UNWANTED GIFTS

the "gift" that keeps on giving
Sunday, June 14


September 11, 2001; the "gift" that keeps on giving. It first gave us the Patriot Act, then torture scenarios to concoct evidence for the occupation of Iraq, followed by warrant-less spying and wiretapping, leading to a perverse account of the day's events via a compromised 9/11 Commission, and continues to this day with the maintenance of a host of rules/regulations/requirements to constantly instill in us the fear of an impending attack which never seems to materialize.
As we approach the eighth anniversary, the unceasing drumbeat of 9/11 reminders are used to justify policies that have no logical or rational justification other than to further the interests of a favored few. In a recent speech to the American Enterprise Institute, former Vice-President Cheney mentions "September 11" 20 times. (Is he trying to position himself if called to answer charges that he ordered torture?)

Speaking in Cairo, President Obama is dismayed that there are still those who would question the official conspiracy story about 9/11. (Is he trying to justify the continued, expanding and questionable occupation of Afghanistan?) Given the above scenario it is with dismay that I read Alan Chartock's I, Publius column of June 6. He uses the classic straw man argument (misrepresenting an opposing view) to demean anyone who has serious questions about the official narratives of 9/11. He interviewed, he claims but never names, one of the most
important exponents of the theory that the government wired the World Trade Center with explosives.

What Mr. Chartock perhaps fails to understand is that what happened after 9/11 may in fact be connected and integral to what happened on 9/11. I don't understand his reticence to at least consider this possibility, especially in light of his unvarying, and correct, leit motif that the Bush administration constantly lied to the American public.

I've spent seven years examining the various conspiracy theories, both official and unofficial, about what happened on that day. Yes, there are whackos out there (space beams, nuclear devices, no planes but holograms, alien mind control) but they are being superseded by serious researchers and research. Some have discovered the presence of active thermitic materials (government-grade high explosives) in dust samples from the WTC site. Visit Journal Of911Studies.com to read a peer-reviewed and published paper on this topic. Go to AE911Truth.org where some 700 licensed architects and engineers question the official explanation of how the three towers collapsed (only two hit by planes). PilotsFor911 Truth.org are aviation professionals who reject the 9/11 Commission's narrative of events. And that's only a start.

Why is it so important, even after eight years, that we ascertain what happened on that day? If 9/11 is the linchpin of the government's national security strategic planning, and a very useful talisman to justify the otherwise unjustifiable, then maybe, just maybe, the "gift" was self-given.

DECADES OF PRE-PLANNING IS WHERE THE TRAIL TAKES US !