Is anyone interested in Apollo missions...

[Len Colby]

Wow a 6 year-old report written less than a month after 9/11, couldn’t you find anything more current? Since then a lot of light has been shed on this matter. It seems the trades weren’t as anomalous as 1st though.

http://www.911myths.com/html/put_options.html

Funny logic some guy at the CIA on 9/11 was the number #2 guy at a bank supposedly linked to these trades 4 years earlier and this supposed to prove what exactly?

http://www.911myths.com/html/the_puts_and_the_cia.html

[Mark Stapleton]

On Sept. 6, 2001, the Thursday before the tragedy, 2,075 put options were made on United Airlines and on Sept. 10, the day before the attacks, 2,282 put options were recorded for American Airlines. Given the prices at the time, this could have yielded speculators between $2 million and $4 million in profit.

SUPPRESSED DETAILS OF CRIMINAL INSIDER TRADING

LEAD DIRECTLY INTO THE CIA'S HIGHEST RANKS

CIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR "BUZZY" KRONGARD

MANAGED FIRM THAT HANDLED "PUT" OPTIONS ON UAL

by Michael C. Ruppert

FTW, October 9, 2001 - Although uniformly ignored by the mainstream U.S. media, there is abundant and clear evidence that a number of transactions in financial markets indicated specific (criminal) foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the case of at least one of these trades -- which has left a $2.5 million prize unclaimed -- the firm used to place the "put options" on United Airlines stock was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three Executive Director position at the Central Intelligence Agency. Until 1997 A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard had been Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown. A.B. Brown was acquired by Banker's Trust in 1997. Krongard then became, as part of the merger, Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust-AB Brown, one of 20 major U.S. banks named by Senator Carl Levin this year as being connected to money laundering. Krongard's last position at Banker's Trust (BT) was to oversee "private client relations". In this capacity he had direct hands-on relations with some of the wealthiest people in the world in a kind of specialized banking operation that has been identified by the U.S. Senate and other investigators as being closely connected to the laundering of drug money.

Krongard (re?) joined the CIA in 1998 as counsel to CIA Director George Tenet. He was promoted to CIA Executive Director by President Bush in March of this year. BT was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. The combined firm is the single largest bank in Europe. And, as we shall see, Deutsche Bank played several key roles in events connected to the September 11 attacks.

THE SCOPE OF KNOWN INSIDER TRADING

Before looking further into these relationships it is necessary to look at the insider trading information that is being ignored by Reuters, The New York Times and other mass media. It is well documented that the CIA has long monitored such trades - in real time - as potential warnings of terrorist attacks and other economic moves contrary to U.S. interests. Previous stories in FTW have specifically highlighted the use of Promis software to monitor such trades.

It is necessary to understand only two key financial terms to understand the significance of these trades, "selling short" and "put options".

"Selling Short" is the borrowing of stock, selling it at current market prices, but not being required to actually produce the stock for some time. If the stock falls precipitously after the short contract is entered, the seller can then fulfill the contract by buying the stock after the price has fallen and complete the contract at the pre-crash price. These contracts often have a window of as long as four months.

"Put Options" are contracts giving the buyer the option to sell stocks at a later date. Purchased at nominal prices of, for example, $1.00 per share, they are sold in blocks of 100 shares. If exercised, they give the holder the option of selling selected stocks at a future date at a price set when the contract is issued. Thus, for an investment of $10,000 it might be possible to tie up 10,000 shares of United or American Airlines at $100 per share, and the seller of the option is then obligated to buy them if the option is executed. If the stock has fallen to $50 when the contract matures, the holder of the option can purchase the shares for $50 and immediately sell them for $100 - regardless of where the market then stands. A call option is the reverse of a put option, which is, in effect, a derivatives bet that the stock price will go up.

A September 21 story by the Israeli Herzliyya International Policy Institute for Counter terrorism, entitled "Black Tuesday: The World's Largest Insider Trading Scam?" documented the following trades connected to the September 11 attacks:

- Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call options. Assuming that 4,000 of the options were bought by people with advance knowledge of the imminent attacks, these "insiders" would have profited by almost $5 million.

- On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were bought on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls. Again, there was no news at that point to justify this imbalance; Again, assuming that 4,000 of these options trades represent "insiders", they would represent a gain of about $4 million.

- [The levels of put options purchased above were more than six times higher than normal.]

- No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the Chicago exchange in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday.

- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options bought in the three trading days before Black Tuesday; this compares to an average of 27 contracts per day before September 6. Morgan Stanley's share price fell from $48.90 to $42.50 in the aftermath of the attacks. Assuming that 2,000 of these options contracts were bought based upon knowledge of the approaching attacks, their purchasers could have profited by at least $1.2 million.

- Merrill Lynch & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 12,215 October $45 put options bought in the four trading days before the attacks; the previous average volume in those shares had been 252 contracts per day [a 1200% increase!]. When trading resumed, Merrill's shares fell from $46.88 to $41.50; assuming that 11,000 option contracts were bought by "insiders", their profit would have been about $5.5 million.

- European regulators are examining trades in Germany's Munich Re, Switzerland's Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with exposure to the Black Tuesday disaster. [FTW Note: AXA also owns more than 25% of American Airlines stock making the attacks a "double whammy" for them.]

On September 29, 2001 - in a vital story that has gone unnoticed by the major media - the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Investors have yet to collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, according to a source familiar with the trades and market data".

"The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors - whose identities and nationalities have not been made public - had advance knowledge of the strikes". They don't dare show up now. The suspension of trading for four days after the attacks made it impossible to cash-out quickly and claim the prize before investigators started looking.

"October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay of $2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100 shares, for 90 cents each. [This represents 230,000 shares]. Those options are now selling at more than $12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called "put" options outstanding [valued at $2.77 million and representing 231,300 shares] according to the Options Clearinghouse Corp".

"The source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of these options" This was the operation managed by Krongard until as recently as 1998.

As reported in other news stories, Deutsche Bank was also the hub of insider trading activity connected to Munich Re. just before the attacks.

CIA, THE BANKS AND THE BROKERS

Understanding the interrelationships between CIA and the banking and brokerage world is critical to grasping the already frightening implications of the above revelations. Let's look at the history of CIA, Wall Street and the big banks by looking at some of the key players in CIA's history.

Clark Clifford - The National Security Act of 1947 was written by Clark Clifford, a Democratic Party powerhouse, former Secretary of Defense, and one-time advisor to President Harry Truman. In the 1980s, as Chairman of First American Bancshares, Clifford was instrumental in getting the corrupt CIA drug bank BCCI a license to operate on American shores. His profession: Wall Street lawyer and banker.

John Foster and Allen Dulles - These two brothers "designed" the CIA for Clifford. Both were active in intelligence operations during WW II. Allen Dulles was the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland where he met frequently with Nazi leaders and looked after U.S. investments in Germany. John Foster went on to become Secretary of State under Dwight Eisenhower and Allen went on to serve as CIA Director under Eisenhower and was later fired by JFK. Their professions: partners in the most powerful - to this day - Wall Street law firm of Sullivan, Cromwell.

Bill Casey - Ronald Reagan's CIA Director and OSS veteran who served as chief wrangler during the Iran-Contra years was, under President Richard Nixon, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. His profession: Wall Street lawyer and stockbroker.

David Doherty - The current Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange for enforcement is the retired General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency.

George Herbert Walker Bush - President from 1989 to January 1993, also served as CIA Director for 13 months from 1976-7. He is now a paid consultant to the Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense contractor in the nation, which also shares joint investments with the bin Laden family.

A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard - The current Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency is the former Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown and former Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust.

John Deutch - This retired CIA Director from the Clinton Administration currently sits on the board at Citigroup, the nation's second largest bank, which has been repeatedly and overtly involved in the documented laundering of drug money. This includes Citigroup's 2001 purchase of a Mexican bank known to launder drug money, Banamex.

Nora Slatkin - This retired CIA Executive Director also sits on Citibank's board.

Maurice "Hank" Greenburg - The CEO of AIG insurance, manager of the third largest capital investment pool in the world, was floated as a possible CIA Director in 1995. FTW exposed Greenberg's and AIG's long connection to CIA drug trafficking and covert operations in a two-part series that was interrupted just prior to the attacks of September 11. AIG's stock has bounced back remarkably well since the attacks. To read that story, please go to http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/part_2.html.

One wonders how much damning evidence is necessary to respond to what is now irrefutable proof that CIA knew about the attacks and did not stop them. Whatever our government is doing, whatever the CIA is doing, it is clearly NOT in the interests of the American people, especially those who died on September 11.

On this particular night the crowd looked promising. I introduced myself to two women there, and after a short while, one of the women told me she worked for the CBOE. The CBOE is the Chicago Board Options Exchange. It is the exchange that handles trading in, among other things, stock options. I half-jokingly asked her, "Whatever happened to the CBOE investigation of all the profits made by those who bought put options on airlines stocks before 9-11?" (You make money on put options when a stock goes down in price.)

Her answered floored me. She said, "It probably would have been easy for us to find out who was behind the trades, but the government came in and told the CBOE president to stop the investigation."

Just to make sure I heard her right, I said to her, "The government came in and told the CBOE president not to investigate?" She said, "Yeah, it was really strange."

The conversation changed for a minute, but I wanted to get back to the government not wanting an investigation. I said to her again, a third time, making sure I heard right, "The government didn't want you to investigate?" She looked at me said "Yes, that's right." Then she looked at me a little longer, she knew I had interest in this topic, she looked a little nervous and then blurted out to me, "We erased the data. Our data on the trades is gone."

[© COPYRIGHT, 2001, Michael C. Ruppert and FTW Publications, www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved. May be reprinted or distributed for non-profit purposes only.]

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/illegaltades.html

Very interesting, Duane.

A full and open investigation of 9/11 insider trading, if it ever happens, would reveal that certain well connected insiders had the ability to see into the future, and they didn't let an impending tragedy stop them from making a killing.

[Duane Daman]

Wow a 6 year-old report written less than a month after 9/11, couldn’t you find anything more current? Since then a lot of light has been shed on this matter. It seems the trades weren’t as anomalous as 1st though.

http://www.911myths.com/html/put_options.html

Funny logic some guy at the CIA on 9/11 was the number #2 guy at a bank supposedly linked to these trades 4 years earlier and this supposed to prove what exactly?

http://www.911myths.com/html/the_puts_and_the_cia.html

Yes , it is a six year old article , but it might still be news to those who weren't aware of how much money was made off of the 9/11 attacks , with insider trading and put options ... and that those who did make this money obviously had prior knowledge of the attacks .

BTW , those two disinformation links you posted in your rebuttal attempt , are probably just as old .

[Duane Daman]

Very interesting, Duane.

A full and open investigation of 9/11 insider trading, if it ever happens, would reveal that certain well connected insiders had the ability to see into the future, and they didn't let an impending tragedy stop them from making a killing.

Mark .... Unfortunately that investigation will probably never happen ... At least not as long as those responsible for the attacks are still running the show ..

Even if by some miracle the next election is not rigged and a Democrat once again takes office , I don't believe there will ever be any formal government investigation into 9/11 .... If the truth is ever known , it would most likely mean the demise of America as we know it , as the result would bring a revolution against a government which is no longer for the people or by the people , but is rather intentionally killing it's people .

Some secrets need to be protected at all costs ... and so they are .

Edited August 24, 2007 by Duane Daman

[Len Colby]

Very interesting, Duane.

A full and open investigation of 9/11 insider trading, if it ever happens, would reveal that certain well connected insiders had the ability to see into the future, and they didn't let an impending tragedy stop them from making a killing.

Mark .... Unfortunately that investigation will probably never happen ... At least not as long as those responsible for the attacks are still running the show ..

Even if by some miracle the next election is not rigged and a Democrat once again takes office , I don't believe there will ever be any formal government investigation into 9/11 .... If the truth is ever known , it would most likely mean the demise of America as we know it , as the result would bring a revolution against a government which is no longer for the people or by the people , but is rather intentionally killing it's people .

Some secrets need to be protected at all costs ... and so they are .

Why do I get the feeling neither Mark nor Duane even bothered to read the links I provided

"I don't believe there will ever be any formal government investigation into 9/11"

Whether or nor you are satisfied with the results several have been completed already

[Mark Stapleton]

Very interesting, Duane.

A full and open investigation of 9/11 insider trading, if it ever happens, would reveal that certain well connected insiders had the ability to see into the future, and they didn't let an impending tragedy stop them from making a killing.

Mark .... Unfortunately that investigation will probably never happen ... At least not as long as those responsible for the attacks are still running the show ..

Even if by some miracle the next election is not rigged and a Democrat once again takes office , I don't believe there will ever be any formal government investigation into 9/11 .... If the truth is ever known , it would most likely mean the demise of America as we know it , as the result would bring a revolution against a government which is no longer for the people or by the people , but is rather intentionally killing it's people .

Some secrets need to be protected at all costs ... and so they are .

Why do I get the feeling neither Mark nor Duane even bothered to read the links I provided

"I don't believe there will ever be any formal government investigation into 9/11"

Whether or nor you are satisfied with the results several have been completed already

Ah Len, slippery as ever.

I was referring to a 9/11 INSIDER TRADING investigation--focusing exclusively on this aspect--not merely a 9/11 investigation. I think Duane was referring to the same thing, in so many words.

I read the links (both from the same site) you posted Len. The site appears balanced enough, although I point out that I am not across the wide range of 9/11 issues with any great depth. From my reading, the info on the site falls way short of demolishing suspicions regarding those transactions.

Edited August 24, 2007 by Mark Stapleton

[Len Colby]

Ah Len, slippery as ever.

I was referring to a 9/11 INSIDER TRADING investigation--focusing exclusively on this aspect--not merely a 9/11 investigation. I think Duane was referring to the same thing, in so many words.

Duane seems pretty obviously to have meant what wrote not your spin on it. His 1st paragraph dealt with “insider training” in response to you the 2nd was clearly refering to a wider investigation “the result would bring a revolution” etc. In any case he'd still be wrong because the SEC and 9/11 C looked in to it as well.

I read the links (both from the same site) you posted Len. The site appears balanced enough, although I point out that I am not across the wide range of 9/11 issues with any great depth. From my reading, the info on the site falls way short of demolishing suspicions regarding those transactions.

Perhaps you could explain what aspects you don’t think were satisfactorily explained? There were days in April 2001 where more United put options were sold than in September. American had it’s highest day that year but that came days after a report from Reuters that “"a further deterioration" in airline financials was probable” and a warning from American that “its third- and fourth-quarter losses would be larger even than already forecast”

Duane wrote:

BTW , those two disinformation links you posted in your rebuttal attempt , are probably just as old .

Now I know you did bother to take a look, obviously they weren't "as old" as Ruppert's 2001 article because they cite stuff written in 2006. :lol: :ice Perhaps you can point out what "disinformation" you found in them.

[Craig Lamson]

Ah Len, slippery as ever.

I was referring to a 9/11 INSIDER TRADING investigation--focusing exclusively on this aspect--not merely a 9/11 investigation. I think Duane was referring to the same thing, in so many words.

Duane seems pretty obviously to have meant what wrote not your spin on it. His 1st paragraph dealt with “insider training” in response to you the 2nd was clearly refering to a wider investigation “the result would bring a revolution” etc. In any case he'd still be wrong because the SEC and 9/11 C looked in to it as well.

I read the links (both from the same site) you posted Len. The site appears balanced enough, although I point out that I am not across the wide range of 9/11 issues with any great depth. From my reading, the info on the site falls way short of demolishing suspicions regarding those transactions.

Perhaps you could explain what aspects you don’t think were satisfactorily explained? There were days in April 2001 where more United put options were sold than in September. American had it’s highest day that year but that came days after a report from Reuters that “"a further deterioration" in airline financials was probable” and a warning from American that “its third- and fourth-quarter losses would be larger even than already forecast”

Duane wrote:

BTW , those two disinformation links you posted in your rebuttal attempt , are probably just as old .

Now I know you did bother to take a look, obviously they weren't "as old" as Ruppert's 2001 article because they cite stuff written in 2006. :lol: :ice Perhaps you can point out what "disinformation" you found in them.

I'm simply amazed that in this day and age anyone would think that 2 million or even 4 million could be considered a huge profit. We maybe Dr. Evil, but not a rational person living inthe 21st century.

[Mark Stapleton]

Duane seems pretty obviously to have meant what wrote not your spin on it. His 1st paragraph dealt with “insider training” in response to you the 2nd was clearly refering to a wider investigation “the result would bring a revolution” etc. In any case he'd still be wrong because the SEC and 9/11 C looked in to it as well.

I read the links (both from the same site) you posted Len. The site appears balanced enough, although I point out that I am not across the wide range of 9/11 issues with any great depth. From my reading, the info on the site falls way short of demolishing suspicions regarding those transactions.

Perhaps you could explain what aspects you don’t think were satisfactorily explained? There were days in April 2001 where more United put options were sold than in September. American had it’s highest day that year but that came days after a report from Reuters that “"a further deterioration" in airline financials was probable” and a warning from American that “its third- and fourth-quarter losses would be larger even than already forecast”

Len,

Call me a skeptic, but I'm still not convinced. Just because the SE and 9/11 Commission looked at it (insider trading re 9/11), doesn't necessarily mean the case is closed. The WC and HSCA looked into the JFK assassination but I think I'm safe in saying that that case is far from closed. I've lost faith in official inquiries--too many 'officials' have a vested interest in preventing the full story from seeing the light of day.

In any case, I don't have the time to look into this issue right now, if at all. I'm concentrating on a few other things. There's a few books (not related to this issue) which I want to read for starters. Sorry to disappoint.

I have read about the suspicions concerning 9/11 insider trading in places other than this thread, so I think doubts still exist.

[Len Colby]

Call me a skeptic, but I'm still not convinced. Just because the SE and 9/11 Commission looked at it (insider trading re 9/11), doesn't necessarily mean the case is closed. The WC and HSCA looked into the JFK assassination but I think I'm safe in saying that that case is far from closed. I've lost faith in official inquiries--too many 'officials' have a vested interest in preventing the full story from seeing the light of day.

Strawman, I never said or insinuated that investigation by the SEC or 9/11 Commission settled the matter. I only mentioned it to show that no matter how you interpret Duane’s absurd remark it was wrong. The claims of insider trading fall flat based on info in the public domain.

I have read about the suspicions concerning 9/11 insider trading in places other than this thread, so I think doubts still exist.

You can also read that doubts exist about the veracity of the Holocaust, Evolution and the moon landings, until recently there was a site online run by an “astronomer” positing that the universe is geocentric. Just because you can read about a notion doesn’t mean that it’s reasonable.

Edited August 26, 2007 by Len Colby

[Mark Vernon]

Great article Jack .... I watched that ridiculous 9/11 debunk show the other night on the History Chanel and it was exactly what I assumed it would be .... Government disinformation at it's most obvious ... This documentary was nothing but a handful of government shills pretending to be "experts" and selectively choosing which "conspiracy theories" to pick apart .... If the current administration ( which is busy destroying America ) is anything , it's predictable ...Considering how long this false flag information has been available on the internet , I was wondering what was taking them so long to take it to mainstream television .

Thus , the cover-up begins ....

You mean it continues.

It was most certainly a hit piece. The Popular Mechanics crew were treated as 'experts', while all the Professors and Engineers who challenged the official story were 'Conspiracy Theorists'.

And the PM crew all got the last word, making all claims to the contrary seems so ridiculous, only a fool would believe them....only they didn't offer any scientific evidence, all they added was opinion. And very biased opinion at that.

I had sent an email to the History Channel scolding them on their unfair and very biased presentation. I am sure others have also.

Another thing that really irked me about this piece.... those that were taking up for the official story kept saying 'these wacky and cultish conspiracy people all KNOW what happened...' And that is just a flat out lie. What we do KNOW is that the official story is a lie, and we want a new INDEPENDENT and unbiased investigation, nothing more, nothing less.

I hope there is an extra hot place in hell for those that pulled this off, and an even hotter place for those that participate in the coverup.

[Jack White]

Great article Jack .... I watched that ridiculous 9/11 debunk show the other night on the History Chanel and it was exactly what I assumed it would be .... Government disinformation at it's most obvious ... This documentary was nothing but a handful of government shills pretending to be "experts" and selectively choosing which "conspiracy theories" to pick apart .... If the current administration ( which is busy destroying America ) is anything , it's predictable ...Considering how long this false flag information has been available on the internet , I was wondering what was taking them so long to take it to mainstream television .

Thus , the cover-up begins ....

You mean it continues.

It was most certainly a hit piece. The Popular Mechanics crew were treated as 'experts', while all the Professors and Engineers who challenged the official story were 'Conspiracy Theorists'.

And the PM crew all got the last word, making all claims to the contrary seems so ridiculous, only a fool would believe them....only they didn't offer any scientific evidence, all they added was opinion. And very biased opinion at that.

I had sent an email to the History Channel scolding them on their unfair and very biased presentation. I am sure others have also.

Another thing that really irked me about this piece.... those that were taking up for the official story kept saying 'these wacky and cultish conspiracy people all KNOW what happened...' And that is just a flat out lie. What we do KNOW is that the official story is a lie, and we want a new INDEPENDENT and unbiased investigation, nothing more, nothing less.

I hope there is an extra hot place in hell for those that pulled this off, and an even hotter place for those that participate in the coverup.

Good for you, Mark!

Let me ask a question about your place HOTTER THAN HELL. I have sometimes posed

this question to friends.

IF Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their puppetmasters can ever be FOUND GUILTY OF

PERPETRATING THE 911 ATROCITY, ARE YOU IN FAVOR OF ADMINISTERING THE

DEATH PENALTY? Some say it would wreck our nation if the president were sentenced

to death. I think it would make us respectable again.

Although the official govt story of the Lincoln assassination was a LONE GUNMAN,

the govt nevertheless HANGED ALL OF BOOTH'S CO-CONSPIRATORS. So much for

official govt stories.

19 anonymous arabs...or the Shrub? Whom does the evidence point to?

Jack

[John Geraghty]

Robert Fisk: Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11

Published: 25 August 2007

Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always someone in the audience – just one – whom I call the "raver". Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions – often quite humbling ones for me as a journalist – and which show that they understand the Middle East tragedy a lot better than the journalists who report it. But the "raver" is real. He has turned up in corporeal form in Stockholm and in Oxford, in Sao Paulo and in Yerevan, in Cairo, in Los Angeles and, in female form, in Barcelona. No matter the country, there will always be a "raver".

His – or her – question goes like this. Why, if you believe you're a free journalist, don't you report what you really know about 9/11? Why don't you tell the truth – that the Bush administration (or the CIA or Mossad, you name it) blew up the twin towers? Why don't you reveal the secrets behind 9/11? The assumption in each case is that Fisk knows – that Fisk has an absolute concrete, copper-bottomed fact-filled desk containing final proof of what "all the world knows" (that usually is the phrase) – who destroyed the twin towers. Sometimes the "raver" is clearly distressed. One man in Cork screamed his question at me, and then – the moment I suggested that his version of the plot was a bit odd – left the hall, shouting abuse and kicking over chairs.

Usually, I have tried to tell the "truth"; that while there are unanswered questions about 9/11, I am the Middle East correspondent of The Independent, not the conspiracy correspondent; that I have quite enough real plots on my hands in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Iran, the Gulf, etc, to worry about imaginary ones in Manhattan. My final argument – a clincher, in my view – is that the Bush administration has screwed up everything – militarily, politically diplomatically – it has tried to do in the Middle East; so how on earth could it successfully bring off the international crimes against humanity in the United States on 11 September 2001?

Well, I still hold to that view. Any military which can claim – as the Americans did two days ago – that al-Qa'ida is on the run is not capable of carrying out anything on the scale of 9/11. "We disrupted al-Qa'ida, causing them to run," Colonel David Sutherland said of the preposterously code-named "Operation Lightning Hammer" in Iraq's Diyala province. "Their fear of facing our forces proves the terrorists know there is no safe haven for them." And more of the same, all of it untrue.

Within hours, al-Qa'ida attacked Baquba in battalion strength and slaughtered all the local sheikhs who had thrown in their hand with the Americans. It reminds me of Vietnam, the war which George Bush watched from the skies over Texas – which may account for why he this week mixed up the end of the Vietnam war with the genocide in a different country called Cambodia, whose population was eventually rescued by the same Vietnamese whom Mr Bush's more courageous colleagues had been fighting all along.

But – here we go. I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11. It's not just the obvious non sequiturs: where are the aircraft parts (engines, etc) from the attack on the Pentagon? Why have the officials involved in the United 93 flight (which crashed in Pennsylvania) been muzzled? Why did flight 93's debris spread over miles when it was supposed to have crashed in one piece in a field? Again, I'm not talking about the crazed "research" of David Icke's Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster – which should send any sane man back to reading the telephone directory.

I am talking about scientific issues. If it is true, for example, that kerosene burns at 820C under optimum conditions, how come the steel beams of the twin towers – whose melting point is supposed to be about 1,480C – would snap through at the same time? (They collapsed in 8.1 and 10 seconds.) What about the third tower – the so-called World Trade Centre Building 7 (or the Salmon Brothers Building) – which collapsed in 6.6 seconds in its own footprint at 5.20pm on 11 September? Why did it so neatly fall to the ground when no aircraft had hit it? The American National Institute of Standards and Technology was instructed to analyse the cause of the destruction of all three buildings. They have not yet reported on WTC 7. Two prominent American professors of mechanical engineering – very definitely not in the "raver" bracket – are now legally challenging the terms of reference of this final report on the grounds that it could be "fraudulent or deceptive".

Journalistically, there were many odd things about 9/11. Initial reports of reporters that they heard "explosions" in the towers – which could well have been the beams cracking – are easy to dismiss. Less so the report that the body of a female air crew member was found in a Manhattan street with her hands bound. OK, so let's claim that was just hearsay reporting at the time, just as the CIA's list of Arab suicide-hijackers, which included three men who were – and still are – very much alive and living in the Middle East, was an initial intelligence error.

But what about the weird letter allegedly written by Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian hijacker-murderer with the spooky face, whose "Islamic" advice to his gruesome comrades – released by the CIA – mystified every Muslim friend I know in the Middle East? Atta mentioned his family – which no Muslim, however ill-taught, would be likely to include in such a prayer. He reminds his comrades-in-murder to say the first Muslim prayer of the day and then goes on to quote from it. But no Muslim would need such a reminder – let alone expect the text of the "Fajr" prayer to be included in Atta's letter.

Let me repeat. I am not a conspiracy theorist. Spare me the ravers. Spare me the plots. But like everyone else, I would like to know the full story of 9/11, not least because it was the trigger for the whole lunatic, meretricious "war on terror" which has led us to disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan and in much of the Middle East. Bush's happily departed adviser Karl Rove once said that "we're an empire now – we create our own reality". True? At least tell us. It would stop people kicking over chairs.

http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article...T00:00:01-00:00

[Duane Daman]

Ah Len, slippery as ever.

... Yep, as slippery as they come .

Duane seems pretty obviously to have meant what wrote not your spin on it

What I wrote was an an answer to Mark's question about there never being an investigation into the inside trading and put options ( ie: the money trail ) ... Not your spin on it .

I only mentioned it to show that no matter how you interpret Duane’s absurd remark it was wrong. The claims of insider trading fall flat based on info in the public domain.

Len ... I would say that based on this article which is a link off of one of the links you posted , that it would be your remarks which are absurd .

...........................................................

Suspicious profits sit uncollected

Airline investors seem to be lying low

Investors have yet to collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a source familiar with the trades and market data.

The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors -- whose identities and nationalities have not been made public -- had advance knowledge of the strikes.

"Usually, if someone has a windfall like that, you take the money and run," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Whoever did this thought the exchange would not be closed for four days.

"This smells real bad."

The source and others in the financial industry speculate that the purchaser or purchasers -- having initially assumed the money could be picked up without detection -- now fear exposure, or that the account has been frozen.

The markets were closed for four days after the attack, giving investigators time to notice the anomalous trades.

Securities regulators and law-enforcement agents throughout the United States and Europe are investigating unusual patterns in short sales and the purchase of "put" options, both of which are financial-market bets that the price of a given stock will fall. Authorities here and abroad have not publicly disclosed any conclusions they have reached and refuse to discuss the case.

There was an unusually large jump in purchases of put options on the stocks of UAL Corp. and AMR Corp. in the three business days before the attack on major options exchanges in the United States. On one day, UAL put option purchases were 25 times greater than the year-to-date average. In the month before the attacks, short sales jumped by 40 percent for UAL and 20 percent for American.

A put option gives the buyer a right to sell the underlying security at a certain price on a certain date; the purchaser profits when the share price drops lower than the agreed sale price. In a short sale, an investor borrows stock from a broker and sells it, hoping to buy it back at a lower price.

October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay of $2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100 shares, for 90 cents each. Those options are now selling at more than $12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called "put" options outstanding, according to the Options Clearinghouse Corp.

Other financial professionals have told The Chronicle that an estimated $5 million to $10 million in all could have been made on the trades, including trading on other days and purchases of options on the parent company of American, AMR Corp. Four United and American aircraft crashed in the attacks.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...29/MN186128.DTL

....................................................................

I'm simply amazed that in this day and age anyone would think that 2 million or even 4 million could be considered a huge profit.

Maybe Craig Lamson doesn't think that $2 million to $4 million is much money , but I sure wouldn't mind having it .... Anyhoo , the real figures appear to be more like $5 million to $10 million that some traders are too afraid to collect ... Hmmm ... I do believe I smell a big rat.

Edited August 27, 2007 by Antti Hynonen

[Duane Daman]

IF Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their puppetmasters can ever be FOUND GUILTY OF

PERPETRATING THE 911 ATROCITY, ARE YOU IN FAVOR OF ADMINISTERING THE

DEATH PENALTY? Some say it would wreck our nation if the president were sentenced

to death. I think it would make us respectable again.

Jack

Jack ... First of all , none of these men are ever going to be found guilty of anything because there will NEVER be an official inquiry that isn't a rigged cover-up .

Second of all , if by any wild stretch of the imagination they were to ever be found guilty of the 9/11 attacks , I believe that impeachment , trials for crimes of high treason against the citizens of the United states , and then life in prison would be the thing to do , as enough people have died already .

Third of all , I don't believe that America will ever be respected again ... Not even by many of it's own citizens .

Edited August 27, 2007 by Duane Daman