Can America Ultimately Survive the Crimes of Bush, Clinton and
Obama?
THE CRIME WAVE THAT IS THE BU$H FAMILY STARTED TWO WARS AGAINST IRAQ ON BEHALF OF THEIR SAUDI PAYMASTERS.
The perilous ramifications of the September 11 attacks on the
United States are only now beginning to unfold. They will undoubtedly be felt
for generations to come. This is one of many sad conclusions readers will draw
from Craig Unger's exceptional book House of Bush House of
Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties. As Unger claims
in this incisive study, the seeds for the "Age of Terrorism" and
September 11 were planted nearly 30 years ago in what, at the time, appeared to
be savvy business transactions that subsequently translated into political
currency and the union between the Saudi royal family and the extended
political family of George H. W. Bush. On the surface, the claim may appear to
be politically driven, but as Unger (a respected investigative journalist and
editor) probes--with scores of documents and sources--the political tenor of
the U.S. over the last 30 years, the Iran-Iraq War, the war in Afghanistan, the
birth of Al Qaeda, the dubious connection between members of the Saudi Royal family
and the exportation of terror, and the personal fortunes amassed by the Bush
family from companies such as Harken Energy and the Carlyle Group, he exposes
the "brilliantly hidden agendas and purposefully murky corporate
relationships" between these astonishingly powerful families.His evidence is
persuasive and reveals a devastating story of Orwellian proportions, replete
with political deception, shifting allegiances, and lethal global consequences.
Unger begins his book with the remarkable story of the repatriation of 140
Saudis directly following the September 11 attacks. He ends where Richard A. Clarkebegins, questioning the
efficacy of the war in Iraq in the battle against terrorism. We are
unquestionably facing a global security crisis unlike any before. President
Bush insists that we will prevail, yet as Unger so effectively concludes,
"Never before has an American president been so closely tied to a foreign
power that harbors and supports our country's mortal enemies." --Silvana
Tropea --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition
of this title.
THESE
ENDLESS WARS HAVE COST US BILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND THOUSANDS OF LIVES.... all
because Saddam gave the middle finger to the filthy Saudis!
IT WAS THE SAUDIS THAT INVADED US 9-11 AND ARE THE GLOBAL FINANCIERS OF TERRORISM. IT IS THE BUSH PRESIDENTS, HILLARY AND BILLARY and their little Muslim Obama THAT SHOULD BE TRIED AS TRAITORS FOR DEFENDING A DICTATORSHIP THAT IS ANTI-JEWISH, ANTI-CHRISTIAN and ANTI-AMERICAN!
WHO WILL FUND AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES WITH BRIBES IF THE SAUDIS ARE EXECUTED?
WHO WILL PUMP MILLIONS INTO THE PHONY CLINTON FOUNDATION IF THE FILTHY SAUDIS ARE EXECUTED?
AT WHOSE FEET WILL BARACK OBAMA KNEEL AND KISS IF HIS PAYMASTERS, THE FILTHY SAUDIS GO UNDER?
FBI holds 80,000 pages of secret documents on Saudi-9/11 links
IT WAS THE SAUDIS THAT INVADED US 9-11 AND ARE THE GLOBAL FINANCIERS OF TERRORISM. IT IS THE BUSH PRESIDENTS, HILLARY AND BILLARY and their little Muslim Obama THAT SHOULD BE TRIED AS TRAITORS FOR DEFENDING A DICTATORSHIP THAT IS ANTI-JEWISH, ANTI-CHRISTIAN and ANTI-AMERICAN!
WHO WILL FUND AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES WITH BRIBES IF THE SAUDIS ARE EXECUTED?
WHO WILL PUMP MILLIONS INTO THE PHONY CLINTON FOUNDATION IF THE FILTHY SAUDIS ARE EXECUTED?
AT WHOSE FEET WILL BARACK OBAMA KNEEL AND KISS IF HIS PAYMASTERS, THE FILTHY SAUDIS GO UNDER?
FBI holds 80,000 pages of secret documents on Saudi-9/11 links
FBI holds 80,000 pages
of secret documents on Saudi-9/11 links
By Patrick
Martin
14 May 2016
The American FBI has a
secret cache of documents, more than 80,000 pages in all, concerning possible
ties between the 9/11 hijackers and an upper-class Saudi family who lived in
Florida and fled the United States two weeks before the suicide hijackings that
killed nearly 3,000 people.A federal judge in Tampa, Florida has been reviewing the documents for more than two years as a consequence of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by a trio of online reporters—Anthony Summers, Robbyn Swan and Dan Christensen. The review process has been extremely slow because of restrictive FBI rules on how many pages Judge William Zloch may access at any one time.
The existence of the document trove was revealed Friday in a front-page article in the US-based web publication the Daily Beast. The article identified the Saudi family as Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife Anoud, who was the daughter of Esam Ghazzawi, an adviser to a nephew of Saudi King Fahd.
Ghazzawi owned the home in which they were staying in a gated community in Sarasota, Florida. The home was raided by the FBI after 9/11 but the residents had all departed in evident haste on August 30, 2001.
Visitor logs in the community, known as Prestancia, showed that the alleged ringleader of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohammad Atta, had visited al-Hijji, along with two other 9/11 hijackers, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan Al-Shehhi.
Former Senator Robert Graham, co-chair of the joint congressional committee that investigated the 9/11 attacks, told the Daily Beast that he had never known of the FBI documents on the Saratoga home until they were uncovered by the investigative journalists. He later viewed a portion of these records and confirmed that they identified the three 9/11 hijackers as visitors.
Throughout this period, the FBI had denied that the al-Hijji family had any connection to the 9/11 attackers. The agency changed its story only when Graham said he would testify under oath about what he had read in the file of documents. At this point the FBI conceded the existence of 35 pages of documents.
When Judge Zloch ordered a further search for records, the Tampa office of the FBI came back with 80,226 pages of files marked PENTTBOM, which stands for “Pentagon/Twin-Towers Bombing” in FBI jargon. Judge Zloch has been reviewing these since May 1, 2014 and has given no date by which he expects to finish.
The al-Hijji family exited its Sarasota home, leaving behind three cars, an open safe and disarray that suggested a hasty departure. The security guards at the gated community noted their departure, but did not consider it suspicious until the 9/11 attacks two weeks later.
The FBI initially made only a perfunctory response and did not open a formal investigation until eight months later, in April 2002, “based upon repeated citizen calls” about the conduct of the family during their stay in the United States. One of the few documents released said that this investigation “revealed many connections” between a member of the family “and individuals associated with the terrorist attacks.”
The Daily Beast report adds to recent revelations of evidence of Saudi regime ties to the 9/11 hijackers that has been covered up by the US government under both the Bush and Obama administrations.
Graham has actively campaigned for the release of 28 pages of material on the Saudi-9/11 connection comprising an entire chapter of the joint congressional committee report on the 9/11 attacks in which he participated. This material has been withheld for more than 13 years. On April 10, Graham was the main witness interviewed by the CBS program “60 Minutes” in a segment on the continuing cover-up of Saudi-9/11 connections.
In an op-ed column this week in the Washington Post, Graham reiterated his demand for release of the 28 pages, noting that President Obama had promised a decision on declassifying the material by next month. Graham denounced CIA Director John Brennan, who responded to the “60 Minutes” program by publicly opposing any release of the 28 pages.
Also Friday, the Guardian newspaper published an interview with a former member of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission appointed by President George W. Bush, who flatly declared that there was extensive Saudi involvement in supporting the hijackers. Of the 19 perpetrators, 15 were Saudi citizens, most of them having recently arrived in the United States when they seized control of four jetliners on September 11, 2001.
Former Navy Secretary John Lehman, a Republican, told the newspaper: “There was an awful lot of participation by Saudi individuals in supporting the hijackers, and some of those people worked in the Saudi government.” While only one Saudi consular official in Los Angeles, Fahad al-Thumairy, was implicated in supporting the hijackers, according to the official account, Lehman believes that at least five officials were involved.
Al-Thumairy was linked to the two hijackers who lived in San Diego before the 9/11 attacks, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, but he was deported rather than charged with a crime. The other five, whom Lehman did not name, “may not have been indicted, but they were certainly implicated. There was an awful lot of circumstantial evidence.”
Another former 9/11 commissioner, who spoke to the Guardian without direct attribution, recounted what the newspaper called “a mostly unknown chapter of the history of the 9/11 commission: behind closed doors, members of the panel’s staff fiercely protested the way the material about the Saudis was presented in the final report, saying it underplayed or ignored evidence that Saudi officials—especially at lower levels of the government—were part of an al-Qaida support network that had been tasked to assist the hijackers after they arrived in the US.”
The 9/11 Commission director, Philip Zelikow, who later served in the Bush administration as senior counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, fired one staffer who protested over the suppression of the Saudi ties to 9/11 after she obtained a copy of the suppressed 28 pages of the joint congressional committee report. Zelikow and the commission members overruled staff protests on the soft-pedaling of the Saudi connection.
These press reports confirm what the World Socialist Web Site has long maintained: the official 9/11 investigations were a series of whitewashes aimed at concealing the role of the Saudi government and US intelligence agencies during the period leading up to the terrorist attacks.
There has long been evidence that sections of the US government were aware of the plot to hijack and suicide-crash airliners, but turned a blind eye because such an atrocity could be used to stampede American public opinion and provide a pretext for escalating US military interventions throughout the Middle East and Central Asia.
Bush Family Mourns Passing of Patriarch and 41st POTUS George H.W. Bush
2:58
The Bush family mourned the loss of their family patriarch, former President George Herbert Walker Bush, in a series of statements released following the passing of the 41st commander-in-chief on Friday.
Former President George W. Bush:
Statement by President George W. Bush on the death of his father, President George H.W. Bush bushcenter.org/about-the-cent…
“Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died,” President George W. Bush said in a statement. “George H. W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens.”
Former Flordia Gov. Jeb Bush:
I already miss the greatest human being that I will ever know. Love you Dad!
Jeb Bush Jr.:
Nothing gave my Gampy more joy than service to others, especially supporting and caring for those who risk making the ultimate sacrifice everyday. His leadership taught us to be kinder and gentler, to love each other. We will miss him dearly.
“Nothing gave my Gampy more joy than service to others, especially supporting and caring for those who risk making the ultimate sacrifice everyday,” Jeb Bush, Jr., tweeted. “His leadership taught us to be kinder and gentler, to love each other. We will miss him dearly.”
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush:
“My grandfather was the greatest man I ever knew,” Bush wrote in a statement shared to Twitter. “His life spanned the American Century—he fought in World War II … took part in the Texas oil boom … served out a distinguished career in public service including serving as president during the final days of the Cold War.
“My grandfather was the greatest man I ever knew,” Bush wrote in a statement shared to Twitter. “His life spanned the American Century—he fought in World War II … took part in the Texas oil boom … served out a distinguished career in public service including serving as president during the final days of the Cold War.
“Along the way, he married the love of his life and was a father to six, including a president and two governors. But to me, he will always be Gampy,” Bush continued. “The man who taught me to fish in Maine, to throw a horseshoe and to swing a baseball bat lefty.
“He was more than a great man; he was a good man. His courage was matched by his compassion; and his dedication to country was equaled only by his devotion to his family. Gampy, we love you and we will miss you. But we will never forget you,” he concluded.
Along the way, he married the love of his life and was a father to six, including a president and two governors. But to me, he will always be Gampy. The man who taught me to fish in Maine, to throw a horseshoe and to swing a baseball bat lefty. pic.twitter.com/5QpiwbHN5I
Along the way, he married the love of his life and was a father to six, including a president and two governors. But to me, he will always be Gampy. The man who taught me to fish in Maine, to throw a horseshoe and to swing a baseball bat lefty.
He was more than a great man; he was a good man. His courage was matched by his compassion; and his dedication to country was equaled only by his devotion to his family. Gampy, we love you and we will miss you. But we will never forget you. pic.twitter.com/n7uFwO6xxw
Former President George H.W. Bush passed away at the age of 94.
Family spokesman Jim McGrath announced Bush died shortly after 10:00 p.m. this evening, nearly eight months after the death of his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush.
The nation’s 41st president served from 1989 to 1993, and eight years later watched his son George W. became the 43rd president.
The elder Bush saw his popularity swell with the United States’ success in the Gulf War in 1991, only to watch it evaporate in a brief but deep recession. The Republican was defeated in his bid for a second term by Democrat Bill Clinton.
Bush had also been a World War II hero, Texas congressman, CIA director, and Ronald Reagan’s vice president.
Only one other U.S. president, John Adams, had a son who also became president.
The Associated Press contributed to his report.
Images
of 9/11: A Visual Remembrance
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/09/11/images-911-visual-remembrance/
Getty/AP
The whole world experienced the attacks of September 11, 2001, in real
time. Videos, photos, and audio captured the horror wreaked that day by Islamic
jihadists and the heroism of ordinary Americans. In our effort to never
forget, Breitbart News provides you a visual remembrance of that fateful
day when the world changed.
Images
of 9/11: A Visual Remembrance
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/09/11/images-911-visual-remembrance/
11 Sep 20184,056
The whole world experienced the attacks of September 11, 2001, in real
time. Videos, photos, and audio captured the horror wreaked that day by Islamic
jihadists and the heroism of ordinary Americans. In our effort to never
forget, Breitbart News provides you a visual remembrance of that fateful
day when the world changed.
Just
six days before — the view of the New York skyline with the World Trade Center
at sunset taken on September 5, 2001. (Jamie Squire /Allsport)
The Islamic hijackers on
American Airlines Flight 11 crash it into the north tower of the World Trade
Center (1 WTC) at 8:46am.
The first five minutes of
cable coverage.
United
Airlines Flight 175 approaches the World Trade Center. (AP Photo/ William
Kratzke)
At
9:03am, the Islamic hijackers of United Airlines Flight 175 crash it into
the south tower of the World Trade Center (2 WTC). (AP Photo/Carmen
Taylor/File)
A
fireball explodes from the south tower. (AP Photo/Carmen Taylor)
Smoke
billows from the north tower of the World Trade Center and flames and
debris explode from the south tower. (AP Photo/Chao Soi Cheong)
(AP
Photo/Todd Hollis)
(AP
Photo/ABC via APTN)
Plumes
of smoke pour from the World Trade Center buildings. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
President
Bush’s Chief of Staff Andy Card whispers into his ear: “A second plane has
hit the second tower. America is under attack.” Bush was visiting Emma E.
Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
(AP Photo/Doug Mills)
(Photo
by Fabina Sbina/ Hugh Zareasky/Getty Images)
(Photo
by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Debris
fall from one of the burning twin towers (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Smoke
pours from the World Trade Center after both planes strike. (Photo by Robert
Giroux/Getty Images)
People
watching the burning towers from the street below. (Getty Images)
People
hang out of broken windows of the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Richard Pecorella has spent years searching for an image he says will bring him
peace: a photograph that proves his fiancee, whom he believes could be in this
photo, jumped to her death from the burning World Trade Center. (AP Photo/Amy
Sancetta)
A
man leaps to his death from a fire and smoke filled Tower One of the World
Trade Center. (Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
A
person jumps from smoke and flames at the World Trade Center. (Robert
Giroux/Getty Images)
People
in front of New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral react with horror as they look
down Fifth Ave towards the World Trade Center towers. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler)
A
man jumps from the north tower. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A person falls headfirst from
the north tower. This image inspired a documentary. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A
woman cries watching the World Trade Center go up in flames. (Photo by
Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
At
9:37am, the Islamic hijackers on American Airlines Flight 77 crashed it into
the Pentagon. In this photo, a helicopter flies over the Pentagon the
crash site. (AP Photo/Heesoon Yim)
A
helicopter flies over the burning Pentagon. The Washington Monument can be seen
at right, through the smoke. The White House roof is visible in the trees of
Washington at left. (AP Photo/Tom Horan)
Vehicles
are seen traveling on Interstate 395, leaving Washington, in front of the
Pentagon. (AP Photo/Tom Horan)
Rescue
workers look over damage at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Kamneko Pajic)
At
9:45am, the FAA ordered the United States airspace shut down. No civilian
flight was allowed to take off and all aircraft in the air were ordered to
land at the nearest airport. In this photo a screen at the American Airlines
terminal at Los Angeles International Airport shows that all flights have been
canceled as the airport is shutdown. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
A
board at the Los Angeles Airport announces the closing of the airport. (GERARD
BURKHART/AFP/Getty Images)
At
9:58am, the south tower of the World Trade Center begins to collapse. (AP
Photo/Gulnara Samoilova)
The
south tower collapsing. The Millenium Hilton hotel is in foreground. (AP
Photo/Amy Sancetta)
The
south tower collapses. (AP Photo/Jim Collins)
(Photo
by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
(AP
Photo/Richard Drew)
The
south tower collapses. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
People
flee the falling south tower. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
At
10:03am, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field in Shanksville,
Pennsylvania. In this photo, officials examine the crater at the crash site.
Were it not for the heroism of the passengers who stormed the cockpit, the
Islamic hijackers would have crashed the plane into either the United
States Capitol dome or the White House. (DAVID MAXWELL/AFP/Getty Images)
This
photo of the north tower of the World Trade Center shows the building 30
seconds before its collapse at 10:28am. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
People
run from the collapse of one of the twin towers. (AP Photo/FILE/Suzanne
Plunkett)
This
is a view of the Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn after the World Trade Center
towers collapsed. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Smoke
rises from the New York skyline. (JOHN MOTTERN/AFP/Getty Images)
(AP
Photo/Louis Lanzano)
(Photo
by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Flags
fly at half-staff at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J. as a large
cloud of smoke billows from the fire at the World Trade Center. (AP
Photo/Daniel Hulshizer)
Thick
smoke billows into the sky from the area behind the Statue of Liberty where the
World Trade Center towers stood. (AP Photo/Daniel Hulshizer)
The
Statue of Liberty stands as smoke rises from the World Trade Center. (AP
Photo/Stuart Ramson)
The
remains of the World Trade Center stands amid the debris. (AP Photo/Alexandre
Fuchs)
People
run from the debris of the collapsed towers. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett)
Pedestrians
on Beekman St. flee the area of the collapsed World Trade Center. (AP Photo/Amy
Sancetta,FILE)
Survivors
make their way through smoke, dust and debris on Fulton St., about a block from
the collapsed towers. (AP Photo/Gulnara Samoilova,FILE)
Marcy
Borders covered in dust as she takes refuge in an office building after one of
the World Trade Center towers collapsed in New York. Borders was caught outside
on the street as the cloud of smoke and dust enveloped the area. (STAN
HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)
A
police officer helps a woman to a bus after she fled the area near the World
Trade Center towers. (STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)
People
flee the collapsing World Trade Center. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Dust
swirls around south Manhattan moments after a tower of the World Trade Center
collapsed. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Police
escort a civilian from the scene. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
People
walk in the street in the area where the World Trade Center buildings
collapsed. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
People
evacuate the area around the World Trade Center. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty
Images)
(Getty
Images)
(Photo
by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
A
car sits on its side amid rubble at the World Trade Center. (Photo by Ron
Agam/Getty Images)
Cars
are covered in rubble after the collapse of one of towers. (DOUG
KANTER/AFP/Getty Images)
The
debris and wreckage. (Getty Images)
A
man walks through the rubble. (DOUG KANTER/AFP/Getty Images)
Edward
Fine covering his mouth as he walks through the debris after the collapse of
one of the World Trade Center Towers. Fine was on the 78th floor of 1 World
Trade Center when it was hit. (STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)
A
man helps evacuate a woman through rubble and debris. (STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty
Images)
An
unidentified New York City firefighter walks away from Ground Zero after the
collapse of the Twin Towers. (Photo by Anthony Correia/Getty Images)
People
cover their faces as they move across the Brooklyn Bridge out of the smoke and
dust in Manhattan. (AP Photo/Daniel Shanken)
People
flee lower Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge. (AP Photo/Daniel Shanken)
Pedestrians
crossing the Brooklyn Bridge as they flee Manhattan after the collapse of the
south tower. (DOUG KANTER/AFP/Getty Images)
Traffic
in Washington, DC, gets gridlocked, as US government workers are released and
the city is shutdown following the attacks. (TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)
President
Bush watches television as he talks on the phone with New York City Mayor Rudy
Giuliani and New York Gov. George Pataki aboard Air Force One. (AP Photo/Doug
Mills)
President
Bush talks with Chief of Staff Andrew Card aboard Air Force One during a flight
to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Doug Mills)
An
F-16 fighter flies just off the wing of Air Force One on a flight back to
Washington. (DOUG MILLS/AFP/Getty Images)
A
trader outside the London Stock Exchange reads the evening paper with “Terror
war on USA” on the front page. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)
Newspaper
vendor Carlos Mercado sells the “Extra” edition of the Chicago Sun-Times.
(SCOTT OLSON/AFP/Getty Images)
Deputy
U.S. marshal Dominic Guadagnoli helps a women after she was injured in the
attack on the World Trade Center. (AP Photo/Gulnara Samoilova)
A
shell of what was once part of the facade of one of the twin towers rises above
the rubble that remains after both towers collapsed. (AP Photo/Shawn Baldwin)
New
York City firefighters rest during rescue operations at the World Trade Center.
(Ron Agam/Getty Images)
New
York City firefighters’ search and rescue efforts at the World Trade Center.
(Ron Agam/Getty Images)
New
York City firefighters take a rest from rescue operations. (Photo by Ron
Agam/Getty Images)
An
unidentified New York City firefighter walks away from Ground Zero after the
collapse of the Twin Towers. (Anthony Correia/Getty Images)
Rescue
workers make their way through the rubble of the World Trade Center. (DOUG
KANTER/AFP/Getty Images)
An
exhausted police officer rests on a car covered in dust near the World Trade
Center. (STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)
Late
afternoon, smoke rises in the distance before the Long Island and the Throgs
Neck Bridge between the Bronx and Queens, NY, following the destruction of the
Twin Towers (MATT CAMPBELL/AFP/Getty Images)
Smoke
billows from where the World Trade Center Twin Towers once stood, as evening
descends on the City. (Chris Hondros/Getty Images)
Patricia
Petrowitz falls to her knees in prayer in Seattle’s St. James Cathedral during
a prayer service on September 11, 2001. The Cathedral was filled to standing
room only. (Tim Matsui/Getty Images)
Kellog
Metcalf closes his eyes during the prayer service in Seattle’s St. James
Cathedral. (Tim Matsui/Getty Images)
From
front left: Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sen. Trent Lott,
R-Miss., Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., Senate Majority
Leader, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Rep. Richard Gephardt, House
Minority Leader, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and other Congressional members
stand together on the steps of the Capitol to show unity on the evening of
Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, in Washington. They sang “God Bless America.” (AP
Photo/Kenneth Lambert)
President
George W. Bush walks down the steps of Air Force One as he arrives at Andrews
Air Force Base in Maryland. (DOUG MILLS/AFP/Getty Images)
President
Bush addresses the nation from the Oval Office on the evening of September 11.
(AP Photo/Doug Mills)
Volunteers
donate blood at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois, at a blood
donation station set up to help victims of the World Trade Center attack.
Sadly, the donations were largely unnecessary because there were so few
survivors rescued from the collapsed towers. (Tim Boyle/Getty Images)
In
the days that followed, people returned to Ground Zero with photos of their
loved ones, searching for any news of their whereabouts. In this September 13,
2001 photograph, a woman poses with a picture of a missing loved one who was
last seen at the World Trade Center.(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
In
this September 15, 2001 photograph, a woman poses with a picture of a missing
loved one who was last seen at the World Trade Center.(AP Photo/Charlie Krupa)
A
woman is comforted as she holds a picture of a missing loved one who was last
seen at the World Trade Center.(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
(AP
Photo/Kathy Willens)
(AP
Photo/Kathy Willens)
A
woman looks at missing person posters of victims from the World Trade Center
attacks.(AP Photo/Robert Spencer)
During
9/11, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani became America’s mayor. In this
photo, he consoles Anita Deblase, of New York, whose son, James Deblase, 44,
was missing, at the site of the World Trade Center disaster. “He’s at the
bottom of the rubble,” she said. James Deblase worked for Cantor Fitzgerald.
(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Military
and fire personnel get set to unfurl a large American flag on the roof of the
Pentagon, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Firefighters
unfurl an American flag from the roof of the Pentagon Wednesday, Sept. 12,
2001. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
A
makeshift altar, constructed for a worship service, overlooks the the crash
site of United Airlines Flight 93, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2001, in Shanksville, Pa.
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
An
American flag is posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center on Thursday,
Sept. 13, 2001. (AP Photo/Beth A. Keiser)
The
massive clean-up efforts at Ground Zero spanned months. Among the rubble,
a cast iron cross was found rising out of the destruction at the
World Trade Center. The cross fell intact from Tower One into nearby Building
Six on Sept. 11. (AP Photo/Pool)
On
Thursday, Oct. 4, 2001, rescue and construction workers gathered around Father
Brian Jordan, second from left, who blessed the cross of steel beams found
amidst the rubble of the World Trade Center by a laborer two days after the
collapse of the Twin Towers. (AP Photo/Pool, Kathy Willens)
And over the years, the country rebuilt and the memorials arose…
On
July 23, 2011, Father Brian Jordan and former New York City Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani look on during a blessing of the World Trade Center cross before it
was moved into its permanent home at the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City.
(Mario Tama/Getty Images)
On
May 15, 2014, President Barack Obama speaks during the dedication ceremony at
the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty
Images)
On
May 15, 2014, the South reflecting pool is viewed at the Ground Zero memorial
site during the dedication ceremony of the National September 11 Memorial
Museum. The museum spans seven stories, mostly underground, and contains
artifacts from the attack on the World Trade Center Towers on September 11,
2001 that include the 80 ft high tridents, the so-called “Ground Zero Cross,”
the destroyed remains of Company 21’s New York Fire Department Engine as well
as smaller items such as a letter that fell from a hijacked plane and posters
of missing loved ones projected onto the wall of the museum. (Spencer
Platt/Getty Images)
On
May 15, 2014, a rose is placed on a name engraved along the South reflecting
pool at the Ground Zero memorial site during the dedication ceremony. (Spencer
Platt/Getty Images)
On
May 15, 2014, a quote from Virgil fills a wall of the museum prior to the
dedication ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial Museum. (John
Munson-Pool/Getty Images)
On
May 21, 2015, the National 9/11 Flag is displayed for the first time at the
National September 11 Memorial Museum. The flag was recovered nearly destroyed
from Ground Zero and was restored in “stitching ceremonies” held across the
country. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
On
October 29, 2014, One Word Trade Center as seen from the 9/11 Memorial grounds
where the fallen towers once stood. (Diane Bondareff/Invision/AP Images)
On
September 11, 2016, people visit the Pentagon’s 9/11 Memorial Park in
Arlington, Virginia. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
On
September 9, 2018, people attend the dedication stand around the 93-foot tall
Tower of Voices at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania,
where the tower contains 40 wind chimes representing the 40 people that
perished in the crash of Flight 93. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
On
September 10, 2018, this is the Tower of Voices at the Flight 93 National
Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where thousands of victims’ relatives,
survivors, rescuers and others are expected at Tuesday’s September 11
Anniversary ceremony. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump plan
to join an observance there tower honoring victims. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Congress
overrides Obama veto of bill allowing 9/11 lawsuits
By
Tom Carter
30
September 2016
On
Wednesday, the US Congress overturned President Obama’s veto of legislation
that would permit victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks and their families
to sue Saudi Arabia. Declassified documents released this year confirm the
involvement of Saudi intelligence agents in the funding, organization, and
planning of the attacks—facts which were covered up for years by the Bush and
Obama administrations.
The
vote, 97-1 in the Senate and 348-77 in the House of Representatives, represents
the first and only congressional override of Obama’s presidency. Under the US
Constitution, the president’s veto can be overturned only by a two-thirds
majority vote in both houses of Congress.
The
Obama administration and the military and intelligence agencies, backed by
sections of the media, including the New York Times, have vigorously denounced
the legislation. Obama personally, together with Central Intelligence Agency
director John Brennan, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, and Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford among others, have all publicly opposed
the bill.
In a
letter to Congress opposing the legislation, Obama warned that the bill would
“threaten to erode sovereign principles that protect the United States,
including our U.S. Armed Forces and other officials, overseas.”
In a
lead editorial on Wednesday, the New York Times similarly warned that “if the
bill becomes law, other countries could adopt similar legislation defining
their own exemptions to sovereign immunity. Because no country is more engaged
in the world than the United States—with military bases, drone operations,
intelligence missions and training programs—the Obama administration fears that
Americans could be subject to legal actions abroad.”
In
other words, the bill would set a precedent for families of victims of American
aggression abroad—such as the tens of thousands of victims of “targeted
killings” ordered by Obama personally—to file lawsuits against US war criminal
in their own countries’ courts.
Obama
denounced the vote with unusual warmth on Wednesday. “It's an example of why
sometimes you have to do what's hard. And, frankly, I wish Congress here had
done what's hard,” Obama declared. “If you’re perceived as voting against 9/11
families right before an election, not surprisingly, that's a hard vote for
people to take. But it would have been the right thing to do ... And it was,
you know, basically a political vote.”
“Oh,
what a tangled web we weave,” Sir Walter Scott famously wrote, “When first we
practice to deceive!” As the tangled web of lies surrounding the September 11
attacks continue to unravel, one senses that the American ruling class and its
representatives do not see a clear way out of the dilemma.
Openly
torpedoing the legislation is tantamount to an admission of guilt. Indeed, the
Obama administration, the military and intelligence agencies, and theNew York
Times are publicly working to cover up a crime perpetrated by Al Qaeda and its
backers in Saudi Arabia, which in turn is an ally of the United States. The
mere fact that Obama vetoed this bill constitutes an admission that the US
government is hiding something with respect to the September 11 attacks.
The
alternative, from the standpoint of the American ruling class, is also fraught
with risks. Court proceedings initiated by the families of September 11 victims
will inevitably expose the role played by the Saudi monarchy, an ally of both
Al Qaeda and the United States, in the September 11 attacks. This, in turn,
will highlight long and sordid history of American support for Islamic
fundamentalism in the
Middle
East, which continues to the present day in Syria and Libya.
Perhaps
most dangerously of all, a full public accounting of the roles of Saudi
intelligence agents in the September 11 attacks will once again raise
questions about the role of the American state in the attacks. Why did US
intelligence
agencies
ignore the activities of Saudi agents before the attacks, based on Saudi
Arabia’s supposed status as a US ally?
Why
did the US government deliberately cover up the Saudi connection after the
fact, instead claiming that Afghanistan was a “state sponsor of terrorism” and
that Iraq was developing “weapons of mass destruction?” Why was nobody
prosecuted?
The
New York Times, for its part, simply lied about the evidence of Saudi
complicity. “The legislation is motivated by a belief among the 9/11 families
that Saudi Arabia played a role in the attacks, because 15 of the 19 hijackers,
who were members of Al Qaeda, were Saudis,” the editors wrote. “But the
independent American commission that investigated the attacks found no evidence
that the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials financed the terrorists.”
In
fact, at least two of the hijackers received aid from Omar al-Bayoumi, who was
identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Saudi intelligence agent
with “ties to terrorist elements.” Some of the hijackers were paid for work in fictitious
jobs from companies affiliated with the Saudi Defense Ministry, with which
Al-Bayoumi was in close contact. The night before the attacks, three of the
hijackers stayed at the same hotel as Saleh al-Hussayen, a prominent Saudi
government official.
These
and other facts were confirmed by the infamous 28-page suppressed chapter of
the 2002 report issued by the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community
Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001. After
14 years of stalling, the document was finally released to the public this
summer.
Yet
the New York Times continues to describe the Saudi monarchy, the principal
financier and sponsor of Islamic fundamentalist groups throughout the world, as
“a partner in combating terrorism.”
The
Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, passed Wednesday, is a direct
reaction to these revelations of Saudi complicity in the September 11 attacks,
under pressure from organizations of survivors and families of victims. The law
amends the federal judicial code to allow US courts “to hear cases involving
claims against a foreign state for injuries, death, or damages that occur
inside the United States as a result of. .. an act of terrorism, committed
anywhere by a foreign state or official.”
Although
the bill nowhere names Saudi Arabia, the Saudi government has threatened
massive retaliation, including by moving $750 billion in assets out of
the country before they can be seized in American legal proceedings.
This reaction alone confirms the monarchy’s guilt.
During
Wednesday’s session, many of the statements on the floor of the Senate were
nervous and apprehensive. Casting his vote in favor of the bill, Republican
Senator Bob Corker declared, “I have tremendous concerns about the sovereign
immunity procedures that would be set in place by the countries as a result of
this vote.” More than one legislator noted that if the bill had unintended
consequences, it would be modified or repealed.
The
anxious comments of legislators and the crisscrossing denunciations within the
ruling elite reflect the significance of this controversy for the entire
American political establishment. For 15 years, the American population has
been relentlessly told that the events of September 11, 2001 “changed
everything,” warranting the elimination of democratic rights, the
militarization of the police, renditions, torture, assassinations, totalitarian
levels of spying, death and destruction across the Middle East, and trillions
of dollars of expenditures.
The
collapse of the official version of that day’s events shows that American
politics for 15 years has been based on a lie.
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