Librarians are rarely associated with terrorism, but Texas A&M librarian Stephen Atkins defies the stereotype. A noted specialist on terrorist groups, Atkins has published The 9/11 Encyclopedia. The two-volume work details events leading to 9/11, identifying all participants worldwide. Atkins also covers events following the attack which have shaped our understanding of this cataclysmic event. "The horror and impact of 9/11 is almost beyond our comprehension. As the defining tragedy of our time, it reverberates in every aspect of our daily lives," explained Atkins, curator of French Collections at Texas A&M's Cushing Memorial Library & Archives, who has written four works on extremism and terrorism. He also teaches a course on extremism and terrorism in the contemporary world for the History Department at Texas A&M. Published by Praeger Security International, The 9/11 Encyclopedia, resource for scholars and security specialists, contains over 40 primary documents and 586 pages.

For those of us who can't wait until tomorrow night for the scheduled History Channel hit piece, '9/11 Conspiracies, Fact or Fiction?' Bit torrent comes to the rescue. I have yet to see it myself, but if we all chip in and seed the torrent, the downloads should pick up speed.

The following picture was provided to INTELWIRE by means of the Department of Defense:

http://intelfiles.egoplex.com/abledanger.html

It's a better version of the picture released in the DoD Inspector General's report on Able Danger:

http://www.milnet.com/able-danger/Able-Danger-Output-From-DoD-IG-Report.gif

Using other pictures found on the internet, and this copy of Boesen's '93 bombing chart...

http://www.abledangerblog.com/lance.jpg

I filled in a few of the blanks in the Brooklyn Cell (red text), surprisingly easily:

They're simply the core group of '93 WTC Bombers from his earlier chart, sometimes the exact same picture. Anyone have any idea who's in the green square though?

Being the Public Policy Researcher that I am, I got into a discussion with my boss one day about the Scripps Howard survey which found 36% of America believing in either LIHOP or MIHOP. The exact question was:

There are also accusations being made following the 9/11 terrorist attack. One of these is:
People in the federal government either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop the attacks because they wanted to United States to go to war in the Middle East.*

Very likely 16%
Somewhat likely 20%
Not likely 59%
Don't know 5%

*This question had 992 respondents; it was part of a survey posted on newsPolls.org on July 6, 2006.

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I went to the Scripps Howard News Service online, only to find dead links to all of their data files. I contacted the webmaster and then received the data file from Mr. Guido Stempel himself. It's in SPSS format, so the program to view it with is available here.

http://www.spss.com/

You can download the data file here:

http://www.box.net/shared/qf1qsq323n

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Update: LESS THAN A THIRD OF AMERICA BELIEVES

Mohammed al-Qahtani, detainee No. 063, was forced to wear a bra. He had a thong placed on his head. He was massaged by a female interrogator who straddled him like a lap dancer. He was told that his mother and sisters were whores. He was told that other detainees knew he was gay. He was forced to dance with a male interrogator. He was strip-searched in front of women. He was led on a leash and forced to perform dog tricks. He was doused with water. He was prevented from praying. He was forced to watch as an interrogator squatted over his Koran.

That much is known. These details were among the findings of the U.S. Army’s investigation of al-Qahtani's aggressive interrogation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But only now is a picture emerging of how the interrogation policy developed, and the battle that law enforcement agents waged, inside Guantanamo and in the offices of the Pentagon, against harsh treatment of al-Qahtani and other detainees by military intelligence interrogators.

In interviews with MSNBC.com — the first time they have spoken publicly — former senior law enforcement agents described their attempts to stop the abusive interrogations. The agents of the Pentagon's Criminal Investigation Task Force, working to build legal cases against suspected terrorists, said they objected to coercive tactics used by a separate team of intelligence interrogators soon after Guantanamo's prison camp opened in early 2002. They ultimately carried their battle up to the office of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, who approved the more aggressive techniques to be used on al-Qahtani and others.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Workers who spent months searching for human remains in the World Trade Center rubble were often at odds with the agency overseeing the cleanup and frequently asked to halt the operation as they recovered body parts.

As the work was wrapping up in 2002, several officials handling the recovery warned that things were moving too fast. They believed more pieces of the lost 2,749 victims could be found, but they were overruled, two of those officials told The Associated Press this week.

The officials gave the account after a utility crew accidentally discovered body parts last week in an abandoned manhole along the western edge of the site, and forensic experts have since dug down and found more than 100 bones and fragments from skulls, ribs, arms, legs, feet and hands.

"I knew that this was going to happen -- they really just wanted us out of there," said retired Police Lt. John McArdle, the New York Police Department's ground zero commander. "There was not a good exit strategy for some of these places, and if there was, it was poorly done."

The project finished months ahead of city officials' yearlong prediction, and cost about $750 million -- just a fraction of the initial multibillion-dollar estimate.