Tucker Carlson markets his reporting as "real journalism." Yet while he didn't go completely off the deep end in his recent so-called 9/11 documentary, he fell in with big-name grifters who ignore the facts that destroy their 9/11 conspiracy theories. He did little to further serious inquiry into how government agencies and officials failed to thwart the attacks. Carlson proclaims the 9/11 Commission Report "is a complete joke" and demands a second commission as if it would somehow be "bipartisan" and not another "cover up."
Tucker did some covering up of his own.
In August, it was widely reported that Bush 43 officials, led by FBI Director Mueller, withheld key evidence from Congress, the 9/11 Commission, and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Saudi government. But Carlson never mentions it in his documentary. One hopes his newfound business interests in Saudi Arabia did not influence that decision.
He dredged back up the wildest theories and added a couple of his own. He used his final episode to ensure everyone knows he is against using Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs). We've already had a national debate over EITs, wherever you or I come down on them.
And, as I will demonstrate, no Blue Ribbon probe is needed to easily dispense with the most ridiculous assertions and innuendos regurgitated by Tucker.
Conversely, Carlson highlighted one allegation that has never been investigated: Pre-9/11, the CIA conducted an illegal domestic operation and 2,978 people were murdered because the FBI was not told known terrorists were in America. (More on this in a moment.)
Tucker played the "just asking questions" game with the top theories, including that the World Trade Center buildings were brought down by controlled demolition, and the Pentagon was struck by a missile, not an airplane. Such fabrications need to be relentlessly debunked.
The NIST report stated the obvious that it would have taken weeks to prepare WTC buildings 1, 2, and 7 for demolition, to break through walls, cut into hundreds of steel beams, and plant the necessary thousands of pounds of explosives. How could that massive amount of preparation work not have attracted the attention of security personnel and thousands of WTC workers? While Carlson peddled the controlled demolition theory focusing on WTC 7, he only conceded it was unlikely that thermite-based explosives were used in that tower.
Scores of people saw an American Airlines jet heading toward the Pentagon, including firefighters Alan Wallace and Mark Skipper manning Foam 161 at the helipad immediately to the right of where the plane hit. Thousands of 757 parts and pieces were found inside and outside. No missile parts were found. War-fighting missiles are not equipped with seats; a section of seats with the horribly burned bodies of several passengers was found inside the Pentagon. DNA testing of human remains identified all but three of those aboard Flight 77. Releasing more videos won't change indisputable facts; Tucker mentioned none of them.
Carlson suggested Israel had foreknowledge that al Qaeda would attack here on 9/11, but the "the Jews did it" overarching theory originated in the Muslim world, as documented on September 28, 2001, by USA Today. Among the examples that the report cites is the "grieving father" of hijacker Mohamed Atta, who "wondered why U.S. media outlets had chosen to ignore reports that U.S. authorities' seized a number of Jews while they were dancing in celebration over the incidents.'" (Five Israelis were detained and investigated after one person observed suspicious behavior. They were deported for overstaying their visas.)
Eyewitness Maria (her last name was withheld in news reports) never said she saw the five Israelis dancing, and she was too far away to hear what they were saying. In fact, another witness reported the five were "shaken up" when they first heard that a plane struck the North Tower. They were not already across the parking lot from Maria's apartment, which refutes the allegation that they had foreknowledge. Could it be they, like thousands of others, innocently videotaped and took photos of the burning towers?
Carlson also asked, "Why wasn't there substantial wreckage of Flight 93 found at its supposed crash site in Shanksville?" So, I called a deeply knowledgeable friend of many years, a first responder to that site on 9/11 who is now an official at the National Park Service. He stated, "More than 95% of the plane was recovered," and reminded me that on June 21, 2018, four shipping containers holding the wreckage were returned to the site and buried near where the plane crashed.
Tucker's singular attempt at real journalism took place during portions of his first episode. Former FBI Agent Mark Rossini was assigned as a liaison to the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center as a reader of intelligence in its bin Laden unit, Alec Station. He has reason to suspect the FBI was kept from learning that known terrorists were left to roam America, in a risky CIA effort to recruit double agents and infiltrate al Qaeda. And he suspects the CIA had Saudi intelligence (GID) monitor those terrorists.
While Rossini lacks direct evidence, he too quickly dismisses the post-9/11 inquiries. A full reading of them supports his suspicion, warranting a thorough investigation.
FBI readers in the CTC did not read the March 2000 cable from overseas saying known terrorist (future hijacker) Nawaf al-Hazmi had landed at LAX on January 15, 2000. However, a review of internal CIA emails post-9/11 found that soon after the March cable reached the CTC, people upstairs in CIA HQs found Hazmi's arrival to be "interesting." No one upstairs alerted their counterpart at the FBI or ensured it made it into a Presidential Daily Brief.
"Fifty to 60" at the CIA read the January 5, 2000, cable about Khalid al-Mihdhar – who joined Hazmi at al Qaeda's infamous Malaysia Summit – having a multi-entry visa to America, but no one placed him on the travel watchlist. It was not shared with the FBI before late August 2001. CIA supervising analyst Alfreda Frances Bikowsky saying she hand-carried the information to FBI HQs sometime in January 2000 was determined to be untrue.
An alarming number of supervisors, agents, and analysts interviewed post-9/11 seemed to suffer from a substantial loss of memory about what intelligence they read or who they shared it with, indicating, as Rossini said, the CIA threatened them into withholding information if questioned by the Joint Inquiry or 9/11 Commission. The CIA's IG reported that 1,500 terror-related cables that should have been sent to the FBI were not sent.
Saudi Arabia cannot escape responsibility for 9/11. There was a cover-up: Bush 43 officials, led by FBI Director Mueller, withheld key evidence from scrutiny by Congress, the 9/11 Commission, and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Saudi government.
Yet America needs a president who will punish misconduct by government officials wherever it is found. If the CIA recklessly left the GID to follow known al Qaeda around our country, evidence of it is most likely in the communications between those two intelligence agencies. If true, CIA officials did far worse than break federal law using a proxy –- 2,978 perished on 9/11 and more than 10,000 have died due to related illnesses and combat- and the scheme's masterminds deserve imprisonment and to be forever shamed.
Creating or repeating baseless 9/11 conspiracy theories has always been the work of anti-Semites, snake oil salesmen, attention seekers, and anarchists. They have poisoned many minds, young and old, and diverted attention away from real concerns. Their fabrications need to be crushed at every opportunity with more free speech.