• We Are Not At War--The 9/11 bombings Are Crimes Against Humanity
  
  The bombings of 11 September 2001 are clearly crimes against humanity (as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court) because they are deliberate and intentional killing of large numbers of civilians for political or other purposes. [See Crimes Against Humanity, Interview with former Nuremberg Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz, The World Online, 19 Sep 2001] After 9/11, people in the United States Executive Branch immediately chose to label the bombings as an act of war by a foreign aggressor rather than as a criminal act requiring redress through legal remedies.
  
  But we are not at war. The 9/11 bombings were a crime against humanity mass murder of civilians. The U.N. Security Council rejected Bush II's bid to label the bombings an "armed attack" by one state against another state. The resolution that was passed denominated these events as "terrorist attacks." As international law professor Francis Boyle points out,

  "there is a magnitude of difference between an armed attack by one state against another state, which is an act of war, and a terrorist attack, which is not. . . . terrorists are dealt with as criminals. Terrorists are not treated like nation states. Terrorists are dealt with by means of international and domestic law enforcement. Terrorists are not given the dignity of special status under international law and practice."

  [See We Are Not At War--The 9/11 bombings were Crimes Against Humanity by David Ratcliffe, rat haus reality press, May 2003 and George Bush, Jr., September 11th and the Rule of Law, from The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence - Could The US War On Terrorism Go Nuclear?, by Francis Boyle, Clarity Press, 1 February 2002] There is much to be done to challenge and dispell the bewitchment that "we are at war."
  
  
  
• We Do Not Know The Actual Sponsorship of 9/11
  
  The sole case presented against Osama bin Laden & Al Qaeda for the 9/11 bombings was a white paper entitled, "Responsibility for the terrorist atrocities in the United States." Published in October 2001 by Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, this work acknowledges up front that it would not stand up in a court of law:

  "This document does not purport to provide a prosecutable case against Usama Bin Laden in a court of law. Intelligence often cannot be used evidentially, due both to the strict rules of admissibility and to the need to protect the safety of sources. But on the basis of all the information available HMG is confident of its conclusions as expressed in this document."

  The above statement is a classic example of how the authority of our national security state structure is founded on unaccountability, the antithesis of a truly democratic governing process. With the intrinsic use of secrecy and wholesale suppression of information, we are consistently relegated to an infantile status of not knowing the full scope of reasoning officials employ in their policy and law-making decisions.
  
  This white paper was the only so-called proof given by Bush II for its claims of 9/11 sponsorship and it was not even authored by the United States government or an American citizen. We still do not know what interests actually directed and engineered the 9/11 bombings as Gore Vidal points out in his illuminating October 2002 essay, "The Enemy Within":

  "The media, never much good at analysis, are more and more breathless and incoherent. On CNN, even the stolid Jim Clancy started to hyperventilate when an Indian academic tried to explain how Iraq was once our ally and `friend' in its war against our Satanic enemy Iran. `None of that conspiracy stuff,' snuffed Clancy. Apparently, `conspiracy stuff' is now shorthand for unspeakable truth. . . .

  "Mohammed Heikal is a brilliant Egyptian journalist-observer, and sometime Foreign Minister. On 10 October 2001, he said to the Guardian: `Bin Laden does not have the capabilities for an operation of this magnitude. When I hear Bush talking about al-Qaeda as if it were Nazi Germany or the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, I laugh because I know what is there. Bin Laden has been under surveillance for years: every telephone call was monitored and al-Qaeda has been penetrated by US intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, Saudi intelligence, Egyptian intelligence. They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organisation and sophistication.'"

  [See Section 3 of Foreknowledge of 9-11, A Compilation of Centre for Research on Globalisation articles and documents - The so-called "war on Terrorism" is a total fabrication: Who "harbors" whom? Osama-CIA links. Washington's has consistently supported and abeted Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, from the Cold War to the present (2002)] On 13 January 2002 in an interview with the Berlin Tagesspiegel daily, former German Minister of Technology, Andreas von Buelow gave his assessment of the level of sponsorship necessary to carry out the 9/11 bombings:

  "I can state: the planning of the attacks was technically and organizationally a master achievement. To hijack four huge airplanes within a few minutes and within one hour, to drive them into their targets, with complicated flight maneuvers! This is unthinkable, without years-long support from secret apparatuses of the state and industry."

  
  
  
• The Complete 9/11 Timeline from The Center for Cooperative Research (CCR)
  
  Paul Thompson's exemplary research work, The Complete 9/11 Timeline (except for the title of this section all links reference the billstclair.com mirror which loads more quickly) is the most significant, exhaustive body of cross-referenced information available that assembles the mass of relevant commercial press articles (as well as other sources) in one place to connect the dots through an "hourglass lens" made up of five subdivisions: from 1979 to Dec. 2000 + Jan 2001 to 9/10/01, the Day of 9/11 itself, followed by 9/12/01 to Dec 2001 + Jan 2002 to the present.
  
  This monumental work is freely available on the net in its entirety. It includes immensely detailed timelines of each of the four flights journeys as well as Bush on 9/11. In-depth essays focus on especially noteworthy threads. As Paul explains, these works "help clarify some aspects of 9/11 [and] can help make some complicated aspects of the timeline easier to understand. Included in this group are:
  
  
  • "The Two Ziad Jarrahs" - Ziad Jarrah was in the two different places at the same time on more than one occasion. (24 Aug 2002)
  • "Sept. 11's Smoking Gun: The Many Faces of Saeed Sheikh" - His actions prove the involvement of Pakistan's secret service in the September 11 attacks, and suggest a possible CIA role as well. (4 Sep 2002)
  • "They Tried to Warn Us: Foreign Intelligence Warnings Before 9/11" - Putting together all the missed foreign intelligence warnings, one can see a pattern. (30 Jan 2003)
  • "Is There More to the Capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Than Meets the Eye?" - The official story of his arrest is a mass of lies, cover-ups and contradictions. It is highly likely Mohammed was not arrested on the day officials say he was. (4 Mar 2003)
  • "An Interesting Day: George Bush Jr. on 9/11" - The press has failed to ask questions about what Bush did on 9/11 and why. His strange behavior and the obvious cover-up stories demands an explanation. (9 May 2003, by Allan Wood and Paul Thompson)
  • "The Failure to Defend the Skies on 9/11" - Had the US's air defenses been properly managed on 9/11, all of the trajedies of that day except for the crash of Flight 11 could have been averted. (29 May 2003)
  
  Summaries have also been created because "as the timeline grows ever longer, its becoming harder and harder to keep track of certain patterns of information. The `Categories' can help with this, but some stories cut across categories." These include timeline summaries on "9/11 Paymaster Saeed Sheikh," "9/11 Mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed," "ISI Director Mahmood Ahmed," "Would Be Hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui," and "Foreign Intelligence Warnings."
  
  At some point in the past, this work might have been investigated and produced by the fourth estate. In our current era of corporate governance, this caliber of independent thinking and exercising our faculties for critical analysis falls to each of us as co-creators of the nascent participatory democracy we choose to manifest in our own lives and actions. Thompson's reasoning is articulate and well-concieved. As he points out in the introduction:

  "The mainstream media is the one that's failed to `connect the dots'. There are an amazing amount of intriguing news stories that have squeaked into the media but not reached a wide audience, and/or have not been properly followed up or placed into context. I haven't seen anything that pulls it all together, so I've felt compelled to make this.
  
  "You might call some or all of this `conspiracy theory.' The term `conspiracy theory' is bandied about to discredit ideas that run counter to what is widely believed. But sometimes the official story turns out to be a lie -- look at what the Nixon Administration was claiming and the press generally reporting when the Watergate story was in its early stages, for instance. The alternative to conspiracy is coincidence theory. At some point, when enough `dots' line up, the thought that everything is just coincidence becomes the wildest theory of all.
  
  "To be honest, I don't know exactly what happened on 9-11. I have my theories and hunches, but its an extremely complicated plot, and there are a number of plausible explanations for part or all of the story's aspects. Also, I don't want to force my ideas down your throat. I'm using the timeline to draw attention to interesting stories that you may not have read. I have tried to let the stories speak for themselves, and reduce my voice as much as possible. When I do add my own comments, I put those at the end of a summary in question form and in italics. I hope you come to your own conclusions.
  
  "This timeline is veeeeery, very long. It's chock-full of information and may be difficult to get through. You may want to tackle a bit at a time (and if you're impatient, start from around July 2001 to get to the `good stuff'). But 9/11 was possibly one of the most pivotal events in world history, and it's impact will be felt on everyone for years to come. You owe it to yourself to go beyond the sound bites and the simplified official story. This is an extremely complicated story with numerous players and motives. Not everything makes sense or fits neatly together. It's a story full of espionage, deceit, and brazen lies. But if there are forces out there tricking us, they can only succeed if we, the general public, remain ignorant and passive."

  The Complete 9/11 Timeline will be released in book form including foreign language editions. If you're interested in purchasing it, please sign up here, and CCR will send you a notice when the book is available to order. The more interest expressed in the book, the more publishers will promote the book. So please sign up and spread the news!
  
  
  
• 9/11 CitizensWatch
  
  9/11 CitizensWatch is a watchdog group looking to discover the truth about the causes, events and responses to the attacks of September 11, 2001. In this capacity it serves to monitor the National Commission on Terrorists Acts Upon the United States (9/11 Commission). It is based in Washington, D.C. and New York City.
  
  9/11 CitizensWatch is a non-partisan grass-roots advocacy group created to insure transparency, accountability, public testimony, an open record and a thorough investigation of 9/11 by all levels of government inquiry. It also serve as a liaison to the Commission for issues and questions raised by families of victims and independent researchers.
  
  The Importance of Uncovering the Truth About 9/11
  
  9/11 is the pretext being used to justify a "war that won't end in our lifetimes," being waged in pre-emptive interventions in over 50 countries and here at home. Yet, twenty months after the event we still don't have a full and formal accounting of the September 11th attacks.
  
  An extensive body of evidence and well-documented analysis has called into question the official story and the extreme responses that followed 9/11 raises questions about the administration's on-going obstruction and delay of a full and impartial investigation that searches for the truth and demands accountability.
  
  Fundamental baseline questions articulated by 9/11 CitizensWatch include:
  
  
  1. Why in the months before 9/11 did FBI headquarters consistently obstruct field agent investigations of potential terrorists or terrorist financiers?
  2. Why were many detailed warnings from the intelligence services of Britain, Germany, Israel, Egypt, Russia, Italy, and other foreign governments ignored?
  3. Why were some prominent travelers warned not to fly on 9/11?
  4. Why in the days immediately before 9/11 were there massive spikes in the number of "puts" on the stocks of airline and insurance companies?
  5. Why did the chief of Pakistani Intelligence, Gen. Mahmoud Ahmed, approve over $100,000 in wire transfers to Mohammed Atta prior to the attacks?
  6. Why in the 1 hour and 20 minutes after the onset of a multiple hijacking, with hundreds dead or dying in the Twin Towers, and a third jet hurtling to our nation's capitol did no USAF, Navy or Air National Guard fighter defend the Pentagon?
  7. From investigator and former NBC reporter/producer Daniel Hopsicker's Florida investigation: Why do eyewitness accounts of the behavior and movements of lead hijacker Mohammed Atta conflict with the findings of the government investigation?
  8. Why in the wake of the most cataclysmic intelligence and air defense failures in American history have no government officials or Pentagon brass been held accountable for the September 11 tragedy?
  9. Why, in the wake of the most cataclysmic intelligence and air defense failures in American history, have responsible government officials and Pentagon brass been rewarded with promotions?
  10. Why did the Bush/Cheney Administration for over a year stonewall victims' family members demands for a full independent investigation?
  11. Why, after 9/11, are new government contracts being issued to private government contractors who have never been accountable for $3.3 trillion of "undocumentable adjustments" in the accounting and information systems they manage?
  
  A 9/11 CitizensWatch member attended the third public hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks and Press Briefing held on 9 Jul 2003 and passed out a list of questions about the terrorists addressed to Al Felzenberg, the National Commission's Deputy for Communications. Excerpts from the full list follow.

  These are the major outstanding questions that the 9/11 CitizensWatch has been asking:
  
  

  1. Were all the 19 suspects named and pictured by the FBI in press reports actually on the planes on 9/11?
     • 8 people came forward in Egypt and Saudi Arabia after the incident claiming that the pictures and names listed were their own, but they were still alive and not aboard the planes....
     • Was there false sponsorship involved? Were some or all of the suspects using false identities? What is the historical relationship between Al Quaeda, the Taliban and the broader mujehaddin movement they sprang from in Afghanistan and US intelligence operations and proxies in the area being used as their assets?
     
     
  2. Was the creation, support and funding of Al Quaeda and Bin Laden's activities funnelled through Pakistani intelligence (ISI)? (See: Unholy Wars by John Cooley [2d ed. 2000, 3d ed. 2002], Taliban by Ahmed Rashid)
     • Was the source of that support for the mujehaddin and Al Quaeda primarily American CIA funding, Saudi Arabian funding, and opium funding? (See: Unholy Wars by John Cooley)
     • Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor for President Carter seems to have developed the strategy and policy of containment and control of Eurasia and the collapse of the Soviet Union, relying on the creation of the mujehaddin to destabilize the region as well as introduction of US forces ... to capture control of the oil and other assets of the Caspian Sea Basin as well as the former Soviet Union itself. (The Grand Chessboard, Brzesinski).
     • William Casey, former DCI at the CIA under President Reagan developed at least two large "off-the-shelf" covert operations that carried out US foreign policies abroad without Congressional or public approval, both with similar funding and operational sources. Funding for the first, the mujehaddin movement in Afghanistan and elsewhere, came from CIA through ISI and from Saudi Arabia through Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).... The second, Contragate, was similarly funded through CIA and BCCI, and followed the same pattern of ties to paramilitary groups and illicit drug profits. Major personnel from the second operation are now in positions of considerable power throughout the current administration (Poindexter, Abrams, Reich, Armitage and others). A similar pattern of CIA backed forces using drug profits in the region, and involving Bin Laden and Al Quaeda was apparent in the Kosovo Liberation Army operations during the Bosnia conflict. (Drugs, Oil, and War, Peter Dale Scott)...
     • The investigation of Al Quaeda by former FBI agent John O'Neill, later director of security at the Twin Towers and a victim of the attack, which was based on information stemming from the 1993 attack on the Towers, was apparently frustrated by the FBI, leading to his resignation. What has been done to follow up on his work and those who stymied it?
     
     
  3. What is the actual history of the movements and relations of the 19 suspects inside and outside the United States in the years prior to the attack?...
     • Do the 19 suspects show sufficient motivation, capablilities and discipline, or religious fervor in their personal lives to carry out a "suicide mission"? Were they devout Muslims? Were they well-trained pilots capable of the "dogfight" maneuvers taken by the planes that day, especially by Flight 77? Were they disciplined or trained elements of a paramilitary operation?
     • Were or are there existing or ongoing connections between Bin Laden, his family and President Bush, his father, and their corporate and administrative allies and friends?
     
     
  4. What was the relationship of major oil companies who provided key figures in both Bush administrations, and their suppliers (Unocal, Haliburton, Enron) to the Taliban? Did the refusal of the Taliban to accommodate a planned oil pipeline through Afghanistan lead to plans for their removal that predated 9/11? (Taliban by Ahmed Rashid).
     • What was the role of the Carlyle Group or Haliburton in investments relating to defense production and the wars that followed 9/11 and their link to major adminstration figures and planners as well as to the Bush and Bin Laden families?
     • Were members of the Bin Laden family allowed to fly out of the United States after 9/11 when other air transport was cancelled? Who arranged for this departure? Was Osama Bin Laden really ostracized by his family, or were there ongoing relations as reported in the international press, including visits at an American-run hospital at Dubai where Osama had medical treatments?
     • Were Bin Laden and key Al Quaeda elements allowed to escape from Tora Bora by US forces, as claimed by some personnel present?...

  
  This list is not exhaustive, but is indicative of some of the questions researchers and family members and the public have been concerned with regarding the suspects named as responsible for 9/11, their true sponsorship, and the historical and more current relationship of US covert intelligence operations and assets and those now pitted against us in the "war on terrorism"....

  
  
  
• Film Transcripts/Recordings
  
  
  • Aftermath: Unanswered Questions From 911, Guerrilla News Network
  • The Great Deception - What really happened on Sept. 11, 2001 from VisionTV's Insight Mediafile hosted by Barrie Zwicker, Insight Media Analyst, Jan-Feb 2002
  • Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death, by Scottish journalist Jamie Doran and Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi. This film, documenting that U.S. troops were complicit in the alleged massacre of 3,000 Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan, first premiered in the U.S. on 23 May 2003 on Democracy Now!'s public radio and television show.
  
  
  
• Additional References
  
  
  • What the World Wants -- and How To Pay For It Using Military Expenditures, a project of the World Game Institute
  • Text and analysis of the `USA PATRIOT Act' and Draft: The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003
  • The Federalist Society: Hijacking Justice, by George Curry & Trevor Coleman, Emerge, October 1999
  • Perversions of Justice, talk by Ward Churchill, 2/22/03
  • Impeach Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld Campaign
  • SITE REPLICA: Policy Analysis Market - betting on war, capitalism's logical endstate
  • Peter Dale Scott: On War, 9/11, Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Drugs, Oil, Iraq, and Osama bin Laden
  • Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is published in Media Monitors; and see his book, The War on Freedom, How and Why America was Attacked September 11, 2001 (July 2002)
  • The Secret Team, The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World, by L. Fletcher Prouty, Col., U.S. Air Force (Ret.), 1973, 1997
  • Understanding Special Operations, And Their Impact on The Vietnam War Era - 1989 Interview with L. Fletcher Prouty, Colonel USAF (Retired), by David T. Ratcliffe, 1999.
  • The Gatekeepers, The Progressive / Left establishment and the marginalization of conspiracy research
  • 9/11 Primer: Broadening Our Perspectives of 11 September 2001, by David T. Ratcliffe, September 2002
  • Sanctions and War on Iraq: In 300 words - Citizens Concerned for the People of Iraq, 8/11/02
  • truthout, CommonDreams, Online Journal, and CounterPunch - a more representative lens of all our humanity
  • The Emperor's New Clothes independent analysis includes a listing of Articles On 9-11
  • Uprooting "Growth" as Metaphor: 20th Century Reflections for the 21st, by Richard Grossman, 1999
  • The Rule Of Law versus Democracy, by Doug Hammerstrom, Winter 2002
  • Richard Grossman on the USA Patriot Act and the Rule of Law, 12/11/01
  • Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II by William Blum (1995, revised 2001)
  • Faculty Lecture on Bio/Warfare/Terrorism/Weapons  -  Francis A. Boyle, 4/18/02
  • The Sunshine Project - research and facts about biological weapons and biotechnology
  • Council for Responsible Genetics fosters public debate about the social, ethical and environmental implications of genetic technologies