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Tuesday, September 11. 2007

Remembering 9-11

The question this morning, as we mark the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 — 9-11 — was what to write about this sad day in history. 2,975 people have died as a result of those attacks, one of those deaths ruled as lung disease as a result of the dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center.

There is of course the legacy of 9-11, or the lack of a cohesive legacy. What has our government done in response? Most notably, the president started a war in Iraq, against a tyrant that had no hand in the attacks whatsoever. We are fighting the Taliban and their Al Qa’ida masters in Afghanistan—after letting the leaders of that terrorist organization escape into Pakistan. Probably the worst legacy of 9-11 is the demise of the Federal Emergency Management Administration and the federal government’s failure to respond to Hurricane Katrina and the collapse of the levees protecting New Orleans.
 As if the levee disaster of New Orleans isn’t enough to boggle one’s mind, the Army Corps of Engineers, the group responsible for the levees, before during and after Hurricane Katrina, rebuilt the levees pretty much as they were before the hurricane and in their report, concluded the levees were no more capable of withstanding the same pressures again if another Hurricane as powerful as Katrina were to strike.
 And, they warn, Katrina wasn’t a direct hit on New Orleans. If that should happen, the results would make the disaster of New Orleans pale in comparison.

When the 9-11 Commission released its report in 2004, most Americans looked at it as a catalyst for change, yet nothing really has changed — well, maybe things have got worse. The Department of Homeland Security was created, bringing with it a huge logistical and bureaucratic horror. FEMA was put under the control of DHS and the first order of business appeared to be gutting the emergency agency’s authority and resources.

The airports are no more safer, certainly the ports aren’t the least bit safer, nuclear and hazardous chemical sites aren’t any safer, but we do have to remove our shoes when we go through airport security!
 One of the more humorous things I’ve heard in regards to “Homeland Security” is this idea that terrorists are crossing the border illegally with all the Hispanics pouring across the border.
 Now, there is no proof this isn’t happening any more than proof it is happening, but Sheriff Rick Flores of Webb County, TX, which includes the city of Laredo, says with absolute authority it is happening; said so on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.

 My first question then, as a reporter, would be, if you know this is happening, what are you doing to investigate the terrorists you have identified? How do you know they are on the watch lists? Of course, Anderson Cooper didn’t ask these questions. In fact, he didn’t question the sheriff’s statements at all. Anderson, you failed as a reporter.
 The truth is, Sheriff Flores has a gut feeling, one that ought not be ignored, that our porous borders are far to easy to beat and terrorists can use that to their advantage.
 The other truth is, no terrorist has ever been caught trying to cross the border “illegally,” in the sense that they would cross over through the desert without going through any checkpoints. The only terrorists ever caught trying to enter our country were trying to enter legally, or at least with documentation. The 2000 bomber nabbed in the state of Washington comes to mind, spotted by an alert border agent. The terrorist was on his way to blow up LAX.

 One other truth about Sheriff Flores and Laredo, TX is that its sister city right across the border in Mexico, Nuevo Laredo, is almost entirely controlled by drug cartels and the violence that takes place daily in that one time fun tourist town has begun seeping over into the United States, most notably Webb County, which is the responsibility of Sheriff Flores. For that reason alone the Border Patrol needs to do a better job of controlling the borders.

One other legacy of 9-11: the conspiracy theories. If you have e-mail or are on MySpace or other social web sites, you’ve no doubt received the messages concerning the “inside job.” Mainly, the United States government orchestrated the attacks. I actually bought into that stuff a few years ago, mainly because scholarly people like professor Steven Jones of Brigham Young University had thunk up a lot of intriguing questions — and their answers — in scholarly papers which were then published.

He also became a member of the group, Scholars for 9/11 Truth, a group dedicated to proving the three towers of the World Trade Center came down, not because terrorists crashed planes into two of them, but because demolition charges were set in all three. The proof? Professor Jones claims he found traces thermite, used for explosives, in some of the debris tested at BYU shortly after the terrorist attacks.

To my knowledge, none of his colleagues at BYU support his claims and when asked if he had submitted his paper for peer review before publishing it on BYU’s physics web site, Professor Jones pulled his paper off the site. Apparently his paper won’t stand up to rigorous review by his fellow scientists.

Jones isn’t the only one of course, but he’s probably the most notable because of his academic and scientific credentials. No one — NO ONE — has any credible proof the attacks on 9-11 were an “inside job.” What we have is lots of speculation, coupled with some facts about the melting thresholds of glass and steel and some blurry video of people standing in the impact holes in the World Trade Center and some artsy animations created to prove how pre-positioned bombs were used—could have been used—to cause the collapse of the three skyscrapers.

Then there are the theories about United Flight 93 being shot down instead of being intentionally crashed by the hijackers when they could no longer keep the passengers from taking over the plane. No evidence to prove the plane was shot down, just more speculation because body parts were found miles away from the crash site.

Then there is the “evidence” a cruise missile was used to hit the Pentagon, not a jumbo jet. Actually, it isn’t evidence, just more speculation fueled by a former Air Force and airline pilot who claims he, as an experienced pilot, couldn’t fly that jet the way the terrorists did to crash it into the Pentagon. Then there is the grainy, not too conclusive bit of video that shows the jet hitting the Pentagon. That’s what piqued my interest: the plane hitting the Pentagon. No crater in front of the impact zone of the plane, the hole in the side of the building is too small and then that grainy video that doesn’t really prove what hit the building.

Yet, all of this speculation has been refuted by the scientific community and the proponents of the 9-11 Inside Job theory will tell you it’s all part of a massive cover up to keep the “truth” from the American public. In fact, I recently received a message from someone who said our government did it at the bidding of Israel and the Mossad.

That’s probably the greatest travesty to come from these attacks; such blather fills the air instead of the reality of 9-11 six years later: the president and his policies have made us more vulnerable than ever before and we aren’t even talking about that today.

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A list of organizations that have debunked the various 9/11 conspiracy claims.

Popular Mechanics

About.com

About.com

Purdue University

Snopes.com

The list could go on.

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Just a late addendum to this blog: Hunter S. Thompson is one of the greatest — if not the greatest — writer of my generation. He killed himelf a few years ago rather than face the rest of his life with deteriorating health.

In my morning MySpace bulletins was a message from the folks who think 9/11 was an inside job; they also think the government, or the Mossad ... (sigh) ... murdered Thompson and made it look like a suicide. Thompson is famous for his apocalyptic humor and something he wrote lends all the evidence the conspiracy people need to “prove” it wasn’t suicide: “They'll make it look like suicide.” Honestly, I think Ole Hunter was fuckin’ with the people who would take that seriously!