A federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks voted Friday to subpoena the Pentagon for documents related to the activities of U.S. air defenses on the day of the terrorist hijackings.
The independent commission said it was "especially dismayed" by incomplete document production on the part of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, the part of the Defense Department responsible for protecting North American airspace.
The commission's broad investigation includes questions about how, and how quickly, the Federal Aviation Administration notified U.S. air defenses about hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001. The commission's first subpoena, issued last month, was to the FAA.
The panel . . . met privately Friday about matters including production of documents it has requested from numerous government offices. . . .
In a statement announcing the Defense Department subpoena, the commission said, "In several cases we were assured that all requested records had been produced, but we then discovered, through investigation, that these assurances were mistaken." . . .
FAA knew that Los Angeles-bound Flight 77 left its course at 8:55 a.m. . . . but NORAD did not get official notice of a hijacking until 9:24 a.m.
Rumor Mill News excerpts from last week's edition of supermarket tabloid GLOBE. [This writer can confirm this text is in the print edition.]
WILLIAM VOWS TO EXPOSE CONSPIRACY TO KILL MOM Was his grandfather behind the plot?
STILL devastated over the death of his mother after six years, Prince William is determined to uncover the conspiracy he - believes led to her murder - even if it takes him straight to his own grandfather!
"I SHALL find the truth," William vowed to friends.
In his blockbuster book, A Royal Duty, [Diana's private butler, Paul] Burrell reprints the letter Diana wrote to him before her death, in which she said a car accident was being planned to "make the path clear" for Charles to marry Camilla Parker-Bowles. . . .
In his book, Burrell published a photocopy of the letter Diana wrote to him in October of 1996:
Her fears caused her to write the note to him in October 1996. Before sealing the envelope addressed just to "Paul," she told him, "I'm going to date this and I want you to keep it...just in case." . . .
According to palace insiders, the 21-year-old William is certain the men were inspired by the rants and raves of Queen Elizabeth's husband Prince Philip, who saw Diana as a threat to the British monarchy. . . .
"He is now sure that his mother lived in fear of a ruthless group of conspirators who believed that she was a danger to the British throne and was close to bringing down the monarchy.
"Whether his grandfather was one of the plotters or not, he can't prove.
"But he believes that Philip wanted something to happen to Diana, and these political hit men took it from there."
TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS: Is this good info? It could be. William Windsor nee Saxe-Coburg Gotha may know the score. Note that the item does soft-pedal Phillip's complicity.
RMNews says this issue was pulled from stored in midwest, with purprted reason being name/picture of the Kobe Bryant's accuser. I cannot confirm this.
"Jesus, Mary and da Vinci," tonight's ABC News special; the show is a woolly and underthought treatment of the religious sophistry in "The Da Vinci Code," . . .
The ABC special . . . bares Leonardo's so-called secret: Mary Magdalene, far from being a prostitute, was the rightful wife of Jesus; Mary and Jesus had a child and heirs; and finally, the heirs, whose existence threatened church dogma, were protected by a clandestine priory that counted Leonardo among its members.
Its logic is of an especially enervating kind. . . both amusingly audacious and profoundly irritating. If you're not freshly familiar with the invariably eclectic materials under discussion, you can express only general skepticism, which makes you a sucker. . . .
The juxtaposition of ivory-tower erudition and antic amateurism creates odd effects. . .
Tonight's ABC News' special, "Jesus, Mary and DaVinci," which will examine whether Jesus married Mary Magdalene, is based on popular work of fiction that many see as virulently anti-Christian. . . turning what has been called "a crackpot theory" into a news story. . . .
Da Vinci left clues about the relationship in his art, the author thinks.
Sony Pictures picked up the rights to the book in June and has since announced that Ron Howard will direct the big-screen adaptation.
Brown contends Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had a child; Magdalene was chosen by Jesus to lead an early, heavily feminist Christian church; Roman Emperor Constantine invented Jesus' divinity and created the New Testament; and Leonardo Da Vinci left codes in his artwork to preserve the truth (which happens to be the Holy Grail).
TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS: When New York Times and WorldNetDaily both attack, it's a good bet someone is on to something. The New York Times review is particularly amusing, as the special challenges not only her contained realityspace and religion but her fragile little notions of intellectual classes.
The special was interesting and brought out information never before seen on network television.
I haven't read the Brown book, but the special definitely focused on the "feminist" issue and in many ways tried to reduce the debate to that framework -- that the Church might have covered up Mary Magdalene's role because the Church was/is anti-woman. The issue was then tied back into the issue of a male celibate priesthood. There is much more than sexual politics at play here, however real that issue may be, and framing the question so narrowly does the issue a disservice.
There are other angles here regarding both the bloodline and celibate priesthood issues, however, angles that were not brought to light in the broadcast. The denial of a Jesus bloodline gives the legitimacy of power over Christendom to an apostolic succession of popes rather than hereditary succession of kings. The first centuries of the Roman Church had every reason to deny the existence of a Jesus bloodline. If the leaders of Christianity were hereditary, there is no role for the Church established by Constantine which bases its legitimacy on a string of persons chosen by their predecessors, supposedly dating back to Jesus' decision to name Peter as the head of the Church. That is what gave (gives?) the Pope the legitimacy to choose who would be king ina Christian country.
As for the celibate male priesthood issue, the Church needs its people to have undivided loyalties. A married priest must split his labor and capital and returns on same between his family and the Church. The Church has had no use for such divided loyalties. It will not rewrite its rules until it thinks the net gain in priests would override the lost benefits to married priests who would otherwise be fully married the the Church (aka the "holy bride of Christ").
But what of the possibility that the Jesus bloodline stories were wholly contrived by European kings looking to build their own legitimacy among the people, a legitimacy outside the papacy? That is a possibility, but the weirdness at Rennes-le-Chateau suggests there is something to the story of Jesus' bloodline landing in the south of France. The short story there is a 19th -century monk discovered a great secret there and was paid off millions of dollars by the Vatican to shut up. What did he discover? Perhaps just about everything theorized in the ABC special. Perhaps even more. What if he discovered it was not merely a pregnant Mary Magdalene who traveled to the south of Gaul after the crucifixion, but Mary and her husband Jesus, who survived the ordeal? (He didn't stay up very long, there are indications the nails were placed in the wrong place, and the Shroud of Turin has tested positive for the kinds of healing oils now covered up by the pharma cartel.)
Detailed analysis of the debris field, physical damage, and other factors in the alleged impact of a Boeing 757 on the Pentagon building on the morning of September 11, 2001 reveals an almost complete absence of debris expected from such an event. (Elliott 2003) The initial (pre-collapse) hole made by the alleged impact on the ground floor of Wedge One of the building is too small to admit an entire Boeing 757. In order to decide whether or not a Boeing 757 (or aircraft of comparable size) struck the Pentagon on the morning in question, a comprehensive review of all the debris and other physical evidence is hardly necessary. It turns out that a study of the wings alone suffices for the purpose.
Wings that should have been sheared off by the impact are entirely absent. There is also substantial evidence of debris from a much smaller, jet-powered aircraft inside the building. We conclude with a high degree of certainty that no Boeing 757 struck the building. We also conclude with a substantial degree of certainty that a smaller, single-engined aircraft, roughly the size and shape of an F-16, did, in fact, strike the building.
[...]
Mini-scenario
The foregoing analysis shows as clearly as we can state the case, that no Boeing 757 struck the Pentagon that day. In a sense, that's the easy part of the investigation. Finding out what did happen is a necessarily incomplete process . . .
A possible alternate explanation of what happened on that morning can be pieced together from eyewitness accounts of the tragedy, as well as other sources of information. There were apparently three aircraft involved in the affair: (Killtown 2003)
1. A military C-130 transport aircraft carrying out strange diving and climbing maneuvers in the area of the Pentagon (restricted airspace) at the time of the crash.
2. A Boeing 757 or 767 painted in American Airlines colors (possibly Flight 77 itself) overflying the Pentagon within seconds of the crash.
3. A military jet, possibly an F-16, which came in low and very fast, straight toward the Pentagon.
If the Pentagon attack was essentially a staged affair, it would be necessary to create as much confusion as possible to distract potential eyewitnesses from seeing the actual attack aircraft or, if seeing it, assuming that it was not the impact vehicle. (pi911 2003)
Thus, the C-130 carrying out strange maneuvers near the Pentagon would have been deployed to keep as many eyes as possible riveted on that aircraft, much as a stage magician frequently uses the trick of focusing the audience's attention in one direction, while he employs sleight-of-hand in another.
The actual Flight 77 (or a duplicate of it) flies over the Pentagon and on toward Reagan International Airport or, possibly, Hollings Air force Base. By this time, flights would still be coming to the nearest airport all over the United States and no one remark on such a landing. Several witnesses reported this aircraft, as well.
As Flight 77 (or its duplicate) flies over the Pentagon, a high-speed military jet or, possibly, a cruise missile, comes in low, just clearing the grounds fence and the lawn area, then slamming into the Pentagon at approximately 1000 km/hr. It strikes the Pentagon at roughly a 45-degree angle, taking out four support columns inside the wall and removing or damaging many other columns inside the building
As evidence for this possibility, an image of the stabilizer (tail) of a military jet was captured by a Pentagon security camera. (Desmoulins 2003a).
It has been claimed that the stabilizer that appears in this picture belonged to flight 77. In fact, the stabilizer is too small and fails to bear any trace of American Airlines famous AA company logo. . . .
Follow the link for the entire analysis by Prof. Dewdney and his coauthor. Highly recommended.
One of the lessons the U.S. government apparently learned from the Vietnam War is this: Don't let the American public see coffins arriving home with U.S. casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. . . .
In a move by the Bush administration to suppress distressing images of war, the Defense Department issued a directive last March on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq that declared:
"There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein (Germany) airbase or Dover (Del.) base, (and) to include interim stops."
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The first helicopter pilot to see the patch of flames that became the catastrophic Cedar Fire radioed for aerial water drops.
But state firefighters rejected his request because it came minutes after such flights had been grounded for the night.
Dave Weldon was the San Diego County Sheriff's Department pilot who on Saturday rescued the lost hunter believed to have started the fire.
Weldon tells The Associated Press he asked another helicopter with a dump bucket to fly to the scene.
The chopper made it within five miles of the fire, but state officials told it to turn back because it was about ten minutes past the deadline for safety guidelines set for such flights.
Weldon's request for an air tanker was rejected for the same reason.
Elected officials complained bitterly that Davis did not formally request aerial tankers on Sunday before fire destroyed hundreds of homes in Valley Center, Ramona, Scripps Ranch and Tierra Santa.
County Supervisor Greg Cox said that he encountered a "nightmarish tale of red tape" while seeking the governor's help in asking the Pentagon to authorize the use of military-owned helicopters and tankers.
But Davis, in a press conference at Scripps Ranch, said it was the duty of the U.S. Department of Forestry, not the governor's office, to ask for the Pentagon's assistance.
TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS: Some talk show callers have mentioned local teevee reporting military helicopters in the vicinity of some of the fire outbreaks, counducting "training exercises." I'm still trying to confirm this. Send along any info you may have.
Says Laton McCartney, the author of Friends in High Places, a comprehensive history of Bechtel’s rise to prominence (Ballantine, 1989). . . in the early 1980s, Steve Bechtel Jr., then chairman of his family’s company, socialized with high-level government officials at an annual retreat at the exclusive Bohemian Grove resort in Northern California. Author McCartney describes the camp as a playground for adults, where after a few days of unwinding among equals, political and business elites developed camaraderie. At the Grove, guests stayed in one of 127 different lodges, McCartney writes. Mandalay, the most prestigious, played home to titans such as Bechtel, Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, former CIA director John McCone, and former IBM chairman Thomas Watson. The easy familiarity born of these gatherings cemented friendships, McCartney explains. John Ehrlichman, a former aide to President Nixon and guest of the Grove, told McCartney, "Once you’ve spent three days with someone in an informal situation you have a relationship—a relationship that opens doors and makes it easier to pick up the phone." This "Mandalay effect," . . . helps companies such as Bechtel and Halliburton influence policy.
KeepAndBearArms.com reports on a gun rights lawsuit being undermined by the NRA in the courts:
Here is a short excerpt from Mr. Halbrook's oral arguments last Wednesday, October 8, in a case the NRA calls a “Second Amendment” lawsuit:
THE COURT: THE GOVERNMENT CAN PUT RESTRICTIONS ON THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS.
MR. HALBROOK: YOUR HONOR, WE ARE HERE WANTING TO REGISTER HANDGUNS. WE ARE NOT HERE WANTING UNRESTRICTED ACCESS. WE'RE NOT HERE ASKING TO CARRY THEM, OTHER THAN IN THE HOME.
THE COURT: YOU'RE SAYING THAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN IMPOSE REASONABLE RESTRICTIONS?
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), a current NRA board member, joined former NRA board member Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and anti-gun colleagues Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the author of the Brady gun control law, and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), who was elected to Congress on a gun control agenda after the murder of her husband and wounding of her son, to reintroduce a nearly identical version of the Our Lady of Peace Act (H.R. 4757). . . .
The legislation, which has been renamed the "NICS Improvement Act," is designed to eliminate current "gaping holes" in the information provided by states to the National Instant Background Check System (NICS), the database used by federal law enforcers to approve or deny gun purchases from licensed gun dealers and at gun shows nationwide. . . .
"This bill is going to pass. It almost passed last year, but Sen. [Orrin] Hatch (R-Utah) objected," Schumer explained. "We have worked closely with Senator Hatch. He's now a sponsor of our bill."
The updated proposal would provide $750 million "to establish or upgrade information and technologies for firearms eligibility determinations." . . .
Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America (GOA), said that the original bill risked the privacy of the mentally ill and . . . pointed to research published in Violence and Mental Disorder: Development in Risk Assessment . . .that mental health professionals could not accurately predict violent behavior even in a group of known mentally ill criminals with a history of violence.
"Psychiatrists and psychologists are accurate in no more than one out of three . . .
last week's edition of supermarket tabloid GLOBE. [This writer can confirm this text is in the print edition.]
