He Coulda' Been A Contender! Plus A Brief Look at the Arrest of the Alleged 'BTK" Killer

http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/nwsltr72.html                   

The Center for an Informed America

NEWSLETTER #72
  March 2, 2005
He Coulda' Been A Contender!
Plus A Brief Look at the Arrest of the Alleged 'BTK" Killer

In the early morning hours of this past Valentine's Day, twenty-three-year-old Najai Turpin caught a bullet to the head while sitting in his car outside of the James Schuler Memorial Gym in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Turpin's death was immediately declared to be a suicide, which isn't surprising given that there seems to be a lot of that going around these days. Some reports claimed that Turpin's longtime girlfriend was in the car with him at the time, but other accounts held that she was outside of the car. Many reports made no mention of anyone else being on the scene at all.

If you don't yet know who Najai Turpin was, you probably will soon. He was, you see, one of the sixteen contestants who are about to make their network television debuts on what many in Hollywood are hoping will be the latest Mark Burnett-produced 'reality television' sensation: "The Contender."

At the risk of sounding cliché, it must be said that life hadn't been easy for Najai Turpin. A product of the housing projects and mean streets of Philadelphia, Turpin lost his mother at the age of eighteen and thereafter served as a surrogate parent to a younger sister and a younger niece and nephew. At the age of twenty-one, he had a daughter of his own. To support his family, Turpin reportedly worked two menial jobs, while also training for his matches. Not long before before signing on to do "The Contender," he reportedly was carjacked and robbed at gunpoint.

Like so many other 'inner city' youth, Turpin's dream was that boxing would be his ticket out of the projects. Unlike most of these young dreamers, Turpin appeared to be on the verge of actually seeing his dreams come true. A promising young boxer with a record of thirteen wins and just a single loss, Turpin had recently caught what an Associated Press report described as "the break of a lifetime when he was selected by NBC's upcoming reality TV program, 'The Contender.'"

A local ABC affiliate noted that the "suicide of a promising boxer in West Philadelphia has raised a number of questions with few, if any, definitive answers ... Family and friends are only left to speculate as to why 23-year-old boxer Najai Turpin might have killed himself. His network debut on the reality show 'The Contender' was just weeks away: his ticket out of obscurity to realize his dream."

In addition to being just weeks away from his prime time television debut, Turpin also had a firm commitment from Mark Burnett and company (the other executive producers of the show are Jeffrey Katzenberg and Sylvester Stallone) to actively promote his boxing career. While he was cooling his heels waiting for the show to debut, he was collecting $1,500 a week from NBC -- far more money than he had ever earned cleaning seafood in the back of a restaurant or taking his lumps in the ring. Life, it would seem, had never been better for Najai Turpin.

Turpin's older brother, Diediera, can't understand what happened. "He was going to be somebody," said Diediera, "None of this makes any sense to me." Sister Launita has said that her brother was thrilled with his participation in the show: "He couldn't wait to see the expressions of people when they saw him on TV." Custus "Buster" Percy (or Percy Custus, according to some reports), Turpin's proverbial trainer/surrogate father for the last eleven years, said that "None of us really knows what brought this about."

Initial reports floated the notion that Turpin was despondent over being unable to fight, which he was contractually obligated to refrain from doing prior to the airing of the television series' finale. In other words, we are to believe that he was depressed over the fact that he was being paid the equivalent of $80K a year and didn't even have to work for it. Later reports claimed that Turpin was quarreling with his girlfriend over custody of their daughter, or that Turpin was upset that the show had looked into his personal life.

None of that seems to explain Turpin's curiously timed 'suicide,' since he had certainly endured greater hardships in his young life than getting paid a comfortable salary to await his network television debut. As is so often the case, this story didn't really add up for me. So I decided to follow the trail to see where it might lead. But where to begin? News reports provided little detail, save for a few interesting tidbits of information here and there: police don't know how or where Turpin got the gun that he allegedly pulled the trigger of; the gun was not registered to Turpin; just before his death, he had abruptly left a training camp to return to Philadelphia. Then, at the tail end of an Associated Press report, this throwaway fact caught my eye: "Turpin worked out at the James Shuler Memorial Gym, a haven for serious fighters from a rough and impoverished neighborhood. Tybius Flowers, another boxer at the gym, was murdered last year shortly before he was to appear as a key witness in a murder trial." Hmmm ...

Tybius Flowers was, like his longtime gym-mate, Najai Turpin, a promising young boxer for whom Custus served as - you guessed it - trainer and surrogate father. In the early morning hours of March 2, 2004, Flowers was cut down in a hail of gunfire as he sat in his car near the corner of Eighth and Butler. At the time of his death, Flowers was facing a possible twenty-year prison sentence on state and federal drug charges for allegedly operating a stash-house for crack cocaine very near the drug-infested corner where he was killed.

Six years earlier, on March 19, 1998, the very same Tybius Flowers had allegedly stood on that very same corner and witnessed the murder of Kennith Lassiter. Both Flowers and another witness, Corey Williams, had reportedly identified Lassiter's assassin as Kaboni Savage, who had fairly recently been - what else? - a promising young boxer, unbeaten in fifteen amateur fights and one professional match.

Williams later recanted his identification of Savage, and still later was himself sentenced to three life terms following convictions for various other murders. Flowers was left as the state's remaining star witness, a role he was only filling, by some accounts, because the state was hanging a long prison sentence over his head. According to family members, Flowers received harassing phone calls and thought he was being followed. Nevertheless, he purportedly refused offers of police protection.

Just days after the DA's office inexplicably announced that he would be testifying in the Kaboni Savage murder trial, and a few days before that trial was set to open, Flowers was killed outside the home of his aunt, Andrea Flowers. Ms. Flowers reported that after the murder of her nephew, she received threatening phone calls from an unidentified male warning her that "somebody's going to die."

Following Flowers' murder, the state's case against Kaboni Savage, aka Yusef Billa, fell apart and Savage was acquitted on March 23, 2004. A few weeks later, on April 13, Savage was arrested and charged with being one of the leaders of a drug trafficking and money laundering ring that had allegedly moved hundreds of kilos of cocaine and laundered millions of dollars in drug money over a 4-5 year period. Even while under house arrest following his arrest for the murder of Lassiter, Savage allegedly moved massive quantities of cocaine.

In May, Savage was named along with twenty-six other suspects in two federal indictments aimed at breaking up two interlocked drug trafficking rings. One ring was allegedly run by Kaboni Savage and Gerald "Bubbie" Thomas, aka Bahaar Jabbaar. The other ring was allegedly run by Byron Darby, a retired defensive lineman for the Philadelphia Eagles, who some of you may remember from the recent Superbowl.

Among the indicted suspects was Dawud Bey, a close associate of Kaboni Savage. Bey was a prime suspect in the murder of Raymond Nina, who was shot nineteen times in the back on April 18, 2004. Bey was also investigated, along with Savage, in connection with the murder of Tybius Flowers. Bey and another suspect, John Tillman, had visited Savage in prison just four days before Flowers was killed.

For years, Bey allegedly charged Philadelphia drug dealers a "street tax" to peddle their wares. His chief enforcer was a man named Edmund Thomas, who was said to be "untouchable" (it is unclear whether Edmund Thomas is any relation to Gerald Thomas). In 2003, Bey made local newspaper headlines for his involvement in a stolen house scam (although it is unclear, to me at least, how one goes about stealing houses).

Are you following all of this so far? I hope so, because this story gets even better.

The investigation of the drug rings led to a dubious character by the name of Imam Shamsud-din Ali, whose telephone conversations with both Gerald Thomas and Dawud Bey were intercepted by wiretaps. These conversations included discussions of payments requested by, and apparently made to, Ali. The two alleged druglords were known to visit with the local community leader at his posh home and at the Philadelphia Masjid Mosque and the Sister Clara Muhammad School, both of which are run by the Imam.

Ali had himself served five-and-a-half-years on a murder conviction in the 1970s, before he got that conviction overturned. He later emerged as a leader of the local Muslim community and a strong supporter of, and fundraiser for, both Philadelphia Mayor John Street and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.

Once the investigation had expanded to include Ali, it quickly expanded further still, when wiretaps picked up calls from Ali to attorney Ronald White, a close friend and major fundraiser for Mayor Street. This then led to the bugging of Street's office, which resulted in considerable controversy and local media attention when the bug was discovered in October 2003, just before the Philadelphia mayoral election.

The political scandal, involving wide-ranging financial swindles, soon eclipsed the drug trafficking investigation, and the two investigations were, not surprisingly, claimed to be unrelated matters. Curiously enough though, both Imam Shamsud-din Ali and alleged drug kingpin Kaboni Savage are represented by the very same attorney, Tariq El-Shabazz.

In late June 2004, twelve people, including attorney Ronald White, were charged with defrauding the city of Philadelphia. With the exception of former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, city officials seem to have walked away clean, as did Shamsud-din Ali, who has not been indicted in connection with either the political scandals or the drug trafficking investigation, even though he appears to be a central figure in both.

Meanwhile, in October 2004, Kaboni Savage allegedly ordered the arson murder of two women and four children in a Philadelphia home. One of the adult victims was Marcella Coleman, a correctional officer and the mother of longtime FBI informant Eugene "Twin" Coleman, who was arrested in connection with the murder of Tyrone Tolliver. Coleman had admitted to helping clean up the Tolliver murder scene and dispose of the body, but claimed that Tolliver's actual murderer was Kareem "Bree" Bluntly, an associate of various principals in this sordid tale. Bluntly was shot six times and killed on January 9, 2004, two months before Tybius Flowers was gunned down. "Bree" had reportedly turned informant and was armed when he was killed.

Other bodies scattered along this bloody trail include those of brothers Terrance Swanson, shot eleven times on August 29, 1999 (Edmund Thomas was charged with the crime, but later acquitted); Kevin Jackson, shot multiple times in the head and torso on February 7, 2001; and Terry Swanson, who was shot once in the head on November 24, 2001. Terrance and Terry were identical twins who, bizarrely enough, even had identical tattoos and nearly identical names. All three of the brothers were gunned down as they sat in their cars, as were Tybius Flowers and, of course, Najai Turpin.

I am sure that there are many more dots that need to be added to complete this connect-the-dots puzzle, and there are undoubtedly many more connections that could be drawn between the dots already penciled in. So how deep does this particular rabbit hole run? I don't really know. I got tired of digging and had to come up for air.

* * * * * * * * * *

"The bottom line: BTK is arrested." So said Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams at a weekend news conference. But the real bottom line, as Chief Williams is no doubt aware, is that 'BTK' couldn't possibly have been arrested because there isn't now, and there never has been, any such person. In truth, the 'BTK' killer is a fictional entity manufactured by law enforcement and the media.

In November/December of last year, I was interviewed by Al Hidell of Paranoia Magazine. That interview - a promotion for my new book, Programmed to Kill (you know, the one that I spent four years working on, primarily for the benefit of the three or four of you who have actually bothered to read it) - will be appearing in an upcoming edition of Al's magazine. Here is a sneak preview:

You believe another killing, that of the Otero family in 1974, may have also had military connections. You suggest the so-called “BTK” serial killer was a legend created after the fact to cover up the true motive for the slaughter of the family, right?

Yes, that does appear to be the case – but that is far from being an unusual situation; yet another motivation for the CIA/FBI’s creation of the serial killer mythos is to provide a handy way for the state to disguise politically motivated assassinations as random, motiveless killings.

Until the so-called “BTK” killer was recently resurrected by the police and media (for reasons that are unclear at this time), it was a relatively obscure case. I didn’t come across a single reference to it in all the reading that I did while researching my book. But with the case now in the media spotlight, I was inspired to take a closer look. And as it turns out, some interesting new facts have only recently emerged, courtesy of a surviving family member of the first purported victims.

On January 15, 1974, four members of the Otero family of Wichita, Kansas were brutally slaughtered in their family home (not unlike the Ohta family, who were slaughtered in Santa Cruz, California just a few years earlier). Indications are that this was not a random act of violence, but rather a targeted assassination likely carried out by multiple perpetrators who were known by the primary victim, Joseph Otero, a 20-year Air Force veteran. Joseph Otero’s words and actions in the days leading up to the slaughter indicate that he had reason to believe that he and his family had been targeted.

Charlie Otero, who discovered the bodies of his parents and siblings, is convinced to this day that his father was killed because of something that happened during his secretive work in the military – work that sometimes kept him away from home for months at a time (Joseph Otero was involved with the Inter-American Air Forces Academy, which is essentially an Air Force branch of the U.S. Army’s notorious School of the Americas, which has long been associated with death-squad training and drug trafficking in Central and South America). Charlie is also convinced that there is no possibility that a sole assailant was responsible for the carnage in the Otero home. Joseph Otero was a trained commando and a former champion boxer – and he had been watching over his shoulder in anticipation of an attack. His wife, Julie, was trained in self-defense, as were the two Otero offspring killed that day, Joseph II and Josephine. The family also kept a large and reportedly vicious guard dog. As Charlie has noted, it seems extremely unlikely then that a random psychopath would have been able to enter the Otero home in broad daylight and simultaneously subdue, bind and kill all four family members present at that time.

It wasn’t until nine months after the deaths of the Oteros that the legend of “BTK” was born, purportedly through phone calls and letters received by the media and authorities. After that, a few more local murders were lumped in with the Otero killings and the whole package was written off as the work of a lone serial killer. But the truth is that the Otero family was almost certainly targeted by multiple perpetrators, and there was very likely a specific motive for the crime. All of that was swept under the rug after the fictional “BTK” killer purportedly took credit for the murders.

Interestingly enough, a recent Dodge City Daily Globe report noted that, even though “Police said earlier this year that the Otero killings had ‘special significance’ because they were the first in a string of killings … [they] have refused to discuss the case beyond carefully scripted statements periodically released.” Charlie Otero has said that “BTK” investigators have not spoken to him in more than twenty-five years.

In an LA Times report dated March 2, 2005, a woman named Sheryl Smith, identified as a childhood friend of one of the Otero kids, had this to say: "This was a family that had a vicious dog, where everyone knew martial arts ... It never made sense to me what happened."
(P.J. Huffstutter "Suspect in BTK Serial Slayings Is Charged With 10 Murders," Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2005)

And it never will make sense within the framework of the official story. But why should it? It's not as if any other 'serial killer' stories ever make sense.

My book, by the way - which, once again, is entitled Programmed to Kill: The Politics of Serial Murder - is available in an Adobe e-book format for the low, low price of just $6.00. You can get it here: http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-77446-6. If that price is still a little too steep for you, you can browse through it for free here: http://books.iuniverse.com/viewgiftoc.asp?isbn=0595326404&page=1.

The Esoteric Meaning of the Twin Pillars: Boaz and Jachin

http://secretarcana.com/occultsymbols/the-two-pillars/             

The Esoteric Meaning of the Twin Pillars: Boaz and Jachin

Since the dawn of civilization, the entrance of sacred and mysterious places have been guarded by two pillars. Whether in art or in architecture, twin pillars are archetypal symbols representing an important gateway or passage towards the unknown. In Freemasonry, the pillars are named Jachin and Boaz and represent one of the Brotherhood’s most recognizable symbol, prominently featured in Masonic art, documents and buildings.  This article will look at the origins of this timeless symbol and its esoteric meaning.

The concept of twin pillars standing at the gates of sacred places can be traced back to ancient civilizations of Antiquity (some claim from Atlantis, the lost source of Hermetic knowledge).

A Gateway

The symbol of the twin pillars have, since time immemorial, guarded the gateways to holy places and mysterious realms. They mark the passage towards the unknown and the otherworldly. In ancient Greece, The Pillars of Hercules was the phrase that was applied to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. The northern Pillar is the Rock of Gibraltar in the British territory of Gibraltar.

The Pillars of Hercules guarding the passage towards the unknown.

According to Plato’s account, the lost realm of Atlantis was situated beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in effect placing it in the realm of the Unknown. Renaissance tradition says the pillars bore the warning Nec plus ultra (also Non plus ultra, “nothing further beyond”), serving as a warning to sailors and navigators to go no further. Symbolically, going beyond the Pillars of Hercules can mean leaving the foulness of the material world to reach a higher realm of enlightenment.

The two columns called the “Pillars of Hercules” in Ancient Greece stood at the gateway to the sphere of the enlightened

The frontispice of Francis Bacon’s “New Atlantis” featuring the Pillars of Hercules as a gateway to a new world. According to occult lore, Atlantis is the civilization from which all hermetic knowledge emerged. The rebirth of this lost kingdom has been the dream of Mystery schools for centuries.

“The city of the philosophic elect rises from the highest mountain peak of the earth, and here the gods of the wise dwell together in everlasting felicity. In the foreground are the symbolic pillars of Hercules which appear on the title page of Bacon’s Novum Organum, and between them runs the path which leads upward from the uncertainties of earth to that perfect order which is established in the sphere of the enlightened.” ¹

In Freemasonry

The Masonic usage of the terms Jachin and Boaz originates from the Biblical account of King Solomon’s Temple. The master builder of the Temple of Solomon was Hiram Abiff, a prominent figure in Masonic ritual. The verses 1 Kings 6:1-38, 1 Kings Chapter 7, and Chapter 8 describe the dimensions, the construction and the dedication of the Temple under Solomon. One passage describes more specifically the twin pillars standing in front of King Solomon’s Temple.

¹⁵ For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about.
¹⁶ And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits:
¹⁷ And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter.
¹⁸ And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter.
¹⁹ And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch, four cubits.
²⁰ And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter.
²¹ And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz.
²² And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished.
- 1 Kings Chapter 7

An artist rendition of King Solomon’s Temple.

The account of Solomon’s Temple is of great importance in Freemasonry as each detail of the building holds an important esoteric meaning. The Twin pillars act as a “portal to the Mysteries” by standing on each side of the entrance to a sacred place.

“According to the ancient Rabbins, Solomon was an initiate of the Mystery schools and the temple which he built was actually a house of initiation containing amass of pagan philosophic and phallic emblems. The pomegranates, the palm-headed columns, the Pillars before the door, the Babylonian cherubim, and the arrangement of the chambers and draperies all indicate the temple to have been patterned after the sanctuaries of Egypt and Atlantis.” ²

For this reason, Jachin and Boaz are prominently featured on Masonic buildings, monuments and documents. Here is Albert Pike’s description of the pillars in a text intended for new Masons:

“You entered the Lodge between two columns. They represent the two which stood in the porch of the Temple, on each side of the great eastern gateway. These pillars, of bronze, four fingers breadth in thickness, were, according to the most authentic account–that in the First and that in the Second Book of Kings, confirmed in Jeremiah– eighteen cubits high, with a capital five cubits high. The shaft of each was four cubits in diameter. A cubit is one foot and 707/1000. That is, the shaft of each was a little over thirty feet eight inches in height, the capital of each a little over eight feet six inches in height, and the diameter of the shaft six feet ten inches. The capitals were enriched by pomegranates of bronze, covered by bronze net-work, and ornamented with wreaths of bronze; and appear to have imitated the shape of the seed-vessel of the lotus or Egyptian lily, a sacred symbol to the Hindus and Egyptians. The pillar or column on the right, or in the south, was named, as the Hebrew word is rendered in our translation of the Bible, JACHIN: and that on the left BOAZ. Our translators say that the first word means, “He shall establish;” and the second, “In it is strength.”
These columns were imitations, by Khurum, the Tyrian artist, of the great columns consecrated to the Winds and Fire, at the entrance to the famous Temple of Malkarth, in the city of Tyre. It is customary, in Lodges of the York Rite, to see a celestial globe on one, and a terrestrial globe on the other; but these are not warranted, if the object be to imitate the original two columns of the Temple. The symbolic meaning of these columns we shall leave for the present unexplained, only adding that Entered Apprentices keep their working-tools in the column JACHIN; and giving you the etymology and literal meaning of the two names.
The word JACHIN, in Hebrew, probably pronounced Ya-kayan, and meant, as a verbal noun, He that strengthens; and thence, firm, stable, upright.
The word Boaz is Baaz which means Strong, Strength, Power, Might, Refuge, Source of Strength, a Fort. The prefix means “with” or “in,” and gives the word the force of the Latin gerund, roborando–Strengthening The former word also means he will establish, or plant in an erect position–from the verb Kun, he stood erect. It probably meant Active and Vivifying Energy and Force; and Boaz, Stability, Permanence, in the passive sense.” ³

The Twin Pillars on a Masonic Tracing Board

Inside a Masonic Lodge

Masonic monument in Israel featuring the twin pillars.

The High Priestress of the Tarot sitting between Boaz and Jachin.

Esoteric Meaning

As with most occult symbols, the Masonic twin pillars conceal multiple layers of meaning, some intended for the profane and others divulged in higher degrees of Freemasonry. However, it is generally accepted that the Jachin and Boaz represent the equilibrium between two opposite forces.

“These were the names [Jachin and Boaz] of the two pillars cast from brass set up on the porch of King Solomon’s Temple. They were eighteen cubits in height and beautifully ornamented with wreaths of chainwork, nets, and pomegranates. On the top of each pillar was a large bowl – now erroneously called a ball or globe – one of the bowls probably containing fire and the other water. The celestial globe (originally the bowl of fire), surmounting the right-hand column (Jachin), symbolized the divine man; the terrestrial globe (the bowl of water), surmounting the left-hand column (Boaz), signified the earthly man. These two pillars respectively connote also the active and the passive expressions of Divine Energy, the sun and the moon, sulphur and salt, good and bad, light and darkness. Between them is the door leading into the House of God, and standing thus at the gates of Sanctuary they are a reminder that Jehovah is both an androgynous and an anthropomorphic deity. As two parallel columns they denote the zodiacal signs of Cancer and Capricorn, which were formerly placed in the chamber of initiation to represent birth and death – the extremes of physical life. They accordingly signify the summer and the winter solstices, now known to Freemasons under the comparatively modern appellation of the ‘two St. Johns.’” ⁴

“Alef is man; Bet is woman; 1 is the principle; 2 is the word; A is the active; B is the passive; the monad is BOAZ; the duad is JAKIN. In the trigrams of Fohi, unity is the YANG and the duad is the YIN.
BOAZ and JAKIN are the names of the two symbolical Pillars before the principal entrance of Solomon’s Kabalistic Temple. In the Kabalah these Pillars explain all mysteries of antagonism, whether natural, political or religious. They elucidate also the procreative struggle between man and woman, for, according to the law of Nature, the woman must resist the man, and he must entice or overcome her. The active principle seeks the passive principle, the plenum desires the void, the serpent’s jaw attracts the serpent’s tail, and in turning about upon himself, he, at the same time, flies and pursues himself. Woman is the creation of man, and universal creation is the bride of the First Principle.”
The permanent alliance of reason and faith will result not from their absolute distinction and separation, but from their mutual control arid their fraternal concurrence. Such is the significance of the two Pillars of Solomon’s Porch, one named JAKIN and the other BOAZ, one white and the other black. They are distinct and separate, they are even contrary in appearance, but if blind force sought to join them by bringing them close to one another, the roof of the temple would collapse. Separately, their power is one; joined, they are two powers which destroy one another. For precisely the same reason the spiritual power is weakened whensoever it attempts to usurp the temporal, while the temporal power becomes the victim of its encroachments on the spiritual. Gregory VII ruined the Papacy; the schismatic kings have lost and will lose the monarchy. Human equilibrium requires two feet; the worlds gravitate by means of two forces; generation needs two sexes. Such is the meaning of the arcanum of Solomon, represented by the two Pillars of the Temple, JAKIN and BOAZ.” ⁵

The union of the two pillars is said to generate a third pillar, one in the middle, which esoterically represents man and mankind.

“When the two columns find equilibrium between them it will signify the union of the Sushumna and the Kundalini. This sacred marriage will create a “Fire-Mist” to radiate throughout the human body, filling it will divine Light. It is then that humanity will become the third column of the Temple Wisdom. He/She will be a column formed by the combined forces of Strength (Jachin) and Beauty (Boaz). This act forms the Lost Word in the vibratory system of the soul’s physical embodiment.” ⁶

The combining of the two oppsite forces of the twin pillars produce the center pillar: the perfected man.

Qabbalistic Meaning

In Qabbalistic teachings, Jachin and Boaz represent the two pillars of Sepiroth, the Tree of Life.

“In the mysterious Sephirothic Tree of the Jews, these two pillars symbolize Mercy and Severity. Standing before the gate of King Solomon’s Temple, these columns had the same symbolic import as the obelisks before the sanctuaries of Egypt. When interpreted Qabbalistically, the names of the two pillars mean “In strength shall My House be established. “In the splendor of mental and spiritual illumination, the High Priest stood between the pillars as a mute witness to the perfect virtue of equilibrium – that hypothetical point equidistant from all extremes. He thus personified the divine nature of man in the midst of his compound constitution – the mysterious Pythagorean Monad in the presence of the Duad. On one side towered the stupendous column of the intellect; on the other, the brazen pillar of the flesh. Midway between these two stands the glorified wise man, but he cannot reach this high estate without first suffering upon the cross made by joining these pillars together. The early Jews occasionally represented the two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, as the legs of Jehovah, thereby signifying to the modern philosopher that Wisdom and Love, in their most exalted sense, support the whole order of creation – both mundane and supermundane.
The column on the right, which is called Jachin, has its foundation on Chochmah, the outpouring Wisdom of God; the three globes suspended from it are all masculine potencies. The column at the left is called Boaz. The three globes upon it are feminine and receptive potencies, for it is founded in Understanding, a receptive and maternal potency. Wisdom, it will be noted, is considered as radiant or outpouring, and Understanding as receptive, or something which is filled by the flowing of Wisdom. The three pillars are ultimately united in Malchuth, in which all the powers of the superior worlds are manifested.” ⁷

In Popular Culture and Architecture

Pillars are sometimes used in pop culture for reasons other than decorative purposes to take on an esoteric meaning. The act standing between or going through pilllars, symbolically representing transformation or initiation, can be found in instances such as:

The cover of the first book of the Harry Potter series, where he discovers he is a wizard. His “initation” is visually protrayed as him going through two pillars. The original title of the book is Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the Philosopher’s Stone an ancient alchemical concept representing Illumination.

Rapper Kanye West standing in the middle of twin pillars in the highly symbolic video Power.

Amongst the plethora of esoteric symbols found in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, the twin pillars stand on each side of the stage.

Two pillars standing in front of the IRS Building in Kansas. Also note the Masonic/dualistic black & white pattern and the hands pointing upwards, known as the “Hand of the Mysteries”.

Two immense pillars and one in the middle in Astana, Khazakhstan, a city whose architecture and layout contain numerous occult elements.

1. Manly P. Hall, Lectures on Ancient Philosophy ↩
2. Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages ↩
3. Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma ↩
4. Hall, op. cit ↩
5. Eliphas Levi, Dogme et Rituel ↩
6. Corinne Heline, Old Testament Bible Interpretations & The Bible and the Tarot ↩
7. Levi, op. cit. ↩

The Illuminati Symbolism of Ke$ha’s “Die Young” and How it Ridicules the Indoctrinated Masses

http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/the-illuminati-symbolism-of-kehas-die-young-and-how-it-ridicules-the-indoctrinated-masses/                    

The Illuminati Symbolism of Ke$ha’s “Die Young” and How it Ridicules the Indoctrinated Masses

By VC | November 15th, 2012 | Category: Music Business | 61 comments
Ke$ha’s “Die Young” is probably one of the most blatant Illuminati videos ever released. While the symbolism is so overt that it is almost ridiculous, there’s an underlying message to the video: Even if you’re dumb enough to embrace all of that Illuminati brainwash, you’re still not part of the elite and therefore, still subject to “Die Young”.


Ke-dollarsign-ha has never been the most inspirational singer around. She started her career as an alcoholic party girl that’s not too strict about personal hygiene (see the Tik Tok line “Before I leave brush ma teeth with a bottle of Jack”) and, for her new album, she turned into some kind of Illuminati witch-type deal. She is far from the only pop star that has gone through this kind of metamorphosis and it was probably pre-planned by her record label. How many singers have gone from an “around-the-way” girl to an Illuminati figurehead? That’s what the industry does.
To the untrained eye this kind of transformation is usually somewhat subtle … Ke$ha’s Die Young is anything but. In fact, it is one giant clusterfreak of Illuminati symbols. It is so obvious and in-your-face that it forced mainstream music sources such as Billboard.com to “admit” that the video was all about Illuminati symbols (see their article entitled Ke$ha Shouts-Out Illuminati in ‘Die Young’ Video). Interestingly enough, not too long ago, these same sites were calling sites like Vigilant Citizen “batshit crazy” for even alluding to the existence of these symbols and describing their meaning. Now these sites say “Yeah, there are Illuminati symbols” in a matter-of-fact way. What happened to the batshit crazy part? However, the mainstream sites still only refer to this concept in an extremely superficial way, not giving any insight on their true meaning and the real Agenda behind it all.
Some might rationalize what is happening by saying: “Ke$ha did it for the LOLs and to make fun of the conspiracies”. This is plausible, but this argument is now surfacing every time a video contains Illuminati symbolism. Are all videos now making fun of conspiracies? In reality, Ke$ha didn’t do anything for any LOLs. She did not write the song (it was written by Lukasz Gottwald, Benjamin Levin, Henry Walter and Nate Ruess) and she did not direct the video. She is just performing what she is told to perform, like most pop stars. The fact of the matter is: Illuminati symbols are becoming more prevalent because that was the plan all along: To gradually make them part of popular culture. The occult elite is revealing itself and the masses are dancing to their tunes.
The real issue at stake is however not the symbols that are flashed on screen, but the underlying messages that are communicated to the viewers. It is about the Agenda – about making specific values and attitudes cool and desirable to young people. It is about promoting the culture of death (i.e. Die Young), about sexualizing everything, about materialism, about a corrupted and debased brand of spirituality and so forth.
As I watch Ke$ha and her gang fondling themselves, I can’t help but wonder: Is the video making fun of the masses that have been brainwashed by the lifestyle promoted by the elite?  Let’s look at the video.

An Orgy … Of Symbols

The video takes place in Mexico, where Ke$ha and a bunch of cult followers arrive at a cabin. We quickly realize that the group arriving literally worships death.

As the car door opens, a Skull and Bones symbols flashes, representing the cult of death emanating from this car.

Skull and Bones is also the name of Yale’s elite secret society, which includes members such as George Bush Sr., George Dubya and John Kerry.

Is “Evil” written  on the side of the car?

The car is, in fact, a hearse – these big black cars used to carry dead people. So, yeah, there’s definitely some death-worshiping going on here.

When the hearse is opens, we see Ke$ha in a black veil, posing as if she was some sort of sexual religious statue. She is then carried on the shoulders of her gang of mimbos, as in cultures where people carry statues of the Virgin Mary on the streets.

While this is happening, a bunch of symbols are flashed on the screen. Vigilant Citizen readers probably instantly recognized them.

Ke$ha wearing an All-Seeing Eye ring while hiding one eye. Just making sure you understand who she is working for.

Inverted crosses (a symbol of the Church of Satan) flash about five thousand times during the video. They’re working very hard to make that Satanic crap trendy.

In another scene, Ke$ha and her gang play at pulling tarot cards (to determine who’s the sacrificial lamb of the night?). Ke$ha pulls the “Devil” card and everybody bursts into laughter. So much fun is to be had with Satanic symbols!

Looking at the way Ke$ha’s gang acts, the only word that comes to mind to describe them is “not too bright”. What is the first thing they do when they enter the cabin they drove so far to reach? They trash it. I realize that trashing things is a cool, rock star thing to do, but even drunk rock stars know to trash a place when they LEAVE, not when arrive and actually NEED a facility.

“This place is too nice. Let’s destroy it and then have sex on broken furniture. Yeah, we’re idiots”.

After mindlessly wrecking the place, there is one thing left to do: Mindlessly dance to a generic pop song. Of course, the dancing quickly turns into an orgy, all of which happens with a bunch of occult symbols all around.

Ke$ha sits a the throne of the “orgy”, under a pentacle. While this symbol is not associated with Satanism, it is used in occult rituals, hinting that there’s a Sex-Magick aspect behind all of this.

While this is happening, Ke$ha does the one-eye sign, a way of saying that this sex and death worshiping cult that is full of suggestible idiots (representing the masses) is sponsored by the Illuminati industry.

…the video is also apparently also sponsored by the new Windows Phone thingie. Do like Ke-dollarsign-ha and buy it now! She then sends a text message to “Animals”, which is the name given to Ke$ha fans. Animals. Almost as flattering as Little Monsters.

Throughout the video, symbols are flashed on screen, mainly triangles that are either upright or reversed. In esoteric symbolism, upright triangles represent the masculine principle while reverse triangles represent the feminine principle. The combination of both represents the union of opposites and, in more “human” terms, sexual intercourse. So, while people are frolicking in the video, symbols convey the concept of Sex Magick on an almost subconscious level.

In case all of the stuff happening on screen is not enough to make you understand young viewers that sex is happening there, shots of wolves doing it might light a bulb above their heads. Also, is that a way to give a “shout-out” to bestiality – one of the “guilty pleasures” of the sick Illuminati elite?

The orgy goes on until cops arrive and start shooting. When this happens, Ke$ha walks decidedly towards the armed cops.

Even if you’re dumb enough to be brainwashed by Illuminati propaganda (to the point of having an Illuminati symbol right on your ass), you are not exempt from police state oppression. You might be doing what the elite wants you to do, but that doesn’t mean you’re part of it.

Just making sure you understand who’s sponsoring this video.

Since the song is called Die Young, we are lead to think that Ke$ha is shot and killed by the police. Die Young is therefore yet another video that depicts police state oppression and violence as normal, even cool. The moral of the story? Even if you have been thoroughly brainwashed by Illuminati propaganda and have lived your life according to the debased culture promoted by mass media, you are still a disposable pawn according to the elite. You might believe you are a “rebel” going against “The Man” but you’re actually playing right in their hands. Far from being “enlightened”, these symbols and this way of life are conceived and manufactured by the elite to dumb-down the masses, in order to make them suggestible and manipulable.
The culture of death that is now prevalent in mass media is extremely present in this song. The phrase “We’re gonna die young” is repeated countless times (in a upbeat matter) as if to drill in teenager’s skulls that human life is not valuable. This is right on par with the elite’s depopulation Agenda.

In Conclusion

Readers of this site might be realizing that the symbolism that has been pointed out for years is becoming increasingly prevalent and obvious in mass media. The process is gradual yet very noticeable and the concept of Revelation of the Hierarchy is in full force in the entertainment business. It has been said that the best way of hiding something is in plain sight. The Illuminati symbolism we see in popular culture is becoming so prevalent that it is BECOMING popular culture. While some might claim that “it’s a trend” or that “Ke$ha is making fun of it”, they don’t see the important reversal is happening here: Trends used to come from the streets to then be picked up and reflected by mass media; Nowadays, trends are CREATED by mass media and forced on the world through repetition and omnipresence.
There is however more at stake here than simply the presence of symbols in music videos. There are tons of videos with the same message and symbolism as Die Young – all promoting the same Agenda. Brainwashed by thousands of hours of music videos, young people become like the cult followers in Ke$ha’s video, pushed to live pointless, self-destructive lives based on the gratification of their lowest impulses. Indulging in one’s animalistic instincts has always been considered to be the opposite of reaching spiritual enlightenment – and that’s exactly what the elite wants. If the masses were to gain enough awareness to avoid the traps and pitfalls set up by the system, the virtual enslavement caused by debt and mass-media mind control would crumble.
The way of life “glamorized” by the elite causes people to be lost, devoid of strong values and suggestible to mass-media propaganda. However, in the end, even if they do exactly what is expected from them, the masses are still perceived by the elite as a brainless cattle that needs to be put in its place by a strong police force. As Ke$ha and her fans mindless yell “we’re gonna die young”, thinking they are cool and edgy, they actually unknowingly celebrate their own servitude to a tune created by their rulers. Go Animals!

September 11, 2001: The Crimes of War Committed “In the Name of 9/11″

http://www.globalresearch.ca/september-11-2001-the-crimes-of-war-committed-in-the-name-of-911/5311561                    

September 11, 2001: The Crimes of War Committed “In the Name of 9/11″

Initiating a Legal Procedure against the Perpetrators of 9/11

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, November 15, 2012

Region: USA

Theme: 9/11 & 'War on Terrorism', Law and Justice

September 11, 2001: The Crimes of War

Committed “in the Name of 9/11″

Initiating a Legal Procedure

against the Perpetrators of 9/11

 Michel  Chossudovsky

*    *    *

International Conference on “9/11 Revisited – Seeking the Truth”

Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF)

Kuala Lumpur, November 2012

Introduction

The tragic events of September 11, 2001 constitute a fundamental landmark in American history,  a decisive watershed, a breaking point.

Millions of people have been misled regarding the causes and consequences of 9/11.

September 11 2001 opens up an era of crisis, upheaval and militarization of American society. The post September 11, 2001 era is marked by the outright criminalization of the US State, including its judicial, foreign policy, national security and intelligence apparatus.

9/11 marks the onslaught of the “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT), used as a pretext and a justification by the US and its NATO allies to carry out a “war without borders”, a global war of conquest. 

A far-reaching overhaul of US military doctrine was launched in the wake of 9/11.

9/11 was also a stepping stone towards the relentless repeal of civil liberties, the militarization of law enforcement and the inauguration of “Police State USA”.

In assessing the crimes associated with 9/11 in the context of a legal procedure, we must distinguish between those associated with the actual event, namely the loss of life and the destruction of property, from the crimes committed in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 “in the name of 9/11″. The latter build  upon the former. We are dealing with two related dimensions of criminality. The crimes committed in the name of  9/11 involving acts of war are far-reaching, resulting in the deaths of millions of people as well as the destruction of entire countries.

The 9/11 event in itself– which becomes symbolic– is used to justify the onslaught of the post 9/11 US-NATO military agenda, under the banner of the “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT), not to mention the ushering in of the Homeland police state and the repeal of civil liberties.

The crimes committed in the name of 9/11 broadly consist in two intimately related processes:

1. The launching of the “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT), used as a pretext and a justification to Wage a War of Conquest. This GWOT mandate was used to justify the 2001 and 2003 invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The GWOT mandate has since extended its grip to a large number of countries in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where the US and its NATO allies are intervening selectively under a counterterrorism mandate.

2. The derogation of civil liberties and the instatement of an Orwellian police state apparatus within Western countries. In the US, the introduction of the PATRIOT legislation and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security in the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks set the stage for the subsequent restructuring of the judicial and law enforcement apparatus, culminating in the legalisation of extrajudicial assassinations under an alleged  counter-terrorism mandate.  

The 9/11 attacks constitute what is referred to in intelligence parlance to as a “massive casualty producing event” conducive to the deaths of civilians.

The dramatic loss of life on the morning of 9/11 resulting from an initial criminal act is used as a pretext and a justification to wage an all out war of retribution, in the name of 9/11 against the alleged perpetrators of 9/11, namely the “state sponsors of terrorism”, including Afghanistan, Iraq as well as Iran.

We are dealing with a diabolical and criminal project. The civilian deaths resulting from the 911 attacks are an instrument of war propaganda, applied to build a consensus in favor of an outright  war of global domination.  

The perpetrators of war propaganda are complicit in the conduct of extensive war crimes, in that they readily justify acts of war as counter-terrorism and/or humanitarian operations (R2P) launched to protect civilians. The “Just War” (Jus ad Bellum) concept prevails: The killing of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq are “rightfully” undertaken in retribution for the deaths incurred on 9/11.

Evidence is fabricated to the effect that the “state sponsors of terrorism” had committed, on the morning of 9/11, an outright act of war against the United States.

Realities are turned upside down.  The US and its allies are the victims of foreign aggression. America’s crimes of war in Afghanistan and Iraq are committed in the name of 9/11 under a counter terrorism mandate. 

The 9/11 attacks are used to  harness public opinion into supporting a war without borders. Endless wars of aggression under the humanitarian cloak of “counter-terrorism” are set in motion. 

Chronology of Events

At eleven o’clock, on the morning of September 11, the Bush administration had already announced that Al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon. This assertion was made prior to the conduct of an in-depth police investigation.

CIA Director George Tenet stated that same morning that Osama bin Laden had the capacity to plan  “multiple attacks with little or no warning.”

Secretary of State Colin Powell called the attacks “an act of war” and President Bush confirmed in an evening televised address to the Nation that he would “make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those [foreign governments] who harbor them”.

Former CIA Director James Woolsey, without mentioning Afghanistan, pointed his finger at “state sponsorship,” implying the complicity of one or more foreign governments. In the words of former National Security Adviser, Lawrence Eagleburger, “I think we will show when we get attacked like this, we are terrible in our strength and in our retribution.”

That same evening at 9:30 pm, a “War Cabinet” was formed integrated by a select number of top intelligence and military advisors. And at 11:00 pm, at the end of that historic meeting at the White House, the “War on Terrorism” was officially launched.

The war cabinet had decided to launch an an illegal and criminal war on Afghanistan, based on essentially two interrelated concepts:

1.  The 9/11 attacks although allegedly conducted by Al Qaeda were upheld as an all out military attack by a foreign power.
2. Afghanistan in allegedly supporting Al Qaeda, was responsible for an act of military aggression directed against  the United States of America.

The tragic events of 9/11 provided the required justification to wage war on Afghanistan on “humanitarian grounds”, with the full support of World public opinion and the endorsement of the “international community”.  Several prominent “progressive” intellectuals made a case for “retaliation against terrorism”, on moral and ethical grounds. In taking on this stance they provided legitimacy to the conduct of war crimes. The “just cause” military doctrine (jus ad bellum) was accepted and upheld at face value as a legitimate response to 9/11. 

In the wake of 9/11, the antiwar movement was completely isolated. The trade unions and civil society organizations had swallowed the media lies and government propaganda. They had accepted a war of retribution against Afghanistan, an impoverished country in Central Asia of 30 million people.

The myth of the “outside enemy” and the threat of “Islamic terrorists” was the cornerstone of the Bush administration’s military doctrine, used as a pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention the repeal of civil liberties and constitutional government in America. The post 9/11 era was also characterised by the development of Islamophobia, including routine ethnic profiling directed against Muslims.

Where was Osama bin Laden on September 11, 2001?

Is there any proof to the effect that Osama bin Laden, the bogeyman, coordinated the 9/11 attacks as claimed in the official 9/11 narrative?

According to CBS news (Dan Rather, January 28, 2002), “Enemy Number One” was admitted to the urology ward of a Pakistani military hospital in Rawalpindi on September 10, 2001, courtesy of America’s indefectible ally Pakistan. Rawalpindi is the Headquarters of the Pakistani military including its intelligence apparatus. He could have been arrested at short notice which would have “saved us a lot of trouble”, but then we would not have had an Osama Legend, which has fed the news chain as well as presidential speeches in the course of the last eleven years.

DAN RATHER. As the United states and its allies in the war on terrorism press the hunt for Osama bin Laden, CBS News has exclusive information tonight about where bin Laden was and what he was doing in the last hours before his followers struck the United States September 11.
This is the result of hard-nosed investigative reporting by a team of CBS news journalists, and by one of the best foreign correspondents in the business, CBS`s Barry Petersen. Here is his report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BARRY PETERSEN, CBS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Everyone remembers what happened on September 11. Here`s the story of what may have happened the night before. It is a tale as twisted as the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
CBS News has been told that the night before the September 11 terrorist attack, Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan. He was getting medical treatment with the support of the very military that days later pledged its backing for the U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan. (transcript of CBS report, see http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CBS203A.html , see also http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/28/eveningnews/main325887.shtml

CBS News footage of the Rawalpindi, Pakistan, hospital where bin Laden was allegedly treated the day before 9/11. [Source: CBS News]

The foregoing CBS report which  is of utmost relevance indicates two obvious facts:

1. Osama bin Laden could not reasonably have coordinated the 9/11 attacks from his hospital bed;

2. The hospital was under the jurisdiction of the Pakistani Armed Forces, which has close links to the Pentagon. Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts were known to both the Pakistani and US military.

 U.S. military and intelligence advisers based in Rawalpindi. were working closely with their Pakistani counterparts. Again, no attempt was made to arrest America’s best known fugitive. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed, at the time, that the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden were unknown. According to Rumsfeld:  “Its like looking for a needle in a stack of hay”.

Recovering from his hospital treatment in Rawalpindi on the 11th of September, how could Osama have coordinated the 9/11 attacks?

How could Afghanistan be made responsible for these attacks by Al Qaeda? Bin Laden is a national of Saudi Arabia who, according to CBS News, was not in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan at the time of the attacks.

September 12,  2001: The Invasion of Afghanistan: NATO’s Doctrine of Collective Security

The immediate response of the US and its NATO allies to the 9/11 attacks was to the declare a war of retribution against Afghanistan on the grounds that the Taliban government was protecting “terror mastermind” Osama bin Laden, who at the time of the attacks was in Pakistan, protected by the Pakistani military and intelligence apparatus. In a bitter irony, the Pakistani government  and military, which had facilitated bin Laden’s hospitalization in Rawalpindi on September 10, offered to assist the US in “going after bin Laden”.  An agreement to this effect was reached on September 12 in Washington between the head of Pakistan’s military Intelligence (ISI) General Mahmoud Ahmed and Secretary Colin Powell.

Parroting official statements, the Western media mantra on September 12, 2001 had already approved the launching of “punitive actions” directed against civilian targets in Afghanistan. In the words of William Saffire writing in the New York Times: “When we reasonably determine our attackers’ bases and camps, we must pulverize them — minimizing but accepting the risk of collateral damage” — and act overtly or covertly to destabilize terror’s national hosts”.

By allegedly harboring bin Laden, the Afghan government was complicit, according to both the US administration and NATO, for having waged an act of war against the United States.

This decision was taken by the Bush-Cheney war cabinet in the evening of September 11, 2001. It was based on the presumption, “confirmed” by the head of the CIA that Al Qaeda was behind the attacks.

On the following morning, September 12, 2001, NATO’s Atlantic Council meeting in Brussels, endorsed the Bush administration’s declaration of war on Afghanistan (taken by the war cabinet at 11pm on September 11), invoking Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.

Meanwhile, on two occasions in the course of September 2001, the Afghan government –through diplomatic channels– offered to hand over Osama Bin laden to US Justice. These overtures were turned down by president Bush, on the grounds that America “does not negotiate with terrorists”.

The War on Afghanistan: First Stage of the “Global War on Terrorism”

The war on Afghanistan was launched 26 days later on the morning of October 7, 2001. The timing of this war begs the question: how long does it take to plan and implement a major theater war several thousand miles away.

Military analysts will confirm that a major theater war takes months and months, up to a year or more of advanced preparations. Confirmed by press reports, the war on Afghanistan was already in an advanced state of readiness prior to September 11, 2001, which begs the question of foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks.

In other words, the 9/11 attacks were used as a means to trigger a military agenda which was already on the drawing board of both the Pentagon and NATO.

The repeal of civil liberties in America was launched in parallel with the bombing and invasion of Afghanistan. Immediately following 9/11, the PATRIOT legislation was adopted. The Homeland Security apparatus was launched, with a view to “protecting Americans against terrorists”. This post-911 legal and institutional framework had been carefully crafted prior to the 9/11 attacks.

Article 5 of the Washington Treaty: NATO’s Legal Argument

In invoking Article 5 on the morning of September 12, 2001, NATO’s Atlantic Council endorsed a criminal military agenda, in derogation of international law.

The legal argument used by Washington and NATO to invade Afghanistan was that the September 11 attacks constituted an undeclared “armed attack” “from abroad” by an unnamed foreign power, and that consequently “the laws of war” apply, allowing the nation under attack, to strike back in the name of “self-defense”.

On the morning of September 12, 2001, NATO’s North Atlantic Council meeting in Brussels, responded to the decision of the War Cabinet taken a few hours earlier at 11pm on 9/11, adopted the following resolution:

“if it is determined that the [September 11, 2001] attack against the United States was directed from abroad [Afghanistan] against “The North Atlantic area“, it shall be regarded as an action covered by Article 5 of the Washington Treaty”. (emphasis added)

In this regard, Article 5 of the Washington Treaty stipulates that if:

“The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.” (NATO, What is Article 5,  NATO Topics – NATO and the Scourge of Terrorism, accessed 24 November 2009, emphasis added)

An act of war by a foreign nation (Afghanistan) against a member of the Atlantic Alliance (the USA) was considered as an act of war against all members under NATO’s doctrine of collective security.

Under no stretch of the imagination, can the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon be categorized as an act of war by a foreign country. But nobody seemed to have raised this issue.

“Use of Armed Force” only “If It is Determined…”

There was an “if” in the September 12 resolution. Article 5 would apply only if it is determined that Afghanistan as a Nation State was complicit or behind the 9/11 attacks.

In practice, the “if” had already been waived prior to 9/11. The entire NATO arsenal was already on a war footing. In military terms, NATO and the US were already in an advanced state of readiness. Known to military analysts, but never revealed in the Western media, the implementation of a large scale theater war takes at least one year of advanced operational planning, prior to the launching of an invasion.

The use of article 5 of the Washington Treaty had in all likelihood been contemplated by military planners, as a pretext for waging war, prior to 9/11.

There was, however, no official declaration of war on September 12th. The Alliance waited until 3 days before the invasion to declare war on Afghanistan, an impoverished country which by no stretch of the imagination could have launched an attack against a member state of “The North Atlantic area”.

The September 12 resolution of the Atlantic Council required “determination” and corroborating evidence, that:

1) Al Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden with the support of a foreign power had ordered the “attack from abroad” on the United States of America;

2) The terrorist attacks of 9/11 constituted a bona fide military operation (under the provisions of Article 5) by an alleged foreign country (Afghanistan) against a NATO member state, and consequently against all NATO member states under the doctrine of collective security:

“Article 5 and the case of the terrorist attacks against the United States: The United States has been the object of brutal terrorist attacks. It immediately consulted with the other members of the Alliance. The Alliance determined that the US had been the object of an armed attack. The Alliance therefore agreed that if it was determined that this attack was directed from abroad, it would be regarded as covered by Article 5. NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson, subsequently informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations of the Alliance’s decision.
Article 5 has thus been invoked, but no determination has yet been made whether the attack against the United States was directed from abroad. If such a determination is made, each Ally will then consider what assistance it should provide. In practice, there will be consultations among the Allies. Any collective action by NATO will be decided by the North Atlantic Council. The United States can also carry out independent actions, consistent with its rights and obligations under the UN Charter.
Allies can provide any form of assistance they deem necessary to respond to the situation. This assistance is not necessarily military and depends on the material resources of each country. Each individual member determines how it will contribute and will consult with the other members, bearing in mind that the ultimate aim is to “to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area”.
By invoking Article 5, NATO members have shown their solidarity toward the United States and condemned, in the strongest possible way, the terrorist attacks against the United States on 11 September.
If the conditions are met for the application of Article 5, NATO Allies will decide how to assist the United States. (Many Allies have clearly offered emergency assistance). Each Ally is obliged to assist the United States by taking forward, individually and in concert with other Allies, such action as it deems necessary. This is an individual obligation on each Ally and each Ally is responsible for determining what it deems necessary in these particular circumstances.
No collective action will be taken by NATO until further consultations are held and further decisions are made by the the North Atlantic Council. (NATO, NATO Topics – NATO and the Scourge of Terrorism, accessed 24 November 2009, emphasis added)

The Mysterious Frank Taylor Report

The final decision to invoke Article 5 in relation to the 9/11 attacks came three weeks later upon the submission to the NATO Council of a mysterious classified report by a US State Department official named Frank Taylor. The report was submitted to NATO on October 2nd, 5 days before the commencement of the bombing and invasion of Afghanistan.

Frank Taylor was working in the US State Department. He had been entrusted with the writing of a brief to establish whether the US “had been attacked from abroad”, pursuant to the North Atlantic Council’s resolution of September 12 2001.

US Ambassador at Large and Co-ordinator for Counter-terrorism Frank Taylor briefed the North Atlantic Council on October 2nd, five days before the commencement of the bombings.

On October 2nd  he handed his brief to NATO “on the results of investigations into the 11 September attacks…. ” NATO – Topic: Terrorism, NATO and the fight against Terrorism, accessed 24 November 2009).

The classified report was not released to the media. And to this date, to our knowledge, it has remained classified.

NATO’s Secretary General Lord Robertson casually summarised the substance of the Frank Taylor report in a press release:

“This morning, the United States briefed the North Atlantic Council on the results of the investigation into who was responsible for the horrific terrorist attacks which took place on September 11.
The briefing was given by Ambassador Frank Taylor, the United States Department of State Coordinator for Counter-terrorism.
This morning’s briefing follows those offered by United States Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and United States Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and illustrates the commitment of the United States to maintain close cooperation with Allies.
Today’s was classified briefing and so I cannot give you all the details.
Briefings are also being given directly by the United States to the Allies in their capitals.
The briefing addressed the events of September 11 themselves, the results of the investigation so far, what is known about Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida organisation and their involvement in the attacks and in previous terrorist activity, and the links between al-Qaida and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
The facts are clear and compelling. The information presented points conclusively to an al-Qaida role in the September 11 attacks.
We know that the individuals who carried out these attacks were part of the world-wide terrorist network of al-Qaida, headed by Osama bin Laden and his key lieutenants and protected by the Taliban.
On the basis of this briefing, it has now been determined that the attack against the United States on September 11 was directed from abroad and shall therefore be regarded as an action covered by Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, which states that an armed attack on one or more of the Allies in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.
I want to reiterate that the United States of America can rely on the full support of its 18 NATO Allies in the campaign against terrorism.” (Lord Robertson, NATO Secretary General, statement to the NATO Council, State Department, Appendix H, Multinational Response to September 11 NATO Press http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/10313.pdf, accessed 24 November 2009, emphasis added)

In other words, 2 days before the actual commencement of the bombing campaign on October 7, the North Atlantic Council decided, based on the information provided by Frank Taylor to the Council  “that the attacks were directed from abroad” by Al Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, thereby requiring an action on the part of NATO under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty ( NATO – Topic: Terrorism, NATO and the fight against Terrorism, accessed 24 November 2009):

NATO action under article 5, was outlined in an October 4 decision, 3 days before the commencement of the bombings.

Two days later, on 4 October, NATO agreed on eight measures in support the United States, which were tantamount to an illegal declaration of war on Afghanistan:

to enhance intelligence sharing and co-operation, both bilaterally and in appropriate NATO bodies, relating to the threats posed by terrorism and the actions to be taken against it;
to provide, individually or collectively, as appropriate and according to their capabilities, [military] assistance to Allies and other states which are or may be subject to increased terrorist threats as a result of their support for the campaign against terrorism;
to take necessary measures to provide increased security for facilities of the United States and other Allies on their territory;
to backfill selected Allied assets in NATO’s area of responsibility that are required to directly support operations against terrorism;
to provide blanket overflight clearances for the United States and other Allies’ aircraft, in accordance with the necessary air traffic arrangements and national procedures, for military flights related to operations against terrorism; to provide access for the United States and other Allies to ports and airfields on the territory of NATO nations for operations against terrorism, including for refuelling, in accordance with national procedures;
that the Alliance is ready to deploy elements of its Standing Naval Forces to the Eastern Mediterranean in order to provide a NATO presence and demonstrate resolve; and that the Alliance is similarly ready to deploy elements of its NATO Airborne Early Warning Force to support operations against terrorism. NATO – Topic: Terrorism, NATO and the fight against Terrorism, accessed 24 November 2009 emphasis added)

Press reports of Frank Taylor’s brief to the NATO Council were scanty. The invocation of Article 5, five days before the bombings commenced, was barely mentioned. The media consensus was: “all roads lead to Bin Laden” as if bin Laden was a Nation State which had attacked America.

What stands out are outright lies and fabrications. Moreover, prior to October 2nd, NATO had no pretext under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty to intervene militarily in Afghanistan.

The pretext was provided by Frank Taylor’s classified report, which was not made public.

The two UN Security Council resolutions adopted in the course of September 2001, did not, under any circumstances, provide a justification for the invasion and illegal occupation  of a UN member country of 28 million people. (see Security Council resolution 1368 (2001) Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts,  Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts).

UNSC Resolution 1373 (2001) called for prevention and suppression of terrorist acts, as well suppression of the financing of terrorism:

“(e) Ensure that any person who participates in the financing, planning, preparation or perpetration of terrorist acts or in supporting terrorist acts is brought to justice and ensure that, in addition to any other measures against them, such terrorist acts are established as serious criminal offences in domestic laws and regulations and that the punishment duly reflects the seriousness of such terrorist acts;

…

“3. Calls upon all States to:
“(a) Find ways of intensifying and accelerating the exchange of operational information, especially regarding actions or movements of terrorist persons or networks; forged or falsified travel documents; traffic in arms, explosives or sensitive materials; use of communications technologies by terrorist groups; and the threat posed by the possession of weapons of mass destruction by terrorist groups;
“(b) Exchange information in accordance with international and domestic law and cooperate on administrative and judicial matters to prevent the commission of terrorist acts;
“(c) Cooperate, particularly through bilateral and multilateral arrangements and agreements, to prevent and suppress terrorist attacks and take action against perpetrators of such acts;
…
“4. Notes with concern the close connection between international terrorism and transnational organized crime, illicit drugs, money-laundering, illegal arms-trafficking, and illegal movement of nuclear, chemical, biological and other potentially deadly materials, and in this regard emphasizes the need to enhance coordination of efforts on national, subregional, regional and international levels in order to strengthen a global response to this serious challenge and threat to international security;
“5. Declares that acts, methods, and practices of terrorism are contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations and that knowingly financing, planning and inciting terrorist acts are also contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations (excerpts of UNSC Resolution 1373 (2001, See also UN Press Release SC 7178 SECURITY COUNCIL UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTS WIDE-RANGING ANTI-TERRORISM RESOLUTION; CALLS FOR SUPPRESSING FINANCING, IMPROVING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, Security Council, 4385th Meeting, September 2001)

Nowhere in this resolution is there any mention of military action against a UN member State.

The US led war on Afghanistan, using 9/11 as a pretext and a justification is illegal and criminal.

The US and NATO heads of state and heads of government from 2001 to the present are complicit in the launching of a criminal and illegal war.

The Big Lie: Al Qaeda Made in America

Amply documented but rarely mentioned by the mainstream media, Al Qaeda is a creation of the CIA going back to the Soviet- Afghan war. This was a known fact, corroborated by numerous sources including official documents of the US Congress, which the mainstream media chose to either dismiss or ignore. The intelligence community had time and again acknowledged that they had indeed supported Osama bin Laden, but that in the wake of the Cold War: “he turned against us”.

Both the 9/11 Commission Report as well as the Western media have largely upheld the “outside enemy” mythology, heralding Al Qaeda as the “mastermind” organization behind the 9/11 attacks. The official 9/11 narrative has not only distorted the causes underling the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings, it has also erased the historical record of US covert support to international terrorism, while creating the illusion that America and “Western Civilization” are threatened.

Without an “outside enemy”, there could be no “Global War on Terrorism”. The entire national security agenda would collapse “like a deck of cards”. The war criminals in high office would have no leg to stand on.

After 9/11, the campaign of media disinformation served not only to drown the truth but also to kill much of the historical evidence on how this illusive Al Qaeda “outside enemy” had been fabricated and transformed into “Enemy Number One”.

This is why a legal procedure directed against the actual perpetrators of 9/11 is absolutely essential.

History of Al Qaeda

Important to the understanding of 9/11, US intelligence is the unspoken architect of “Islamic terrorism” going back to the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war.

Bin Laden was 22 years old and was trained in a CIA sponsored guerrilla training camp. Education in Afghanistan in the years preceding the Soviet-Afghan war was largely secular. With religious textbooks produced in Nebraska, the number of CIA sponsored religious schools (madrasahs) increased from 2,500 in 1980 to over 39,000.

“Advertisements, paid for from CIA funds, were placed in newspapers and newsletters around the world offering inducements and motivations to join the [Islamic] Jihad.” (Pervez Hoodbhoy, Peace Research, 1 May 2005)

 ”The United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings….The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system’s core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books,..”, (Washington Post, 23 March 2002)

Under the Reagan administration, US foreign policy evolved towards the unconditional support and endorsement of the Islamic “freedom fighters”. This endorsement has not in any way been modified.

In a twisted irony, throughout the post 911 era,  US intelligence in liaison with Britain’s MI6, an Israel’s Mossad, continues to provide covert support to the radical Islamist organization allegedly responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Al Qaeda and its various affiliated groups including the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and factions within the Free Syria Army (FSA) are directly supported by the US and NATO.

In a bitter irony, the US and its allies claim to be waging a “war on terrorism” against the alleged architects of 9/11, while also using Al Qaeda operatives as their foot-soldiers.

Front row, from left: Major Gen. Hamid Gul, director general of Pakistan’s
Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Willian Webster; Deputy Director for Operations Clair George; an ISI colonel; and senior CIA official,
Milt Bearden at a Mujahideen training camp in North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan in 1987.
(source RAWA)

Ronald Reagan meets Afghan Mujahideen Commanders at the White House in 1985 (Reagan Archives)

Iraq: Alleged State Sponsor of the 9/11 Attacks

The formulation of a war of retribution conducted in the name of 9/11 was not limited to Afghanistan.

 In the course of 2002, leading up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003,  “Osama bin Laden” and “Weapons of Mass Destruction” statements circulated profusely in the news chain. While Washington’s official position was that Saddam Hussein was not behind the 9/11 attacks, insinuations abounded both in presidential speeches as well as in the Western media. According to Bush,  in an October 2002 press conference:

The threat comes from Iraq. It arises directly from the Iraqi regime’s own actions — its history of aggression, and its drive toward an arsenal of terror. .,..  We also must never forget the most vivid events of recent history. On September the 11th, 2001, America felt its vulnerability — even to threats that gather on the other side of the earth. We resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat, from any source [Iraq], that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America. President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat, October 7, 2002)

Barely two weeks before the invasion of Iraq, September 11, 2001 was mentioned abundantly by president Bush. In the weeks leading up to the March invasion, 45 percent of  Americans believed Saddam Hussein was “personally involved” in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. (See . The impact of Bush linking 9/11 and Iraq / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com, March 14, 2003)

Meanwhile, a new terrorist mastermind had emerged: Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

In Colin Powell’s historic address to the United Nations Security Council, in February 2003, detailed “documentation” on a sinister relationship between Saddam Hussein and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was presented, focussing on his ability to produce deadly chemical, biological and radiological weapons, with the full support and endorsement of the secular Baathist regime. The implication of Colin’s Powell’s assertions, which were totally fabricated, was that Saddam Hussein and an Al Qaeda affiliated organization had joined hands in the production of WMD in Northern Iraq and that the Hussein government was a “state sponsor” of terrorism.

The main thrust of the disinformation campaign continued in the wake of the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. It consisted in presenting the Iraqi resistance movement as “terrorists”. The image of “terrorists opposed to democracy” fighting US “peacekeepers” appeared on television screens and news tabloids across the globe.

Iran: Condemned by a New York City Court for Supporting Al Qaeda in the 9/11 Attacks

In the wake of the Iraq invasion, the same alleged “state sponsorship” of terrorism accusations emerged in relation to Iran.

In December 2011, the Islamic Republic of Iran was condemned by a Manhattan court, for its alleged role in supporting Al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks.

The investigation into Tehran’s alleged role was launched in 2004, pursuant to a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission “regarding an apparent link between Iran, Hezbollah, and the 9/11 hijackers”. The 9/11 Commission’s recommendation was that this “apparent link” required  “further investigation by the U.S. government.” (9/11 Commission Report , p. 241). (See Iran 911 Case ).

In the December 2011 court judgment (Havlish v. Iran)  “U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels ruled  that Iran and Hezbollah materially and directly supported al Qaeda in the September 11, 2001 attacks and are legally responsible for damages to hundreds of family members of 9/11 victims who are plaintiffs in the case”.

According to the plaintiffs attorneys “Iran, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda formed a terror alliance in the early 1990s. Citing their national security and intelligence experts, the attorneys explained “how the pragmatic terror leaders overcame the Sunni-Shi’a divide in order to confront the U.S. (the “Great Satan”) and Israel (the “Lesser Satan”)”. Iran and Hezbollah allegedly provided “training to members of al Qaeda in, among other things, the use of explosives to destroy large buildings.” (See Iran 911 Case ).

This judicial procedure is nothing more than another vicious weapon in the fabricated “War on Terror” to be used against another Muslim country, with a view to destabilizing Iran as well as justifying ongoing military threats. It also says a lot more about the people behind the lawsuit than about the accused. The expert witnesses who testified against Iran are very active in warmongering neocon circles. They belong to a web of architects of the 21st century Middle-Eastern wars, ranging from high profile propagandists to intelligence and military officers, including former U.S. officials.

But what makes this case absurd is that in September 2011, a few months before the judgment, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has questioned the official 9/11 narrative, was accused by Al-Qaeda leaders of  “spreading conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks”. The semi-official media outlet of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, insisted that al-Qaeda “had been behind the attacks and criticised the Iranian president for discrediting the terrorist group.” (See Julie Levesque, Iran Accused of being behind 9/11 Attacks. U.S. Court Judgment, December 2011 (Havlish v. Iran), Global Research,  May 11, 2012)

Al Qaeda: US-NATO Foot-soldiers

Ironically, while Washington accuses Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran of complicity in the 9/11 attacks, the historical record and evidence indelibly point to the “state sponsorship” of Al Qaeda by the CIA, MI6 and their intelligence counterparts in Pakistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Realities are turned upside down. Al Qaeda death squads have been recruited to wage America’s humanitarian wars throughout the Middle East an d North Africa.

In Syria Al Qaeda units were recruited by NATO and the Turkish High command:

“Also discussed in Brussels and Ankara, our sources report, is a campaign to enlist thousands of Muslim volunteers in Middle East countries and the Muslim world to fight alongside the Syrian rebels.” (http://www.debka.com/article/21255/  Debkafile, August 31, 2011).

In Libya, jihadists from Afghanistan trained by the CIA were dispatched to fight with the “pro-democracy” rebels under the helm of “former” Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) Commander Abdel Hakim Belhadj:

Western policy makers admit that NATO’s operations in Libya have played the primary role in emboldening Al Qaeda’s AQIM faction (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb). The Fortune 500-funded Brookings Institution’s Bruce Riedel in his article, “The New Al Qaeda Menace,” admits that AQIM is now heavily armed thanks to NATO’s intervention in Libya, and that AQIM’s base in Mali, North Africa, serves as a staging ground for terrorist activities across the region. http://www.globalresearch.ca/al-qaeda-and-natos-pan-arab-terrorist-blitzkrieg/

“Crimes against Civilization”

9/11 mythology has been the mainstay of war propaganda, which in itself constitutes a criminal act under international law.

Fiction prevails over reality. For propaganda to be effective, public opinion must firmly endorse the official 9/11 narrative to the effect that Al Qaeda was behind the attacks. A well organized structure of media disinformation is required to reach this objective. Perpetuating the 9/11 Legend also requires defying as well smearing the 9/11 Truth Movement.

Throughout the post 9/11 era, a panoply of Al Qaeda related events and circumstances is presented to public opinion on a daily basis. These include terrorist threats, warnings and attacks, police investigations, insurgencies and counter-insurgencies, country-level regime change, social conflict, sectarian violence, racism, religious divisions, Islamic thought, Western values, etc.

Muslims are presented as the perpetrators of the 9/11, thereby unleashing a Worldwide demonization campaign.

In turn, 9/11, Al Qaeda – War on Terrorism rhetoric permeates political discourse at all levels of government, including bipartisan debate on Capitol Hill, in committees of the House and the Senate, at the British House of Commons, and, lest we forget, at the United Nations Security Council. All these various bodies are complicit in a criminal project.

September 11 and Al Qaeda concepts, repeated ad nauseam have potentially traumatic impacts on the human mind and the ability of normal human beings to analyze and comprehend the “real outside World” of war, politics and the economic crisis.

What is at stake is human consciousness and comprehension based on concepts and facts.

With September 11 there are no verifiable “facts” and “concepts”, because 9/11 as well as Al Qaeda have evolved into a media mythology, a legend, an invented ideological construct, used as an unsubtle tool of war propaganda.

Al Qaeda constitutes a stylized, fake and almost folkloric abstraction of terrorism, which permeates the inner consciousness of millions of people around the World.

Reference to Al Qaeda has become a dogma, a belief, which most people espouse unconditionally. According to the media, “Muslims were behind the attacks”,  thereby justifying a war of retribution against Muslim countries. 

Racism and Islamophobia are an integral part of war propaganda.

Is this political indoctrination? Is it brain-washing? If so what is the underlying objective?

People’s capacity to independently analyse World events, as well as address causal relationships pertaining to politics and society, is significantly impaired. That is the objective!

The routine use of  9/11 and Al Qaeda to generate blanket explanations of complex political events is meant to create confusion.

It prevents people from thinking. It strikes at the core of human values. In a sense, it destroys civilization. 

All of these complex Al Qaeda related occurrences are explained by politicians, the corporate media, Hollywood and the Washington think tanks under a single blanket “bad guys” heading, in which Al Qaeda is casually and repeatedly pinpointed as “the cause” of numerous terror events around the World.

The criminality underlying post 9/11 propaganda is of much broader nature, affecting people’s mindsets, redefining fundamental social, political and institutional relations. 

“Crimes against Civilization” have been committed.

9/11 mythology precipitates the World into barbarity.