[Flowers Were Thrown At Our Feet ] "Lessons Learned in Iraq" senile?

Lessons Learned in Iraq

Decentralized intelligence. In the continuing conflict, a surprise success is ?Dragon Eyes,? a remotely piloted vehicle that can be carried in a backpack. It looks like a model airplane, with a wingspan of only 1.2 meters and weight of 2.5 kg,. It can be launched with a toss, or with a bungee cord. Dragon Eyes is guided by GPS. It flies quietly at an altitude of 150 meters using a zinc-air battery for power, and can transmit 18 frames per second of visible or infrared video from a range up to 10 km. If spotted by the enemy, it is easily mistaken for a bird.

What makes Dragon Eyes so valuable is that it is easy to use (training takes less than a week), and it provides ?actionable? intelligence ? information needed immediately. Soldiers deploy it when they need to know what lies behind that building, or near that bridge. It?s cost is so low (soon to come down to $50k) that it can be ?owned? at the platoon level. (Generals don?t waste time with things that cheap.) In the next two years, the marines will get 342 of these little marvels.

------------stoopid sez: -------
But skill at psyops is largely a specialty of the Army Special Operation Forces. With the much larger force in Iraq, psyops failed. The average Army soldier has virtually no knowledge of Arabic, and only superficial understanding of local culture. The Marines and the other forces have even less preparation in psyops.

Knowledge of culture goes well beyond not shaking with your left hand, or not showing the bottoms of your feet. For example, if you chase a terrorist into a building, you must knock before entering. Our soldiers now do this. It sounds ludicrous, but if you don?t knock, and as a result you see a woman uncovered (maybe just her face) you could capture your terrorist but create several new ones. A husband or brother or both may feel obliged to take revenge for the insult, to restore family honor, regardless of their political beliefs.
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http://muller.lbl.gov/TRessays/32-Global_Warming_Bombshell.htm
for a smart man he sure knows how to ignore a LOT of relevant data!?

http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/Physics10/Roswell/RoswellIncident.html
'nothing was there'

http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/Physics10/Roswell/NYTimesMogul.html


Back then the Air Force had to protect top-secret information, said Lieut. James McAndrew, an investigator who worked on the report but after 47 years it's good to stop taking a black eye. The Fund for U.F.O. Research Inc., based In Mount Rainler, Md., charges that the Air Force report excludes all the evidence that conflicts with its conclusion, it ignores the many statements from witnesses which describe the unusual strength and light weight of what looked like metal foil and structural beams, the fund said in a statement. Waller G. Haut, president of the International U.F.O. Museum and Research Center, In Roswell, said In an interview that the Air Force was up to its old tricks. It's a bunch of pap, he said of the report. All they have done is giving us a different kind of balloony. Then it was weather, and now it's Mogul. Basically I don't think anything has changed. Excuse my cynicism, but they can't quit playing games.

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http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/Physics10/whale_songs/

http://www.reopen911.org/Tarpley_ch_6.pdf

The Physics of the World Trade Center tragedy

The Physics of the World Trade Center tragedy

Did the terrorists know this would happen. No. This was a new mode for the collapse of a tall building that was completely unanticipated. I can't rule out that some engineer, sometime, didn't write a memo pointing out this failure mode, but it was not well known. If it were, the building would not have had 300 firemen in the building at the time of collapse.

It is the fire that eventually caused the buildings to collapse. It was not the impact of the plane; it was not the explosion.

Will this happen again?

No. A commercial airplane will probably not be used as a weapon in the United States in the foreseeable future. The reason is simple: without the cooperation of the pilot, the attack is very difficult to accomplish. If the pilot keeps the cockpit door locked, the hijacking suddenly becomes much more difficult. Remember, the only weapon the hijacker had was a knife. In the past, this was sufficient: threaten a passenger, and the pilot will do whatever you ask. In the future, no airline pilot will let a hijacker take control of the plane.

-----------------top----------

Terrorism of September 11, 2002

(combined with previous chapter: dropping food without parachuttes, on 3-17-02)
© 2001, 2002, Richard A. Muller

Last Tuesday, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. In the spirit of this course, I'm going to describe what happened with emphasis on understanding the relevant physics. This should give you a somewhat deeper appreciation of the problems involved in countering terrorism, and in finding the solutions.

Choice of flight

The terrorists chose to use the fuel of the airplane as their weapon. They chose transcontinental flights since these flights would have full fuel tanks. The airplanes probably contained 60 tons of fuel each, maybe more. Airplane fuel contains 10x the energy, gram per gram, as TNT. Thus the energy was equivalent to about 600 tons of TNT, more than half a kiloton. However, fuel doesn't explode unless it is well mixed with air. We'll describe what happened in the impact in a later paragraph.

The terrorists chose early-morning flights. This was possibly because, in the U.S., such flights have the best on-time records. The terrorists wanted to have several attacks take place almost simultaneously. Their scheme would work only if the flights left on time.

Terrorists board the airplanes

The planned attack took advantage of basic knowledge of airport security. But this was not a deep knowledge; it was known to almost any technically-competent person.

When you board an airplane, your carry-on luggage is passed through an x-ray machine. It can spot many objects from their shapes, although they don't have good enough resolution to see an object which is camouflaged. I suspect no camouflage was used, because if caught, that would suggest that a terrorist attack was underway, and might alert the security people.
----------------
.../...

Impact

As the airplane entered the World Trade Center building, it was torn apart, and the 60 tons of fuel, stored mostly in the wings, was released. Such fuel is highly explosive when mixed with air, but the mixing is not easy to accomplish. Only part of the fuel exploded. (Technically, it was not an explosion, but a conflagration. That's why the sound was muffled.) Most of the force of the explosion blew out several floors of the World Trade Center. The explosion passed around most of the columns, leaving them in place. (The only columns taken out immediately were probably those hit by the plane directly.) Much of the airplane passed through the building and emerged on the other side. This may be why debris from the airplane (including the passport of one terrorist) was found; it was not trapped in the building itself.

The buildings survived the impact. As you look at the films, note how little the upper parts of the buildings move. The antenna on the North Tower hardly shook. The upper part of the building remained vertical. Even the windows didn't break. Neither the impact, nor the subsequent explosion, destroyed the building.

The Fire and the collapse

The steel columns were covered with insulation, and were designed to maintain their strength for 2 to 3 hours of burning. However, the material that burned was not office furnature and paper documents. The wings, with their fuel load, probably remained in the building, where they provided fuel for the subsequent burning. The fierce burning that took place over the next hour was slowly fed by the fuel leaking out of the remains of the tanks.

At high temperatures, steel will melt. At much lower temperatures, it weakens. The jet fuel created a holocaust far hotter than planned for in the building. When the columns weakened, they became vulnerable to buckling. When buckling takes place, it takes place quickly. When one column buckles, it puts more weight on the others, and they buckle too. The columns for an entire floor (maybe for several floors) buckled at one time. The upper floors then slammed into the lower floors. The impact multiplied the force on these lower floors, and they buckled. The process continued as each lower floor continued to buckle in turn. In a few seconds, the entire building had collapsed.

Did the terrorists know this would happen. No. This was a new mode for the collapse of a tall building that was completely unanticipated. I can't rule out that some engineer, sometime, didn't write a memo pointing out this failure mode, but it was not well known. If it were, the building would not have had 300 firemen in the building at the time of collapse.

It is the fire that eventually caused the buildings to collapse. It was not the impact of the plane; it was not the explosion.
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this is such a farily tale, obfuscating the huge cracks in the 'story' ....
and these "students" are in high school? NO DOUBT there are kids ALL across the USA that learn more Physics than this, WITHOUT getting near an AP class./js
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For physics majors only: In the MKS system, a kilogram is a unit of mass. However, in common usage, we say the "weight" of a kilogram of mass is also a kilogram. Even physics professors do this. In Europe, if you buy a kilogram of potatoes, you get potatoes that have a mass of a kilogram, which weighs 2.2 lb. The force that this kilogram exerts on the table that is holding it is, technically speaking, 9.8 "Newtons".
Where are the student so totally stupid that only a "Physics Major" is expected to carry-through an EIGTH-GRADE ALGEBRA equation. Hello? Are all these folks droupouts? or worse? UC BERKLEY? and they have zero security on the web files? Look, here is the final exam, etc: http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/Physics10/

http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/x7cfolder/7cfinal1997.GIF
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WHAT A MORON

http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/Physics10/old%20physics%2010/pages01/TerrorismOver.html

So here is my scenario. Shortly after the airplane attacks, the terrorists saw that the international police cooperation was occurring much faster than they had expected. Many of their people were being arrested. They decided to launch their second wave immediately. It was designed to be so widespread and devastating that it would completely intimidate the world, and result in great pressure being brought on the US not to attack Afghanistan. Letters to Tom Brokaw and the New York Post were postmarked September 18. On September 21, a petrochemical plant in Toulouse France suffered an explosion that killed 29 people, injured several thousand, and destroyed numerous buildings. A warehouse that contained 300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer is now a 150-foot-wide crater, surrounded by debris. A tie to the U.S. attacks is suspected, but the evidence is all circumstantial. See the New York Times account. Other attacks were planned (e.g. an attack on the US embassy in Paris) but failed because of rapid police action.

But the main assault was going to be anthrax. The lethal dose of anthrax is about one billionth of a gram! One gram could kill a billion people. How devastating would be a single gram placed in an envelope? Everyone in the building would die -- or at least that is what they probably expected. Maybe even the entire area would be contaminated. The first mailings appear to have been directed at newspapers and TV news personalities.
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http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/Physics10/old%20physics%2010/pages01/NatureofWar.html

The US military does not believe that Afghanistan will be a quagmire. They have studied the Russian experience, and will do things differently. They will take out all advanced weapons quickly. Remember, when the Russians were there, they had to face an enemy that was being resupplied by us. Nobody is going to be resupplying the Taliban. The US will have AWACS and other radar, U-2s, and drones constantly surveying the countryside. There are no jungles in Afghanistan.Troops can hide in caves, but they will be seen when they move to a new cave. Small arms will survive, and snipers will be a constant problem. In the past, a few deaths from snipers would have brought the US troops to a standstill. Things are different now. We will take the casualties, and take out the snipers.
============
http://muller.lbl.gov/TRessays/03_Al_Qaeda_Anthrax.htm 4/16/2002

Although the evidence remains circumstantial, most experts continue to believe that the anthrax terrorist was a disgruntled U.S. citizen, working alone, trying to frighten and kill, or perhaps to probe our biological warfare defenses. Much of this theory is based on handwriting analysis of the anthrax letters, along with reports that the anthrax was the American Ames strain, apparently refined for military use. Barbara Rosenberg of the Federation of American Scientists gives an extensive review of the data (see her Analysis of the Anthrax Attacks at the FAS website), and argues that the FBI knows the identity of the perpetrator but is keeping it secret, perhaps to protect classified programs.

.../
f mass anthrax deaths were part of the perpetrators' plan, how did it go so wrong? I suspect that the terrorists were influenced by the misleading technical concept of "lethal dose." Consider the following paradox: Senator Patrick Leahy, after a briefing on the possible contents of the letter sent to him, announced on Meet the Press that it might contain "100,000 lethal doses." Yet only five people died from all the letters. Was Leahy exaggerating? No. He was being conservative. How can we reconcile five with 100,000? Based on primate experiments, the Defense Intelligence Agency estimates that 2,500 to 55,000 spores are enough to trigger fatal pulmonary anthrax infections in half of those exposed (the dose epidemiologists call "LD50"). It is possible that any one spore can trigger the disease, but the probability is low, so many are required, on average. Ninety-four-year-old Ottilie Lundgren, the fifth and last victim, may have been killed by just a few spores. That would explain the absence of detectable anthrax in her home and belongings.

My opinion is in the minority—in fact, the tiny minority. According to the October 27 Washington Post, a senior official said "nobody" believes the anthrax attack was the second wave. "There is no intelligence on it and it does not fit any [al Qaeda] pattern." But whether it fits the al Qaeda pattern depends, in part, on the intended scale of the carnage. It may be a mistake to assume the attack worked out as planned.
=====================

==== ===
flapping lips continues:

http://muller.lbl.gov/TRessays/06_Afraid_of_1984.htm

Orwell's error was remarkably simple: he assumed that only the state would be able to afford high-tech -- an assumption shared by virtually every prophet, science-fiction writer, and futurist. But it has proven to be wrong. As late as the 1970s, the driving force for electronic technology in the U.S. was the military; now the Department of Defense has difficulty getting industry to respond to its needs, since they are dwarfed by the consumer market. The military, whenever possible, now orders commercial off-the-shelf technology rather than “mil spec.” Many of the GPS receivers used in Desert Storm were bought at Radio Shack. Radios have become so inexpensive that Intel is now planning to engrave a miniature one on the corner of every silicon microchip, at no extra cost (see "Radio Ready Chips," TR July/August 2002). Most of us cannot even count the number of computers we own, because we don't know how many are hidden in our microwave ovens and automobiles.

To be sure, technology has introduced problems. Like anything out of control, it does not always lead us where we want to go. It is particularly difficult to predict its long-term effect on the environment. But in a time when technology is frequently under attack, it is worthwhile to notice its role in spreading truth. It was not Stalinism, but the flow of information that proved to be unstoppable.
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http://muller.lbl.gov/TRessays/12_Inspections_as_Expected.htm

terd brain spews:

The United Nations inspectors will not find illegal weapons in Iraq -- at least, not until after the war.

by Richard A. Muller

Technology for Presidents

from Technology Review Online

January 10, 2003
.../...

The U.S. has other information that it has not yet revealed, either to the United Nations or to the public, presumably including the location of suspected clandestine sites. This is what likely gives President Bush his confidence. Despite demands from pundits, he is wise to hold such information close, while the U.N. gathers additional information. When he finally releases U.S. intelligence, the inspectors will go to the suspect sites, and war will likely follow quickly.

A new and important stage in the confrontation began this week, when the U.N. started using six helicopters, three American and three Russian. These allow swift inspections of remote sites, and they will probably be used in the last pre-war inspection. That may not take place until the U.S. is war-ready. This inspection will be directed at a secret site, perhaps an underground facility, perhaps a remote palace, a location that the inspectors previously ignored. We can anticipate that Saddam will not let them in. His rhetoric will be intense. He will claim that the inspectors were trying to humiliate him, and that he had a sovereign right to keep them out. But shortly afterwards the war will begin, very likely with Security Council approval. War can still be averted. The most likely way, one that is being encouraged by the United States, is for Saddam to be overthrown by his own people. The Iraqi military knows it cannot win, and does not want to experience the devastation of another U.S.-led attack. Ironically, Saddam may be inadvertently encouraging a coup through his repeated claims that war with the U.S. is inevitable.

There are other scenarios that avert war. If the inspectors are given complete access to every site they suspect, then there will not be war. (Some pundits think President Bush will attack anyway, but I do not.) Or, perhaps Saddam will relent and admit to having weapons of mass destruction -- and then disarm. But this doesn't fit with what I and many others have perceived in Saddam's character.

I think Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, and that he will not allow the U.N. inspectors to find them. The goal of the inspectors is not to find these weapons, but to be denied access. When that happens, they will have succeeded in their mission. War is next. Vindication will come only afterwards, when the illegal weapons sites are found and destroyed. At least, that is what I hope. I fear that the first compelling proof of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction may come, not after the war but during it -- when Saddam demonstrates their existence by using them.

Richard A. Muller, a 1982 MacArthur Fellow, is a professor in the Physics Department at UC-Berkeley where he teaches a course entitled, "Physics for future Presidents." He is also a faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

EHP 109-11, WTC: Environmental Aftermath [& THE untouched Marvin Bush 'bloody glove'!]

EHP 109-11, 2001: Environmental Aftermath

The work of recovery. The rumble of machinery continues 24 hours a day as vast amounts of debris are removed from "The Pile" at Ground Zero and trucked and ferried to "The Hill" at the Fresh Kills Landfill. Investigators there comb through it carefully for evidence of the crime and personal effects of the victims.

Photo credits: Top to bottom: FEMA; Bruce Lippy

The city is making efforts to identify recyclable materials that can be sorted on site for recovery. For example, the Port Authority has estimated that each of the towers contained 78,000 tons of recyclable steel, which can be sold for up to $100 per ton. Other materials such as aluminum and copper can fetch much more in the scrap metal business. It has not yet been decided how any monies collected in this way will be distributed.

Most of the rest of the debris is being taken by truck or barge to the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island. The landfill collected New York City garbage for five decades and had been closed to additional disposal six months before September 11. It was immediately reopened to accept the debris from the World Trade Center.

At the top of the 180-foot-high mountain of garbage rising from the landfill, the New York Police Department has set up an evidence recovery operation known simply as "The Hill." There, as many as 30 investigators at a time, wearing full hazardous materials suits, perform the grim task of sifting through the debris looking for the flight recorders of the two hijacked airplanes, human remains, and any belongings that can help identify the victims. Such finds are catalogued for identification, and the rest is landfilled.

One of the consequences of the cleanup effort is the constant flow of dump trucks, which adds to the already heavy traffic of downtown Manhattan and to the levels of diesel exhaust fumes in the neighborhood. "We already had a traffic problem here, and now you can see these trucks with their uncovered loads going down our streets," said neighborhood resident Alicia Aguilar during a recent community forum. To alleviate the truck traffic associated with the cleanup effort and to allow easier access to remove debris to the Staten Island landfill, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has ordered the dredging of an area of the Hudson River that is near the World Trade Center site.

Some of the debris is being removed by barge, but high truck traffic and use of diesel-powered machinery at the site continues. Thurston, who has been monitoring concentrations of air pollutants, has seen that carbon levels have been elevated in some instances, "and these may come from increased diesel combustion," he says. Diesel combustion and the soot that it produces can be a trigger for asthma attacks in those who have the disease.

Continuing Questions

<yes: like WHAT are these LIES about DEBRIS going to
'Fresh Kills, Staten Island' when ALL the damn
steel & girders got shipped to China and
nobody was PERMITTED to do FORENSICS...
period. As 'bad' as the atrocious scene destruction
coup achieved after the
enriched-plutonium
bomb incinerated Harriri's car>...

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a concerned wacko http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/KUP206A.html
.../... .../... .../...
n all cases, the actions of these proxy agents and operative planners are sufficiently distanced and compartmentalized from the true masterminds to create a condition of "plausible deniability". In short, the proxies have also been set up as possible patsies with evidence that has been carefully laid to incriminate them should cracks in the "official story" become too discernible. Moreover, the groundwork has already been carefully laid to cast aspersions on another convenient patsy - the Jews, by way of the State of Israel and its supporters. Already, for those prone to perceive Jewish conspiracies, the reliable vein of anti-Semitism - combined with anti-Zionism - has been mined to distract the masses and to create a modern version of the ritual blood libel, thereby further "muddying the waters" should the true masterminds be threatened with exposure. In other words, the present difficulties in the Middle East work perfectly to set up the State of Israel as a plausible alternative suspect with motive, means, and opportunity. Toward that end, a low-level "buzz" has been circulating over the Internet (and especially in Europe) of an Israeli spy ring that was rounded up in the days after September 11. Whether or not these reports are credible is not the point. Most likely, there was a spy ring operating, and various Israelis were unwittingly set up as patsies, to be exposed should the need arise. Thus, while evidence may be marshaled to taint the Saudis, Pakistanis, or Israelis, the real guilt must inevitably lie with those in the best position to manage the flow of information as well as reliably benefit from the new order created, primarily, the political and corporate elites of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union - also, as it happens, the very parties orchestrating the global war on terrorism. In this respect, the Saudis, Pakistanis, or Israelis have far less to gain (other than the benefits of going along with the designs of the rich and mighty).

I could go on and further highlight the obvious geostrategic gains of those who are clearly managing the flow of information - the proverbial pipelines, oil, wealth, and so forth. But I think those purported benefits are a bit of a "red herring" - more of a side benefit than the main motivating factor. Americans and their allies would have easily supported a thrust into Afghanistan for a provocation far less costly and bloody than this (such as Kuwait in the early '90's). It is no small act to intentionally take down such an overarching symbol of financial stability as the Twin Towers, and chance killing thousands in the process. Such a conspiracy, if in fact perpetrated from within, would by its nature necessitate a huge structural, cultural, and demographic change. The very brazenness of the act, the naked aggression, would necessitate a tenacious determination to achieve the ends for which these actions were perpetrated. There is no going back now. An infrastructure is being laid out - one that will, finally, provide a dissident-proof totalitarian oligarchy composed of like-minded elites served by an under-class kept under constant surveillance. The edifice of this regime is being constructed, brick by brick, with the mortar of the Office of Homeland Security (to centralize and coordinate an effective police state), the Freedom Corps (to indoctrinate the most idealist - and therefore activist - elements of the populace toward service to the state), and the Patriot Act (to provide the legal basis for subverting long-held rights under the screen of national security). If all of this sounds strangely familiar, if it is redolent of Huxley and Orwell, that is perhaps because Huxley and Orwell were both intimately involved with the elites of their time - in fact, were fully subsumed among them - in ways that made their future projections abundantly prescient, and, in their minds, inevitable. With further refinements in mind control technologies - yes, they do exist - as well as the monopolization of the food supply by way of sterile seed "terminator technology" - the approval for which was granted in the months following 9/11 - the masses may be perpetually culled and exploited by those who hold the keys to this fully managed society.

If this notion of reality strikes you as somewhat dissonant, at odds with your own personal experience, it may be perhaps that we have not quite arrived there yet, and that you have personally not felt the corrosive lash of political corruption and governmental malfeasance. In all likelihood, you have not read the mountain of evidence detailing political and elite deviant behaviour in this country. You may even be dismissive of "conspiracy theories", yet wholly unaware of the well-documented attempts by the CIA and FBI to subvert, surveil, and propagandize the populace through programs such as Project Mockingbird (media infiltration) and MK-Ultra (mind control through chemical, hypnotic, or electro-magnetic means). These programs are effected primarily through "think tanks" that are set up across the United States for the purpose of disseminating information and propaganda under the rubric of "expertise". Moreover, various foundations, such as the Rockefeller or Ford Foundations, are often used as funnels to finance and feed the arteries of these propaganda networks. In the 1970's, a good deal of this structural corruption was officially exposed - in a "limited hang-out" - by way of the Church Commission, as well as the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Thereafter, much of the most damaging revelations were played down or ignored by the mainstream media, and the waters were then muddied by a stream of outlandish conspiracy theories - aliens, Elvis, etc. - that merely served to discredit the information that was most credible. "Muddying the waters", incidentally, is a tried and true staple of the intelligence craft.

It is really just a matter of familiarizing yourself with all the documented anomalies that do not accord with the received, mainstream reality put forth to you by the mainstream media. As a practical guide to begin, you might want to confine your search to strictly "mainstream" sources, as I have sought to do in attempting to construct my case on 9/11. My evidence is by no means exhaustive. In fact, it is merely the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Yet proceeding in this direction, under my hypothesis, has been most fruitful in analyzing the various anomalies that pop up now and then.

Any simple keyword search of the following terms may be helpful in pointing toward a more substantive understanding of the elites who ultimately guide your fortunes: "Iran-Contra" , "Mena", "BCCI", "Project Paperclip", "Michael Aquino", "Paul Bonacci", "Operation Northwoods", "MK-Ultra". Much of the information on these topics is credible and well-documented. More disturbingly, it highlights behavior committed by the very same elites who are now interpreting the events of 9/11 for you. Read for yourself, and decide, at the end of the day, how much credibility you will continue to accord to those who claim to be the proper trustees of your fate and well-being.

---

Chaim Kupferberg is a freelance researcher and writer. Copyright © Chaim Kupferberg 2002. Permission is granted to post this text on non-commercial community internet sites, provided the source and the URL are indicated, the essay remains intact and the copyright note is displayed.

---

The URL of this article is:
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/KUP206A.html

Read more in Global Outlook September 11: Foreknowledge or Deception? Stop the Nuclear Threat, Issue no 2, Summer 2002. Now available (click here to order)

[home]

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http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff07292005.html

That said, just imagine if it had been President Clinton in the White House on Sept. 11, 2001, and if it was his brother who had been on the board of a company that had handled the electronic security for those towers! My god, the press and the right-wing attack machine would have been all over it in a moment and non-stop thereafter. There would have been demands for congressional investigations, a special prosecutor, impeachment proceedings and who knows what else.

But in this case? There apparently hasn't even been anyone looking into this on a cursory basis at the 9-11 commission or the Justice Department. And as for the U.S. media?

Not one article or news story.

Seems to me, we ought to be calling news editors and members of congress to demand that someone start at least asking a few questions about this guy Marvin, and about Securicom/Stratexec, and its Kuwaiti investor.

At a minimum, could the company have leaked, even inadvertently, information to those seeking to attack the buildings which might have helped them plan their attack, or maximize the damage and the carnage?

Could terrorist operatives have infiltrated WTC security by infiltrating the company via the Kuwait connection?

Again, I have no clue about any of this, but if government agencies think it's productive and important to go around randomly arresting thousands of greencard holders and other immigrants and deporting them or holding them incommunicado without charge merely on the basis that they are Arab or Muslim, if they think that it's appropriate to shut down local Islamic charity organizations simply because they may have innocently donated some money to relief activities in certain Muslim countries, surely they should be interested in finding out just what Marvin Bush's company did and who was involved in it at the World Trade Center and at Dulles airport and United Airlines.

Marvin and his activities ought, surely, to be subjected to at least a tenth of the investivative attention that Clinton's family and friends were subjected to on matters of far less consequence.

If not, you have to start getting that creepy feeling that something's not right.

Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His new book of CounterPunch columns titled "This Can't be Happening!" is published by Common Courage Press. Information about both books and other work by Lindorff can be found at www.thiscantbehappening.net.

He can be reached at: dlindorff@yahoo.com

t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | The Bagman Cometh

t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | The Bagman Cometh

The Bagman Cometh
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

December 4, 2002


NASA Why Did the Trade Center Skyscrapers Collapse? By Morgan Reynolds - Former Member Of The Bush Administration
For More Information Concerning 9/11 Visit: http://911physics.co.nr
-------------------->



Last week, Bush tapped Henry Kissinger to chair the independent investigation into how and why the September 11th attacks took place. This investigation has been hotly sought after for months by many members of Congress and the vast majority of Americans. The Bush administration, however, fought it at every turn, and only assented to the investigation after it was decided that they could choose the chairman. They chose Henry, a man so in love with secrecy that he bugged his own staff while in White House to make sure no one leaked anything. Only if George W. Bush posted a sign on the White House lawn that read, "Dear America - Screw Your Investigation," could the signal be more clear.

We all remember Henry, Bagman Extraordinaire, the diplomat who cannot set foot beyond America's borders for fear of being subpoenaed and/or arrested for his past deeds. One would think the Bush administration would seek to avoid scandal where it could. In the case of Henry, however, it seems the pigs are too fond of the wallow. Much of the world sees Henry as a war criminal, and they have good cause to do so.

Henry fouled the 1968 peace negotiations during the Vietnam War to boost the election fortunes of his doppleganger, Richard Nixon. By tampering with the peace talks in '68, he helped to send tens of thousands of American soldiers to death, and condemned tens of thousands more American soldiers to maiming or psychological rape. After becoming Secretary of State, Henry orchestrated the secret bombing campaign in Cambodia that claimed hundreds of thousands of civilian lives.

Henry made sure the leaders of a military coup against a democratically elected government in Bangladesh, a coup that wound up killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, escaped censure and condemnation from the American government. Henry was up to his eyeballs in the coup that overthrew and ultimately murdered Salvador Allende of Chile, an action that led to years of bloody repression at the hands of dictator Agosto Pinochet. Henry gave American approval for Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975, an action that took tens of thousands of civilian lives.

This list goes on and on, and includes assistance to terrorists associated with Pinochet who murdered Allende's American ambassador with a car bomb on Washington's Embassy Row in 1976.

Writer David Corn said it best in his piece on Kissinger's 9/11 chairmanship that was recently featured in The Nation magazine: "A fellow who has coddled state-sponsored terrorism has been put in charge of this terrorism investigation. A proven liar has been assigned the task of finding the truth."

It serves to remember the prickly details surrounding 9/11 that are assuredly the reason Henry was chosen to chair the investigation. The Bush administration, and the intelligence services designed to serve it, were warned several times of an impending terrorist attack. Months before September, the German intelligence service BND told US and Israeli intelligence that Middle East terrorists were "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." The BND's information came through Echelon, the American-controlled network of 120 satellites that monitors all worldwide electronic communications.

Egypt voiced similar warnings regarding aircraft attacks. Delivered just before the G-8 summit in Genoa in the summer of 2001, Egypt's alert carried such weight that anti-aircraft batteries were placed around Columbus Airport in Italy. The Russians warned the US that same summer of 25 pilots who had been trained for suicide missions, and Putin himself delivered the warning "in the strongest possible terms" to the US government. The Israeli intelligence service Mossad warned both the FBI and the CIA, detailing "a major assault on the United States" against "a large-scale target" that was "very vulnerable."

The Bush administration put energy policy before national security concerns. A foundering pipeline project aimed at exploiting natural gas reserves along the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan was revived by the Bush administration when it arrived in Washington in January of 2001.

The pipeline project, which sought to bring oil and natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to a warm water port, had been the brainchild of American petroleum giant Unocal for much of the 1990s. After the destruction of two American embassies in Africa in 1998 by Osama bin Laden, the Clinton administration forbade any American companies from doing business with the Taliban, which had been sheltering bin Laden in Afghanistan. Unocal's pipeline project was frozen.

After the Bush administration came to power, reinvigorating the Unocal pipeline project became a high-priority matter of policy. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca was dispatched to Pakistan to discuss the pipeline with Taliban officials in August of 2001. Rocca, a career officer with the CIA, had been deeply involved in Agency activities within Afghanistan. The main subject of their discussion was oil. A Pakistani foreign minister was also present at the meeting, and witnessed the exchange.

The main obstacle to the completion of the Unocal pipeline was the fact that it had to pass through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The project would receive no international support unless the Afghan government somehow became legitimized. In bargaining for the pipeline, the Bush administration demanded that the Taliban reinstate deposed King Mohammad Zahir Shah as ruler of Afghanistan, and demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden for arrest. In return, the Taliban would reap untold billions in profit from the pipeline. Part of the Bush administration's bargaining tactics involved threats of war if these conditions for the legitimization of Afghanistan were not met.

The Bush administration very much wanted the Unocal pipeline to go through, and put intense pressure on the Taliban to see it happen. As this was happening, American intelligence services were flooded with warnings of an impending attack upon American targets by bin Laden and Al Qaeda. There is intense speculation that the September 11th attacks were, in fact, a pre-emptive strike from a nation that saw destruction coming no matter what it did.

The Bush administration fundamentally misunderstood the Taliban regime - to bring back the King and hand bin Laden over to the West would have been tantamount to suicide for the Taliban. Instead of acquiescing to the hard-sell tactics of the Bush administration, the Taliban unleashed their pet attack dog, Osama, upon America. They were going to lose everything, and chose to attack first in the hope that all-out war would break out in Central Asia and rally other Muslim nations to their cause.

Henry Kissinger has been a Unocal consultant since 1995, and was present at the October 21st ceremony of that year when the announcement was made that Unocal would get the contract to build the pipeline. A New York Times editorial published on November 29th stated, "It seems improbable to expect Mr. Kissinger to report unflinchingly on the conduct of the government, including that of Mr. Bush. He would have to challenge the established order and risk sundering old friendships and business relationships." One wonders if the "business relationships" obliquely referred to in that editorial have anything to do with Unocal.

As for challenging the "established order," Henry will have to do exactly that if he is to chair an effective investigation. He will have to find answers for a number of very hard and pressing questions. Will he see it done?

Roll them bones...

-------

William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times bestselling author of two books - "War On Iraq" (with Scott Ritter) available now from Context Books, and "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," available in May 2003 from Pluto Press
================

strange encore: brought to you by your friends at Go -ogle
http://www.rense.com/general49/skol.htm

Middle Finder News
The Bagman Cometh
Sticking It To The Poobahs
News Hot Enough To Fry Radio Stations
By Sherman H. Skolnick and Lenny Bloom
www.skolnicksreport.com
www.cloakanddagger.ca
2-21-4

Blurred by newer generations are descriptive terms. For example, many young people believe the item "bagman" means someone who helps pack food bags in a grocery chain store. Or, a name for a homeless person carrying around their world goods, more like a "bag person".

Older, savvy folks, however, know full well it means a courier, corrupter of official authority, briber of more ethical minded persons who need to be "sweetened".

Note the following scene that says a thing or two.

Lenny Bloom: "Your message said you wished to discuss something regarding our radio show from Toronto, right?"

Visitor: "Yes, here is my card. I am a representative of the law firm of Highwater & Hendrickson. We undetand that some would like to see you and your colleagues back on the air after a run of 76 weekly programs."

[Pause. While Lenny studies his card.]

Visitor: "Well, we strongly believe in public-minded shows."

Lenny Bloom: "Well, that is a refreshing thought in this day and age. What do you propose?"

Visitor: "Well, our firm has set aside part of the funds of a recent settlement of a class action suit of which we were the lead counsel for plaintiffs. We would like to get you and your team back on the radio broadcast. What would it take?"

Lenny Bloom: "Well, be more specific."

Visitor: "We have the means to buy out Mojo Radio and any subsidiary or parent firm that would be required to get you back on the air."

Lenny Bloom: "And what do you require of us?"

Visitor: "Well, I think the public would be benefitted from a humorous format, such as a comedy program."

Lenny Bloom: "Well, we did, from time to time, put in sarcastic remarks."

Visitor: "Well, I do not think it is so appropriate to lampoon public officials. After all, public service for many, has become a difficult task. I want you to look at this list. It apparently is a compilation of members of the radio and television networks in the U.S. as well as certain members of the U.S. Congress, Representatives and Senators. I understand you are preparing to go public with their names as being part of a gay underground media and government cult. Is that correct?"

Lenny Bloom: "So you want me to confirm it is our upcoming list, right? And that we are about to go public with it? And to confirm all that, you want me to right now say you swiped some of our records, correct? I notice you have on your paper names of those who have been close associates of Ted Koppel, and his 'Nightline' Program, as well as other potentates at ABC Network."

Visitor: "Is it your list or not?"

Lenny Bloom: "Well, the list from CBS Network certainly is interesting. Although we already fingered John Roberts, White House press corp supervisor."

Visitor: "Well, what about these at CNN and Fox?"

Lenny Bloom: "So you are trying to test me out to see if it is our list or not?"

Visitor: "Is there an involvement between Barney Frank and these three U.S. Senators and Robert Novak? Or not? And what about this other list, with Barney Frank's sister, Ann Lewis, in a purported relationship with U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton. Is that correct, and is it on your list or not?" [Then points to items on the list.]

Visitor: "What about these items here. There are names of fourteen members of the House and Senate who 'hit' on male teen-agers working for them in routine tasks. And are their activities 'consenual' ?"

Lenny Bloom: "That's putting a good face on a bad situation to say those goings-on are 'consenual'. Come on. Experienced adult male lawmakers 'hitting' on male teen-agers and adult female lawmakers 'hitting' on female teen-agers. You are trying to get me to compare our list with yours. Keep fishing around. I am not here to confirm in advance of going on the air with whatever."

[After a pause.]

Lenny Bloom: "What did you have in mind for us?"

Visitor: "Well, we would purchase the radio facility and put you and your team back on the air."

Lenny Bloom: "Providing by contract, what?"

Visitor: "You are entitled to be a bit tired and could first use a vacation. For the public interest, we would finance you and your team members to a well-deserved vacation in Monte Carlo. You would enjoy the trip and six months there would do good for your health. Before you go on that trip, we would arrange to have you get an appropriate journalism prize of one sort or another, together with a sizeable cash benefit that goes with it. We have the 'pull' so we can even get you and your team the Pulitzer Prize."

Lenny Bloom: "How would you arrange to get us a journalism prize? Oh, and so you have the 'pull'. I get it. That is why they call it the 'Pulitzer' ".

Visitor: "Oh, I guess you would be surprised what our firm can accomplish."

Lenny Bloom: "And as to some of those public officials you want me to go slow on---well, now that would basically help the so-called 'welfare' and 'health' of certain public officials in the U.S. and Canada who got scorched by our programs. After all, we have been exposing the gay underground media and government cult. We no doubt upset some folks."

Visitor: "As you know, that might be fun and funny, but it does not help those who are simply trying to serve the public, in both government and the media. Some of what you broadcast is very unfair."

Lenny Bloom: "Well, they have the apparatus to respond to us and presumably to heckle us and hollar us down. So we are properly criticizing them. We prefer to call them 'liars and whores of the press' and 'those with the fifty dollar hairdoes and the nickel heads' ".

Visitor: "We can further your cause and benefit your work. All it requires is being a bit reasonable and understanding."

Lenny Bloom: "Basically you want to know if we are like some others, 'blackmailers', just trying to feather our own nest."

Visitor: "If you are prepared to be sensible and reasonable, we have the means to get you back on the air."

Lenny Bloom: "Why do I get the impression that you are a 'bagman', trying to size us up if we are 'for sale', and if so, how much is necessary? Leave me alone. George W. Bush thinks YOU'VE GOT A PRETTY FACE. Got to make him happy? Then go 'hit' on him!"

==========================================

Mr. Skolnick's articles are on his website www.skolnicksreport.com and are also posted and archived as a COLUMNIST Sherman Skolnick, through the MAIN PAGE of www.rense.com Also, many of his stories appear on www.cloakanddagger.ca and are archived there.

Mr. Skolnick is a co-host with Lenny Bloom on an audiostreaming show on internet, that can be heard through www.cloakanddagger.ca Visit that website for schedule of shows.

Recently published the book "Ahead of the Parade" by Sherman H. Skolnick, A Who'Who of Treason & High Crimes---Exclusive Details of Fraud & Corruption of the Monopoly Press, the Banks, the Bench and the Bar, & the Secret Political Police. Can be ordered U.S./Canada 1-800-861-7899.

The book can also supposedly be ordered through amazon.com HOWEVER, in recent times they blockaded their own marketing and sales of the controversial book by demanding TWICE the listed price.

#2 Marvin Bush: mysterious death - connections to 9/11?

Marvin Bush: mysterious death - connections to 9/11?

Young said the police had posted the incident on its web site in a press release, although the report makes no mention of Marvin Bush. It reads: A 62-year-old Alexandria area woman died after being pinned between a rolling car and a building. The crash happened on Monday, around 9 pm, near the intersection of Fort Hunt Road and Edgehill Drive. Bertha Champagne had gone outside to get something from a car in a driveway.

The car, which was left in gear, began to roll forward. Champagne was pinned between the car and a small building next to the driveway. The car continued to roll down the driveway, crossed Fort Hunt Road, and came to rest in a wooded area. Champagne was taken to Inova Mount Vernon Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The press release is dated September 30 at 1330 (1:30 PM), some sixteen and a half hours after the incident occurred. The police were well aware of Marvin Bush's controversial role in serving on corporate boards for companies associated with the 911 terrorist attacks, however, they emphasized that Champagne's death was merely a quirky accident and no foul play was involved.

...According to two articles in the Progressive Populist written by Margie Burns, from 1993 to 2000, Bush served on the board of Securacom (since renamed Stratesec). The chairman of the board of Stratesec is Wirt D. Walker III, a cousin of Marvin and George W. Bush. Securacom had contracts to provide security for Dulles International Airport (the airport from which American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, originated) and the World Trade Center in New York.

Securacom's backers include a number of Kuwaitis through a company called KuwAm Corp (Kuwaiti-American Corp.). Stratesec also has Saudi investors.

Walker also serves as a managing director of KuwAm, which maintains offices within the Watergate complex along with Riggs Bank, on whose board Bush's uncle, Jonathan Bush, sits. Saudi Princess Haifa al Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Bandar, used a Riggs account to funnel money to Omar al Bayoumi and Osama Basnan, two Saudi students in California associated with two of the 911 hijackers.

---- next http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/12.05A.wrp.bagman.htm
---------- /next ----------------------------------------
------------

More at FTW
Please check out also Marvin Bush at 911review.org
http://www.911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Bush,Marvin.shtml
====================================
Bush Family Babysitter Killed in Fairfax
Sunday, October 5, 2003; Page C03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46190-2003Oct5.html

A babysitter for the family of Marvin Bush was found dead Monday night outside the family's Fairfax County home, and police said that she had been crushed when her car rolled into her, pinning her between the vehicle and an outbuilding on the property.

Fairfax County police said Bertha Champagne, 62, had worked for several years for Marvin Bush, President Bush's brother, and lived at the family home on Fort Hunt Road in the Alexandria section of Fairfax.

Officer Courtney Young, a police spokeswoman, said Champagne had gone outside the house about 9 p.m. Monday, reportedly to retrieve something from her car.

The vehicle had been in gear, police said, and appeared to have rolled in her direction when Champagne was in front of it.

After pinning Champagne, Young said, the car continued rolling toward Fort Hunt Road, near the intersection of Edgehill Drive.

Champagne was taken to an area hospital and declared dead that evening. Young said she did not know the cause of death.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company
===============================================

Marvin Bush
911dossier notes 25.1.2003:
http://anderson.ath.cx:8000/911/hj05.html

For those who do not accept the Official Story on the collapse of the Twin Towers, this article is a minor smoking gun. It explains their biggest problem: if the Towers were brought down with explosives how could anyone get them in. Step in Marvin Bush whose company installed the security system...

Vol. 9, No. 2021 - The American Reporter - January 20, 2003
SECRECY SURROUNDS A BUSH BROTHER'S ROLE IN 9/11 SECURITY

by Margie Burns

Washington, D.C. WASHINGTON, Jan 19, 2003 -- A company that provided security at New York City's World Trade Center, Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., and to United Airlines between 1995 and 2001, was backed by a private Kuwaiti-American investment firm with ties to a brother of President Bush and the Bush family, according to records obtained by the American Reporter.

Two planes hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001 were United Airlines planes, and another took off from Dulles International Airport; two, of course, slammed into the World Trade Center. But the Bush Administration has never disclosed the ties of a presidential brother and the Bush family with the firm that intersected the weapons and targets on a day of national tragedy.

Marvin P. Bush, a younger brother of George W. Bush, was a principal in the company from 1993 to 2000, when most of the work on the big projects was done. But White House responses to 9/11 have not publicly disclosed the company's part in providing security to any of the named facilities, and many of the public records revealing the relationships are not public.

Nonetheless, public records reveal that the firm, formerly named Securacom, listed Bush on its board of directors and as a significant shareholder. The firm, now named Stratesec, Inc., is located in Sterling, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., and emphasizes federal clients. Bush is no longer on the board.

Marvin Bush has not responded to repeated telephoned and emailed requests for comment on this story.

The American Stock Exchange delisted Stratesec's stock in October 2002. Securacom also had a contract to provide security at Los Alamos National Laboratories, notorious for its security breaches and physical and intellectual property thefts.

According to its present CEO, Barry McDaniel, the company had an ongoing contract to handle security at the World Trade Center "up to the day the buildings fell down." Yet instead of being investigated, the company and companies involved with it have benefited from legislation pushed by the Bush White House and rubber-stamped by Congressional Republicans. Stratesec, its backer KuwAm, and their corporate officers stand to benefit from limitations on liability and national-security protections from investigation provided in bills since 9/11.
FULL REPORT:
http://anderson.ath.cx:8000/911/hj05.html

ALL OF A SUDDEN THE PRESIDENT BUSH TAKES A 9-DAY OUT OF THE
COUNTRY TRIP..... WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE????

• SECRECY SURROUNDS A BUSH BROTHER'S ROLE IN 9/11 — Margie Burns, Thu Oct 16 05:01

Main Page - Thursday, 10/16/03

Message Board by American Patriot Friends Network [APFN]

APFN MESSAGEBOARD ARCHIVES
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http://www.stewwebb.com/9-11WTCBushCheneyTreason.html

9-11 WTC-Attack on America Bush & Cheney did it. Treason Operation Code Angel U.S. Justice Department Military Exercise involving New York FEMA Bernard Kurick DIA Gary Best Division 5 FBI MK Ultra.

General Meyer stated in hearings before Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney March 2005 Yes there were 4 Military Exercises and 1 U.S. Justice Department Exercise on 9-11-2001. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to answer the questions.

Gary Best, Mr. Al Qaeda George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush & Richard Cheney's Shadow Government DIA Cowboy who Ran Operation Code Angel the attack on America on September 11, 2001

I, Stew Webb, and others have the proof and evidence that George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and others were behind the 9-11-2001 World Trade Center attack on America that killed 3,000 plus Americans. This is Treason and Mass Murder.

All the evidence now proves Bushes committed Treason and killed 3,000 Americans on 9-11-2001 to wrap America in a Patriotic Fever & War Flag, in order to convince Americans it is OK for US, The Bush Crime Family to attack Sovereign Nations for their Oil. To in rich themselves and cover their Oil Derivates Debt, that the Bushes have tied to their National Banks, at the cost of lives of Americas young Military, and the deaths of innocent men, women, and children. This is mass murder and War Crimes, ...

Bush-Cheney Attacked America on 9-11-2001 Operation Code Angel U.S. Department of Justice War Games Exercise also known as Tripod II involving NY Police Kurick and FEMA planting Bombs on the Buildings, operating out of New Yorks' Pier 29. DIA Gary Best Bush Shadow Govt. Player-cowboys. Further involving P-Tech Software, with Richard Cheney running the operation out of The White House with full consent and knowledge of George W. Bush and his father George H. W. Bush. There is tons of evidence and witnesses I cannot put up on my web-site because it would cause the deaths of many 9-11 Whistleblowers who would be killed by Bushes.
We need a Grand Jury....

Inside The Bush-Millman-Clinton Crime Family

As U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Democratic House Leader stated: We now know Bushes were behind 9-11 and the murders of 3,000 Americans, but if we tell the people, there will be a revolution and we all will be hung.--Tom Heneghan Whistleblower 2004 Presidential Candidate March 2005.

... whee!

War 9-11 Some Facts Bush Insiders Knew in Advance, Its about Oil, And The Chevron Pipeline Crisis Creation, (Bush Behind 9-11) Crisis Solution, (Patriot Act, Take American's Civil & Constitutional Rights for New World Order) Crisis Control (If you do not like Satan, then you get the death camp Rev. 13 your Bible) TO THE YOUNG AND NAIVE THE OLD AND DECEIVED Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has 'closed', the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. AND I AM CAESAR. --Julius Caesar DOES THE ABOVE SOUND LIKE GEORGE W. BUSH ???

It's about Oil Stupid

9-11 Was a hoax, The American Government killed its own people

German Minister Rips 9-11 Case Open

New Yorkers do not believe the Bush-Cheney lies

Half of New Yorkers Believe US Leaders Had Foreknowledge of Impending 911 Attacks

Where was George W. Bush reading a story about a Goat. Remember Bush a known Satanist who worships The Goat--Baphomet.

9-11-01 Where was George??

Was the Evil showing their faces

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

#2 Secrecy, and a Bush Brother - Physics911

Burns: Security, Secrecy, and a Bush Brother - Physics911

Security, Secrecy and a Bush Brother
[edit]
By Margie Burns
The Progressive Populist
February 2003

A company that provided security at the World Trade Center, Washington D.C.'s Dulles International Airport and United Airlines between 1995 and 2001 was backed by a private Kuwaiti-American investment firm whose records were not open to full public disclosure, with ties to the Bush family.

Marvin P. Bush, a younger brother of George W. Bush, was a principal in the company from 1993 to 2000, when most of the work on the big projects was done. But White House responses to 9/11 have not publicly disclosed the company's part in providing security to any of the named facilities.

Public records indicate that the firm, formerly named Securacom, had Bush on its board of directors. He was also listed as a significant shareholder. The firm, which is now named Stratesec, Inc., is located in Sterling, Va., a D.C. suburb, and emphasizes federal clients. Bush is no longer on the board.

Bush has not responded to repeated telephoned and emailed requests for comment.

The American Stock Exchange delisted Stratesec's stock in October 2002. (Securacom also had a contract to provide security at Los Alamos National Laboratories, notorious for its security breach.)

According to its present CEO, Barry McDaniel, the company had an ongoing contract to handle security at the World Trade Center "up to the day the buildings fell down." Yet instead of being investigated, the company and companies involved with it have benefited from legislation pushed by the Bush White House and rubber-stamped by Congressional Republicans. Stratesec, its backer KuwAm, and their corporate officers stand to benefit from limitations on liability and national-security protections from investigation provided in bills since 9/11.

HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc., a reinsurance corporation on whose board Marvin Bush sat as director until November 2002, similarly benefits from terrorism insurance protections. (Bush's first year on the board at HCC coincided with his last year on the board at Stratesec.) HCC, formerly Houston Casualty Company, carried some of the insurance for the World Trade Center. It posted a loss for the quarter after the attacks of Sept. 11 and dropped participation in worker's compensation as a result. Bush remains an adviser to the chairman and the Board of Directors, as well as a member of the company's investment committee.

The former CEO of Stratesec is Wirt D. Walker III, who is still chairman of the board. Although he has also been the managing director of KuwAm for several years, Walker states definitively in phone interviews that there was no exchange of talent between Stratesec and KuwAm during the WTC and other projects.

As Walker put it, "I'm an investment banker." He continued, "We just owned some stock." The investment company "was not involved in any way in the work or day-to-day operations" of the security company. He explained clearly and pleasantly that there was no sharing of information or of personnel between the two companies.

In December 2000 &endash;- when the presidential election was determined -- Stratesec added a Government Division, providing "the same full range of security systems services as the Commercial Division," in the company's words. Stratesec now has "an open-ended contract with the General Services Administration (GSA) and a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with the agency that allows the government to purchase materials and services from the Company without having to go through a full competition."

The company lists as government clients "the US Army, US Navy, US Air force, and the Department of Justice," in projects that "often require state-of-the-art security solutions for classified or high-risk government sites." In 2000, the US Army accounted for 29% of the company's earned revenues, or about $6.9 million.

The White House opposed an independent commission to investigate 9/11 until after the terrorism insurance protections and protections for security companies had safely passed Congress. It has also quietly intervened in lawsuits against United Airlines in New York, brought by relatives of the victims.

Marvin Bush joined Securacom's Board of Directors in 1993, as part of new management hired when the company separated from engineering firm Burns and Roe. The new team was capitalized by KuwAm, the D.C.-based Kuwaiti-American investment company. Bush also served on the Board of Directors at KuwAm, along with Mishal Yousef Saud al-Sabah, Chairman of KuwAm and also a Director on Securacom's (Stratesec's) board.

The World Trade Center and the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority -- which operates Dulles -- were two of Securacom's three biggest clients in 1996 and 1997. (The third was MCI, now WorldCom.)

Stratesec (Securacom) differs from other security companies which separate the function of consultant from that of service provider. The company defines itself as a "single-source" provider of "end-to-end" security services, including everything from diagnosis of existing systems to hiring subcontractors to installing video and electronic equipment. It also provides armored vehicles and security guards.

When, following the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began its multi-million-dollar, multiyear revamping of security in and around the Twin Towers and Buildings 4 and 5, Securacom was among numerous contractors hired in the upgrade.

The companies doing security jobs received due mention in print, in security industry publications and elsewhere. The board membership of a son of former President Bush went unnoticed, at least in print.

According to SEC filings, Securacom/Stratesec acquired the $8.3 million World Trade Center contract in October 1996. The project generated 28% of over-all revenues for the company in 1996, part of increased over-all revenues. SEC filings indicate that revenues from the World Trade Center project commenced in 1996 at $1.6 million, peaked in 1997 at $6.6 million ($4.1 million in the first half), and diminished in 1998 to less than $1 million.

A key concept in security is "access control." In hindsight, as the security industry's reportage on the WTC precautions makes clear, further attacks would have to come from the air. Unfortunately, such detailed reports did not convey that message at home. Nobody thought outside the box enough to deduce that a jumbo jet could overcome even the extraordinary controls at the World Trade Center. With 20-20 hindsight, it is obvious that the intricate procedures in the building's lobbies and on its perimeters were like trying to stop a 767 with ID badges.

Barry McDaniel, CEO of the company since January 2002, declines on security grounds to give specific details about work the company did at the World Trade Center. According to McDaniel, the contract was ongoing (a "completion contract"), and "not quite completed when the Center went down." The company designed a system, but &endash; as he points out -- obviously that "didn't have anything to do with planes flying into buildings."

The key words "access control" are less feeble and irrelevant, however, in regard to airports and airlines. Had the hijackers failed on the ground, they would have lost their airborne weapon.

Two of the hijacked planes were United Airlines flights, and one -- though not one of the United flights -- took off from Dulles Airport.

McDaniel makes clear that Securacom's contract for UAL was a single-site contract, in Indianapolis (at least five years ago), and not local. The work done, finished several years before he joined the board, was not in or near D.C.

Dulles Airport, obviously, is another matter. Dulles is regarded as "absolutely a sensitive airport," according to security consultant Wayne Black, head of a Florida-based security firm, given its location, size, and the number of international carriers it serves.

Black has not heard of Stratesec, but responds that for one company to handle security for both airports and airlines is somewhat unusual. It is also delicate for a security firm serving international facilities to be so interlinked with a foreign-owned company: "Somebody knew somebody," he suggested, or the contract would have been more closely scrutinized.

As Black points out, "when you [a company] have a security contract, you know the inner workings of everything." And if another company is linked with the security company, then "What's on your computer is on their computer."

In this context, retired FAA special agent Brian F. Sullivan is angry, and eloquent. "You can have all the security systems in the world, but the people behind the systems make the difference." The Bush administration, says Sullivan, "spit in the faces" of the victims' families, in pushing for last-minute protections for foreign-owned security companies (in the Homeland Security bill). Sullivan points out that "not one single person" in an upper-level position has lost a job as a result of 9/11, "not in the FBI, CIA, FAA, DOT." As he sums up, "No accountability, no progress."

Stratesec got its first preventive maintenance contract with Dulles Airport in 1995, generating $0.3 million that year. The Dulles project generated revenue of $1.2 million in 1996, $2.5 million in 1997, and $2.3 million in 1998, accounting for 22% of the company's revenues in 1996 and in 1998

Like other specialists, Professor Dale B. Oderman, in the Aviation Technology Department at Purdue, concurs that Dulles "was considered a very high profile target" as the primary international airport near the nation's capital. It serves as port of entry to about 15 international airlines as well as serving eight of the 11 major US passenger carriers. In comparison, Reagan Airport hosts only Air Canada from outside the US, and Baltimore-Washington Airport hosts about a half dozen."

Stratesec did not handle screening of passengers at Dulles. According to a contracting official for the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority, its three-year contract was for maintenance of security systems: It maintained the airfield access system, the CCTV (closed circuit television) system, and the electronic badging system.

In 1997, the World Trade Center and Dulles accounted for 55% and 20% of the company's earned revenues, respectively. The WTC and Dulles projects figured largely in both Securacom's growing revenues from 1995 to 1997 and its decreases from 1997 to 1998.

Stratesec continued to refer to "New York City's World Trade Center" as a former client through April 2001. It listed Dulles Airport and United Airlines as former clients through April 2002.

As with the World Trade Center -&endash; which also had electronic badging, security gates, and CCTV -- the ultimate problem with Dulles' security controls was not the controls themselves, but that they could be sidestepped. All the hijackers had to do was buy a ticket. As former FAA special agent Sullivan comments, "If they [attackers] knew about the security system, they knew how to bypass it."

One obvious question for investigators is how much potential hijackers could have known about the security system.

From 1993 to 1999, KuwAm &endash;- the Kuwait-American Corporation -- held a large and often controlling interest in Securacom. In 1996, KuwAm Corporation owned 90% of the company, either directly or through partnerships like one called Special Situations Investment Holdings and another called "Fifth Floor Company for General Trading and Contracting." KuwAm owned 31% of Securacom in 1998 and 47% of Stratesec in 1999. It currently holds only about 205,000 shares of Stratesec; Walker, KuwAm's managing director, holds 650,000.

Marvin Bush was reelected annually to Securacom's board of directors from 1993 through 1999. His final reelection was on May 25, 1999, for July 1999 to June 2000. Throughout, he also served on the company's Audit Committee and Compensation Committee, and his stock holdings grew during the period. Directors had options to purchase 25,000 shares of stock annually. In 1996, Bush acquired 53,000 shares at 52 cents per share. Shares in the 1997 IPO sold at $8.50. Records since 2000 no longer list Bush as a shareholder.

Stratesec and KuwAm were and still are intertwined at the top. Walker, while a principal at Stratesec (a director since 1987, chairman of the board since 1992, and formerly CEO since 1999), was also on the board of directors at KuwAm and is still managing director (both since 1982). Mishal Yousef Saud Al Sabah, the chairman at KuwAm, also served on Stratesec's board from 1991 to 2001. Walker and Al Sabah had major stock holdings in each other's companies. Their sons also held shares in both companies.

Stratesec, which currently lists 45 employees, hired KuwAm for corporate secretarial services in 2002, at $2,500 per month.

For several years, Walker has also been chairman and CEO of an aircraft company, Aviation General, about 70% owned by KuwAm.

The Saudi Arabian embassy, the Kuwait embassy, and KuwAm have office suites in the Watergate complex, where both Stratesec and Aviation General held their annual shareholders' meetings in 1999, 2000, and 2001. Bush was reelected to his annual board position there, across the hall from a Saudi Arabian Airlines office. (This year, the companies' shareholders meetings switched to the fifth floor, in space also held by Saudis and Kuwaitis.)

Incidentally, Riggs Bank &endash;- where the Saudi Princess Al-Faisal had her checking account &endash;- also has a large office in the Watergate. Given that Jonathan Bush, the president's uncle, is a Riggs executive, it is difficult to understand any obstacle for US authorities pursuing the recently reported "Saudi money trail." The princess's charitable activities were processed through Riggs, but attention focused on the Saudis seems not to extend to the US bank they used.

McDaniel was asked in a brief telephone interview whether FBI or other agents have questioned him or others at Stratesec about the company's security work in connection with 9/11. The concise answer: "No." Asked the same question regarding KuwAm, Walker declines to comment further, and refers to the public record.

According to a spokesman in an FBI regional office, by October 2001, "the investigation [of 9/11] is being coordinated at the national level directly from the White House." If so, you'd think that an administration that could seriously consider infiltrating American mosques would ask a few questions closer to home.

But the suggestion is inescapable that any investigation into security arrangements preceding 9/11, at some of the nation's most sensitive facilities, has been impeded to this day by narrowly political concerns in the White House. "Mayberry Machiavellis" strike again: Rather than face possible embarrassment at disclosing Bush family interests in the security industry, Team Bush has stonewalled any concession to the public interest, statesmanship or even common sense. Every public statement from the White House seems designed to direct public attention toward Middle Easterners and away from Americans doing business with them &endash;- at least if their name is Bush.

From a purely business or political perspective, stonewalling might be understandable. But from the perspective of the victims' families or of the public, it looks odd. This is the White House we're talking about. In all the public expressions of sorrow or pity for the victims, it would have been natural, surely, for the president to say something along the lines of "Why, my own brother was part of that business. He and all of us are heartbroken" etc etc. But such comment has not been forthcoming. He might even have said, "My own relatives, if they had any transactions that might have any connection at all with the individuals involved, will turn over every record" etc. But that statement has also not been uttered.

Margie Burns is a Texas native who now writes from Washington, D.C.
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/duforum/DCForumID60/27907.html

Don't forget Poppy's possible connection to JFK's murder

According to a report in The Nation, days after the Kennedy assassination in 1963 a memo from J. Edgar Hoover stated that a "Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency" had been briefed regarding the reaction of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami to the murder. Although George H.W. Bush claims the name he shares with the "Mr. George Bush of the CIA" is coincidental, a source for the story observed: "I know was involved in the Caribbean. I know he was involved in the suppression of things after the Kennedy assassination. There was a very definite worry that some Cuban groups were going to move against Castro and attempt to blame it on the CIA." (see Joseph McBride, "'George Bush,' CIA Operative," The Nation, July 16/23, 1988, p. 42). ----------------------- 5. Flying lessons in FL right under Jeb's nose-Marvin Bush worked..... ..1/12/2003 .for the security company at the WTC - what more connections do people need???????????? Question everything or shut up and be a victim of authority. --Green Day, Warning When they took the fourth amendment, I was quiet because I didn't deal drugs. When they took the sixth amendment, I was quiet because I was innocent. When they took the second amendment, I was quiet because I didn't own a gun. Now they've taken the first amendment, and I can say nothing about it. ======================= 21. Ooh boy. Sabah–Bush–Baker–ENRON–Kuwait... If you believe what the government tells you, you’re not going to like this: According to Robert Trigaux of the St. Petersberg Times, the Chairman of KuwAm is a Mishal Yousef Saud Al Sabah. I believe Al Sabah is the surname of the “royal family” of Kuwait. http://www.sptimes.com/News/102900/Business/Influence_and_bailout.shtml From an underappreciated site called “Coincidences” we get some historic background of the spookiest kind: Al-Sabah fled into exile in l990 when his country was occupied by Iraq, The Gulf war drove out the Iraqi forces and "liberated" Kuwait thus restoring the autocratic al-Sabah dynasty to its golden throne. In the early spring of l992, Bush and his group were received in Kuwait George Sr., George W., Neil and Marvin Bush —as well as James Baker, former secretary of state, and John Sununu, his former chief of staff. With full honors and heaped with "presents" "wealthy Kuwaitis flocked to the ceremonial dinners and receptions given for the Bush group, and patiently stood in line for hours to shower the former president with expensive gifts—Cartier watches, diamond jewelry, strings of gold coins—aggregately worth millions of dollars," says a former New York Times reporter who covered the visit. With the former president providing the supporting pitch, al-Sabah was pressured by Baker to grant his client, the giant Enron Corporation, a $4 billion contract to refurbish Kuwait's power grid. The project began with the al-Shuaiba facility, a 1,000-megawatt power plant just south of Kuwait City that had been destroyed by U.S. bombing. NO MORE, BUT DECENT LINKS, INSPIRATION & INFO… http://adap2k.freeservers.com/~poppy.htm P.S. No wonder James Baker looked so nervous during the Florida recount. There is always a way. ====================== 38. 9215: Some say, "It's all about oil!" No, my Friend. When it comes to America's Oiligarchy, it's all about the money. Disgusting information to consider and remember. One thing I can't forget is hearing April Glaspie, US Ambassador to Iraq, testify in 1991 how she told Saddam that the US had no interest in any border dispute between Arab states. Lo and behold, the next week Saddam moves his tanks into Kuwait City to protect his oil fields, being drained by the fine Emir and his minions. Saddam's only mistake was he didn't know the Bush Crime Family was working for the other side, too. A nice Glaspie overview: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ARTICLE5/april.html =================== 9215 (1503 posts) Jan-14-03, 05:41 AM (ET) Reply to post #38 42. Glaspie said go ahead and so did Kelly..... Saddam Hussein was given a greenlight to attack Kuwait not only by Glaspie but by Undersecretary of State John Kelly who later acknowledged this, an excerpt from a book I am writing on this subject: The U.S. 'green light' to invade would have shined ever brighter when on the eve of the invasion in a hearing held by the U.S. House of Representatives and aired over the BBC concerning Iraqi troop movements UnderSecretary of State Kelly again reinforced the notion of U.S. neutrality, if not approval, when he was asked by Rep. Lee Hamilton what the U.S. position was: ....we have no treaty, no commitment to use U.S forces...16(Dossier,pp.68-69) Compare this with Secretary of State Dean Acheson's statement made on the eve of Korean War in 1950: South Korea is not a part of the U.S. zone of Defense. 18(Dossier, pp.68-9) The Bush Administration had trouble with Glaspie and Kelly's statements, particularly Baker at the State Department. One administration official commented in Sept. 1990: Kelly and Glaspie are twisting in the wind. But what can Baker do, since they were clearly just following Department policy? (Special to the New York Times by Andrew Rosenthal titled: 'Sharp questioning by Congress Comes Amid jockeying Among Bush Officials", Sept23, 1990.) Kelly would later admit to "falsely explaining the State Dept. was unaware of Iraq's intentions. The CIA and White House knew what was coming: they made it possible for Iraq to build ups its military might to conduct such an invasion. ("Drugging America by Rodney Stich, Diablo Western Press 1999 pp. 214) This leaves little question that the US (read: Poppy Bush administration) wanted Iraq to invade Kuwait. The greenlight was given. The "Prize" was Rumaliah. They got 50% in the first war and will get the whole tamale in this new one. Yeeee,,,,Haaaawwwwww,,,, Now that's how we do it in "whipsaw" Texaaaaaaaassssssss! Yeeeee,,,,,,Haaaaaawwww. You fucking fascist bastards!!!!! Empoweryour Democrat representative. Send them important info on a topic. They will listen. Easy way to send your three national representatives e-mail with one letter: www.congress.org. ======================