Peter Dale Scott's long-in-the-works THE ROAD TO 9/11 is outstanding, powerful, sad, in a way, and quietly gripping. (It's also notable for the fact that the University of California Press only reportedly published it after they'd spent the better part of a year scrupulously fact checking and cautiously vetting it for accuracy). Glib summaries aren't likely to do it justice. There have been several books published so far that address the official story offered about 9/11 with a critical eye, all of which basically allege that the White House and US intelligence agencies have covered up their own, complicated roles in the terror attacks of 2001. Scott's new book makes some reference to and generally builds upon a number of those works, but simultaneously encompasses a far broader sweep, wields (conversely) a simpler, more direct argument, and provides a new level of hard-to-argue-with credibility to the process of naming specific names.
The first lengthy section of the book features Scott's run through of recent events in US history, with an emphasis on various 'shadow government' elements of the US political system, and how these elements have moved into the foreground in recent years. (Scott uses the term `shadow government' to encompass the various avenues used by governments - not just in the US - to undertake certain activities off the books, under the radar, or illegally). Scott notes the disintegration of the Nixon presidency as being a starting-point for slowly building incidents and trends related to an active `shadow government' that have re-emerged in the disaster of 9/11 and the subsequent, seemingly comprehensive cover-up. Little known government plans from the Nixon era for militarily suppressing public dissent (via the secretive, innocuously titled `Operation Garden Plot') are discussed here. Then, following the post-Nixon rise to prominence of Cheney and Rumsfeld during the Ford presidency, Scott notes how these martial-law ambitions eventually reappeared in a different form during the Iran-Contra events via the newly politicized FEMA and Lt. Col. Oliver North's `REX 84' plan. REX 84 evoked (in the event of an unspecified future `national emergency') the widespread surveillance (and possible detention) of political dissenters, the suspension of the U.S. constitution, and the activation of a secretive, parallel government set up to run things away from the pesky oversight of Senate and Congress. It's carefully noted early on that these aims were strongly desired by both Cheney and Rumsfeld, with the two of them conducting much of the highest level planning at the time for all the above, and the accompanying process given the title of `Continuity of Government', or `COG'. (Scott jokes darkly that in the light of the sweeping measures it would, and eventually did, enable post 9/11, `Change of Government' is a much more accurate description). Cheney pushed hard to enable and lay the groundwork for COG through FEMA in the 80's - groundwork which would institute a parallel government in the event of a national crisis - and Scott eventually notes what he dryly calls an `arresting coincidence'. Once Cheney and FEMA are reunited in May 2001, the same COG planning team from the Iran-Contra era in the 1980's was put forth by George W. Bush as a terrorism task force, and then a major terrorist attack on the United States allowed those same folks to implement COG. (Though Scott finished the bulk of THE ROAD TO 9/11 in 2006, he also makes use here at one point of information just revealed in Andrew Cockburn's 2007 biography RUMSFELD: HIS RISE, FALL AND CATASTROPHIC LEGACY. Cockburn's book notes how Rumsfeld and other hard-line Republican hawks with an eye on the future had privately kept the COG / parallel government exercises alive during the 90's in training exercise / bull sessions where they would "..castigate the Clinton administration in the most extreme way", and where the prior evoked COG threat of choice, the Soviets, had been replaced by a new designated foe thought of as likely able to provoke a useful national emergency - terrorists).
Dramatically, Scott (a veteran chronicler and researcher of another painful, much debated event from American political history) holds firm in refusing to water down his conclusions. During the eventual terrorist attacks of September 2001, COG boosters Cheney and Rumsfeld both described themselves (along with other members of the Bush administration) as being `out of the loop' during key moments of the crisis that could have affected the events of the day. Scott begs to differ. THE ROAD TO 9/11 can be seen as one long build-up to the most careful, detailed examination possible of just what the official record, supporting documents, pertinent testimony, and reports from the day actually suggest Cheney and Rumsfeld were up to during a specific period of time that morning. Clearly, testimony from Richard Clarke, Norman Mineta and others openly contradicts what Cheney and the 9/11 Commission Report would have us believe happened. In a gripping, methodically documented chapter, Scott breaks the relevant testimony down thoroughly, statement by statement, to examine what he believes really occurred at the Pentagon that morning. Would it be too much to ask for the mainstream media to do their job and examine why the specific pieces of evidence and testimony Scott outlines in this book were given the widest possible berth by the 9/11 Commission Report authors?
Elsewhere in THE ROAD TO 9/11, the October Surprise Iran hostage scandal prior to Reagan's election is carefully dissected. Scott notes how select elements of the upper Republican Party, alongside elements of the intelligence agency community sympathetic to their aims, showed (from the available evidence) a probable willingness to commit treason and endanger American lives for the pursuit of various goals. Scott also carefully links the October Surprise scandal, and Bush Senior's documented involvement with Saudi arms-dealing, to the eventual assistance provided by Bush Jr's administration in flying various Bin Laden family members and Saudis out of the US shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Scott describes the event succinctly, noting: "People who have once collaborated secretly in an impeachable if not treasonable offence cannot dispense lightly with their co-conspirators".
Midway through the book, Scott provides a very long, detailed recounting of al Qaeda's use by various covert arms of government as a tool to, among other things, acquire and use illegal drug trade funds. He follows the FBI and CIA's involvement with terrorist double agents, noting how a lack of congressional oversight has historically led to greater and greater excesses. The infamous `out of control' BCCI money-laundering operation is examined, along with the mainstream media's efforts to avoid studying the particular relationship the BCCI (and various Bush/CIA related spook groups) seemingly had in funding and utilising al Qaeda. One comment made here by Scott seems pertinent, and by itself sums up much of the content of his book. "America's out-of-control entanglements with jihadi Islamists, and particularly with the ISI, underlie the still misunderstood events of 9/11, and the ongoing instability of the U.S. bureacracy and media to report honestly either on what happened that day, or on what these events reveal about the deep structure of U.S global politics."
As noted before, Scott's final chapters dissect the public record and various 'official' accounts of the events of the day, with an eye to examining Rumsfeld and, in particular, Cheney's activities. Over and over in this section, Scott convincingly shows that the public record itself, when analyzed carefully, marks Cheney as a key element of a likely cover-up, and deserving of being questioned under oath in regards to his behavior on the day. It's evident that, repeatedly, the 9/11 Commission Report really worked overtime to heave the spotlight away from dwelling on just exactly what Cheney and Rumsfeld were up to during a key period of time that morning. Scott's final chapter puts things in perspective, and offers suggestions and words of encouragement for the future
There's much more featured, as I have just cherry picked some central points, but Scott's powerful, involving analysis of US covert policy and its relationship to the events of 9/11 is a tour-de-force. I'll also note that, though the book is heavily footnoted and carries a lengthy bibliography, I found it to be more readable and emotionally engaging than some of his earlier works. (There are some thoughtful and appropriate personal touches). It's worth finally mentioning that Scott cleverly begins each new section of the book with highly appropriate quotes pertaining to the chapter that follows. After reading this book, and thinking quietly for a while about the detailed, disquieting picture it reveals, the most resonant to me was the all-too-relevant comment from onetime US intelligence-linked al Qaeda trainer Ali Mohamed: "Americans see what they want to see, and hear what they want to hear."
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