"Israel's war is no longer its alone" The Jerusalem Post September 13, 2001 By Tom Rose NEW YORK (September 13) - "One of the most heinous acts in world history," was how Mayor Rudolph Giuliani described Tuesday's unprecedented attack upon his city and the US. When and if a final death count is ever completed, the numbers will no doubt back him up. As of late yesterday afternoon, giant plumes of smoke from the collapsed towers of the World Trade Center were still visible from dozens of miles away and the acrid stench of the cataclysmic explosions was still pungent as far away as midtown. America is under assault as never before, and all this witness to the cataclysm can think about is a conversation I had in the elevator on the way up to 110th floor of the World Trade Center 18 hours before it was destroyed. Having just arrived from Jerusalem, I found myself with an hour between sales calls and decided to do what millions of others have done before me. I forked over $13.50 and was shuffled into the large elevator that shuttled tourists to the top of the symbol of New York. Standing next to the door, I struck up a conversation with the man operating the elevator, a strikingly pleasant, hard-working fellow in his late 50s. When asked, this native of mainland China said he came to America in 1994 because he wanted his children to have a better life than he had. It was the same thing that brought my grandmother's family from Poland. The same thing that brought all of us. Like thousands of others, that man was undoubtedly at work when the towers were destroyed. I wonder if he is still alive. I woke up yesterday morning worried about the safety of my family, left behind in Jerusalem. Did my son make it home from school safely? Did my wife manage to get all the chores she had planned in town completed in safety? By breakfast time, they were the ones worried about me. I was fine I assured them. "Hurry home", said my wife. To Jerusalem? Hurry home? Yes, it is true, Jerusalem, the capital of a besieged Israel suddenly seems safe. Certainly safer than New York. At least for now. At least until the US is able to implement and adjust to the measures necessary to survive and function in the face of a new enemy and a new kind of warfare. A kind of enemy and warfare Israel has faced for decades. A warfare that knows no refuge and spares no one. A warfare where women and children are the desired targets, not collateral damage. It has been said that in the war against terrorism, Israel is the world's miner's canary. Before subjecting themselves to potential threats of noxious fumes, miners used to lower canaries into their mines to see if the air below was breathable. The sad lesson of yesterday was that the fumes of terrorism are more toxic than anyone in America could bring himself to believe. While Israel was the first democracy to find itself fighting terror every day and on all fronts, it was destined not to be the last. Just as the Jewish people throughout history have often been the first to suffer new kinds of discrimination, punishment, and genocide, we have never been the last. Those who have been wishing and working to destroy Israel for decades have now declared war on their ultimate and real target. Israel's war is no longer its alone. It has now struck at the heart of the greatest power in the world. How that power responds to an attack against the very symbols of its economic and military might will almost surely shape the contours of the world our children are destined to inherit. If still alive, perhaps the World Trade Center elevator operator I met could help us muster some of the strength free countries will need to fight back. Perhaps he would tell us that, in his native Chinese, the words for "crisis" and "opportunity" are one in the same. Perhaps Americans, now united in their grief, will soon emerge united in purpose, committed to what Abraham Lincoln called "a new birth of freedom" and resolved to take the steps necessary to protect its institutions and its people. As Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Tuesday: "Tonight, all Israelis are Americans." Today, America can use all the help it can get from here on Earth and from heaven above. (The writer is the publisher of The Jerusalem Post.)

WCBS 2 - 1st Marcia Kramer report on arrests with Truckload of Explosives on George Washington Bridge - 10:25 PM 9/11/2001

Reuters report on Palestinian group DFLP taking credit for 9/11 attacks as Twin Towers are burning ABC NEWS 9-11-2001 9:40 A.M.

Message from Saddam Hussein to U.S. - September 15th 2001 "America needs wisdom not force. Will the rulers of America try wisdom just for once so that their people can live in security and stability?" Saddam says he doubts the White House would respond violently if the attackers were from a Western country. "Just like your beautiful skyscrapers were destroyed and saddened you, beautiful buildings and homes dear to their peoples were damaged in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq by American weapons, some of them used by the Zionists."

NBC obtains scripted video of 9/11 Flight 93 hijacker Ziad Jarrah

Channel 4 UK Documentary, 2004 (feat: Urban Moving Systems/Dancing Israelis)

"Bin Laden suspected of responsibility for attacks" The Jerusalem Post September 11, 2001 By Miriam Shaviv Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden is responsible for today's terrorist attacks in the United States, according to a senior US official and former prime minister Ehud Barak. The ruling Taliban regime in Afghanistan, where Bin Laden is believed to be based, condemned the attacks. It said Bin Laden could not be responsible for the attacks, saying they were beyond his capabilities. Early today in the US, four hijacked commercial airliners crashed into both towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and near Pittsburgh. Estimates of casualties range as high as more than 10,000. Hamas denied any connection to the attacks. Islamic Jihad said the United States was responsible for the attacks because of its support for Israel. Earlier in the day, the BBC and Abu Dhabi television reported that the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine had claimed responsibility for the attacks on the World Trade Center. DFLP sources denied any involvement. To read more about the group, click here. Meanwhile, an expert on international terrorism said it is unlikely that Palestinian groups were involved in the attacks. "They have a lot to lose because America would react very harshly against the Palestinians, however it is not impossible that a radical group was involved," said Eli Carmon, of the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center's counter-terrorism department. Two jets, one of them apparently an American Airlines 767 hijacked from Boston, crashed into the Twin Towers shortly before 9 am. EST. Carmon noted that the World Trade Center has been targeted once before in 1993, when a bombing killed six people and injured more than 1,000. Carmon said that there have been threats by unidentified Islamic groups to target the World Trade Center again if Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, the militant Egyptian cleric, who is serving a life sentence in the US after his conviction in a plot to bomb the United Nations and New York landmarks, was not released. He added that it is possible that terrorist mastermind Osama Bin-Laden is also involved. Carmon said that the alleged terrorist attack amounts to a "declaration of war" on the US, and that the US will have to "react in an extremely harsh manner." Israel, he noted, had already envisioned the possibility of an air attack, and shot down a small plane that took off from Lebanon in May after it flew menacingly into Israeli airspace. #911receipts

The Jerusalem Post reported on 9/11 that: "American security services overnight stopped a car bomb on the George Washington Bridge connecting New York and New Jersey. The van, packed with explosives, was stopped on an approach ramp to the bridge. Authorities suspect the terrorists intended to blow up the main crossing between New Jersey and New York, Army Radio reported."

Propaganda 101

ABC News - 9/11 Stock Irregularities with Dylan Ratigan (SEP 20, 2001)

The 9/11 Commission was "set up to fail" said Thomas Kean, Chair and Lee Hamilton, Vice Chair.

9/11 Commissioner Sen. Max Cleland on The 9/11 Commission: "It's a scam" (CNN 2003)

"AIPAC lobbied Congress to block 9/11 trial" The Guardian March 19, 2010 Chris McGreal The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, one of Washington's most powerful lobbying groups, has thrown its weight behind legislation to block funding for civilian trials of Guantánamo Bay detainees, in a move that is likely to influence the debate over the future of the alleged September 11 conspirators. AIPAC has included the issue on the agenda for its annual conference this weekend and will urge its members to press Congress to support a bill that would prevent federal money being used to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other detainees in civilian courts. The decision places AIPAC alongside conservative critics of the Obama administration who argue that Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, should be tried before a military tribunal and not in a federal court a few blocks from where the World Trade Centre stood. The administration has defended its decision to hold the trial in New York as a demonstration of the strength of the American judicial system. But the city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, initially a supporter, has withdrawn his backing amid concerns over security costs and the potential for the trial to become a platform for jihadist propaganda. AIPAC's involvement is significant because of its considerable influence in Congress, particularly among Democrats. The lobby has played a pivotal role in shaping US policy in the Middle East. AIPAC's decision to take a stand on the issue follows a similar move by other Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, which has also spoken out against a civilian trial.

"AIPAC joins fight over 9/11 trial venue" Reuters March 18, 2010 Andrew Quinn The influential pro-Israel lobby AIPAC has decided to join the fight over where to try the September 11 suspects, a congressional aide said on Thursday, in a move that could complicate the Obama administration's plans for a civilian trial in New York. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee will lobby Congress to prevent the use of government funds to prosecute the suspects in a civilian court, the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The decision, which was first reported by The Washington Post, puts AIPAC alongside Republican critics and some Democrats who have argued that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants should be tried by a military commission rather than in a federal court. The Obama administration has defended its decision to hold the trial in New York, near the site of the World Trade Center attacks, as a demonstration of the strength of the U.S. judicial system. But the plan has faced mounting opposition from those who fear it could make New York a target for attacks and give Mohammed a platform to spread his anti-American views. AIPAC's involvement adds a powerful new voice to the chorus of criticism and could influence lawmakers who are strong supporters of Israel but who may have been reluctant to challenge the White House on the issue. The group is due to discuss the issue at its annual policy conference this weekend, the aide said.

"AIPAC to push against 9/11 trial" Politico March 18, 2010 Josh Gerstein The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is planning to urge Congress to block funding for a civilian trial of the alleged 9/11 plotters, an AIPAC official said Thursday. The issue is on the agenda for AIPAC’s annual policy conference Sunday through Tuesday, and attendees will be urged to ask their representatives to support legislation cutting off funds for such trials, the official said. The move, which injects AIPAC into one of the most heated national security debates of the Obama administration, puts the powerful pro-Israel lobby squarely on one side of a contentious issue. AIPAC’s decision to take a stand follows Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement in November that five detainees, including self-professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would be tried in federal court in New York City. The plan has run into fierce opposition from Republicans, some Democrats and New York City officials, who have complained about the cost and security risks of a trial a few blocks from the site of the World Trade Center attacks. President Barack Obama’s administration has defended the decision, arguing that federal courts are well-equipped to handle terrorism cases and that a successful trial would demonstrate the strength of the American justice system. An AIPAC spokesman declined to comment on the lobbying push, which was first reported by The Washington Post. The group’s decision to weigh in on the issue could complicate the political calculus for some lawmakers, particularly Democrats who are strong supporters of Israel but have been hesitant to challenge the administration on the detainee issue. Legislation to block funding for civilian trials of Guantanamo detainees has been introduced in both the House and Senate, but has yet to receive a vote.

Kei Sugimoto writes: "Footage I filmed of the World Trade Center Collapsing on 9/11/2001. Filmed from the roof of 64 St Marks Place in NYC on a Sony VX2000 with teleconverter."