Monday, September 27, 2010

What do these guys know about 9/11 that you don't?

Obama has 'retribution' plan in event of a 9/11-like strike on US

Bob Woodward, in his book "Obama's War," writes that the United States has a secret "retribution" plan to bomb every known al-Qaida compound or training camp in the event of another 9/11-like attack on American soil by terrorists based in Pakistan.

Ahmadinejad stands by 9/11 probe call

Speaking before a gathering in Abadan, Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated his call for an independent fact-finding committee to investigate the 9/11 attacks.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

9/11: Analyzing Media Analysts

Given that 220 senior military, intelligence, law enforcement, and government personnel, 1200 architects and engineers, 250 pilots and aviation personnel, 400 professors, 300 survivors of 9/11 do not believe the official account of what happened on September 11, 2001, I wanted to know what news media analysts had to say about the absence of any serious investigation of this issue by major news media.

On the weekend of of the 9th anniversary of 9/11, I was invited to New York by I.N.N. World Report to co-moderate with Ryme Katkhouda a panel discussion on Islamophobia -- one of eight panel discussions at the symposium on "How The World Changed After 9/11". Ryme asked me to also attend another panel, "The 4th Estate Fails In Its Duty And The Birth Of Alternative Media", which I did, and couldn't help but end up analyzing the media analysts.

It has often been said "The first casualty of war is truth". What about truth in the never ending war on terror? The first panel, chaired by Priya Reddy -- an on air news anchor, documentary filmmaker, radio producer, and a print journalist -- was asked to look at modern reporting, military censorship, taboos, and techniques often used by media to hide the truth. The panel was asked to explore the birth of the citizen journalist movement, open publishing, and alternative broadcasting.

The panel was made up of Robin Andersen -- Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordam University, Danny Schecter -- author, filmmaker and commentator on economic issues, Lynn Landes -- publisher of The Landes Report and Ecotalk.org, and Christina Borjesson -- award winning journalist and author of "Into the Buzzsaw, Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press".

While I learned from these experts, I also found myself disagreeing with them on a few issues. A brief commentary follows:

"I'm also a media critic," said Robin Andersen. She talked about the the non-existent weapons of mass destruction, and the "brutal images from Abu Ghraib". However, she did not call the Iraq war a crime.

Former Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, chief U.S. prosecutor at the first Nuremberg trial, called waging aggressive war "the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole", according to Benjamin B. Ferencz, Chief Prosecutor for the United States Army at one of the twelve military trials held by the U.S. authorities at Nuremberg, Germany.

Ms. Andersen also did not talk about U.S. reparations for its invasion of Iraq. Recall that Iraq was forced to pay reparations for its invasion of Kuwait -- a former province of Iraq.

Danny Schecter spoke about the sinking of the USS Maine on February 15, 1898 which helped precipitate the Spanish-American War. He praised the National Geographic which in its dedication to the truth sent a submarine to get the facts, and found that it was an explosion in the boiler room that caused the sinking.

The National Geographic, in the matter of 9/11, has not shown the dedication to fact-finding that it did in the sinking of the USS Maine. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Nat Geo has supported the official version of 9/11 by airing documentaries such as "Inside 9/11" and "9/11: Science and Conspiracies".

Mr. Schecter went on to say that the collapse of World Trade Center 7 (which is not even mentioned in "The 9/11 Commission Report", and which hundreds of scientists and engineers claim was an "inside job" using highly sophisticated explosives) "was not important unless we can connect it to something that's happening today."

I didn't quite understand Schecter's reasoning. Aren't the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and the "war on terror" happening today? Aren't they connected to 9/11?

Lynn Landes spoke of the tampering of voting machines to which the news media pays insufficient attention. It has turned off many voters, including Ms. Landes, and resulted in a "shadow government" running the U.S.

Christina Borjesson said she "agree[d] with Danny Schechter that looking into [World Trade Center] building 7 doesn't matter." Doesn't matter Ms. Borjesson?

The fatally flawed account of 9/11 has led to the deaths of uncounted Afghans and more than one million Iraqi's, the devastation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the killing of more that 4400 American soldiers, millions more have been wounded and/or made refugees. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard economist Linda Bilmes have estimated the Iraq war will eventually cost between $4 and $5 trillion -- that's over $13,000 for every U.S. citizen, and the costs continue to increase as the wars go on.

Ms. Borjesson added, "I know less about 9/11 today than I knew on 9/11." She said that she's been trying to get funds to "bring together journalists and 9/11 experts" to investigate what happend on 9/11. In a somewhat contradictory statement given her position on World Trade Center building 7, Ms. Borjesson said, "9/11 is the seminal event".

During the question and answer period, I asked Ms. Borjesson, "What can I do to help?" I did not get a response to my question.

When the program ended, I gave a copy of "9/11 Unveiled" to the four panel members and the moderator.


Enver Masud
Founder, The Wisdom Fund

Friday, September 24, 2010

Iran's President Ahmadinejad applauded at UN

Iran's President Ahmadinejad "was greeted by applause when he walked into the United Nations General Assembly, and applauded again, even after questioning 9/11 and claiming that the American government may have been behind the attack", according to Fox News.

The Iranian President called for a U.N. fact finding group to investigate 9/11. Hundreds of US scientists, engineers, architects, military and intelligence personnel have been calling for an investigation for a couple of years.

A transcript of President Ahmadinejad's speech is available at http://gadebate.un.org/Portals/1/statements/634208557381562500IR_en.pdf. A video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4phNuwx8Hs&feature=player_embedded.

Enver Masud, founder of The Wisdom Fund, presented his book "9/11 Unveiled" to President Ahmadinejad at a dinner for Muslim leaders in New York on September 20, 2010.

"9/11 Unveiled" and a flyer titled "Muslims Didn't Do It" was mailed to Janet Napolitano, Secretary Department of Homeland Security, today.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

'9/11 Unveiled' presented to President Ahmadinejad

Yesterday in New York, Mr. Enver Masud, founder of The Wisdom Fund, presented his book "9/11 Unveiled" to Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The occasion was a private dinner at the Warwick hotel in New York City hosted by Mohammad Khazaee, the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations.

Approximately 50 Muslim leaders, including Minister Farrakhan and representatives of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim American Society (MAS), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Truth & Justice Foundation attended.

Following dinner, President Ahmadinejad met with guests and invited questions and comments. He responded to each of them.

In his response to Mr. Masud's statement that the official account of 9/11 is false, President Ahmadinejad stated that he would read Mr. Masud's book "9/11 Unveiled".

"9/11 Unveiled" was mailed to President Obama and Attorney General Holder on March 24, 2009, and has since been presented to several US government officials.

"9/11 Unveiled" is available free at The Wisdom Fund.

President Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Disinformation: Noman Benotman's 'open letter to Osama bin Laden'

Who is Noman Benotman, and should we trust him?

The Quilliam Foundation claims that it is "a think tank." You would think that their website would have some thoughtful articles by Mr. Benotman. Yet we couldn't find a single article by Mr. Benotman at their website

According to his employer: "Noman Benotman has been appointed as Senior Analyst (Strategic Communications) at Quilliam. He is leading Quilliam’s work on de-radicalisation processes in the UK and abroad, working to raise international awareness of Jihadist recantations, co-ordinating Quilliam’s outreach to current and former extremists and using Quilliam as a platform from which to share his inside knowledge of al-Qaeda and other Jihadist groups with a wider audience."

As a Senior Analyst, surely Mr. Benotman is familiar with the work of Prof. David Ray Griffin.

Prof. Griffin, in a thoroughly researched article, claims, "Osama bin Laden has been dead for many years", and "that there is not even any good evidence for the claim that bin Laden was responsible for the 9/11 attacks."

Indeed, the evidence against Bin Laden, promised by Secretary of State Colin Powell on September 23, 2001, has yet to be made available to the public, and the FBI states that it has "no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11".

Noman Benotman's "open letter to Osama bin Laden" is disinformation. It is intended to keep alive the myth that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks of September 11, 2001, and to permit the US to claim victory by staging the death of Osama bin Laden.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

A comment on Eid — Muslims' day of celebration

Muslims are toning down Eid festivities in honor of September 11 writes Tara Bahrampour in the Washington Post. We agree. Eid observances should recognize that Muslims' day of celebration happens to coincide with a tragic day for Americans — Muslims included. But with the news media focused on 9/11, Muslims should use this opportunity to respectfully combat the Islamophobia that is raging across parts of the United States and Europe.

The facts speak for themselves. The 9/11 Commission Report is fatally flawed.

Just minutes after the alleged attack, standing in front of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Jamie McIntyre, CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent since November 1992, reported: "From my close up inspection there's no evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon. . . . . The only pieces left that you can see are small enough that you could pick up in your hand. There are no large tail sections, wing sections, fuselage — nothing like that anywhere around which would indicate that the entire plane crashed into the side of the Pentagon."

At the September 12, 2001, Dept. of Defense (DoD) News Briefing by Assistant Secretary of Defense, Victoria Clarke, Ed Plaugher (fire chief of Arlington County), and others, "American Airlines", "Flight 77", "Boeing 757" were not even mentioned. Reporters on the scene were denied access, "handcuffed and dragged away".

In a front page article on September 12, 2001 -- On Flight 77: 'Our Plane Is Being Hijacked' — Marc Fisher and Don Phillips of the Washington Post reported that Barbara K. Olson called her husband twice in the final minutes before the crash of Flight 77. FBI exhibit P200054 from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui contradicts the Solicitor General's account. It shows that Barbara Olson made only one phone call — it did not connect, and it lasted for 0 seconds.

The FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists" web page does not state that Bin Laden is wanted for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on the FBI's web page, Rex Tomb, the FBI's Chief of Investigative Publicity, is reported to have said, "The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11."

It’s past time that Muslims joined with the millions of Americans working to expose the false account of that tragic day in September 2001. Instead of being on the defensive, Muslims should be asking the news media and Congress why it’s not investigating 9/11.


Enver Masud
Founder, The Wisdom Fund

9/11: Nine years on...

The Independent (UK) states: "Deena Burnett remembers the call from her husband on Flight 93."

In the trial of Zacarias Moussavi (the alleged 20th hijacker) FBI exhibits show that the US Solicitor General apparently lied about receiving phone calls from his wife Barbara Olson on board Flight 77.

In 2001 cell phone calls were "essentially impossible" and "American Airlines 757s [did] not have onboard phones for passenger use." Only two cell phone calls were made from the aircraft involved in 9/11.

In fact the US government's own records show that "The 9/11 Commission Report" is fatally flawed.

Enver Masud
Founder, The Wisdom Fund
TWF.org