Crossing the Rubicon

[pberq]

I highly recommend "Crossing the Rubicon" to anyone interested in 9/11 research. I realize that Michael Ruppert has been discussed at length on this board, but even if you don't agree with all his conclusions, this book (with copious documentation) is worth checking out.

The book can be ordered at http://www.fromthewilderness.com/
Not knowing whether I wanted to shell out for my own copy, I had my local library order the book, and in a matter of weeks they had a copy for me.

Ruppert’s basic method is to work from public statements by government officials, news reports from prominent mainstream sources, and investigative research to establish motive, means and opportunity.


By looking at 9/11 from the perspective of a detective investigating a hoimicide, Ruppert brings a different perspective to this discussion. Also, his knowledge of past CIA covert operations helps clarify many issues.


Here's one example:
The official story perpetuates the myth that there was an "intelligence failure" that allowed 9/11 to happen. Ruppert cites numerous reports that in fact there was no intllegence failure prior to 9/11, and that there was no "wall" between the CIA and other intelligence agencies. An important part of the book is educating the reader on the vast capabilites of the CIA, which are not acknowledged in the mainstream press. After reading this book, I find the current message that the “CIA is broken” to be laughable.

In a chapter called “Penetration”, Michael's conclusion after about a dozen pages of quoting sources on this issue is:

"The bottom line is that, based upon what is known about successful intelligence penetrations for years prior to the attacks of 9/11, Osama bin Laden could not have sneezed without the CIA of the NSA knowing about it."

Here are just a handful of the 44 sources cited in this one chapter:

CIA Director Warned Congress About 9/11 Attacks
http://www.thememoryhole.org/tenet-911.htm

Preparing the U.S. Army for Homeland Security
http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1251/
(see Chapter 4, pp. 52, 67,68)
“Finally, it is important to note that efforts to prevent or disrupt terrorist
action frequently are successful, and these activities have
reduced the number of terrorist incidents that would have occurred
in the absence of these activities:
Disruption of terrorist events by working with foreign intelligence
and law enforcement services has proved profitable: U.S.
intelligence agencies prevented Osama bin Laden’s organization
from carrying out at least seven vehicle bomb attacks on U.S.
facilities since August 1998 (Kelly, 1999, p. 1A), and U.S. intelligence
had conducted successful disruption operations in as
many as 10 countries in the six months up to March 1999
(Associated Press, 1999).”

“In actual operations and special events, agencies generally coordinated
their activities. For example, we examined several overseas
counterterrorist operations and found that agencies generally followed
the draft interagency International Guidelines. DoD, the FBI,
and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) performed their respective
roles in military planning, law enforcement, and intelligence
gathering under the oversight of the State Department (e.g., the
ambassador). Minor interagency tensions or conflicts during these
operations were resolved and did not appear to have posed risk to
the missions.”

Included is a discussion of the powerful eavesdropping software called “Echelon”, a joint venture between the U.S. and Britain

Echelon spy network revealed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/503224.stm
<snip>
“The power of the network, codenamed Echelon, is astounding.
Every international telephone call, fax, e-mail, or radio transmission can be listened to by powerful computers capable of voice recognition. They home in on a long list of key words, or patterns of messages. They are looking for evidence of international crime, like terrorism.”

http://www.unansweredquestions.org/timeline/timeline_before911.html
February 13, 2001: UPI reporter Richard Sale, while covering a trial of bin Laden's al-Qaeda followers, reports that the NSA has broken bin Laden's encrypted communications. US officials say “codes were broken.” < UPI, 2/13/01 > Presumably al-Qaeda changes its security after this time, but also the US government officials later claim that the planning for the 9/11 attack began in 1998 if not earlier (see also 1998). < New York Times, 10/14/01 > FTW


This is a 1998 article about the history of bin Laden and the CIA:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/08_01_98_osama_bin_laden.html
OSAMA BIN LADEN - A CIA CREATION AND ITS "BLOWBACK"

"What really got my attention was the fact that the French Internet publication, Indigo, reported that bin-Laden had been a London guest of British Intelligence as recently as 1996 and his treasurer, last year, defected to the Saudis as different factions shifted alliances for new campaigns in the Middle East. If the guy travels to London and has businesses in the Caymans and Geneva, how difficult can he be to find?"

[pnutchuck]

1. I firmly believe the 9/11 attacks were conceived by the Bush's and the

Saudi's. How else can they explain the complete disinterest in the report of eminent danger, that the Saudi govt received no reprisal when 15 of the 19 terrorists were Saudis? Or that the only benefactors of these wars have been the Bush's, Cheney's, and the Saudi's? We have the greatest and most clandestine intelligence agency in the world. Are we really to believe that they 'dropped the ball'? I had a German friend in Bali that once told me that no war could ever be started without the other countries permission. And although that seems inconceivable to most of us, keep in mind that America and the British once supported Hitler.

[Old and In the Way]

3. How have the Saud's benefited?

Let's count the ways-

(1) They don't have a secular threat on their Eastern border anymore (Saddam Hussein and sons).

(2) They don't have US military bases in their country anymore.

(3) The value of their oil product is going up, up, up while production in Iraq goes down, down, down.

For a country that alledgedly supplied 15/19 hijackers on 9/11, they've done quite well. If I were the House of Saud, I'd certainly be supporting another round of terrorism on the US.

[WoodrowFan]

4. excuse me??

"America and the British once supported Hitler"


Exactly WHEN did the US and Britain support Hitler???


BTW, ask your German friend if Poland "gave permission" to Germany in 1939.

idiocy...

[demodewd]

6. 1942 seizure of UBC shares

On October 20, 1942, the US Alien Property Custodian, under the "Trading With the Enemy Act," seized the shares of the Union Banking Corporation (UBC), of which Prescott Bush was a director and shareholder. The largest shareholder was E. Roland Harriman. (Bush was also the managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman, a leading Wall Street investment firm.)

The UBC was established to send American capital to Germany to finance the reorganization of its industry under the Nazis. Their leading German partner was the notorious Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen, who wrote a book admitting much of this called "I Paid Hitler."

Among the companies financed was the Silesian-American Corporation, which was also managed by Prescott Bush, and by his father-in-law George Herbert Walker, who supplied Dub-a-Ya with his name. The company was vital in supplying coal to the Nazi war industry. It too was seized as a Nazi-front on November 17, 1942. The largest company Bush's UBC helped finance was the German Steel Trust, responsible for between one-third and one-half of Nazi iron and explosives.

Prescott Bush was also a director of the Harriman Fifteen Corporation, (this one owned largely by Roland's brother, Averell Harriman), which owned about a third of the Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation, the rest owned by Friedrich Flick, (a member of Himmler's "Circle of Friends" who donated to the S.S.).

Republican Presidential candidate Bush's great-grandfather, Bert Walker, helped organize the Harriman investment in the Hamburg-America Line of ships, of which grandfather Prescott became a director. It was seized on August 28, 1942 because it was used to give free passage to Nazi propaganda and propagandists, and had earlier shipped guns to the Nazi's private armies to assist their takeover of Germany.

Further examples would be more tedious than shocking. But, given these evil financial dealings, how did Prescott later become a Republican Senator, and George H.W. become President? Well,the two leading attorneys for these Bush-Harriman-Nazi deals were John Foster Dulles, later Secretary of State under Eisenhower, and Allen Dulles, future head of the CIA. more.... http://www.miprox.de/USA_speziell/THE_BUSH_NAZI_CONNECTION.html

[Last Lemming]

13. A great novel that looks at the question--

just how fascist was America in 1939? is by the esteemed Phillip Roth--The Plot Against America--

his answer can be summarized in one word: considerable

There are always a wide range of opinions in America, of course, so of course there were Nazi sympathizers in 1939 Roth looks at the public life of Charles Limburg (pardon the spelling, please, please) who was a great admirer of Hitler. . .

the interesting thing about Nazi's and the US is after the war--with Klaus Barbie and the Nazi Treasures, et al

[DulceDecorum]

7. Riggs Bank just got shut down for pulling out Saudi money

and using it to fund Bush-knows-what.

The Saudis DID place money in this bank,
as did many many other diplomats,
BUT
that money has leaving the bank under very suspicious circumstances
and without the knowledge or consent of the depositors.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo,
the current president of Equatorial Guinea,
also has an account in Riggs Bank.
Oil companies have been using this account to launder money.
This account is supposed to have upward of 700 million dollars in it.
HOWEVER,
in 1999, after Obiang decided to buy a $2.6 million mansion in Maryland,
he was forced, to take out a mortgage.
The money is AWOL.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/natres/oil/2003/01...

When the FBI finally jumped on Riggs Bank
and insisted they fork that cash over to the Government of EQ,
Doug Feith and Co organized a coup against Obiang.

This is a great story. It manages to encompass, somewhere along the line, all of the worst people in the world — or nearly all. There’s a venal, vicious and incompetent African dictator, for a start. And then there’s Mark Thatcher, Jeffrey Archer and a bunch of greedy, public-school-educated English mercenaries — or ‘adventurers’ as they prefer to be called. The Bush family is in there, right up to its collective neck, and so are multinational oil companies, Robert Mugabe, General Pinochet, the Saudis, US banks and the Spanish government. There’s even room for a delightful cameo appearance from Osama bin Laden and those 9/11 hijackers. Hell, what more could you want? I’m half surprised that Hitler, Graham Norton and Janet Street-Porter aren’t somehow implicated.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/newdesign/article.php?id=496...

The bank got off comparatively lightly earlier this year during one investigation, carried out by a certain Mr R. Ashley Lee. Shortly after the report, the same Mr R. Ashley Lee joined Riggs Bank. This has, retrospectively again, aroused a bit of suspicion and there’s to be an investigation into that. Since then, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has described Riggs as a ‘troubled institution’ and there have been allegations of ‘wilful, systematic violations of anti-money laundering laws’ relating to the bank’s dealings with Obiang.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/newdesign/article.php?id=496...

The reason I am citing this case is to demonstrate
that the depositors of Riggs bank
have little control over what Riggs is doing with their money.

The Saudi princess may have deposited money into Riggs,
but she sure as hell had no idea whatsoever
that Doug Feith and Co had their fingers in that pie.
Incidentally, Doug Feith,
(the buddy and customer of Manucher Ghorbanifar,
who was the middleman in the US arms-for-hostage deal with Iran)
is currently being busted for espionage.

Bush announced July 29 (2003) that he would not declassify 28 pages of a congressional report rumored to contain information on possible links between Saudi government officials and some of the September 11 hijackers.
"There's an ongoing investigation into the 9/11 attacks and we don't want to compromise that investigation," said Bush at the news conference with (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon.
http://usinfo.state.gov/mena/Archive/2004/Jan/30-478938...

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, in terms of the information, again, this was a 900-page report. The vast majority of the report we supported declassifying and making public. That was our position. But some of this does relate to our national security. And our position --
Q Who says that?
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm getting to it. Our position is one based on a very important principle and a very important responsibility. When we worked with the committee, obviously, the appropriate intelligence communities were involved in that process and involved in those discussions, whether it's the CIA, FBI, or whoever it may be--
Q That's what I'm asking, is tell us who --
MR. McCLELLAN: -- but the White House is fully aware of these decisions as they're made and we're very supportive of these decisions because of the reasons I just stated, because of the importance it is to our national security.
Q Who makes the decisions?
<snip>
MR. McCLELLAN: I think there are a number of people, both NSC and the senior staff, who are involved in this process. We're fully involved in that process.
Q Scott, can you find out and bring it back to us -- it's a totally fair question.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/2003072...

As for the hijackers,
there is NOTHING to demonstrate that they were actually Saudis.
The hijackers had fake passports.
Why would they need FAKE passports
if they were going to use their real names?
If those are the real names and the real photographs of the hijackers,
then HOW come SEVEN or more of them ARE STILL ALIVE??

Bush is not that close to the Saudis.
If he were, they would not have crashed the NYSE
and US Treasury bond dealer Cantor Fitzgerald,
by removing their cash from the US.

pnutchuck says:
that the Saudi govt received no reprisal when 15 of the 19 terrorists were Saudis? Or that the only benefactors of these wars have been the Bush's, Cheney's, and the Saudi's?

HOW have the Saudis benefited?

August 16, 2002
Acknowledging the odds are against them, relatives of the September 11 attacks filed a 15-count, $116 trillion lawsuit Thursday against the company run by Osama bin Laden's family, Saudi Arabian princes and Sudan.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/08/15/attacks.suit /

Cantor Fitzgerald, which said it lost 658 employees in the attacks, is seeking to join the previous lawsuit filed by insurance companies, saying in court papers it would conserve time and resources.
The Cantor Fitzgerald lawsuit took particular aim at Saudi Arabia, saying the kingdom "knew and intended that these Saudi-based charity and relief organization defendants would provide financial and material support and substantial assistance to al-Qaeda."
According to the lawsuit, Saudi Arabia engaged in a pattern of racketeering as it participated directly or indirectly in al-Qaeda's work through its "alter-ego" charities and relief organizations, which it funded and controlled.
The lawsuit alleged that Saudi Arabia materially supported al-Qaeda by helping to raise money for it, by knowingly and intentionally employing al-Qaeda operatives, by laundering its money and by providing al-Qaeda with safe houses, false documents and ways to obtain weapons and military equipment.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/brokerage/2004...

And Riggs bank was involved in every single transaction
that the Saudis never even knew about.

RIGGS BANK -- member of the BCCI
(Bank of Crooks and Criminals International)
is an architect of US Foreign policy
and they are trying to effect a hostile takeover of Saudi Arabia.
As a matter of fact,
the only thing standing between Riggs shareholders and Saudi oilwells,
is Mecca and Medina.
Hence the war on Islam.

Former CIA officials, including former CIA director Richard Helms and the late William Casey; former and current foreign intelligence officials, including Kamal Adham and Abdul Raouf Khalil; and principal foreign agents of the U.S., such as Adnan Khashoggi and Manucher Ghorbanifar, float in and out of BCCI at critical times in its history, and participate simultaneously in the making of key episodes in U.S. foreign policy, ranging from the Camp David peace talks to the arming of Iran as part of the Iran/Contra affair. Yet the CIA has continued to maintain that it has no information regarding any involvement of these people, raising questions about the quality of intelligence the CIA is receiving generally, or its candor with the Subcommittee. The CIA's professions of total ignorance about their respective roles in BCCI are out of character with the Agency's early knowledge of many critical aspects of the bank's operations, structure, personnel, and history.
http://fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/01exec.htm
http://fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci /

pnutchuck says:
We have the greatest and most clandestine intelligence agency in the world.

Yeah. But who are they working for?
Sure ain't the average American taxpayer.

[Last Lemming]

14. Yeah but

Incidentally, Doug Feith,
(the buddy and customer of Manucher Ghorbanifar,
who was the middleman in the US arms-for-hostage deal with Iran)
is currently being busted for espionage.


Is anything going to come of this? I thought indictments were going to be handed down before Christmas--they were delayed, delayed some more which led me to believe that once again the administration was getting away with murder

[mom cat]

2. I am still wading through my copy of Crossing the Rubicon. It is

masterfully documented. Very worthwhile. Also. he has dropped the price so that more people can afford to buy it. He said that he can do that because of the substantial amount made on the early sales..

[spooked911]

5. Yes, I'm still wading through it too!

It's very dense but also very good.

[BlueDog2u]

8. An Excellent and Convincing, if deeply troubling, book. /nt

[Dancing_Dave]

9. The Book is a True Classic!

It sure is an Enlightening classic sure to be read for many years to come!

Nafeez Ahmed's "The War on Freedom" and David Griffin's "The New Pearl Harbor" are some more great 9/11 truth and justice classics. Along with every word on the subject from the awesome Mr. Gore Vidal!!!

[egbtpl]

10. I just got this

and I am thoroughly impressed- this book is damn convincing.

[spooked911]

11. Definitely a good book on 9/11, but Ruppert emphasizes Peak Oil too much

Also the book is not very easy to read and a little uneven in terms of material. Why spend a whole chapter talking about Promis software?

Ruppert's book is very strong in discussing:
1) drug dealing by the CIA
2) CIA-Al Qaeda connections
3) insider trading on 9/11
4) NORAD wargames on 9/11

But I also highly recommend Webster Tarpley's "9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA" that has just come out.

http://www.waronfreedom.org/index.html#synth

It has a better historical background on politics and synthetic terrorism, and overall it flows better and is easier to read. The book also talks about the demolition of the WTC, something Ruppert doesn't discuss. Tarpley dismisses Peak Oil as the main reason for 9/11, which I think is wise.

Imo, the two books compliment each other quite nicely.

Of course other great 9/11 books are:
"The Terror Timeline" by Paul Thompson
and
"Welcome to Terrorland" by Daniel Hopsicker.

A good, very basic intro to 9/11 is: "The New Pearl Harbor, Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11" by David Ray Griffin

[egbtpl]

12. Thanks spooked

I will check out that Tarpley book when I get done with Rubicon. Have you read Peter Lance's "Cover Up"?

Of course, Thompson's book is indispensable. Probably the one single book you can't do without is his "Terror Timeline."

I do like David Ray Griffin although I have only skimmed through his book. There is a real good 1 hour talk he gave which you can download at

http://911busters.com/911_new_video_productions/index.html

He basically runs through a litany of 9/11 commission omissions - the list is very remarkable. (for example, no mention of the building 7 collapse, let alone an explanation of why)

[spooked911]

15. I haven't gotten to Lance's book yet, though it sounds intriguing.

Unfortunately I barely have any free-time for "fun" reading. It's hard enough just to keep up with the news!