Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Who’s lying about 9/11? Commentary on Jon Gold’s new book – by Erik Larson

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In the aftermath of 9/11, those in power who failed to protect the US and defend the Constitution before 9/11 used the attacks as a pretext for suppressing rights and launching wars – and they still do. Those doing so have received public support, and increased authority and budgets from the Executive branch and Congress. Whistleblowers and witnesses pointing to false statements and other wrongdoing were silenced and punished, and still are. There were limited IG and congressional inquiries, and then the 9/11 Commission. All of the Commission’s members and half its staff had political, professional, personal and/or economic conflicts of interest. Its investigation and final report ignored or spun important evidence and witnesses, as well as the vast majority of the questions posed by the Family Steering Committee. Without the efforts by 9/11 families, there may not even have been the 9/11 Commission. A new book by by researcher and activist Jon Gold documents and examines all of this: We Were Lied to About 9/11: The Interviews.
Polls have found majorities of Americans believe US officials had warnings prior to 9/11 and ignored them. The 9/11 Commission documented ignored warnings, but it did not hold any individuals responsible in the US government that had been in a position to disrupt the plot. Instead, the Commission concluded, “We believe the 9/11 attacks revealed four kinds of failures: in imagination, policy, capabilities, and management.” [339]
Many Americans may believe the pattern of ignored warning signs and missed opportunities by key people in key agencies and offices may have been due to incompetence or laziness. Many may accept the Commission’s report as a harmless whitewash in the context of the larger issue of a ‘need’ to ‘win the war on terror’, or at least maintain ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’. Many Americans don’t know who’s currently President. Polls have found a third of Americans believe pre-9/11 warnings were ignored to justify and fund the permanent global war on terror and domestic surveillance state. That is how 9/11 has been used by Establishment media and politicians since 2001.
There are a large number of personal and expert critics of the 9/11 Commission and the Establishment’s general narrative about 9/11. Jon Gold, friend and fellow 9/11 researcher and activist, has assembled a thousand-page book from transcripts of over 30 of his podcast shows, “We Were Lied to About 9/11.” There are 30 different interview guests, including myself http://wewereliedtoabout911.com, and Jon, also an expert on 9/11 issues.
Jon Gold has been an activist for 9/11 truth and justice from the early days following the attacks. He monitored and documented the work of the 2002 Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry, the 2003-4 9/11 Commission, and the other government and media investigations. Since that time, he has worked alone and with others, online and in person, to raise awareness and get action on issues. His work has informed tens of thousands and inspired many to take action, while disturbing others in government and media who would prefer to let sleeping dogs lie about 9/11. Even after becoming partially paralyzed in 2013 he’s continued to fight for truth and justice, for the victims of 9/11, their loved ones, and all Americans and people of the world.
You will not find crazy ‘conspiracy theorists’ listed in the Table of Contents. You will find credible voices, people who are concerned about truth and justice, about our country and our Constitution. Government whistleblowers whose testimony contradicts the official narrative, like former FBI Agent Coleen Rowley, former NSA senior executive Thomas Drake, and former State Dept officer J. Michael Springman, who was head of the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia consular office. Outspoken family members of 9/11 victims, such as Lorie Van Auken and Bob McIlvaine, who watch-dogged the Commission and the Bush Administration. Researchers who documented and analyzed important evidence and exposed falsity in the official narratives, including Paul Thompson, Nafeez Ahmed, Ray Nowosielski and Peter Dale Scott. Jon also secured interviews with mainstream journalists critical of ‘9/11 conspiracy theories’ – Jonathan Kay, and Phil Shenon, whose own work also challenges the official narrative in some ways. Even former US Senator Bob Graham appears – the co-chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry, who has said the JICI received evidence of Saudi Arabia responsibility for the attacks that was censored in its report and ignored by the Commission.
Jon interviewed me primarily about my work scanning and uploading the 9/11 Commission’s records at http://www.scribd.com/911DocumentArchive and 911datasets.org. I began this work shortly after the first portion of records wasreleased in 2009. Over 8000 files have been uploaded, some of which contain dozens or even hundreds of pages. These records have been analyzed and used as sources by many 9/11 researchers, including my HistoryCommons.org colleague Kevin Fenton, who blogged these: https://hcgroups.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/911-commission-documents-masterlist/
Significant discoveries include: Documentation of military exercises surrounding and intersecting the 9/11 events which were ignored in the Commission’s report. Documentation of many, many records yet to be disclosed, including an NSA retrospective on the attacks, as well as evidence of destroyed or ‘lost’ records. Documentation of interference in staff investigations by agency minders. Battles with agencies and the White House over access to documents. The name ‘Rich Blee‘; the chief of Alec Station (CIA Bin Laden unit), the man behind numerous pre-9/11 intelligence failures, in addition to being involved in Bin Laden’s escape at Tora Bora, and the Bush Administration’s rendition-to-torture program.
The 9/11 Commission had access to about 2.5 million pages, as well as audio, video, photographic and electronic data evidence. However, an unknown number of records were destroyed or withheld or ‘missing’. The Commission did not receive physical copies of many important agency records, and in some cases staff members were not even allowed to make notes about records they reviewed.
In the 2009 initial release, and at the time of my interview in 2014, about 2/3 of the Commission’s records still had not been processed for release by the National Archives, and they were only processing additional records on request. As the public has limited information about what records the Commission has, this makes requesting records difficult. And in 2018 the snail’s pace of release continues.
The third that had been processed were mostly Commission records; not the more primary, underlying agency records. And of the processed records, tens of thousands of pages were withdrawn; the records had been processed by the Archives, but not released to the public due to restrictions such as classification or privacy. With the Withdrawal Notice acknowledgement of a specific record’s existence, it’s possible to request release under FOIA, or Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR), if classified. I’ve submitted many records requests; many of these have been pending for years.
The public has far too little of the most important information about 9/11, that would shed light on critical questions such as, ‘What happened and who’s responsible?’ and, ‘How do we prevent future attacks from succeeding?’ For truth, justice and the sake of our Republic and Constitution, I support disclosure and accountability, and independent media and political candidates. I would support a 9/11 Truth & Reconciliation Commission. The failure of the US government and mainstream media to honestly investigate and report on 9/11 indicates a need for systemic change, as do the many other failings of the corporate-political Establishment.
This latest book Jon has put together (also see his first book, “9/11 Truther: The Fight for Peace, Justice and Accountability”) is an impressive compendium of informative perspectives revealing many, many fatal flaws in the official 9/11 story, and pointing to many specific individuals who should be investigated and held accountable for their actions. Individually, what we have to say is compelling grounds for a new, complete investigation into 9/11, as well as into many other related issues. Collectively, this book loudly screams for turning the US government upside down and shining a light into it.
Jon’s new book is an overwhelming tome of disturbing 9/11 info, but it’s important, free, online and downloadable, searchable and has useful navigation links. It’s a book made from interview transcripts, so there aren’t the sources for factual statements that concerned citizens might like to verify. However, Jon has helpfully included an appendix with links to supporting research for each chapter. Americans would do well to take heed. If not, some future AI will likely find it and put two and two together – along with the wealth of other credible information online on 9/11 that proves the official story is false. God, help us.
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