• “We have entered into a new era of our history.” (Mr. Hastert, H5509)
• “With this attack, the United States has entered a new era.” (Mr. Boyd, H5330)
• “We find ourselves at the dawn of a new era of warfare in the 21st century, one made more sinister by the stealth, cunning, and terror.” (Mr. Kind, H5561)
• “Yesterday’s act of war will go down in history as an act that forever changed America.” (Mr. DeGette, H5518)
• “A new chapter in our history was opened yesterday. Its opening pages will forever be emblazoned in our memory.” (Mr. Turner, H5526)
• “11 September 2001 was the clarion call to arms in a new war against terrorism. It will be unlike any war America has ever fought. The enemy is nameless, faceless, and operates without borders.” (Mr. Goodlatte, H5530)
• “This is a solemn moment in our Nation’s history.” (Mr. Graves, H5534)
• “Life in America as we know it will change.” (Mr. Shays, H5501)
• “We live in a new world, and we will never go back.” (Mr. Gephardt, H5503)
• “Yesterday … represents the opening salvo in this new millennium in America’s global struggle against international terrorism. It is a struggle like no other our Nation has ever faced.” (Mr. Lantos, H5505)
• “[W]e have declared this to be a new day, a new chapter in history.” (Mr. Rockefeller, S9326)
• “America will be forever changed.” (Mr. Hagel, S9326)
• “Yesterday the world changed for every American.” (Mr. Baucus, S9327)
(9) Counter-Terrorism as the organizing principle for foreign policy
In the wake of the war of aggression against Afghanistan, Congressman Lee H. Hamilton said that fighting terrorism had become “the organizing principle for U.S. foreign policy.” Stopping short of calling 9/11 an opportunity, he added: “If we act with foresight and resolve we can transform this moment, as we transformed Pearl Harbor, from one of our greatest tragedies to one of our finest hours.”{79}
(10) No evidence for an Islamic attack from Afghanistan
On 26 September 2001, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was asked at a press conference held at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, "Sir, two weeks into the crisis, is the United States incapable of telling its allies precisely what the findings are in regard to evidence related to Osama bin Laden or other terrorists that you might think were behind the attack?" Wolfowitz' answer: "I think the evidence is there for the whole world to see. I think many of the people in this room watched it live on television, watched the two towers of the World Trade Center coming down. If you want evidence I'll be happy to -- oh, I can't, I guess. The FBI controls it."{80}
On 28 September 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft was asked whether the U.S. government was able “to trace any of the 19 hijackers back to Afghanistan.” His response: “I don’t think I’m capable of answering that question.”{81}
In a fax sent by the U.S. Department of State on 1 October 2001 to all U.S. embassies worldwide, and later released to the public, embassy officials were told that “the United States is not obliged in any way to make any kind of showing as a prerequisite or precondition to the exercise of its right of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, whether now or in the future.”{82} The U.S. authorities declared themselves hereby under no obligation to prove to the world that they were attacked from outside their borders and reserved for themselves the right to attack any country on the base of secret evidence.
On 2 October 2001, before he embarked upon a tour of the Middle-East, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was asked in a Press briefing: "Will you be sharing with the leaders [you plan to visit] any evidence of Osama bin Laden's connection with the [9/11] attacks?" He answered:
I think that I will not be sharing the evidence. I would be happy to, but I think that has been done amply. The evidence of the attack is on television every day. The linkages between the terrorist networks involved are on television every day. And it strikes me that anyone who is slightly interested has a very clear idea of what took place the fact that a terrorist organization that's being harbored by more than one country, and has relationships with other terrorist organizations, was directly involved. I don't know if we need any more evidence, or do I think that anyone is asking for any more evidence, except the Taliban.{83}
When President Bush addressed the nation on 7 October 2001 to announce the initiation of the bombing campaign against Afghanistan, he did not link that country to the events of 9/11. He did not even mention 9/11 in his speech.{84}
On the same day - 7 October 2001 — the U.S. Representative to the United Nations, John Negroponte, delivered a letter to the President of the UN Security Council in which he listed the reasons for what he called “military operations” against Afghanistan.{85} In that letter he wrote that his government “has obtained clear and compelling information that the al-Qaeda organization, which is supported by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, had a central role in the attacks.” The letter did not include any evidence in support of the claim that al-Qaeda (if such organization existed at all) played any role whatsoever in the 9/11 attacks.
The bombing campaign against Afghanistan constituted a crime of aggression under customary international law and should have triggered punitive action by the Security Council of the United Nations against the aggressors.{86} NATO members and other governments were undoubtedly aware that the U.S. had failed to prove a link between Afghanistan and 9/11 and that it was acting unlawfully, but they kept silent.{87}
(11) No evidence for bin Laden connection to 9/11
On 5 June 2006, Ed Haas, a U.S. journalist, contacted the FBI after having noticed that the Most Wanted poster for Osama bin Laden on the FBI website did not mention any suspected links to 9/11.{88} Haas asked for an explanation. Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI responded, "The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Osama bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11."{89} This admission by the FBI, five years after bombing Afghanistan and killing thousands of people, should have prompted worldwide coverage. Yet the mainstream media concealed this admission from the public.
Conclusion to Chapter 2
Students of international affairs will already at this point realize that the main facts of 9/11 were imposed politically, i.e. before any investigation; that the U.S. government attacked Afghanistan without any legal justification; that the U.S. government has not accused Osama bin Laden over 9/11; that it failed to determine the identities of the alleged hijackers; and that U.S. allies have closed their eyes to these facts. Such conclusions justify a thorough citizens’ investigation of the mass murder committed on 9/11.
Chapter 3: No evidence of Muslim hijackers
Introduction
The official account of 9/11 is based on a hijacking narrative according to which 19 individuals, whose names and photographs have been posted on the website of the FBI,{90} boarded aircraft designated as flights AA11, UA175, AA77 and UA93 on the morning of 11 September 2001. These individuals are said to have hijacked those aircraft in flight and crashed the aircraft in suicide attacks into symbolic landmarks in the United States.
According to the official account, an aircraft assigned to flight AA11 was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York; shortly thereafter an aircraft assigned to flight UA175 was flown into the South Tower of the WTC. At 9:37 a.m. an aircraft assigned