Willful Blindness
In the wake of investigations and revelations that show without a doubt the Saudi nationals including government officials were involved in the 911 attack on the United States, threats and counter-threats are the words of the day.
Before diving into the ramifications of alleged “economic war” threats, it’s important to understand the Saudi involvement in 911.
60 minutes
The 60 Minutes episode 28 Pages details 28 missing or heavily redacted top secret pages that show Saudi involvement in 911.
Former Sen. Bob Graham and others urge the Obama administration to declassify redacted pages of a report that holds 9/11 secrets.
At the time, Graham was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and co-chair of the bipartisan joint congressional inquiry into intelligence failures surrounding the attacks. The Joint Inquiry reviewed a half a million documents, interviewed hundreds of witnesses and produced an 838 page report — minus the final chapter which was blanked out — excised by the Bush administration for reasons of national security.
Bob Graham: I think it is implausible to believe that 19 people, most of whom didn’t speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, many of whom didn’t have a high school education– could’ve carried out such a complicated task without some support from within the United States. … I remain deeply disturbed by the amount of material that has been censored from this report.
Steve Kroft: You believe that support came from Saudi Arabia?
Bob Graham: Substantially.
Steve Kroft: And when we say, “The Saudis,” you mean the government, the–
Bob Graham: I mean–
Steve Kroft: –rich people in the country? Charities–
Bob Graham: All of the above.
Graham and others believe the Saudi role has been soft-pedaled to protect a delicate relationship with a complicated kingdom where the rulers, royalty, riches and religion are all deeply intertwined in its institutions.
Saudi Official Met Hijackers in LA
A CBS Local headline reads Lawmakers Say Redacted Pages of 9/11 Report Show Saudi Official Met Hijackers in LA.
Senator May Back Bill Exposing Saudis to 9/11 Lawsuits
On April 19, the New York Times reported Senator Says He May Back Bill Exposing Saudis to 9/11 Lawsuits
A bill opposed by the Obama administration that would expose Saudi Arabia to legal jeopardy for any role in the Sept. 11 attacks appeared to gain momentum on Tuesday when the senator holding it up said he would be open to supporting it.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said in an interview on Tuesday that he would drop his opposition to the bill — predicting it could pass the Senate next week — if the sponsors of the legislation agreed to changes that he believed were important to protect American interests abroad. He did not specify what changes he was requesting.
“The goal is to bring people to justice who have been involved in terrorism,” Mr. Graham said. But he added, “I don’t want Americans to be held liable because of one bad actor in some embassy somewhere.”
Obama administration officials have been vigorously lobbying against the Sept. 11 bill, which has broad bipartisan support, arguing that Americans overseas could be put in legal jeopardy if other nations were to retaliate and strip them of immunity in foreign courts. But the measure is gaining support in Congress at a time when many lawmakers are demanding greater scrutiny of Washington’s alliance with the kingdom, which for decades has been a cornerstone of American foreign policy in the Middle East and once the subject of little examination on Capitol Hill.
“Very bluntly, they no longer have us in an energy straight jacket,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, referring to growing domestic oil production that has made the United States less reliant on the Saudis.
Willful Blindness and Our Saudi ‘Friends’
The best writeup on Saudi involvement comes from the National Review: Willful Blindness and Our Saudi ‘Friends’
It is long, long past time — for the United States government to come clean with the American people, and with the families of Americans slaughtered on 9/11 by 19 jihadists, 15 of them Saudis. The government must disclose the 28 pages of the 2002 congressional report on the 9/11 attacks that it has shamefully withheld from the public for 14 years. Those pages outline Saudi complicity in the jihad.
It is nothing short of disgraceful that the Bush and Obama administrations, relying on the president’s constitutional authority over foreign intelligence and the conduct of foreign affairs, have concealed these materials. It is equally disgraceful that Congress has indulged this decision in the context of its own fact-finding exercise. This has been done under the pretense that the Saudi government is a stalwart counterterrorism ally of the United States — an absurd proposition that passes the laugh test only if one accepts the even more absurd premise that Islam has nothing to do with jihadist terrorism. The Saudis are the world’s chief propagator of sharia supremacism, sharia being the law of the Sunni kingdom.
Several Saudi connections to 9/11, as well as our government’s disturbing appearance of not wanting to know the depth of Saudi culpability, have been reported over the years. Let’s look at some of the main ones.
The article starts out slow, but goes into great detail the known involvement of Saudi officials in 911. I highly recommend reading the entire thing.
Other Coverage
ZeroHedge provides other coverage of Saudi involvement.
- Obama Administration Makes Stunning Admission: “Seed Money For Al Qaeda Came From Saudi Arabia”
- Saudi Arabia Admits To John Kerry That It Created ISIS… But There Is A Twist
The 28 pages are under lock and key, no one is allowed to make notes of them or discuss them. The 28 pages are classified Top Secret although many believe president Obama should release them.
Obama Smokescreen
Today ZeroHedge reports White House Set To Release Secret Pages From Sept 11 Report.
This move by president Obama is nothing more than a smokescreen hoping to stop a bipartisan bill in Congress that would allow families of 911 victims to sue Saudi Arabia for its involvement in the attack.
Obama’s intent is to disclose as few of the pages he can, hoping to quiet things down following the 60-Minutes and other reports.
That pretty much covers what we know about Saudi involvement. Rather, I should say, that covers what we are allowed to know or has been leaked.
Saudi Retaliation
The New York Times reports Saudi Arabia Warns of Economic Fallout if Congress Passes 9/11 Bill
Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon. The officials have warned senators of diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.
Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.
Nuclear Economic War
The alleged threat of dumping treasuries applies to China as well as Saudi Arabia.
Please consider Peter Schiff: “China is Bleeding It’s Secret Account. Hit The Panic Button!”
According to Peter Schiff, China’s mass capitulation of Treasuries threatens America’s empire. As Peter explains, we’ve already borrowed far more than we can EVER actually repay, and in under 4:00, Peter explains why the economic collapse for the U.S. is going to be “Economic Armageddon.” As a nation, we have followed in the footsteps of every other nation in history that has collapsed before us. Making matters worse, is that we’re infinitely bigger than most of them were, which means our crash is going to be infinitely worse. It is completely within the realm of possibilities that people will be “hurting” one another for food. Things could get THAT bad.
Nuclear Economic Nonsense
China has already blown though a half a trillion dollars in US reserves.
Bloomberg reported As China Dumps Treasuries, World Sees No Better Place for Refuge.
This is not “dumping” treasuries to get rid of them. Rather, treasury “dumping” is a mathematical necessity in response to massive capital flight from China.
Chinese investors are desperate to get their money out of China any way they can. The result is massive buying of overpriced land in Vancouver and the West coast of the US.
Fundamentally, every one of those dollars must eventually come back to the US, one way or another. China could also buy shares in US companies, and perhaps it even has.
For all that alleged “dumping” of US treasuries, yield on the 30-year long bond is flirting with record low levels.
And here’s the kicker. The US would actually like China to dump treasuries. The Fed wants to hike, and higher interest rates would enable the Fed to hike sooner.
Moreover, the US would welcome a strengthening Yuan to slow Chinese exports to the US, improving the US balance of trade.
Ridiculous Bluffs
The threat by Saudi Arabia to “dump US treasuries” (yes that would constitute a genuine dump), is nothing more than an obvious bluff. If Saudi sold treasuries it would get US dollars. What would it do with them?
Once again, it is a mathematical certainty those dollars would eventually return one way or another. If Saudi Arabia sold the dollars for euros, then it would be sitting on a pile of euros. But someone would still have to hold the dollars.
People who propose dumping of treasuries would amount to nuclear economic war are totally clueless about how trade works as well as what the consequences would be.
Discussion Wrap-Up
- Fifteen of the nineteen 911 attackers were Saudi nationals.
- Immediately after 911, the US grounded all flights, except for flights returning to Saudi Arabia.
- Iran offered to help locate the terrorists, but the US refused Iran’s help.
- The US attacked Iraq even though Iraq was not involved in 911 at all.
- Following “victory” in Iraq at a cost of trillions of dollars, the US installed a puppet government that was Shiite.
- The Sunni government in Saudi views the Shiites as a threat.
- Saudi money in conjunction with the vacuum the US created in Iraq led to the formation of ISIS.
- ISIS is a radical group of Sunni terrorists still backed with money from Saudi groups.
- US senators want the Saudi role in 911 disclosed.
- A law working its way through Congress would allow those victimized to file suit against Saudi Arabia.
President Obama does not want that bill to pass, because Saudi Arabia is our friend.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Amazing how the big oil money of Saudi Arabia has and continues to corrupt American politicians.
Mish – now go see how many millions of Saudi money was “donated” to the Clinton Charity Foundation…
A look at one organization that made a donation in the range of $1 million to $5 million shows how the Clintons’ gestures toward transparency often revealed little. Meet Friends of Arabia, or FSA, a thinly veiled public-relations organ of the repressive Saudi regime. In a testament to the Clinton Foundation’s confusing, tangled, and secretive finances, Friends of Saudi Arabia’s former CEO, Michael Saba, denies that the nonprofit ever made the contribution. He suggests, rather, that the group’s founders, which included members of the Saudi royal family, made the donation before filing papers with the IRS. For three years, the now-defunct FSA functioned as a propaganda tool for the Saudis, a mission that put it at odds not only with some parts of the State Department’s assessment of the regime, but also with Hillary Clinton’s attempts to position herself as a champion for women’s rights across the globe.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419178/clinton-foundation-took-money-saudi-propagandists-joel-gehrke
//
/
:”””If Saudi sold treasuries it would get US dollars. What would it do with them?”””
.
.
.BUY GOLD.
.
.And Keep Pumping OIL.
.
.
IS formed in 2006 as the distributed resistance groups in Iraq coalesced. The size of the resistance groups increased substantially when the US imposed Nation Wreaking policies. Which wiped out the bureaucratic organizations controlling everything from garbage collection to food distribution.
The last thing on earth that anybody needs is a large group of people that has absolutely nothing to lose…. and they are being moved into Europe and the US. Can anybody guess why trump and Sanders are so damn popular? Trump 2016, Brexit and onward June 23rd, the fall of Hollande this year. Knock out the failed Western elites, and offer Mario Dragi to ISIS as a peace offering.
Medal of Freedom to Paul Bremer.
Thank you for explaining how the world actually works. We are drowning in nonsense. Middle East nutbags are the least of our problems. Money (cash, bonds, equities,) will soon or is now disappearing by currency debasement, debt default and by debt deflation world wide. Our governments are controlled by the same institutions that will be destroyed by this process (banks, insurers, pension funds, i.e. The FIRE sector). We are thus paralyzed by this check mate of opposing forces.
Historically we have resorted to war as a path forward. In War time even bankers and financiers take a back seat to Generals and political leaders who run the necessary deficits to escape the debt deflation trap. Corruption of politicians during war time is treason and can get you shot. That’s why wars work to end debt deflations. I have no idea how we will escape other than war.
Sure, it’s ridiculous to protect the Saudis for their role in 911. But even more ridiculous, is this Federal court judgement ordering Iran to pay over 10 Billions to 911 victims. Iran has nothing to do with 911. Can anything thing be more ridiculous than that ?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-10/iran-told-to-pay-10-5-billion-to-sept-11-kin-insurers
The USA “justice” system is itself a criminal racket, and will use “technicalities” to persecute USA citizens and foreign countries whenever it chooses. After Iran’s experience, the lesson to the governments of China, Saudi Arabia, Russia et al. should indeed be that holding assets in the USA, or USA.gov obligations such as Treasury bills (subject to potential seizure or cancellation) is a risky business when neo-Con sabers are rattling. Prudence dictates unloading risky assets ahead of potential actions.
Flight schools in Arizona and Florida taught the Saudi terrorists their skills, even though they knew that “something was wrong” (e.g. students wanting to know how to fly, but not wanting to learn how to land the planes). Then there is the FBI, which knew all this and refused to let its agents investigate. In fact the FBI even harbored one of the terrorists, and refused to get a court order to look at his computer and the hijacker’s flight plans. All of which is evidence of the “false flag” aspect of the 9-11 attacks. Indeed, the Patriot Act was written well before 9-11, and just waiting in the wings for an “event” to justify Congressional passage/collusion (even before the ACA, Congress was a “rubber stamp” and not into reading).
Now the same neo-Cons who want to bomb Iran into oblivion have suddenly found “9-11 religion” and are rattling sabers against the Saudis. Perhaps the real objective is to knockout Middle East oil powers, Iran & Saudis, to engineer higher USA oil prices, a “free bailout” of the oil shale producers. Cloak it all in concern for the 9-11 families 15 years after the event; an easy media “sell” to a gullible American public. Of course, Saudis were involved. But so were Americans (e.g. flight schools, the FBI, Bush II admin, neo-Cons). But the neo-Con War Mongers have to setup the Saudi scapegoat/diversion events for asset seizures to make sure that “justice” is not reciprocal. In other words, pulverize the Saudis for their sins, but don’t let Iraqis, Libyans, Serbians and others bombed into oblivion or made collateral damage by drone murders sue the USA for terrorism for destroying their lives and countries. A bully problem?
I think the Saudis would do well to patch things up with Iran, seek détente with Russia, learn to live with both Assad and Israel, and finance a Chinese military presence for their protection. The USA seems hell-bent on being like Britain’s King George III when the American colonies revolted for their freedom. The world has had enough, and is now ready to push back. Turkey showed its mettle, shooting down a Russian jet and sticking it to Germany’s Merkel and the EU. Will be interesting to see what the Saudis do.
Mish: Your post entirely ignores the core problem of allowing US citizens to sue the government of Saudi Arabia – sovereign immunity. If this core principle of international law were to be breached, the US government would be the biggest loser. There have been many thoughtful analyses of the proposed legislation; yours is not among them. Chris
Bushy and Obuma got some “splaining” to do….Saudi interests are at the very heart of all US activities and false economic prosperity. This massive social and economic engineering theatre appears to be coming to the end of its tracks…….buckle up people!
If you have friends like that, who needs enemies?
“Friens” in the American language means “who ever does what we say”
yep!
You forgot to mention that the US funded and supplied weapons to Syrian rebels that became ISIS in an effort to overthrow Assad, so Russian gas could be replaced with gas from Saudi Arabia and Qutar.
The side story is the weapons were smuggled from Libya, at the direction of Hillary and the direct coordination of Ambassador Stevens, who suffered the consequences at Benghazi. Hillary remains untouchable, but why?
…because she’s a practicing satanist.
How does someone with an engineering background believe asymmetrical damage and fire would cause complete collapse into it’s own footprint?
I saw the Trade Center North tower under construction from the inside in September 1971. It was a balloon type construction with the floor beams riveted to the vertical beams, The rivets, a lot of them, carried the load. I could see how the burning jet fuel would weaken the rivets, which were open to the air behind the dry wall, would eventually shear and load the adjacent ones and finally shear the rest and start the drop, If you look at the video footage just before the collapse, you can see the building list sideways slightly at the floor of the impact a bit before the rest of the rivets shear and drop the whole mess on top of the other floors which shear from the inertia mass. it progresses like a zipper tooth by tooth, floor by floor with the top floors in tact till it hits the ground.
No fire has EVER brought down a skyscraper, much less one that was so structurally constructed as were the 3 buildings, Mr. Govt troll. Although the Saudis may have had some peripheral connection to 9/11, they never had security access to plant the explosives, nor the nuclear materials (tritium in quantity was found at ground zero, in the water, and for a circumference of 1/2 mile), nor the missile of the type that hit the Pentagon.
Impossible.
As the top floors fell, the “blew out” their material as evident by all the videos. As this material blew away, the lower floors needed to support a light and lighter weight, while the lower floors are built strong and stronger as you go down.
The lower floors had to be strong enough to support the upper floors. For the lower floors to collapse, in “free fall”, with no resistance, all at the same time interval, required that these floors be weakened.
There was no airplane, jet fuel (kerosene, a low temperature fuel) in or on any of the floors beneath impact of these un-marked (windowless) planes. All kerosene burnt off in the 5 seconds orange flames you see after impact. What is left is a slow burning, oxygen-starved wood fire, thus the black smoke.
If all the lower floors had rivets that could “sheer” from the weight of the upper floors, why did they never sheer?
You had me curious as to whether there was some film footage of the initial collapse. There is and they did a great job of paring it all out.
http://911research.wtc7.net/mirrors/guardian2/wtc/nova.htm
I guess the videos you watched don’t demonstrate the law of conservation of energy because the ones I watched certainly did. There were no “with the top floors in tact till it hits the ground”. I saw upper floors destroyed and washing over the outside like a wave as lower floors well below the crush zone began “crumbling” themselves. Then there’s tower 7 , the most obvious of the controlled demolitions.
In short , the damage was asymmetrical ,the “pancake theory” is bunk and your trolling is weak.
“How does someone with an engineering background believe asymmetrical damage and fire would cause complete collapse into it’s own footprint?”
Gravity pulls straight down. The people who jumped, fell straight down.
Not one engineer that was contacted by the New York Times immediately after the collapse of the Towers, considered it to have been impossible for the Towers to have collapsed the way they did.
That was because there was nothing impossible about the Towers having collapsed the way they did.
The Towers collapsed both within and outside their footprint, as it was debris falling outside the footprint of WTC1, which struck WTC7, setting it on fire.
Also, the top 30 floors of WTC2, tipped over toward the east, as it began to collapse. That put the east wall above the 81st floor, outside its footprint.
“Impossible.
As the top floors fell, the “blew out” their material as evident by all the videos. As this material blew away, the lower floors needed to support a light and lighter weight, while the lower floors are built strong and stronger as you go down.
The lower floors had to be strong enough to support the upper floors. For the lower floors to collapse, in “free fall”, with no resistance, all at the same time interval, required that these floors be weakened.”
What you are stating is false. Lower columns supported upper columns. Each floor truss was the same, regardless whether it was the 34th floor or the 93rd. They were connected to the exterior walls by flanges attached to the columns. The flanges were the weakest link. When major debris fell down on each truss, the flanges were stripped from their connection to the exterior wall. Thus the Towers rapidly collapsed. It did not matter whether lower columns were thicker than upper columns. What mattered was the weakest link, which were the same on each floor- the flanges.
“There was no airplane, jet fuel (kerosene, a low temperature fuel) in or on any of the floors beneath impact of these un-marked (windowless) planes. All kerosene burnt off in the 5 seconds orange flames you see after impact. What is left is a slow burning, oxygen-starved wood fire, thus the black smoke.”
That is also false.
The kerosene did not burn off in 5 seconds. Some kerosene poured down the elevator shafts. The fires were not slow burning, as flames were floor to ceiling and beyond, pouring out the windows of the Towers. The fires were not oxygen starved, considering flames were floor to ceiling. Tires burning in an open field, with plenty of oxygen available will produce copious amounts of black smoke. Burning plastics will also produce copious amounts of black smoke. The fire was indeed very hot.
“I guess the videos you watched don’t demonstrate the law of conservation of energy because the ones I watched certainly did. There were no “with the top floors in tact till it hits the ground”. I saw upper floors destroyed and washing over the outside like a wave as lower floors well below the crush zone began “crumbling” themselves. Then there’s tower 7 , the most obvious of the controlled demolitions.
In short , the damage was asymmetrical ,the “pancake theory” is bunk and your trolling is weak.”
There was no controlled demolition. There has never been a controlled demolition of a working office building.
None of the floors well below the “crush zone” began crumbling themselves. The collapse was progressive, linearly working its way down through each Tower, from where the catastrophic failure began, on down to the ground floor, floor by floor.
“No fire has EVER brought down a skyscraper, much less one that was so structurally constructed as were the 3 buildings, Mr. Govt troll.”
No working office building has ever undergone controlled demolition.
None.
Totally out of control fire was the common element in all three buildings which collapsed at the WTC.
“… the missile of the type that hit the Pentagon.”
Eyewitnesses saw a jetliner strike the Pentagon. There was no missile. There is no missile that would have made the size of hole that was produced in the outer wall of the Pentagon.
What’s amazing is…everyone wants to criticize Obummer for backing the Saudis…and rightfully so…but, no one in the owned Lamestream Media dares ask GW Bush, “WHY HIDE THE TRUTH, GEORGE?!? WHY?!?”
mishgea posted: “Willful BlindnessIn the wake of investigations and revelations that show without a doubt the Saudi nationals including government officials were involved in the 911 attack on the United States, threats and counter-threats are the words of the day.” | |
Hmmm… maybe some of this explains Saudi Arabia’s attack on the fracking industry.
Remember those Chinese finger cuffs we had when we were kids? Picture if we took the US, the Saudiis, and the Chinese, and hooked them all together hand to hand. They’d be head butting each other. The Chinese finger cuffs are the earth and we are all trapped here.
The Senate already has the power to release the 28 pages whether Obama likes it or not. The 1976 intelligence community reform gave either side of Congress, independent of each other and of the president, power to declassify any documents in its possession. All it takes is simple majority vote of the intelligence committee and the entire Senate.
Alternately, Sen. Graham could simply go to the floor of the Senate and tell us what the documents say. He would be immune from prosecution under the Constitution’s speech & debate clause.
The fact that this has not happened makes me suspect the whole thing is a charade for some other purpose not yet known.
The cover-up started when Cond Rice deliberately ignored reports about suspicious Saudis taking flight lessons in Florida. This is after first World Trade Center attack in basement. The Congress asked and asked again. It was amazing the news didn’t make a lot of stink about this.
Then again, the Bush Administration actually thought they could clear the decks for Saudis by removing Iraq and eventually Iran. Now the whole area is in the Stone Age. Clinton policies were exceptionally boneheaded as well…and she is the inside track runner for POTUS
Indeed. NY Port Authority Director of Security John O’Neill would agree, had he not been killed 9/11/01. He spent years and called in every political favor he could, just trying to get somebody to listen.
Best thing that cold come of this, would be all foreign nationals and residents shying away from anything reachable by US trial lawyers and their puppets in the enforcement apparatus. If Saudi officials were “involved” in 9/11, it is a criminal matter. To be investigated and tried by and in criminal courts. Foreign policy dictated by a gaggle of ambulance chasers, is infinitely more troublesome for both Americans and others, than self imposed stoneagers will ever be.
Access to the huge US consumer market, have so far motivated foreigners to put up with the risk of fleecing by half literates with mail order JDs. But as more and more of the world is discovering that the only thing underpinning that consumer demand, is loans that will never be repaid, it ain’t that valuable a market anymore.
People and countries unable to be competitive producers anymore, can only retain the chimera of being valuable consumers for so long, before the game is up and the charade falls apart. If the Saudis could hurry that day up, they will have done us all, Americans and foreigners alike, a service.
O have to love that this is now coming to light, even though many people including most of my military friends knew the Saudi’s backed the 911 attack. The problem was and is still the dollar for oil scheme and if it comes to an end along with the protection the USA provides for dictators in the region. will the greenback still be the world’s reserve currency? This is the problem not the liquidation of treasury bonds.
The dollar for oil scheme allows us the ability to print money for nothing but oil. As long as the Middle East gets it protection the scheme will continue. I think the unraveling of this systems is what bothers politicians more then anything else. The Saudis get away with what they do because the USA and the world need energy and the dollar is the primary currency.
Go read some of Hillary’s Emails she was worried about this big time. If she was worried I am sure many more in high places are too. Look at Libya as well Quadiffi was taken out because he wanted a pan African gold back currency and was not going to take fiat currency from anyone anymore. Europe was pissed and took him out with the help of the USA after they started to fumble it. I am sure the message was clear, take fiat currency or die.
No one wants to be the sole world currency like the USA has they want a basket of currencies after the SWIFT fiasco with the USA. Sanctions from the empire are getting old just like it did with all empires of the past. The world is tired of it to be honest.
I don’t think many know how Saudi government is structured. Royal family have direct say and absolute power over the rest of bureaucracy and society, only tempered by religious authority. They also receive or hold most of the wealth.
So when we talk of Saudi responsibility we are not necessarily looking at the King or secret official policy, there are members of the royal family who hold great sway, who have their own clan of sympathisers, and who through their status will be able to order the bureaucratic aparatus around at will.
In short there are fewer channels of accountability.
Just saying, but the above is not likely to bring any lenience of position from those in the US.
As P.W. points out above, the whole show stinks, from Riyadh to Washington, and I doubt that we will be much the wiser no matter what information is released as the trail is cold and there is far too much blowback at hand from western actions since then to make us think that the release won’t be a manipulation in itself.
A few facts:
1. The Bush/Saudi oil connection has a long history going back to the days of Reagan/Bush and before.
2. TSA was the brainchild of the same group of people on paper with comments that the American people would not allow it without some reason.
3. After the Berlin Wall fell, the war on drugs began in earnest with the crime bill during the Clinton administration.
4. With 911, the war on drugs was no longer necessary with the ever present terrorism threat. We now are moving to legalize marijuana while people are in jail for said use.
5. America alway needs a reason to militarize abroad and at home.
911 was no accident. It could have very well been planned by Saudi and US interests together. We very conveniently removed Iraq from the equation and support Saudi interests wholeheartedly since 911.
Never mind, I am just a conspiracy theorist. Ignore me.
“I don’t want Americans to be held liable because of one bad actor in some embassy somewhere.” – Lindsey Graham
How about bad actors in the US Senate like Lindsey?
“Saudi Arabia….will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom”
Whatever these assets are – Treasuries, real estate, etc – it would not be that much of a threat. I suspect that some important people in the US and elsewhere knew something about 9/11 – Saudi involvement or not – and that is the reason it will be kept under wraps. The Saudis just might squawk about what they know.
Yesterday, Turkey’s Erdogan locked up a European reporter for tweeting something unkind about him. The US has removed a lot of military personnel and families from S. Turkey. Perhaps there will be another incident between Turkey (with the Saudis) and Russia – and Obama will wag his finger at Putin with a wink and a nod. That might take care of the problem.
It’s no bluff. Buying Euros with the $ proceeds of US Treasuries has the effect of keeping American plaintiffs in any successful lawsuit against Saudi for damages from 911 from attaching the money in US banks. If they buy Euros or assets outside the US it will be much harder for successful American plaintiffs to recover any money.
Both Republicans and Democrats are culpable for this, that is why the facts will not be released.
What’d happen if treasuries would be dumped massively would be an oversupply of them and their consequent loss of value. IOW, the sovereign fund dumping treasuries would only get cents on the dollar for them, imploding its balance sheet. Methinks that the nuclear fallout would be not at the US end as much as at the Saudi end.
Mish you couldn’t carry Peter Schiff’s jock when it comes to actual results, not to mention education.
Both sides actually hope this sparring leads to higher oil prices. The US is just starting to experience debt defaults from the oil industry. With taxpayer bailouts of oil companies unpalatable, the strategy to prevent further defaults turns to manipulating greater demand. The Saudis also want higher oil prices to balance its budget and quell a restless populace through social programs.
Mish, unless your brain has suddenly turned to mush and you have lost all access to common sense consider the following:
”Bob Graham: I think it is implausible to believe that 19 people, most of whom didn’t speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, many of whom didn’t have a high school education– could’ve carried out such a complicated task without some support from within the United States. …”
Question: it has been acknowledged that none of the above suspects who took flying lessons even mastered flying a piper cub so does it make any sense to believe that they could fly highly sophisticated airliners?
Question: How could all the money in the world help the totally incompetent alleged hijackers shut down normal fighter jet response when aircraft deviate from their flight plan, bypass normal airport security and hijack planes without showing up on passenger manifests and then turn the WTC buildings into micro-fine dust that blew away in the wind leaving almost no debris on the ground which was verified by an eye witnesses I spoke with who was on site that night and aerial photos taken the following morning?
Like Bob Graham says: . . . it is implausible to believe that these 19 people could’ve carried out such a complicated task . . . PERIOD. It is only basic common sense.
Apparently most people don’t want to consider the common sense implication of who really had the capability (and motive) to pull off such a complicated atrocity . . . the field of suspects is quite limited.
This current Saudi brouhaha is just a smokescreen to distract us from what I am not sure (perhaps the true culprits).
The destabilization taking place is most worrysome. Unless something changes, it seems increasingly likely that someone,somewhere is going to push too far and get a reaction they did’nt count on. Lots of unseen, wierd things going on– there was a report of Russia preparing for war in the Baltic ? Reports of Chinese troops massing on N.Kor border ? I get the feeling that this will end very badly and very suddenly and war will result.
Until somebody explains the collapse of Building 7, all of this is fraud. The government has completely ignored the free-fall collapse of Building 7. They will not discuss it.
3 Steel buildings collapse when, in the history of steel construction, for the past 150 years, not a single steel building has ever “burned” down. Not one. Then 3 burn down. Silence. Then, never again?
Please, for those of you who think I am a left-wing conspiracy nut……….I am not stupid. You are.
“Until somebody explains the collapse of Building 7, all of this is fraud. The government has completely ignored the free-fall collapse of Building 7. They will not discuss it.
3 Steel buildings collapse when, in the history of steel construction, for the past 150 years, not a single steel building has ever “burned” down. Not one. Then 3 burn down. Silence. Then, never again?”
Fire was the common element. Period.
None of the steel buildings you say never collapsed in a fire, were of the design the WTC buildings were. Unlike other fires in steel office buildings, the fire department did not fight these fires, thus they burned totally out of control. Critics never want to bother acknowledging those inconvenient facts. Nor do they like to talk about the series of bowed in columns all along the east wall of WTC2 at the 81st floor. How many of the fires you refer to, had bowed in exterior columns? I’m guessing none.
In building 7, flames poured out floor to ceiling and beyond, along the east wall at the 8th floor during the fire. The collapse began in the east wing of WTC7, as floors below the East Penthouse collapsed, causing it to fall into the building. That was an asymmetrical collapse. Several seconds went by, then the rest of the Penthouse began to fall, followed immediately by the exterior of the building. Critics love to call it a symmetrical collapse, but a number of east end floors and the East Penthouse had already collapsed, seconds before the rest of the building came down. The roof line was bowed as it fell, which also was not symmetrical. Neither was the north wall straight, as the eastern end of the north wall twisted to the north, as the building fell, due to the already missing east wing floors, no longer providing lateral stability.
“The US attacked Iraq even though Iraq was not involved in 911 at all.”
“Never let a crisis go to waste”. Bush did it, before the mayor of Chicago said it, about the Great recession.
November 27, 2002 – 9/11 Commission established (why did it take over a year after the attack to do so?)
March 20, 2003 – Iraq invaded (a mere four months after the START of the 9/11 Commission)
July 22, 2004 – 9/11 Commission final report issued (proving in those 28 pages that the Saudis, not Saddam, were responsible)
Saudi Arabia provided the neocons with exactly what they wanted – a reason to invade Iraq – a “Pearl Harbor event” mentioned by the neocon PNAC in their 1997 report “Rebuilding America’s Defenses.”
Mish,
Not sure why anyone would conclude anything when reviewing the price/interest rate of US treasuries. This is the most rigged market in the world.
Even more compelling is the 9/11 Building 6 collapse.