An inside job?

Dear Editors,

Has the U.S. government been telling you the truth about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks? Don Paul and Jim Hoffman’s book, Waking up from Our Nightmare, demonstrates that the twin towers and Building 7 of the World Trade Center could only have collapsed at free-fall speed into their own footprints through controlled demolition. First responders reported multiple explosions in the towers on 9/11. No steel-framed skyscraper has ever collapsed due to fire. For months after the twin towers were destroyed, molten steel was recovered from their basement levels. Hydrocarbon fires don’t burn hot enough to melt steel.

Building 7, a 47-story steel-framed skyscraper, collapsed in the exact manner of a controlled demolition, although no airplane hit it and it had only two small fires. WTC leaseholder Larry Silverstein, who received a $3.6 billion insurance settlement, admitted to PBS that he asked the fire department to “pull” the building on 9/11. “Pull” is an industry term for controlled demolition, which takes weeks to set up.

The 9/11 Commission was created under pressure from victims’ families after President Bush blocked a Congressional inquiry for 441 days. Bush initially appointed war criminal Henry Kissinger to chair the commission. Max Cleland, the only commission member without serious conflicts of interest, resigned and called for a real investigation. David Ray Griffin’s exposé, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, shows that the commission ignored most questions raised by victims’ families and excluded every fact that contradicted the government’s story. Many of the problems with that story are revealed at www.911truth.org and www.911review.com.

Why did the head of Pakistan’s intelligence agency have $100,000 wired to “lead hijacker” Mohammed Atta shortly before 9/11? Why did General Ahmad meet with the CIA director, secretary of defense, and other top national security officials in the week before 9/11?

Why were three hijacked airplanes allowed tostrike their targets when NORAD had ample time to intercept them?Who really perpetrated the 9/11 attacks? The Bush and bin Laden families have extensive business connections. The CIA recruited Osama bin Laden and created the Taliban and al-Qaeda to secure Afghanistan for a proposed UNOCAL oil pipeline. The man in the 9/11 “confession tape” had different facial features than bin Laden, wrote with the wrong hand and wore gold jewelry prohibited by Islam. In an interview with Pakistan’s Ummat newspaper, bin Laden denied his involvement in 9/11.

The BBC reported that several of the 19 alleged hijackers were still alive after 9/11. No airport video or other credible evidence placed any of them aboard the flights. None of the alleged hijackers were good pilots and none had flown jets. Hani Hajour probably couldn’t pilot a Boeing 757 through a spiral dive, losing 7,000 feet and turning 270 degrees in 2.5 minutes, but a flight computer can, using anti-hijacking remote piloting technology developed in the 1970s. Flight 77 crashed into the only section of the Pentagon that was under construction, minimizing military casualties.

There were advance warnings of terrorist attacks from at least 15 U.S. allies and multiple FBI investigations.

U.S. conquests of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and other nations were planned long before 9/11. Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and other future high-ranking Bush Administration officials signed the Project for a New American Century’s September 2000 report, “Rebuilding America’s Defenses.” It suggested that “some catastrophic and cataclysmic event – like a new Pearl Harbor” would facilitate their agenda of a massive military buildup and “regime change” in nations hostile to U.S. interests. On 9/11, President Bush wrote: “The Pearl Harbor of the 21st Century took place today.”

There is no “war on terror.” The U.S. has subverted dozens of foreign elections, financed death squads and dictatorships around the world and tried to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments since World War II.

The terrorists who hate our freedom destroyed the Bill of Rights within six weeks of 9/11 by passing the USA Patriot Act.

The U.S. government and corporate media have manipulated public outrage over 9/11 as a pretext for war profiteering, seizure of dwindling oil supplies, destruction of our civil liberties, expansion of the American empire, restoration of the heroin trade that the Taliban crushed, and preservation of the lucrative money laundering industry run by the world’s largest banks.

Was 9/11 an inside job, or did 19 religious fanatics armed with box cutters, led by a kidney dialysis patient hiding in a remote Afghanistan cave, outmaneuver the world’s most powerful – most incompetent – military and intelligence establishment?

– Gary Swing, via e-mail

Hoping to make Colorado better

Dear Editors,

I am Joe Colgan. I’m running for the state Legislature because I want to make Colorado better. As city councilor, I championed community projects such as the Animas River Trail, the Recreation Center and worked hard for a new library. I am excited to work closely with Jim Isgar to build partnerships with Democrats, moderate Republicans and Independents to build a better Colorado.

As a community leader for 25 years, I have worked to earn the trust of residents of Southwest Colorado. I have served the public as a professor, Boy Scout leader, accountant, mayor, city councilor and community leader. As your state representative, you can trust that I will always hold office with integrity and will follow through on my word.

I, Joe Colgan, have the experience to do the job. I actively participate in community organizations like the Regional Housing Authority, Adult Education Center, Rotary Club, Faculty Assembly and the La Plata Economic Development Action Partnership. I served two terms as Durango city councilor working on building a healthy community while addressing growth, water and economic vitality.

I learned first hand the pressures of making difficult decisions. I have valuable insight on the issues important to Coloradoans and the skills necessary to address them.

As your representative, my priorities will be accessible and affordable health care, good education, a strong economy and a sustainable environment. I will work hard to protect Colorado’s precious areas like Wolf Creek from unsustainable development. I will address the needs of rural communities and work hard to keep agriculture vibrant in Southwest Colorado.

What I offer is trust, leadership and experience. I will be walking in your neighborhood this summer and will ask for your input on what is most important to you. I ask for your vote this election. Contact me at JoeColgan@gobrainstorm.net.

– Joe Colgan, candidate for 59th State House District, Durango

Some grassroots solutions

Dear Editors,

Some solutions to the crises we are in: large incentives for communities to retrofit homes with excellent insulation and solar panels; train local workers to do it and create incentives for individual homeowners. These things would make our economies stronger and give4us some resilience in the face of crises that needs immediate action. A grassroots state and local project is perhaps our only chance since government seems to be opting out.

– Margaret Pacheco, via e-mail

Sonnet I

True, spirit evokes my heart inside,

where no monuments or statues deride.

No symbol or relic can express praise,

quite like pure thought may raise.

Language floats the message of ideas that can

be shared. Across the sea, over the sand,

translation and meaning tend to get lost.

All symbols become opinions, at such high cost.

Religion has more value when kept as thought

God’s immutable character will remain unfrocked.

Existence is good, naiveté is bad, to die

for any cause misses the point of life.

Transformation of spirit is the movement

of being, our energy of life and soul.

– Abe Nathema

Caring deeply for SW Colorado

Dear Editors,

I have known Joe and Mary Colgan for many years. We became good friends several years ago when Joe and my husband, John, served together on the Durango City Council. I am writing this letter because Joe is now a candidate for state representative for the 59th District. I particularly care about this because I am a naturalized U.S. citizen. I was born in Holland and today proudly call Durango, Colo., and the U.S.A. my home. My vote is precious to me, and I want to be represented by the best.

Joe Colgan is the best. He is smart and incredibly hard working. He has earned the public trust as an elected official. Joe deeply cares for Southwest Colorado. Joe has earned my trust and respect. Joe will receive my precious vote for state representative for the 59th. district.

– Suzanne Gamble, via e-mail