My Pilgrimage to Ground Zero on 9/11/06

Monday, September 11, 2006
My Pilgrimage to Ground Zero on the Fifth Anniversary of the (domestic) Terror Attacks

The 9/11 Truth Movement Reaches Critical Mass!!

After months of late night internet research - prompted by current news events, talk hosts like Mike Malloy, authors like Webster Tarpley, and my own burning curiosity, it was finally time to make my first post 9/11 visit to New York City. The fifth anniversary activity roster for the New York chapter of 911 Truth provided the perfect opportunity. After a Sunday afternoon and evening of compelling speakers and presentations at Cooper Union Hall, the big day began the following morning at 8. The mood was somber but exhilarating.

Our base of operations was the small park on the southeast side of the complex. When it was our turn for a silent march, we departed from this spot to cover the entire east side of Ground Zero. There were so many of us that the line had to snake back 180 degrees to fit everyone.

9/11 Truthers were by far the largest group present at the fifth anniversary. Those in black shirts alone averaged about 60% of the crowd along the east side most of the time. During the two hours plus I was able to attend, I can remember seeing only four signs with the typically insipid, neocon/administration bromides. There were only 15 or 20 of these people all together and they seemed to disperse rather quickly. A couple of rednecks and an old lady or two jeered us with predictable verbiage, but such individuals can't engage critical thought anyway. There were a few "suits" as well. They were polite, but their views made them sound like "plants" from Popular Mechanics.

The corporate media gets very nervous when they see crowds this size protesting one of their great shields: the official 9/11 myth. According to what I heard, the networks went out of their way not to focus on the protesters and kept their cameras on the pit, contrary to their methods in previous years. They'll do anything to keep the mainstream viewer in the dark. Only local New York and specialty media covered the demonstrations.

In addition to ring leader Alex Jones, other radio talk hosts were in attendance. Most notable was Lionel (middle), shown here with two of his friends from the internet media world. (It's funny. In the days before the internet, I would have never recognized who he was.) Lionel is currently the only host on mainstream syndicated talk radio who unabashedly supports the logic of the 9/11 Truth Movement. His show is heard daily on powerful stations like WOR and WWKB.

As is the custom each year, the bell tolls while surviving family members read the names of the victims from down in the pit. Here, the bell officer temporarily hands his job over to a young assistant.

A musical "interfaith peace ensemble" added a percussive feel.

The pit as seen from the subway stairwell...

Unfortunately, I had to leave around noon and couldn't take part in the street march, which included a bull horn powered public taunting of WTC lease holder Larry Silverstein (Mr. "Pull It") in front of his Broadway office. Mr. "Pull It," along with Rudi Guliani, are major players in the cover-up and destruction of the crime scene.

[...pass me that bull horn...

...Hey Mr. Pull It! Lookie here!... Standing next to me is one of New York City's finest. Tell me, how many of them are going to die in your next building demolition, huh Mr. Pull It? ...Yeah.... Hey, make sure you keep those insurance premiums paid up. You sure don't want to miss out on your next billion, do you?... By the way, it's been five years now. Isn't it time to throw in the towel and come out with your hands up?... How about a free ride in a police car? Huh, Mr. Pull It?...

Ah, such potential fun. But alas, I had to return to Massachusetts and be at my job by 5 o'clock.]

9/11 Truth will continue to grow in numbers. We will win this battle because we have no other choice. We will shake the greedy, power obsessed perpetrators of this horrific crime from their perches in the shadow government, the military industrial complex, the secret societies, and the corporate media and bring them to justice (...if they don't take their own lives first). We will finally end the imperialism, the ceaseless war, the false flag terrorism, the economic oppression, and the lies. We will build an America that's powered by clean renewable energy, returns to its constitutional roots, and fulfills its mission as a beacon of light, hope, and love to the rest of the world. We will do all this because the truth cannot be stopped. The universe tilts toward justice. We will not allow the deaths of these innocent victims to be in vain. Together we will unravel this evil, obsolete matrix and throw it on the trash heap of history where it belongs.

The following blog entry from Jolly Roger of Revere Radio does a fine job of summarizing the day's events. I hope he doesn't mind me reproducing it. Knowing how blog entries can cycle themselves out of existence, I wanted to preserve it here on a regular web page.

Cheers,
fjockey

I was late getting to ground zero this morning, and when I got there the pit that had once been the foundation of the Twin Towers was surrounded by an army of people in black shirts that said "Investigate 9-11." By this time they were milling around all over the place in small groups, talking to people, arguing with people, and handing out flyers and Loose Change DVD’s. This was by far the largest collection of truth-movers I had ever seen by a factor of ten. There was easily a thousand of them if not two, and one of the ny911truth crew told me that the march I missed was three blocks long.

I was truly impressed by the turnout, and it was very obvious to me that this movement has grown to the point where it cannot be stopped. The area around ground zero is always somewhat busy, and a lot of people had shown up for the memorial service that’s held there every year, but this time was different because the truth-movers dominated the area. We had everyone else outnumbered by a staggering margin. In any direction you looked you saw a crowd of people wearing the "investigate 9-11" tee-shirts. There were posters, banners, flyers, and chanting everywhere. One crew had a bongo drum’s rhythm drawing attention to their banners from every passer-by. I entertained myself by heckling the TV news reporters, and I think I’m responsible for one crew packing it in for the day, or at least getting the hell away from me.

There was a joyous atmosphere uncommon to 9-11 Truth events, and it was a great day for me because I felt a symbolic victory in the 9-11 Truth Movement re-taking ground zero on the anniversary of the attacks.

Although part of the crowd was there for the memorial service, we didn’t have to defend ourselves from many verbal assaults from Bush-leaguers, and nobody was calling us "conspiracy theorists." Passers-by were awestruck by our numbers, because we certainly didn’t look like the small band of lunatics the newspapers had described to them.

Alex Jones showed up at about 2:00 PM with his bull-horn, and belted out a sermon that was cheered by truth-movers on both sides of Church street. When he stopped to breathe the chanting started, and all that could be heard anywhere in the vicinity of ground zero was "9-11 Was an Inside Job" being sung by a chorus a thousand strong.

After another hour or so, our army combined on one side of the street, and we began the march to Larry Silverstein’s office at 120 broadway. I should have checked the newspapers before writing this, because it wouldn’t surprise me if the old goat had a heart attack today. An angry mob a block long filled Broadway in front of his building while Alex Jones bull-horned the details of his crimes. This was broken up by loud "inside job" chanting, and an unexpected amount of support from passers-by. People in the building were drawn to the windows, but it also looked like they withdrew quickly in fear.

Larry didn’t leave his office to turn himself in, so the march progressed to City Hall, without getting any quieter. We filled the plaza on the north side of City Hall, and banners filled the air in front of all the Brooklyn Bridge traffic. We were still chanting, and we were still surrounded by cops, but I had a feeling that the cops were on our side. The trouble with most cops is that they have kids to feed, and discussing 9-11 truth might prevent them from doing that, but it didn’t seem to me as if they had any animosity toward us at all. This was fortunate, because from City Hall we marched to Police Headquarters, and by this time, Alex Jones and many of us had lost our voices. Someone I don’t know gave a speech there, which called upon the police and military to join us in our struggle. He reminded the police of their murdered brothers, and their oath to defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

I bumped into a few of the old-timers and it was good to see them. Nico Haupt called me a plane-hugger, I called him a dis-info agent, and then suggested that we get a bottle of wine. It’s better that we didn’t because I’m glad I’m home right now instead of in jail. The charming Sherry Bender was there, and if you don’t know her your life’s incomplete. She’s the type of person who brings a smile to everyone’s face. Les Jaimeson surveyed his troops from his usual vantage point; he’s about seven feet tall, and Nicholas Levis for some reason, always looks like he’s trying to sell someone a used car. I didn’t see Angie or J.P., but I’m sure they were around there somewhere, but what’s much more important than seeing the old-timers is seeing a couple thousand new faces. Someone today said something that I think summed it up nicely. A pretty young girl with a fistful of deception dollars told me "this is our break-out day." She was right. — Jolly Roger