On June 6, 2002, Congress began holding hearings on what alleged
mistakes the Federal Bureau of Investigation might have made in
preventing the 9/11 tragedies. The press had a field day, turning over
and over its fifth estate examination of who or what agency could be
responsible for the awful assault against America. Setting culpability is
one of the psychological states that an individual or a country has to go
through after a trauma is experienced.
The Dots
We were not surprised to soon see that Senator Arlen "Magic
Bullet" Specter would be the one getting the first sound bite on the
evening news. Feathers ruffled, speaking to the nation's cameras and to
FBI director Robert Mueller, Specter was broadcast saying: "It wasn't
just a matter of connecting the dots, there was a virtual blueprint."
"People talk a great deal about connecting the dots," said Rep.
Nancy Pelosi of California, ranking Democrat on the House committee.
She felt the intelligence agencies "didn't even see the dots, they didn't
understand the salience of the dots." Of course, we must ask, does
anyone in the mainstream media or government really "get it" at all?
The question must be asked, why isn1t anyone in the national media
talking about the seemingly subtle coincidences turning up in their
wall-to-wall public analysis of terrorism in America?
Americans have short-term memories. We can be excused. We1re
young. Our country lacks a legacy of understanding the complex
relationships of political intrigue and religious warfare, which might
assist us in these times. Is it any wonder that Europeans laughed at us
in the 1960s, when John F. Kennedy was killed, as conspiracy theories
were quieted? They took it for granted that the assassination involved
more than one person. The establishment press did not.
So, here we are, post-9/11, in the midst of al Qaeda's holy war,
allowing the mass media to play their same old games again, with a new
twist. It certainly is amusing to see the attack dogs of the mainstream
media, at least for a few days, critiquing the intelligence services for
"not connecting the dots." But wait a second, hasn't it been these same
news reporters who proudly asserted for years that its special brand of
investigative journalism figured out the deeper truths of the John F.
Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy assassinations, and, even, of the
Oklahoma City bombing? While all of these events might involve
groups of people, the underlying theme was, according to these same
journalists, that lone nuts were at the foundation of such things.
When in America will we understand that to employ the word
"conspiracy" in context is not a sin, but actually might be a survival
technique we need to learn? It might actually be of benefit if the general
public did not whole-heartedly take everything in from the media
without a bit more critical thinking along lines of analysis that may be
seen as too alternative, in former years.
The Padillas
Let us examine a couple of recent examples for what we were told,
and for what might lie beneath.
The Defense and Justice Departments picked June 11th to announce
that on May 8, 2002, in Chicago, the FBI arrested an al Qaeda terror
suspect as he stepped off a plane to begin what was reportedly a
scouting mission that would end with the detonating of a dirty bomb, an
explosive that would scatter radiation. The man known as Abdullah al
Muhajir was born Jose Padilla, in Brooklyn of Puerto Rican heritage,
thirty-one years ago. "Pucho," as his Logan Square neighbors called
him, because of his chubby cheeks, moved to Chicago at age 5. By the
time he was a teen, he allegedly told police he was a member of the
Latin Disciples street gang. When he was arrested, he often would use
aliases, at least seven of them, including Jose Alicea, Jose Ortiz and
Jose Rivera, and provide police with different dates of birth. Padilla
graduated from street crime on the West Side of Chicago to more
violent incidents in Florida, leading to some juvenile jail time where he
converted to Islam and chang ed his name. From there, the journey has
been as well publicized as the information allows. In 1997 Padilla's
mother, who had moved to Florida, called friends in Chicago to say that
her son had married a Muslim woman and "went over there, to the
Middle East, I don't know where," although reportedly, she gave out a
Cairo, Egypt address to one person. Padilla's mother also said her son
had joined a cult. Later, Abdullah al Muhajir left for training in al
Qaeda's operations in Pakistan, came back through Zurich, and tried to
get back in the USA at O1Hare. "Pucho," who still has "Jose" tattooed
on his right arm, waits his faith in a Navy brig in South Carolina.
What are we talking about here, an American patsy for a network of
individuals out to use bombs and assassinations to disrupt and defeat?
Have we heard of anything like such a crazy thing as this before?
Padilla? Where have we heard that name? We are not talking about
racial or ethnic profiling here, but of thoughtful stream of
consciousness associations, which may lead us to some underlying
themes. Let's see, Padilla, Padilla? Oh yes. It happens to be a last name
we heard during the Oklahoma City bombing investigations, one Lana
Padilla. She is the ex-wife of Terry Nichols, convicted of being
involved in the Murrah Federal Building bombing of April 19, 1995.
That two Padillas are in some way tied up in plots to bomb American
buildings, of course, is just a coincidence, right? It is merely a
coincidence, nothing more, correct? Indeed, it would be intellectual
foolishness to assume that the two Padillas are even closely related. But
what it does provide is a process of stimulating logical and creative
pathways to explore possibilities that lie outside the box, perhaps
allowing for some insights into real-time terrorist conspiracies.
Just for the heck of it, let's see where the leap from Jose to Lana
leads us.
After the Oklahoma City bombing, Lana Padilla, lately of Las Vegas
but with relatives and links to Michigan, became an important
government witness in the case against Terry Nichols. In 1997, Padilla
testified during Nichols1 trial of the mysterious letter and several items
in a sealed brown paper bag that Nichols left with her, the mother of his
son, when he departed for the Philippines, November 22, 1994. She
was only to open the bag if Nichols did not return to the United States
by January 25, 1995. Due to scary things Nichols said at the airport
about never coming back, Padilla decided the next day to open the
package, and a second envelope marked for Jennifer McVeigh, the
sister of Timothy McVeigh. What she found in the packages included
instructions on how to find ,000 in 0 bills, a life insurance
policy, some keys, emergency numbers, and a list of precious metals
(gold, silver and jade that were apparently taken in a robbery to finance
the bombing, according to prosecutors). In the envelope addressed to
Jennifer McVeigh, Padilla found a second letter addressed to Tim,
instructing him to clear out two storage sheds that the government said
contained ingredients for the bomb.
But what was Nichols doing in the Philippines? Jim Keith, in his
oft-overlooked book, OKBomb! Conspiracy and Cover-up (IllumiNet,
1996), discusses the suspicions that Terry Nichols "was used as a
go-between in the Oklahoma City bombing plot by the Abu Sayyaf,
implicated in the World Trade Center bombing, which took place on
February 26, 1993." Of course, the similarities to the 1995 Oklahoma
City bombing and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing are striking,
as to even involve the rental of Ryder trucks. Abu Sayyaf is the group
that kidnapped the Burnhams, of course, and are said to be part of the
worldwide al Qaeda network. Could the late Jim Keith be right? Why
has the mainstream media ignored the clues in Keith's book? Is it
because Keith was a conspiracy author and "conspiracy," the word, the
thought, the idea is still a taboo subject, on many levels, to the
mainstream media? But Keith's thoughts now stimulate good questions
in 2002.
Doesn't Terry Nichols sound, in many ways, like Jose
Padilla/Abdullah al Muhajir, an American doing the advance work of al
Qaeda, on the home front? What was Nichols doing in the Philippines?
Why did Nichols take twenty lengthy trips to the Philippines? New
York City's 1993 WTC bombing certainly had a Philippines
connection, the Pakistani Ramzi Ahmed Yousef. Yousef, the alleged
mastermind behind the first WTC bombing, who is quoted as saying
after the failed 1993 attempt that they would do it right the second time,
was also the brains behind the elaborate Bonjinka, translated as "the
explosion." This was a plot to place bombs on 11 American jetliners
and have them all explode on the same day, over the Pacific Ocean.
Yousef carried out a test run for Bonjinka by having a bomb detonate
on Philippines Airlines Flight 434, on December 11, 1994. One tourist
was killed, ten injured. Yousef called the Associated Press after this
bombing, to give credit to Abu Sayyaf. Looking at it, there sure are an
awful lot of 11s in Bonjinka.
"Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is enemy
action." Old soldier1s adage.
Bisharas
As a second example to peruse, let's look at the seemingly simple
act of a copycat suicide victim, Charles Bishop. On January 6, 2002,
Bishop, a 15-year-old youth crashed the Cessna plane he had stolen
earlier in the day, into Tampa, Florida's 42 story Bank of America
building, clearly modeling his action on the September 11th terrorists'
suicide plane crashes. Bishop left a suicide note behind, which most of
the media merely mentioned as admiring Osama bin Laden. On
February 6, Tampa authorities released actual copies of the note. Here
is the transcription of what Bishop wrote:
I have prepared this statement in regards to the acts I am about to
commit. First of all, Osama bin Laden is absolutely justified in the
terror he has caused on 9-11. He has brought a mighty nation to its
knees! God blesses him and the others who helped make September
11th happen. The U.S. will have to face the consequences for its
horrific actions against the Palestinian people and Iraqis by its allegiance
with the monstrous Israelis--who want nothing short of world
domination!
You will pay--God help you--and I will make you pay!
There will be more coming!
Al Qaeda and other organizations have met with me several times to
discuss the option of me joining. I didn't.
This is an operation done by me only. I had no other help,
although, I am acting on their behalf.
Osama bin Laden is planning on blowing up the Super Bowl with
an antiquated nuclear bomb left over from the 1967 Israeli-Syrian war.
Don't look in Time or Newsweek for this; it1s not there. You will
only find the likes of the actual note at such sites as The Smoking Gun:
So, is this the rages of an acne-cream poisoned boy (as his mother
is now suing the company that produced the medicines her son was
taking) or something deeper?
The name, the name. Start there. A few newspapers quickly
mentioned, and darted away from the fact that Charles Bishop's "family
name" is Bishara. Apparently his mother did not like the Arab-sounding
name during the Gulf War, and changed it to Bishop. It turns out the
teenager's father is Charles J. Bishara, half-Sicilian, half-Syrian, who
is described as a low-level crime figure in the Boston area, with a
penthouse condominium at the new Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples,
Florida. The elder Bishara traces his roots back to the Arab Christian
clans of Lebanon.
Bishara, Bishara? Where have we heard that name before? Oh yes,
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. This has been going on for a long time. Sirhan
Sirhan, of course, is the convicted assassin of Robert F. Kennedy. On
June 5, 1968, Sirhan, who is generally described in quick history
datelines as a "Jordanian Arab", shot RFK in the Hotel Ambassador in
Los Angeles. RFK died the following day, but the day he was shot was
the first anniversary of the date that The Six Day War between Israel
and Egypt began in 1967. A "Jordanian," humm? Let1s see. Yes,
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was born March 19, 1944, in Jerusalem,
Palestine, the fifth son of Bishara and Mary (Muzher). The family
practiced Jordanian Christianity, but belonged to the Arab-based society
in the divided region. When Sirhan was 12, in 1956, his family
obtained U.S. visas as Palestinian refugees, and they moved first
briefly to New York City, and then to California.
Much has been written, if you look in the right places, of the
"Manchurian Candidate" sense that some investigators see in Sirhan
Bishara Sirhan's actions before and during the RFK assassination. Are
we seeing more Manchurian Candidates in Charles Bishara Bishop,
Jose Padilla, shoe-bomber Robert Reid, and others that are flashes on
the television screen? Or like Frank Eugene Corder who is credited with
crashing his Cessna into the White House at 2300 hrs on September 11
1994? Interesting choice of a date. See Joe Vialls's discussion of this
forgotten September 11th event, at: Roboplanes.
Take that other recent copycat plane suicide on April 18, 2002, as
another example. On that day, a man apparently acting deliberately flew
at top speed into Milan's tallest skyscraper, hitting the 25th and 26th
floors of the 30-story Pirelli Tower, a government building. (It
probably is just a coincidence that Charles Bishara Bishop's plane hit
almost at the same height, the 28th and 29th floors of the 42 story BoA
building.) Italian Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi and Roberto
Formigoni, the president of the region of Lombardy, both said they
were convinced that Luigi Fasulo, the pilot of his powerful Rockwell
Commander 112TC, had purposely committed suicide, and it was not
an accident. While one official would later rule that this was not another
copycat airplane-tower suicide, Fasulo's son and others still felt it was a
suicidal act. Milan has been spoken of as the seat of al Qaeda
connections in Italy.
Looking Outside the Box
Who should be connecting the dots? Should it be alternative
websites and conspiracy authors or the mainstream media and
intelligence services? We speculate that it is about time that everyone
engages in this sport because the narrow-minded approach is missing
too many of the dots, let along not connecting them. Explore the
questions that seemed too radical to even believe a mere year ago. What
is happening with Americans made into soldiers of a holy war named
Padilla and Bishara? How many other prison converts like Chicago
gang-member Jose Padilla turned al-Qaeda terrorist or militia patsies
have links to such diverse incidents as the Oklahoma City bombing?
Why isn't there more talk about Terry Nichols' Filipino trips, allegedly
to visit the al-Qaeda linked kidnapping group that got caught in the
crossfire ending in Martin Burnham's death? What is the affection for
so many 11s by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef? And what about teenager
Charles Bishop who left a note of praise for Osma n bin Laden, and
crashed a stolen plane into Tampa's 42 story Bank of America building?
Why such neglect in discussing the fact Bishop's real name was
Bishara, which just happens to be the middle name of Sirhan Bishara
Sirhan, America's first Palestinian Manchurian candidate assassin?
If ever there was a time to think outside the box, it's now.
