September 2002

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Conspiracies and Coverups Made Easy

Chris Harris is currently a graduate student at Northeastern University and a meamber of the Peacework Program Committee.

It came as no surprise to read in the New York Times on June 11th that survivors of the World Trade Center disaster were demanding an independent inquiry into the events surrounding September 11th. After eight months of Administration drum beating, a CBS News poll in late May found 2/3 of Americans thought the Bush Administration was hiding something about what it knew before September 11th. Only 20% thought they were "telling the entire truth."

Washington, DC, April 20, 2002 © Josh Reynolds

It was Aeschylus who first said, "In war, truth is the first casualty." Here, in the midst of a supposed information age, trying to discover the truth has been a daunting task. There is no shortage of theories circulating about September 11th, many alleging conspiracies of varying dimensions. Educated Americans get uncomfortable dealing with conspiracy theories. Yet hasn't conspiracy has been the stock in trade of American foreign policy in the last 50 years? How else would you describe our policy in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba, or Iran-Contra, FBI escapades with Cointelpro, with the Boston Irish Mafia, in Waco, or against Earth First, if not as conspiracies?

Since I first thought of writing this piece, some of the reporting commonly known overseas about the Administration's responsibility and foreknowledge of what took place has now been reported in the American media. Those stories had been there to be read for months on the Internet. The Bush Administration has responded with a fog of disinformation, reorganizations, and threat claims to take the spotlight off questions of responsibilty. Yet, as the call of the Trade Center bereaved drives home, much more needs to be explained. I want to mention a few of these issues here and identify some Internet news sources that are attemping to answer them. I can't vouchsafe for the truth of everything these sites report. They all have vociferous critics (probably a good sign). Each one of them offers coverage and analysis of pieces of the puzzle that we all need to deal with.

Theories abound about the pre-September period and the day of the attack. For example, how does one explain the extremely curious reactions of the President, his cabinet, and the military on September 11th? It is widely reported and known that many governments (Germany, Israel, Morocco, Russia, Jordan, Egypt, and France, to name a few) warned the Administration an attack was imminent. The President admits to being briefed to this effect in August. Yet, on 9/11, it was 50 minutes after they started that he claims to have been told of the hijackings, and for 30 minutes after being told of the attack, the President chose to continue reading to 3rd graders. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was told of the grave situation and went back in his Pentagon office to make phones calls for the 40 minutes until the Pentagon was hit!

Many have asked why no fighter planes were scrambled in time to do anything. On September 11 more than 75 minutes passed between the beginning of the simultaneous hijackings of four airliners and the attack on the Pentagon. Jared Israel has done extensive analysis of this question on the website The Emperor's Clothes <http://emperors-clothes.com> When the golfer Payne Stewart's private jet lost radio contact with FAA Air Traffic Control, military fighters were alongside the plane in less than twenty minutes. With four simultaneous hijackings occurring, the Administration and the military tell us they were unable to respond in time.

Of equal interest is some of the work done by Michael Ruppert on the website From The Wilderness. Ruppert's work holds the unusual distinction of being praised by both Rep. Cynthia McKinney and the Texas Libertarian Republican, Rep. Ron Paul. Ruppert has developed a September 11 timeline summarizing many publicly available media and government sources <www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/02_11_02_lucy.html> to conclude the official stories don't add up. For example, heavy short options trading occurred in United and American Airlines, and other affected companies, in the days leading up to September 11. These trades were executed by the A.B.Brown stock brokerage owned by Deutsche Bank, which was run until 1998 by the Executive Director of the CIA, A.B. Krongard. On September 15, the President of A.B.Brown, Mayo Shattuck III, abruptly resigned. Although the SEC has the ability to determine who placed the trades, no explanation has been forthcoming.

The origin of the anthrax attacks has apparently been known to the FBI since at least February. This is when Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Director of the Federation of American Scientists' Chemical and Biological Weapons Program revealed that the anthrax came from Fort Detrich, Maryland and the FBI had a suspect, a "government insider," under surveillance. The Hartford Courant independently reported the same information. Yet for almost five months subsequent to this the FBI claimed it had no suspects. Was the Bush Administration worried that the world might realize that the US has broken domestic and international law by continuing to develop weaponized anthrax?

The probable anthrax coverup, and the blackout on news coverage of the expulsion of 120 Israeli "art students," has been well covered by the website <http://antiwar.com> run by a group of West Coast liberetarian conservatives. I have found this site to be generally the best daily source for stories on whatever the American war du jour is, be it Serbia, Afghanistan, or elsewhere.

The Bush/bin Laden connection has been well reported by the Anglo-American journalist Greg Palast <www.gregpalast.com>. Palast has reported that W. Bush himself was responsible for bringing investigations of Bin Laden connections to a halt before September 11. He also has a lot to say about Enron, the IMF, and the Bush connection to the creepy Barrick Mining Company.

War reporting has contained plenty of fantasy as well. Reports from Pakistan newspapers like the Frontier Post regularly contradicted what the Defense Department was churning out. Read Jason Vest in the American Prospect for an alternative to the official version of Operation Anaconda <www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2002/03/vest-j-03-21.html>. Even a pro-defense publication like the Army Times contradicted the official US accounts that Al Qaeda had brought in 500 coffins to evacuate their killed, pointing out that Muslims in this area bury their dead in shrouds. In fact, virtually no bodies were ever recovered by the US forces.

For the rescue effort and WTC cleanup, coverups abound. Sam Smith, in his Progressive Review has drawn attention to these <www.prorev.com/wtc.htm>. No forensic analysis was done of the rubble, in violation of the national fire code. One fire professional called the official investigation a "half baked farce." A US Geological Survey study of the WTC and surrounding neighborhood found dust on everything that had pH values as high as 12.0, the equivalent to drain cleaner. Although this report was released to them by September 27th, the EPA never mentioned it to health officials in New York. People returned to their apartments and kids to neighborhood schools with the hazards unabated. Only in May, after the EPA national ombudsman resigned alleging a coverup, and thousands were showing health symptoms, did the EPA admit a problem <www.ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002-05-09-06.asp>, and launch a hazards inspection.

Are there conspiracies going on? I don't know what else you can call them. The executive branch of the federal government is clearly still not telling the public the truth. Our mainstream American news media has done a yeoman's job in not reporting these issues. Are we dealing with an out-of-control, rogue government, totally corrupted by its own interest conflicts or are we witnessing gross incompetence of an historically massive scale? I don't know. But nothing will improve until the truth is out and widely known. As it stands now, for a nation to reward incompetence with radically expanded police powers is a foolish solution to a more basic problem. Rewarding a rogue government with more police powers is civic suicide. Each of us must figure out for ourselves which we believe it is.

Other useful links for keeping up with the eternal war (more on request):

<www.makethemaccountable.com/whatwhen/>

<www.straightgoods.ca/ViewMediaFile .cfm?REF=1360>

<www.counterpunch.org/>

Previous Article    Next Article