SEPTEMBER 2006

 

9/11 helpers dying
- Dying To Help.

Judy Andreas

Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 06:05:07 EDT

On Sunday, August 20th, I attended a screening of a documentary called "The Toxic Clouds of 9/11: A Looming Health Disaster", produced and directed by Allison Johnson of The Chemical Sensitivity Foundation. It was a disturbing film. It was a heartbreaking film. It was a film in which workers and residents, who had been exposed to the toxic fumes of 9/11, shared their stories of illness, suffering and disability. These were the stories of people who selflessly volunteered in the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster. These were the stories of people who risked their lives for their fellow human beings. And these were the stories of people who are now paying a deadly price for their
heroism.

After 9/11, both New York City Mayor Giuliani and President Bush wanted to show that New York City was back in business. Before the asbestos dust had cleared, Giuliani notified city employees who had taken off 9/12/01 that they would have to charge the time off to accrued leave time. The New York Stock Exchange opened a week after 9/11. The Federal EPA under Christine Todd Whitman gave the area around the WTC a "clean bill of approval" without doing any testing. They completely ignored such obvious problems as the chemical haze in the area and reports of workers becoming ill after returning to work downtown. This pattern of lies continues and the number of sick and dying people continues to rise.

After the film, I spoke with Helene Verin, a volunteer who had fed the fireman during the first days after the WTC disaster. She is very ill. In 2003, she was hospitalized with a fever of 104 degrees. She cannot sleep and coughs all night. She has asthma and other upper respiratory illnesses. She suffers from a variety of maladies that have left 22 doctors scratching their heads. Physicians are not trained in occupational medicine and have difficulty evaluating the condition. They often wind up prescribing antibiotics. I also spoke with Marvin Bethea, a Paramedic. His organisation is:

Bonnie Giebfried, an Emergency Medical Technician and Volunteer Firefighter told me about her multiple illnesses. Her vocal chords were burned, she has damage from her neck to her knee and suffers from many other toxic exposure problems. Bonnie recalled that horrific day in 2201: "Our breathing was getting worse and worse. We were suffocating. We were literally starting to die, because the air was depleting. No light, nothing. It was completely, completely black. All we could think was, Get out. Get out. Everybody was screaming, 'Smash the window! Smash the window!' Then it got really quiet, and I think that's when it dawned on us that we might not get out of there. I could barely hear people inhaling and exhaling. I could hear my heart beating."

Insurance companies have virtually turned their backs on these people. One woman, who was making $60,000 prior to toxicity exposure is now in debt for $60,000. Where is the help? Where is the humanity?

One person stated "I wish I had died that day. This is not living. This is existing. I have become a different person. I am a horrible shell of an individual. Death would have been a saving grace."

Copyright:2006 www.judyandreas.com

J.Andreas recommends three Articles below for more information

photos Alan Tannebaum of Unsung Heroes www.unsunghhh.org

What the Investigators found out about dust from Ground Zero

 The Eyewitness News Investigators

(New York- WABC, May 24, 2006) _ - Health officials deny it but many first responders to the 9-11 terror attacks seem to be getting sick or are dying at an alarming rate because of exposure to toxic chemicals. Tonight the Eyewitness News Investigators test items of clothing used by an angry responder. Jim Hoffer with his exclusive report. An NYPD detective dies at age 34. An autopsy links his death to dust exposure at Ground Zero. An FDNY medic dead at 41, doctors point to his "exposure to the World Trade Center disaster." In both cases, the city denies any link. Patrick Bahnken, Pres. FDNY EMT Union: "The reality is we are dying quicker than medical science can catch up to us."

The head of the fire department's paramedics union got so mad at the city's repeated denials about 9-11 illnesses, he wrote a letter to the editor of this labor newspaper challenging the city to analyze the dust on the clothing he wore at Ground Zero. The city ignored him. We didn't and took his clothing to this lab to be tested for any toxic substances.

Patrick Bahnken, Pres. FDNY EMT Union: "It's not a coincidence, there is a common linking factor and that is the trade center and what you see on my shoes and on these clothes is exactly what people breathed in." Environmental Testing Lab spent a week analyzing the clothing, running numerous tests to determine whether they contained any hazardous levels of heavy metals, which are known to cause lung damage. Even though nearly five years had passed, contaminants were still found some at high concentrations. Newman: "They are red flags because exposure to any of these substances at sufficient level would be cause for concern."

We asked industrial hygienist David Newman to interpret the lab findings.
1.Dust from the shoes and clothing contained several heavy metals including cadmium which can damage the lungs. It existed at two times the level that's considered hazardous in soil. Newman: "It would be 100 percent above the trigger that would warrant a cleanup."

2.The lab also found mercury, linked to respiratory problems, at four times the level the state considers hazardous for soil. David Newman, Hygienist: "Over a period of time evaporates. We are four years past 9/11 so I'm surprised to find any mercury."

3.Lead tested at two and a half times above the hazardous level. Chromium, known to cause lung disease, existed at ten times the level that would require a mandatory cleanup.

Newman: "These are toxic substances if they get in the air and if you breath them inhale them at sufficient concentrations and for significant periods of time they have the potential to do serious significant health damage." FDNY medic John Viciguerra believes the months he spent breathing in dust at Ground Zero has given him lung disease at age 38. No matter how many medications he needs or how many medical reports he gathers, the city has yet to acknowledge a Ground Zero connection.

John Vincingera, FDNY Medic: "I was denied workman's compensation. They told me that too much time had passed since 9/11." The clothing we had tested for contaminants was worn by John's friend and colleague. The samples that tested high for heavy metals came from the same dust that he and thousands of others inhaled and that many now believe has made them ill. Vincegerra: "I was there to help the city and now I feel the city is turning its back on me." Lt Vinciguerra is still trying to resolve his workers' comp claim with the city. The city says of the more than 1,200 September 11th related claims only about four percent have been disputed by them.

We did make several attempts to get a response from the health department on this story.

If you have a tip about this or any other investigative story, give our tipline a call at 877-TIP-NEWS.

(Copyright 2006 WABC-TV)
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=investigators&id=4203468

FROM THE 911 TRUTH MOVEMENT............. 
The following letter was just sent to Mr. Graham Gardham, a columnist with the British newspaper, The Telegraph, who recently wrote an article disparaging the 9/11 Truth movement (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news
/2006/08/15/nterror315.xml)...


“...Should the editors of The Telegraph accept our challenge and pay our expenses, I shall gladly arrange for a panel of our experts to fly to the UK to address members of your esteemed newspaper. And I shall offer you this guarantee with utmost confidence: There will not be one skeptic left in the room when we conclude our presentation...”



Dear Duncan,

This refers to your recent article in The Guardian, “It's all a government plot, say internet 'truth activists'”.

I’m a retired commercial pilot who holds a degree in aeronautical engineering. I did not give the subject of 9/11 a second thought until October 2004, when I was directed to a website that showed a brief clip re the attack on the Pentagon (www.pentagonstrike.co.uk).

I was quite shocked by the claims, and initially thought it nonsense. I actually set about fully expecting to DISPROVE what these “conspiracy nuts” were claiming. The more I dug, the more foul-smelling things began to get. And then someone directed me to a website (http://911research.com/talks/b7/videos.html) on the mysterious collapse of WTC Building 7, a building that was not struck by an aircraft, yet fell like a pillar of sand in 6.6 seconds into its own footprint. As I watched the video in utter disbelief, the whole OFFICIAL conspiracy theory began to fall apart right before my eyes.

After 3 years of assiduous research, I’m convinced 9/11 was an inside job. I’m now a member of Scholars for9/11 Truth (st911.org) and the Scientific Panel Investigating Nine-Eleven (SPINE - www.physics911.net), organizations whose membership includes over a hundred PhDs from a multiplicity of disciplines. I can confidently state that we can present a solid case that will stand up in any impartial court of law anywhere in the world that will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that 9/11 was an inside job.

Re the “theories” about controlled demolitions, and as a good starting point in your own research, I’d suggest you visit the following site: http://911research.com/talks/b7/videos.html

There, you will clearly see WTC Building 7, a 47-storey steel-framed tower that was NOT struck by any aircraft, mysteriously collapse into its own footprint in 6.6 seconds. That, by the way, is the time computed for an object dropped from the roof of a structure of the same height to strike the ground. It is FREEFALL speed, and can only be accomplished through controlled demolition. At the website referred to above, you will clearly see the collapse from three different camera angles.

It might help you to know that Larry Silverstein, the owner of the WTC complex, slipped up on-camera and admitted during a PBS television interview on September 11, 2002, to having given the order to “pull” Building 7. As anyone reasonably savvy about construction practices knows, “pull” is jargon for a controlled demolition.

If, after watching the clips, you do not concur Building 7’s collapse was caused by controlled demolition, I’m afraid I can only conclude you are in a state of utter and total denial, and nothing in the world is going to convince you about any alternative explanations for what really happened on 9/11.

I believe what you should be doing — instead of mixing up serious 9/11 research with subjects such as hoaxed moon landings and UFOs — is investigating the collapse of this building and finding the culprits responsible for setting up the explosive charges. It was obviously done well in advance of 9/11 — it’s impossible to configure and setup a building of this size in a day; the job would take a professional company several months to accomplish.

Who was responsible? Why?

Re the Twin Towers, they, too, collapsed at freefall speeds. it is IMPOSSIBLE (there is no other word) for the roofs of the towers to have struck the ground in exactly the same time as a ball dropped from the same height. Why? The roof would have to crush, tear and plow through 110 levels of steel columns, walls, floor slabs, office equipment, etc. before it could reach the ground. The ball would simply drop through AIR.

How could the roof and the ball both hit the ground in exactly the same time? The ONLY way the roof could have hit the ground in 9.4 seconds would have been if nothing existed beneath it but AIR. And that’s what explosives do: blow everything out of the way so that there is nothing to resist the fall.

In this regard, I urge you to visit: http://janedoe0911.tripod.com/BilliardBalls.html  and read the engineering analysis presented by Prof. Judy Wood (Clemson University), a member of Scholars. Her clear analysis is irrefutable.

But forget the math. Look carefully at the photos and watch the videos of 9/11 — this time with a stopwatch in your hand. The explosives were triggered in a precise vertical sequence so that the floors and supports were getting blown out of the way just as the mass above them was falling.

Now, here’s a challenge that might interest you: the millionaire philanthropist, Jimmy Walter, announced THREE YEARS AGO that he will pay $1 million to the first person to prove, through a detailed mathematical analysis, that explosives were NOT used to destroy the World Trade Center. This offer has even been distributed to the engineering faculties of major universities around the world. Guess what -- NOT ONE SINGLE TAKER. Why? Because it is IMPOSSIBLE for the towers to have collapsed the way they did WITHOUT explosives, and anyone who analyzes it for any length of time will figure this out very quickly. Perhaps you or one of your associates might consider commissioning an engineering expert to respond to Mr. Walter’s challenge, win the million dollars and split the purse? After all, the money is going begging.

Duncan, the two scientific research organizations to which I belong are comprised of well over a hundred experts. We are not fools, and neither are we some whacko cult of “conspiracy theorists”.

Thanks to our groups, members of parliament in Germany, Sweden, UK, France, Belgium, Denmark, and Holland are some of the Europeans who have watched the various 9/11 movies and expressed VERY serious concerns about the US government’s “official” story. I’m sure it will shock you to know that The Hon. Andreas Von Bulow, the former German Minister of Defense, is a member of Scholars For 9/11 Truth. Von Bulow, a 25-year parliamentarian and member of Helmut Schmidt’s cabinet, was also head of the German secret service at one time. He states unequivocally that 9/11 was an inside job, and that the command center for the operation was Mayor Giuliani’s fortified bunker in Building 7, which is one of the reasons why that structure had to be demolished. [The other reason, of course, was to ensure the destruction of mountains of evidence contained in NSA, CIA, DEA, and ATF files relating to corporate fraud, money laundering, and drug trafficking. What’s not commonly known is that all of these agencies, among others, were all occupants of Building 7.]  

Panels of technical experts, organized and funded by the above-mentioned philanthropist Jimmy Walter, have toured various American and European cities over the past 3 years. These events have received scarce coverage because of indifference by the mainstream media (no doubt comprised of skeptics like yourself). Walter, by the way, has invested over $6M of his personal funds in the movement, and produced the excellent DVD, “Confronting The Evidence”, over a million copies of which have been distributed FREE worldwide. Please let me know if you’d like a copy. I would also encourage you to watch the excellent video “Loose Change II”, which is available free online at Google video.

Some of the noteworthy individuals in the greater 9/11 Truth movement (including those on various panels at our international symposia) include:

• Former Chief Economist under George W. Bush, and professor at Texas A&M, Morgan Reynolds
• Former Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the U.S. Air Force, under President Reagan, and combat fighter pilot Col. Robert Bowman (Caltech Phd in aeronautics and nuclear engineering)  
• Former CIA Intelligence Advisor to Reagan and George HW Bush and founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, Ray McGovern
• Former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Research Fellow at Stanford’s Independent Institute, and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, Paul Craig Roberts
• Former Chief of Staff of the Russian armed forces, and chief of the department for General affairs in the Soviet Union's ministry of Defense, General Leonid Ivashov
• Former MI6 British Counter Intelligence Officer, David Shayler
• Historian, international terrorism expert, and author, Webster G. Tarpley
• Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota, former Marine Corps officer, author or editor of more than 20 books, and co-chair of Scholars For 9/11 Truth, James Fetzer
• Professor of Physics, Brigham Young University, and co-chair of Scholars For 9/11 Truth, Steven Jones
• Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Religion & Theology, Claremont Graduate University, and author or editor of some 30 books, including "The New Pearl Harbor" and "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions" David Ray Griffin
• Professor of mathematics, University of Western Ontario, and founder of the Scientific Panel Investigating Nine-Eleven (SPINE), A.K Dewdney
• Aircraft crash investigation authority, USAF Col. (Ret) George Nelson
• Former chief Pentagon arms negotiator for the Middle East, USAF Col. (Ret) Don de Grand-Pre
• Numerous research scientists and academics from major universities around the world, hundreds of experts with PhDs, current and retired airline and military pilots...
  

If you would deem the above-mentioned individuals to be a cult of “conspiracy theorists”, then I shall unreservedly declare my pride of membership in their crazed cult.

The only “conspiracy theory” is the OFFICIAL version of 9/11 — that 19 amateur Arabs armed with boxcutters, led by a man on a dialysis machine in a cave in Afghanistan, outwitted the multi-trillion-dollar defense apparatus of the most technologically advanced superpower in our solar system by flying FOUR jumbo jets around the country for almost TWO HOURS without triggering ONE single fighter intercept. Never mind that these nineteen brigands boarded the four aircraft without reservations, without issued tickets, without boarding passes, without ID checks, and without their names appearing on a single passenger manifest. (Let’s overlook the little fact that, according to the BBC, seven of the nineteen are proven to be alive and well in the Middle East today.)

The latest nationwide Zogby poll, conducted on May 22nd, shows that 42% of adults in America believe that the US government and its 9/11 Commission concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the September 11th attacks, saying there has been a cover-up. This amounts to some 70 million people. Can anyone, with a straight face, call 70 million people a bunch of “conspiracy theorists”? In the latest “unofficial” CNN poll 2 weeks ago, which drew over 20,000 votes, more than 70 percent of the respondents felt there is an ongoing cover-up. All crackpots, too?

Attached below is an article you might find to be of interest; it was published just yesterday. Its author, Bill Christison, was Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political Analysis before his retirement in 1979. Please read it carefully.

I’ve taken the time to write to you because you are a journalist whose work reaches a great number of people. You have an obligation to inform your readers of the truth, not whitewash this heinous crime through ignorance of the facts or personal denial.

Should the editors of The Telegraph accept our challenge and pay our expenses, I shall gladly arrange for a panel of our experts to fly to the UK to address members of your esteemed newspaper. And I shall offer you this guarantee with utmost confidence: There will not be one skeptic left in the room when we conclude our presentation.

On behalf of the members of SPINE and Scholars for 9/11 Truth, I urge you to do your own research and report this matter — the most crucial issue of our times — with a sense of high responsibility and great urgency.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Nila Sagadevan
Member,
Scholars For 9/11 Truth (www.st911.org)
Scientific Panel Investigating Nine-Eleven (www.physics911.net)

consider The November
elections and the
Theories about 9/11 - Responsibilities
for the Public

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug06/Christison14.htm

STOP DISCREDITING THE THEORIES ABOUT SEPTEMBER 11

By BILL CHRISTISON
www.dissidentvoice.org
August 14, 2006

However horrendous the crimes of two of the world’s great liars and terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon, it is imperative that we not let the deeds of Ehud Olmert and George W. Bush distract us from another recent event. 

The U.S. alliance with Israel and the power of the lobby that lets Israel so easily influence U.S. foreign policy have been major factors in allowing the monstrous slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza and Lebanon.  What is happening in these lands may also encourage Olmert and Bush to start new hostilities in Syria and heavy, possibly nuclear, bombings in Iran -- and this entire mess of neocon pottage may lead to a new World War and clashes of civilizations and religious fundamentalisms that these two wretched politicians seem quite literally to want to impose on the rest of us.  It’s a tough case to make that anything else going on in the world -- anywhere -- could possibly be of equal importance.

But on July 29 and 30, and then again on August 1 something else happened that increasing numbers of people believe is of equal importance.  On these dates C-SPAN rebroadcast a panel discussion, held originally in late June, sponsored by an organization called the American Scholars’ Symposium to discuss what really happened on September 11, 2001.  Held in Los Angeles, the meeting lasted two days, and the C-SPAN rebroadcast covered one almost two-hour wrap-up session.  The meeting was attended by 1,200 people interested in hearing something other than the official story of 9/11.  The TV audience was evidently large enough to spur C-SPAN to broadcast the panel discussion five separate times in four days. 

Even a month late, this is a lot of air-time for stories that many people call conspiracy theories -- and for which many others use nastier descriptions.  It is possible that the head of C-SPAN, Brian Lamb, so strongly disbelieves the conspiracy theories that he felt giving them ample publicity would discredit them further.  It is equally possible, however, that Lamb, who seems honestly to believe in presenting various sides of most issues as fairly as he can (although not always giving every side equal time), tried to do exactly that on the many legitimate questions raised about what actually happened on September 11.  In any event, C-SPAN has made a major effort to bring information on the principal theories about 9/11 to the mainstream U.S. media.  Lamb cannot be blamed for the coincidence that recent heavy military activity in Gaza and Lebanon is nearly drowning out his efforts.

Let’s address the real issues here.  Why is it important that we not let the so-called conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 be drowned out?  After spending the better part of the last five years treating these theories with utmost skepticism, I have devoted serious time actually to studying them in recent months, and have also carefully watched several videos that are available on the subject.  I have come to believe that significant parts of the 9/11 theories are true, and that therefore significant parts of the “official story” put out by the U.S. government and the 9/11 Commission are false.  I now think there is persuasive evidence that the events of September did not unfold as the Bush administration and the 9/11 Commission would have us believe.  The items below highlight the major questions surrounding 9/11 but do not constitute a detailed recounting of the evidence available. 

ONE:  The Pentagon was almost certainly not hit by an airliner.  Hard physical evidence supports this conclusion; among other things, the hole in the Pentagon was considerably smaller than an airliner would create.  The building was thus presumably hit by something smaller, possibly a missile, or a drone or, less possibly, a smaller manned aircraft.  Absolutely no information is available on what happened to the original aircraft (American Airlines Flight 77), the crew, the “hijackers,” and the passengers.  The “official story,” as it appeared in The 9/11 Commission Report simply says, “At 9:37:46, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, traveling at approximately 530 miles per hour.  All on board, as well as many civilians and military personnel in the building, were killed.”  This allows readers to assume that pieces of the aircraft and some bodies of passengers were found in the rubble of the crash, but information so far released by the government does not show that such evidence was in fact found.  The story put out by the Pentagon is that the plane and its passengers were incinerated, yet video footage of offices in the Pentagon situated at the edge of the hole clearly shows office furniture undamaged.  The size of the hole in the Pentagon wall still remains as valid evidence, and so far seems irrefutable.

TWO:  The North and South Towers of the World Trade Center almost certainly did not collapse and fall to earth because they were hit by hijacked aircraft.  Building 7 of the Center, which also collapsed, was not hit by a plane at all.  All three were most probably destroyed by controlled demolition charges placed in the buildings before 9/11.  A substantial volume of evidence shows that typical residues and byproducts from such demolition charges were present in the three buildings after they collapsed.  The quality of the research done on this subject is quite impressive.   

If the judgments made on Points ONE and TWO above are correct, they raise many “Who done it” questions and strongly suggest that some unnamed persons or groups either inside or with ties to the government were actively creating a “Pearl Harbor” event, most likely to gain public support for the aggressive foreign policies that followed -- policies that would, first, “transform” the entire Middle East, and second, expand U.S. global domination.   

These first two points provide the strongest evidence available that the “official story” of 9/11 is not true.  If the government could prove this evidence false, and its own story on these points correct, all the other data and speculation supporting the conspiracy theories would be undermined.  It has provided no such proof and no answers to growing questions.

Other, less important points supporting the theories include the following.

 THREE:  For at least one hour and 45 minutes after the hijacking of the first aircraft was known, U.S. air defense authorities failed to take meaningful action.  This strikes some “conspiracy theorists” as valid evidence that the U.S. Air Force was deliberately restrained from acting.  Maybe so, but my own skepticism tells me that the inefficiency of U.S. defense forces is likely to be just as plausible an explanation.

FOUR:  Some of the theorists believe that the 19 named hijackers were not actually the hijackers.  One claim is that the names of the hijackers were not on the manifests of any of the four aircraft. 

FIVE:  None of the 19 hijackers’ bodies were ever autopsied (since they were allegedly totally destroyed in the crashes, including even the people in the Pennsylvania crash).

SIX:  At least five of the alleged hijackers (or persons with identical names) have since turned up alive in the Middle East.  Nonetheless, the FBI has never bothered to re-investigate or revise the list of hijackers.  Does this suggest that the FBI knows that no one in the administration is interested in reopening any further investigations?

SEVEN:  Numerous pilots have allegedly told the theorists that none of the 19 hijackers could have flown the airliners well enough to hit the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon with as much accuracy as was displayed.  The debate on this issue simply raises more doubt about the government’s charge that the people it has named as hijackers are the real hijackers.

EIGHT:  No one, except possibly government investigators who are not talking, has seen the plane that went down in Pennsylvania.  Some of the conspiracy theorists suggest that it was deliberately destroyed before it hit the ground; others suggest that the plane actually landed in Cleveland and that passengers then were whisked away to some unknown destination.  What happened to them at that point is simply a large question mark that makes it more difficult to believe this particular scenario.

NINE:  Machinations in the U.S. stock market in the days before 9/11 suggest that some inside players in the market knew or suspected that United and American Airlines stock would soon drop.  Two of the four of the aircraft involved in 9/11 were, or course, United planes and the other two were American Airlines planes. 

It should be reemphasized that these items do not make up a complete list of all the charges made by the theorists, but they are a good sample.  Anyone interested in perhaps the best summary of these charges should watch the video “Loose Change.”

To repeat, points ONE and TWO above are the most important.  If something other than an airliner actually did hit the Pentagon on 9/11, and if the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center actually were dropped to the ground by controlled demolitions rather than by anything connected to the hijackings, the untrue stories peddled by The 9/11 Commission Report are clearly susceptible of being turned into major political issues.

A Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University poll taken from July 6 to 24, 2006 concluded that “more than a third [36 percent] of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them, so that the United States could go to war in the Middle East.”  The poll also found that “16 percent of Americans speculate that secretly planted explosives, not burning passenger jets, were the real reason the massive twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed.”

A poll done by the Zogby polling organization two months earlier, between May 12 and 16, 2006, and using questions worded somewhat differently, suggested even more strongly that the issue could become a “big one” if aggressively publicized.  This poll concluded that 42 percent of Americans believed there had indeed been a cover-up of the true events of 9/11, and an additional 10 percent of Americans were “unsure.”  The co-author of the poll, W. David Kubiak, stated that, “despite years of relentless media promotion, whitewash, and 9/11 Commission propaganda, the official 9/11 story still can’t even muster 50 percent popular support.” 

Whichever of these polls is closer to the truth, it would seem that there is considerable support for making a major political issue of the subject.

This should be worked on at two different levels.  At the first level, the objective should be long-term, centered on making a maximum effort to find out who the individuals and groups are that carried out the attacks in New York and Washington.  Then, these people should be tried in an international court and, if possible, convicted and punished for causing so many deaths.  Such a trial, accompanied by actual change in U.S. policies, would show that some people on this globe are at least trying to move closer to more just and decent behavior in human relationships around the world. 

At the second level, the short term, the task should be to immediately set to work as hard as is humanly possible to defeat in this year’s congressional election any candidate who refuses to support a no-holds-barred investigation of 9/11 by the Congress or a high-level international court.  No more evidence than is now available is needed in order to begin this process.

A manageable volume of carefully collected and analyzed evidence is already at hand on both items ONE and TWO above.  Such evidence should be used right now to buttress charges that elements within the Bush administration, as well as possibly other groups foreign or domestic, were involved in a massive fraud against the American people, a fraud that has led to many thousands of deaths. 

This charge of fraud, if proven, involves a much greater crime against the American people and people of the world than any other charges of fraud connected to the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.  It is a charge that we should not sweep under the rug because what is happening in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Syria, and Iran seems more pressing and overwhelming.  It is a charge that is more important because it is related to all of the areas just mentioned -- after all, the events of 9/11 have been used by the administration to justify every single aspect of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East since September 11.  It is a charge that is more important also because it affects the very core of our entire political system.  If proven, it is a conspiracy, so far successful, not only against the people of the United States, but against the entire world.  Finally, it is a charge too important to ignore simply because the U.S. government refuses to discuss it.  We must force the Bush administration to discuss it.

Discussions aggressively pushed day after day about what really happened on 9/11 will be one of the most important tasks between now and early November. Such discussions can, one hopes, provide progressives with a way to jolt voters out of their apathy and inchoate willingness to support the status quo that they think gives them security -- and encourage more voters to stop supporting Bush, the Republicans, and the wobbly Democratic politicians who might as well be Republicans.  A major issue like this, already supported by many voters, may prove particularly important in a congressional election year when new uncertainties in the Middle East, new possibilities of terrorism against the U.S. in retaliation for recent large-scale acts of Israeli/U.S. terrorism in Gaza and Lebanon, and the corrupt almost-single-party U.S. political system combine to make it more likely that supporters of Bush will retain their majority this November.  

In terms of electoral impact, it would not matter whether heavy publicity did in fact force the administration to accept a new high-level investigation of the 9/11 events.  Initially, the principal goal would be to contribute heavily to the defeat of both Republicans and Democrats who refuse to support wholeheartedly a major new investigation by Congress or an international court.  This might result in the defeat of more Republicans than Democrats in November, but ultimately the hoped-for goal should be the end of a system in which Democrats are barely different from Republicans, along with cutbacks in the political power of wealth and the foreign and domestic lobbies paid for by wealth.  These are the dominant features of our system today that have practically eliminated meaningful democracy in the U.S.  This failure of democracy has happened before in U.S. history, but this time it is likely to last longer -- at least until U.S. policies begin to pay as much attention to the needs of the world as they do to selfish or thoughtless needs of the U.S. and of its military-industrial complex.  Attacks on the criminal events surrounding 9/11 might speed this process.

Virtually no members of Congress, Democratic or Republican, will relish calling for a further investigation of 9/11.  For right now, in addition to other motives, the issue should be used to go after those political prostitutes among elected office-holders who should also be defeated because they are so easily seduced by money and power to vote for immoral wars against weak enemies.

At the Los Angeles meeting of the American Scholars’ Symposium, one of the main speakers, Webster Tarpley, summarized his own views on the events of 9/11.  He emphasized that the 9/11 “myth” had been perpetrated by the “neocon fascist madmen.”  He went on to say that, “The most important thing is that the 9/11 myth is the premise and the root of the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War and the coming attack on Iran. . . . We must . . . deprive [the myth’s perpetrators] of the ability to stampede and manipulate hundreds of millions of people [with their] . . . cynically planned terrorist events.” 

Let’s give Webster Tarpley and other mistakenly labeled conspiracists who have labored in the wilderness for so long three cheers.

Bill Christison is a former senior official of the CIA.  He was a National Intelligence Officer and the Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political Analysis before his retirement in 1979.  Since then he has written numerous articles on U.S. foreign policies.  He can be reached at kathy.bill@christison-santafe.com.

CACCHIOLI AND ENGINE CO. 47 ARRIVE ON THE SCENE

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2005/200705twistedwords.htm  
NY Fireman Lou Cacchioli Says 9/11 Commission Twisted His Words  

by Greg Szymanski

New York fireman Lou Cacchioli looked the devil square in the eye the morning of 9/11. He stared him down, threw him aside and walked into the depths of hell like a true hero, knowing he may never walk out again.

A hero, he risked his life to save others, never once thinking about himself at a time when one wrong a turn, a slight move in the wrong direction, meant sure death.

Although he survived, a little bit of Lou Cacchioli died that tragic morning in the north tower. A little bit of the Italian boy, born in northern Italy who came to New York at the age of 10, was left behind in the rubble along with thousands of unlucky souls who didn’t make it out of hell that morning.

Four years later, Cacchioli hasn’t talked much about the nightmare he lived on 9/11. First, he really didn’t want to talk about it. Next, he got tired of having his words twisted by the 9/11 Commission and finally, the New York media basically never sought him out to get the true account of what he saw and heard in the north tower right before the building collapsed.

Originally, on September 12, 2001, People Magazine ran a few short paragraphs about the 20-year veteran New York fireman hearing what sounded like bombs exploding in the north tower.Short
and sweet, that was it. A few short words about bombs exploding, but words that were repeated over and over again in story after story by writers and broadcasters who never even bothered to talk to him in the first place.After that, a little angry and a little disgusted, he pretty much disappeared into the New York landscape, his story only appearing in an obscure book released called “American Spirit,” and his 2004 testimony given in private to the 9/11 Commission and never released to the public in the commission’s final report.

So, it’s safe to say Cacchioli’s story is probably unknown to most Americans even though 9/11 will be forever etched in everyone’s hearts and souls for all time.

In a humble effort to set the 9/11 Commission’s record straight and put the correct version of hero Lou Cacchioli’s story back in the history books, here is the unedited version, better late then never, as told by the man in an extended telephone conversation this week from his New York home:

THEN AND NOW

Losing his buddies, his job and his health, there was time after 9/11 he seriously considered suicide. But after counseling, a bit of soul searching and a loving family, the man who went through the
depths of hell is now a happy grandfather.

Although he’s finally able to cope with the horror and grief of 9/11 after four long years, the tough-talking Italian with a heart of gold, admitted:“I still have my moments, I still break down sometimes and I still go to counseling. But I feel a lot better, a whole lot better. I have a wonderful wife of 30 years, three great children and now a little granddaughter. What more could a man want?”

And the man who almost lost it all after saving so many lives is back living safely on the “happy side of heaven,” keeping close touch with the fire department he loves and vowing to never leave the streets of New York, the only life he really knows. And like a true Italian, headstrong, independent and not afraid to speak his mind, he said: “Nothing’s going to push Lou Cacchioli out of this town, nothing!”

THE MORNING OF 9/11

Cacchioli was one of those tough New York firefighters, the kind of guy you’d like to have a coffee or beer with or the kind of guy who could talk your arm off about Yankee baseball.

For most of his career, “Tough Lou” was a Company 47 engine man in the equally as tough Harlem District. He was the type of fireman who you picture sitting around the firehouse dinner table, shooting the breeze and talking war stories about the last big blaze up on 42nd Street.He was the type of fearless New York fireman who, up until 9/11, thought he saw it all, including the WTC bombing in 1993.But that was before 9/11. That was before Cacchioli was thrown into depths of hell when the Company 47 bell sounded, telling the fire crew to head to the south tower of the WTC.

And like the sound of the bell marking the 15th round at Madison Square Garden, it was the last
bell Cacchioli ever heard, as he never worked another day for the FDNY after 9/11.Although it was like someone ripped his heart out on January 4, 2002, when doctors told him due a pulmonary condition from the 9/11 contaminants he’d never work as a fireman again, Cacchioli somehow still finds the strength to recall what he calls the most horrifying day a man could ever imagine.

But back on 9/11, Cacchioli was in true form, headstrong and ready to take on the blaze like he’d done so many times before. Although he readily admits “none of the finest fireman in the world were prepared for 9/11,” he said never once did he think the buildings would topple, but at the same time, never did he think the fire could ever be contained.

When Co. 47 arrived with Cacchioli leading the way as the senior member of the crew, the second plane had already hit the south tower and they were told to head directly to the Marriot Hotel
across from the WTC, since a fire was blazing from debris falling from the towers. Cacchioli recalls hearing radio reports of “people jumping” and when he got closer to the Marriot, the reports turned into reality.

“I looked up and there were about 6 to 10 people flying through the air coming down right on us,” said Cacchioli. “It was horrible when they hit the ground, something you had to turn your eyes away from. One of the jumpers landed directly on fireman Danny Sur, killing him on the spot. I remember saying, ‘Oh my God, what are we getting into?’”

Cacchioli then recalls entering the Marriot, trying to lead “the kids” as he called them, adding that words could not describe the screaming and chaos within.

“There was debris flying everywhere and it was just mass chaos,” said Cacchioli. “At that point, orders were changing fast and furious and our company was directed to lend assistance in the north tower."

CACCHIOLI AND CREW ENTER NORTH TOWER AND GO UP TO 24TH FLOOR

Although the Marriot was a bad scene, the north tower looked like a war zone. When he entered
the lobby, Cacchioli recalls elevator doors completely blown out and another scene of mass chaos with people running, screaming and being hit with debris.

“I remember thinking to myself, my God, how could this be happening so quickly if a plane hit way above. It didn’t make sense,” said Cacchioli.

At that point, Cacchioli found one of the only functioning elevators, one only going as high as the 24th floor, a twist of fate that probably saved his life. “Looking back if it was one of the elevators that went higher, I wouldn’t be here talking today,” added Cacchioli.

As he made his way up along with men from Engine Co. 21, 22 and Ladder Co. 13, the doors opened on the 24th floor, a scene again that hardly made sense to the seasoned fireman, claiming
the heavy dust and haze of smoke he encountered was unusual considering the location of the strike.

“Tommy Hedsal was with me and everybody else also gets out of the elevator when it stops on the 24th floor,” said Cacchioli, “There was a huge amount of smoke. Tommy and I had to go back down the elevator for tools and no sooner did the elevators close behind us, we heard this huge explosion that sounded like a bomb. It was such a loud noise, it knocked off the lights and stalled
the elevator. “Luckily, we weren’t caught between floors and were able to pry open the doors. People were going crazy, yelling and screaming. And all the time, I am crawling low and making my way in the dark with a flashlight to the staircase and thinking Tommy is right behind me.

“I somehow got into the stairwell and there were more people there. When I began to try and
direct down, another huge explosion like the first one hits. This one hits about two minutes later, although it’s hard to tell, but I’m thinking, ‘Oh. My God, these bastards put bombs in here like they did in 1993!’ But still it never crossed my mind the building was going to collapse. I really only had two things on my mind and that was getting people out and saving lives. That’s what I was trained for
and that’s what I was going to do. I remember at that point in the stairwell between the 23rd and 24th floor, I threw myself down on the steps because of the smoke. It was pitch black, I had my mask on and I was crawling down the steps until I found the door on the 23rd floor.”

When Cacchioli entered the 23rd floor, he found a “little man” holding a handkerchief in front
of his face and hiding under the standpipes on the wall, used for pumping water on the floor in case of fire. Leading the man by the arm, he then ran into a group down the hall of about 35 to 40
people, finding his way down the 23rd floor stairwell and beginning their descent to safety.

“Then as soon as we get in the stairwell, I hear another huge explosion like the other two. Then I heard bang, bang, bang - huge bangs – and surmised later it was the floors pan caking on top
of one another. I knew we had to get out of there fast and on the 12th floor a man even jumped on my back because he thought he couldn’t make it any farther. Everybody was shocked and dazed and it was a miracle all of us got this far.”

When the group led by Cacchioli finally made it to the lobby level, he was unable to open the
door at first, the concussion of the explosions or perhaps the south tower falling, jamming the lobby door. Finally jarring it loose, the group entered the lobby finding total devastation with windows blown out and marble falling form the walls, but strangely no people. At that point, it was either left or right to an exit, Cacchioli, the man he originally found by the standpipes and another lady going right while the others went left, a move which by the grace of God saved his life.

“It seemed like every move I made that morning was the right move,” said Cacchioli. “I should have been killed at least five times. The people that went left didn’t make it out, but we came out alive on West Street.”

OUTSIDE AND APPARENTLY OUT OF HARMS WAY

After making sure the two civilians were attended to, Cacchioli went to his fire truck finding Lance, the driver, who was attending to the truck and waiting for the crew to return.

Looking up at the north tower directly above, Cacchioli recalls not having the slightest idea when he exited that the south tower had already collapsed. He also remembers wondering about the fate of his crew members, the driver telling him two were missing and two others injured and already taken to the hospital.

“Next thing, we look up and see the tower collapsing. We saw it starting to come down fast, Lance running towards the water to safety and I headed down West Side Highway.” Cacchioli said he remembers looking back at the north tower antenna falling, at the same time trying to stay ahead of the huge ball of black smoke gaining ground. He then threw of his mask to make himself lighter, a move that allowed him to run faster and perhaps save his life, while eventually having to throw
himself on the ground from the heavy sawdust-like air mixed with glass that was choking him to death and taking away his vision. Landing in debris, he luckily fell by the wheels of another fire truck, another twist of fate that may have saved his life, where he then managed to find a compressed air breathing mask. He then passed out and recalls waking up some time later after another fireman pulled him to safety.

“I don’t really know how much time passed, but once I felt better, I quickly went back to look for my friends and stayed till I couldn’t walk anymore,” said Cacchioli, who began crying when he talked about his close friend. “They finally found Tommy’s body in the debris about 10 days later. I went back to Ground Zero every day for a long time, going AWOL, until I finally went to a doctor and was put on medical leave. “They were very good about it. Everybody understood. It got to the point I couldn’t breadth anymore and I lost a lot of vision due to the broken glass getting into my eyes. Finally, the doctors told me in January 2002, I couldn’t work and I remember feeling devastated like my whole world was coming to an end.

“I couldn’t tell this story for the longest time and I have to admit it is still difficult.”

THE 2004 9/11 COMMISSION HEARINGS: WHAT A WAY TO TREAT A HERO!

Cacchioli was called to testify privately, but walked out on several members of the committee before they finished, feeling like he was being interrogated and cross-examined rather than simply allowed to tell the truth about what occurred in the north tower on 9/11.

“My story was never mentioned in the final report and I felt like I was being put on trial in a court room,” said Cacchioli. “I finally walked out. They were trying to twist my words and make the story fit only what they wanted to hear. All I wanted to do was tell the truth and when they wouldn’t let me do that, I walked out.

“It was a disgrace to everyone, the victims and the family members who lost loved ones. I don’t agree with the 9/11 Commission. The whole experience was terrible.”

HIS LIFE NOW

Cacchioli spends a majority of his spare time hanging around the firehouse, trying to stay in touch with the department he loves and trying to lend a hand to some of the younger kids in the department.

“I talk to the kids and I want to make sure they are keeping up to snuff so they’re ready if something happens,” said Cacchioli, who also plays softball in the FDNY league, something he regularly did when he was on active duty. “I don’t want to lose this connection because the fire department is a part of who I am and who I always will be.”

Asked if he ever was pressured to keep quiet about his 9/11 experience, he added:

“Nobody has bothered me. I don’t think I should be bothered. I know what happened that day and I know the whole truth hasn’t come out yet. I have my own conscience, my own mind and no one, I mean no one, is going to force Lou Cacchioli to say something that didn’t happen and wasn’t the truth.”

Gullible Americans  

By Paul Craig Roberts  
Information Clearing House
08/14/06
  

I was in China when a July Harris Poll reported that 50 percent of Americans still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when Bush invaded that country, and that 64 percent of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein had strong links with Al Qaeda. 

The Chinese leaders and intellectuals with whom I was meeting were incredulous. How could a majority of the population in an allegedly free country with an allegedly free press be so totally misinformed?  

The only answer I could give the Chinese is that Americans would have been the perfect population for Mao and the Gang of Four, because Americans believe anything their government tells them.

Americans never check any facts.  Who do you know, for example, who has even read the Report of the 9/11 Commission, much less checked the alleged facts reported in that document.  I can answer for you.  You don’t know anyone who has read the report or checked the facts.  

The two co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission Report, Thomas Kean
and Lee Hamilton, have just released a new book, “Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission.”  Kean and Hamilton reveal that the commission suppressed the fact that Muslim ire toward the US is due to US support for Israel’s persecution and dispossession of the Palestinians, not to our “freedom and democracy” as Bush propagandistically claims.  Kean and Hamilton also reveal that the US military committed perjury and lied about its failure to intercept the hijacked airliners.  The commission even debated referring the military’s lies to the Justice Department for criminal investigation.  Why should we assume that these admissions are the only coverups and lies in the 9/11 Commission Report?

How do you know that 9/11 was a Muslim terrorist plot?  How do you know that THREE World Trade Center buildings collapsed because TWO were hit by airliners?  You only “know” because the government gave you the explanation of what you saw on TV. (Did you even know that three WTC buildings collapsed?)

I still remember the enlightenment I experienced as a student in Russian Studies when I learned that the Czarist secret police would set off bombs and then blame those whom they wanted to arrest.

When Hitler seized dictatorial power in 1933, he told the Germans that his new powers were made necessary by a communist terrorist attack
on the Reichstag.  When Hitler started World War II by invading Poland, he told the Germans that Poland had crossed the frontier and attacked Germany.

Governments lie all the time--especially governments staffed by neoconservatives whose intellectual godfather, Leo Strauss, taught them that it is permissible to deceive the public in order to achieve their agenda.  

Some readers will write to me to say that they saw a TV documentary or read a magazine article verifying the government’s explanation of 9/11. But, of course, these Americans did not check the facts either--and neither did the people who made the documentary and wrote the magazine article.  

Scientists and engineers, such as Clemson University Professor of Engineering Dr. Judy Woods and BYU Professor of Physics Dr. Steven Jones, have raised compelling questions about the official account of the collapse of the three WTC buildings.  The basic problem for the government's account is that the buildings are known to have fallen at freefall speed, a fact that is inconsistent with the government's "pancaking" theory in which debris from above collapsed the floors below.  If the buildings actually "pancaked," then each floor below
would have offered resistance to the floors above, and the elapsed time would have been much longer.  These experts have also calculated that the buildings did not have sufficient gravitational energy to accommodate  the government's theory of the collapse.  It is certainly a known and non-controversial fact among physicists and engineers that the only way buildings can collapse at freefall speed into their own footprints is by engineered demolition.  Explosives are used to remove the support of floors below before the debris from above arrives. Otherwise, resistance is encountered and the time required for fall increases.  Engineered demolition also explains the symmetrical collapse of the buildings into their own foot prints. As it is otherwise improbable for every point in floors below to weaken uniformly, "pancaking" would result in asymmetrical collapse as some elements of the floor would give sooner than others.
 
Scientific evidence is a tough thing for the American public to handle, and the government knows it.  The government can rely on people dismissing things that they cannot understand as "conspiracy theory."  But if you are inclined to try to make up your own mind, you can find Dr. Jones' and Dr. Woods’ papers, which have been formally presented to their peers at scientific meetings, on line at  http://www.st911.org/
 
Experts have also pointed out that the buildings' massive steel skeletons comprised a massive heat sink that wicked away the heat from the limited, short-lived fires, thus preventing a heat buildup.  Experts also point out that the short-lived, scattered, low-intensity fires could barely reach half the melting point of steel even if they burned all day instead of merely an hour. 
 
Don't ask me to tell you what happened on 9/11.  All I know is that the official account of the buildings' collapse is improbable.
 
Now we are being told another improbable tale. Muslim terrorists in London and Pakistan were caught plotting to commit mass murder by smuggling bottles of explosive liquids on board airliners in hand luggage. Baby formula, shampoo and water bottles allegedly contained the tools of suicide bombers.  

How do we know about this plot?  Well, the police learned it from an “Islamic militant arrested near the Afghan-Pakistan border several weeks ago.”  And how did someone so far away know what British-born people in London were plotting?

Do you really believe that Western and Israeli intelligence services, which were too incompetent to prevent the 9/11 attack, can uncover a London plot by capturing a person on the Afghan border in Pakistan? Why would “an Islamic militant” rat on such a plot even if he knew
of it?
 
More probable explanations of the “plot” are readily available. 
According to the August 11 Wayne Madsen Report, informed sources in the UK report that “the Tony Blair government, under siege by a Labor Party revolt, cleverly cooked up a new ‘terror’ scare to avert the public’s eyes away from Blair’s increasing political woes.  British law enforcement, neocon and intelligence operatives in the US, Israel, and Britain, and Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire cooked up the terrorist plot, liberally borrowing from the failed 1995 ‘Oplan Bjinka’ plot by Pakistan-  and Philippines-based terrorist Ramzi Ahmad Yousef to crash 11 trans-Pacific airliners bound from Asia to the US.” 

There are other plausible explanations.  For example, our puppet in Pakistan decided to arrest some people who were a threat to him.  With Bush’s commitment to “building democracy in the Middle East,” our puppet can’t arrest his political enemies without cause, so he lays the blame on a plot.

Any testimony against Muslim plotters by “an Islamic militant” is certain to have been bought and paid for.

Or consider this explanation. Under the Nuremberg standard, Bush and Blair are war criminals.  Bush is so worried that he will be held accountable that he has sent his attorney general to consult with the Republican Congress to work out legislation to protect Bush retroactively from his violations of the Geneva Conventions.

Tony Blair is in more danger of finding himself in the dock.  Britain is signatory to a treaty that, if justice is done, will place Blair before the International Criminal Court in the Hague. 

What better justification for the two war criminals’ illegal actions than the need to foil dastardly plots by Muslims recruited in sting operations by Western intelligence services? The more Bush and Blair can convince their publics that terrorist danger abounds, the less likely Bush and Blair are ever to be held accountable for their crimes.
  
But surely, some readers might object, our great moral leaders wouldn’t do something political like that!  

They most certainly would.  As Joshua Micah Marshall wrote in the July 7 issue of Time magazine, the suspicion is “quite reasonable” that “the Bush Administration orchestrates its terror alerts and arrests to goose the GOP’s poll numbers.” 

Joshua Micah Marshall proves his conclusion by examining the barrage of color-coded terror alerts, none of which were real, and, yes, it all fits with political needs.  

And don’t forget the plot unearthed in Miami to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. Described by Vice President Cheney as a “very real threat,” the plot turned out to be nothing more than a few harmless whackos recruited by an FBI agent sent out to organize a sting.  

There was also the “foiled plot” to blow up the Holland Tunnel and flood downtown New York City with sea water.  Thinking New Orleans, the FBI invented this plot without realizing that New York City is above sea level.  Of course, most Americans didn’t realize it either. 

For six years the Bush regime has been able to count on the ignorant and naive American public to believe whatever tale that is told them.  American gullibility has yet to fail the Bush regime.

The government has an endless number of conspiracy theories, but only people who question the government’s conspiracies are derided for “having a conspiracy theory.”

The implication is even worse if we assume that the explosive bottle plot is genuine.  It means that America and Britain by their own aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by enabling Israel’s war crimes in Palestine and Lebanon, have created such hatred that Muslims, who identify with Bush’s, Blair’s, and Israel’s victims, are plotting retaliation.  

But Bush is prepared.  He has taught his untutored public that “they hate us for our freedom and democracy.”

Gentle reader, wise up. The entire world is laughing at you.

Who is Paul Craig Roberts?
Dr. Roberts was educated at the Georgia Institute of Technology (B.S.), the University of Virginia (Ph.D.), the University of California at Berkeley and Oxford University where he was a member of Merton College.

He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, The Dictionary of International Biography, Outstanding People of the Twentieth Century, and 1000 Leaders of World Influence.

• Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under Ronald Reagan (awarded the Treasury Department’s Meritorious Service Award for "his outstanding contributions to the formulation of United States economic policy.")
• Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute.
• Former editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal and columnist for Business Week and the Scripps Howard News Service
• Held the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (1982 –1993)
• Distinguished Fellow at the Cato Institute from 1993 to 1996
• Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy
• Nationally syndicated columnist for Investor’s Business Daily
• Winner of the 1992 Warren Brookes Award for Excellence in Journalism
• Ranked “One of the top seven journalists” by the Forbes Media Guide (1993)
• Author of, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, and Marx’s Theory of Exchange, Alienation and Crisis