Two men conducted a 9/11/01 'dry run' in 1999 with tickets from Saudi government

[deminks]

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/07/declassified-report-saudi-ties-september-11

After being kept out of the public eye for 13 years, Congress on Friday declassified 28 pages of a controversial report outlining a series of potential connections between the terrorist hijackers who attacked the United States on 9/11 and the government of Saudi Arabia. The document details a number of alleged instances wherein individuals linked to the Al Saud family may have assisted or provided financial support to the al Qaeda operatives who committed the terrorist attacks.

(snip)

Two men conducted a “dry run” on a flight to D.C., with tickets paid for by the Saudi government

In 1999, Mohammed al-Qudhaeein and Hamdan al-Shalawi reportedly asked flight attendants a handful of suspicious questions and tried to enter the cockpit of the airplane twice. Al-Qudhaeein and al-Shalawi were flying to Washington, D.C., where they planned to attend a party at the Saudi Embassy. The two claimed the embassy also paid for their tickets aboard the flight.

(end snip)



http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/287947-congress-publishes-redacted-28-pages-from-9-11-report

(snip)

And in one instance that appeared notable in retrospect, two men flying on tickets paid for by the Saudi embassy in 1999 acted suspicious during the flight and twice tried to enter the cockpit. Charges were not filed in that instance even though the plane was forced to make an emergency landing, but the FBI’s field office in Phoenix believed the incident may have been a “dry run” to test airline security.

(end snip)

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/read-28-declassified-pages-about-potential-saudi-involvement-911

Another frightening passage described what seemed to be a dry run or information-gathering mission for the eventual hijackings. 1999, Saudi citizens Mohammed al-Qudhaeein and Hamdan al-Shalawi flew from Phoenix to Washington, DC to attend a party at the Saudi embassy. After the plane departed, they asked flight attendants suspicious technical questions about the flight. Qudhaeein twice attempted to enter the cockpit, and the plane made an emergency landing. The two men claimed the flight was paid for by the Saudi Embassy. The FBI investigated the incident and ultimately decided not to pursue a prosecution, but did uncover that both men had "connections to terrorism."

(end snip)

Who could have imagined?

[ChisolmTrailDem]

1. The Saud Family weren't the only ones in on 9/11. So was PNAC and Dick Cheney.

And so was Rummy and the rest.

It was a joint operation orchestrated by a rogue element of the executive branch (with an assist by DoD) of the U.S. government.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[villager]

3. I am in general agreement with your story. nt

[Rex]

5. Well we now know they cooked up a story to try to get Iraq to start a war, so why not that?

As if lives mean anything to the BFEE, they didn't care about the 5000 plus military professionals that died over their illegal invasion...what is a few thousand civilian lives?

[strategery blunder]

6. If there is one good thing about Trump, and to be clear I mean only ONE good thing,

it is that he inflicted great damage upon the BFEE's political power.

The BFEE still has money and the influence that it buys, but I think (hope?) Trump finished the possibility of any of the BFEE winning elections for a very long time.

[Rex]

7. Me too, Trump's ego is so yuuuuggge that it might have cost the GOP their billion dollar pretense.

All those decades of carefully placed dog whistles - Trump shows up and destroys the illusion on the first night of the debates.

[Teacheral]

12. Hoping for another Pearl Harbor

Pnac, Rumsfeld & others knew an attack was imminent. Bush didn't have a clue.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

14. I agree,. I suspect Chimpy was clueless, as always. nt

[WhiteTara]

67. I suspect he knew but being indifferent and incurious

didn't question the plan.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

72. Jeb knew but chimpy, I don't think he knew it was actually going to go down. nt

[WhiteTara]

76. He gets no pass from me. nt

[Rex]

19. Cheney was a co-signer to PNAC, before they scrubbed it.

Don't forget they also wanted to have an exchange to gamble on world events! Cheney-Rummy up to their eyeballs in war crimes.

[dflprincess]

41. So was Jeb Bush

that may have been when Babs and Poppy still expected him to be the one to run in 2000.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

16. I don't even need anything about the Mossad being involved. I already have enough to go on...

...that that doesn't even interest me. If it ever turns out that they did have something to do with it, then so be it. I would not be the least bit surprised. But the true story of what was happening that day was forming in my mind as the events themselves were unfolding. And as much study as I've done on it and as much thinking as I'm done about it and as many times as I've watched the VHS videos that I made that day, nothing will ever convince me that 9/11 was not an event planned and executed by the people I mentioned in my previous post.

[tom_kelly]

20. I'm with you

The Giants played MNF the night before and a buddy stayed over. His girlfriend worked in the south tower and it collapsed as we were watching. I said out loud "They blew up that building with a bomb!"

She was late to work and lived. All 28 Japanese in her office went back to work once the announcement was made telling peolple to do so. They all died.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

44. Omg, Tom, that's horrible about the coworkers :(. It's dangerous to say anything about...

...bombs in the WTC but it sure does look like there were. I don't go in for the crazy stuff like holograms and such nonsense. But those buildings fell fast and symmetrically, including WTC 7. Just like a controlled demolition. And I don't care if certain people don't like me saying that.

That had to be hard on your buddy's girlfriend, something that probably still hits her today.

[Kentonio]

49. It doesn't even make any damn sense.

People go on about controlled explosions, but if they wanted to blow up the towers why not just blow them up and pretend it was a terrorist bomb? Why the utterly unnecessary complexity of flying multiple planes into them first? It makes absolutely no sense, and just serves to make the people whose relatives died suffer even more.

Members of the House of Saud being involved is not only plausible but actually likely. This controlled detonation stuff is very much not.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

56. I'm sorry, but it's your thought process that doesn't make sense. But...

...you're entitled to your opinion, just as I am. However, your appeal to think of the families does not touch me in the least. The families don't even believe the official story.

With regard to why they wouldn't just blow up the buildings, etc... I don't care about all of that. What I care about is what I saw as it unfolded and what I saw in the days, weeks, months, and years after that day. My opinion is also built upon the recordings I can go back to time and time again; I can see what was said and done that day and see how it differs from the 9/11 replays we get each anniversary now. I also don't play the "it's going to make the families suffer even more" deflection and the attempts to use that as a way to shut down the conversation.

While it may not make any sense to you, it does to me. Also, you haven't seen me "go on about controlled demolition". What I said was it is dangerous to talk like that but that the buildings (including WTC 7) came down symmetrically, nice and neat.

I really don't care about any of the arguments that support the official story or anyone's concerns that one of the family members may randomly run across my words here and "suffer even more" for it. What I care about is seeing that the people who planned and executed the events of 9/11 are held to account.

I stand by my words: rogue elements of the bush administration played a significant role in the events of 9/11. And it got them what they wanted: a "new Pearl Harbor" on which to declare war on terrorism and justify their Neocon plans laid out in the PNAC white papers.

[Kentonio]

59. If you want to believe in political collaboration by the neo-cons then that's one thing.

The attackers sure as hell had help from Saudi Arabia to help fund all that travel and training, and members of the House of Saud have some very long and deep connections with some of those bastards in the GOP. Personally I think if anything happened there, it was probably much less blatant and planned out as some people think, but given some of the horrific things the CIA have done in the past, I wouldn't blame anyone for their suspicions.

When it comes to the actual practicalities of the attack though, it's just totally unnecessary to build some huge conspiracy, and it undermines efforts to actually hold the people responsible to account. All this stuff about controlled explosions and so on doesn't make any rational sense. There was no need for the towers to actually fall, the fact they'd just flown planes into the heart of America already gave the causus belli for revenge. Yet apparently we're supposed to believe that they deliberately blew up the towers killing thousands more people, yet were careful enough to ensure they made them fall straight downwards so no additional damage was done? Come on now..

All this does is give ammunition to the people who don't want a proper investigation, because they can paint the people asking for it as conspiracy nutjobs.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

62. Again, your attempt to accuse me of "going on about controlled demolition" is not going...

...to work as I have not gone on about CD. I said to say anything about that is dangerous.

Your adherence to the official conspiracy theory offered by the shrub admin does not go over with me at all. But, please proceed, if that's what floats your particular boat.

[Kentonio]

66. You clearly didn't bother to read anything I wrote, so we'll leave it there.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

70. No, that is not clear. I read every single word you wrote. But do run off, buh-bye. nt

[Kentonio]

84. Ah you read it and then just chose to completely misrepresent it.

I see..

[Francis Booth]

78. Why is it dangerous to talk about bombs in the WTC, Tom?

Conspiracy theoriists on the Internet (and DU) have been talking about them for 15 years. How many of them have disappeared, Tom?

[ChisolmTrailDem]

79. Who are you calling Tom? If you have something legitimate to say, you might start by...

...not mistaking whoever it is you're addressing.

[Francis Booth]

80. My bad - I was replying to you, but had tom_kelly's

handle stuck in my brain.

I would like to keep my question in the table, though. Why is it dangerous to talk about bombs in the WTC?

[ChisolmTrailDem]

81. Because most people here adhere to the official conspiracy theory put forth by the...

...bush administration and will pretend that it's you who are the nutty one for daring to think those building were brought down by bombs or by a controlled demolition. You're either invited to the CT dungeon or your posts are hidden or whatever.

Many drank the bush admin kool-aid and they look at anyone who saw it differently or still has questions like they're nuts.

[Francis Booth]

82. Thanks for explaining. nt

[Qutzupalotl]

38. I have come to the same conclusion.

Cheney's scheduling of NORAD training exercises for that week, after having caught wind of attacks coming through his many meetings in 2001 with the CIA, tells me his hands are all over this. He definitely had the motive, the opportunity, and he granted himself the means with his classification powers and leverage. Plus he's the most corrupt, lying, evil-scheming son of a bitch I've ever seen. Enriched himself in the process. Beyond vile.

[CaptainTruth]

42. It's criminal the way our media ignored the PNAC.

I tried for years to get their attention, even created my own web site (this was before blogs) where I wrote about it, tried to expose the PNAC & what they had done.

Big yawn was all I got back.

I still believe the LIHOP theory of 9/11 (Letting It Happen On Purpose), there's just too much evidence.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

71. When you do nothing to stop a hijacking on the scale of 9/11, you didn't LIHOP, you...

...MIHOP'ed.

[villager]

2. Our swell allies, the Saudis.

I'm sure the next administration will deal with them sternly!

[840high]

28. Thanks for the giggle.

[Lance Bass esquire]

4. From ABC 9/19/01 James Woods

James Woods — who's best known for playing bad guys in films like Final Fantasy and Ghosts of Mississippi — is now playing a good citizen by tipping off the FBI about his encounter with four suspicious airline passengers a month before last Tuesday's attacks on America, Reuters reports

On a flight from Boston to Los Angeles about a month ago, Woods observed four men of apparent Middle Eastern origin acting so oddly that he reported them to the flight attendants and authorities on the ground when he landed.

The Oscar-nominated actor told the FBI last week that he was alone in first class with the four men and noticed during the entire cross-country flight that none of them had anything to eat or drink, nor did they read, sleep, or appear to make themselves comfortable. They sat erect in their seats and stared straight ahead, saying nothing to flight attendants and speaking to each other only in inaudible tones.

Woods, who was flying back to Los Angeles after visiting his mother in Boston, said via his publicist that he was extremely unsettled by their behavior.

The flight now appears to have been a dry run for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, in which hijackers seized and crashed four commercial planes, including one flying the same Boston-to-Los Angeles route. The day after the terrorists crashed the planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in western Pennsylvania, Woods called the FBI to report his eerie experience. Federal agents visited him at his home the following day, on Thursday, to interview him in detail, according to Reuters.

Woods declined to publicly discuss his experience, first reported by New York Post columnist Cindy Adams and confirmed by his spokeswoman, Susan Madore. In a brief statement, the actor said, "I think it prudent not to comment on this and let the FBI continue do their job …."

Reuters contributed to this story.

[840high]

29. Wow

[sarcasmo]

8. Kick for the truth

[ChisolmTrailDem]

9. Finally. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

10. That's why, after Sept. 11, we invaded Saudi Arabia.

Oh, wait.

[sarcasmo]

11. Nice to see that many of us who railed on Saudi Arabia

Have been proven right.

[uhnope]

52. proven right how? These articles contain almost nothing.

The incident was described as a "dry run," and the men claimed their tix were bought by the Saudi Embassy. That's it. That's proof of nothing.

[bigwillq]

21. But..but..our senators and congress folks knew what they were doing.

They got it right, right?

[NightWatcher]

15. So, are we still nutty truthers for thinking this was more than a few guys w/box cutters?

Just checking, because the more we find out, the more we're right.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

17. " truthers" never where nutty. Indeed, we were the only ones seeing the truth. Personally I'm...

... dumbfounded that anyone who would look at the events of that day and the events that followed could come to any other conclusion. To me, they are the ones who are nutty.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. There are truthers and there are truthers.

In one sense we all are truthers because we are reality based and prefer to know the truth. Most of use use the Scientific Method, which can only disprove hypotheses, never prove them.

On the other hand, there are too many truthers who frame a conspiracy theory and then go looking for facts to "prove" it. This is not the Scientific Method. The problem with this approach is that negative facts are too often ignored and when they aren't ignored, they are spun out in ever more complicated conspiracies. One example is the claim that nobody died on the planes in 9/11 because all the planes were remote controlled after landing and disembarking the passengers in some secret location.

[99th_Monkey]

32. Exactly! Every group has it's nutty extremist fringe, including truthers

Alex Jones et.al. being cases in point.

I find it both ironic and revealing that on DU truthers have been vilified and marginalized
as "CT"for ... what now? 10 years? ... Just goes to show the value of allowing open discourse
when there is honest disagreement among observers and actors.

[Kentonio]

50. Remote controlled?!? What the actual f is wrong with people..

[wildbilln864]

57. you didn't know planes could indeed be remotely controlled!?

Indeed WTF is wrong with so many uninformed people!?

[Kentonio]

61. Have you ever actually talked to an aerospace engineer?

No you can't just remote pilot a jet airliner like it was a toy plane.

Even more to the point, why is any of this even necessary? There were men on board who were willing to kill the aircrew and fly the planes manually to their destruction. They were able to do this, because the emphasis of security previously was on stopping people getting bombs and guns onto planes, and the idea of a low tech suicide attack hadn't been properly taken into account.

This is what I don't get about this stuff, why do you need to make this infinitely more complicated than it actually was? What does it actually achieve?

[wildbilln864]

63. you believe what ever makes you feel secure...but yes you can

"just remote pilot a jet airliner like it was a toy plane".

[Kentonio]

68. Oh for...

No, the technology they are talking about is not like a remote controlled plane where you can just swoop around like you're playing a flight simulator. The whole thing is utterly ridiculous, and completely pointless given that a) there were living breathing terrorists with flight training on board, and b) we have phone calls from passengers telling us exactly what was happening.

Seriously, what is the damn point of this nonsense? We want to pretend that Al Queda didn't attack us?

[wildbilln864]

69. you mean those cell phone calls that turned out to never have happened?

thanks for the laugh.
http://www.consensus911.org/point-pc-4/

[wildbilln864]

74. yea nonsense alright...

“On the morning of December 1, 1984, a remotely controlled Boeing 720 transport took off from Edwards Air Force Base (Edwards, California), made a left-hand departure and climbed to an altitude of 2300 feet. It then began a descent to-landing to a specially prepared runway on the east side of Rogers Dry Lake. Final approach was along the roughly 3.8 degree glide slope. The landing gear was left retracted. Passing the decision height of 150 feet above ground level (AGL), the aircraft was slightly to the right of the desired path. Just above that decision point at which the pilot was to execute a “go-around,” there appeared to be enough altitude to maneuver back to the centerline of the runway. Data acquisition systems had been activated, and the aircraft was committed to impact. It contacted the ground, left wing low. The fire and smoke took over an hour to extinguish.”

"...“The aircraft was remotely flown by NASA research pilot Fitzhugh (Fitz) Fulton from the NASA Dryden Remotely Controlled Vehicle Facility. Previously, the Boeing 720 had been flown on 14 practice flights with safety pilots onboard. During the 14 flights, there were 16 hours and 22 minutes of remotely piloted vehicle control, including 10 remotely piloted takeoffs, 69 remotely piloted vehicle controlled approaches, and 13 remotely piloted vehicle landings on abort runway.”
http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/08/07/flight-control-boeings-uninterruptible-autopilot-system-drones-remote-hijacking/

[Myrddin]

85. Writing as one professionally involved in Aerospace Engineering...

...you are mis-informed. Most modern airliners already fly with little input from a human on the flight-deck.
The technology to fly an airliner 'remotely' was around long before 9/11.

[47of74]

23. I just walked past the 9/11 memorial last Tuesday

It boils my blood how that son of a bitch George W. Bush did not do his fucking job, if he had instead of visiting two giant holes in the ground I would have been visiting the original WTC.

[Jopin Klobe]

24. (David) Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group ...

Former president George H.W. Bush is a Carlyle adviser. Former British prime minister John Major heads its European arm. Former secretary of state James Baker is senior counselor, former White House budget chief Richard Darman is a partner, former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt is senior adviser -- the list goes on.

"We've actually replaced the Trilateral Commission" as the darling of conspiracy theorists, says Rubenstein -- who, truth be told, happens to be a member of the Trilateral Commission.

It didn't help that as the World Trade Center burned on Sept. 11, 2001, the news interrupted a Carlyle business conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel here attended by a brother of Osama bin Laden. Former president Bush, a fellow investor, had been with him at the conference the previous day.
[link:http://www.wanttoknow.info/030316post|

[UTUSN]

26. Rubenstein was one viper in the nest in Jimmy Carter's breast

Last edited Sat Jul 16, 2016, 10:59 PM - Edit history (2)

Along with pat caddell and tweety

[VOX]

25. Jul 26, 2001: Atty. General John Ashcroft advised to avoid commercial flights...

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ashcroft-flying-high/
Ashcroft Flying High
CBSNEWS.COM STAFF
Jul 26, 2001 7:04 PM

Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

"There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines," an FBI spokesman said. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it.

A senior official at the CIA said he was unaware of specific threats against any Cabinet member, and Ashcroft himself, in a speech in California, seemed unsure of the nature of the threat.

"I don't do threat assessments myself and I rely on those whose responsibility it is in the law enforcement community, particularly the FBI. And I try to stay within the guidelines that they've suggested I should stay within for those purposes," Ashcroft said.

Asked if he knew anything about the threat or who might have made it, the attorney general replied, "Frankly, I don't. That's the answer."

Earlier this week, the Justice Department leased a NASA-owned G-3 Gulfstream for a 6-day trip to Western states. Such aircraft cost the government more than $1,600 an hour to fly. When asked whether Ashcroft was paying for any portion of the trips devoted to personal business, a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to respond.

All other Bush Cabinet appointees, with the exception of Interior and Energy with remote sites to oversee, fly commercial airliners. Janet Reno, Ashcroft's predecessor as attorney general, also routinely flew commercial. The secretaries of State and Defense traditionally travel with extra security on military planes.

The Justice Department insists that it wasn't Ashcroft who wanted to fly leased aircraft. That idea, they said, came strictly from Ashcroft's FBI security detail. The FBI had no further comment.

©MMI, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved

[choie]

27. They picked a great day to release it..

What with the Nice attack and the Couo in Turkey - I don't see any mention of it in the Times. Bastards.

[UTUSN]

30. & then there's BANDER-BUSH

[99th_Monkey]

33. Yes, the Saudi darling of the Bush Crime Family. n/t

[YOHABLO]

31. The people in this country are dangerously stupid to believe the Bush Adm. didn't see this coming.

They let it happen. plain and simple and then used it to reek havoc.

[TeddyR]

35. Are you seriously claiming

That the US government was complicit in 9/11? Maybe I'm missing the sarcasm.

[wildbilln864]

37. precisely! thank you!

and hydrocarbon fires don't melt steel.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

45. Hi wildbilln864, good to see you pop into GD. What did the poster say...

...that was removed?

[wildbilln864]

46. I think they spoke of...

inconvenient & uncomfortable truths. Truths that shall not be mentioned here.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

47. Could you PM me more please? Thanks! nt

[Fast Walker 52]

64. I agree. The evidence is overwhelming on this.

and it was probably even worse than that.

[MariaThinks]

39. kick

[Eko]

40. The only link I can find between the men on the dry run and the Saudi government

is that the men themselves claimed it. Pretty low standards of evidence to come to that conclusion.

[uhnope]

51. yep. Lamest "revelation" I've ever seen. Someone described it as a "dry run"

and the two guys claimed their tix were bought by the Saudi gov. That's it.

If these guys had later been actual 9/11 hijackers, that would be huge. Instead, this is nothing, IMO.

[Initech]

43. Why are we still allies with that horrible country?

[MillennialDem]

60. Oil

[burfman]

48. The NY Times take on the release

What could possibly go wrong with having the Saudi's as our good buddies?


In 9/11 Document, View of a Saudi Effort to Thwart U.S. Action on Al Qaeda


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/16/us/28-pages-saudi-arabia-september-11.html


Some excerpts from the article:

....

It details contacts between Saudi officials and some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, checks from Saudi royals to operatives in contact with the hijackers and the discovery of a telephone number in a Qaeda militant’s phone book that was traced to a corporation managing an Aspen, Colo., home of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

The document, 28 pages of a congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is also an unflattering portrayal of the kingdom’s efforts to thwart American attempts to combat Al Qaeda in the years before the attacks.


....

In particular, some investigators remain puzzled by the exact role played by Fahad al-Thumairy, a Saudi consular official based in the Los Angeles area at the time of the attacks. They believe that if there had been any Saudi government role in the plot, it probably would have involved him.

Mr. Thumairy was the imam of a mosque visited by two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and some American government officials have long suspected that Mr. Thumairy assisted the two men — Nawaq Alhamzi and Khalid al-Midhar — after they arrived in Los Angeles in early 2000.

An F.B.I. document from 2012, cited last year by an independent review panel, concluded that Mr. Thumairy “immediately assigned an individual to take care of” of Mr. Alhamzi and Mr. Midhar “during their time in the Los Angeles area,” but the F.B.I. has been unable to piece together other details of the movement of the two men during their early days in the United States.

Two investigators for the Sept. 11 commission interviewed Mr. Thumairy for several hours in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in February 2004, but he denied having any ties to the hijackers — even after being presented with phone records that seemed to link him to the two men.

The 28 pages discuss the role that Mr. Thumairy is said to have played, as well as a number of possible connections between Qaeda operatives and Saudi officials. One section of the report details how a phone number in a telephone book found with Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in Pakistan in March 2002 by the C.I.A., was traced to a corporation in Aspen, Colo., that manages the affairs of the Colorado residence of Prince Bandar.

.....


There's also this interesting article that was published last month:

A Saudi Imam, 2 Hijackers and Lingering 9/11 Mystery

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/18/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-sept11-classified-28-pages.html

[uhnope]

53. is this nothingburger really the biggest revelation in the 28 pages of declassified docs?

God what an anti-climax

[allan01]

54. bushco wanted a war so bad hed do anything . even lie

[cosmicone]

55. The actual "dress rehearsal" was the Indian Airlines plane hijack

done by Pakistani terrorists.

Pakistani ISI was fully complicit with Saudi intelligence and carried out the hijacking down to cutting the throat of a passenger with a box cutter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Airlines_Flight_814

[sofa king]

58. Related: "Phoenix Memo" was sent on 7/10/2001

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Memo

Its purpose was to

advise the Bureau and New York of the possibility of a coordinated effort by Osama Bin Laden to send students to the United States to attend civil aviation universities and colleges. Phoenix has observed an inordinate number of individuals of investigative interest who are attending or who have attended civil aviation universities and colleges in the State of Arizona.

[Fast Walker 52]

65. a month before and even on 9/11, there were many hijacking drills

and there was this weird one with bin Laden involved it controlling drones--
http://shoestring911.blogspot.ca/2015/09/air-defense-exercise-month-before-911.html

[DirkGently]

73. Wonder how far this will be pursued.

Last edited Sun Jul 17, 2016, 02:34 PM - Edit history (1)

It couldn't have been much clearer from the beginning of the "missing 28 pages" that it was the Saudi royal family's potential connections being swept from view. Close personal friends of the Bush family as it happens.

What would be really devastating would be any indication that besides supporting people with questionable plans and motives, which apparently absolutely happened, any prominent Saudis had in mind that a horrific terror attack on the U.S. might be a good way to get America engaged against its enemies.

[YoungDemCA]

77. I think it's pretty clear that they're not "potential" connections

At least, for some members of the royal family as well as the non-Royal Saudi business elite, religious establishment, and military and intelligence officers.

Unfortunately we have been tangled up with these assholes for the better part of a century and as despicable as they are, the only people who could plausibly replace them are the terrorists themselves - who make no pretense of being "allies" of the US.

There is no happy ending here.

[rladdi]

75. With all the implications against the Saudis over the years and the US government still

considered them a friend. Supporting the government in all the actions they take. The Saudi family buys properties in America, commits crimes and are never charged. They go free. When will our government change their attitude on the Saudis knowing they are a criminal family, but with billions of dollars that seems to protect them. The Saudis do not have a Democratic state, it is a criminal state, dictatorship. Maybe the pressure from the American people can finally convince our American government to take a different path with this criminal family

[raven mad]

83. Quick question -

Who didn't know the Saudi elite bought and paid for 9/11?