According to a recent international survey, there remains no global consensus regarding who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. "On average, 46 percent of those surveyed said al Qaeda was responsible, 15 percent said the U.S. government, 7 percent said Israel and 7 percent said some other perpetrator... The U.S. government was to blame, according to 23 percent of Germans and 15 percent of Italians." The poll was collected by World Public Opinion, a neat website filled with various polls about interesting topics.
posted on Sep 11, 2008 - View this thread

“You could almost see their dicks getting hard as they got new ideas." A Vanity Fair reporter investigates the chain of command that tossed out the Geneva Conventions and instituted coercive interrogation techniques -- some might call them torture or even war crimes -- in Bush's Global War on Terror. UC Berkeley law professor John Yoo's now-obsolete 81-page memo to the Pentagon in 2003 [available as PDFs here and here] was crucial, offering a broad range of legal justifications and deniability for disregarding international law in the name of "self-defense." Others say that Yoo was just making "a clear point about the limits of Congress to intrude on the executive branch in its exercise of duties as Commander in Chief." [previously here and here.]
posted on Apr 3, 2008 - View this thread

Saddam's Confessions - Given Saddam Hussein's central place in the American Consciousness over the last couple decades and particularly in recent years, I found 60 minutes' interview with FBI interrogator George Piro pretty fascinating.
posted on Jan 27, 2008 - View this thread

September 11, 2001. It's 10:15 am and the South Tower just went down. Millions of French people are watching the live coverage of the events on TF1, France's major TV channel, with star anchorman Poivre d'Arvor doing a running commentary. Then, for a split second, a character from a famous movie happily tells us (in French subtitles) that he "did it" (18 s in the video) (Dailymotion video).
posted on Jan 9, 2008 - View this thread

"You Don't Understand Our Audience" --what John Hockenberry (formerly of NBC, now at MIT Media Lab) learned about network news--good guys and bad guys, the "emotional center", synergy, facts, and why fewer and fewer watch nowadays.
posted on Dec 31, 2007 - View this thread

The Cruise, director Bennett Miller's timeless portrait of New York City, free thinking and the 1990s as lived by Timothy "Speed" Levitch. In eleven beats on youtube: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
posted on Oct 2, 2007 - View this thread

Lies. Tania Head told a bunch of lies about 9/11. As a fiction editor for the NY Writers Coalition, she apparently knew her fiction. I guess it's nice to feel important.
posted on Sep 28, 2007 - View this thread

Back in 2001, amateur musicians seeking exposure on my.mp3.com responded spontaneously to the 9/11 attacks by posting their own heartfelt musical tributes to the event, which included the Wings cover Taliban on the Run, the anti-abortion ambient synth rock of Unborn Baby of Tower One, and the Christian numerology of Wayne and Liz's 9-11 Warning. More recent tributes can be found on YouTube and elsewhere, including the pro-Bush emo of 9 11 Vision of You, What Does Nine 11 Mean 2 U from "blog 'n' roller" Dr. B.L.T., and the Moby-ish The 9/11 Memorial Song. Meanwhile, YouTube has inspired somebody to ponder if you can make 9/11 look more "funny" by adding the Benny Hill theme song.
posted on Sep 11, 2007 - View this thread

Martin Amis on 9/11 and the cult of death:
posted on Sep 11, 2007 - View this thread

Giuliani promises a bigger longer war than we got right now with W. This from a guy that used his command center in NYC as a love nest. Of course, the Onion sums it up best.
posted on Aug 17, 2007 - View this thread

Rule 34 is alive and well. Latest example: 9/11 Terror Porn. [NSFW, requires login and as always via]
posted on Aug 7, 2007 - View this thread

Zeitgeist, the movie [Google Video link embedded] - An interesthing, if bizarre, mix of buffed-up comparative mythology, 9/11 conspiracy theories and New world order rambling about banks, loans, debts and war. Is paranoia the spirit of our times?
posted on Jul 26, 2007 - View this thread

Ward Churchill fired. The Colorado Board of Regents made a point to say that he was not fired for the infamous essay in which he called financial workers killed in the World Trade Center attack to "little Eichmanns" for their role in facilitating US corporate financial interests. They insist that he was fired for "serious, repeated and deliberate research misconduct that falls below the minimum standard of professional integrity, including fabrication, falsification, improper citation and plagiarism," allegations made against Churchill even before his controversial post-9/11 remarks. While others warned that the firing signaled a breach of academic freedom and assault on the idea of tenure itself, Churchill announced he is suing the university. (previously)
posted on Jul 25, 2007 - View this thread

Reintroducing Yvonne Ridley…
posted on Jul 22, 2007 - View this thread

The "same people who attacked us on 9/11"? It may be the very latest talking point from the Administration, but it's actually true--altho it's not Al Qaeda in Iraq, but Saudis. Although Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran, accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia ... A historical note: 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis.
posted on Jul 16, 2007 - View this thread

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip ends tonight, and Aaron Sorkin will be leaving television production for a while. His current project is Charlie Wilson's War, a movie starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman, based on the late George Crile's excellent, funny nonfic book of the same name. The movie will trace "party animal" Congressman Charles "Good Time Charlie" Wilson's (D, TX) rise from a scandal (he was caught in "a hot tub tryst with two cocaine-sniffing showgirls in Las Vegas",) to his role in the 1980's covertly funding Afghanistan guerrillas so they could expand their war with the Soviet Union. Wilson's actions would eventually help collapse the Afghan PDPA government, a power vacuum which would be filled by the Taliban. Who would have thought ending the Cold War would be so easy?
posted on Jun 28, 2007 - View this thread

Simulated jet colliding with the World Trade Center: Researchers at Purdue University have created a simulation to study in detail what likely happened when a commercial airliner crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower on Sept. 11, 2001. Youtube link.
posted on Jun 25, 2007 - View this thread

Remember this picture? Arguably the most famous flag raised since this one was, and apparently its now gone missing. And now the three firefighters who didn't know they were being photographed won't talk to the press about a flag appraised to be worth over $500K.
posted on Aug 31, 2006 - View this thread

David Brin -- hoping to rescue modernity Quote: -- "... I have spoken before of the blatant -- and yet never-reported -- pattern shown by more than a hundred members of the United States Congress, appointing young cadets to the US Military Academies according to one criterion above all others -- their depth of religious zealotry. This infusion of young officers who believe in a coming apocalypse is discreetly worrisome at West Point and Annapolis, but it has already had newsworthy effects at the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs. A town that is also now known as a main locus and training center for fanatics bent on dominating American civilization. (see) This coincidence... one of many that simply cannot be coincidence... should be tallied and noted. See also this in recent -- 11/26 -- news "... Among the steps already taken by the Pentagon that enhanced its domestic capabilities was the establishment after 9/11 of Northern Command, or Northcom, in Colorado Springs, to provide military forces to help in reacting to terrorist threats in the continental United States. Today, Northcom's intelligence centers in Colorado and Texas fuse reports from CIFA, the FBI and other U.S. agencies, and are staffed by 290 intelligence analysts. That is more than the roughly 200 analysts working for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and far more than those at the Department of Homeland Security...."
posted on Nov 28, 2005 - View this thread

9/11 Report Cites Many Warnings About Hijackings Rice claimed we were totally surprised by 9/11...not so! "In the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal aviation officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports that warned about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations, according to a previously undisclosed report from the 9/11 commission....
posted on Feb 10, 2005 - View this thread

A Picture of the Future, You're not in It An address to the John F. Kennedy School of Government...September 11th, 2011
posted on Jan 9, 2005 - View this thread

Let's Roll !!! Does Donald Rumsfield contradicting the official US record harm America?
posted on Dec 27, 2004 - View this thread

The original thread as posted here on metafilter. On the first anniversary this thread consisted mainly of links related to the terrorist attacks. Last year was this thread. Remember those who were lost in this one thread, please, without the politics.
posted on Sep 11, 2004 - View this thread

Project Rebirth went live today. Six time-lapse cameras are shooting one frame of film every five minutes from rooftops near the World Trade Center site. Explore the cameras, or watch the (rather lovely) film trailer.
posted on Sep 8, 2004 - View this thread

Did a Boeing 747 really hit the Pentagon? Warning: [flash movie, sound]
posted on Sep 3, 2004 - View this thread

Half of New Yorkers Believe US Leaders Had Foreknowledge of Impending 9-11 Attacks and “Consciously Failed” To Act; 66% Call For New Probe of Unanswered Questions by Congress or New York’s Attorney General, New Zogby International Poll Reveals On the eve of a Republican National Convention invoking 9/11 symbols, sound bytes and imagery, half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall say that some of our leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act," according to the poll conducted by Zogby International. The poll of New York residents was conducted from Tuesday August 24 through Thursday August 26, 2004. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/-3.5. This is probably bad news for Rudy Giuliani.
posted on Aug 31, 2004 - View this thread

Michael Moore rips Bush yet another one. While making Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore interviewed Porter Goss, President Bush's as-yet-to-be-approved nominee for head of the CIA. In the interview, Porter Goss said he wasn't qualified to even be in the CIA anymore, much less run it.

"It is true I was a case officer, clandestine services officer, and yes, I do understand the core mission of the business. But I couldn't get a job with the CIA today. I am not qualified. I don't have the language skills. You know my language skills were romance languages and stuff. We're looking for Arabists today. I don't have the cultural background probably, and I certainly don't have the technical skills, as my children remind me every day. "Daddy, Daddy, you gotta get better on your computer." And so the things you need to have, I don't have."

The video is available here. (Quicktime.)
posted on Aug 12, 2004 - View this thread

a letter to Thomas Kean, Chair of the 9/11 Commission from Sibel Edmonds: Unfortunately, I find your report seriously flawed in its failure to address serious intelligence issues that I am aware of, which have been confirmed, and which as a witness to the commission, I made you aware of. Thus, I must assume that other serious issues that I am not aware of were in the same manner omitted from your report. These omissions cast doubt on the validity of your report and therefore on its conclusions and recommendations. Considering what is at stake, our national security, we are entitled to demand answers to unanswered questions, and to ask for clarification of issues that were ignored and/or omitted from the report. A solid letter detailing many disturbing things reported to the Commission, yet not in the report. More on Edmonds here.
posted on Aug 2, 2004 - View this thread

Correcting the Record. In meticulous detail the 9/11 commission's report found that the hijackers had repeatedly broken the law in entering the United States, that Mr. bin Laden may have micromanaged the attacks but did not pay for them, that intelligence agencies had considered the threat of suicide hijackings, and that Mr. Bush received an August 2001 briefing on evidence of continuing domestic terrorist threats from Al Qaeda.
posted on Jul 25, 2004 - View this thread

The 9/11 Commission Report. In HTML with permalinked paragraphs, courtesy kottke. Also available in .pdf format from the WaPo.
posted on Jul 22, 2004 - View this thread

The Road to Tyranny (Realvideo). A sensational and informative film by Alex Jones. Ignore the presentation, or, consider it entertainment if you wish, but there's some pretty good content in there including some surprising news footage from the aftermath of the OKC bombing 19 minutes in.
posted on Jul 13, 2004 - View this thread

Read-a-long-a-Fahrenheit-9/11. Michael Moore posts six pages of quotes and links to back up his movie. And since he doesn't mind you downloading it, why not watch it on your computer and fact-check his ass as you go?
posted on Jul 13, 2004 - View this thread

The trailer for Fahrenheit 9/11 is now online, and the official U.S. opening date has been set for June 25. Long wait, and long download for some bandwidths, but worth it.
posted on Jun 3, 2004 - View this thread

F.A.A. Official Scrapped Tape of 9/11 Controllers' Statements Shit happens? Or does it? " At least six air traffic controllers who dealt with two of the hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, made a tape recording that day describing the events, but the tape was destroyed by a supervisor without anyone making a transcript or even listening to it, the Transportation Department said today."
posted on May 6, 2004 - View this thread

You might know Ernie Barnes from Sports Illustrated, or from a Marvin Gaye album cover. He has a powerful 9/11 painting. This past February he was named “America’s Best Painter of Sports” by the Board of Trustees of the American Sport Art Museum.
posted on May 5, 2004 - View this thread

September 11th panel working to overcome conspiracy theories.
posted on Apr 25, 2004 - View this thread

Questions Condoleezza Rice must answer Guardian’s Mark Oliver considers the likely lines of inquiry the US national security adviser will face today from the commission investigating the September 11 attacks.
posted on Apr 8, 2004 - View this thread

Missile Defense- the biggest security lapse on 9/11. Condoleeza Rice was to deliver a speech regarding the White House's position on national security on September 11th, 2001. The speech contained no mention of al-Qaeda and stated missile defense as the central focus of security, implicating Bill Clinton for "not doing enough about the real threat - long-range missiles." An interesting revelation coming from the campaign claiming their opponents are "wrong on defense."
posted on Apr 1, 2004 - View this thread

Pentagon Flunky Misplaces 9/11 Talking Points at Starbucks A Pentagon employee left documents with talking points to help Donald Rumsfeld deal with questions about 9/11 on Sunday political chat shows. The employee is almost certainly due to get fired, because the documents even included a hand-drawn map to Donald Rumsfeld's house! (Note: documents in pdf file.)
posted on Mar 31, 2004 - View this thread

DOJ Asked FBI Translator To Change Pre 9-11 Intercepts --- FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, was offered a substantial raise and a full time job in order to not go public that she had been asked by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to retranslate and adjust the translations of [terrorist] subject intercepts that had been received before September 11, 2001 by the FBI and CIA.  "My translations of the pre 9-11 intercepts included [terrorist] money laundering, detailed and date specific information enough to alert the American people, and other issues dating back to 1999 which I won't go into right now." Incredibly, Edmonds said "The senate Judiciary Committee, and the 911 Commission have heard me  testify for  lengthy periods of time time (3 hours) about very specific plots, dates, airplanes used as weopons, and specific idividuals and activities." Is this true? and OMFG
posted on Mar 24, 2004 - View this thread

Why is C-Span downplaying the 9/11 Hearings? I don't even get C-Span 3 with my cable company. Is this a pattern?
posted on Mar 24, 2004 - View this thread

FORMER WHITE HOUSE TERRORISM ADVISOR: BUSH ADMIN WAS DISCUSSING BOMBING IRAQ FOR 9/11 DESPITE KNOWING AL QAEDA WAS TO BLAME Former White House terrorism advisor Richard Clarke tells Lesley Stahl that on September 11, 2001 and the day after - when it was clear Al Qaeda had carried out the terrorist attacks - the Bush administration was considering bombing Iraq in retaliation. Clarke's exclusive interview will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday March 21 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Clarke was surprised that the attention of administration officials was turning toward Iraq when he expected the focus to be on Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. "They were talking about Iraq on 9/11. They were talking about it on 9/12," says Clarke
posted on Mar 19, 2004 - View this thread

The great escape - Immediately after 9/11, dozens of Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family fled the U.S. in a secret airlift authorized by the Bush White House. One passenger was an alleged al-Qaida go-between, who may have known about the terror attacks in advance. Salon's first excerpt from Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud. You'll watch an ad for Schindler's List on DVD and then...
posted on Mar 11, 2004 - View this thread

Rejected 9/11 Memorial Designs are now online. All 5,201 of them. My favorite is the apple on a spike. Some question the taste of designs that use ghostly jet planes, pez dispenser-like structures or giant red question marks as motifs. Luminaries such as the inventor of the artificial heart and Marky Mark participated. Maybe there's an overlooked work of genius in here. Or maybe not.
posted on Feb 20, 2004 - View this thread

9/11 report preview "As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen." We must wait till January for the full report.
posted on Dec 17, 2003 - View this thread

Howard Dean reamed by RNC chairman after his 911 comment on the Diane Rehm show "Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie blasted Democratic presidential frontrunner Howard Dean on Friday for suggesting that President Bush may have been warned in advance about the 9/11 attacks." Perhaps Mr.Gillespie didn't take the time to read the Newsweek article suggesting the same thing or perhaps he hasn't read of these predominately major media stories that call into question the administration's no prior knowledge claim. Just wondering?
posted on Dec 6, 2003 - View this thread

Did you die on 9/11? If so, the government would like a word with you.
A woman whose husband died in the WTC disaster received a letter today from the Department of Commerce, requesting the deceased's assistance with their investigations. Presumably, many of the other victim's families received this letter too.
After all, they *were* witnesses, weren't they?!
posted on Dec 6, 2003 - View this thread

Why use an ax when you can use a bulldozer? Der Spiegel article, summarizing what we have learned about the inception and planning of the 9/11 attack from interrogating captured planners.
posted on Nov 14, 2003 - View this thread

CBC's long-running series The Fifth Estate recently ran a very unsettling episode (in Canada) entitled 'Conspiracy Theories'. The show dealt with all manner of claims surrouding 9-11 including a possible US/Saudi/Bin Laden connection, major intelligence breakdowns, etc. Their website provides further reading for those who like to believe the worst.
posted on Nov 7, 2003 - View this thread

Secret 9/11 case before high court
"It's the case that doesn't exist. Even though two different federal courts have conducted hearings and issued rulings, there has been no public record of any action. No documents are available. No files. No lawyer is allowed to speak about it. Period."
posted on Nov 3, 2003 - View this thread