or those of you in the 80% majority who want to invade Afghanistan in pursuit of “terrorists,” there are a few things you may want to consider.

Google search terms “World Trade Center” and “Pearl Harbor”: approximately 1440 links (as of 9-22-01).

Yet a far more ominous and congruent historical comparison has slipped beneath the radar of conventional media memepool:

Google search terms “World Trade Center” and “Reichstag”: approximately 200 links (as of 9-22-01).

Aside from being explosively mediagenic incidents, Pearl Harbor and the attacks on September 11th are less alike than most people think. The former was a strategic attack on a military target done by an obvious enemy with the intention to cripple/destroy American sea power in the Pacific Theater as part of a larger campaign in East Asia. The other was a symbolic assault on civilian targets done by an unknown enemy with unclear intentions.

Consider: While the hijackers were clearly willing to die in pursuit of their mission, Bin Laden, from all accounts, appears to be very motivated in staying alive. Why would a man interested in survival issue an order that would inevitably bring the coordinated wrath of the Western world on his head?

I consider the day I was naturalized as a U.S. Citizen one of the greatest days of my life, but I will be damned if I let others manipulate my patriotism to serve their nefarious ambitions. Fair warning: the following essay may disturb you. The following essay may anger you. My intention is to lay bare things ignored by conventional press so readers can judge for themselves the scope of the war we are about to wage - and if I can provoke enough curiosity to send some of you to a library and read up on the hidden history of the Second World War, I would consider my efforts a success.

The following is an excerpt of Berlin's 1933 Reichstag incident, taken from from World at War: The Reichstag Fire:

… the Reichstag, seat of parliamentary government in Germany had been in recess since December of the preceding year. New elections were scheduled for March 5th. The great building was quiet and except for a watchman, empty. At 9:05 that evening, a student passing by saw a man carrying a burning torch through the windows of the first floor but did not report it. Ten minutes later smoke was observed coming from the building and the first fire alarm was received by the Berlin Fire station. In less than ten minutes the firemen were on the scene but already flames were breaking out all over the building. At 9:30 there was a tremendous explosion and the great central chamber was totally enveloped in flames. The fire quickly raced out of control despite the efforts of the fire fighters and soon only the walls of the gutted building were still standing. Within minutes police arrested a half naked and seemingly dazed Dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe, who was discovered at the scene.

It wasn't long before Chancellor Hitler and Prussian Minister Göring arrived amid a flurry of reporters and photographers. Although he had just stepped out of his car, Göring at once accused the communists of setting the fire. The debate over who set the fire continues and may never be solved to everyone's satisfaction. Despite attempts to support the case against van der Lubbe, who was tried and executed for the crime, a great deal of evidence collected and analyzed by Walther Hofer of Bern points in the direction of a SA/SS Sondergruppe headed by Reinhard Heydrich and an official of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, Kurt Dalüge. Less important than the cause of the fire however was the result. Before the sun rose on the morning of the 28th, over 4,000 communists and a miscellany of intellectuals and professional men who had incurred the wrath of the Nazi Party were arrested. (emphasis mine)

Now contrast the previous clip with the following excerpt from Wired News: Anti-Attack Feds Push Carnivore

Just hours after three airplanes smashed into the buildings in what some U.S. legislators have dubbed a second Pearl Harbor, FBI agents began to visit Web-based, e-mail firms and network providers, according to engineers at those companies who spoke on condition of anonymity.

An administrator at one major network service provider said that FBI agents showed up at his workplace on Tuesday “with a couple of Carnivores, requesting permission to place them in our core, along with offers to actually pay for circuits and costs.”

Hours? It takes months to authorize and coordinate deployment of the kind of specialized resources described. The chilling question is: how did they get everything prepped and ready to install within (supposedly) hours of the terrorist incident? Not a government agency in the world has that kind of organizational agility needed to “react” that quickly - which leaves us with a truely disturbing possibility. Did somebody in the U.S. know ahead of time the timetable of the attack - but let it happen anyway to advance his own agenda? Are we prepared for the possibility that an American might be the mastermind behind this incident?


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