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The arguments to support the claim that the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings did not collapse due to the effects of the jet liner crashes is overwhelming. The major problem is that most people "don't want to hear it". Even NIST (National Institutes of Standards and Technology) did not agrue that the jet liners brought down the building, but only that they could have initiated a collapse sequence. They do not discuss the scenario beyond that as they would refute many of the premises they use to support their initiation theory.
I spent 20 years practicing medicine, and one of the major issues that I needed to gain comfort with was my own ignorance. Often I could not say why something happened, but I could very well understand the consequences of the disorder the patient presented to me. I believe the American public needs to take a similar attitude towards evaluating the collapse of the WTC, especially building 7. Look at the evidence about the collapses critically (eg the free fall speed of the collapse, the residual molten iron, and the fact that the steel in the building never reached 600 degrees Celcius, let alone the 1100 degrees needed to weaken it), and ask yourself, could the jet crashes have caused this? The question as to why it occurred is indeed important, but much harder to understand with the inadequate investigations we have had to date. What is incontrovertible, is that the jet crashes could not have caused these buildings to collapse, and the need for a real, objective investigation as to why they collapsed occurred is still needed.
Forever Free recounts the story of Emancipation and Reconstruction from an African-American perspective. As the Civil War unfolded, both free men and former slaves began to organize as a political force in the South. This crystalized into communities and states that saw former slaves attain significant political positions within a decade of the Civil War. Eric Foner shows it was through the continued denigration of the freed slaves, and finally, outright violence, which was fomeneted by the early Ku Klux Klan, that ultimately led to the failure of Reconstruction, and the institutionalization of the "Jim Crow" South.
The Ricks and Woodward books reveal not only the stubbornness of the Bush administration in their failure to recognize the many deficiencies of their Iraq War policy, but also deliberate efforts to mislead us, the American people. During the war, any contemporaneous comparison between the internal discussions of the Bush administration, and the point of view propagated throughout the mainstream media, show deception was used as a major tool to implement their duplicitous Iraq War policy. The Allawi book adds depth about the cultural ignorance of our government when it entered this war, and how this impacted upon our poor planning and implementation. In addition, Allawi details how the vast sums of money we spent were siphoned off by corrupt politicians, leaving us with an untrained and poorly supplied Iraqi military and a an underdeveloped infrastructure.
Joan Mellen confirms the importance of some of the issues raised by Mark Lane shortly after the Warren Commission issued its report. It is not credible to teach our children that Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK. He was a patsy, just as he said, before Jack Ruby killed him in the Dallas Police station. Both JFK and Bobby Kenedy knew there was a plot against the President, but both had to use their own operatives to try to find out how the CIA and Cuban exile community were setting him up. We still don't know, and may never know, who actually fired the shots. Yet the location of the shooters, and their deadly accuracy can not be disputed (the Texas Book Depository was not the direction the shots came from).
Most striking in Joan Mellen's book, is the extent of overlap between CIA and FBI informants. Maybe the agencies weren't talking before 9/11, but in the early 1960s, both agencies drew their domestic information from the same sources. In addition, the extent that media "assets" were used by the CIA and FBI to create diversionary misinformation, was incredible. Every major city that Jim Garrison was taken to in his investigation of the JFK conspiracy, had at least one media asset that was informing the public disingenuously. In fact, the oft state rumor of my youth that the Mafia killed JFK was fully fabricated by CIA and FBI media plants.
After World War II, the US, via NATO, created "stay behind" armies that were designed to remain quiescent for long periods of time, with activation in the event of a Soviet attack. Unfortunately, these secret armies stayed anything but quiet, involving themselves in the political affairs of Italy, Greece, Turkey and France, just to name a few. This book is expensive because it is used for "Contemporary Security Studies" courses. Daniele Ganser has also written a chapter for a book on the same topic, available here as a pdf, and the paperback version is less expensive.
They largely address many of the issues raised by 9/11 truth advocates, but not from an evidenced point of view. They use the technique, which we currently deplore in Medicine nowdays, which is quoting an "expert" in lieu of actual data. They also fail to adequately explain a major issue with the collapse of the WTC towers, the molten metal found at the clean up sites months after the collapse. They claim that the overlying layer of debris insulated the fires below so the heat trapped could melt the steel. But how did the fires burn if they we so well insulated, as they wouldn't have had adequate oxygen to generate enough heat to permit metal to melt. Anyone who has ever watched a blast furnace knows that there are incredible drafts generated by such fires, as the oxygen demands to generate that level of heat are massive. As a result, the only thing the authors debunk is their claim that they critically evaluate the evidence on 9/11.
It turns out that the CIA LSD experiments from the 1950s was the unproductive path. The CIA learned that the "successful" tools of interrogation were sensory deprivation, self inflicted pain and manipulation of sleep and eating patterns. These same tools have been broadly applied in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanmo Bay, suggesting torture in those settings have not been isolated, aberrant acts. Taxi to the Dark Side, the Oscar winning documentary of 2007, further explores these issues.
A detailed study of the evidence regarding the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. He summarizes the relevant information from the King v. Jowers civil trial, and adds interesting information that wasn't presented. The evidence clearly shows James Earl Ray did not kill MLK Jr, with the actual assailant derived from a conspiracy by both the FBI and Memphis Police.
An interesting look at the career of a woman who became the first female to serve as a general in a combat position for the US military. She also details many areas of malfeasance related to the horrors of torture at Abu Ghraib.
The evidence is clear that Iraq had disarmed, and we knew this unequivocally by 1998. The book does spend a lot of time on Scott Ritter's efforts to unveil Iraq's cover up of how they hid their disarmament from the international community, but overall the book clearly shows there were no WMD before our March 2003 invasion, and the "intelligence" community were well aware of this fact.
A former CIA agent spills the beans on American collaboration and acquiescence toward Saudi Arabia. He reveals details about the original Islamic Terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, and how American officials (both Democratic and Republican), have looked the other way as Saudi Arabia has financially supported the spread of a radical Islamic view with the hope that it would keep such forces at bay in their own country.
We have been led to believe that the GOP may have stolen the 2000 Presidential election in Florida. The authors clearly show that the efforts of the GOP in Ohio in 2004 we as anit-democratic as one could imagine.
An inside look at how the US uses its economic leverage to facilitate its foreign policy goals. After reading this, you'll understand why the assassinations of Arbenz, Allende, Roldos and Torrijos, all democratically elected leaders in Latin America, were "taken out".
A detailed analysis of how the US has used its economic might to control international relations. The books is complicated, but essentially documents how after World War II the US held an unprecedented amount of the world's gold reserves (50%). These reserves were depleted with our incursion into Korea, and our subsequent involvement in Viet Nam depleted them further, requiring the US to abandon the "gold standard" for valuating world currency. With our gold reserves gone and an ever mounting national debt, one can only wonder if the war in Iraq will be the economic straw which breaks the camel's back!
China has become not just an economic power, but also a source of high quality products at low prices. The only thing that may hold China back now is the environmental destruction it has wrought.
An authoritative look at America's efforts to thwart terrorism as it evolved in the 1990s, and how the Bush administration dismantled this effort after arriving in office in 2001. By September 11, 2001, it became clear that Richard Clarke knew what he was talking about, but by then, it was too late.
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