Some say that “We the People” lost true representative government when JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963. At that point, the US government came under the control of the “military-industrial complex” that Eisenhower had warned us about in his “Farewell Address” two years earlier.
It seems to me that September 1, 2001 inaugurated the era in which the military-industrial complex—which serves as the instrument of the oligarchy that rules this country and the rest of the world—not only aspired to conquer the Middle East, but also began viewing the American people as a body politic to be dominated and exploited. The COVID-19 pandemic response was the apotheosis of this era of domestic predation in which the US government assumes ever greater debt liabilities and disburses the money to the oligarchy that controls it.
In was in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. For me, the horror of the attack seemed to mark the end of my privileged and protracted carefree youth and the beginning of my life as someone who can’t help worrying about this troubled country in which my family on both sides had lived since the 17th century.
A quarter of a century later, the US government still hasn’t told us the truth of what happened on that day. My new book, Mind Viruses: America’s Irrational Obsessions, is in many respects a history of the last twenty-five years, beginning with the September 11, 2001 attacks. Please read the following excerpt. If you find it interesting, please like this post and share it with your friends.
In September 2001, I visited an old friend in Manhattan to attend New York Fashion Week. On the evening of September 10, I went to an event in SoHo, and around 1:30 a.m., I left the venue and caught a cab home. Just before I got into the taxi, my eyes were drawn upwards to the World Trade Center, looming above, and I thought the Twin Towers were conspicuously out of proportion with the rest of downtown. There was, I thought, something crazy about how huge and high they were.
That night I slept at my friend’s apartment on Center Park West and was awakened by the phone ringing. It was my friend’s sister, frantically saying a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. I looked out the window of the apartment building, south, down Central Park West, and saw a massive plume of smoke over downtown. After some fumbling with the television remote control, I managed to turn on the TV shortly before the second plane flew into the other tower. Thus began a traumatic and deeply disturbing period of American public affairs that struck me as a total rupture from what I had known my whole life until that moment. How could this possibly be happening in the greatest city of the most powerful nation in history?
Even with my perceptions distorted by shock, I still thought it was strange how quickly federal law enforcement identified and seemed to know everything about the young men who were mostly from Saudi Arabia. Wasn’t Saudi Arabia a close ally and trading partner of the United States? This marked the beginning of my belated journey (at the age of thirty-one) to realizing that the US government lies to its citizens all the time.
Shortly after the attacks, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the US Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, launched a Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001. In its capacity of representing We the People, Congress wanted to know what US intelligence and federal law enforcement agencies knew about the hijackers before and after the attacks. Who exactly were these guys, who were they connected with, and who directed and supported them while they were in the United States?
In December 2002, members of Congress received a classified version of the Joint Inquiry’s findings. On July 24, 2003, a redacted, unclassified version was publicly released. At first glance, this seemed an admirable example of our legislative branch doing its job for the American people. However, concerned citizens who read it—especially the relatives of those who died in the attacks—noticed that an entire section of the report titled “Finding, Discussion, and Narrative Regarding Certain Sensitive National Security Matters” had been redacted. Many citizens reckoned the whole point of the inquiry was to ascertain why our intelligence and law enforcement agencies had so catastrophically failed to protect our national security, so redacting an entire section because it pertained “to sensitive national security matters” seemed ridiculous. This raised the suspicion that Congress was protecting influential “friends” and “allies” from embarrassment.
Relatives of people who had died in the terrorist attacks filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the redacted pages. After a fourteen-year legal contest, Congress was finally ordered to publish the document, which it did on Friday, July 15, 2016. For years the redacted section had been referenced as “the twenty-eight redacted pages,” but the total number turned out to be twenty-nine. The key finding of the redacted section is as follows:
While in the United States, some of these September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support or assistance from individuals who may be connected to the Saudi government. There is information, primarily from FBI sources, that at least two of those individuals were alleged by some to be Saudi intelligence officers. …
Omar al-Bayoumi: The FBI has received numerous reports from individuals in the Muslim community dating back to 1999 alleging that al-Bayoumi may be a Saudi intelligence officer. FBI files suggest that al-Bayoumi provided substantial assistance to hijacker Khalid al-Mihdar, Nawaf al-Hazmi after they arrived in San Diego in February 2000.[i]
Another suspected Saudi intelligence officer was Osama Bassnan, who lived across the street from two of the hijackers when they resided in San Diego and was in close contact with many of their associates, including suspected Saudi intelligence agent, Omar al-Bayoumi. According to the report:
Bassnan has many ties to the Saudi government, including past employment by the Saudi Arabian education mission. The FBI also received reports from individuals in the Muslim community alleging that Bessan might be a Saudi intelligence officer. According to a CIA memo, Bassnan has reportedly received funding, and possibly a fake passport, from Saudi government officials. He and his wife have received financial support from the Saudi ambassador to the United States and his wife.
On at least one occasion, Bassnan received a check directly from Prince Bandar‘s account. According to the FBI, on May 14, 1998, Bassnan cashed the check from Bandar in the amount of $15,000. Bassnan’s wife also received at least one check directly from Bandar. She also received one additional check from Bandar’s wife which she cashed on January 8, 1998 for $10,000.[ii]
While such statements might pique someone’s curiosity to learn more about this connection between President George W. Bush’s friend, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and suspected Saudi intelligence agents providing support for hijackers in San Diego, Congress apparently wasn’t interested. As the Committees stated in their report:
It should be clear that this joint inquiry has made no final determinations as to the reliability or sufficiency of the information regarding these issues that we found contained in FBI and CIA documents.[iii]
US mainstream media coverage of the release was minimal, and it downplayed the significance of what was contained in the document. A CNN report quoted Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein.
Sens. Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the chair and top Democrat of the Senate Intelligence Committee, issued a statement that they agreed with the decision to declassify the report. But they cautioned, “These pages include unconfirmed allegations and raw reporting and have been the subject of conspiracy theories for years.”[iv]
The FBI gave Congress what it asked for, but Congress didn’t like what it saw, so it did not order a follow-up investigation into the activities of the Saudi state actors referenced in the report, including Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud. Instead, Congress redacted the twenty-nine pages from its report and moved on to what it considered more important business—that is, working with the Bush Administration to prepare for the invasion of Iraq the following spring.
What were the American people to make of the astonishing fact that nineteen young men—fifteen from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon—managed to hijack four commercial airliners, murder 3,000 Americans, destroy the largest office towers in New York, and make a direct hit on the Pentagon? At least three of the hijackers—Khalid al-Mihdar, Nawaf al-Hazmi, and Salem al-Hazmi—were known to the CIA as al Qaeda terrorists.[v] And what were we to make of the fact that many of the hijackers had invalid or expired visas at the time of the attacks? Five had overstayed their authorized periods of admission. All the hijacker pilots violated their tourist visas by immediately taking flight training; another never attended the school for which his student visa was issued.
On August 28, 2025, US District Judge George B. Daniels in Manhattan denied Saudi Arabia’s motion to dismiss a long-running lawsuit, allowing 9/11 victims’ families to proceed to trial for their complaint that the Kingdom aided the terrorists. Judge Daniels found that Saudi Arabia failed to prove that the lawsuit is not covered by the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA).[vi] Passed in 2016, it provides US nationals with a legal avenue to sue foreign states and entities for aiding, abetting, or conspiring to commit acts of international terrorism that injure Americans. Judge Daniels found that the body of undisputed facts is sufficient for the court to retain jurisdiction, and the plaintiffs may proceed to trial.
A couple of months after Judge Daniels’s ruling, Tucker Carlson released a five-part documentary film titled The 9/11 Files, presenting witness testimony from CIA officers and analysts, FBI agents from the Bin Laden Unit, and family members of the victims. The totality of circumstances indicates that the Saudi General Intelligence Directorate aided and abetted Khalid al-Mihdar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, that the CIA knew about the operation, failed to alert the FBI to stop it, and then—after the attacks were carried out—concealed its knowledge.[vii] Following the release of a major tranche of US Department of Justice (DOJ) “Epstein Files” on January 30, 2026, it was discovered that Jeffrey Epstein potentially acted as a go-between or representative for Saudi Arabia to block or stall 9/11-related lawsuits.[viii]
Additional evidence suggests that Israeli Mossad had foreknowledge of the attacks. Especially suspicious were five Israeli nationals who worked for a moving company in New Jersey. Shortly after the planes flew into the Twin Towers, they were observed on the roof of a white moving van, parked in a lot near Liberty State Park in Jersey City, directly across the river from the burning buildings. According to the eyewitness, “They seemed to be taking a movie. They were like happy, you know . . . they didn’t look shocked to me. I thought it was strange.”[ix]
The woman noted the license plate number and gave it to the local police, which stopped the van near Giants Stadium about four hours after the attacks. Searching the van, the officers found $4,700 in cash hidden in a sock, two foreign passports, and box cutters. While some US intelligence officials believed the moving company was a front for a surveillance operation, the FBI eventually concluded (for reasons it never elucidated) that the men had no foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks. After being detained for seventy-one days, they were deported to Israel on immigration violations. Back in Israel, three of them—Oded Ellner, Omer Marmari, and Yaron Shmuel—went on the news program LaHadashot to discuss their adventures. Oded Ellner stated they were at the site to “document the event.”[x]
At the very least, the terrorist attacks should have been regarded as a colossal failure of the Bush administration to protect the American homeland. The proper and lawful response to the crime—a response that respected the American people and the US Constitution—was to get to the bottom of how exactly the attacks had come about, who knew about the operational planning, and who failed to intervene to stop them. Instead of doing this—and at least firing the officials responsible for the massive intelligence failure—the Bush administration launched a vast and sweeping expansion of the US national security state. Instead of resolving to detain dubious foreign nationals on terrorist watch lists or in the country with expired visas, the administration declared a “War on Terror” and pushed the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act in October 2001, vastly expanding the government’s surveillance, intelligence-gathering, and law-enforcement powers.
[i]Declassified 28 pages (Part Four: “Finding, Discussion, and Narrative Regarding Certain Sensitive National Security Matters“) of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] CNN, “Congress releases ‘28 pages’ on alleged Saudi 9/11 ties” July 15, 2016.
[v] The Intelligence Community’s Knowledge of the September 11 Hijackers Prior to September 11, 2001,
Eleanor Hill, Staff Director, Joint inquiry Staff, September 20, 2002.
[vi] U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels (Southern District of New York) Memorandum Decision and Order, August 28, 2025
[vii] Tucker Carlson, The 9/11 Files, Tucker Carlson Network, September 23, 2015.
[viii] Catharine Herridge, “Straight to the Point: Exposing Epstein’s Saudi 9/11 Connection,” Los Angeles Times Studios, March 26–27, 2026.
[ix] ABC News “Were Israelis Detained on Sept. 11 Spies?” June 21, 2002.
[x]LaHadashot (The News)” Channel 2, Israel November 2021. See segment on YouTube.
From: Mind Viruses: America’s Irrational Obsessions, by John Leake
Absurd misdirection towards the Saudi patsies. All one has to is watch the explosion of 3 buildings brought down by 2 planes, and consider an aluminum plane penetrating 3 reinforced concrete rings of the Pentagram.
James Corbett puts out lots of really good stuff on 911 that is well-researched.
https://www.corbettreport.com/?s=911
Behind the Smoke Curtain, is a thorough look at what actually happened at the Pentagon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fvJ8nFa5Qk
This is a 3 hr video and it is worth every minute. But there is a 1.5 hr edited version on youtube also
Another 19
Another-Nineteen-Investigating-Legitimate-Suspects
You can get this book as an ebook on Amazon. It lays out the highly suspicious nature of the activities and connections of the people intimately connected with the events of 911, in the Pentagon, FAA, Air Force, Special Forces and other departments in the US Govt, including Chaney and Rumsfeld.
Architects & Engineers for 911 Truth
http://www.ae911truth.org/
If the buildings truly “collapsed” then they violated basic laws of physics
They also lied about the toxic dust in the aftermath, and the courts affirmed that it was perfectly fine for the government to tell tell the people that it was safe to breath even though they absolutely knew it was not. Then they're doing it with Covid, because we didn't hang them last time.