h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 doesn't go nearly far enough.

New 9/11 book - Inside Job

Jim Marrs breaks down the findings in his new book 9/11 book, Inside Job:
• A wide variety of standard defense mechanisms designed to prevent such an attack systematically failed on 9/11. Especially notable are the atypical failures which occurred simultaneously within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Military Command Center (NMCC), and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), all charged with protecting US airspace.

• Interceptor jets were not scrambled for more than thirty minutes after it was obvious that four airliners had gone off course and were presumably hijacked. In the case of Flight 77, which reportedly slammed into the Pentagon, an hour and forty-five minutes elapsed with no interception.

• Missile batteries designed to protect Washington, DC, failed to stop the strike on the Pentagon, one of the world's most protected structures, and fighter jets on constant alert at Andrews Air Force Base just twelve miles away were never scrambled.

• By a "bizarre coincidence," two government homeland defense agencies (NORAD and the NRO) were practicing war games on the morning of 9/11. The games simulated responses to a scenario in which hijacked planes were crashed into buildings. This fact could explain the government's lack of rapid response to the real hijackings, yet this plausible alibi has never been brought to public attention. One also wonders: How did the hijackers know the time and date of these war games in order to time their attacks to coincide with them?

• President Bush proceeded with a photo op at a Florida elementary school even after he and his aides knew that three planes had been hijacked. He lingered in the classroom for nearly twenty minutes after being informed that a second plane had struck the World Trade Center (WTC).

• Not one steel-framed high-rise building in history has collapsed solely due to fire. The free-fall speed collapse of the Trade Center towers, with attendant melted steel and powdery dust, exhibited all the characteristics of a controlled demolition.

• Just such a controlled demolition apparently occurred about 5 p.m. that same day when, according to the leaseholder of the WTC complex, the 47-story Building 7 was "pulled," i.e., intentionally demolished.

• Vital evidence, including the buildings' structural steel, was destroyed through rapid removal and destruction by US government officials with no investigation. This is only one of the many reasons why Fire Engineering magazine called the official investigation "a half-baked farce."

• An eight-mile-long debris trail indicated that Flight 93 was destroyed in the air rather than in the Pennsylvania crash reportedly caused by an onboard struggle between the hijackers and passengers.

• More than a dozen countries firmly warned US authorities that an attack on American soil was imminent, some only days before the events.

• Strong evidence points to complicity in the attacks by senior intelligence operatives from Israel and Pakistan who are closely aligned with American intelligence agencies.

• A classified Congressional report incriminates senior officials in the Saudi Arabian government, showing that they had close ties to the hijackers. The Saudis enjoy long-term business and social ties to the Bush family and close political ties to the US government.

• The US government expedited the swift departure of over 100 Saudis from the country, even as the American public had been denied the right to fly. Two dozen members of bin Laden's own family, presumably potential witnesses, were allowed to leave the country without interrogation.

• Insiders with foreknowledge of the events to come engaged in massive and highly profitable short-selling of shares in American Airlines and United Airlines, as well as other stocks readily affected by the disaster. The public has still not been presented with the final results of official investigations into these transactions-if there are any.

• A growing number of whistleblowers from within the federal government have pointed to evidence that various agencies were well aware of the possibility of attack, and were prevented by seniors officials from mounting full investigations.

• Far from being a mere reaction to 9/11, evidence now proves that the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were the culmination of long-standing plans which only awaited a provocation such as 9/11.

• The official explanations for the invasion of Iraq, such as the need to capture weapons of mass destruction, and to "bring democracy" to the country, have proven false.

• Within a few hours, the FBI released names and photos of the suspected hijackers although later many of those named turned up alive in the Middle East.

• Also within hours of the attacks, FBI agents were scouring the houses, restaurants, and flight schools they frequented. If no one had foreknowledge of the hijackers or their activities, how did they know where to look?

• Far from ordering a full and objective investigation to determine who was responsible for the 9/11 tragedies, the Bush administration dragged its feet and actually took actions to impede a swift and truthful probe into the events of that day. It was nearly two years after the events that mounting pressure from the public, led by families of 9/11 victims, finally forced the creation of an "independent" investigatory commission.

• No one in government has been reprimanded or even scolded for what we are told was the greatest intelligence and homeland-defense failure in US history. In fact, the very agencies which failed the nation watched their budgets increase dramatically, and some of the officials ostensibly at fault were actually promoted.
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Primakov: Saddam cut a deal with U.S.

AFP/Kurdish Media --June 26
Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein cut a deal with the United States before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov said in an interview published on Thursday.

“There was an understanding with the Americans, as paradoxical as it may seem,” Primakov told the Russian daily Gazeta in a lengthy interview.

“Why weren’t the bridges of the Tigris blown up when the American tanks approached Baghdad? Why weren’t Iraqi aviation and tanks used, and where are they now?” asked Primakov, a former head of the Russian secret service and a specialist in Arab affairs who was formerly on good terms with Saddam.

“Why was there an immediate ceasefire? Why was there practically no resistance a year ago?” he added.

Primakov, who now heads Russia’s chamber of trade and industry, also cast doubt on the authenticity of footage of Saddam’s reported capture that circled the world on December 14.

“They showed two soldiers with guns with palm trees in the background near the hole (where Saddam was reportedly hiding). At that time of year, date palms are never in bloom,” he said.

“Finally, any man can tell you that such a long beard (as Saddam had when he was reportedly caught) could not grow in seven months,” he said.

“All evidence suggests that Saddam surrendered earlier and the story of the hole was invented later,” he said. Primakov, who was also Russian foreign minister, made two secret trips to Iraq at the request of President Vladimir Putin, shortly before the invasion by US and British troops.