Paul Brancato

Have any journalists interviewed Senator Graham and asked him about Philip, or whether he was ever CIA? Did he also get invited to LBJ's ranch? His recent interest in re-opening the 9/11 investigation, coming as it does from someone in a position to know, makes me wonder what secrets he might want to tell. I don't mean this suggestion to be flip in any way.

The Guardian article was my introduction to Mark Lane, and when he started speaking publicly in NYC I went to a few of those events. I recall attending a debate between Lane and Belli sometime in 1964 at the Manhattan Center. I could not find a reference to that debate on google but I know it happened. Perhaps it was after the debate at Masonic auditorium in SF, because Belli walked out of the NYC event saying something like 'if you can't trust the FBI who can you trust'?.

You two are indefatigable.

Senator Bob Graham is the brother of Philip Graham. Anyone know something different? He was meeting with Porter Goss and Lt. general Mahmoud Ahmed on the morning of 9/11. When Graham asks for a reopening of the 9/11 investigation I think the government, if it cares at all, should listen. I couldn't believe it when I read on some post in this forum that Goss was part of Operation 40.

Colby - you are very skeptical of conspiracy claims, which is good to an extent. But you are driving Mr. Gaal out of his mind. Almost any claim of conspiracy can be contested on the basis that there could be other explanations for individual actions than the conspiratorial ones. But just because things are not proven beyond any doubt does not mean that they are untrue. I think most of us try to use our own common sense when we try to sift truth from lies and fact from fiction. But I do get annoyed when theorists start postulating ridiculous scenarios because it muddies the waters and gives a bad name to conspiracy researchers in general. Sometimes that it exactly the point, as in deliberate disinformation. I spent a lot of time on UFO stuff once upon a time, and though I certainly think there are many unexplained events and sightings I found the field crowded with so many nut jobs that it became a real chore. 9/11 seems to draw out nut jobs too. But I am sure there is much we don't know about top secret operations and UFO's too, and the more noise the more suspicious I get. Does anyone recall the hatchet jobs on Stone's movie that began months before its release?

I do know John - it was 1951 give or take a year. You are right about Stalin. My parents repeated to me often that Stalin had to make the deal with Hitler in order to by time. Their Jewish friends were unable to convince them that Stalin was a monster. In part I blame Robeson, after whom I was named, and whom my parents and others trusted. When they left the party it was not because they had seen the light. The actual story is revealing in and of itself though, so I might as well tell it. My father was sent by the party to talk some sense into an Italian grocer in east Harlem (where we lived) who claimed he had been robbed by a black youth. When my father returned from that mission he reported that the grocer was telling the truth. Sticking up for racial equality was important for my parents, but lying was not an option. The local party leaders came to our apartment and asked my mother to stay in the party while asking my dad to leave. This event is etched in my memory even though I had no idea what was happening. I was probably 3 years old. Needless to say they both left the party after that, but clouded by their idealism they continued to believe in the Soviet Union for years. Our best friend at that time, and the godfather of my younger brother, turned out to be an FBI agent. My parents, harmless idealists in every way, had quite an FBI file as it turned out. When I was a teenager nosily looking through my dad's desk I found a long questionaire that the FBI had sent to my dad when he applied for a civil service job. In it they referred to my mother by a name I had only heard in my house. When I confronted my dad about the letter he told me the story about his stool pigeon friend and the transistor radio/tape recorder he carried around.

Thanks for the link to the 9/11 myths article. I have seen it before, and have the same reaction this time as I had before. Its of course true that none of the allegations against Sheikh Omar and Mahmoud Ahmed are proven. However it is true that Pakistan has refused both Britain and US requests, multiple, for extradition. If one looks deeper into Sheikh Omar one finds that Pakistan, presumably elements of the ISI or military, hijacked an Air India jet in 1999 ( I think) in order to get Sheikh and two other prisoners held by India for terrorist acts in Kashmir released by India. It is also true to the best of my knowledge that Sheikh travelled twice to England between that release and 9/11 with no passport troubles, even though he had kidnapped a British citizen in Kashmir and was wanted by England on those charges. After 9/11 and before the Pearl kidnapping Britain asked for his extradition but was refused. Musharraf as you know calls Sheikh a double agent, or possibly a British agent, in his recent book. I don't put much faith in this assessment, but mention it because I find it interesting that Musharraf should mention him. Sure, Mahmoud's being relieved of his post may indicate Musharraf was trying to be cooperative with the US, but considering that it was Mahmoud who arrested Musharraf's predecessor in the coup makes me wonder if this wasn't simply a mutually agreeable decision to remove him for purely political purposes. It is interesting that Mahmoud was meeting with Porter Goss and Bob Graham, I believe respective heads of intelligence committees in Congress, when 9/11 occurred. It was only on this forum that I found out that Goss was part of the CIA's operation 40. I also wondered about Graham, who . has asked in 2011 for a new inquiry into 9/11 he says as a result of recent discoveries in Florida. He published a book after his experience on the first inquiry which was heavily redacted, and then more recently published a fictionalized account of a Florida Senator who was killed when he got too close to a Saudi conspiracy on 9/11. I may have a little of this incorrect but it is pretty close. I am almost amused to find out that Bob Graham is the brother of Philip Graham, ex-Washington Post editor who committed suicide? Months before JFK was killed.

When you ask questions like 'am I sure' of this or that about Mahmoud or Sheikh, the answer is of course not. But my alarm bells are ringing. What is the latest info on Musharraf? Still in 'exile' in Britain for his cover-up of the ISI-enabled assassination of Bhutto? When he held his famous post 9/11 press conference to the world's media in front of the world's cameras I thought it was kind of like hiding in plain sight. He certainly knows more than he has said about all this, and he is a most clever fellow for sure, for years the friendly face of Pakistani cooperation with the US but perhaps also the friendly front for the terrorists in ISI and the Taliban. I for one don't trust anything he says.

Sorry this very informative post by Mr. Scott devolved into this kind of rant.

The false flag argument has made sense to me from the beginning. And the footprints of intelligence are all over this thing, whether its Saudis being monitored secretly in the US but not stopped from the deadly 9/11 strikes, or the connections to Omar Saeed Sheikh and his ISI superiors like Lt. general Mahmoud Ahmed. One thing that fits into this theory is the incredible control over information gathered from the captured and tortured Al Qaida soldiers. Funny that Alec Station operatives Blee and Cambone were involved with early interrogations in Afghanistan. Khalid Sheikh Muhammed sits in his Guantanamo cell having confessed to nearly every terrorist act of the last 15 years as a result of waterboarding. The Pakistan government turned him over rather easily, as well as some 300 other Al Qaida and Taliban fighters, but refused to give us or Britain even access, much less deportation, of Omar Saeed Sheikh, who awaits his appeal on the Daniel Pearl case. I know there are other good reasons for keeping interrogation results secret. But not making any diplomatic noise when Pakistan refuses to extradite Omar Saeed Sheikh?

I would really like to know what the readers here think about this case. If this post turns out to be inconveniently placed I'll try to start a new thread.

I know this isn't germaine to the questions raised here. When I was 4 years old my parents took me to Madison Square Garden where a few thousand people had gathered in protest of the execution of the Rosenbergs. I remember it mostly because there were so many people, and all much taller than me. By that time my parents had left the communist party, having been forced out by party officials. But they were still staunch communists.

Paul Brancato is a violin teacher and a member of the San Francisco Symphony. He has authored several sets of trading cards, including Iran-Contra Scandal, Bush League, and Coup D'Etat - the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.