The CIA and the FBI weren't the only ones keeping suspiciously close tabs on Al Qaeda in the lead-up to 9/11. The Pentagon had a special unit called DO5, which produced numerous reports on the movements of OBL and identified KSM's house. truthout.org/articles/new-d…
DO5 was tasked with monitoring Bin Laden and other suspected terrorists in Afghanistan between 1998 and 2000 and constructing possible terrorism scenarios.
DO5 also worked domestically and even created fictional terrorist orgs used for "exercises." truthout.org/articles/repor…
According to a Pentagon whistleblower codenamed Iron Man, high-level DOD officials held discussions between Summer 2000 and June 2001 in which they determined that Al Qaeda was "likely to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon." truthout.org/articles/new-d…
Despite this eerily prescient warning, DO5 was instructed to stop tracking Bin Laden, and the division was realigned to fall under the NORAD-associated Intelligence Watch Center. truthout.org/articles/repor…
Additionally, during one DO5 briefing, a Navy commander told a NORAD commander that concerns about Bin Laden were unfounded, saying, "If everyone would just turn off CNN, there wouldn't be a threat from Osama bin Laden." truthout.org/articles/exclu…
DOD officials scrubbed details about its activities tracking OBL and Al Qaeda from official reports submitted to Congress as part of its inquiry into the 9/11 attacks. DOD also withheld information it had collected on OBL and AQ. truthout.org/articles/new-d…
The reason we know all of this is thanks to a whistleblower complaint submitted by a top military analyst known only as "Iron Man," who wrote letter's to the Pentagon's Inspector General in May 2006, which were subsequently provided to @jeff_kaye. truthout.org/articles/repor…
Iron Man wrote that this knowledge weighed heavily on him. “I and the deputy of that team, [redacted], especially carried the burden of knowledge of how close DoD came to bin Ladin and perhaps being able to reduce the number of lives lost on 9/11." truthout.org/articles/exclu…
The redacted name is Kirk von Ackermann, a former Air Force captain who was working for a Turkish-run security contractor in Iraq in October 2003, when he mysteriously disappeared from a road between Tikrit and Kirkuk after calling for help. truthout.org/articles/a-yea…
His vehicle was found an hour later. In it, there was a laptop, a satellite phone, and a briefcase containing $40,000 in cash. As his colleague put it, "It was as if he had been abducted by aliens." web.archive.org/web/2006081605…
Von Ackermann and his team (referring to DO5, I believe) also suggested that aircrafts could be hijacked to carry out a terrorist attack and even predicted the most likely targets. This, of course, mirrors the info in Iron Man's complaint. missinginiraq.blogspot.com/2006/03/gettin…
In August 2006, three months after Iron Man's complaint, the Army informed von Ackermann's wife that he'd been kidnapped and likely killed as part of a simple opportunistic crime. (Guess the kidnappers overlooked that briefcase full of cash.) nbcnews.com/id/wbna27157617
Von Ackermann's body has never been found and no suspect in his kidnapping has ever been named. Two months after von Ackermann's disappearance, his contractor colleague Ryan Manelick was gunned down after leaving a US military base near Balad. web.archive.org/web/2007030305…
Since revealing his information to @jeff_kaye, which sparked a FOIA request for the related IG Report by @JasonLeopold, Iron Man has been (AFAIK) completely silent. And the information he revealed remains oddly unmetabolized, even by people who question the official story of 9/11
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The pagers Israel exploded were made by Taiwanese company Gold Apollo. The pagers were reportedly imported 5 months ago (mid-April 2024), which lines up closely with a Knesset delegation visit to Taiwan during which Tsai pledged to "deepen" partnership between the 2 countries.
Gold Apollo denies involvement in the attacks, claiming sales & manufacturing of AR-924 pagers are handled by a Hungarian company, BAC Consulting. Gold Apollo president Hsu Ching-kuang further notes "strange" remittances that came through the Middle East. reuters.com/world/middle-e…
Hungary now denying that the pagers were ever in the country. The Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs says BAC is only a middleman and has no manufacturing site in Hungary.
🧵Interesting moment from the Covid Select Subcommittee's interrogation of Peter Daszak I'd like to unpack.
Daszak claims DARPA didn't reject DEFUSE due to safety concerns but rather over its cost. (He's previously made this claim to The Intercept, but now does so under oath.)
Daszak says "the only information we received from DARPA about the reasons for turning us down" came during an exit interview. Daszak previously described this interview as an apparently voluntary process for those who didn't receive funding. theintercept.com/2022/03/11/cov…
This begs the question (previously raised by @Rossana38510044) as to whether the unsigned, undated DARPA rejection letter released by DRASTIC is completely authentic. And, if authentic, was it ever sent to EcoHealth or was it only a draft?
The talking point from lab-leak proponents is that DARPA rejected EcoHealth's DEFUSE proposal because it was too risky. (If you read the letter closely, it's not clear this is true.) However, in a March 2, 2018 meeting, DARPA reviewer Jim Gimlett did not raise any risk concerns.
Gimlett did, however, note that DARPA was not able to fund all proposals and may partially fund proposals or fund later stages of proposals. This gibes with the letter written (though not signed) by Gimlett which noted "several components" of DEFUSE were "potentially fundable."
Gimlett also noted in his 3/2/18 meeting with Daszak that one of the primary issues with DEFUSE was validation. Lack of validation was one of the reasons cited for rejecting DEFUSE.
Last month, @emilyakopp of @USRightToKnow published an article about the infamous DEFUSE proposal based on documents obtained from USGS, a DEFUSE partner. However, USRTK uploaded only a portion of those records.
@emilyakopp @USRightToKnow Scientist and natural-origin proponent @flodebarre also appears to have obtained the same cache of documents. She too has refused to publish the full batch, instead plucking out small excerpts in support of this thread:
I do not in any way agree with GoFundMe taking down the Grayzone's fundraiser, but, since I've yet to see anyone else mention it, I do think it's worth putting on the record that Max Blumenthal has reportedly agitated for such takedowns in the past. observer.com/2016/01/its-on…
The Observer article reports that Max "pressured" GoFundMe to remove a fundraiser by (virulently pro-Israel pseudo-rabbi) Shmuley Boteach to buy a NYT ad tying then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to Max via his dad, long-time Clinton consigliere Sidney Blumenthal.
However, the Observer's only apparent source is Boteach himself who merely said he "believes" Max contacted GoFundMe directly, just as he had written to Huffington Post editor Ryan Grim to decry an op-ed attacking him written by Boteach.
Two months after dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US military began drafting a secret plan to nuke 20 Soviet Cities in a "prevenative" surprise attack without provocation or warning. https://t.co/0glssyr2Jparchive.org/details/isbn_0…
This plan, known as JIC 329 (or "Strategic Vulnerability of the USSR to a Limited Air Attack") acknowledged that the Soviets posed no immediate threat to the US. Decimated by WWII and lacking a navy, the USSR was in a dire position relative to the largely unscathed US military.
Knowing this, JIC 329 recommended a surprise barrage of nuclear strikes if it appeared that the Soviets "would eventually gain the capability of either attacking the US or rebuffing a US attack." (Kaku/Axelrod)