Unfortunately, and despite some helpful information, what we obtained from the 9/11 Commission’s research is limited because of the rules Bush made for himself. Twenty-eight pages are completely classified and blocked from the public. Many familiar with the report claim this section deals with Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the hijackers. The truth is, officials in our government knew about the attacks long before they happened. As Richard Clarke said in his testimony, “I’m sorry, but we (your government) have failed you.”
The following is a summary of just a few of the many warnings of 9/11:
· In early 2001, the BAD ordered U.S. agents to back off and end the investigation of the Bin Ladens. 2
· In early 2001, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, declared the most serious national threats as a hurricane hitting New Orleans, an earthquake hitting San Francisco, and a terrorist attack hitting New York City. As of this printing, two had occurred; the earthquake, of course had not yet hit California. We can now be assured our government won’t be ready for that one either.
· In June 2001, the CIA was warned by German intelligence that Middle Eastern terrorists were “planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture.” This information came to the German government by way of a phone call by an Iranian man, who supposedly also phoned U.S. law enforcement to warn of an imminent attack the week of September 9. German police confirm the calls but state that the U.S. Secret Service would not reveal any further information. [i]
· In July 2001, an FBI agent in Arizona named Kenneth Williams warned about “an inordinate number of individuals of investigative-interest taking flight training.” This memo, known as the “Phoenix Memo” asked the FBI to collect data on flight schools and foreign students. According to the July 25, 2003 story “A History of Missed Connections” in the Washington Post, one of the men mentioned in the memo was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 with a senior Al Qaeda facilitator, Abu Zubayda. [ii]
· In August 2001, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to warn the U.S. of imminent terrorist attacks on airports and government buildings. [iii]
· One very strange and disturbing story took place in August 2001 when U.S. Navy Lieutenant Mike Vreeland was jailed in Toronto on U.S. fraud charges for claiming to be an officer of U.S. Naval Intelligence. Vreeland, while imprisoned, wrote details of the pending attack on the U.S. and sealed these papers in an envelope, which he then handed over to Canadian authorities. Canadian jailers opened this letter three days after 9/11 and read the warnings. When Canada initially contacted the U.S., the Navy claimed Vreeland was discharged in 1986 and had never worked in Intelligence. On January 10, 2002 during Vreeland’s trial, his attorneys called the Pentagon switchboard operator from a speakerphone and confirmed that Vreeland was indeed a Naval Lieutenant on active duty. The operator even provided a direct phone extension to Vreeland’s empty Pentagon office. What we will ever learn about Vreeland’s knowledge of the attacks is all uncertain. Why haven’t we heard his story in the major media? The answer is he’s been silenced by the government and the conspiracy-labeling Republicans who have smeared him because of their fear that the truth will come out. [iv]
· Newspapers in the Middle East received warnings from Al-Qaeda. 10
· MSNBC reported that in the week before the attacks, a caller to a Cayman Islands radio talk show gave several warnings of an attack on the U.S. [v]
· Several children, ages 8-16, in New York and New Jersey leaked information to classmates and teachers prophesizing a disaster and warning them to stay away from Manhattan. The New York City Board of Education confirmed that school officials reported the incidents to police and that the matter had since been taken over by the FBI Joint Terrorist Task Force. This disturbing news was well documented by many U.S. news stations in the days following September 11, but how quickly the public forgets. [vi]
· On the morning of 9/11, employees of Odigo Inc. in Israel, a worldwide instant messaging company with offices in New York, received threat warnings of an attack on the World Trade Center. This was two hours before the first plane struck. [vii]
· The FAA received 52 warnings. Five of the warnings mentioned hijackers. Two of the warnings mentioned suicide missions.All of these warnings from governments, citizens, and even children have vanished from our minds in the haze of everything that has transpired since, and in which the U.S. government has suppressed into silence. Republicans have dismissed these truths as conspiracy or coincidence.
