Martin Amis on 9/11 and the cult of death: [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin on Sep 11, 2007 - 71 comments

Reintroducing Yvonne Ridley…
posted by hadjiboy on Jul 22, 2007 - 19 comments

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 by Postroad on Feb 10, 2005 - 57 comments

A Picture of the Future, You're not in It An address to the John F. Kennedy School of Government...September 11th, 2011
posted by timsteil on Jan 9, 2005 - 41 comments

Did a Boeing 747 really hit the Pentagon? Warning: [flash movie, sound]
posted by banished on Sep 3, 2004 - 126 comments

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 by amberglow on Aug 2, 2004 - 19 comments

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 by XQUZYPHYR on Jun 3, 2004 - 79 comments

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 by amberglow on Mar 24, 2004 - 41 comments

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 by jbou on Dec 17, 2003 - 17 comments

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 by crunchburger on Nov 14, 2003 - 14 comments

Almost two years later and they're still finding remains from the World Trade Center. Hopefully one more family gets a call they've been waiting for/dreading that their loved one is found.
posted by MediaMan on Sep 9, 2003 - 6 comments

WHO were you on September 11th? To paraphrase the political cliche, are you really different now from what you were two years ago? A collective blog project taking place in one week (of course) will try and answer that question.
posted by clevershark on Sep 4, 2003 - 60 comments

«Clearly, one of the most critical questions of the twenty-first century concerns why the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were not prevented. As I outline below, there are numerous aspects regarding the official stories about September 11th which do not fit with known facts, which contradict each other, which defy common sense, and which indicate a pattern of misinformation and coverup. The reports coming out of Washington do very little to alleviate these concerns.» 22 questions to chose from and decide which ones are nightmares of a conspiracy theorist and which ones must be answered.
posted by acrobat on Sep 4, 2003 - 70 comments

Mike Hawash pleads guilty to conspiring to provide services to the Taliban and will testify against his friends that attempted to travel to Afghanistan after September 11, 2001. After the previous MeFi threads about Mike here and here, this ought to be quite a suprise for some. No update yet on the Free Mike Hawash site.
posted by schlyer on Aug 6, 2003 - 30 comments

John Dean's analysis of the administrations case for War. "What I found, in critically examining Bush's evidence, is not pretty. The African uranium matter is merely indicative of larger problems, and troubling questions of potential and widespread criminality when taking the nation to war. It appears that not only the Niger uranium hoax, but most everything else that Bush said about Saddam Hussein's weapons was false, fabricated, exaggerated, or phony."
posted by thedailygrowl on Jul 18, 2003 - 73 comments

Department of Justice finds "significant problems" in the detainment of aliens after Sept. 11. Among the findings in the report by Glenn Fine, DoJ Inspector General: The FBI failed to distinguish between aliens arrested on suspicion of terrorist activities and those with no connection to terrorism. Some detainees did not receive notice of why they were being detained for more than a month. Many detainees were held for weeks and months without the FBI taking any action on their cases. Detainees were frequently subject to harsh conditions of confinement and many were not allowed adequate legal consultation. (Full report available here - link via Tom Tomorrow.)
posted by UKnowForKids on Jun 5, 2003 - 16 comments

The United States Goverment 911 Investigation finally opens just in time to be buried in the fog of major media coverage of War with Iraq. The commision is officially called "The National Commision on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. Another investigation has been underway on the Internet for some time now called The People's Investigation of 9/11:
posted by thedailygrowl on Apr 2, 2003 - 1 comment

Bush will raise the national terror threat level today from yellow to orange (CNN). This means little to us here in NYC where we've already been at orange. (At least that's what I've heard, although orange looks like a brownish color on my TV screen and a sort of muddy green on my computer monitor.) What, if anything, will your town, city, state, company, family do in response to this heightened threat level?
posted by jellybuzz on Feb 7, 2003 - 58 comments

The final report of the joint Congressional committee investigating the Sept. 11 attacks was released yesterday, criticizing the intelligence agencies for their failure to prevent the attacks. Senator Shelby also released a minority report, calling for senior officials to be held accountable. But perhaps more provocative is what isn't in the reports: classified information about Saudi Arabian links to U.S.-based terrorists which may not be declassified until the archives are opened in 30 years. [More inside]
posted by homunculus on Dec 12, 2002 - 14 comments

Terrorists to make us "cry on 9/13" Looks like some terrorists have been picked up on I-75 in Florida, apparently on their way to the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area. Seems like the news media is definitely glomming on to the "special dates" scenario that's been spoken about a few times, i.e. 9/11, Friday the 13th, Halloween, et al. Do you buy into that, or is it just coincidence? Watch out for terrorists at your local Shoney's!
posted by djspicerack on Sep 13, 2002 - 103 comments

George Bush's Article in NYTIMES. I was surprised to see an article by the prez on nytimes.com. We are used to presidents communicating through TV- but there the speech is picked up by all major channels in that case. It seems odd to see a sitting president use one newspaper to put forward a viewpoint. Perhaps, Al Gore's articles in the same space spurred dubya. Oh, by the way, what did you think of the story? Is this the work of a speechwriter or do you think it is genuine? Did everyone notice the absence of the word Iraq in this article? (The customary apology for the nytimes post applies. I believe you can still register as metafilter, metafilter.)
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy on Sep 11, 2002 - 36 comments

If you have dignity, the terrorists have already won Ted Rall writes about the cheesification of 9/11.
posted by hmgovt on Sep 10, 2002 - 40 comments

"Learn (America) that we can topple you along with the other big enemies" Could the US be so easy to topple? We've been told that we're not fighting a traditional war anymore (ignoring possible actions on Iraq), but it seems like a relatively small catalyst like 9.11 could forever damage the principles of due process and judicial review. Ironically, the secret and undemocratic FISC secret court may provide hope with their criticisms of the Justice Dept's blatant abuse of power, but sadly AP lists what we've lost already. If there is a formula for toppling the US in this 'new way of war,' then it sounds like we're doing it ourselves by slowly embracing the oppression of the last failed superpower. Something to think about amongst the rah-rah patriotic cheerleading that will mark the anniversery of 9.11.
posted by skallas on Sep 9, 2002 - 24 comments

Just what you've been waiting for... or maybe not! "Due to overwhelming public demand, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have decided to use the site of the World Trade Center for America's number one theme park, Twin Towers over Ground Zeroâ?¢!" Since long before Jonathan Swift, writers (and others) have used absurdity to spur discussion and spark protest. Sick of all the 9/11 glurge and tacky commercialism (1, 2, 3), a local resident continues the tradition.
posted by Modgoddess on Sep 9, 2002 - 14 comments

Plans For Iraq Attack Began On 9/11 "CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq — even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks." Rumsfeld: "Go massive ... Sweep it all up. Things related and not."
posted by owillis on Sep 5, 2002 - 61 comments

''Am I proud to have served my country? Hardly. On September 11, I will awaken at dawn. I will retrieve all my variously colored medals from their little box in my dresser drawer. I'll put my robe on, go into my daughter's room and tell her I love her. I will unlock the deadbolt (my homeland security), and proceed out the front door, remove the lid to the trashcan, and throw my medals in the garbage, where they belong." (via yellowtimes.org)

Napoleon once said he could make men fight and die for brass, and bits of colored ribbon. There will be no more fitting memorial for September 11 than destroying the symbols of a way that contributed so mightily to the terrible events of that day....an American Waterloo.
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Sep 4, 2002 - 87 comments

All Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology Why did Bin Laden's homies do what they did on September 11? Why did Lindh (as per the Steve Earle thread below) do what he did? Here is a cogent answer.
posted by kozad on Aug 21, 2002 - 19 comments

Launching this Sept 11th (ok, the 10th, but still): the DEA Museum will open a "powerful new exhibit that traces the historic and contemporary connections between global drug trafficking and terrorism." Good idea. Tasteful timing.
posted by engelr on Aug 20, 2002 - 42 comments

Xymphora blog has very interesting 9/11 details The links here suggest that the govt had more information than was initially released, and that only through piecing together various reports (here) do we get a fuller picture which seems at odds with what we had previously been told. Important: this is not a conspiracy theory but rather what seems a clarification.
posted by Postroad on Jul 23, 2002 - 25 comments

An excellent piece of media analysis by Michael Wolff in New York Magazine looking at the current summer-movie-plot version of Al Qaeda being artfully constructed by the NY Times ...
Then, perhaps most disconcertingly, the overall narrative itself is patently a dumbed-down rehash. It's Cold War stuff. There is the ubiquitous and yet unknown and unknowable enemy. There's the international jihad, which, with only minor adjustments, replaces the international communist conspiracy. There's the sudden purported hegemony of the Muslim world -- a new Soviet-bloc-style ideological monolith. There is the otherworldly dedication of operatives bent on overthrowing the West. There are the cells. There is the myth of superhuman discipline. There is now, even, the developing Kremlinology of the next tier of men who replace Osama. And at the center of the story, of course, is the bomb. Whether in massive retaliatory form or as a dirty-bomb package, it serves the same effect.
(link cribbed from Altercation)
posted by mantid on Jul 1, 2002 - 8 comments

U.S. had agents inside al-Qaeda U.S. intelligence overheard al-Qaeda operatives discussing a major pending terrorist attack in the weeks prior to Sept. 11 and had agents inside the terror group, but the intercepts and field reports didn't specify where or when a strike might occur, according to U.S. officials. ... But later in the article it says: Electronic intercepts as late as Sept. 10 of al-Qaeda members speaking cryptically of a major attack. Two U.S. intelligence officials, paraphrasing highly classified intercepts, say they include such remarks as, "Good things are coming," "Watch the news" and "Tomorrow will be a great day for us." Yeah, that whole "tomorrow" thing...that's a little tricky.
posted by dejah420 on Jun 4, 2002 - 40 comments

Why We Fight. In case you'd forgotten, William Bennett is here to remind you.
posted by Ty Webb on Apr 10, 2002 - 42 comments

INS grants visas to deceased hijackers - on Monday, the folks at Immigration and Naturalization services finally got around to issuing student visas to Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi (who were aboard the two flights that struck the WTC).
posted by tpl1212 on Mar 13, 2002 - 18 comments

"Terror Widows'' An editorial cartoon that ridicules widows of World Trade Center victims as greedy and shallow publicity hounds drew instant outrage last night from the grieving survivors. One widow was shown with a pile of cash in her lap and telling a reporter, 'I keep waiting for Kevin to come home, but I know he never will. Fortunately, the $3.2 million I collected from the Red Cross keeps me warm at night.' The NYTimes pulled the strip from its Website.
posted by matteo on Mar 6, 2002 - 52 comments

U.S. authorities had seven chances to catch the hijackers before September 11th.
posted by euphorb on Feb 13, 2002 - 3 comments

Interview with Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, the two French authors of the increasingly infamous book "Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth." That's the book in which former FBI deputy director John O'Neill claimed that U.S. oil interests were an obstacle to fighting terrorism.
posted by homunculus on Feb 8, 2002 - 4 comments

WTC Victims say the government isn't giving them enough money. Some say the government is giving them too much, and any honest libertarian will tell you that the government shouldn't be giving them anything. What do you think?
posted by insomnyuk on Jan 7, 2002 - 48 comments

Prophets of doom In June 2000, Lynne Palmer, a 69-year-old Las Vegas resident, published her Astrological Almanac for 2001... On page 95 of the book, buried among advice on the best days to go to the movies and worst days to lend people money, Palmer had written, in an odd combination of the obvious and the prophetic: "Avoid terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001."
posted by raaka on Dec 31, 2001 - 23 comments

FBI Declines to Release Hijack Flight Cockpit Tape "While we empathize with the grieving families, we do not believe that the horror captured on the cockpit voice recording will console them in any way,'' [an FBI spokesman] said. While the FBI claims they need to keep the information secret due to a criminal investigation, partial transcripts of the tape have shown up in Newsweek. If the FBI can leak to Newsweek, surely they could get the family members to sign a confidentiality agreement and let them in on the secret too, no?
posted by hitsman on Dec 21, 2001 - 76 comments

The New McCarthyism This is so scary. It doesn't seem like anything more than intimidation, but, that's now. What will happen next?
posted by bas67 on Dec 19, 2001 - 32 comments

It would be all too anticlimactic to have gotten him yet. Now it appears (or is being reported) that OBL was "spirited" away into Iran during a lull in battle when al-Qaeda forces strategically offered to surrender. The bombing momentarily ceases. Wily bin Laden gets away.
posted by crasspastor on Dec 16, 2001 - 13 comments

8 former FBI agents "have offered the first substantive critique of the Ashcroft program." A senior Justice Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that none of the changes ordered by Ashcroft would have enabled the FBI to interrupt the Sept. 11 attacks. After the rebuke mentioned previously here, perhaps the worm is turning?
posted by aflakete on Nov 27, 2001 - 10 comments

In the house of anthrax. "AMERICAN officials increasingly believe the anthrax attacks since September 11th were not carried out by people connected to al-Qaeda, but may have been the work of a lone American madman. To avert future attacks, though, perhaps they should look harder."
posted by Zool on Nov 22, 2001 - 22 comments

Bin Laden: Yes, I did it "In a previously undisclosed video which has been circulating for 14 days among his supporters, he confesses that "history should be a witness that we are terrorists. Yes, we kill their innocents". In the footage, shot in the Afghan mountains at the end of October, a smiling bin Laden goes on to say that the World Trade Centre's twin towers were a "legitimate target" and the pilots who hijacked the planes were "blessed by Allah". The killing of at least 4,537 people was justified, he claims, because they were "not civilians" but were working for the American system." (via lgf)

Evidence enough? Will this cause any in opposition to reconsider? (it's even from a British newspaper...)
posted by owillis on Nov 10, 2001 - 47 comments

California Governor Announced that there is a credible threat against the bridges of the state of California. Including the Golden Gate Bridge. The attacks are likely to take place between the second and ninth of November, during rush hour.
posted by yevge on Nov 1, 2001 - 57 comments

"The World Trade Center Attack Was Orchestrated By Demons!" (PS: Send Money.) For those of you who, like me, have been wondering what Sideshow Bob had to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the WTC attacks. [more]
posted by tpoh.org on Oct 21, 2001 - 26 comments

US Special Forces now operating in southern Afghanistan Let's pray a repeat of Mogadishu doesn't happen and any innocents on the ground aren't harmed...
posted by mmascolino on Oct 18, 2001 - 4 comments

Larry my man, you tell 'em! If this article doesn't make you puke, then September 11th was someone's birthday and they did ATTEND their party. Er....the subject matter of the article is Smart Cards.
posted by HoldenCaulfield on Oct 17, 2001 - 7 comments

2000 WMD Terrorism Chronology. A reminder that dozens of hoax anthrax letters are reported each year. There were even more in 1999.
posted by SEWilco on Oct 16, 2001 - 4 comments

"They control culture. They control ideas. And I think the revolt of Sept. 11th was about 'F--- you! F--- your order'." Maybe Oliver Stone is an idiot. Don't kill the messenger here, but I think he's on to something... [more inside]
posted by ZachsMind on Oct 15, 2001 - 57 comments