Program #163, September 11 2003: September 11.

I've thought for quite a long time about this program -- particularly, the first 45 minutes of it.

I was pondering whether to do something like this last year, but as it worked out, I was on hiatus last August and September, so the issue didn't have a chance to arise.

But a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then, and so I've come to feel obligated to make some of the connections I can't stop thinking about. More fundamentally, I have come to feel that honoring the memory of the 9/11 dead requires asking tough questions about why they are dead. And that's what I put together my collage -- which intercontextualized the 30th anniversary of the CIA-sponsored coup against the Allende government of Chile, Pearl Harbor, and 9/11, along with some of my own musical connections with 9/11 (some obvious, some explainable, some idiosyncratic) -- that, among other things, suggests the current administration may have had foreknowledge of 9/11 that was deliberately ignored.

Even to suggest that there may have been such foreknowledge is something I do extremely reluctantly. I can't imagine that anyone would want to believe that, much less me -- I'm the kind of leftist who gets a lump in the throat when hearing the Star-Spangled Banner and is pissed off whenever people don't follow proper flag etiquette. (Ever noticed, by the way, how many of these SUV-driving "These colors don't run"-bumper-sticker people have incredibly frayed flags fluttering in tatters from their radio aerials -- flags that probably haven't even been paid a bit of attention since 9/12/01?) And I guess here is where I need to state some fundamental truths: I love my country, Saddam was a bad guy, the terrorists were bad people, the dead of 9/11 are not to be mocked in any way. Got that? But the longer we go along, the longer unanswered questions remain unanswered, and the more lies we hear about everything else going on, the more my gut tells me I should take the possibility seriously.

It's not about litanies of loose ends and facts that don't fit. You can show me calculations about why the tower didn't fall down in the way some engineer would have expected, or video of Bush sitting on his ass in Florida hearing about the goat for an interminable length of time, or lists of any kind of 9/11-related anomaly you like -- those things don't matter to me, all that much, even though some of the alleged "facts" do seem awfully fishy.

No. What my gut has to say is predicated on some much simpler facts: an appreciation for who our leadership is now, and an appreciation for what kinds of things have happened before. So perhaps there was no foreknowledge -- we'll probably never know either way, since I doubt anyone would ever find a Deep Throat, or a set of Pentagon Papers, to connect all the 9/11 dots, even if such things are out there to find. But these people, in my mind, have shown themselves to be the kind of people who are perfectly capable of knowing in advance and letting it happen; and similar things, we are now starting to become aware, seem to have been done before.

Finally, the fact that 9/11 happened was just so goddamned convenient for allowing the Bush Middle East brain trust (if that's not an oxymoron) to pursue their objectives, now wasn't it?

Caveats are needed. First, it's very, very easy to go overboard with conspiracy theories, as everyone knows -- and more importantly, invoking conspiracy theories has a way of obscuring good progressive analysis. As Norman Solomon wisely said in one of the links given below, invoking such ideas "encourages people to fixate on the specter of a diabolical few plotters rather than on the profoundly harmful realities of ongoing structural, institutional, systemic factors... Aren't the well-documented crimes of the U.S. government and huge corporations enough to merit our ongoing outrage, focused attention and activism?"

Well put. Also, there is a hell of a lot of genuine 9/11-related crap out there -- right-wing wet dreams, anti-semitic rants, ideas that are demonstrably stupid with just a little bit of reflection. I'm not even convinced by all of the things Michael Ruppert has to say about 9/11 (just in case anyone thinks that my use of little audio snippets from him implies an unquestioning acceptance of his point of view). So I strongly advise everyone not to run off half-cocked with what I'm talking about: focus on what's wrong now, on the terible things being done in our name, and -- if you feel compelled to dig into the possibility that there might be more to 9/11 than meets the eye -- to always exercise good judgment and a critical eye.

Keep your eyes open and think for yourself.

And above all, honor and remember the dead.

Here are the best places to start sorting out your 9/11 questions, if you're starting to peer beyond the received wisdom:

• Unanswered Questions is, so far, the best review of --well, the unanswered questions about 9/11 -- that I've been able to find on the 'net.

• Public Eye is a progressive group that is "helping you understand threats to democracy and diversity". This link will take you to their comprehensive review and critique of 9/11 conspiracy ideas.

• This summary of provocative news reports, compiled by the "left wing Drudge Report", is representative of the sort of thing that I'm beginning to encounter with increasing regularity.

• Commentaries like this one are getting easier to find, too.

Some other stuff that's pertinent to 9/11, to other topics I brought up during this show, and music I used:

• I began the collage with a bit of information about Victor Jara and his music. There's a lot more about him out there; you can start with this one.

• Of course, you can't talk about Victor Jara without talking about what actually happened in Chile. This article relates the basic timeline; this one from the FAS goes rather deeper. Finally, this article is one of a number available now on connection between "the two 9/11s".

• As I was finalizing the collage, I heard that Warren Zevon died after a longish decline. Figuring that at least a few seconds' worth of "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" were entirely appropriate accompaniment to talk of US foolishness in Latin America, I recut the final mix to interpolate him in -- a final tip of the cap, even though I didn't draw attention to it. So long, Warren; thanks for the cool songs.

• Robert Stinnett is the historian and journalist who marshaled evidence to make the case that Roosevelt had foreknowledge of Pearl Harbor.

• IMO, the links above are your best starting point for delving into unanswered questions about 9/11 -- but since I sampled audio from Michael Ruppert, you can get to his writings here or here. Cf. disclaimer above.

• The Laurie Anderson track was drawn from a live album, recorded in New York about a week after 9/11. A bit of discussion about that is available here; scroll down a bit in this article to find some of Anderson's own thoughts about 9/11.

Finally, just a bit about the September 11th Musical Gallery, from which I drew works to constitute most of the last two hours of the program. Thanks very much to Kalvos and Damian for facilitating my rebroadcast of those works. Do please go there to check out their site, because you can hear the .mp3/Real Player versions of all of the pieces for yourself. I didn't even come close to playing all the pieces found there; I selected the pieces I played largely for the sake of variety and time demands (as some of them are quite long). But there are many good ones I didn't get to, and, besides, Kalvos and Damian is a contemporary music resource you should jolly well know about, if you don't already.

May all the victims of 9/11's terrorism rest in peace, and may those responsible for their loss be brought to justice -- as should be the case with all victims of tyranny, oppression, and extremist violence.