Bill Weinberg's World War III Report, #23

Vigilant, Independent Sentry of Truth in the War on Terrorism

SPECIAL ISSUE: No Holds Barred! Something to Piss Off Everybody!

THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT

1. US in Major Assault in Paktia Province; GI Killed

2. US Forces Attacked in Kandahar?

3. CIA States the Obvious

4. Northern Alliance Implicated in Ethnic Cleansing...

5. ...But Poised to Dominate New Afghan Army

6. Pearl Case Polarizes Pakistan

7. War Spreading to Pakistan?

8. Haaretz: Pearl was Israeli Citizen

9. US Plans DNA Database of Terror Suspects

THE PALESTINE FRONT

1. Hideous Escalation in Cycle of Violence

2. IDF Generals Break Ranks with Sharon

3. Cheney Calls for "Hanging" Arafat?

4. US-Israel War Aims Converging?

5. Al-Qaeda in Lebanon Refugee Camps?

THE IRAQ FRONT

1. Iraq Attack in Making?

2. Turkey Prepares for War in Iraq

3. Did US Plot to Poison Iraq's Water?

4. Halliburton Loves Saddam

5. ...But Feds Crack Down on Iraqi Refugees

THE NEW GREAT GAME

1. US Troops to the Caucasus

2. US Troops to Yemen

3. Turkey Busts al-Qaeda Cell

4. Hideous Escalation in India

WATCHING THE SHADOWS

1. Conspiracy Theorists Make Hay From Bush "Slip"

2. Leaked FAA Memo: Israeli Commando on 9-11 Flight

3. The Flight 93 Mystery

4. Bush Launches "Shadow Government" in Secret Bunkers

5. Pentagon Drops Plan for "Ministry of Truth"--Or Does It?

6. Conspiracy Guru Michael Ruppert Caught in Misrepresentations --
Owes WW3 REPORT Editor Bill Weinberg $1,000

7. WW3 REPORT Clarifies Position on Conspiracy TheoryTHE AFGHANISTAN FRONT

1. US IN MAJOR ASSUALT IN PAKTIA PROVINCE; GI KILLED

One US soldier was killed and several wounded in an assault on a force of some 500 "suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters" in mountains southeast of Gardez in Paktia province, the New York Times reported March 3. US Special Operations forces and troops from the Army's 101st Division are involved in the fighting, and B-52 air-strikes are reported on an area near the village Shahi Kowt in the Zormat district. US forces are said to be coordinating with local warlord Pasha Khan Zadran. The Pentagon says the battle is likely to last days. The Times failed to question whether the enemy troops are actually Taliban/al-Qaeda, as the Pentagon asserts. But the same paper reported Feb. 22 that the Pentagon had admitted killing 16 in Jan. 23 bombing raids in Kandahar on forces which were neither Taliban nor al-Qaeda. Since then, the Pentagon has similarly admitted to air-strikes on non-Taliban/al-Qaeda forces in Paktia (see WW3 REPORT #22). BBC reported March 2 that the US had hit caves outside Gardez with at least two 2,000-pound (907-kg) "thermobaric" air-fuel explosive bombs.

2. US FORCES ATTACKED IN KANDAHAR?

The Chechen Islamic wire service Kavkaz Centre News (www.kavkaz.org) reported March 3 that troops of Gov. Gul Agha came under attack by unknown forces at a base in Kandahar Province, with witnesses claiming high casualties. The report also claimed missiles were fired on US troops stationed at the Kandahar airport--apparently with no casualties. Kandahar was a former Taliban stronghold.

3. CIA STATES THE OBVIOUS

A new classified CIA report warns that Afghanistan could descend into violent chaos if steps are not taken to centralize power in the hands of the interim government and restrain local warlords, the New York Times said Feb. 21. The State Department responded to the report by calling for enlargement of the 4,000-strong international peacekeeping force, and for expansion of its mandate beyond Kabul.

4. NORTHERN ALLIANCE IMPLICATED IN ETHNIC CLEASNING...

On Feb. 27, WorldNetDaily.com cited an unnamed UN official saying that some 20,000 people, mostly ethnic Pashtuns, have been forced to flee northern Afghanistan since the beginning of the year. Persecution and attacks by ethnic Tajik and Uzbek militias of the Northern Alliance are blamed.

5. ...BUT POISED TO DOMINATE NEW AFGHAN ARMY

On Feb. 26, the Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece by two policy wonks, "Time to Ditch the Northern Alliance." Wrote the wonks: "The construction of a new Afghan army, which President Bush has sent Maj. Gen. Charles C. Campbell to Kabul to oversee, has exposed the political infighting that threatens to splinter the nation... Rather than composing an army that is truly national in its composition and there to serve the entire Afghan people, the three key ministers of the new government have been jostling to carve out political territory for their faction. Interior Minister Muhammad Yunus Qanooni, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, and particularly Defense Minister Muhammad Qassam Fahim--all of them from the Northern Alliance--have strongly backed people loyal to them alone, not to acting President Karzai or the nation as a whole." They claim that "six of Gen. Fahim's appointees were professional Communist Party workers who continued to serve the party after the Red Army invaded their land. All six of them, plus three more who served as officers in the Afghan army, collaborated actively with the Red Army during its decade-long occupation of Afghanistan. These skeletons in their closets will come out eventually, and Afghan nationalists will be unlikely to stand for it." Predictably, the wonks support the "politically moderate technocratic elite" around interim prime minister (not "President") Hamid Karzai, and insist that isolating the Northern Alliance "does not mean excluding Tajiks or Uzbeks from the government"--but the reality in ethnically-polarized Afghanistan may not be so simple. The wonks are S. Frederick Starr, chair of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and Marin Strmecki, vice president of the Smith Richardson Foundation.

6. PEARL CASE POLARIZES PAKISTAN

The New York Times reported Feb. 25 that "Pakistani military and intelligence officials" admit that the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency "played a key role in nurturing" the Army of Muhammad, the group apparently behind the kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Pearl. The group lured Pearl, who was in Pakistan to investigate militant Islamic groups, to a Jan. 23 meeting and abducted him, slaying him a month later. The arrested suspect in the case, Ahmed Omar Sheikh, was apparently a pawn in Pakistan's clandestine terror war against India. He was charged with abducting four tourists in India in 1994, and freed from prison in 1999 as a demand of hijackers who flew an Indian Airlines jet with 160 passengers to Taliban Afghanistan. The Pearl kidnapping may be part of a backlash against ISI's betrayal of Islamic militants. The Times report also said that Pakistani officials confirmed that several investigators in the Pearl case had received threats from a mobile phone identified as having belonged to the reporter.

7. WAR SPREADING TO PAKISTAN?

Reports of attacks on US military targets in Pakistan are receiving little media coverage in the US. Last week, a US Air Force hangar in Karachi was the target of an attempted rocket attack (see WW3 REPORT #22). This week, the Islamic wire service Kavkaz Centre News (kavkaz.org) reported that a US transport plane on its way to Afghanistan came under attack near Shahbaz Airbase in Pakistan's Baluchi region. The pilot, who quickly turned back to base, reported automatic weapon fire had been directed at the plane. A state of emergency was declared in the area, and some 50 local villagers rounded up for interrogation by Pakistani security forces.

8. HAARETZ: PEARL WAS ISRAELI CITIZEN

Israel's Haaretz newspaper revealed Feb. 24 that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, slain by Islamic militant kidnappers in Pakistan, had Israeli citizenship. The paper acknowledged that the reporter's father Yehuda Pearl protested the revelation from his home in Los Angeles. The article cited his "fears that making public his son's Israeli citizenship could adversely affect investigative efforts by Pakistani police to apprehend the killers and track down the murdered reporter's body." Reporting on the Haaretz revelation, e-newsletter Mid-East Realities (www.MiddleEast.org) protested that neither Pearl nor the Journal "ever revealed this highly compromising fact to readers." WW3 REPORT asks the editors of Mid-East Realities why a journalist's citizenship should "compromise" him?

9. US PLANS DNA DATABASE OF TERROR SUSPECTS

The FBI has proposed taking blood samples of the Taliban/al-Qaeda suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay, adding a foreign terrorist division to the National DNA Index System. The proposal is under review by the Justice Department. (NYT, March 3) Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay did manage to reverse a Pentagon ban on their wearing turbans through a protest in which some 200 detainees refused to eat and banged water bottles in their cages, chanting "God is great!" The protest was sparked when guards interrupted a prisoner's prayers to remove his makeshift turban. US commanders decided to end the policy to head off continued protest. (NYT, March 3)

THE PALESTINE FRONT

1. HIDEOUS ESCALATION IN CYCLE OF VIOLENCE

Following weeks of escalating retaliatory violence between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants, on Feb. 28, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched attacks on the West Bank's Jenin and Balata refugee camps, allegedly controlled by the militant organizations Tanzim and Hamas. This marks the first time ground troops have been sent in to Palestinian refugee camps. The fighting has left 30 dead, overwhelmingly Palestinians, by press time. On March 2, nine people, including four children, were killed and over 50 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Jerusalem's Orthodox Beit Yisrael neighborhood. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility, which, like Tanzim, is linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah political organization, but apparently does not answer to his Palestinian Authority. On March 3, nine Israeli soldiers and settlers were killed and six wounded by a sniper at a roadblock near the Jewish settlement of Ofra on the West Bank. The al-Aqsa Brigade again claimed responsibility. Later that day, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at Palestinian Authority police HQ in Bethlehem. That night, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet met and unanimously approved an IDF plan for "continuous military pressure" on the Palestinians, including tightening the confinement of Arafat, whose HQ in Ramallah has been ringed by Israeli tanks for weeks now. Hardline IDF reserve general Effi Eitam, who openly supports annexing the West Bank (see WW3 REPORT #19), approved of the plan, calling for "More force, and more force--as much force as we have." Shortly after the plan was announced, IDF troops attacked Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, destroying several houses and killing at least three Palestinians. The 18-month conflict has cost 1,000 Palestinian lives, and 300 Israeli. (Haaretz, March 3, 4; BBC, March 4)

2. IDF GENERALS BREAK RANKS WITH SHARON

After four months of discussion, the Council for Peace & Security, a group of 1,000 top-level Israeli reserve generals, colonels, and Shin Bet/Mossad officials, announced a public campaign for a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from all of Gaza and much of the West Bank. The group is calling for dismantling 50 settlements, the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state, and immediate peace talks with Palestinians--cease-fire or no. The campaign will include public appearances, bumper stickers, and a pamphlet titled "Saying Shalom to the Palestinians." (Haaretz, Feb. 18)

3. CHENEY CALLS FOR "HANGING" ARAFAT?

At a news conference following talks with George Bush in Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ruled out ever having Yasser Arafat as a "peace partner," saying the Palestinian leader had "disqualified himself by heading a coalition of terror." Bush reiterated harsh criticisms of Arafat, but refused to break off all ties with Arafat's Palestinian Authority. However, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who was also in Washington, earlier told journalists of a sympathetic hearing from Dick Cheney. Ben-Eliezer said: "The vice president told me: 'As far as I am concerned, you can even hang him,'" Arafat, who has yet to be invited to Washington by the Bush administration, told the BBC he was doing all he could to stop attacks on Israelis--but his hands were tied by the Israeli blockade on him and his security forces. Cheney is set tour the Middle East in March. (BBC, Feb. 8)

4. US-ISRAEL WAR AIMS CONVERGING?

In a Feb. 24 news analysis on Cheney's upcoming trip to the Middle East, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency quoted US ultra-hawk intellectual Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, urging the vice president to take a hard line on the Palestinians and Saddam Hussein. Pipes said, "Israel's enemies are now our enemies." Two weeks earlier, in Congressional testimony, CIA Director George Tenet named the Palestinian groups Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as potential targets of the US War on Terrorism. (See WW3 REPORT #21)

5. AL-QAEDA IN LEBANON REFUGEE CAMPS?

An anonymous Israel Defense Forces officer told the Jerusalem Post Feb. 20 that several dozen al-Qaeda members have found refuge in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp north of Beirut. He speculated they have formed links with Hezbollah, and are also seeking refuge in Syria.

THE IRAQ FRONT

1. IRAQ ATTACK IN THE MAKING?

Numerous international press reports indicate that Iraq may be the next target of massive US military strikes. George Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair are planning an April summit to finalize details of military action to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, reported the UK Observer Feb. 24, calling the meeting "a clear signal that Downing Street fully backs Bush's plans to launch a war against Iraq if Saddam does not agree to deadlines to destroy his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction." On Feb. 17, the Israeli daily Haaretz cited a report in the Lebanese paper Al-Mustaqbal that CIA Director George Tenet told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during their meeting the previous day that the US has already decided to attack Iraq, and asked that Egypt not publicly express opposition. The New York Post reported Feb. 13 that while White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said "no military action is imminent," administration officials "confirmed there's a general consensus among the president and his top advisers that the Butcher of Baghdad must go" and that "planning for a move against Saddam is now in high gear at the CIA and the Pentagon." The Post claimed Iraqi opposition leaders "have been holding numerous meetings with Pentagon, White House, CIA and State Department officials during the last month." On Feb. 13, the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted a "senior Bush administration official" saying, "This is not an argument about whether to get rid of Saddam Hussein. That debate is over. This is how you do it." The newspaper said the White House is determined to act even if US allies do not help. USA Today reported Feb. 28 that "US officials" say Bush has approved a CIA plan to bring about a "regime change" in Iraq. The paper claims the White House is convening a meeting of several hundred Iraqi military defectors in Europe next month, and that US diplomats and CIA officers have traveled to northern Iraq in recent weeks to meet with rebel Kurdish leaders. Said Mohammad Sabir, US representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan: "Our assessment is that this administration is much more serious than before."

2. TURKEY PREPARES FOR WAR IN IRAQ
US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, US Chief of Staff Richard Myers and VP Dick Cheney will all visit Turkey this month, and lining up Ankara's support for US intervention against Saddam Hussein is at the top of the agenda. Cheney will also visit Arab and Israeli leaders. But some suspect that the Turkish leadership may have its own designs on Iraqi territory--particularly the northern region controlled by the Kurdish ethnic minority. In the Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat, Kurdish commentator Abdelghani Ali Yahya warns of "Turkish threats to annex [Iraq's northern province of] Mosul." Turkey and Iraq have both fought brutal counter-insurgency wars against Kurdish rebels in recent years. (Mideast Mirror, Feb. 13)

3. DID US PLOT TO POISON IRAQ'S WATER?

Writing on The Progressive magazine's web page, Thomas J. Nagy quotes extensively from recently-declassified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) documents, "proving beyond a doubt that, contrary to the Geneva Convention, the US government intentionally used sanctions against Iraq to degrade the country's water supply after the Gulf War." One document, "Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities," dated Jan. 22, 1991, spells out how sanctions will prevent Iraq from supplying clean water to its citizens: "Iraq depends on importing specialized equipment and some chemicals to purify its water supply, most of which is heavily mineralized and frequently brackish to saline. With no domestic sources of both water treatment replacement parts and some essential chemicals, Iraq will continue attempts to circumvent United Nations Sanctions to import these vital commodities. Failing to secure supplies will result in a shortage of pure drinking water for much of the population. This could lead to increased incidences, if not epidemics, of disease." Iraq's rivers "contain biological materials, pollutants, and are laden with bacteria. Unless the water is purified, cholera, hepatitis, and typhoid epidemics could occur." Noting that importation of chlorine "has been embargoed" by sanctions, the document states, "Recent reports indicate the chlorine supply is critically low." The document predicts: "Iraq will suffer increasing shortages of purified water because of the lack of required chemicals and desalination membranes. Incidences of disease, including possible epidemics, will become probable unless the population were careful to boil water."

Another DIA document of the same day, "Effects of Bombing on Disease Occurrence in Baghdad," states: "Increased incidence of diseases will be attributable to degradation of normal preventive medicine, waste disposal, water purification/distribution, electricity, and decreased ability to control disease outbreaks. Any urban area in Iraq that has received infrastructure damage will have similar problems." The document itemizes likely outbreaks. It mentions "acute diarrhea" brought on by E. coli, shigella, salmonella or giardia--which will affect "particularly children." The document warns that Iraq's government may "blame the United States for public health problems created by the military conflict."

Nagy states that the Geneva Convention is absolutely clear on the illegality of targeting civilian water supplies. A 1979 protocol on "protection of victims of international armed conflicts," Article 54, states: "It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works...whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive." (www.progressive.org)

4. HALLIBURTON LOVES SADDAM

While Dick Cheney was its CEO, Halliburton sold more technology to Saddam Hussein than any other US corporation. Starting in 1998, two Halliburton subsidiaries sold Iraq $23.8 million in oil industry equipment. The evidence is on-line at the anti-Bush website Gwbush.com, including an excerpt from ABC's Aug. 2000 "This Week" with Sam Donaldson, which apparently catches Cheney in a "lie":

Donaldson: I'm told, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Halliburton, through subsidiaries, was actually trying to do business in Iraq?

Cheney: No. No. I had a firm policy that I wouldn't do anything in Iraq--even arrangements that were supposedly legal.

Writes Gwbush.com: "I guess ABC doesn't have much of a budget for research, because Sam Donaldson failed to cite any sources or documents to challenge Cheney." Also posted is a story from the Nov. 3, 2000 Financial Times, on how "Millions of dollars of US oil business with Iraq are being channeled discreetly through European and other companies, in a practice that has highlighted the double standards now dominating relations between Baghdad and Washington after a decade of crippling sanctions." Though legal under a 1998 UN resolution allowing Iraq to buy spare parts for its oil industry, leading US oil service companies such as Halliburton, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes use subsidiaries and joint venture companies, "so as to avoid straining relations with Washington..." US companies have submitted Iraq contracts worth at least $100 million to the UN for approval. "It is a wonderful example of how ludicrous sanctions have become," said Raad Alkadiri, analyst at the Petroleum Finance Company, a DC consulting firm.

From 1995 until August 2000, Halliburton's chief executive officer was Dick Cheney, US secretary of defense during Operation Desert Storm and now vice president. From Sept. 1998 until it sold its stake in Feb. 1999, Halliburton owned 51% of Dresser-Rand. It also owned 49% of Ingersoll-Dresser Pump, until its sale in Dec. 1999. During the time of the joint ventures, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll-Dresser Pump submitted more than $23.8 million worth of Iraq contracts, which were overwhelmingly approved. Their combined total amounted to more than any other US company. Former CIA director John Deutch is a board member of Schlumberger, the second largest US company with subsidiaries in Iraq deals.

5. ...BUT FEDS CRACK DOWN ON IRAQI REFUGEES

One day after the Iraqi-American owner of a Seattle area money-transfer company settled a racial-discrimination suit with the Bank of America, US Customs agents raided his office Jan. 31, alleging that he wired funds to Iraq in violation of the federal embargo. A dozen agents searched and seized items from Alshafei Family Connect Inc. (AFCI) of Mountlake Terrace, WA, arriving about 10 AM in unmarked sedans and vans. A guard was posted outside the lobby entrance until about 4:30 PM, when agents left with several computers and boxes of records. AFCI was created in 1998 by Hussain Alshafei, an Iraqi-born US citizen, to serve Iraqi refugees in the US who wanted to send money to family members in Iraq. Executive Order 12724, signed by then-President Bush on Aug. 13, 1990, prohibits any unauthorized "commitment or transfer, direct or indirect, of funds, or other financial or economic resources by any United States person to the Government of Iraq or any other person in Iraq." A day before the raid, Alshafei dropped his lawsuit claiming Bank of America discriminated against him when it asked him to close his account in Dec. A compromise allowed him to keep the account through March 25. The raid was the second on a local money-transfer business. In Nov., federal authorities closed Seattle's Somali-owned Barakat Wire Transfer as part of a nationwide crackdown on such "hawalas." Authorities claimed the businesses were fronts for am al-Qaeda fundraising operation. (Seattle Times, Feb. 1)

THE NEW GREAT GAME

1. US TROOPS TO THE CAUCASUS

Dozens of Afghan and Arab fighters who have fled Afghanistan--many believed tied to al-Qaeda--are regrouping in Pankisi Gorge in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia, the New York Times reported Feb. 28. In response, the US is readying some 200 military advisors to back up the troops of President Eduard Shevardnadze. Both the US and Russia are urging Shevardnadze to move against the Gorge, which is home to thousands of Chechen refugees. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov warns that the Gorge has become "a mini-Afghanistan on Russia's doorstep." But Moscow's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov warns that the US troop presence "could further aggravate the situation in the region, which is difficult as it is."

2. US TROOPS TO YEMEN

President Bush has ordered 200 military advisors, mostly Special Forces troops, to Yemen, to train that country's army to fight terrorists, the New York Times reported March 2. Yemen's army is already fighting tribes in the remote interior, who are suspected of sheltering al-Qaeda fugitives (see WW3 REPORT #13).

2. TURKEY BUSTS AL-QAEDA CELL

Turkey announced its security forces had detained three suspected al-Qaeda members who were planning a suicide bombing in Israel. Feyzullah Arslan, spokesman for Turkey's national police, told an Ankara news conference the suspects entered from Iran last year and were ordered to stage a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. He alleged they had been trained by the Taliban, and fought alongside them. He also said the US provided intelligence help to track down the suspects, identified as Ahmed Mahmud, Mustafa Hasan, and Firas Suleiman. Police said the men belonged to a cell called the "Union of Imams" and were Jordanian, Palestinian and Iraqi nationals. Police claimed one told interrogators they planned to travel to Israel to launch a suicide attack in a crowded area. The trio were reportedly detained near the Iranian border with false ID cards and bomb-making instructions in Arabic. (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 20)

3. HIDEOUS ESCALATION IN INDIA

Over 400 are dead in four days of Hindu-Muslim violence centered around Ahmadabad in western India's Gujarat state. The violence began Feb. 27 when Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindus planning to build a temple on the site of Babri mosque in Ayodhya, which was demolished by Hindu militants ten years ago. The mosque was built on a Hindu holy site in the 16th century. 58 Hindus were killed in the train attack. In retaliation, Muslim homes in Ahmadabad were reportedly torched, and the families burned alive. By March 3, the violence was spreading from Ahmadabad to rural areas. (NYT, Feb. 28, March 2, 3)

WATCHING THE SHADOWS

1. CONSPIRACY THEORISTS MAKE HAY FROM BUSH "SLIP"

This week, the Internet was abuzz with documentation of George Bush's factually problematic account of where he was when he got word of the 9-11 attacks. Cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0112/04/se.04.html has him telling a young student in Q&A session: "I was in Florida... [A]ctually I was in a classroom talking about a reading program... And I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower--the TV was obviously on, and I used to fly myself, and I said, 'There's one terrible pilot.' And I said, 'It must have been a horrible accident.' But I was whisked off there--I didn't have much time to think about it, and I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my chief who was sitting over here walked in and said, 'A second plane has hit the tower. America's under attack.'" The problem is that there was no live coverage of the first plane hitting the tower. Video of the first plane hitting did not surface until later.

The UK Guardian reported Dec. 5 on Bush's visit to Florida for the first time since the disaster, in which he made the "terrible pilot" comment. Commented the Guardian: "The story that he was watching TV contradicts reports from correspondents at the time that he got the news in a phone call from his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. It also adds further puzzles: why he was being made to wait; why he did not at least delay his entry into the classroom; and why is it obvious that an elementary school would have a TV set in the corridor?" However, the conspiracy theorists conveniently overlook the plausible explanation that the none-too-bright Bush simply flubbed it.

2. LEAKED FAA MEMO: ISRAELI COMMANDO ON 9-11 FLIGHT

WorldNetDaily.com reported March 1 that three of the five hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 on Sept. 11 were seated next to an elite Israeli commando. Friends and associates of the commando now say he was killed by the hijackers before the plane crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. They base their claim on a secret government memo naming Israeli-American Daniel C. Lewin as a gunshot victim on the flight. WorldNetDaily published the Federal Aviation Administration memo in an exclusive. The FAA confirmed the document is authentic, but said the report of Lewin's shooting, written just hours after the hijackings, was premature and inaccurate. The memo's summary of the shooting incident--real or not--is the most detailed of the four hijacking summaries. It says Lewin, sitting in seat 9B, was "shot by passenger Satam al-Suqami," sitting behind him in seat 10B. "One bullet was reported to have been fired," the memo states. The 31-year-old Lewin was a captain in the Israel Defense Forces and had extensive anti-terrorism training. "Anyone who knows Danny knows that it was not his nature to go down without a fight," said Yehuda Schwartzberg, a childhood friend from Jerusalem. "Maybe this [memo] shows that he died a hero."

3. THE FLIGHT 93 MYSTERY

Internet conspiracy theorists also allege that the flight that went down in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11 was actually shot out of the sky by a military plane which was tailing the Boeing 757. New Jersey's Bergen Record reported Sept. 14 on numerous local witnesses who claim to have seen a second plane. Staff writer Jeff Pillets reported from the Allegheny Mountains hamlet of Shanksville with five separate interviews with residents who live and work within four miles of the crash site. All said they saw a second plane flying erratically within minutes of the crash of United Flight 93, which took off from Newark two hours earlier. Susan Mcelwain of Stonycreek township said a small white jet with rear engines and no discernible markings swooped low over her minivan and disappeared over a hilltop, nearly clipping the tops of trees lining the ridge. Less than a minute later, Mcelwain said, the ground shook and a plume of smoke appeared over the ridge. A mile north on Buckstown Road, Dennis Decker and Rick Chaney were at work making wooden pallets when they heard an explosion and ran outside to see a huge plume spreading over the ridge. "As soon as we looked up, we saw a mid-sized jet flying low and fast," Decker said, describing the plane as an unmarked white Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near the tail. "If you were here to see it, you'd have no doubt. It was a jet plane, and it had to be flying real close when that 757 went down. If I was the FBI, I'd find out who was driving that plane."

An official at the Cleveland Air Traffic Control Center in Oberlin, OH, which tracked Flight 93, said "no comment" when asked if there was any record of a second plane over the crash site. "The armed forces did not shoot down any aircraft," said Air Force Gen. Richard Myers. But witnesses cling to their story. "It's the damndest darn thing," said farmer Dale Browning. "Everybody's seen this thing in the sky, but no one can tell us what it is."

Internet conspiracy mavens also allege that there was a secondary debris field near where Flight 93 went down, pointing to early accounts in the local press (eg., post-gazette.com/headlines/20010913somersetp3.asp).

4. BUSH LAUNCHES "SHADOW GOVERNMENT" IN SECRET BUNKERS

President Bush has dispatched a "shadow government" of about 100 senior civilian officials to live and work at secret underground locations outside Washington, activating for the first time the Cold War-era classified "Continuity of Operations Plan" to ensure survival of federal rule after catastrophic attack on the nation's capital. First enacted "on the fly" in the first hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, the shadow government has evolved into an indefinite precaution. The high-ranking officials are being rotated between two fortified locations on the East Coast. Officials who are activated for what they call "bunker duty" live and work underground 24 hours a day, away from their families. Only the executive branch is represented in the full-time shadow administration. The other branches of constitutional government, Congress and the judiciary, have separate continuity plans but do not maintain a round-the-clock presence in fortified facilities. The Washington Post, which reported the "Continuity of Government" (COG) operation March 1, "agreed to a White House request not to name any of those deployed or identify the two principal locations of the shadow government."

The COG operation resurrects a program first hatched in the Eisenhower administration and revived by Reagan with National Security Decision Directive 188 of Sept. 16, 1985, "Government Coordination for National Security Emergency Preparedness," which assigned responsibility for "continuity planning" to an interagency panel from Defense, Treasury, Justice and the Office of Management & Budget. In Executive Order 12656, signed Nov. 18, 1988, Reagan ordered every Cabinet department to define in detail the "defense and civilian needs" that would be "essential to our national survival" in case of nuclear attack. Included were legal instruments for "succession to office and emergency delegation of authority." Last Oct. 8, the day after bombing began in Afghanistan, Bush signed Executive Order 13228, creating the Office of Homeland Security. Among the responsibilities given its new director, ex-Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, was to "review plans and preparations for ensuring the continuity of the Federal Government in the event of a terrorist attack that threatens the safety and security of the United States Government or its leadership."

While the Washington Post submitted to de facto government censorship by suppressing the locations of the secret bunkers, WW3 REPORT research indicates that the primary COG bunker is under Mt. Weather, VA, and maintained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The second location is probably the emergency military command center at Raven Rock, PA, maintained by the Pentagon's North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD).

The "shadow government" idea was first made (unofficially) public by the fictional Dr. Strangelove of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film of that name, who warned: "Mr. President, we must not allow a mine shaft gap!"

5. PENTAGON DROPS PLAN FOR "MINISTRY OF TRUTH"--OR DOES IT?

Its cover blown in the nation's press, the Defense Department officially dropped plans for an "Office of Strategic Influence," which would admittedly plant false information in the world media to sway opinion in favor of the War on Terrorism--invoking memories of the sinister "Ministry of Truth" in George Orwell's novel 1984. (See WW3 REPORT #22) Reuters reported Feb. 26: "The Pentagon on Tuesday shut down its short-lived 'strategic information' office after media reports suggested it might be used to spread disinformation abroad." But this raises the logical dilemma of whether an agency which admits to lying can be believed when it says it doesn't exist. Is the agency's supposed non-existence the first piece of disinformation? Read the headline on SatireWire.com: "CLOSED DISINFORMATION AGENCY CAN'T CONVINCE STAFF IT'S CLOSED; 'Right, Sure, We're "Closed," Gotcha,' Say Winking Employees"

6. CONSPIRACY GURU MICHAEL RUPPERT CAUGHT IN MISREPRENTATIONS;
OWES WW3 REPORT EDITOR BILL WEINBERG $1,000

The Vancouver Sun reported Feb. 25 that conspiracy guru Michael Ruppert, who vigorously advocates the theory that the U.S. government was involved in the 9-11 attacks, "opens his documentary presentation with an offer of $1,000 US to anyone who can prove any of his sources were misrepresented or inauthentic." The Nov. 2 edition of Ruppert's newsletter "From the Wilderness" opened: "On Oct. 31, the French daily Le Figaro dropped a bombshell. While in a Dubai hospital receiving treatment for a chronic kidney infection last July, Osama bin Laden met with a top CIA official--presumably the Chief of Station... Even though Le Figaro reported that it had confirmed with hospital staff that bin Laden had been there as reported, stories printed on Nov. 1 contained quotes from hospital staff that these reports were untrue." As reported in WW3 REPORT #6, Le Figaro's allegation was cited to the "claims" of unnamed "sources", and nowhere did the paper say it had independently "confirmed" that Osama visited the hospital. According to an on-line translation (www.tenc.net/misc/lefigaro.htm), Le Figaro's headline used the word "allegedly", and the word "confirmed" did not appear in the article at all. The most specific description of a source was a "partner of the administration" at the hospital. WW3 REPORT remains completely agnostic on whether Osama actually visited the hospital, but reporting the claim as fact rather than allegation constitutes a serious misrepresentation.

In another example, the Sept. 18 "From The Wilderness" repeated the common but inaccurate claim that last Spring the US gave "a gift of $43 million to the Taliban as a purported reward for its eradication of Afghanistan's opium crop." The source for this claim was a Robert Scheer column in the May 22 Los Angeles Times. However, as reported in WW3 REPORT #1, the $43 million was broken down in a May 18 AP account, and it was mostly drought-relief, to be distributed through NGOs working in Afghanistan--not the Taliban. Only some $10 million was for "crop-substitution programs," part of the Taliban-led anti-opium campaign, and this too was to be overseen by NGOs rather than the Taliban.

Michael Ruppert can send a $1,000 check payable to Bill Weinberg to: 44 Fifth Ave. #172, Brooklyn, NY 11217

7. WW3 REPORT CLARIFIES POSITION ON CONSPIRACY THEORY

It is the position of WW3 REPORT that after the 1898 explosion of the battleship Maine, the 1933 Reichstag Fire, the 1939 bogus Polish "invasion" of Germany, and the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, it is irresponsible not to consider the possibility that elements of the CIA and/or Bush administration had a hand in the events of Sept. 11. However, it is equally irresponsible to accept this as a foregone conclusion, and twist every fact to fit it. WW3 REPORT remains committed to the idea that there is no higher principle to serve than the truth, and that serving this principle requires unflinching courage, unrestrained inquiry and unsleeping rigor.

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