations.

On that point I am not so sure: I think it is our greatest strength to just move on, but it is also our greatest crime. We continue to accept the injustices that fuel all of this, we continue to walk into traps set for us. And that may just bring us down. My advice to Osama: hey, when you win, just make sure to have the Jihad Football League, Sharia Survivor on the TV, and work how to sell ramadan dinner kits in the supermarkets - the US will make the switch to fundamentalist Islam just nicely then.

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“For what do we mean by they, and what do we mean by us?”

“ It was characteristic of the fourth-rate minds … got lost…picked the wrong country, Iraq, to punish for the crime.”

Really?

I’d call this a sleep-drunk faux “progressive” take on the big bad 911 event and what it meant to the nation and the globe. Or am I being harsh here?

I’ll take the 1st point. “what do we mean by they”? and ”what do they mean by us?”

That’s easy.

It’s anyone that multinational corporate criminals believe should be taken out by a self-serve whorehouse DC-MSM pawn that steals what it wants as it sticks Americans for the bill. In case you missed it: the “us” isn’t ordinary people. It’s a super-privileged cartel class that wants more blood money than it can feast on in a generation.

Public war for private greed never had it so good. But that’s not unusual. All wars are fought over public blood money for private power. Violence is always based on a lie.

Proof? CIA (Corporate Intelligence Agency) has overthrown at least 20 democracies since WW2 as millions were butchered under death squad, torture and genocide for corporate cashbox greed. Saddam was one of “our guys” in this reign of horror solidly backed from 1959 to snuff a million of his own in trade for Iraq Petroleum Co. (Saddam was only cut when officially suckered to take Kuwait and betrayed for Gulf War I.) Ditto for the Shah of Iran and dozens of others. Let’s not get into Tonkin Gulf and the rest…

This is about BLOWBACK – as in unintended consequences of CIA and secret police devastation of other cultures. Devastation that has been kept out of the MSM by manipulation and psops command and control. Hence, good little sheep at home ask “why do they hate us” .

So “4th rate minds” went and “picked the wrong country, Iraq, to punish for the crime”?

How naïve can an MSM so-called journalist be? An attack on Iraq as a puppet garrison state and beachhead for Mid East domination has been a corporate cartel wet dream for decades and longer.

Oh, and for phony “conservatives” out there, this is no paean to Islamic radical culture that had plenty of issues before the west got to it. But conquering the Mid East to Eurasia under a string of false pretense that finally settled on spreading “democracy”? That’s pouring gas on a once manageable fire.

Still another boner: “The operating conflict on earth now is no longer capitalism vs. communism, but one pitting organization vs. anarchy.”

Free market “capitalism” doesn’t exist (thanks to cartel rigged economies) and neither did “communism” in a Bolshevik Revolution that was fully financed from New York, London to Germany by and for fascist robber barons (Kuhn Loeb & Co as a Rockefeller-Rothschild bloc front).

Then we come to a 911 cover-up “Commission”. Something old Matt forgot to hint at is that almost half of Americans don’t buy the official cum bloody old fairy tale. But we have an tradition of sweeping things under the rug in the U.S. Even sitting president Richard Nixon said the Warren Commission “was the greatest hoax ever perpetrated.” But old tricky Dick wasn’t around for 911. A tale so full of holes and spin cycles it could only be cooked and served up at a DC-MSM puppet show.

But the rest of the globe is not fooled by obvious criminal travesties, lies and mass carnage worthy of Murder Inc. Most know the naked truth of 911 and many despise America for it.

911 cover-up starring its “war on terror” (read war of terror) has turned Americans into fools or sellouts or both. All in the name of denial and greed.

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Focus for a moment on the HIGHLY symbolic targets of the attack: The World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the two heads and hearts of the military-industrial complex.
We have chosen NOT to look too deeply into why 'they' hate us because we don't like the answers. If we acknowledge the fact that the US uses it's military power to FORCE the rest of the world into a US controlled global economy that really only benefits less than 1% of the Earth's population, then we will have to take responsibility for the misery our global economic policies have caused. As I heard Noam chomsky say just the other day: "They don't hate us for our freedoms, they hate us for our policies."

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US denial extends to the event itself, and so obscures its probable real causes.
Building 7 had several small fires, it was not hit by a plane.
It collapsed very neatly 5 or so hours after the planes hit the nearby towers.
This is the most glaring evidence that supports the alternative explanations which the above writer dismisses with a flippancy that betrays his or her own alienation and failure to research.
The new landlord of 2 months claimed 2 separate attacks and received 2 x $6 billion in insurance.
How come NORAD, which had 57 successful intercepts over the few months prior was sent off in the wrong direction?
The damage to the Pentagon is not consistant with an impact by a large passenger plane. The hole is too low and too small. There was no plane crash debris.
Evidence was illegally quickly removed from both the major crime scenes.
The half-trained failed "pilots" came from flying school run by a former Dutch criminal with CIA contacts.. and they would not have the skill to complete the expert flying moves ... ( why circle round the Pentagon 280° to hit the section vacant for renovation ? ) Trained professional pilots, experienced in these aircraft agree.
There are literally hundreds of sane questions and inconsistencies like these.

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Proof:

"Living in Madison Avenue's irony age helps also -- when even Tony Sopranos pours his heart out to a shrink every week, it's not hard to convince Americans that they're still tough, even though Osama bin Laden is still doing bong hits on Al Jazeera five years after we boldly promised to kick his ass."

HST couldn't have said it better...

jimidee

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Very clearly, as I watched the twin towers fall, I thought: SOMEONE SURE WANTS TO GET OUR ATTENTION.
How I wish we could get curious, honest, unafraid enough to ask WHY, really why, 9/11 happened.

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It's rather like swimming upstream in this culture to posit ideas such as Matt T.'s, and some might call it treason. But I felt such a rush of resonant delight when I read his piece as it described perfectly my questions, my concerns and my insights regarding the September 11 tragedy and its aftermath. The culture hasn't changed, though because our culture hasn't changed many mothers have lost their grown soldier children in this immoral war in Iraq, and many more mothers have lost their small and grown children throughout Iraq and Afhghanistan. And we have missed an important opportunity to behave like grown ups in a serious world, we might've created the alternative to gas guzzling cars and heating systems in general. What if Bush had said, we're doing another "Apollo" type project to drastically reduce our dependence on oil and we're going to leave the Middle East. There are lots of smart and serious people in this country who could've done that in five years, easy, and we could've started employing people again in manufacturing jobs here in the good ole US of A. Kennedy said a man on the moon before the end of the decade---we did it. Bush could've said new alternative energy concepts by the end of the decade. No, he said "Go shopping". And this is America, the beautiful???

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http://www.rwor.org/a/v23/1120-29/1125/timeline.htm

We've been up their ass with broken glass since we went bankrupt at the start of the 20th century.

"I don't know, I don't care, I just sit and stare now. I don't think, I just sit and listen to the drone of this machine." - TLA

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You know, the Ding-Dong eatin, NASCAR watchin, red-blooded, down-home, Bush-voting Americans? Or as I call them, apathetic consumer zombies. They're the ones who are sitting idly by as the neo-cons and corpos send their kids off to die and export their jobs and cut their health insurance. And yet they react by watching more reality shows and buying more plastic crap at walmart.

How do we get through to these people? Op-eds like these are clearly aimed at progressive citizens who already understand how deep the issues are. I agree that our "culture" is shallow and void of intellect, but insulting it isn't going to win any converts. The mainstream media has set up a paradigm that pits us snooty liberal commies against the common working man. And both sides seem to have bought into it.

I don't know the answers, but until we start getting through to regular people, things will continue to get worse.

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Did the Muslims do it?

[begin excerpt]
We made many careers out of assigning blame for the attacks, with the right blaming Bill Clinton, Michael Moore blaming George Bush, and the clinically insane blaming those mysterious demolition experts who allegedly wired the bottoms of the towers with the explosives that "really" caused the tragedy.
[end excerpt]

The most insane conspiracy theory of all is to blame 9/11 on 19 Arab Muslims with box cutters led by a guy in a cave, outsmarting the the entire US Military, all of the US Spy Agencies and the US Government.

As to the explosives that were most likely planted in buildings 1, 2 and 3...

Power Downs in the week before 9/11: (sub-clip) opportunity to plant explosives? (0:38 minutes)
Video here-> http://www.youtube.com/?v=U-da8h41G_g

[begin excerpt] This sub-clip of the Jeff King presentation focuses on the unusual power down and evacuation drills in the week before 9/11. This addresses the question the people sometimes ask as to how it would have been possible to plant explosives in WTC buildings 1, 2 and 7.[end excerpt]

And

Molten metal in basements: how did this happen? (0:57 minutes)
Video here-> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB41i-rpvPw

[begin excerpt] Scientific evidence regarding the extraordinary temperatures that were recorded at the World Trade Center site after the attacks of 9/11. The indisputable laws of physics and chemistry make the case that there must have been an additional extremely large heat source, for example explosives.[end excerpt]

Watch all 36 videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=freetruth101

Americans are waking up about 9/11.

Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts on this.

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I think it's a shame that so many mistake mainstream media as a reflection of "ordinary Americans". People ARE asking the questions. People ARE furious at the insane recklessness of our government, whether discussing the invasion of Iraq or the fact that the government stole all the money from our social safety net programs and gave it to the richest. People ARE outraged at the deterioration of life in the US. We are frightened not so much by the possibility of another 911, but by the fact that our government has created a prison system more massive than the old Soviet Gulag, stripped away the protections of those taken into state custody, and has turned this rapidly expanding prison system into a virtual slave labor camp. While America's elite are living on multi-million dollar incomes, American children are malnourished, millions of citizens are homeless, people can't get basic medical care, etc., etc. The fact that the voices of the people are blocked out of the mainstream media does not mean that they don't exist.

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The words of de Gaulle come to mind: “You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination”...

Its beyond the understanding of Americans dumbed down by incessant sports coverage on MSM, reality tv shows, and not to mention, right-wing talk radio and FOX news - to see 'Why do they hate us'

Here's a rather rough list of 'why do they hate us'?
1. Giving up 73% of historic Palestine to European settlers (calling themselves Jewish doesn't make it any more legitimate)
2. Continued material support of the colonial apartheid state of Israel by providing financial, diplomatic, and military aid
3. Decades of support for repressive regimes in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt
4. Supporting Suharto regime in Indonesia and helping it purge over 1/2 million educated, democratic socialists in the '60s and '70s
5. Supporting every military dictatorship in Pakistan. Helping General Zia develop the Afghan Jihad against the Soviets. Al-Qaeda, Talibans etc are merely blowbacks
6. Subverting a democratically elected secular government of Mussadeq in Iran and propping up of the repressive Shah regime instead.
7. Training and advising SAVAK, the SS like brutal secret police of Shah of Iran
8. Helping General Zia brutally repress the Movement for Restoration of Democracy(MRD) in the 80s in Pak. The result of which was to push educated moderate middle-calss citizens out of the political arena.

I could go on but I need to get back to work....

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They, terrorists, why do they hate us.... PLEASE. Everyone seems to love this author but I don't know him. All I can say is he's completely missing the boat. What's up here???? No discussion of the inside job, the overwhelming evidence of it no matter how the actual implementation or despite the dangling questions - that's pathetic. The article is thereby rendered worthless.

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Imagine a world without the US dominating the Middle East for it's oil supplies which includes eventually basing troops in Saudi Arabia, imagine a world where the US didn't automatically support Israel and instead demanded justice for the Palestinians, imagine a world where the US foreign policy proceeded from a platform of real democratic values, instead of attempting to pawn one group off against as we did during the "Cold War" period, like the world was a clumsily played chess game (whereby we initially support and arm the very guys we later attack, whereby we support dictators and princes because we think it's to our advantage, rather than democratic forces, where we spend billions attacking a country like Iraq and ignore genocide....)and you can imagine a world without 9/11. While it is true that Al Qaida is dominated by religious fanatics with a fundamentalist world view, their objectives would not have mass appeal in a world where social justice and democratic values weren't constantly suppressed, often with the aid of the United States government, which is dominated by equally fanatical fundamentalists. Why do they hate us, indeed? Most of the world looks down us now, not just these terrorists! Do you think it's just because of Bush? He is the tip of the iceberg. Amerikans still believe this fantasy that our government is promoting democracy, whereas the truth is that "we" are simply promoting corporate self interests under the guise of promoting democracy. The article about "WHY" totally fails to address these issues. I don't see most Amerikans grasping any of this since the media is dominated by corporations and government. If Alternet can't present a comprehensive article about "Why" then the prospects are even more grim.

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I got news for y'all. I live in a "red state" and most of my daily contact is with the (mostly) disenfranchised "ding-dong eating, down-home" folks. I have yet to meet a single individual who doesn't know we're all getting "f#*$&ed" by the wealthy, corporate owning, slime balls who couldn't give a rat's ass about anything but making money.

Trouble is, most of them are working either 2 or 3 minimum wage jobs just to survive (and I'm not stretching this), or the one job they have is for 14 or 15 hours a day. Now I ask you, since the media is owned 100 percent by the rich, what in the hell do you expect them to do?

Oh, and by the way, the media is the reason I live in a "red state" yet another "imaginary" construction -- the only meaning of which is that I live in a state where Bu$hco stole a few more votes than the other guys managed to do.

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Before 9/11, I did not give too much thought for another beyond my rural community. I was apolitical, thought the world had already gone mad and there was nothing much anyone could do or say to change it.


But after 9/11 I got really restless and began asking a lot of politically incorrect questions. I have never been satisfied with easy answers. And so I began the research to discover why a small group of people hated Americans so much, that they would do something as evil as targeting and cold bloodedly murdering innocent people.

That research led me to write KEEP HOPE ALIVE, documenting my first of 3 trips into Occupied Territory.

Book 2 documenting my 2nd and 3rd trips will be completed in Nov. after my 4th trip.


eileen fleming
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

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Matt, I was with you until the last paragraph... We can't complain that the war ministers have their heads in an old paradigm and then wish we could go back there too, unless we really do think we were better off when we believed the 'big stick' argument... When that quote was printed, our government was in the midst of crushing a budding democratic effort in the Phillippines, when we took control of the Spanish colonies. The Spanish-American War was one of our first attempts at empire-building that we learned from our Roman and British predecessors.
Did you really not want to get into the WHY of 9/11??We all need to think a little harder about why we were attacked--
I'll start: the same group had been attacking our installations in the middle east since at least 1973, to protest the presence of infidels there. But it must be put in a much bigger historical context. The Crusades by Christianized Romans and other western mercenaries to 'reclaim' Jerusalem from the Mohammedans was the first terrible massacre and looting of the middle east by the west, which continues today. The descendants of the Jews who had been exiled from Jerusalem by the Romans became the roots of the Jewish Zionist movement as early as the 12th century. There is a multitude of information available to anyone who is really interested.

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Although I found the article entertaining and it did make me
think about how our world view has changed since communism,
it did'nt really answer the question.Is he trying to say because
we're asleep sheep? Perhaps some of us are thinking about it.
The Crusades perhaps,(they will never forget),Afghanistan,
we helped them fight Russia and then totally left them high
and dry(back when Bin Laden was our friend). Or just plain
religous fanatisism.These are poor people with little education
besides radical clerics brainwashing them since birth. We have
a few of them in our own country, and if you don't think theyre
violent look at David Koresh or the bombing of abortion clinics.

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From the article:"The farthest we ventured, before returning to our regularly scheduled programming, was a vague concession that the world was now "different."".

Of course no one knows what does "different" mean. To answer that, not only does one have to understand the schematics of the present but the term "different" drags along the question of different from "what?".
That "what?" must refer to something in the "past" and among many things America is bad at, history is a good candidate for "America is worst at".

Study and understanding of history is an essentially reflective and introspective pursuit and that is a non-starter in the World of BS, oops, America.

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It is not merely the so-called "clinically insane" that have correctly deduced from all available data that 9/11 was an inside job perpetrated by Bush and Co. All informed, thinking people who know even the slightest bit about science and watched what went on that day (Sept 11 2001) note the rotten stench of incredulity. Look at Newton's Law of Gravity for free-falling objects and study the time-frame it took three steel-reinforced/concrete buildings to completely implode! Watch the DVD "Loose Change 9/11" for a good summary of all evidence that you as a Rolling Stone writer, should be putting "out there," instead of being yet another mouthpiece for the fascist current regime. Wake up, 9/11 was a coup from the highest levels of our government intended to start a "perpetual war" with the new bogeymen, the Muslims! And it has worked! The gutless Congress practically gave Herr Bush dictatorial powers in the wake of this newly-created (purposefully) psuedo-Pearl Harbor. Well folks, the USA knew about that one too beforehand (2 weeks), but let it happen anyway, because we to get into war. At least we didn't do it, then blame it on some nebulous cabal of Japanese "fanatic terrorists." This one is Bush and Cheney's War, and untold amounts of blood are on their hands, including the blood of their own countrymen/women.

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Until today, I too thought Matt Taibbi may be one of the best journalists writing today. He usually tells it "like it is" with a few expletives for emphasis.

But today, my opinion changed. Matt claims in this post that the problem with the response to 9/11 is that we didn't properly define "us" and "them". But he ridicules those who claim the "them" might be someone other than those accused. He brushes off any question of criminal complicity by anyone other than those the government has identified as the culprit as "clinically insane".

Not everyone who questions the sequence of events that led to the catastrophe of 9/11 believes a secret cabal of "explosive experts" brought the building down. There are many points in the government's version of the events of 9/11 that simply do not add up. This doesn't mean there is a conspiracy, it simply means an adequate investigation was never completed.

Until we can verify that what the government claims happened on 9/11 is the truth, we have no idea who "they"--the folks who brought down the towers--could really be.

Taibbi thus saddles himself with a huge helping of disingenuity when he claims the government got the sequence of events exactly right when they were deciding WHO was responsible for 9/11, but then somehow got it exactly wrong when they decided WHAT to do about it.

So what are you saying, Matt? The goverment was right about Osama but wrong about Saddam? Howso? Have you spoken with either individual? Do you have any more access to these individuals than the rest of us? You think Osama was the culprit for the same reason you think Saddam wasn't, because that was what you have been told by others.

You have no more power to make that judgement call than any other person who wasn't physically in the room with Saddam or Osama at the moment the planes struck those towers.

So, since you, like the rest of us, are really just stabbing in the dark here, why don't you do what any good investigative journalist would do and "follow the money". Who stood to gain the most from what happened on 9/11? If you believe it was Osama, and Osama alone (with no more help than his Al-Qaida cohorts), you would have to provide some pretty compelling evidence.

I am not implicating anyone here, I simply want to know the truth. Until we can realistically consider ALL of the possible/plausible scenarios that may have led to the catastrophe of 9/11 and evaluate the motives involved with them, we cannot claim to have any knowledge of what would be the right response.

Your decision to accept the government's version of whom to blame for the 9/11 attack reminds me of a scene from "The Messenger" (Joan of Arc movie by Luc Besson, but I am sure you already knew that). In this scene, Dustin Hoffman--acting as God/Devil/Conscience appears to Joan (Mila Jovovich) and asks her why she thinks she was chosen by God. She responds that she found a sword that God had placed for her in a field. There is then a wonderful sequence wherein Hoffman asks her why--in the face of all the more probable explanations for how the sword arrived in that field--she chose divine intervention. And the obvious unspoken answer is that it was the only conclusion that justified her actions. If anyone other than God had put that sword there, then Joan of Arc would have been a fraud.

So, Matt, in light of the myriad possible reasons that someone other than Osama may have had a hand in the 9/11 attack, why do you hold so tenaciously to the single interpretation that has been handed to us by our government--the very government who very possibly had the most to gain from these very attacks? (they had motive and opportunity--again this is no proof of guilt, but it is cause for investigation)

The right response to any situation is very seldom based on insufficient investigation.

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I'm very impressed that the author is willing to call us out for the whole maudlin, weepy, quivering-under-the-bed, childish response to 911.

And rather disappointed that like so many, he clearly isn't familiar with the REAL lies and holes in the official story of 911.

I've been involved in the "911 Truth" movement for five years, and I've never met anyone who think holographic alien missiles et al had anything to do with it - but these are always the people mentioned in relation to the movement.

Clearly Tiabbi isn't aware of the real problems with the Official Conspiracy Theory and has bought the misrepresentation of those who question it.

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research. If he had, he would realize it doesn't take a “clinically insane” individual to believe that the twin towers were imploded. They were recorded to have fallen in something like 9.8 seconds, very close to the time for a free-falling object to fall to the ground from the tops of those buildings. A very basic understanding of calculus leads one to understand that the pancake theory they present as an explanation of why they fell is a bunch of BS; if they fell from weakened floors falling on lower floors, causing them to give way in a domino effect, it would take much longer than 9.8 seconds to fall. See (http://janedoe0911.tripod.com/BilliardBalls.html).
In addition, I believe the “terrorists” have been very clear about why they hate us and am confused as to how the author can continue to not know why; I’ve read it repeatedly and it has been no hidden secret:
1) The hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi children we murdered through our ruthless embargo
2) Our continued financial support of the Israeli war machine and refusal to hold them accountable for any of their brutalities.
3) Our support of oppressive, un-democratic Arab governments that have allowed the presence of our military installations in Arab territorities against the will of most of the people.
Sure, this article made some good criticisms of lazy, sheeplike Unitedstatesians, but in a way it seems like a bunch of government propaganda, helping the masses continue to be naïve and ignorant although the answers have been made quite clear.

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Matt,
Sorry to disabuse you of your beliefs. However, the "clinically insane" are those who cravenly adhere to the official story about 9/11.
Jet fuel does not burn at sufficient tempertures to bring down skyscrapers. Other incidents of jets striking buildings without colapsing them bear witness to this.
A stike of a building with sufficient force to colapse it would not cause it to fall into it's own footprint.
How do you dismiss as insane, questions that ask why the third Worl Trade Center building also fell into it's own footprint without being struck by a plane?
If your answer to these questions is that there have been tv "specials" explaining it all away, then you are clinically insane. We know that this administration and it's apologists is very adept at cooking science for it's own ends.

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My son did...the day after 911..an editorial for his college paper.

A week later...he was 'detained' for two hours by feds. while trying to board a plane at the lcoal airport.

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They hate the USA because of our actions as a terrorist nation and a nation that supports other terrorist states. Starting with invading the soverign nation of Iraq on evidence Bush fabricated. Next, Guantanamo/Secret CIA Prisons/Extraordinary rendition. Next, support of Israel to the tune of plus $10 billion a year. And, Israel is guilty of illegal annexation of land, kidnapping, torture and holding many Arabs and Palestinians without charges, as well as causing massive and deliberate civilian casualties in Lebanon (to teach them a lesson). On top of that, US support of the most repressive regimes in the area continues, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Plus, we have large amounts of military bases, stockpiled military weapons, and clandestine national security and CIA boys across the region. The USA therefore comes across as a nation that will do anything to advance its own perceived interests and corporate/monied interests, including wholesale murder or the endorsement of it by proxy states. Plus, we have "nut jobs" on TV out of the evangelical Christian camp that call for crusades against Muslim nations or brand all Muslims as terrorists (semi-supported by President Bush). So, they hate us because they should. Because we are the enemies of the civilized world as demonstrated by our behavior. They hate us because they should.

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Has America changed after 9/11? Really. Look around you. Neighborhoods are pretty much the same. We go to work, shop and spend time at all the familiar places we visit, and go about in our business affairs routinely.
In our efforts to cope with the event we made heroes out of ordinary workers like police and firefighters and others who often are assigned a dangerous task. Running into a burning building meant a certain death.
Now we had memorials all over the country to remember those who were having another ordinary flight on another ordinary day. Sports teams spotted FDNY caps on their heads to show solidarity. What's the point in that?
Yes, they were victims of mass murder-a crime. It is as if our country had stopped moving. Our mental timepiece broke.
After the incident we went to war, made an assault on our civil liberties and our government tells us it'll be a "long, hard slog", and made Osama bin Laden enemy du jour, a phantom at best whom we can't catch.
But we did catch a glimpse of how the event made the nation more moody and tense. The evidence is on display at airports where new secuiry measures were introduced and the proliferation of security guards and law enforcement types patrolling every inch of a city. We're afraid to let our guard down. People of Arab descent are given double-takes in the U.S.A. Certain civil liberties are suspended in the name of "protection" and "security." And no amount of money can buy you either of those premises. No one can prevent an attack.
Days after the murders our president told us to "go shopping" and we (practically) haven't stopped. Compulsive shopping can be addictive. Spending our way from that traumatic day was one remedy. We coped with 9/11 by putting flags and ribbons on our vehicles but that didn't last. We also coped by going to movies and attending church sermons on the subject.
But it can be hard for anyone to cope with a problem they can't understand. And as we live under this government, who base its foreign and domestic agenda around 9/11, we may never know why 9/11 happened. We can't cope with that notion.

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are more than sufficiently competent to pull off 9/11 and it would not have taken very many people at all who had to be fully "in the know". Most everything is compartmentalized and most folks probably simply thought they were following orders and doing the 'right thing'. But some stuff does come out. They put gag orders on NYPD and NYFD responders for five years. Once their voice records were released (due to law suit and order of the NY supreme court) it is now obvious that many many heard and felt multiple explosions in WTC buildings separate from plane impacts. Big explosions.. Both WT1 & 2 & 7 came down via controlled demolition. Heck, you can watch the detonations on the films of WTC 1 & 2 &7. Note as well that the floors had to be demo'd to account the speed of the collapse of each building. Each fell at just about "free fall" speed. The only buildings that fall at about 'free fall' speed are buildings that undergo controlled demolition. Other wise the resistance of underlying floors would substantially increase the amount of time for the collapses to occur. So get a clue folks. We have been had. 9/11 was an inside job.
dr richard welser

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The saddest thing I've heard today is a mom on CNN stating that her recently killed son serving in Iraq "died doing what he thought was right...defending America". Egods, do the parents of the fallen really believe that? Will they ever get it?

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It's actually pretty simple . . .

First you make blanket statements that characterize ALL divergent or alternate explanations as absolutely, positively absurd. By doing this you simply paint anyone who might disagree with the official version of events, conspiracy theorist or not, as beyond credible and therefore worthy of any explanation. Bu$hCo has managed to slough off all demands to explain the "amazing" events of 9/11 by simply characterizing those of us who have questions as "insane" and therefore unworthy of any response.

Next you put your bought and paid for PR machine into action (remember that $1.6 billion used to purchase favorable MSM write-ups?) to character assassinate anyone, like Charlie Sheen or Steven Jones. When word gets out that your entire past will be dredged up and used to portray you as an bungling idiot, most will likely think twice before disagreeing.

This method has been used to enable the Bush administration to ignore legitimate questions like how the fuck did WTC 7 collapse? How did so many mystery investors anticipate the sudden plunge in United and American share prices? How is it possible that NOT ONE GODDAMN JET WAS SCRAMBLED FROM ANDREWS? I would also like some clarification as to how London just happened to be conducting terrorist drills on the exact subway lines that happened to be bombed on 7/7. Amazing how these "training drills" keep occuring on the same day these guys roll out of bed and decide to blow up subway trains or pull off "unbelievable" aerial stunts a la Chuck Yeager . . .

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One of the glaring mistakes made by the planners of 9/11 was announcing it was Bin Laden only minutes after the event. Thinking people immediately recognized that if the gov't had no idea this was going to happen, they would not have so promptly identified the culprit. The reason they made that mistake is that they are not too smart.

It's curious how the people who fawn over this latest shill's contribution all submit their schlurp 1st thing in the AM - all neatly prearranged first thing in the morning. Makes me wonder if they punched their timecards right after they posted then went to the next assignment. Conversely all those of us who have real jobs, lives, and perspectives catch up on the (sch)nooz later in the day. The reason they've made this mistake is they are STILL not too smart.

Gosh, you creeps are too sloppy to ever sell this story.

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We sure blew off that question nicely. As with everything else in this country, our response to 9/11 was a heroic compendium of idiocy, cowardice, callow flag-waving, weepy sentimentality (coupled with an apparently bottomless capacity for self-pity), sloth, laziness, and partisan ignorance.

You shouldn't talk that way about the liberal/progressives and the democratic party. After all, many of them are standup people with good jobs and good motives, good families. But if you join the Republican party, I'm sure you'll begin to see the light.

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Tashi:
I appreciate what you're saying. So, if 'its really a hopeless situation' there's nothing to lose by going all out for a third party. I mean, we don't have to worry about being 'spoilers'.

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If there had been a real investigation we might know why they did it - the logical thing to do would have been to put some of the captured Al Queda members on trial instead of having them tortured in secret Romanian, Polish, Thai, Jordanian and Egyptian CIA prisons. The Bush Adminstration doesn't seem to want any of the planners of 9/11 to ever have a chance to discuss it.

There are probably a number of extremely embarrassing details about how they did it that the government doesn't want to discuss - for example, the past histories of all the hijackers indicate that some of them had US military training - which is very common for Saudis and any other country that recieves a lot of US military aid. The US trains Saudi pilots and all sorts of foreign military people within the US; a notorious example is the School of the Americas death squad training program (now renamed the Western Hemisphere Insitute for Security Cooperation). The US empire likes to instill a sense of loyalty to the USA in the armed services of foreign puppets; the reasons for this are well described in "Confessions of an Economic Hitman", by John Perkins.

The hijackers also probably fooled their military escorts into thinking that they were simply returning to the airport; it isn't very likely that they would have told the air traffic controllers that they they intended to crash the planes into buildings! Embarassing if true... and a criminal investigation and trial of the planners would reveal many such things - like exactly how the 9/11 financing worked (Was Pakistani ISI involved?)

The problem in the Middle East is that Western powers crushed all democratic opposition to the dictators that ruled the oil-rich areas, and as a result all dissent went into the fundamentalist Islamic groups, like the Shia clerics in Iran and the Wahabi clerics in Saudi Arabia. Come on - think how you would feel if (for example) Chinese troops were staioned in all major US oilfields in order to protect China's control of global oil supplies, and any American who loudly protested was rounded up, tortured and beheaded (As goes on in Iraq and Saudi Arabia today).

The US corporate media does its best to keep American citizens in the dark about the actual nature of the American-led global empire and the bloody violence involved in maintaining it, but you can't hide the crimes forever.

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no, it was the unAmerican neocon/corporatist agenda and proxies who did 9/11. Anybody who continues to think there was any independent al queda attack simply doesn't have a clue. bullshit. It was our f'n oligarchic coporatist government that did this. Terrah terrah terrah...... fu

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Kudos, Prophit, for your response to deniers of 9/11 truth.

As a person who had just been declared "clinically insane" in the above article because I have read and believe Steven Jones' article on the theory that demolition of the twin towers (and tower #7) -- through the use of the chemical thermite -- caused the collapse of the buildings, I thank you for my R & R. Reading your analysis and response "R"estored me to my sanity and "R"escued me from having to try to write half as effective a rebuttal as you have written.

The Stand Down of our air defense because of the confusion caused to NORAD by "Able Danger" exercises is an unconvincing coincidence. The NeoCons well-documented belief that they needed a second Pearl Harbor to carry out their plans for empire could be said to answer the question “who benefitted?”

We certainly need a new, unbiased investigation. Hopefully, the truthseekers will be able to have one created in the near future when there is a change in the political climate.

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Magnetic Ribbons and the Yellowcake of Faith

When we wake puking shame
at last, and know the dream
for sham, embraced en masse...
When bells that rang victorious
hang mute, their tarnished claims
ignored in disrepute, and
bitter sons, having been all they
could be, can't wish back innocence
or the leg below the knee...

(This brash regime's trimmed reason
from its ranks, its black guard
in the street, protecting flanks.)

...then will we heed the schemers'
gloating leer? "There's no future
for angry dissidents here."
Row on row, with hand
in trembling hand, it's come to this.
WE DREAMERS NEED TO STAND!



-- rockpicker

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Bourgeois Pig Eats Horse Semen

It seems like every time you turn on the television or pick up a newspaper in this country, you get a face full of bullshit. And no one ever apologizes to you for it. They act like it’s right, like you deserve it.

Enjoy.

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9/11 Press For Truth could be the best and most credible study of September 11th 2001 anywhere.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1016720641536424083

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This article seems right up his alley. I had expected to get a facefull of naughty obscenities and twitchy cackling about George Bush. Now I'm a little disappointed.

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Becuase the Bush Regime wanted it to
This web page gives a great many details about how Americans have been hornswaggled about 9/11.

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US culture(Euro-American-World Pop) can be crude and rude for sure. Bombing folks who hate our culture into the stone age is futile and equally crude. However there is an element of Islam that is bigoted and intolerant of the least criticism of Islam or the least divergence from what Islam(or a version that extremists like) allegedly requires.

Why did the do 9/11? Because they had no interest in nonviolent protest, diplomatic resolution, interfaith dialogue. The same criticism may be made I suppose of Bushites. But that doesn't in any way make the question of why terrorists kill innocents in cold blood relevant. The roots of radical Isalm far precede George Bush. Radical Islam is not the anti-Western nationalist movements in the Arab world post-WWI and II. Radical Islam is the antithesis of tolerance and progressive values of secular humanists and advocates for the poor, females and minorities everywhere. How to combat this intolerant aggressive movement without becoming an intolerant, fascist-like movement is a challenge progressives must address. To date, too many progressives have avoided the harsh truth that Islamists will attack the West whether George Bush or Ralph Nader or Howard Dean leads the US.

One should be able to vigorously combat the stupidity of a Bush and the intolerance of radical Islamists in a postive way that affirms progressive secular values that derive from the Englightenment. That heritage has always been hated by reactioinaries of all faiths.

You don't blow up innocent people. Period. What part of "don't" is too tough to understand?

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Few people willing to cut through the 9/11 schmaltz. I'm glad someone besides Ted Rall has stepped up, in spite of all the angry emails you'll be getting.

You lost me towards the end, though. I thought you were saying we should be as sensitive to others as we are to ourselves, but you end up saying we aren't tough enough, and that we have to keep on with the war on terror instead of being all new-age liberal-touchy-feely. Sounds a bit like something GWB or Rush Limbaugh would say. What's that all about?

The first 3/4 of the article was great, though.

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There are always a few who still try to push the 'Islamic Terrorists Did It' meme. Get a clue.
And there are always a few who will call skeptics "Clinically Insane". As a Forensic Clinical Neuropsychologist, I sort of think I am actually better qualified to determine whether that condition exists or not. Currently I am of the belief that Bush and his neocon buddies are criminally insane. And any bunch like that who are guilty of 100's of thousands of innocent deaths (see Lancet, 2004) in the middle east and elsewhere are surely deserving of the hangman's noose. And all of their apologists surely share in some of the guilt.

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A recent poster stated that some Muslims might likely still hate or want to attack America regardless of who is President. However, once again, this begs the question. Currently, a Muslim could readily ask that regardless of who is President of Iran or Lebanon, it does not matter, the US or Israel will still surely attack. So, what is America's excuse for killing thousands in Iraq and for her proxy state Israel to do the same in Lebanon? Look, Osama attacking WTC was very clearly linked to anger over thousands of US troops in Saudi Arabia. It does not help now either that we have 140,000 troops now in Iraq. The US is the aggressive part of the equation that fuels the conflict. As for Islam and Muslims supposed intolerance, we in the West have to give up the fantasy that we can control other peoples or countries. We cannot park Wal-Mart and McDonalds in Iraq and Iran. However, if we really care and want to show these countries and other peoples our way or a different way, we must do so with respect, tolerance, cultural exchanges, so they can freely see who we are. If instead they see nothing but war, Halliburton and Bechtel taking over the oil fields of Iraq for profit, nuclear state Israel on the move to annex more land, just what do you think they will think?

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"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property—either as a child, a wife, or a concubine—must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men."

"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science—the science against which it had vainly struggled—the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."

Winston Churchill, 1899

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Exploited by colonial powers for 150 years. Churchill....Oh great, written originally by an ethnocentric, xenophobic, militarist and bigot and, apparently, posted by the same.

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much as the overwhelming majority of individuals posting comments to this site slam Christianity. I don't slam individuals -- including Muslims -- as long as they are non-violent, but I do slam a so-called religion that is nothing more than an international men's club that dehumanizes women and turns people into robots. I never cease to be amazed at the number of liberals who will defend Islam with its anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-individualist beliefs but become enraged or engage in petty name-calling should any American dare to voice his or her honest opinion (a la Larry Summers or, for that matter, Winston Churchill). And just because the "current cabal" are idiots doesn't mean, at least in my opinion, that this country deserves to go the way of Rome, although I'm sure nothing would please self-hating Western liberals more.

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“He who gains most advantage from a crime is the one most likely to have committed it.”
SENECA (renowned Roman playwright, philosopher and politician 5 BC - 65 AD)

One more time: Matt Taibbi’s MSM column is just another cute red herring pose for the pseudo leftwing. As such, it isn’t even limited hangout.

The why of 911 is in motive, opportunity and a well-documented backstory. If it weren’t for Big Oil, the Mid East theatre would be a dead end tourist stopover. Not a war beachhead sprouting puppet garrison states and permanent military bases from Iraq to Eurasia. All paid for at public cost for private greed.

And it’s not incumbent on rank and file citizens to propose counter theories to the 911conspiracy fantasy in place. Only to insist on a real and thorough investigation.

Again, to take the findings of a laughably crooked official 911 “Commission investigation” as gospel makes fools and sellouts of Americans. Or both.

911 cover-up is no “theory” conspiracy or otherwise. It is the 10-ton elephant on a global stage that shrinks dangerously smaller by the day. Most of the world well understands 911 was minimum allowed to happen and was most likely some bloody farce of an inside job. And so, 911 cover-up renders all public policy in the aftermath of 911 complete with Orwellian “war on terror” a naked fraud for all to see.

A toy poodle DC-MSM “government” has less than no track record of credibility investigating itself on anything let alone matters of national security. A history of lies and deceit make that point clear in deed and fact. Accepting the benefit of doubt to a face value 911 sham foisted by political snakes that dance at the pleasure of a de facto cartel crime state is the issue at hand. This is the putrid core of a worldwide horror that has built nothing but revulsion for America everywhere.

Americans need not know every detail of a 911 ruse to see its obvious profile. They do need to understand that without a proper accounting, the world will continue to despise us as willing patsies and treacherous enablers of a blood drunk class of private criminals that put their own interests above human life and peace on this planet.

This is America ruled by the Vampire State.

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Hal and Douglas - liked your posts. Hal: I had used the term 'limted hangout' against the article but I think you may be right.

Also can't stand bigotry regarding Islam. I am a nothing sort of theist/deist/agnostic/athesist and studied many faiths. There are important truths in each and mostly common truths across all.
But Islam is no more violent than Christianity or Judaism or even Hinduism. All have their extremists. Buddhists seem somewhat immune. But anyway, I have several psychiatrist colleagues who are Muslim and they are among the most polite and dedicated people I know. Sure beat most of the fundamentalists here in Bible Belt. (but of course in the bible belt one does see all strata and that will exaggerate the more dogmatic or extreme of any religion) It does happen that the extremist Muslims are many but that is because we've been exploiting them and killing them for many years. There are problems with Islam just as there are problems with Christianity. Hell, were I raised in the Middle East I would probably be an insurgent as well. Some say the US and other colonial powers like GB have purposely done this for years. It would not surprise me. Obviously the CIA work in Iran in 53 would be a good example. And Negroponte's work in Baghdad with the terror groups. And of course, we created OBL. The group for whom I feel bigotry (and everybody fights feeling bigotry about various people) are the neocons.

Sorry to ramble.

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In order to ask this question of oneself , the person has to knowledgeble about World history; geography and cultural nuances of different regions.
Those conditions are " foreign" to most Americans obsessed with food and self-endulgence.
Any foreign visitor is amazed with the level of ignorance on display everywhere.
Especially these so called " blue collar" workers are practically illiterate hooked on sports and stupifying tv shows, unable to form their own in-depth opinions.
To define them with two words I can say- THEY'RE IMMUNE TO KNOWLEDGE!
In such a climate discussion ' Why they hate us?' is impossible.
Anyone agreeing with this willbe called anti-american....

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before you take anybody's word for it.


Class is in session.

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This entire scheme from year 2000 is a nightmare. I try to tell myself this over and over that I am living a nightmare and the rest will appear sooner than later.
Or is it a fraud ??

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If sombody knocks you down and threatens to kill you are you going to try to get him to discuss why he is doing it. You are an idiot. Besides, everyone else but you already knows why they did. They hate everybody who is not one of them. The pope was right the first time and should not have apologized.

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Your reasoning is sad, prejudice, and clouded by bs nationalism and the propaganda of murderers.

It's unfortunate that the fate of the world, our children's world, hangs by a thread because America cannot collectively accept that we are not the only people who matter. It's true, we're not alone. There are good people all over the world.

I see that you're upset with Islam. Perhaps you're scared that something will happen to you or again here in the US, etc. Okay, but does that mean we should continue to kill thousands and thousands (soon millions) of innocent people?

Not everyone likes the US. Some think we're the greatest country in the world. I'm not sure everyone sees it that way. Pursuing peace and tolerance is the only truly noble thing to do... the only way to save the future.

But unfortunately, I guess it comes down to Money. How much is enough? When will the American corporatocracy see that you can't spend all of the stolen money if there's no world to spend it in.

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Are they trying to bait us?!!

Common Dreams

Truthdig

Now the Alternet thing. So what is "alter" about alternet?

These are all pathetic!

Keep it simple. The government is guilty until proven innocent.

The crimes mentioned by Redshield (what's a little lie?) are petty compared to 911 complicity.

Who is going to represent us?

So Common Dreams, Truthdig, and now Alternate links have gone to the trash.

It is tiring beyond description to read one more of these asinine claims about WTC7 coming down due to a couple of small fires..

Suppose we demand that anyone choosing to claim a 757 hit the Pentagon, for purposes of being taken seriously, personally demonstrate the event.

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A big part of the supposed conspiracy is that the two main towers were brought down by controlled demolition. I have seen suggestions that these explosives were in the basement and/or at the level where the planes hit.

As for basement demolition, all of us have seen the towers collapsing from the point of impact. The towers certainly did not collapse from the bottom and, had they done so, the demolition conspiracy would be obvious to all. What were these supposed basement explosions meant to accomplish then?

Let's suppose the conspiracy planted explosives at different levels in the two towers. The plotters of this conspiracy then must have instructed the hijackers to be very careful to crash their planes into those very levels on the respective towers. It would be very inconvenient if they missed and the eventual controlled explosions happened five floors too low, particularly since the conspirators could be certain that cameras would be focused on the event from every angle. Did these ultra-competent conspirators have such faith in their pilots?

But let's give them the benefit of the doubt - they hit the two targets where the explosives were set - think about that. Isn't it probable that some of those explosives would be destroyed, or set off, or disconnected from whoever was planning to detonate them, or knocked out of the building to be inconveniently found? Does taking chances on any of that sound like a competent or likely conspiracy?

What's the point of explosives anyhow? Did the buildings HAVE to be brought down so explosives were planted to make sure? Surely the fact of two hijacked passenger planes ramming the towers, even without collapse, would have created the same public and government reaction.

While there are plenty of legitimate questions surrounding 911, this whole notion of explosives pushes the conspiracy notion way too far for me.

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It isn't only that the building collapsed. It was the way they collapsed. For crying out loud , look at the pictures of buildings hit by earthquakes, bombs and burnt by fires. Then look at pictures of controlled demolition and then look at the fall of the THREE WTC buildings. Don't you think that a building hit on one side would lean to that side? Why do they bother with controlled demolition if it is so easy to get building to fall in their own basements? THINK

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