http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoasZUbmwpo

In a CBS News report from about 6:30 in the evening of 9/11, correspondent Byron Pitts describes how police apparently had advance knowledge of the collapse of WTC 7. He says: "Back live we have had little relief here. Take a look at this. About an hour ago, World Trade Center building number 7 collapsed. A 42-story building, weakened by the devastation that had occurred earlier today. No word any casualties in the building. It was the one calamity that was not a surprise. Police had evacuated the area hours ago, fearful building number 7 would indeed fall down."

Since fire had never before caused a steel-framed building to collapse, why were they so afraid WTC 7 would fall that they had the foresight to evacuate the surrounding area?

Check out the following excellent new article by Mike Whitney. This begins by looking at the February 2005 bombing of Samarra’s Golden Mosque in Iraq, and considers whether this could have been a false flag operation committed by the U.S. military. Whitney goes on to examine Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, and quotes some curious pre-9/11 writings of his. Whitney ends by considering whether the Pentagon has implemented the "Salvador Option" in Iraq, and whether this in fact accounts for much of the supposed "sectarian violence" there. Read it and pass it on!

The Bombing of the Golden Mosque  

By Mike Whitney

01/20/07 "ICHBlog"

We’ve heard a lot about the bombing of Samarra’s Golden Mosque lately. Bush has brought it up twice in the last week alone. It’s a critical part of the administration’s rationale for the occupation of Iraq, so we can expect to be reminded of it nearly as often as 9-11.

We know that within the two years prior to 9/11, NORAD held an exercise based on the scenario of terrorists deliberately crashing a hijacked aircraft into the World Trade Center. And there were at least three exercises in the year before 9/11 based around a plane hitting the Pentagon.

But here is yet another exercise that mysteriously predicted the attacks. This one was held less than two weeks before September 11, at the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. Only a few details of it have been described, by Ellen Engleman, administrator of the DOT's Research and Special Programs Administration, at the National Transportation Security Summit on October 30, 2001. She said:

Ironically, fortuitously, take your choice, 12 days prior to the incident on September 11th, we were going though a tabletop exercise. It was actually much more than a tabletop… in preparation for the Olympic games, at the Department of Transportation, which was a full intermodal exercise. During that exercise, part of the scenario, interestingly enough, involved a potentially high-jacked plane and someone calling on a cell phone, among other aspects of the scenario that were very strange when twelve days later, as you know, we had the actual event.

[There is a PDF of this document here. This quote appears on page 108.]

Here's yet another pre-9/11 military training exercise that appears to have had an uncanny resemblance to the actual 9/11 attacks. This is taken from the Complete 9/11 Timeline's Military Exercises Up to 9/11 page. "Unified Vision" involved the threat of "an unstable and hostile state, but the primary enemy was not the state itself but a transnational actor based out of that area, globally connected, capable and willing to conduct terrorist attacks in the US as part of that campaign." It involved terrorists attacking military targets within the U.S., but the Joint Forces Command has refused to say whether the Pentagon was among these.

The Center for Cooperative Research, which hosts the Complete 9/11 Timeline, is currently in urgent need of funds, so click here if you can help them out.

Here is a little-known oddity, courtesy of the Complete 9/11 Timeline. In the few weeks prior to 9/11, members of the public were suddenly limited in their access to US Army bases in the Washington, DC area, after having been able to freely access them for decades. These bases included Fort Meade, which is home to the National Security Agency. The new measures meant commanders knew who was entering their installations 24 hours a day and gave them "the capability to adjust security measures immediately if required." The change was "reportedly part of a nationwide security clampdown due to concerns about terrorism."

Incidentally, the Center for Cooperative Research, which hosts the timeline, is in the middle of an important fundraiser, so click here if you are willing to help them out.

August 15, 2001: Army to Limit Public Access to Bases Around Washington
The US Army is preparing to severely restrict public access to its posts in the Washington, DC area. For decades, visitors have been able to enter these bases freely. But now, as a probably permanent change, barriers will be erected across many roads leading into them, funneling traffic to a few roads staffed by guards. Drivers entering without proper registration will be sent to a visitor's center to obtain a guest pass. [Washington Post, 8/15/2001] The new measures will mean commanders know who is entering their installations 24 hours a day, and give them the capability to adjust security measures immediately if required. [MDW News Service, 8/3/2001] The changes will occur at all installations belonging to the Military District of Washington (MDW). [MDW News Service, 7/2001] These include forts Hamilton, Meade, Belvoir, Ritchie, Myer, and McNair. Several of these bases will be reported as having implemented the changes in the following weeks, prior to September 11 (see August 20, 2001)(see September 4, 2001)(see September 5, 2001). Whether the changes take place at the other MDW installations prior to 9/11 is unknown. Part of MDW's stated mission is to "respond to crisis, disaster or security requirements in the National Capital Region through implementation of various contingency plans." [Military District of Washington, 8/2000; GlobalSecurity (.org), 11/28/2001] It will therefore be much involved with the rescue and recovery efforts following the 9/11 Pentagon attack. [Army, 10/2004] The restriction of access to MDW posts stems from guidance from Army leadership and specifically from MDW Commander Maj. Gen. James Jackson. [MDW News Service, 7/2001] It is reportedly part of a nationwide security clampdown due to concerns about terrorism, following such attacks as the Oklahoma City bombing and the attack on the USS Cole. [Washington Post, 8/15/2001]

This article's a few months old, but it contains a summary of some important evidence relating to the Pentagon attack and the 9/11 military exercises.

Exclusive Report: Did Military Exercises Facilitate the 9/11 Pentagon Attack?
by Matthew Everett
July 18, 2006
911truth.org

Since 9/11, numerous authors and researchers have drawn attention to training exercises being conducted or prepared for by the US military and other government agencies at the time of the September 11 attacks. With names like Vigilant Guardian, Global Guardian, Timely Alert II, and Tripod, the question has arisen as to what connection these drills might have had with real-world events that morning.[1]

Attention has also been drawn to exercises held prior to 9/11, often bearing an uncanny resemblance to the actual attacks. For example, soon after 9/11 the New Yorker reported: "During the last several years, the government regularly planned for and simulated terrorist attacks, including scenarios that involved multiple-plane hijackings."[2]

USA Today reported: "In the two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted exercises simulating … hijacked airliners used as weapons to crash into targets and cause mass casualties. One of the imagined targets was the World Trade Center."[3]

As I will show in this essay, exercises also took place that bore a chilling resemblance to the attack on the Pentagon. I will look at evidence suggesting that the Pentagon actually scheduled another such training exercise for the morning of 9/11. I will end by briefly examining the possible implications of these exercises and consideringwhether they might have helped facilitate the attack on the Pentagon.

The CNN documentary "America Remembers," includes footage of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's immediate actions after the Pentagon was hit. CNN's Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr describes what happened : "Secretary Rumsfeld was in his suite of offices on the other side of the building from the impact zone. He felt it and he immediately was on the attack site within moments, much to the displeasure of his security people, but he did it, and there are pictures of the secretary helping other men carry stretchers of the injured."

View the footage here:
http://www.911podcasts.com/files/video/RumsfeldPentagon.wmv

Yet surely, as secretary of defense, shouldn't Rumsfeld have been concerning himself with defending America from further attacks? What if there'd been another attack on the Pentagon? In fact, emergency workers had to be evacuated from the area at around 10:15 a.m., due to an erroneous report of another hijacked aircraft approaching. And according to the recent Vanity Fair "9/11 Live" article, false reports of hijackings continued "well into the afternoon" of 9/11. So why wasn't Rumsfeld helping to protect his country?