Five years ago and still in the news? This is because the issues are painful and because there is stillso much suffering arising out of the horrific events of September 11, 2001. Much healing has yet to happen. Conspiracy theorists have had a wonderful time with 9/11: 'The CIA did it,' 'It is Reichstag 9/11,' and so on, but if you speak to many Americans in this vein they still respond with pain and then outrage or simply, rage.
There have been a number of books written about 9/11 and there will be another two released in October of this year. So why this one?
Zwicker is not a conspiracy theorist, rather he lays out Exhibits - twenty-six of ehem - about lines of evidence which, if proven (even a few of them), point inescapably to the conclusion of White House complicity in the 9/11 disaster. He talks about conspiracy theory, arguing his points with extraordinarily detailed (and footnoted) research. The book, very well written, finely illustrated, and difficult to put down, tells a story most of us have never heard because the media have not given it coverage. Contained with the book is a DVD: The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw.
According to his reasoning one can come away from the events and the evidence of 9/11 with one of four conclusions: 1) that the Official Story is true: the US at all levels was caught totally by surprise and off guard; or 2) that US agencies received some intelligence but it was either too late or insufficient; or 3) that the intelligence received was sufficient but that the White House for some reason let the events unfold as they did; or 4) that the White House or other US agency set the events up to unfold as they did. He outlines rules of evidence and the evidence iteself very carefully, letting the reader conclude which of the four scenarios is the case, subject to responsible inquiry into the evidence.
Here are some of Zwicker's Exhibits:
A: World Trade Center Building 7, a 47 story steel-framed skyscraper, collapsed due to an admitted controlled demolition on the afternoon of 9/11 after suffering minimal damage due to the collapse of the nearby Two Towers. It contained CIA offices as well as the Mayor of New York's Office of Emergency Management. How, when, and why was this building wired for demolition?
B & F: NORAD's duty is to protect this continent; to this end they practise a great deal, intercepting wayward aircraft about a hundred times a year. since the 1960s the time taken to scramble fighters has varied upward from about five minutes but has always been less than thirty. Why, on 9/11 after the FAA had advised NORAD within five minutes of the first highacking, did it take seventy eight nimutes to get fighters on the scene? Way too late, of course. This has to be the greatest military failure ever on the part of the US!
H: The collapse of the Twin Towers and WTC Building 7 exhibited eleven distinct features of controlled demolition.
I: the WTC Towers were over over-engineered for the possibility of aircraft hitting them, and damage to the central core girders from the actual impacts would have been slight. Also, if the floors of the buildings had really pancaked the central core girders would have remained standing, some of them to high levels; instead they were found in thirty foot lengths - consistent with controlled demolition, and convenient for trucking away.
J: Steel-framed high-rises do not collapse due to fires. There have been several such fires (Los Angeles, 1998; and Philadelphia, 1991; as well as others elsewhere) which burned far longer than shose in the WTC buildings, none of which caused significant structural damage. That the fires in the Towers caused their collapse is preposterous.
K: One firefighter gave an oral report that there were 'popping' sounds as though the building were being demolished. In the North Tower he found heavy damage in the lobby and later heard huge explosions while he was within the Tower. A pamedic also tells about 'popping' sounds as the South Tower collapsed into its footprint; he also likens these sounds to those accompanying a controlled demolition. An engineer far below ground in the North Tower was told of a loud explosion and, as he came up toward ground level witnessed scenes of incredible explosive destruction in places not subject to the aircraft impacts. Other witnesses reported hearing loud explosions, and one other employee working on sub-level one reported a massive explosion from below - before the aircraft impacted.
M: President George W. Bush declared that he had seen the first impacting aircraft on regular TV on 9/11. But that French-shot footage was not available until the next day. In addition, the President, reading to an elementary school class and, knowing America was under attack, should have been removed by the Secret Service; after all he's the President and a target. Yet he remained reading calmly for minutes more; did he have knowledge that he was not a target?
Zwickers detailed Exhibits go on and on, the last one being that a neo-conservative group including, among its members Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, asserted that 'a new Pearl Harbor' would be helpful in realizing plans for the New American Century.
But this book is not simply about conspiracies either: Zwicker goes into considerable detail about how we fool ourselves into believing half-truths and lies, and about how we sort of fill in the dots given information bits and the suggestion of a story that is slanted the way someone wants it. This is a very clear heads-up for every single one of us, the Official Story of 9/11 being just a sample, not only of how it is done to us, but also of how we do it to ourselves.
Why do the media not give the real truth to the public? Is this a scandal the scope of which is so devastating as to be the equivalent of war?
Why should we want to pursue this investigation into the truth behind the events of 9/11 - it is because we want to and need to come out of that denial which is such a prominent feature of Western Life. With denial, healing is impossible; coming out of denial, healing although painful becomes possible. Towers of Deception can be a very disturbing book to read and whether you come away believing as some do that Bush and Rumsfeld should be tried for treason is not the point: the point is to wake up. And that is why this review has been written.
Nehesh
