9/11 Ten Years Later: Part One

Our two primary sources for the study of 9/11 (for the events of September 11, 2001, are such that the date lives in infamy) begin in very different places.  The government-commissioned report, begins with a United States with Americans going to work on the eleventh day of September, 2001. The anonymously authored September 11 Commission Report begins in world where Al-Qaeda is infamous and the United States is embroiled in wars.

The government-commissioned report begins like a children’s story.  “Millions of men and women readied themselves for work.  Some made their way to the Twin Towers, the signature structures of the World Trade Center complex in New York City.  Others went to Arlington, Virginia, to the Pentagon.  Across the Potomac River the United States Congress was back in session.  At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, people began to line up for a White House tour.  In Sarasota, Florida, President George W. Bush went for an early morning run.”  Remember these facts, including the last one.

The anonymous report is not ‘light reading,’ of the sort that a person raised on proper Victorian fairy tales would want to read; certainly not out loud to their children.  After a brief opening paragraph disclaiming that the “report uses publicly available information to substantiate a hypothetical explanation of the causes and key conspirators in the attack on the World Trade Center. The findings of this investigation are not meant to be construed as proof or a statement of guilt, but rather are meant to serve as ‘probable cause’ for further investigation,” the reader is thrown into four hundred fascinating pages of covered-up, secretive, history.

In fact, the first page begins several years in to the aftermath of 9/11.  First, and to be discussed in detail later,

The Murder of Nicholas Berg

A.  The organization that murdered Nicholas Berg, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley [in 2004], reported to be terrorists including Abu Musab Zarqawi, was most likely an Israeli intelligence operation – and in all likelihood part of a larger organization responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center.

Nick Berg was probably murdered by a group including Steven Stephanowicz,an employee of Titan Corp., a subcontractor to CACI –which has demonstrable links to Israeli Intelligence, Richard Armitage and the CIA.  CACI was responsible for interrogation at Abu Ghraib when Nick Berg was killed

Stephanowicz was found (by U.S. military investigators) to be directly and indirectly responsible for most of the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, which demonstrates his ability to orchestrate the executions of Berg, Armstrong and Hensley. His presence at the scene of the crime, and a similarity to the tallest executioner in the photos of the execution makes him a likely candidate for suspicion.

B.  Nicholas Berg was probably operating as an agent for the Israeli government (in the US and Iraq), and possibly as a double agent, working for a US intelligence organization;

C.  Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley were also probably government agents in US intelligence operations

D.  Nicholas Berg was probably murdered by Israeli agents to prevent his knowledge of the attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) from being handed over to the FBI, or as revenge for having provided that information to the FBI.

That’s a bit much to swallow all at once. After all, the government-commissioned report informs us that Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari were two of the many million people traveling Tuesday, September 11, and they went from the Portland, Maine, airport to the Boston airport.  Mohamed Atta arrived in Boston at 6:45am; seven minutes later he a had  few minutes phone conversation with Marwan al Shehhi, boarding a different flight in another terminal.

Mohamed Atta and several of his colleagues went through the CAPPS (Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System) security system, for people who should be subject to special security measures.  The luggage of these people could not board the plane until after the person was aboard.  All passengers went through standard X-ray machines, designed to detect of at least a .22-caliber handgun.  At Boston Logan International American Airlines 11 security was handled by Globe Security; United Airlines flight 175 contracted security to Huntleigh USA.

“Between 6:45 and 7:40, Atta and Omari, along with Satam al Suqami, Wail al Shehri, and Waleed al Shehri, checked in and boarded American Airlines Flight 11, bound for Los Angeles.  The flight was scheduled to depart at 7:45.  In another Logan terminal, [Marwan al] Shehhi, joined by Fayez Banihammad, Mohand al Shehri,  Ahmed al Ghamdi, and Hamza al Ghamdi, checked in for United Airlines Flight 175, also bound for Los Angeles.”  Those are the people of interest in Boston; two more points of origin may be important.

“Hundreds of miles southwest of Boston, at Dulles International Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C, five more men were preparing to take their early morning flight.  At 7:15, a pair of them, Khalid al Mihdhar and Majed Moqed checked in at the American Airlines ticket counter for flight 77, bound for Los Angeles.  Within the next 20 minutes, they would be followed by Hani Hanjour and the two brothers, Nawaf al Hazmi, and Salem al Hazmi.  The Hazmi brothers received extra scrutiny by security; one of them had no photo ID and couldn’t understand English.”  The only result was that their bags were detained until they boarded.  United Airlines contracted security to Argenbright Security.

In Newark, New Jersey, on that Tuesday morning “Saeed al Ghamdi, Ahmed al Nami, Ahmad al Haznawi, and Ziad Jarrah checked in at the United Airlines ticket counter for flight 93, going to Los Angeles.”  Argenbright security was also in charge of security here.  Haznawi was the only one in Newark to have CAPPS screening.

Many of us have forgotten it, but there was a time when security at the airport was neither arduous nor unfriendly.  As often happens, due to the actions of a few individuals, many of us find ourselves inconvenienced to a point that is morally objectionable.  It was indeed a happy time when five Muslim men could walk through the airport that serves our nation’s capital, and three of them set off the now-quite-antiquated X-ray machines, but were allowed to pass with through a “marginal at best” screening effort.  Our world would be quite different if the security on duty had second thoughts, was beset with Islamophobia, or followed FAA guidelines.  The anonymous author of the September 11th Commission Report might argue, though, that security was given specific instruction to allow men through that day.

The anonymous report, in good time, will detail why these individuals came together, where they came from, why they chose the date, and propose several theories, of which some, all, or none may be the accurate reasons for the event known as 9/11.  As so often happens the anonymous report begins in media res – in the middle of things – and it is necessary that we will work forward and backward as the report reveals itself.  The murder of Nicholas Berg takes place in the middle of things chronologically, but may play only the part of revealing the stakeholders in this saga.

This is Part One of a many part series, synthesizing the stories of 9/11, its aftermath, and our future.