Episode Notes

From Loose Change Documentary (2006)

• Bin Laden denies being behind the attacks 3 times

• Video of Osama Bin Laden in a room with another “accomplice” talking in detail about the attacks were the only proof. Shown by media and even President Bush was pushing it

• International agencies debate the validity of the video

• December 26, 2001, a Taliban official claims he attended funeral of Osama Bin Laden (untreated lung complication)

• The next day, a video of Osama Bin Laden recorded on November 19 is released in where he is praising the attacks but takes no responsibility

• Next video of Osama is released October 9, 2004, days before the presidential election

• The “clearest claim of responsibility for 9/11” 

• On his FBI wanted poster, 9/11 is not listed - “not mentioned on his wanted poster because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11

• Evidence: 

• Two bags belonging to Muhammad Atta at Portland airport - bags were checked but didn’t make the flight

• 757 video tour and flight manual

• Arab english dictionary

• Quran 

• Handheld flight computer

• His will 

• Why would he have a will on a plane that would be destroyed? Fire?

• Hijacker’s rental car at Logan airport

• Arabic flight manual

• Restricted pass for the airport

• Documents from Huffman Aviation

• Hijacker’s rental car at Dulles Airport

• Check for a flight school in Phoenix

• Instructions about the job

• Four drawings of a 757 cockpit

• Knife

• Maps of Washington + New York

• One of the hijacker’s passports found below the Twin Towers

• ID cards half-burned, passports, business card, driver’s licenses for hijackers

• Robert Mueller (Director of the FBI) said that these assailants used prepaid calling cards and exchanged $$ for jobs in very small amounts so they would have no idea what was going on - slipped past the FBI radar

• Lieutenant General Mahmoud Ahmed, the director of the Pakistani inter services intelligence agency (ISI) wired $100k to Muhammad Atta in August 2001  - transfer was facilitated by Syed Sheikh - man who allegedly kidnapped and murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl who was investigating the ties to ISI and islamic militants (Al Qaeda) 

• ISI has a long relationship with the CIA dating back to the 1980’s in Afghanistan 

• General Mahmoud Ahmed was meeting with Bob Graham and Porter Goss (future director of the CIA) on the morning of 9/11

• Later claim the Bush administration had zero intelligence over the attacks

• Relationship with CIA and state department

• When Mahmoud was outed for wiring the money to Muhammad Atta, he stepped down from his position

• US government tried really hard to cover up the $100k wire transfer

• A handful of hijackers trained at US military bases and schools

• Some even rented an apartment and lived with an FBI informant and many of them were reported to still be alive after the attack

• Told that they were all fundamentalist Muslims getting ready for their afterlife when in reality they were out at bars (Hollywood, FL), going to strip clubs, eliciting sex, at porn shops, ordering pornos at the hotel

• More often at go go clubs than at mosques

• How long did we know about these hijackers?

• Claims that out of all the info they received to the Pentagon, they didn’t send all the actual evidence they had pulled together

• Able Danger

• In 2000, 3 meetings with the FBI to talk about these hijackers were canceled; also told them about it in Afghanistan in 2000 

• Government then went on to say that the charts with info about Muhammad Atta never existed - only the two they have that identify terrorist cells in the middle east

• Schaefer’s attorney pled that Anthony had the charts in his possession until 2004 - the originals

• Former DOD official testified that he was ordered to destroy up to 2.5 TB of data (equal to ¼ of the written files within the Library of Congress)

• Anthony Schaeffer had his security clearance pulled and had to get prior authorization to meet with anyone in Congress or Senate after the debacle

• Hijackers were devout Muslims on a mission? Or were they trained, funded + protected in our own country

War Games (several going on on 9/11)

• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had it on record that four planes would be offline on the morning of 9/11 and to not intercept

• There was training about what to do if hijackers take over and head for the pentagon just months before 9/11

• The goal was to see how quickly fighter jets could get there in time

• Concluded that it was impossible to save those flights

• Test Amalgam Virgo: June 1 - 2, 2001

• Simulated successful terrorist attacks

• Focus on unconventional attacks including onboard hijacking 

• On the cover of the training proposal was a photo of Osama Bin Laden

• Vigilant Guardian 9/11 (day two)

• Exercise staged by joint chiefs and NORAD 

• A branch of Global Guardian

• A mass armageddon exercise at an airforce-base 

• Simulated hijacked planes in northeast USA

• These drills were held at two airforce bases in Washington and Bush visited both before heading back to the White House on 9/11

• Northern Vigilance (NORAD) 9/9

• Moved fighter jets to Canada and Alaska to monitor a fleet of russian migs on a training missions

• Placed inputs into military radar screens (phantoms; simulated air crafts)

• 3 F-16’s located within 15 miles from the Pentagon were sent to N. Carolina for a training missions

• Army base 10 miles south of Pentagon were going to test security in case of terrorist attack

• Tripod II

• Employees working on the 23rd floor of the WTC were preparing for a biological attack drill scheduled for 9/12

• National Reconnaissance Office (VA)

• Begins drill at 8:45, conducted by the CIA, simulating if a plane crashed into their building

• Meanwhile, there were more war games happening that were yet to be disclosed

Coincidence? 

• On the morning of 9/11, we are running drills about hijacked aircrafts going in and out of radar, fighter jets are flown away from the US and planes are crashed into buildings.

Twin Towers were the first two skyscrapers in history to collapse due to fire damage

• Were built to be safe in the case of collision with a Boeing 707 which has more jet fuel and go faster than the Boeing 757 that flew into the towers