9/11 Consensus Points

[Tracy Riddle]

I thought this was pretty interesting (full post at the link):

http://www.consensus911.org/the-911-consensus-points/

The official account of the events of September 11, 2001, has been used:

• to justify the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which have resulted in the deaths of over a million people; [SUP]1[/SUP]
  

• to authorize torture, military tribunals, and extraordinary rendition; and
  

• to suspend freedoms guaranteed by the American Constitution such as habeas corpus in the USA, and similar freedoms in Canada, the UK, and other countries.
  

The official claims regarding 9/11 are contradicted by facts that have been validated by a scientific consensus process, and which include the following points of "best evidence".

The 44 Consensus Points are divided into the nine categories below, which in turn link to the individual 44 points:

A. General Consensus Points

B. Consensus Points about the Twin Towers

C. Consensus Points about the Collapse of World Trade Center 7

D. Consensus Points about the Pentagon

E. Consensus Points about the 9/11 Flights 2 new Points Sept. 2014

F. Consensus Points about US Military Exercises On and Before 9/11

G. Consensus Points about the Political and Military Commands on 9/11 2 new Points Sept. 2014

H. Consensus Points about Hijackers on 9/11

I. Consensus Points about the Phone Calls on 9/11

V. Consensus Points about Official Video Exhibits Regarding 9/11

[Lauren Johnson]

Thanks for this, Tracy. I put it on my Facebook page.

[David Guyatt]

Just for the record, of course.

Under "General Consensus Points", is stated this:

Point G-1: A Claim Regarding Osama bin Laden


The Official Account
Osama bin Laden was responsible[SUP]1[/SUP] for the 9/11 attacks.


The Best Evidence
The FBI did not list 9/11[SUP]2[/SUP] as one of the terrorist acts for which Osama bin Laden was wanted.
When asked why, Rex Tomb, when he was the head of investigative publicity for the FBI, stated[SUP]3[/SUP] that the FBI had no hard evidence[SUP]4[/SUP] connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.
Also, although Secretary of State Colin Powell, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the 9/11 Commission promised[SUP]5[/SUP]
to provide evidence of Bin Laden's responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, they also failed.[SUP]6[/SUP]

Next Point >>

References for Point G-1

1. The 9/11 Commission Report, 2004 ↩
   
2. Federal Bureau of Investigation," Most Wanted Terrorists." ↩
   
3. Ed Haas, "FBI says, No Hard Evidence Connecting Bin Laden to 9/11" Muckraker Report, June 6, 2006. ↩
   
4. Federal German Judge Dieter Deiseroth, in a December 2009 statement, stated that no independent court has verified the evidence against bin Laden.
   "Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over," Guardian, October 14, 2001. The Taliban said they would turn bin Laden over if the US provided evidence of his guilt.
   "Taliban Met With U.S. Often: Talks centered on ways to hand over bin Laden,"Washington Post, October 29, 2001. The Taliban asked for evidence of bin Laden's guilt but it was not forthcoming.
   "The investigation and the evidence," BBC News, October 5, 2001. "There is no direct evidence in the public domain linking Osama Bin Laden to the 11 September attacks." ↩
   
5. Powell: "Meet the Press," NBC, September 23, 2001.
   Blair: Tony Blair: Office of the Prime Minister, "Responsibility for the Terrorist Atrocities in the United States," BBC News, October 4, 2001. ↩
   
6. Powell: "Remarks by the President, Secretary of the Treasury O'Neill and Secretary of State Powell on Executive Order," White House, September 24, 2001.
   Seymour M. Hersh, "[URL="http://web.archive.org/web/20080819222256/http:/cicentre.com/Documents/DOC_Hersch_OCT_01.htm"]What Went Wrong: The C.I.A. and the Failure of
   American Intelligence[/URL]," New Yorker, October 1, 2001.
   Blair: Tony Blair: Office of the Prime Minister, "Responsibility for the Terrorist Atrocities in the United States," BBC News, October 4, 2001. The government's document stated that it "does not purport to provide a prosecutable case against Osama Bin Laden in a court of law."
   9/11 Commission Report (2004). All statements of bin Laden's responsibility were based on interrogations of KSM, under torture. See 9/11 Commission Reportnotes at Ch. 5, notes 1, 10, 11, 16, 32, 40, and 41.
   

Further to this the following (from The Future of Freedom Foundation):

WHY DID THE UNITED STATES INVADE AFGHANISTAN?

by Tim KellyOctober 12, 2011The tenth anniversary of the U.S. led war in Afghanistan came and went with very little attention from the mainstream media. U.S. policymakers are nevertheless confronted with many questions regarding that conflict, such as its affordability, the effectiveness of various strategies, and even whether U.S. forces should remain in that country at all.
Those are all important issues, but the one question I believe to be the most important and fundamental regarding the war probably won't be discussed: Was the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan necessary?
President Obama, who had campaigned as an opponent of the U.S. invasion of Iraq as a war of choice said of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, "This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity."
Obama's words might have made for a good sound bite, but the evidence shows that, like the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan is, indeed, a war of choice.
Many supporters of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan argue that even if the military campaign has turned into a quagmire, the initial attack was a just and necessary response to 9/11. Perhaps President Obama provided the best summary of this position in a speech at West Point. Obama said:

We did not ask for this fight. On September 11, 2001, nineteen men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people. They struck at our military and economic nerve centers. They took the lives of innocent men, women and children without regard to their faith or race or station.… As we know, these men belonged to al Qaeda a group of extremists who have distorted and defiled Islam.… After the Taliban refused to turn over Osama bin Laden we sent our troops into Afghanistan

Here we have the conventional view: The 9/11 attacks were carried out by 19 fanatical Muslims acting on the orders of Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of al-Qaeda, who was being given sanctuary by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan; and the invasion became necessary when they stubbornly refused to turn him over to U.S. authorities.
The Bush administration then commenced a bombing campaign and invasion of Afghanistan, asserting the need to capture or kill bin Laden and crush his terrorist organization so that they could not launch another deadly attack on the American homeland.
The problem with this narrative is that the claim that the Taliban had stubbornly refused to turn over bin Laden is not true.
CNN reported on September 21, 2001,

The Taliban … refused to hand over bin Laden without proof or evidence that he was involved in last week's attacks on the United States. … The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan … said Friday that deporting him without proof would amount to an "insult to Islam." (emphasis added)

CNN also provided an explanation for the Taliban's "refusal," reporting: "Bin Laden himself has already denied he had anything to do with the attacks, and Taliban officials repeatedly said he could not have been involved in the attacks."
So the Taliban were not really refusing to turn him over but rather were demanding certain conditions be satisfied before they did so. That is not unusual. Governments routinely have evidentiary standards that must be met before they grant an extradition request. Bush, however, was not in a diplomatic mood, and he told the Taliban "the demands were not open to negotiation or discussion."
The refusal by the Bush administration to put any evidence on the table made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the Taliban to turn bin Laden over. The Washington Post ran a storyin October 2001 that quoted Milton Bearden, a former CIA official, who said the Taliban needed a "face-saving formula." While the Bush administration was saying, "Give up bin Laden," the Taliban were saying, "Do something to help us give him up."
Even after the U.S. bombs began falling in October, the Taliban tried to negotiate by offering to turn bin Laden over to a third country if the United States would cease hostilities and provide evidence of his guilt. But Bush remained adamant, saying, "There's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty." London's Guardian, reporting on this story, printed an article entitled"Bush Rejects Taliban Offer To Hand Bin Laden Over."
Why was the Bush administration so stubbornly opposed to meeting the Taliban's reasonable demand that they release at least some of the copious evidence they claimed to have gathered against bin Laden? After all, such a gesture might have spared the United States and her NATO allies, and the people of Afghanistan, the costs and consequences of a war that is now entering its eleventh year.
Well, the answer to that question could be that U.S. officials might well have lacked solid evidence of bin Laden's complicity notwithstanding their certainty that he was behind the attacks. Certainly, the U.S. government has never shown such evidence to the American people.
Let's review how the Bush administration presented its case against Osama bin Laden after 9/11.
Here is what Secretary of State Colin Powell said during a September 23, 2001, appearance onMeet the Press:

QUESTION: Are you absolutely convinced that Usama bin Laden was responsible for this attack?
SECRETARY POWELL: I am absolutely convinced that the al-Qaida network, which he heads, was responsible for this attack. You know, it's sort of al-Qaida the Arab name for it is "the base" it's something like a holding company of terrorist organizations that are located in dozens of countries around the world, sometimes tightly controlled, sometimes loosely controlled. And at the head of that organization is Usama bin Laden. So what we have to do in the first phase of this campaign is to go after al-Qaida and go after Usama bin Laden. But it is not just a problem in Afghanistan; it's a problem throughout the world. That's why we are attacking it with a worldwide coalition.
QUESTION: Will you release publicly a white paper, which links him and his organization to this attack, to put people at ease?
SECRETARY POWELL: We are hard at work bringing all the information together, intelligence information, law enforcement information. And I think, in the near future, we will be able to put out a paper, a document, that will describe quite clearly the evidence that we have linking him to this attack. And also, remember, he has been linked to earlier attacks against US interests and he was already indicated for earlier attacks against the United States.

The next day there were banner headlines appearing in newspapers across the country telling Americans of the Bush administration's imminent report on bin Laden's guilt. The New York Timesran a story citing a government official who claimed evidence "reaches from the southern tip of Manhattan to the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan."
But by the following day, the Bush administration was backpedaling. The White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, said there were no plans to produce a report and that Powell's remarks had been "misinterpreted." At a joint press conference with President Bush, Secretary Powell withdrew his pledge, saying that "most of the evidence" is classified.
Within days, all mention of the promised "white paper" had disappeared from the news media, which continued to credulously repeat the U.S. government's narrative of events.
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, citing officials from the Department of Justice and the CIA, said the real reason the Bush administration reneged on its pledge to release the evidence was a "lack of solid information."
Further questions were raised regarding the U.S. government's charges against Osama bin Laden by the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists webpage. While the page mentioned bombings in Kenya and Tanzania as terrorist acts for which bin Laden was wanted, it made no mention of the 9/11 attacks. When the FBI was asked about this conspicuous omission, Rex Tomb, the Bureau's chief of investigative publicity replied: "The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Osama bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11."
So, the U.S. government's case against Osama bin Laden was not good enough to take to court, but it was good enough to take the country to war, a war that has killed or maimed countless people who had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. The anger arising from the invasion and occupation of the country has created a perpetual supply of terrorist recruits, enabling U.S. officials to use the never-ending "war on terror" to eviscerate the Bill of Rights. And we now have a president who asserts the authority to kill off any person he deems a "threat." I submit that this claim of unaccountable power represents a far greater threat to the peace and security of the country than any terrorist or group of terrorists could ever pose.
Surveying the evidence, it is clear the Bush administration did not even come close to exhausting its diplomatic options in the fall of 2001 and that some other route could have been chosen to respond to the 9/11 attacks. Moreover, the invasion of Afghanistan did not even succeed in its principal goal: the capturing or killing of Osama bin Laden. According to the U.S. government, that mission was accomplished almost ten years later by a team of Navy Seals in an operation lasting only a few hours … in neighboring Pakistan.

From Global Research:

Osama died in 2001: MSNBC hit piece unwittingly reveals corroboration for Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik's assertion

By Paul Joseph Watson
Global Research, May 13, 2011
Prison Planet 13 May 2011




An MSNBC hit piece that attempts to debunk Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik's assertion that Osama Bin Laden died from Marfan syndrome in 2001 unwittingly provides corroboration from a top Cornell doctor who first made similar statements in an interview with Salon magazine two months after 9/11.
Pieczenik, a State Department official in three different administrations and an award-winning Harvard Medical School luminary, told The Alex Jones Show last week that the alleged raid on Bin Laden's compound was a fable because Osama had already been dead for the best part of a decade. Pieczenik originally appeared on the show back in April 2002 when he asserted that Bin Laden had been "dead for months," and that the government was waiting for the most politically expedient time to roll out his corpse.
Pieczenik said that Osama Bin Laden died in 2001, "Not because special forces had killed him, but because as a physician I had known that the CIA physicians had treated him and it was on the intelligence roster that he had marfan syndrome," adding that the US government knew Bin Laden was dead before they invaded Afghanistan.
According to French intelligence reports, CIA agents visited Bin Laden at the American Hospital in Dubai in July 2001, two months before 9/11.
It was also widely acknowledged at the time that Bin Laden needed a kidney dialysis machine because of renal health problems. Indeed, CBS News reported that Bin Laden was having kidney dialysis treatment the night before 9/11. No dialysis machine was found in the alleged compound in Pakistan, which prompted the corporate media to backtrack and report that that he actually had kidney stones, not kidney disease, despite the fact that the CIA admitted back in 2008 that Bin Laden had suffered from kidney failure.
Other accounts from 2000-2001 claimed that Osama was also suffering from Hepatitis C and had only two more years to live. Despite all these health problems, on Saturday the White House released video footage of Bin Laden which it claimed was filmed in fall 2010, although the clips show a younger and healthier looking Osama compared with video footage from 2001.
Marfan syndrome is a degenerative genetic disease for which there is no permanent cure. The illness severely shortens the life span of the sufferer and can cause instant death from the sudden rupture of the aorta.
"Back then, after the 9/11 terror attacks, medical experts weighed in on bin Laden's tall, frame, lanky limbs and long face, all classic physical symptoms of Marfan syndrome," states the MSNBC report.
The article then quotes Dr. Richard Devereux, a clinician who treats patients with the illness at the Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. In a November 9, 2001 interview with Salon magazine, Devereux said of Bin Laden, "He is Marfanoid. He seems to have long fingers and long arms. His head appears to be elongated and his face narrow … It's certainly conceivable that he has the Marfan syndrome and could be evaluated for it."
After MSNBC attempted to speak to the doctor again on the topic in light of Bin Laden's alleged assassination, they were told by a hospital spokesman that Devereux "doesn't want to talk about bin Laden now."
Despite MSNBC's best efforts to debunk Pieczenik's assertion that Bin Laden died from Marfan syndrome in 2001 they go on to quote another doctor who claims that Bin Laden never had the illness Pieczenik's source for the information comes directly from intelligence files that he saw over nine years ago confirming that the terror leader was dead. This means that the entire narrative of Bin Laden's alleged assassination put out by the Obama administration is an act of mass public deception. Obama has benefited enormously from cultivating a tough guy' image out of the fabled raid, enjoying a 13 point approval rating bounce according to an Associated Press poll.
Pieczenik's credibility is beyond reproach (bio). As well as serving under five US presidents, he wrote the book on psychological warfare and counter terrorism for the State Department, while also developing foundational strategies for hostage rescue that were later employed around the world. He also won two prestigious Harry C. Solomon Awards while studying at Harvard Medical School.
Pieczenik's record underscores the fact that he is one of the most deeply connected men in intelligence circles over the past three decades plus. He was a top spymaster involved in all manner of black-ops, undercover missions and classified work.
Pieczenik's assertion that Bin Laden has been dead for years is also backed up by a myriad of other intelligence professionals and heads of state, including Former CIA officer and hugely respected intelligence & foreign policy expert Robert Baer, as well as former FBI counter-terror head Dale Watson, who have all gone on the record to state that Osama was dead long before the raid on his alleged Pakistani compound earlier this month.

And this is what the French had to say, according to the UK Guardian newspaper:

CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July

French report claims terrorist leader stayed in Dubai hospital

• Anthony Sampson
  
• The Guardian, Thursday 1 November 2001 03.17 GMT
  

Two months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.The disclosures are known to come from French intelligence which is keen to reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA, and to restrain Washington from extending the war to Iraq and elsewhere.
Bin Laden is reported to have arrived in Dubai on July 4 from Quetta in Pakistan with his own personal doctor, nurse and four bodyguards, to be treated in the urology department. While there he was visited by several members of his family and Saudi personalities, and the CIA.
The CIA chief was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden, and later, it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. He was recalled to Washington soon afterwards.
Intelligence sources say that another CIA agent was also present; and that Bin Laden was also visited by Prince Turki al Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence, who had long had links with the Taliban, and Bin Laden. Soon afterwards Turki resigned, and more recently he has publicly attacked him in an open letter: "You are a rotten seed, like the son of Noah".
The American hospital in Dubai emphatically denied that Bin Laden was a patient there.
Washington last night also denied the story.
Private planes owned by rich princes in the Gulf fly frequently between Quetta and the Emirates, often on luxurious "hunting trips" in territories sympathetic to Bin Laden. Other sources confirm that these hunting trips have provided opportunities for Saudi contacts with the Taliban and terrorists, since they first began in 1994.
Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some accounts claim that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more years.
According to Le Figaro, last year he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to his base at Kandahar in Afghanistan.
Whether the allegations about the Dubai meeting are confirmed or not, the wider leaks from the French secret service throw a worrying light on the rivalries and lack of coordination between intelligence agencies, both within the US and between western allies.
A familiar complaint of French intelligence is that collaboration with the Americans has been essentially one-way, with them happy to receive information while giving little in return.

But as we know, despite these inconvenient facts the UD did invade Iraq -- and Afghanistan.

And just to be sure that bin Laden died in 2011, this report from Fox News:

Report: Bin Laden Already Dead

Published December 26, 2001FoxNews.com


Facebook1690 Twitter334 livefyre0
Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.
"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said.
Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.
About 30 close associates of bin Laden in Al Qaeda, including his most trusted and personal bodyguards, his family members and some "Taliban friends," attended the funeral rites. A volley of bullets was also fired to pay final tribute to the "great leader."
The Taliban source who claims to have seen bin Laden's face before burial said "he looked pale ... but calm, relaxed and confident."

Asked whether bin Laden had any feelings of remorse before death, the source vehemently said "no." Instead, he said, bin Laden was proud that he succeeded in his mission of igniting awareness amongst Muslims about hegemonistic designs and conspiracies of "pagans" against Islam. Bin Laden, he said, held the view that the sacrifice of a few hundred people in Afghanistan was nothing, as those who laid their lives in creating an atmosphere of resistance will be adequately rewarded by Almighty Allah.

When asked where bin Laden was buried, the source said, "I am sure that like other places in Tora Bora, that particular place too must have vanished."

But today, facts do not have the slightest impact. It is "spin" and PR bombardment that make the loudest noise and cause the greatest movement.

[Dawn Meredith]

The entire false story of 9-11 comes from phone calls. Calls we know are fake. I would like to have seen the Barbara Olsen and ever changing Ted Olsen story expanded in this article. The whole did -not- have- her- credit -card- yet- made- calls from plane phone- which could not be done on that plane. Cell phones could not be used on planes at this altitude until 2008.
I am putting this on my facebook page too. So many people still do not know about building 7 or have forgotten as I saw it fall in real time that day...that was another huge tip off of the falseness of the "official " story. A freefall building not hit by anything.
Now thirteen years later we live in a total police state. The neocons plan worked perfectly. They got their "new Pearl Harbor", wars without end, heroin, and a population still drinking the kool aid.

::

Dawn