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Steely_Dan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-24-09 07:50 PM
Original message
Obama - A Missed Opportunity?
Edited on Tue Feb-24-09 07:50 PM by Steely_Dan
I think if I were President Obama, this is one of the first things I would have done...maybe in the first week.

Remember when Keith Oberman did a Special Comment on the fact that Bush hadn't done any kind of memorial at Ground Zero of the WTC? That it was still an "open wound."

I think if I were President Obama, one of the first things I would have done was to have some sort of ceremony and/or memorial service at Ground Zero. I think that this would have sent a strong message to those who may not have voted for him and furthered his desire to bring people together.

Just a thought.

-P


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MADem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-24-09 07:53 PM
Response to Original message
1. Well, the time to do "memorials" is on the DATE. Obama wasn't President
last Nahn Wun Wun.

They need to wrap that shit up. Building a big Fuck You Tower on the site isn't the way to do it, IMO.
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Uzybone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-24-09 07:59 PM
Response to Original message
2. I disagree, doing a 9/11 memoriam in January would be a naked political stunt
Obama would have been eviscerated and rightfully so.

Its something Guiliani would have done with glee.
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Aloha Spirit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-24-09 08:02 PM
Response to Original message
3. In my opinion, meeting with terrorism victims' family members was meaningful
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Donald Traill Donating Member (2 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-24-09 09:02 PM
Response to Original message
4. An even greater wound by his Predecessor
The following I have posted on several websites. I stand behind every word. 9/11 did not have to happen in the first place and the Secret Service is persisting in a cover-up about interviews conducted in Washington preceding 9/11.

Many years ago I was with a group of pilots at Queen City Airport. It was a happy family airport at the time, Jeff Wildman was manager and Joe his brother was second in command. Jeffs' daughters Joan and Jane were receptionists. Joan's Boyfriend Craig was an instructor and Jane's daughter Sarah was the beloved mascot when she wasn't in school. But back to the subject. It came up in the banter that the FBI had received reports that a group of Arab Americans were acting suspiciously at flight schools. I lept to my feet and said "Uh-oh". The entire group froze for a few seconds. They were used to my occasional pronouncements of a possible tragedy about to enfold which several times led to almost the exact same thing happening which would not have if my advice about possible prevention had been followed. They had vowed to not let it happen again though several more times it did despite their best intentions. The pilot sitting two seats over from Jeff said one word. "Terrorists". Jeff, with a look of resignation prepared to hear what I had to say. "Uh-oh what?" "They are *not* gonna fly Bin Laden around on his private jet. They want to play Kamikaze." Jeff hesitated then firmly nodded. "A loaded jetliner would make an excellent weapon". Over the next few years I pieced together an increasingly clearer picture about the plan of attack chiefly from educated guesses mingled with various articles in a local newspaper, The Morning Call.

Air rage prompted complaints from flight crews about how vulnerable flight decks were. An article about a sudden spike in tech calls to Microsoft about a 767 add-on for flight sim by Arab American sounding men gave me the type of aircraft they would most likely hijack. I knew they knew marshals are concentrated on international flights. And it takes almost as much fuel to fly from the East Coast to Paris or California. Ever since the towers failed to succumb to the truck bomb those towers had been two thousand foot middle fingers pointed right at everyone who wished America harm. An article appeared saying DNS was aware of twelve individuals with ties to Al Queida were in the United States. I estimated the attack force to be twenty four or more cuz there had to be half they didn't know about. That was way more than needed for a target that required two planes. Of course... Two alternates for the Trade Center which would then proceed to alternate targets if the first two succeeded. When you start a war you hit centers of finance and command and control. So it was the Pentagon for the third but I had no idea about the fourth. It struck me as the ultimate coup to force the US military to shoot the last plane down when a satisfactory level of damage had been achieved. For maximum stock market effect the attack must be early in the week. It is a well known New York habit to skip work on Monday so that made it a Tuesday. I saw an article about a man arrested at the Canadian border with dynamite in his truck was believed to be involved in a plot to bomb the terminals at San Fransisco and Los Angeles. The twisted genius of the suddenly expanded expected plan of attack hit me. When a plane goes down survivors rush to the airport. So make sure four planes go down and then bomb the terminals they were supposed to land at. The article about the arrest at the Canadian border led me to believe the attack would be expedited for fear of discovery.

Several weeks before 9/11 I journeyed to Washington where I deliberately caused the Secret Service to ask me to come for an interview. It's not hard. They just wanted to talk, but to get in the car the Boss said I had to be in handcuffs. I recognized the agent who said that as the Chief of the White House detail under Clinton. I spent most of the initial time explaining that the Constitution of this United States makes no distinction between hospitals and prisons. Being deprived of your liberty is being deprived of your liberty. Yet in many states commitments to mental wards are considered civil proceedings. Hearsay is admissable... no right to face your accuser. Every word a mental patient utters can be used against them in a court of law. Yet they are given no Miranda warning. A joke can be written down as a delusional statement. Anything can be written down on a chart by a staff member and admitted in court with no threat of perjury. Under current Pennsylvania law a patient is entitled to a court hearing. But a patient can be told after the fact that a hearing has been held and that their right to attend that hearing was waived. Even if a patient makes it to their hearing the judge who actually rules on the matter is not required to be there. It used to be that a patient could request a trial by jury. When a patient in a Lehigh County Court pointed out that their jury consisting entirely of staff members who were subordinate to Doctor Shilke who had committed him was neither a jury of their peers or one with much ability to be impartial the judge let the jury remain as is. Anyone who works in a hospital knows how much doctors love to be told they are wrong by aides. So the farcical right to a jury trial was discontinued. An objection to hearsay on Constitutional grounds. was upheld in Lehigh County court. The State refused to appeal the ruling for fear the matter would reach the Supreme court which would result in massive lawsuits from every individual confined to a Pennsylvania mental ward for the last year regardless of whether they were truly a danger or not. If a sitting President is made aware that a state is habitually violating the civil rights of its residents he is bound by his oath of office to take action through the Justice department. If Congress is made aware that the President is derelict in his duty they are bound to impeach. I was told by the agents that he was busy with a NAFTA or some other summit and the impending visit by the President of Mexico. I reminded the agents that a President's agenda is superceded by his oath.

I then Broached the subject of terrorism by saying, "Several years ago an article was printed in Reader's digest which told the story of a disgruntled Fedex pilot who attempted to hijack a DC-10 and crash it into their headquarters. Reader's Digest is printed in many languages, including Arabic." The lead agent (Clinton's Cheif) said, "That would be a great way to take out the World Trade Center". I said flatly, "the buildings will survive the impact. But the fire... never." I said, "This country is on the verge of a major terrorist attack. I can narrow down the flights that will be used so marshals can be deployed most effectively. "I know.. Said one agent. They want international flights because they carry a lot of fuel". I siad nothing but let her know she was wrong through concious use of body language. Then I smiled at her and said, "Type of plane?" "747". "I then went on to discuss various forms of attack I did not believe to be impending. I planned to do the carrot and hammer with the most powerful man in the world which was bound to make him angry. If I had provided too much info on what I believed would happen I faced the prospect of a Richard Jewelling. I offered to tell everything about my estimated plan of the impending attack if I could receive reassurance that I would not later be prosecuted for complicity in the attack. I needed this because I believed I could give the SS a picture that was so clear that a case could be made that I must have been a party to the planning. My reasurance that President Bush was an honorable man was nothing less than giving in to my demand that the Federal Government rectify the worst stain on the flag since slavery. To this day States are allowed to harm mental patient's basic constitutional rights. They are officially second class citizens. That could give anybody the urge to shoot up a shopping mall just to get a fair day in court. I received a glimmer of hope when one of the agent's asked me the name of my dog. My unique ability to play devil's advocate had previously resulted in a specific warning to the FBI about a terrorist attack that resulted in dozens of casualties. The FBI officially denied previous knowledge of the attack. Two FBI agents came to my high school. They apologised and told me anything I told them in the future would be taken seriously no matter how crazy it sounded. They told me I my case file was entitled "The boy who cried Bomb... And there Was one". They gave me ten questions and asked for answers that were easy to remember but impossible to guess. I was sternly warned to never reval the answers to anyone but a verified FBI agent. One of the questions was the name of my dog. So maybe the Secret Service had my FBI file and after I heard a few questions I could safely tell all. But that dog had long since died and been replaced by another. I asked, "Is that an authentication question or are you asking that because you asked my mother to verify my identity?" I knew they had been on the phone with her and these were not FBI agents. She repeatedly told me to just answer the question and I repeatedly asked why she wanted to know. Finally I said "Honey". From the look on her face that was not the answer she had been expecting. I hesitated to reveal my FBI dog name because she made me angry and by that time she had left the room.

There was another glimmer of hope when the Cheif walked in and shakily asked me, "Can you give me a rational explanation of how the same person can actually be in two places at the same time?" There are two. One is time travel and the most likely is the existence of parrellel universes which science is on the edge of proving. (But the Time travel theory presents the fascinating conundrum that according to absolute laws of physics the Towers survived the truck bomb because they had to be there for the planes to hit them.) Membrane or bubble theory is the theory that many universes coexist simultaneously. Maybe they can collide and maybe they set off Big Bangs when they do. Pathways between dimensions are called wormholes or theta. Some people believe it is possible to cross dimensions and those with that capability are called Thetans.( I challenge anyone with an open mind to cross check my medical and employment records for 2001). But when the Cheif asked the question I had just been told by the agents that they had called the President and after saying that he would not submit to an ultimatum he hung up. I said, "That's it. I know exactly what he plans to do. Make maximum use of his wartime powers".

The secret service agents gave me a plea to just tell them all the details of how I would execute an attack using hijacked jetliners so later they could prove he knew in advance and failed to stop it. They were angry he had hung up on him.

The interview ended and I went back to work as in inflight caterer at KABE airport. I slipped up twice. Once in a bid to impress my supervisor Wendy I said to Kathy in her earshot, "Guess What?" "What?" "We are gonna have a short day soon." "Why?" Terrorists will attack the trade center". "Why will we get a short day then?" "Cuz they'll be using hijacked jetliners!" The second was the day of the attack. Wendy was terrified and in a bid to comfort her I blurted, "There is only gonna be four airplanes!!!" "FOUR!!!" she screamed. At that point three had crashed and the last had not been reported hijacked by the media. When the order came to evacuate the terminal I knew the bombs in California would not succeed. The attack was effectively over. So I didn't mind Kathy asking me to violate the order to prepare the meals for the next day's flights. But to save some money on consumables I attempted to convince her there would be no flights tommorrow and I wouldn't want to bet on the day after. My lack of fear compared to everyone else reminded me of Oswald's peaceful slumber in his cell as the world rocked and whirled around him and I felt just as dirty as if I had been in command of one of the planes by remote control. That led to a deep sense of unreality. When I was done with the meals I meandered to the lounge to punch out. On the way I saw the flag through a window and wondered why it was still at full staff. Every employee was there still glued to the TV. With them was one man who was not an employee. I recognized both him and the guilty calm we shared. "I have a job in those towers. My friends are there. They are probably dying. So be it." The way he said and swigged his beer spread a wave of relief through the room like a fresh breeze. Then he said, "Both those towers will fall. The first shall be last." In a much lower voice he said, "You predicted it." I could not remember at that moment warning him though I had had contact with him for years. He then laid his hand on my shoulder and said, "You don't have to feel bad. I warned everyone who would listen." I let my guilt go. If he could simply let events unfold when every ounce of being was screaming to attempt to alter them I could also. Somehow, Somewhere what was unfolding was meant to be. The best way to respond was to do what the President later suggested... get on with life. One employee stood up and said, "I want to go home and hug my Mother." I tried to crack a joke by saying, "I'm going home to hug my dog". In a tone of voice that indicated she had been wanting to say it for a long time a female employee said, "Donald!!! If you say one word in that terminal you will be arrested in a second."

I lost that sense of blamelessness over the next few weeks as I tortured myself with all the ways I could have minimised casualties. They ranged from phoning in a bomb scare at the Trade Center at 8:30 on September 11th 2001 to throwing myself on the mercy of the FBI and Secret Service. How I came to narrow down the exact day of the attack is between me, my maker and the man who comforted me that day

Several months after the attack I suffered a complete breakdown and wound up in a mental ward. A secret Service agent came and requested they be notified when I was released. The immediate assumption was that I had threatened the president. Another agent apeared at a hearing while I was still in the hospital at which time it was decided that my certifications to enter and drive a truck on aircraft operations area would be revoked. I had no chance to speak in my own defense but to a mental patient that's not the latest thing. I went from being a productive citizen to a burden on society but felt entitled to disability payments from the administration that had deprived me of my livelihood.

Through the years I have waited with bated breath for some more truth to come out. The Secret Service claimed there was nothing of interest on any interview tapes. They were never forced to prove it and when I attempted to get a copy of mine I was told it had been destroyed. I tried to warn Senator Dent that the secret Service was selling him a bill of goods but his aide laughed me off the phone. I tried to sic the CIA on the FBI and secret Service. One secret service agent called me and seemed to be interested in what would be on my interview tape but he could not access it and when I

I have received only a glimmer of interest even from the most far out conspiracy theorist. I have hope that the new president is concerned with the rule of law. Perhaps he is willing to help another member of a minority- even one so repugnant as mental patients. Perhaps one of the Secret service agents who interviewed me is honorable enough to expose George Bush's dereliction of duty to the new president and GWB's legacy will be altered to reflect his actions
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Steely_Dan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-25-09 01:26 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. Amazing Post - Welcome to DU
You should republish this as a "new thread." I would love to see people' reaction to it.

With all that you were able to see, all of the dots you connected, are we really expected to believe that our own government was unaware of what was about to happen?

-P

PLEASE POST YOUR ESSAY AS A NEW THREAD. IT DESERVES IT!

-P
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