November 29, 2004

Michael Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon:

The 9/11 Attack Chronological Order of Events

1956

M. King Hubbert first plots the oil depletion curve, successfully predicting (within 12 months) the 1970 U.S. domestic oil production peak (pp. 28 and 565).

1970

U.S. domestic oil production peaks (p. 28).

1973

The Nixon administration faces the first massive oil price shocks induced by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) (p. 82).

1979

Per capita world oil production peaks (p. 37).

1991

12/91: The Soviet Union collapses (p. 87).

1992

At the request of then Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, the Pentagon completes its document, ADefense Planning Guidance.@ A draft of this document would become the basis for the report ARebuilding America=s Defenses,@ issued in September 2000 by the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) (p. 530).

1996

09/96: The Taliban establishes control over Kabul and then much of Afghanistan (p. 95).

1997

Zbigniew Brzezinski (National Security Adviser to former President Jimmy Carter) publishes his book, The Grand Chessboard B America=s Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives. He writes:

AThe Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to contain reserves of natural gas and oil.... America... may find it... difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat@ (pp. 32 and 40).

1998

12/98: Al-Qaeda bombs the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The U.S. gives up on building a pipeline through Afghanistan (p. 97).

1999

11/99: In a speech to the London Institute of Petroleum (the lobby arm of the energy companies), Dick Cheney, then chairman of Halliburton, warns:

AThere will be an average of two percent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead, along with, conservatively, a three percent natural decline in production from existing reserves.... Energy is truly fundamental to the world=s economy. The Gulf War was a reflection of that reality....@ (pp. 47-48).

2000

03/00: FBI agents in the Denver bin Laden unit are Afurious@ after other agents in their unit and agents in the International Terrorism Operations Center, destroy significant quantities of e-mail intercepts (received under authorization of a warrant) in a case connected to al Qaeda (pp. 214-215).

09/00: The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) publishes a report, ARebuilding America=s Defenses.@ Members of the group include Dick Cheney. The report notes:

AThe U.S. has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.@

The crux of the report advocates improving America=s military so that it will be

Aable to rapidly deploy and win multiple simultaneous large-scale wars@

(pp. 42, 101 and 529-530).

10/24: The U.S. army practices the Pentagon Mass Casualty Exercise, a contingency drill rehearsing a mock terrorist incident in which a passenger plane crashes into the Pentagon (p. 10).

2001

01/01: A leaked classified FBI national security report shows that very soon afer taking office, President Bush acts to prevent an FBI investigation into two of Osama bin Laden=s brothers, Abdullah and Omar, living in a suburb of D.C., near CIA headquarters. The subject of the investigation is the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a charity which has been documented repeatedly as having funneled money to terrorists. Pakistan, India and the Philippines consider WAMY a terrorist organization (pp. 147-148 and 203-204).

04/01: The Council on Foreign Relations, (CFR), with James Baker (Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush), publishes a detailed study of world energy problems:

AThe world is currently precariously close to utilizing all of its available global oil production capacity.... Oil price spikes... have always been followed by a recession@ (p. 31).

05/01: 1. The National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG), convened by Vice-president Cheney immediately upon taking office, publishes its final report, hinting at the pending oil crisis:

AOn our present course, America 20 years from now, will import nearly two of every three barrels of oil B a condition of increased dependency on foreign powers that do not always have America=s interests at heart@ (pp. 32, 42 and 98).

2. On May 8, President Bush issues a directive directing Vice-president Dick Cheney to coordinate the development of U.S. government initiatives to combat terrorist attacks on the United States, and directing Joe Allbaugh, Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to create an Office of National Preparedness (ONP) to be overseen by Cheney (pp. 333 and 412-413).

3. Zalmay Khalilzad, who has worked for the oil company Unocal, is appointed Special Assistant to the President on the National Security Council (p. 98).

06/01: 1. On June 1, the Joint Chiefs of staff lay out new intercept protocols for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), based in Colorado Springs, CO. The new policy centralizes decision-making authority away from field commanders (pp. 335, 337 and 441).

2. On June 9, FBI agent Robert Wright Jr., based in Chicago [home of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), where a great deal of 9/11-related insider trading would take place], writes a memorandum accusing the FBI of Aintentionally and repeatedly thwarting and obstructing@ his attempts to expand his investigation into terrorist money laundering in the U.S. (pp. 204-205).

3. John O=Neill, head of the FBI=s counter-terrorism branch in Washington, D.C., privately comments:

AThe main obstacles to the investigation of Islamic terrorism are U.S. oil corporate interests and the role played by Saudi Arabia in [this terrorism]@ (pp. 99 and 426).

4. During the summer, Lieutenant General Mahmoud Ahmad, Chief of Pakistan=s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and, according to the FBI, the hijackers= high commander, transfers $100,000 to 9/11 ringleader, Mohamed Atta (p. 118).

5. Under the Taliban, Afghanistan=s harvest of opium (the raw material for heroin) is 180 tons B a 94 percent drop from previous annual harvests of 3,276 tons (pp. 59, 68 and 107).

07/01: 1. On July 10, Kenneth Williams, FBI Senior Special Agent from a Phoenix terrorism task force, sends a memorandum to FBI headquarters alerting them that a number of Muslims, suspected of radical ties, are taking flight lessons in Arizona. (It is later confirmed that Hani Hanjour, one of the 9/11 hijackers, has received his flight training in Arizona). The memo mentions Osama bin Laden and warns that terrorists are possibly going to hijack aircraft or penetrate airport security. His request for a nationwide survey of aviation schools is denied (pp. 207 and 216-217).

2. On July 12, Osama bin Laden, then Awanted@ by the CIA, probably meets with CIA agent Larry Mitchell in the Dubai Hospital, United Arab Emirates (p. 147).

09/01: 1. On September 4, General Mahmoud Ahmad, Pakistani ISI chief, arrives in the U.S. (p. 118).

2. Between September 6 and 10, United Air Lines put options are 90 times the average level at which they are generally traded. On September 10, American Airlines put options are 60 times the average level at which they are generally traded. No similar trading occurs on any other airline. Insider trading or suspicious trades indicating possible 9/11 foreknowledge, are reported in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Belgium France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. Thirty-eight companies also have suspicious share trades (pp. 238 and 242).

3. On September 8, Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, an ISI agent and financial manager for Osama bin Laden, transfers money from the United Arab Emirates to Mohammad Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 attacks, who is in Florida. (Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, also known as Ahmad Umar Sheik, Omar Saeed Sheikh and Umar Sheik, is not to be confused with bin Laden=s brother-in-law with a similar name) (pp. 121-122 and 234).

4. On September 9:

a. A 27-page top secret plan for the invasion of Afghanistan is delivered to President Bush (p. 471).

b. Commander Massoud, leader of Afghanistan=s Northern Alliance is assassinated. The Alliance blames the al Qaeda/Taliban/ISI axis (pp. 113 and 118).

5. On September 10, Jerome Hauer, a Afriend@ of John O=Neill, who has helped O=Neill get the job as head of security for the World Trade Center (WTC), takes him for drinks until well after midnight. O=Neill dies the next day in the WTC attacks (pp. 423-424).

6. On September 11:

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Canadian Air Force, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and possibly the Pentagon are conducting four war game exercises B Vigilant Guardian, Vigilant Warrior, Northern Vigilance and Northern Guardian (pp. 336-340, 396-397 and 414).

In addition, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has plans for un unnamed exercise which it cancels upon realizing the events of the morning. NRO operates many of the nation=s spy satellites, draws its personnel from the military and the CIA, and is based in Chantilly, VA, four miles from the Washington-Dulles International Airport B the origin of Flight 77 which is the one that hit the Pentagon. The exercise is to be a simulated accident in which a jet crashes into one of the four towers of the agency headquarters (pp. 11 and 340-341).

These five exercises (a. and b. above), in some cases:

i Pull significant fighter resources away from the northeast U.S.

ii. Involve hijacked airliners.

iii. Involve Alive-fly@ exercise B actual aircraft simulating the behavior of real life hijacked airliners.

iv. Involve radar Ainserts@ B blips deliberately inserted onto FAA and military radar screens. At least during the first attack or attacks, such blips are present (pp. 333, 336-341, 407 and 411).

c. In addition to the five exercises above, the Justice Department and New York City and State authorities have a war game exercise, Tripod II, which focuses on a bio-warfare attack and is set up to take place on September 12, on New York=s Pier 92, about two miles from the World Trade Center. By September 11, the planned exercise has brought in hundreds of people from FEMA, the federal government, the state, the State Emergency Management Office and New York Mayor Giuliani=s Office of Emergency Management (OEM).

Note that:

The head of FEMA, Joe Allbaugh, reports directly to the Vice-president, and hence Dick Cheney would have been aware of the exercise.

The OEM headquarters are on the 23^rd floor of building No. 7 of the World Trade Center which later collapses without having been hit by anything.

The exercise places a Secret Service agent in New York=s OEM on September 11 B conveniently in Building No. 7, where the Secret Service has offices (pp. 403-405, 414, 417-418 and 432).

d. Around 8:20 or 8:25 a.m., Aphone bridges@ (continuously open communication links) are put in place providing real-time data and connecting every part of the National Command Authority B Air Force One, the White House, the Vice-president in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), the Pentagon, NORAD, the Department of Transportation, the FBI and the FAA. The Secret Service has a system that allows them to see what is on FAA=s radar system.

Vice-president Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and other key personnel make decisions in the underground Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) which has the latest in communication abilities. The ultimate decisions are made there, with the Secret Service acting as the nexus of essential 9/11 operational control under the command of Vice-president Dick Cheney (pp. 383-384 and 427-428).

In Florida, in front of cameras, President Bush cannot be accused of knowing and yet not acting, and cannot issue a shoot down order (p. 436)

e. During the attacks, General Mahmoud Ahmad is at a breakfast meeting at the Capitol with Senator Bob Graham (Democrat, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee) and Representative Porter Goss (Republican, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee) (p. 119).

f. At the request of their manager, shortly after the planes crash, six New York air traffic controllers who have just handled two of the hijacked flights, record on tape in a group setting, in their own words, what has transpired. Later (on May 6, 2002), Athe government,@ would announce that Asometime between December 2001 and February 2002, an unidentified Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) quality assurance manager crushed the cassette case in his hand, cut the tape into small pieces and threw them away in multiple trash cans.@ Referred the case by Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead, New York federal prosecutors decline to prosecute (pp. 369-370).

On September 13, during the national air ban, members of bin Laden=s family and important Saudis are flown on private charter planes to Texas from where they are flown out of the U.S. The orders possibly have come from the White House (p. 148).

10/01: 1. On October 7, the U.S.-led Afghanistan campaign begins (Hiro, p. 212).

2. On October 15, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle receives an anthrax letter and several members of his staff are exposed. By October 18, thirty-one senate staff members have tested positive for anthrax (pp. 269-270).

3. On October 24, the Patriot Act, which eviscerates the Constitution, is passed without debate (p. 270).

11/01: On November 16, Senator Pat Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, receives an anthrax letter. It is later revealed that all of the anthrax sent post-9/11 originated in CIA-run covert research programs within the United States (pp. 269-271).

12/01: Hamid Karzai, former consultant to Unocal and deputy foreign minister for the Taliban, takes power as prime minister of Afghanistan (p. 99).

2002

01/02: 1. In January, Daniel Pearl, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, is kidnaped in Pakistan. His body is found in May. In July, Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh is convicted of the murder. Pearl has apparently been investigating the ISI (pp. 121-122).

2. On January 29, CNN announces that both President Bush and Vice-president Cheney have asked Senator Daschle to limit any congressional investigations into the 9/11 attacks, arguing that they might take resources away from the war against terror (p. 270).

02/02: 1. The Government Accounting Office (GAO), the official investigative arm of Congress, files suit to see the NEPDG=s deliberations (pp. 42-43).

2. In February, Sibel Edmonds, hired on an emergency basis by the FBI after 9/11, accuses a co-worker of having contacts with targets of an FBI anti-terror investigation. In 2004, Edmunds would testify before the 9/11 Commission chaired by Governor Thomas Kean, that Athe FBI had detailed information prior to September 11, 2001, that a terrorist attack involving airplanes was being plotted@ (pp. 220-222).

05/02: 1. On May 21, Colleen Rowley, FBI Special Agent based in Minneapolis delivers a memorandum to FBI Director Robert Mueller, alleging that the FBI blocked the Minneapolis office from searching the so-called twentieth hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, in FBI custody on immigration charges since August 15, 2001. Specifically, the office was prevented from searching Moussaoui=s computer and personal effects, further documenting his foreign power connections, and questioning him after 9/11 (pp. 208-213).

On May 30, the prime minister of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, signs a memorandum of understanding on the trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline project, with the President of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, and the President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf (p. 100).

06/02: Afghanistan=s harvest of opium is 3,700 tons (p. 68).

09/02: On September 17, President Bush releases the document, AThe National Security Strategy of the United States.@ It states that the U.S. will:

Launch, without provocation, pre-emptive strikes anywhere it wishes and against any nation that might someday be a threat.

Create artificial terrorist activity where it wishes to deploy troops, with an avowed policy of lying to the world through unprecedented manipulation of the corporate media, with which it colludes (pp. 472-473).

10/02: On October 25, Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, a vocal critic of the Bush administration, dies in a suspicious airplane crash. There has been at least one prior attempt on Wellstone=s life (pp. 279-280 and 480).

11/02: By now, the Caspian basin is widely known to be much smaller than anticipated (9-13 billion barrels) and will not make any material difference to world supply (pp. 96 and 108).

2003

02/03: The GAO drops its suit to see the NEPDG=s records after the administration threatens heavy cuts to its budget. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club stand firm (p. 43).

04/03: The U.S. invades Iraq (p. 74).

06/03: Afghanistan=s harvest of opium is 4,000 tons (p. 68).

2004

10/04: As of October 2004, no one, either inside or outside the U.S. government, has been held accountable for anything. There has not been a single successful 9/11-related prosecution anywhere in the world (p. 449).

Conclusion

Together with other analyses listed under References, these data leave no doubt that 9/11 was planned and perpetrated as a covert operation of the U.S. government to consolidate its power and control over rapidly diminishing oil supplies.

References

All unspecified page numbers refer to:

Ruppert, Michael, Crossing the Rubicon B The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil (New Society, Gabriola Island, B.C., Canada), 2004.

Other reference in text (Hiro) and references on which the Conclusion is based:

Ahmed, Nafeez Mosaddeq, The War on Freedom, B How and Why America was Attacked September 11, 2001 (Tree of Life Publications, Joshua Tree, CA, Media Messenger/ Institute for Policy Research and Development, Brighton, East Sussex, UK), 2002.

Brisard, Jean-Charles and Guillaume Dasquie, Forbidden Truth B U.S. -Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin Laden (Thunder=s Mouth/Nation Books, New York, N.Y.), 2002.

Griffin, David, The New Pearl Harbor B Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11 (Olive Branch, Northampton, MA), 2004.

Hall, Francoise, A9/11 B Outsourced by the CIA,@ (Summary of Griffin=s The New Pearl Harbor), June 11 (21 pages).

Heinberg, Richard, The Party=s Over B Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies (New Society, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada), 2003.

Hiro, Dilip, Secrets and Lies: Operation AIraqi Freedom and After B A Prelude to the Fall of U.S. Power in the Middle East? (Nation Book, New York, N.Y.) 2004.

Hufschmid, Eric, Painful Questions B An Analysis of the September 11^th Attack (Endpoint Software, Goleta, CA), 2002.

Meyssan, Thierry, 9/11 B The Big Lie (Carnot, London, U.K.), 2002.

Meyssan, Thierry, Coordinator, Pentagate (Carnot, London, U.K.), 2002.

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