(The following information reflect the opinions of Stilldigging.com
and the characters are fictional)
September 23, 2002
Washington DC
0900 on a brisk cool morning
[A limo casually pulls up to a small shop in the business district on Pennsylvania avenue.
3 tough looking dudes in trench coats quickly pop out,
and escort the boss into the store]
[The Boss quickly and anxiously makes his way to the back of the store,
leading his entourage by 20 steps]
MP-1 'Dam he's fast, and I use to run marathons'
MP-2 'It's not often he gets out to DC, you know how it is,
gotta stop at all the old hangouts'
[The Boss stumbles on a crack on the floor, shooting im directly through the curtains,
and into comic book alley]
Boss 'Wooooooe! Dudes! Come quick, you gotta see dis'
[MP-3 looks at MP-2, why's he talking like that? He never talks like that.
The 3 MP-s finally catch up, to see rows and rows of every conceivable comic book ever printed]
[The Boss just stands there drooling, like he was stymied by so many choices all at once.]
Boss 'heee heee heee, heee heee heee'
[Suddenly a cell phone starts chiming and MP-1 takes the call]
MP-1 'It's for you boss'
[The Boss seems oblivious to the world around im except with the seemingly
infinite rows of comic books.]
[By now the Boss is rubbing both palms together like he's ready to dig into his best meal
[Boss] 'heee heee heee, heee heee heee'
[MP-1 impatiently repeats the interruption] 'It's for you boss'
Boss 'Dam it, I busy, cant you see dat!
MP-1 'It's Gerard'
[The boss rudely grabs the phone and says] 'whad! Dam it'
Gerard 'Boss, when are you gettin back here? The general is steamed!
[The boss's eyes suddenly grow wide] 'Dam it, I knew I fogot somtin'
[pause]
Boss 'Make up somtin, tell im I got lost'
Gerard 'We used that excuse last time'
[The boss suddenly seems to remember why he's still in DC]
Boss 'Oh, I can't leave, dey need, my, I mean I gotta, I mean I juss, '
uh, you know, those 9-11 congressional hearings, we just casually watchin dem '
so, uh, I can't leave juss yet, until until
Gerard 'Until what? What're you up to now?
[The Boss suddenly seems to realize he's the one in charge]
Boss 'Shut up sucka! You askin too many quaestions!
Now are you keepin DT's mouth shut or not?
Gerard 'Well we did for awhile'
[The Boss suddenly yells into the receiver like an agitated drill instructor]
Boss 'whad'ya mean fo awhile! You idiot!
Gerard 'Well uh, sir, he aint researching 9-11 anymore, but, but'
Boss 'But whad! Dam it! I tot you took his brain out wid sleep deprivation!
Uh uh, when was dat?
Gerard 'Well uh, sir, remember, a week before the 9-11 congressional hearings,
DT was probing deeper and deeper, he had just started to review his latest 9-11 findings,
when we slapped im back down with severe sleep deprivation.
Boss 'Did you use the excuse like I toll you?
Gerard 'What excuse sir? Oh, the credit card company, the shop had them lower DT's
credit limit. Stupid excuse for sleep deprivation if you ask me.
Boss 'What!
What aboud his email capabilities?
Gerard We shut that down too. That same day he tried to email 2 newspapers,
one in Long Island, and one in Philladelphia, and blam blam, we quickly shut his machine off
by remote control.
Boss Heee heee, what was he twyin ta email?.
Gerard That report he did on FBI excuses for 9-11.
Boss Dam! Dat report could a compromised a few tings.
Gerard That's what I said. Then of course there was that sudden spate of arrests,
a week before the 9-11 congressional hearings were slated to open.
First there was the suspected 20th hijacker arrested in Pakistan, 5 days before the hearings.
That same day 5 suspected Yemen terrorists were arrested in Buffalo.
Wasn't the queen of Shiba from Yemen?
Boss Huh?
Gerard She was courted by King Solomon.
The Solomon islands, near Japan, was a blood bath during world war II.
Boss Huh? Dam it stick to the subject! Have you been dwinkin?
[pause]
Boss What about the team!
Gerard 'What team sir? Oh, the sharks, yeah they're here'
They went to work immediately sir.
Just last Thursday, they tried to demolish DT's Mercedes with him in it.
Boss Heee heee heee. Whad appened?
Gerard 'They rigged his car, screwed up the row bars, or tie rods, on his front end.
Boss Heee heee yeah, and?
Gerard 'Well it was almost a spectacular accident at the interchange,
but DT quickly hit the brakes.
[The Boss slugs his right fist into his left hand] Dam it! How'd he know to do dat?
Whad'ya mean it was almost a spectacular accident?
Gerard Well the interchange curves into a slope, so it's like a blind intersection,
especially late at night when cars usually go well above the speed limit.
The sharks picked the right spot, and had DT's Mercedes come apart at the front end,
it would have been spectacular. His car did shimmy and shake and stutter, as DT quickly slowed.
Boss Dam it! Dam it!
But the interchange is 30 miles from the club. How come DT's Mercedes didn't come apart
all dat time, until he reach duh interchange?
Gerard The shop slowed and stalled traffic to and fro, all the way.
that's how important this was to the shop,
especially now, that DT's immersed in the hearings.
[pause]
Boss So what else duh shoks doin?
Gerard The shocks to DT's car sir?
Boss You idiot! The shoks! don u unnastan englich!
Gerard Oh, you mean the sharks.
Well, right before the hearings, they tried to bring violence to DT's doorstep,
last September, yeah September 10, the same day they slapped im down with sleep deprivation,
they had a shark explode somtin. It was so loud it shook DT's cement slab foundation to his ouse.
That was like the 8th time they did that, try to provoke the guy like this.
Boss But that level of sleep deprivation, shoulda brought im to the animal level.
Gerard Maybe for the regular citizen.
Of course, with the sharks, violent intent is always a dominant theme,
because of their violent training at Fort Briggard.
For a while there, at night clubs, they were virtually coming straight at the guy,
trying to provoke im into a fight.
Boss Heee heee heee, but wasn't DT trained dere too?
Gerard How should I know?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1200
[The sun is now overhead and to the south, poking through a few nasty clouds,
with spring like weather at about 73 degrees,
while 2 shirts sit patiently across the street,
in a discreet looking red Dodge Viper RT/10]
Fred 'The guys been in there 3 hours, I can't believe this'
Joey 'Sure I call for backup?
[they both laugh]
Fred 'How does this guy afford that kind of transportation?
Joey 'Taxpayers?
Fred 'Wrong answer'
Joey 'Heee heee heee'
Why we following im anyway?
Fred 'A request from on high, some guy named Tommy somtin,
no wait, I got it written down, a general from fort Briggard.
We are to surveil, and report all activity, until he leaves DC.
Joey 'Surveil isn't even a word.
We're suppose to be articulate and professional, remember.
We go by the highest standards in the land.
Fred 'Yeah? So what's all that obstruction goin on in those hearings?
Joey 'What obstruction? Us?
Fred 'Yeah, us, them, the whole community, everybody. '
Joey 'Do you know that for a fact?
Fred 'No, but that's what I think. What's your opinion?
Joey 'I don't have an opinion. Life is simpler that way.
So why would anybody wanna obstruct one of the biggest investigations in history?
In fact this could turn out to be bigger than the 1963 Warren Commission investigation.
Fred 'You just said the magic word bud.
Joey 'What? An investigating commission, as opposed to a congressional hearing.
Fred 'Exactly, a congressional committee is essentially the voice of the people,
especially the 9-11 families, digging for answers, digging for the truth, for accountability,
with the full powers of the US Constitution to open doors, demand answers, and demand
responsibility and punishment if necessary.
A commission is simply a cold calculating investigative team, that holds no allegience to anybody.
Joey 'Well that's what we want, don't we? An impartial jury?
Fred 'Well, that's what they said about the Warren Commission,
"The assassins wont stand a chance,
nobody shoots the most powerful man in the world in broad daylight in front of hundreds,
and get's away with it.
This commission with the full investigative powers of the U.S. government
will surely find the perpetrators."
Yet the record shows, the record will suggest, and countless historians and authors will tell you,
that the Warren Commission was railroaded from start to finish, promoting the lone assassin theory
to the nth degree. The presidents brain was even stolen years later,
to maintain the same assumption, that a lone gunman, fired 3 shots in 5.6 seconds,
from the 6th floor of the schoolbook depository
Joey 'Why was a lone assassin theory so important?
Fred 'Because such a conclusion officially dispelled the notion of a conspiracy.
With Oswald as the lone gunman, there could be no official demand to look any further,
to search for other perpetrators. Such a conclusion allowed the Warren commission to close the
11 month inquiry.
Joey 'But a congressional committee 12 years later concluded there was a conspiracy.
Fred 'Exactly, after key witnesses were already dead, and the trail had gone cold.
The point is, a Commission failed the American people before, in a very major way,
investigating one of the biggest crimes of the 20th century. That's my opinion.
A congressional committee, is more directly aligned with the people of the United States,
therefore the incentive would be strong, to get to the truth, to find out exactly where we went wrong,
and institute corrections, even if it means restructuring the intelligence community,
in a far different manner, than the Homeland Security bill will ever do.
Joey 'I want a full restructuring proposal on my desk tomorrow.
Fred 'Hey, If asked, I would gladly do that.
Joey 'OK Mr. prosecutor, Who's obstructing what?
Fred 'Ok, maybe obstruction is too harsh a term, lets just say that certain individuals
didn't want this thing to succeed.
At the outset, you got the Vice President pleading with Daschle not to investigate.
Then the inquiry process gets off on a sour note when the FBI starts intimidating the panel,
with "awight who leaked out classified information?"
Joey 'I thought the white, , nothin, I didn't say nothin.
Fred 'So the FBI starts investigating panel leaks, and use this muscle to
oust Brit Snider, who was to lead the inquiry, after one of his people fails a CIA polygraph.
Joey 'Everybody knows polygraphs are unreliable, and prone to surreptitious deviousness
for the corrupt few
Fred 'what? Who would wanna rig a polygraph?
Joey 'Or even fail it intentionally. Just speculating of course.
Fred 'Now keep in mind that Congress only had until the end of the year,
which equates to maybe 6 months to find out where we went wrong on 9-11.
So months of precious time ticked away until they got Eleanor Hill in June 2002.
Then the panel accuses the White House and the Intelligence community of wasting precious time,
dragging their heels in turning over information, declassifying material,
making witnesses available.
Finally Hill puts out her first report, and some senators cried foul or rather complained insinuating
more precious time was wasted, and the more important issues weren't addressed,
Joey 'Like what?
Fred 'Like who really flew those planes? No, I mean, like,
why did the CIA wait 1.5 years before sounding the alarm on the 2 kamikaze's
that slammed flight 77 into the Pentagon?
Why was the alarm sounded at the last minute?
2 weeks before 9-11 when we couldn't do anything.
When the FBI got the alarm at the New York office,
why did DC headquarters shut the alarm off?
Joey 'What'd they say?
Fred 'They said Almihdhar wasn't under criminal investigation.
Joey 'Of course he wasn't, that's why the CIA sounded the alarm,
that's why the New York office wanted to track im down.
If the all powerful CIA sounds the alarm, aint that enough muscle to investigate?
[pause]
Joey 'So what other charges, allegations, questions, do have for the jury?
Mr. Prosecutor.
[Fred becomes dramatic, and gestures like he's actually in court]
Fred 'How dare you put such a short time constraint!
on one of the most important investigations in this nations 225 year history!
How dare you Filibuster this 9-11 probe! And not dig for answers
like an aggressive prosecutor should! How dare you!
What do you think this is! Some debate on some bill! 3000 people died that day dam it!
[pause]
[By this time Fred realizes he's quickly drawing the attention of passers by,
and tones down his conversation]
Joey 'You're getting peoples attention, Mr. Prosecutor.
[Fred continues in a lower tone, but with the same vigor]
'What do you mean you didn't have the man power to read all those cables!
Joey 'What cables?
Fred 'After 9-11, the CIA suddenly flooded the Watch list system with the names
of 4252 suspected terrorists.
They also kept silent on over 1500 Intelligence reports, before 9-11.
[Fred continues] 'What do you mean you didn't have the technology !
The FBI used the same excuse last July! as a primary reason for botching the McVeigh case,
the Wen Ho Lee case, the Chinese investigation, and subsequently the 9-11 devastation.
What'ya kidding me! Tell me you're kidding me! Because there's devastated families
out there who would like to know!
[pause]
[Fred continues] 'Oh, you say you didn't have the manpower, well who's fault is that?
If I had a back log of hundreds of unread cables, and a foreign terrorist organization kept threatening
this nation with violent devastating intent, and National Security was at stake,
I'd sure hire some more people.
If a violent terrorist organization with a violent history, declared war on the United States in 1998,
and said "let's bring the war home to America!", and repeatedly threatened our people,
our skyscrapers, our nuclear plants, our airports, and specifically mentions New York and DC,
and even threatened our own Statue of Liberty,
and threatened to devastate an airport by crashing an airliner,
and put out million dollar contracts on top government officials in August of 1999,
and CIA personnel were even assassinated in the mid 90's,
and there was a threat in 1998 to ram an airliner into the World Trade Center,
and a threat in 1995 to ram an airliner into CIA headquarters,
and a threat in the spring of 1999 to blow up a U.S. government facility,
and I didn't have the manpower to keep up with the flood of information, and harm kept knocking
at America's door, I'd definitely hire some more people!
Wouldn't that be the right thing to do! Sirs!
Even despite your claims, that you were understaffed, back in early 2000, you still knew violent people,
were roaming freely within our borders, violent people, connected to the same organization that
declared war on the United States, violent people who were linked to the explosion
that crippled the U.S.S. Cole in late 2000,
and despite this knowledge, you didn't sound the alarm on these people,
instead, you kept silent, you waited until the last minute, 2 weeks in fact, before 9-11,
when somebody decided, after a 1.5 year silence, "well it's time to get these guys on a watch list"
and guess what, these same 2 people, were part of the kamikaze team that hijacked flight 77,
and slammed this helpless airliner into the Pentagon, loaded with innocent Americans,
innocent helpless people, who assumed our Government, our intelligence agencies,
were keeping up America's guard, and protecting us from the cruel vicious violent people
that roam this planet!
America wants answers people! And they want answers fast!
Joey Didn't the president cut FBI staffing positions by 400 people in 2001?
Fred 'Beats me?
[Fred continues] 'Oh, what's that you say? High level officials might be humiliated, embarrassed?
In front of the public. A little humiliation as opposed to devastation and chaos.
I think you know the peoples answer to that.
'What's that? You're afraid of losing authority? No comment.
What's that? You got a war on terrorism to fight?
Well obviously there's a kink in the armor somewhere, a very major kink that led to the loss
of 3000 people, wouldn't it seem logical to correct this major weakness we seem to have,
as soon as possible, and maybe our war on terrorism would go allot swifter.
Joey 'OK, Mr. Prosecutor, you voiced your opinions, what about the Senator's?
what do they think?
Fred 'Like I said, they didn't think Eleanor was being aggressive enough,
and should've asked "where exactly were the intelligence breakdowns?
How did the Intelligence community set their priorities? How did they allocate resources?
Is a public hearing necessary? Now the agencies have an excuse not to talk on certain issues,
claiming National Security, that certain info is classified and not to be disseminated in public.
Let's eliminate these unnecessary constraints and get down to business.
Joey 'So it looks like an Independent Commission is going to take over.
Fred 'And guess what, Congress ain't invited.
Joey 'Huh?
Fred 'The 10 member panel will include intelligence experts only.
Joey 'You mean like former CIA, FBI, people like that?
How could they investigate themselves?
Fred 'Exactly