News
Opinion
ENLARGE
It's eight years later, and hardly a week goes by without 9/11 and the subsequent “War on Terror” being used to justify a policy, law or expense. We've seen, among other things, an increase of executive powers; a doctrine of “preventative war” that has resulted in unprovoked and disastrous conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan; the Patriot Act erosion of civil liberties such as right to a jury trial, privacy, freedom of movement and protest; and the financial burden of an expanded military budget.
All these changes have occurred in response to a crime the commission of which no one, not even Osama bin Laden, has been formally accused. Not only do we not know who committed the crime, even the event itself — the spectacular demolition of three skyscrapers, the undefended attack on the Pentagon, and the destruction of thousands of lives — remains shrouded in controversy and mystery.
Though there's very little concrete evidence to support the official 9/11 Commission's assertions about the events of that tragic day, most citizens are resigned to the idea that they may never know what really happened. But others of our fellow citizens, who possess specialized knowledge about planes, building construction, physics and other disciplines related to the events of 9/11, aren't giving up so easily. They've formed Internet-based associations to share their research, insights and questions with each other and with the public. Scholars For 9/11 Truth and Justice (http://stj911.org), a group of over 800 professionals and college professors, Pilots for 9/11 Truth (http://pilotsfor911truth.org), with 100+ commercial and private pilots, and Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth (http://www.ae911truth.org), consisting of 745 architects and engineers, are three such groups that are continuing to do their own research.
It's hard to dismiss the efforts of these investigators with the term “conspiracy theory,” an epithet better reserved for the ungrounded speculations of armchair detectives. These hundreds of professionals avoid empty conjecture; they want their efforts to be taken seriously. An example is Steven E. Jones, a retired physics professor and a founding member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, who has worked with eight chemists to identify traces of active “super-thermite” (highly engineered explosive material) in the dust of the collapsed World Trade Center buildings. They published their research, “Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe” in the peer-reviewed Open Chemical Physics Journal in April of this year. The presence of super-thermite constitutes proof that explosives were involved in the collapse of the three WTC buildings, and this fact blows the 9/11 Commission Report to smithereens. Jones' momentous findings have been ignored by the U.S. government and the mainstream media.
We are all aware of the dysfunction of families that avoid facing and discussing events that are causing problems. Maybe Mom drinks and no one talks about it. Or Dad abuses the kids and no one talks about it. In any case, the members of such dysfunctional families lose their ability to trust one another or communicate productively, and the family unit tends to disintegrate. Our wider social family is experiencing a similar problem, with 9/11 being the event that we're collectively sweeping under the rug even while we're letting it continue to drive our collective political and financial actions. Will a fatal loss of trust and a further breakdown of honest communication be the result? What will become of our nation if these problems continue to worsen?
I don't believe it's too late to turn this dysfunctional situation around. But to do so, we must set aside our fears and political agendas and take a clear-eyed look at the information being offered for our consideration on the above-listed Web sites. Alternatively, you might consider reading one of premier 9/11 investigator David Ray Griffin's several books on the subject. His “The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions,” “Debunking 9/11 Debunking,” and “The New Pearl Harbor, Revisited” are all clear, well-written and objective. Once you've done your own homework, I hope you will add your voice to the call for a new, independent investigation of the events of 9/11.
Lorraine Jarvi is a recent transplant to Roseburg from the Rogue Valley and currently works as a substitute teacher in Douglas County Schools. She can be reached at bljarvi@charter.net.
All these changes have occurred in response to a crime the commission of which no one, not even Osama bin Laden, has been formally accused. Not only do we not know who committed the crime, even the event itself — the spectacular demolition of three skyscrapers, the undefended attack on the Pentagon, and the destruction of thousands of lives — remains shrouded in controversy and mystery.
Though there's very little concrete evidence to support the official 9/11 Commission's assertions about the events of that tragic day, most citizens are resigned to the idea that they may never know what really happened. But others of our fellow citizens, who possess specialized knowledge about planes, building construction, physics and other disciplines related to the events of 9/11, aren't giving up so easily. They've formed Internet-based associations to share their research, insights and questions with each other and with the public. Scholars For 9/11 Truth and Justice (http://stj911.org), a group of over 800 professionals and college professors, Pilots for 9/11 Truth (http://pilotsfor911truth.org), with 100+ commercial and private pilots, and Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth (http://www.ae911truth.org), consisting of 745 architects and engineers, are three such groups that are continuing to do their own research.
It's hard to dismiss the efforts of these investigators with the term “conspiracy theory,” an epithet better reserved for the ungrounded speculations of armchair detectives. These hundreds of professionals avoid empty conjecture; they want their efforts to be taken seriously. An example is Steven E. Jones, a retired physics professor and a founding member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, who has worked with eight chemists to identify traces of active “super-thermite” (highly engineered explosive material) in the dust of the collapsed World Trade Center buildings. They published their research, “Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe” in the peer-reviewed Open Chemical Physics Journal in April of this year. The presence of super-thermite constitutes proof that explosives were involved in the collapse of the three WTC buildings, and this fact blows the 9/11 Commission Report to smithereens. Jones' momentous findings have been ignored by the U.S. government and the mainstream media.
We are all aware of the dysfunction of families that avoid facing and discussing events that are causing problems. Maybe Mom drinks and no one talks about it. Or Dad abuses the kids and no one talks about it. In any case, the members of such dysfunctional families lose their ability to trust one another or communicate productively, and the family unit tends to disintegrate. Our wider social family is experiencing a similar problem, with 9/11 being the event that we're collectively sweeping under the rug even while we're letting it continue to drive our collective political and financial actions. Will a fatal loss of trust and a further breakdown of honest communication be the result? What will become of our nation if these problems continue to worsen?
I don't believe it's too late to turn this dysfunctional situation around. But to do so, we must set aside our fears and political agendas and take a clear-eyed look at the information being offered for our consideration on the above-listed Web sites. Alternatively, you might consider reading one of premier 9/11 investigator David Ray Griffin's several books on the subject. His “The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions,” “Debunking 9/11 Debunking,” and “The New Pearl Harbor, Revisited” are all clear, well-written and objective. Once you've done your own homework, I hope you will add your voice to the call for a new, independent investigation of the events of 9/11.
Lorraine Jarvi is a recent transplant to Roseburg from the Rogue Valley and currently works as a substitute teacher in Douglas County Schools. She can be reached at bljarvi@charter.net.
