9/11 Synchronicities Thread

[JackRiddler]

Illustrations preferred - minimize your speculation - some of these really are coincidences.

Like this one, I'm certain, dug up today at RI board:

[wildbilln864]

1. 1979? n/t

[Bolo Boffin]

2. He said, some of those things are coincidence.

That's definitely one that is. It's chilling to look at, but it's only a coincidence.

[wildbilln864]

3. yes I read that. n/t

:eyes:

[Bolo Boffin]

4. You didn't demonstrate an understanding of that. n/t

[wildbilln864]

5. perhaps that's...

simply your biased assumption? :shrug:

[Bolo Boffin]

8. All right then.

What did you mean by repeating the date of the advertisement in the OP?

[jberryhill]

6. Pakistan International

now that's a hoot.

There was the completed album art for some group, which got pulled.

Then there was this trademark application:

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=76236398

It is for a graphic logo of the towers:

Address:
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, The
One World Trade Center

2001-09-11 - Published for opposition

[JackRiddler]

7. Wow, that was some opposition...

you'd think serving some papers would suffice.

[seemslikeadream]

9. ....

"Coincidence Theory: By shear chance things just happen repeatedly and coincidentally to benefit their interests without any conscious connivance by them, which is most uncanny. There is also: Stupidity Theory, Innocence Theory, Momentary Aberration Theory, Incompetence Theory, Unintended Consequences Theory and Innocent Cultural Proclivities Theory."

- Michael Parenti

[JackRiddler]

11. Asbestos ad - now THAT is interesting.

Really weird - I had no idea that there would still be an Asbestos Magazine as late as 1981!

And I was about to post "The Coup," but you beat me to it.

Here is a Sept. 2002 interview with Boots Riley of "The Coup," who explains what the photo was supposed to represent:

Boots: Well, first the album got pulled. Second, people seem to be talking about this because the blast shown in the picture is on the same level and general area of where the planes crashed. When we originally made that picture it was in May and June. It was supposed to be a metaphor to symbolize us destroying 'capitalism'.

What The Coup talks about is what I think it takes to make a revolution. If anybody has ever listened to our music. I definitely espouse revolution and overthrowing the system. My way in which I think this has to happen is through hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of people moving, organizing and making something happen. I do think in the end it will be a violent revolution, but I don't think it's something that will happen by the act of a few people. I wanna say that off that bat, that last Tuesday's tragic act is not something that The Coup endorses.

Okay. Nothwithstanding the detonator is labeled "Covert Labs" (the display says "Engage")...

[Bolo Boffin]

13. Remember, folks, the absetos ad is inaccurate.

There were only 38 floors of the North Tower that asbestos fireproofing was applied to. That had been replaced down to about 20 by 9/11.

[seemslikeadream]

15. Could we all have a link to that?

IMPEACH CHENEY




They Thought They Were Free - Read by Dave Emory

The Germans, 1933-45

Excerpt from pages 166-73 of "They Thought They Were Free" First published in 1955

By Milton Mayer

But Then It Was Too Late

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

....

"Yes," I said.

"You see," my colleague went on, "one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

"Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, ‘everyone’ is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. You know, in France or Italy there would be slogans against the government painted on walls and fences; in Germany, outside the great cities, perhaps, there is not even this. In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’



Michael Parenti - Terrorism, Globalism & Conspiracy

"Coincidence Theory: By shear chance things just happen repeatedly and coincidentally to benefit their interests without any conscious connivance by them, which is most uncanny. There is also: Stupidity Theory, Innocence Theory, Momentary Aberration Theory, Incompetence Theory, Unintended Consequences Theory and Innocent Cultural Proclivities Theory."

- Michael Parenti

[Bolo Boffin]

18. Don't you remember the conversation (and the link) I supplied the last time you posted this ad?

Why don't you just remember?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=125&topic_id=187601

Challenging me on something you know I have is just silly, seems.

[seemslikeadream]

19. Asking for a link is challenging?

[Bolo Boffin]

20. Yes. Yes, it is. Why are you playing silly games? n/t

[seemslikeadream]

24. Jeux sans frontieres

Hans plays with lotte, lotte plays with jane
Jane plays with willi, willi is happy again
Suki plays with leo, sacha plays with britt
Adolf builts a bonfire, enrico plays with it
-whistling tunes we hid in the dunes by the seaside
-whistling tunes were kissing baboons in the jungle
Its a knockout
If looks could kill, they probably will
In games without frontiers-war without tears
Games without frontiers-war without tears

Jeux sans frontieres
Jeux sans frontieres
Jeux sans frontieres

Andre has a red flag, chiang chings is blue
They all have hills to fly them on except for lin tai yu
Dressing up in costumes, playing silly games
Hiding out in tree-tops shouting out rude names
-whistling tunes we hide in the dunes by the seaside
-whistling tunes we piss on the goons in the jungle
Its a knockout
If looks could kill they probably will
In games without frontiers-wars without tears
If looks could kill they probably will
In games without frontiers-war without tears
Games without frontiers-war without tears

Jeux sans frontieres
Jeux sans frontieres
Jeux sans frontieres

IMPEACH CHENEY




They Thought They Were Free - Read by Dave Emory

The Germans, 1933-45

Excerpt from pages 166-73 of "They Thought They Were Free" First published in 1955

By Milton Mayer

But Then It Was Too Late

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

....

"Yes," I said.

"You see," my colleague went on, "one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, THE SHOCK DOCTRINE will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

"Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, ‘everyone’ is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. You know, in France or Italy there would be slogans against the government painted on walls and fences; in Germany, outside the great cities, perhaps, there is not even this. In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’



Michael Parenti - Terrorism, Globalism & Conspiracy

"Coincidence Theory: By shear chance things just happen repeatedly and coincidentally to benefit their interests without any conscious connivance by them, which is most uncanny. There is also: Stupidity Theory, Innocence Theory, Momentary Aberration Theory, Incompetence Theory, Unintended Consequences Theory and Innocent Cultural Proclivities Theory."

- Michael Parenti

[seemslikeadream]

26. example

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2646425&mesg_id=2646960

[rhymeandreason]

68. Not conclusive

I just read the conversation. The only thing that was established conclusively was that significant amounts of asbestos were used in the construction of the World Trade Center towers.

[CJCRANE]

29. 9/11 was a revolution*

but from the opposite end of the political spectrum.

*More accurately it was the counter-revolution designed to destroy democracy. The fact that United 93 didn't reach its target probably saved America from Cheney implementing the COG "doomsday" protocols.

[Twist_U_Up]

12. Future Cataclysmic Events Accurately Foretold In 1995 Illuminati Card Game -- 9/11 Attack Foreseen

"Terrorist Nuke" -- This card is one of the most shocking of all, especially in light of the fact that this game first hit the specialty stores in 1995

[seemslikeadream]

14. ......

:wow:

[Kaleko]

62. Your images don't show on my screen.

"Terrorist Nuke"



"Pentagon inner court in flames while the surrounding building stays intact"




Source: http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1753.cfm

[nebula]

10. Condi Rice vs. the French

"We never could have imagined that the terrorists would take
hijacked planes and slam them into the the World Trade Center."
--Condi Rice


The French imagined it 20+ years before it happened, you worthless hack.

We could save ourselves billions by eliminating our worthless intelligence agencies.
It seems we would have been far better had we simply relied on the French for intelligence.

[Twist_U_Up]

16. 97 FEMA cover

[Twist_U_Up]

17. Another Official Pre-9/11 Image of the WTC Being Targeted

[JackRiddler]

21. NOTE: Graphic doesn't always display!

Copying the image URL and pasting it into a different tab works, though.

[SidDithers]

23. Can you post it from a photobucket account?...

seems like the original site doesn't like the hotlinking.



Sid

Edit: added reduced size version hosted on photobucket

[HamdenRice]

22. September 12, 2001, in New York

Many of the radio stations, including NPR public radio station WNYC and Pacifica station WBAI went off the air when the towers collapsed because their antenas were on the north tower.

WBAI came back on air, if I recall, late morning on September 12, 2001. In the afternoon, one of their hosts who identified himself as an architect -- I believe it was Mario Murillo -- began discussing how the towers collapsed.

He also went off on a rant about coincidences and synchronicities. We were all very traumatized in New York, especially those of us who had been in lower Manhattan and seen the attack and damage, so his rant was especially surreal.

Among other things he said the towers looked like a big "eleven," and the attack occurred on 9/11, the first plane that was hijacked and hit the north tower was flight 11, as soon as the first plane hit, everyone called 911, and nine plus one plus one equals eleven ... and so on.

It certainly gave the impression that whoever had done this was a numerology freak.

There were a number of other bizarre things he said that day. I wish I had a transcript.

[Ferry Fey]

27. Tape all local media for posterity. Synchronicity question

There were a number of other bizarre things he said that day. I wish I had a transcript.

I noted another mention I was reading today, regarding local news feeds from Shanksville that had information from witnesses that never surfaced again.

When some disaster next happens, and we need a record of responses to it for future analysis and assessment of what happened, it is imperative that we record as many local and national news programs as possible.

Radio, TV, internet, newspapers. All of them. Redundantly, and stored independently. It's our responsibility, because we can't trust anybody else to do it for us.

I have a question about all the eerie cultural precursors
shown above. I tend to feel that the way sychronicities work, people tend to just pick up on things like this in a precognitive way.

But I was wondering -- has anyone ever gone through the images, and tried to calculate how closely the targetting on these pre-9/11 pop culture images matches the actual impact floors? Did some formal analysis, at least as far as one could be done? There'd have to be a fudge factor, but it might be interesting to see the results.

[CJCRANE]

30. "people...pick up on things like this in a precognitive way".

I think maybe it's the other way round - the terrorist planners pick up on fears common in popular culture.

And popular culture itself picks up on fears that have been common through the ages.

[babydollhead]

58. this is the card that came up

at a tarot card reading a friend and I attended the day after 9/11. It mean things cannot go on the way they've been and that change is happening.

[RedSock]

44. WPIX

Among other things he said the towers looked like a big "eleven"

That is no big deal.

In the late 1970s, the city's Channel 11 -- WPIX -- used the towers as its logo.

"Eleven Alive"

[JackRiddler]

45. Yeah, I remember that.

This was the plot of a series of promotionals for WPIX Channel 11: the station PR manager is given the mission of finding a new station logo. He wanders around the city, desperately asking where he can find the world's biggest 11, but always fails to notice the towers looming behind him.

[HamdenRice]

50. I think the thing he was referring to was the converse

It was obvious that the towers looked like an 11. The idea was that the attackers chose the 11th of the month.

[leftofthedial]

25. there is that whole episode of the lone gunmen

spinoff from the X-Files

[Orrex]

80. That was my first thought

Didn't that series last for like 80 minutes?

But the pilot, no pun intended, is kind of chilling in retrospect.

[Twist_U_Up]

28. Pakistan International Airlines in 1979

[CJCRANE]

31. 9/11 was a no-brainer for the neocons

- there were so many people* saying that if the twin towers were destroyed it would be justification for a war against the ME tin-pot dictator of choice

(*from Philip Zelikow to the "Lone Gunmen").

[anigbrowl]

63. Well, they had been attacked once already

I mean, if you're planning to bomb something big it's a pretty obvious target. If I was planning terrorism against Paris (which I'm not...calm down) then the Eiffel tower would be an obvious target. San Francisco? TransAmerica pyramid ot eh Golden Gate Bridge. Sydney? the Opera house...you know, famous landmarks are obvious.

Interesting thread though.

[JackRiddler]

32. Additional bizarre discoveries!

EDIT: ANNOYING! The following images don't display, although the URLs are correct and you can see them if you right click, "Copy image address" and paste URL into new window. (Maybe someone can help - the URLs contain suspicious nonsense directories, so probably these are hiding commands to prevent hot links.)

ANyway, the images are thanks to "copyranter" blog here
http://copyranter.blogspot.com/2008/01/couple-more-pre-911-ads-with-wtc.html

Which is holding a mock contest here
http://www.pollsb.com/polls/poll/5547/foreboding-world-trade-center-imag

Maker's Mark ad:



Israeli "Elite" candybar towers about to be hit:



1984 ad to promote WTC itself:



And surely the winner - Cookie Monster attack

[JackRiddler]

33. let's see at least if this works...

[tetedur]

34. This one was an ad in the NY Times

from before the buildings were built or right around that time, I'm not sure. I first saw the ad reproduced in the book City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the WTC by James Glanz & Eric Lipton.

[Bolo Boffin]

35. WTC 7 on Smallville.

Towers brushed out, 7 remains.

[JackRiddler]

36. Do you know by any chance the broadcast date and episode?

Can you read the avenue sign?

I guess the CGI people who fixed this weren't in the 28 percent who could identify Seven.

[greyl]

38. Looks like yesterday.

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=105173

[JackRiddler]

39. If yesterday...

On first glance I thought this must have been an old episode, shot before 9/11 but aired afterwards, in which the network decided to airbrush the towers out so as to avoid traumatizing people, and whoever did it left WTC7 in there because they didn't even know what it was.

Now if it was actually aired yesterday for the first time, and therefore the episode was edited recently (I thought Smallville was cancelled ages ago?), then it's still possible that someone used an old still photo for the background, CGIed the Towers out, and left 7 in there cos they didn't know it.

But it seems likeliest, in 2008, that the filmmakers are aware that this is WTC 7. And so they stuck it in there intentionally, either a) as a joke to fuck with the heads of people, so JREFers can laugh along as usual; or b) as a genuine message of solidarity to the LCFers to keep on truckin'. (I don't see why your JREF crew sneers at that idea - obviously it's possible.) Are these not the likeliest two possibilities?

So this isn't a prior synchronicity but most likely a post-event permeation into the TV culture of certain details and esoterica.

What was the plot & context - did 7 play any role other than background? Were Lex Luthor's offices in there?!

[greyl]

40. I can only laugh at what you think are the 2 most likely explanations. nt

[JackRiddler]

41. Well, this may be sadly typical of the self-designated modern skeptic...

Are you interested only in laughing at others who have the wrong idea? Or is there a reason you might want to keep your opinion secret? It's not like I feel committed to any of my wild guesses as to why WTC 7 would have a cameo on something as earthshaking as an episode of "Smallville" (assuming this image really was broadcast last night and this is not a hoax).

Do tell us what you think about it.

[JackRiddler]

42. So that's it?

Maybe you're delayed somewhere, but if not: is that your final answer?

"I know but I'm not telling, b/c anyone who doesn't know what I'm thinking is stupid and I'm laughing at them, ha ha ha ha."

Hm?

[greyl]

46. Wow, you are a shining beacon of selflessTruth.

[JackRiddler]

47. Why don't you just advance your opinion?

You say you find a list of possible explanations I present laughable. So what's the obvious thing I missed?

[greyl]

48. Your second paragraph in post 39 seems reasonable and most likely to me. nt

[anigbrowl]

64. Your first instinct was most likely the corect one.

9 out of 10 people wouldn't recognize WTC 7 if they saw it in isolation.

[greyl]

37. My favorite is the 1998 Prince song, "Osama bin laden Gettin Ready to Bomb"

I have a copy of it from the aftershow in Utrecht, December 24 1998.

A few key lyrics:

"I've gotta go home y'all...
I've gotta go back to America
I've gotta go get ready for the bomb
Osama Bin Laden gettin ready to bomb
America... you better watch out... 2001"

---

At first glance to some, it might appear that Prince was either being prophetic or confessing his part in the planning of 9/11, but...

"...Osama bin laden did a lot of 'bombing' before 2001, so Prince wasn't psychic after all."

-and-

"2001" was just the cue for Richard Srauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" motif - the name link referring to Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" using that very same music as a theme."

-and-

"The dutch radiostation that broadcasted the section from the Utrecht Tivoli aftershow from 1998 with the Osama Bin Laden Getting Ready To Bomb chants, now had Candy Dulfer on the air explaining about this jam.

She said she didn't hear it at the night itself, but said she'd heard the bootleg. She also told that at the concerts that jam was always named '2001: Also Sprach Zarathustra' on setlists.

She said Prince is an intelligent guy who thinks about this kind of stuff a lot and so she wasn't surprised that he said these things at that jam. She called him a visionary, very religious person and that she herself was not so much into all that stuff.
She also mentioned that although it was kind of foreseeing what Prince did, she also remarked that anyone who has had a more than passive interest into Middle East problematics, would have known Bin Laden and the danger he represents and that many people were talking about him already for quite some time."

some more info: http://prince.org/msg/7/124389?&pg=1

Sorry no pic, Jack.

[JackRiddler]

43. "The Long Kiss Goodnight," 1996 film with Geena Davis...

very bad and yet entertaining flick. Saw about half of it again today.

The big revelation is that the (white guy) baddies whom our agent hero fought years ago are now hooked up with a CIA unit. They're going to blow up Niagara town center and kill 4,000 people, "blame it on the Muslims of course," so as to justify budget increases. The patsie is a dead Arab whose corpse they are keeping frozen so that it can later be found on the scene.

Villain's expository speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnvXnDxiuFY

They call this idea Operation Honeymoon. (9/11 was given the codename "The Big Wedding" by its masterminds, at least so we have been told.)

[MrMickeysMom]

81. I actually liked that movie

It was a bit different, and Davis was interesting in that role. I really didn't think of the plot until you mentioned it.

[seemslikeadream]

49. ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_QCldF2CO8

[CGowen]

51. The group "I am the World Trade Center" releases an album in July 01 with a track called September a...

title 11.


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005LN4Q/ref=m_art_li_2/102-9109842-4065764?v=glance&s=music

[seemslikeadream]

52. "Nothing can prepare you for the unbridled carnage you are about to witness."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2947913

fiziwig (1000+ posts) Sat Mar-01-08 04:31 PM
Original message
Spooky feeling last night
I watched the 1983 Dan Aykroyd/Eddie Murphy comedy "Trading Places." As the two of them walked into the World Trade Center I was musing about how immense those twin towers use to be when Dan Aykroyd turned to Eddie Murphy and said "Nothing can prepare you for the unbridled carnage you are about to witness."

Hearing that line spoken at the entrance to the twin towers in 1983 just creeped me out.

(Cue the Twilight Zone music)

[JackRiddler]

53. We have a tragic winner: Michael Richards, sculptor, RIP September 11, 2001

http://www.ncartmuseum.org/pressroom/pressreleases/Michael_Richards/MichaelRichardsrelease.shtml

N.C. Museum of Art Discovers Sculpture Feared Destroyed on 9/11
Michael Richards Work Installed In Exhibition Celebrating the Centennial of Flight

In a poignant twist of fate, the North Carolina Museum of Art recently located a sculpture whose whereabouts have been unknown since the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

The work is by New York–based artist Michael Richards, whose studio was on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Center. Richards was in his studio the night of September 10, 2001, and was still there early the next morning when the buildings fell. He did not survive the attack on September 11.

Richards’ sculpture, Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian, is made from a cast of Richards’ body. He is dressed as one of the famed Tuskegee airmen. Unlike traditional St. Sebastian imagery, in which the martyred saint is shot with arrows, the body of Richards’ sculpture is pierced with airplanes. The sculpture now seems an eerie and heartrending foretelling of the artist’s own death.

(...)

Although one may now view Richards’ Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian as a prophecy of the artist’s tragic passing, the work carries a deeper message. Richards’ art is steeped in African American history and deals with issues of social and racial injustice. It sheds light on dark shadows of inhumanity. It mourns unsung heroes like the Tuskegee Airmen, brave African American WWII pilots who fought for democracy abroad but faced racial injustice at home. The flight theme of Tar Baby makes it a natural and welcome addition to Defying Gravity.

(...)

Since Richards’ death, his sculpture certainly brings to mind the darker side of flight; however, the fact that something beautiful survived despite the tragedy of 9/11 is a cause for celebration and contemplation. “Art connects us in our shared humanity and reminds us of the great treasures of our culture,” said Museum Director Lawrence J. Wheeler. “The Museum is humbled and honored to be able to pay tribute to Michael Richards and his work.”

The life-size work measures 81 x 30 x 19 inches and is made of Fiberglas, resin and steel

----------------

http://www.studiomuseuminharlem.org/richardstxt.html

Michael Richards

(1963 – 2001)

Michael Richards’ art works took on sensitive themes with formal rigor to create images whose resonance and vitality will continue to amuse, provoke, and communicate. As a Jamaican-American raised in Kingston, Michael found sustenance in the poetic ambiguity of all human experience. Jorge Daniel Veneciano, one of the many curators who was affected by Michael’s work, once framed a discussion about Michael’s work around Ralph Ellison, one of Michael’s heroes whose reference will live long in his art. Born in New York in 1963, Michael’s work is a synthesis of the 1970s Black Arts Movement in which he grew up and the multiculturalism prevalent in his formative years as a student and artist.

(...)

------------------

[seemslikeadream]

54. OMG

[victordrazen]

55. The Better Angels / Wrong is Right

The movie "Wrong is Right" starring Sean Connery came out in the 80's and featured suitcase bombs atop the World Trade Center which served as the premise for a war in an oil rich country. Here is a youtube excerpt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IUbBdcDEo0&feature=related



The Better Angels.
But what is really interesting to me is that the movie (which looks pretty bad) is based on a book called "The Better Angels" written by Charles McCarry, former CIA.

Mini bio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_McCarry

McCarry served in the United States Army, where he was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, has been a small-town newspaperman, and was a speechwriter in the Eisenhower administration. From 1958 to 1967 he worked for the CIA, under deep cover in Europe, Asia, and Africa. However, his cover was not as a writer or journalist.<1> He is married with four grown sons.<2> His family is from The Berkshires area of western Massachusetts, where he currently lives

http://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Charles-McCarry/dp/1590200047/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_1_img?pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0525066314&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1BJP4YA6E3DD92K1HGR5



But the BOOK features a plane being used as a missile! Here is a description:

When Charles McCarry's The Better Angels was first published almost thirty years ago, one reviewer lamented that his premise--that terrorists would use passenger-filled airliners as tools of terror--was so incredible as to be an obstacle to the reader's suspension of disbelief. In retrospect, this was to be just one of many of the novel's facets that would prove to be prophetic.
The novel takes place in an election year, close to the turn of the century, in a deeply polarized America. The presidential race matches a tall, lantern-jawed liberal against a far-right former businessman with deep ties to the energy industry. The principal threat to the country comes from Islamic terrorists who are almost impossible to track down, are led by an Arab prince made rich by oil, and are desperate to acquire nuclear bombs to use against Israel or major American cities.

And the similarities don't end there. Written at the height of the Cold War, McCarry's foresight and crisp language produced a masterpiece perhaps more applicable to the world today as it was when first written.

http://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Charles-McCarry/dp/1590200047/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_1_img?pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0525066314&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1BJP4YA6E3DD92K1HGR5

[anigbrowl]

65. That seems worth a visit to Amazon alright...hm.

[vincent_vega_lives]

56. Debt Of Honor

1994 T. Clancy novel.

http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Honor-Jack-Ryan-Novels/dp/0425147584

The ending also has coincidental parallels with the September 11, 2001 attacks, although the disaster is not caused by terrorists. An embittered Japan Air Lines pilot whose son was killed during the Pacific conflict flies his Boeing 747 directly into the U.S. Capitol building during the State of the Union with President Durling attending. He does so to avenge the deaths of his brother and son during the war. Nearly the entire United States presidential line of succession is eliminated. Ryan, who has just been appointed Vice President, is immediately sworn in as President and begins his term of office in the immediate sequel, Executive Orders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_of_Honor

[seemslikeadream]

57. Alex Grey - Sacred Mirrors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9P-rrVZDKA


Painted in 1989, after 9/11 some people sent me a picture of a portion of this painting that I completely forgotten about.

[sofa king]

78. I hope that artist doesn't also turn out right about insectoid phalluses.

[HamdenRice]

59. The rubble was still smoldering when in the East Village bars people started folding $20 bills

in a way that seemed to show both the Pentagon and burning twin towers. At the time the bills were relatively new:





http://www.foldmoney.com/

[JackRiddler]

60. X-Men #189 (1990s)

[Orrex]

79. I blame Kulan Gath

Notify Homeland Security to be on the lookout for a tall Hypborian wizard!

[Kaleko]

61. What an incredible thread this is. Thank you all for your contributions.

Now let's see if this image stays visible...

[anigbrowl]

66. It's one of the better ones recently, for sure.

[greyl]

67. Must be the first one here? :

&hl=en&sourceid=mozilla-search&num=20&start=0&start=0

[HamdenRice]

69. About the Smallville pic

If I recall, the way the area was laid out pre-9/11, this view of WTC 7 is taken from slightly west of center of 7, facing downtown. So WTC 1 and 2 would be further west and beyond the right border of this picture.

<NB: I post this separately, because I'm not supposed to post in thread started by the person who started the Smallville pic thread.>

[JackRiddler]

74. Why, did you get a restraining order?

[Name removed]

76. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HamdenRice]

70. Anyone remember performance artist-removed window, stood suspended outside tower?

I posted this before and got an answer, but now I can't find it or any cites to it from google.

Sometime before 9/11, a performance artist who rented space on an upper floor of one of the towers created an elaborate performance piece, wherein he removed a window, rigged a platform, and stood on it in the early morning hours.

The man standing outside the tower was photographed from many angles and an art book was created. But since few people saw it live, they were coy about whether it actually happened.

This was reported some weeks or months before 9/11/01, and I remember reading it and experiencing vertigo on the subway thinking about this guy falling. And a few weeks or months later, many were falling to their deaths.

If anyone can find a cite to that, I would really appreciate it. I now need it for something I'm writing.

[JackRiddler]

71. Yes, I have held this art book in my hands...

In 2004. Unfortunately I don't remember the title or the artist's name, and I've lost contact to the person who showed it to me.

What I remember is this: The work was not authorized by the landlord and was likely illegal. The transgression, and the fact that they got away with it, was of great interest to the fellow who showed me the book (who was arguing how easy planting bombs would have also been, but I don't think this particular action is a very persuasive illustration).

The artist, who may have been a German or Dane as I recall, put much thought into process and design of the platform, because the potentially enormous wind force could have ripped not just the occupant but the platform itself off the building. He rented the office, removed the window, rigged the platform, stood on it, had it photographed by accomplices from different angles (including, apparently, the other tower), went back in, removed the platform after a few hours, put the window back, and left. Later the book appeared. Hardcover, as I remember, borrowed from an SF library.

[JackRiddler]

72. Ah, you started another thread on it...

And somebody there brought up the good point that there is, of course, no proof the book's balcony not a photoshop work, but I suspect they didn't rent an office in the WTC in order not to do this, unless they decided it was too dangerous...

"The B-Thing"

[JackRiddler]

73. From NYT article on "The B-Thing"

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DE2DE103EF93BA2575BC0A9679C8B63

Balcony Scene (Or Unseen) Atop the World; Episode at Trade Center Assumes Mythic Qualities

Not as mythic as it will get!

By SHAILA K. DEWAN
Published: August 18, 2001

SNIP

Called ''The B-Thing'' and produced by four Vienna-based artists known collectively as Gelatin, the book is demure to the point of being oblique. What little explanation it contains appears to have been scribbled in ballpoint. Among the photos and schematic drawings, there are doodles of tarantulas with human heads. In short, the book belies the extravagance of the feat it seems to document: the covert installation, and brief use, of a balcony on the 91st floor of the World Trade Center, 1,100 feet above the earth. Eight photographs -- some grainy, all taken from a great distance -- depict one tower's vast eastern facade, marred by a tiny molelike growth: a lone figure dressed in a white jacket, standing in a lectern-size box.

The contemporary art world, of course, is rife with acts of subversion followed by boasting, which is known as ''documentation.'' In that context, the beauty of the balcony was that it so literally pushed the envelope. Yet since that Sunday morning in March 2000, when the balcony was allegedly installed and, 19 minutes later, dismantled, the affair has taken on the outlines of an urban myth, mutated by rumors and denials among the downtown cognoscenti. Although the book appears to seek notoriety, the artists have gone coy. Their dealer, who witnesses say watched the event from a hotel suite, now claims it never happened. Either the balcony was an elaborate hoax meant to look real, or the inverse is true: it really happened, and the closer it comes to being found out, the more those involved would prefer for everyone to think it was a hoax.

Eastern facade facing the Millennium Hotel indicates the North Tower. The art dealer held an all-night party to watch from a penthouse of the hotel. 91 is the right floor for Flight 11, wrong side (the plane hit on the northern facade). This is the same set of studios where Michael Richards worked, and died on the morning of 9/11.

Still, how did a balcony escape the notice of one of the most security-conscious office towers in the world? An examination of the security system revealed that it was focused on the ground floor and basement, Mr. Janka said, adding, ''There's no surveillance on the facade itself.'' That is true, said Cherrie Nanninga, the director of real estate for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which until recently ran the World Trade Center. Port Authority officials, shown a copy of ''The B-Thing'' by a reporter, reacted with disbelief, then outrage. Although their own investigation turned up no evidence, Ms. Nanninga said, ''we have no reason to believe it didn't happen.'' Window removal is considered so dangerous that when it is done the streets below are cordoned off, she said. ''It was really a stupid and irrational act that in my view borders on the criminal,'' she said, adding that the stunt had jeopardized the studio program, whose space is donated by the Trade Center.

Where was Marvin Bush? :)

Afterward, Gelatin appeared at the hotel, where their success was toasted at a euphoric breakfast, according to five other witnesses, including Tanya Corrin, a video producer and writer, and David Leslie, a performance artist. ''We just applauded the gutsy originality of it,'' Ms. Corrin said. ''I think we all left feeling, wow, we just did something amazing, and nobody knows.'' Mr. Koenig now says the balcony never happened and, at any rate, he didn't see it. The book, which costs $35 and was printed in a run of 1,200 copies, is meant to provoke questions about its veracity, he said. At the suggestion that the project might have been faked, Mr. Harris seemed almost offended. He produced March 2000 credit card bills bearing charges of $2,167.44 from the Millennium Hilton and $1,625 from Helicopter Flight Service.

At about the same time that Mr. Harris was digging up proof, Gelatin was removing almost every trace of it from their Web site. Moukhtar Kocache, the director of the studio program, insisted that the photos of the balcony were obviously faked. But digital manipulation experts disagreed. George Dash, the co-owner of Nucleus Imaging on East 30th Street, and a colleague, John Grasso, used magnifying loupes to examine a copy of ''The B-Thing.'' Neither could detect inconsistencies. ''The angles are all too perfect,'' Mr. Grasso said. ''It looks real to me. Absolutely. I've been doing this for 22 years.''

SNIP

''This building needs things like that to happen, because otherwise it would die inside,'' said Mr. Janka, who was under the impression that Mr. Petit had been deported for his action.

Oops.

[HamdenRice]

75. Thanks a million -- that's it

I wasn't sure that it was right before 9/11, but you prove that the press coverage was a mere 3 weeks before.

[arcadian]

77. Adventures of Supeman #596 released September 12, 2001