Excerpts from the book... Crossing the Rubicon by Michael C. Ruppert
p236
Somebody knew
Throughout the world the independent media organizations have done an outstanding job of picking up and reporting on independently published stories that the major media overlooked. One of the most outstanding examples of this was a July 16, 2002, piece posted at the website of Portland Indymedia (<www.portland.indymedia.org>) that reproduced the following short article originally found at The Memory Hole.
NPR interview on 9/11 confirmed attack was 'not entirely unexpected.
It's certainly one of the most disturbing and important indications that the government knew the attacks of September 11, 2001, were coming. On that morning, National Public Radio (NPR) was presenting live coverage of the attacks on its show Morning Edition. Host Bob Edwards went to a reporter in the field David Welna, NPR's congressional correspondent - who was in the Capitol building as it was being evacuated. Here is the crucial portion of Welna's report:
"I spoke with Congressman Ike Skelton - a Democrat from Missouri and a member of the Armed Services Committee who said that just recently the Director of the CIA warned that there could be an attack - an imminent attack on the United States of this nature. So this is not entirely unexpected.'
(Audio links for this interview are located at The Memory Hole and NPR websites) <www.thememoryhole.org/tenet-9 11 .htm>
This one story is in diametric opposition to all officially stated US government positions about US government foreknowledge of 9/11. In the fall of 2002 I placed several calls to the office of Congressman Skelton asking for comment. I had hoped to be able to interview him during a pending trip to the Capital. None of my calls was returned.
The bottom line is that, based upon what is known about successful intelligence penetrations for years prior to the attacks of 9/11, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda could not have sneezed without the CIA or the NSA knowing about it.
p238
Outrage and a clear mission
Sources tell CBS News that the afternoon before the attack, alarm bells were sounding over unusual trading in the US stock options market - CBS News, September 19, 2001.
* A jump in UAL put options 90 times (not 90 percent) above normal between September 6 and September 10, and 285 times higher than average on the Thursday before the attack.
CBS News, September 26
* A jump in American Airlines put options 60 times (not 60 percent) above normal on the day before the attacks.
CBS News, September 26
* No similar trading occurred on any other airlines.
Bloomberg Business Report;2 the Institute for Counterterrorism (ICT), Herzliyya, Israel3 [citing data from the CBOE}
* Morgan Stanley saw, between September 7 and September 10, an increase of 27 times (not 27 percent) in the purchase of put options on its shares.
* Merrill-Lynch saw a jump of more than 12 times the normal level of put options in the four trading days before the attacks.
'It's not that farfetched,' said former SEC enforcement director William McLucas, now with the Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering law firm. 'This collection of terrorist acts has created a serious problem for our markets and a number of industry sectors. It is not as whacky or as Tom Clancy-ish as one might like to wish.'
'This could very well be insider trading at the worst, most horrific, most evil use you've ever seen in your entire life .... It's absolutely unprecedented to see cases of insider trading covering the entire world from Japan to the United States to North America to Europe.'
Dylan Ratigan of Bloomberg News, ABC World News Tonight, September 20, 2001.
'I saw put-call numbers higher than I've ever seen in 10 years of following the markets, particularly the options markets,' said John Kinnucan, principal of Broadband Research, as quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Montreal Gazette, September 19 2001
'When Isaw the volume of trading going up at other exchanges, I thought it was a little peculiar, 'said [Bill] Kennedy, of ING Group NV's ING TT&S (US) Securities Inc, explaining that most trading that day was on other markets. 'There had not been a lot of volume in American the previous week. You hope there was a reasonable explanation, and there may very well be, but it leaves a very had taste in your mouth.
'It's a matter of great interest to intelligence. To the extent we find this evidence, we shouldn't just focus on it as proof of insider trading but as evidence of a desire to commit murder and terrorism, 'said Columbia University law professor John Coffee.
Germany's Bundesbank chief, Ernst Weltke, said on the sidelines of the meeting that a report of the investigation showed 'bizarre' fiscal transactions prior to the attacks that could not have been chalked up to coincidence .... Weltke said the transactions 'could not have been planned and carried out without a certain knowledge, 'particularly citing heavy trading in gold and oil futures.
'It's absolutely unprecedented to see cases of insider trading covering the entire world from Japan to the US to North America to Europe.'
ABC News Consultant Jonathan Winer, World News Tonight, September 20, 2001
AMR [the parent company of American Airlines] now represents just a tiny piece of what has become a giant international paper chase.'
National Post, September 22, 2001
From my perspective, it is very clear that there was highly unusual and suspicious activity in airline and hotel stocks in the days and weeks leading up to this attack.' Phil Erlanger, former senior technical analyst, Fidelity investments, writing in his newsletter Erlanger Squeeze Play, November 13, 2001. Erlanger added that the inside traders might well have made off with billions of dollars from 9/11.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange, the biggest US options market, said yesterday that it is investigating trading that happened before the terrorist attacks that flattened New York's World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.
Montreal Gazette, September 19, 2001
'[Investigators will] certainly be able to track down every trade, where the trade cleared, where the trade was directed from.'
Former SEC enforcement chief William McLucas in an interview with Bloomberg News.'°
'If these clowns really bought puts on airline stocks and financial companies the day before the attacks, then they left another incriminating paper trail that may help provide proof of who masterminded the evil.'
Bloomberg
p279
Was Paul Wellstone Murdered?
by Michael C. Ruppert
Nov. 1, 2002, 15:00 PST (FTW) -The air crash deaths of Sen. Paul Wellstone, wife, daughter, three staff members, and two pilots at approximately 10:25 a.m. on October 25 in Eveleth, Minnesota have given rise to the widespread belief - shared by at least two members of the House of Representatives who spoke on condition of anonymity - that the crash was a murder.
Almost as important as the known details of the crash, which often contradict mainstream press reports, is the fact that the belief is so widely held. It says something about America that cannot and should not be ignored.
A HISTORY TOO FULL OF COINCIDENCES
From a historical standpoint Democrats are twice as likely to die in air crashes as Republicans. Frequently, those who have died were known to have been either involved in the investigation of covert operations or to have taken highly controversial positions in opposition to vested government interests.
... THE WELLSTONE CRASH
Perhaps no member of the Senate ranked higher on the Bush administration's enemies list than Minnesota Democrat Paul Welistone. And the enmity goes back years to when Bush's father was president. The November 4 issue of TIME recounts an encounter between Wellstone and the elder Bush after which he referred to Welistone as "this chickenshit." And it is known that there has been at least one prior reported attempt on Wellstone's life.
In the months before his death Wellstone had voted against several key Bush agendas including Homeland Security the Iraqi use of force resolution, and many of Bush's judicial nominees. In a Senate controlled 50-49 by the Democrats, Wellstone was perhaps the biggest one-man obstacle to Bush's fervent and stated desire to secure passage of the Homeland Security measure prior to a US invasion of Iraq...
So what happened to Paul Wellstone?
A check of more than 50 of the world's leading news organizations three days after the Wellstone crash left one clear impression: the crash had been caused by "freezing rain and snow," limited visibility, and likely icing of the wings. One CNN report on October 24 described the plane as flying in "snowy, frozen rain."
None of these conditions, which did not exist as just described, had anything to do with the crash.
... INSIDE SOURCES
FTW was able to receive comments on the crash from two Democratic members of the House of Both, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that they believed that Wellstone had been murdered.
One said, "I don't think there's anyone on the Hill who doesn't suspect it. It's too convenient, too coincidental, too damned obvious. My guess is that some of the less courageous members of the party are thinking about becoming Republicans right now."
It is a rare occurrence when this writer refers to a quotation from an unnamed CIA source. I have demonstrated in at least four interviews with the staffs of both the Senate and House Intelligence committees established that I know sources who have worked for the CIA in some very nasty covert operations.
The day after the crash I received a message from a former CIA operative who has proven extremely reliable in the past and who is personally familiar with these kinds of assassinations. The message read, 'As I said earlier, having played ball (and still playing in some respects) with this current crop of reinvigorated old white men, these clowns are nobody to screw around with. There will be a few more strategic accidents. You can be certain of that."
