Photo of the Pentagon crime scene taken by the Department of Defense on Sept. 14, 2001.

Sept. 11, 2001: Call it what it is

Dear Friend and Reader:

So here we are, at the 10-year mark of the Sept. 11 incident. Wars are still being fought, lives are being taken, there is chaos in the Middle East, and everyone who boards an airplane or makes a phone call is treated as a potential terrorist. Politicians will lay wreaths and many will take the opportunity to put a little more yeast in the brew of hatred and paranoia, but I wonder what we've learned. I wonder who is asking questions about what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, why it happened, and how.

Pentagon before the wall fell down about 30 minutes after the explosion or missile impact on Sept. 11, 2001. Notice the lack of airplane wreckage, and how the wall is standing intact. You would have to use your imagination to see an airplane there. We all know how big jetliners really are. The scene above shows no sign of the 124-foot wingspan of the aircraft that supposedly struck the building. There is an entry wound, but it's too small for an airplane, and there are large punctures deeper within the rings of the building. There is no airplane wreckage or debris field visible. Image from MSNBC.

I'm one of the people who doubted the official story of Sept. 11 before I even heard it. Once I started reading the explanations, I knew there were problems with everything that was being said. I anticipated that I would be involved in a long investigation, and I have been. Some of these inquiries begin with the sensation of scaling a wall with my bare hands; that's how it felt to approach the Sept. 11 incident. My first breakthrough came seeing the astrology for the incident. Reading that chart, I warned that the 'secret enemy' who had done this horrid thing would be morphing to suit political convenience, and had an oddly intimate relationship to the government.

I had my second breakthrough looking at the picture at the very top of the page, which is a Department of Defense photo of the Pentagon crime scene from Sept. 14, 2001. This came into my hands six months after the incident, in early March 2002. Maybe you saw the email titled 'Hunt the Boeing' published by the French website Asile.org, which passed around the link. The premise of 'Hunt the Boeing' was, okay, if this event at the Pentagon is an airplane crash, then where's the airplane? Where did it strike? Where did the 100 tons of composite aluminum and titanium go? Where is the impression of the wings, and those enormous jets? What about all the fuel on a plane that was bound for the West Coast? How come that big pile of rubble isn't a burned-out bonfire?

During March of 2002, I studied this photo night and day for a week (I had fewer deadlines back then). At the end of that week, I understood that I was not looking at the photo of a plane crash. Besides the lack of wreckage, one really weird thing stood out. How is it possible that an airplane hit that building at a minimum of 250 miles per hour, but all the rubble collapses outward? When you see a photo of a car that's been driven through the wall of a house, you don't expect to see the debris all over the lawn. Most of it plunges inward and follows the direction of travel of the car, following the laws of kinetic energy. Here, the wall looks like it tumbled outward, which is what it did. This debris goes in the wrong direction, that is, if something large and heavy from the outside plunged in.

What did not happen -- this is an approximate size comparison of a 757 with the breach in the Pentagon. The rubble would have gone the other way -- and there would have been a lot more damage. Graphic from Asile.org.

To see an airplane crash here, you really have to use your imagination. You can pretend that the airplane is under the rubble. You can imagine that it burrowed into the building and disappeared, kind of like the planes did at the World Trade Center. You can pretend that it's invisible, like Wonder Woman's airplane. You can tell yourself that something had to happen to it -- but it must be there someplace. But to do any of these things, you have to make believe.

After I did this work, studying dozens of other photos, I knew there was a problem with the official story, the one about the supposed airplane crash. One of those other photos is shown a few paragraphs above and to the right. It's a picture of the Pentagon during the first half hour after the explosion. Notice that there is nothing on the lawn and that the wall is standing intact. There is no damage in the shape of an airplane; it's more like a building on fire. About 30 minutes after the impact or the explosion, the façade collapses outward. In other photos you can see a round hole about 10 to 15 feet in diameter right around the second floor.

Through the first week after the Sept. 11 incident, I consoled myself mainly by listening to Steve Inskeep on NPR. He had been standing next to the Pentagon for the first three days after whatever happened there. I knew and trusted Steve from my days covering the state capitol, and I clung to his sane, moderated voice and temperament. Steve was in Afghanistan on a new assignment when I called, but my phone rang six months later and -- faithfully -- he was returning my call. I told him what I was thinking and asked for his honest opinion. Was I crazy?

He told me that he was one of the first people at the Pentagon after whatever happened. He was called to the scene of an explosion -- not an airplane crash. He said it didn't look like an airplane crash, but then not all of them do. He confirmed that there was no wreckage visible. However, he thought my theory was plausible and worth following up. I will save those stories for another time. While the Pentagon presents a mystery (covered in greater detail in this article), it's not the most interesting one.

The Mystery of World Trade Center 7

By far, the most interesting and persistent mystery of Sept. 11 is what happened to World Trade Center 7. Most people don't know that three towers of the World Trade Center fell down on Sept. 11. We've all seen the two big familiar Twin Towers fall down again and again, but there was a third -- a 47-story structure called the Salomon Brothers Building. It was not hit by an airplane. Across the plaza from the Twin Towers, WTC 7 suffered some damage when the two other towers fell, but not especially severe. There were some scattered office fires in the building.

World Trade Center 7, or the Salomon Brothers Building, shortly before it collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001. Most people don't know that a third tower of the Trade Center complex fell down that day. Photographer unknown.

Then at 5:20 pm, it collapsed at near-free-fall speed in its foundation, landing in its footprint in just under seven seconds. The impressive thing is how it just elegantly cascades to the ground, like a waterfall. It implodes and lands in a tidy heap. When something descends at free-fall speed, that means there is no resistance below it. For that to happen, all 50 or so vertical beams would've had to be cut at the same time, which does not happen accidentally.

There are lots of video clips of this in YouTube. There are clips of newscasters saying the building had fallen down when it was still standing; the most famous is the BBC live broadcast. On the local Fox News channel in DC, the reporters are saying it already fell down while looking at a live feed of the New York skyline -- then it collapses while they're talking. (This video has since disappeared from YouTube.)

WTC 7 was glossed over in the official investigations. This is true despite the tenants of the building including the FBI, the SEC, the IRS, the Secret Service, the NYC Office of Emergency Management and a diversity of banks and insurance companies. There is also a public safety issue. If it's true that WTC 7 collapsed from some rubble damage and a few fires, one would think that there would be a major investigation into the structural integrity of skyscrapers, because such a thing had never happened before. But WTC 7 was treated so casually that most people have no idea that it even happened.

In a PBS interview done for America Rebuilds, the one-year anniversary special, the owner of the building, Larry Silverstein, admits that one of the Fire Department commanders called him up and told him they had to demolish the building -- and he gave his consent to "pull it." (You can see this on video here. I purchased the original from PBS to make sure it wasn't a fake.) Silverstein, who also was the new leaseholder on the Twin Towers, admits the building was demolished intentionally, which is obvious from watching it implode. But I'm left wondering, if this really was done by the Fire Department, how it was possible to get a demolition crew into the building and prepare it to be imploded in a few hours, right in the midst of the Ground Zero catastrophe. I'm wondering how you just demolish a structure with a tenant's list like that, without emptying the structure first. You know, the files and the safes and vaults and data centers and other secret bits.

Larry Silverstein, owner of WTC 7, said in a PBS interview that he told the Fire Department that, "The smartest thing to do is pull it." Screen shot from PBS.

In order to accept that WTC 7 was not demolished, you have to pretend. For example, I once got into a heavy argument with a Wikipedia administrator, who said that what Larry Silverstein really meant when he said "pull it" was that the Fire Department could pull its men out of the building because it was about to collapse. Since when does the Fire Department need a landlord's permission to get its own men out of imminent danger? (For more information on WTC 7, visit a website called BuildingWhat.org, named for the judge who had never heard of the thing and asked, "Building what?")

There are a lot of other problems with the official story of Sept. 11. In a 2007 article, Robert Fisk, the eminent Middle East reporter for The Independent in the UK, states: "Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11." He starts by saying he hates conspiracy theories, but these questions here are too big to ignore.

He asks about the plane crash in Pennsylvania: "Why did flight 93's debris spread over miles when it was supposed to have crashed in one piece in a field?" He asks, "If it is true, for example, that kerosene burns at 820C under optimum conditions, how come the steel beams of the Twin Towers -- whose melting point is supposed to be about 1,480C -- would snap through at the same time? (They collapsed in 8.1 and 10 seconds.)" And, "What about the third tower -- the so-called World Trade Centre Building 7 (or the Salomon Brothers Building) -- which collapsed in 6.6 seconds in its own footprint at 5:20 pm on 11 September? Why did it so neatly fall to the ground when no aircraft had hit it?"

Then there are the firemen who said that there was molten steel flowing in the rubble of the Twin Towers "like a foundry" and "like lava." The issue of molten steel, a factor in all three building collapses, is impressive. There are steel microspheres, which can only be created by melting it, in the dust of all three WTC high-rises that collapsed that day. I could go on and on -- I've only described some of the more prominent questions. An organization called Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth has been asking a lot more of them, though they have a special focus on WTC 7. (You can visit their website at AE911Truth.org.)

Tracy Litts Karson, and Karson's husband, Chris, watch as the casket of her son, Pfc. Douglas Cordo is placed in a hearse on the way to the cemetery. Cordo was killed in Afghanistan last month, believing he was defending the United States against the 9/11 attackers. The war goes on even as the truth about 9/11 comes to light. Photo by Eric.

The story that some terrorists from Afghanistan attacked us because they resent our freedom is the product of a nifty picture of world politics. It fits into a preconceived idea not of 9/11 but of how wonderful we Americans are. (Actually, the terrorists accused were from many different Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia.) If we look at the writing of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) published in the late 1990s, we find out about the need for a "new Pearl Harbor" so that the United States can fight a multi-front war early in the 21st century. Most signers of PNAC, which is basically a vision for perpetual war, became the Cheney/Bush administration.

Once you start gathering them, and looking at them with your eyes open, the facts are so obvious they can speak for themselves; that is, to anyone who wants to listen. Yet here is what I call the spiritual problem, though. It's the implication of any of this information, if you accept it. If we shift the narrative of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, we have to change our worldview. I don't mean this casually. Understanding Sept. 11 requires changing your perspective of the world.

If we accept that there's a problem with the official story, we have to open up to the possibility that 1) we are being lied to and 2) that there is another version of events -- such as the whole thing was a premeditated false flag event. I mean, it didn't just happen all by itself. If, hypothetically, there were explosive charges put into buildings, and they had to be placed in advance, who did it? And why? Those questions have answers. And those answers challenge who we are as individuals and also on the tribal level.

This is too big of a psychological barrier for most people to cross over. Once you go down that road, as someone said to me the other day, you don't know where you're going to end up -- or rather you do know and it's not a pretty place. Your whole notion of both society and politics will change, and as a result, you will change. This makes the issue deeply personal -- just like we experience it.

You can start by doing something easier, which is calling the Sept. 11 incident what it is, which is something that you don't fully understand. That takes the pressure off of you to have the answers.

Lovingly,



Planet Waves FM: Sept. 11, science and astrology

The new edition of Planet Waves FM is done -- thanks for the slight delay (usually PW FM comes out just past midnight Wednesday morning). I wanted to see the new film Explosive Evidence, created by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth before doing my first podcast on Sept. 11 for the 10th anniversary. I describe the film in this edition, focusing on the last section -- interviews with psychologists explaining why so many people refuse to see the obvious.

In this edition, I reference a few articles. One is called Were It So, from March 2002. This is the first article I wrote deconstructing the official story of 9/11, which was based on one photo taken on Sept. 14. I look more closely at this image in today's lead article above.

I also mention an article called Sept. 11, 1984, which gives a basic examination of the Sept. 11 chart. I conclude today's edition with a similar discussion; you can see it in black and white on that page.

More recently, I wrote a piece called History, Turning on a Phrase, which takes apart the situation with World Trade Center 7 -- the third skyscraper that fell on Sept. 11, despite not being hit by an airplane. Explosive Evidence spends an hour on WTC 7, discussing how the steel melted and the building fell at free-fall speed, despite the only damage being from some small office fires and debris striking the structure -- not enough to make it fall down at all, much less collapse in its own footprint.

But at the heart of the matter of Sept. 11 is why we believe or don't believe what is presented to us. The whole incident relates to our worldview; that is, how we see Sept. 11 is evidence of how we see the world around us, and what we believe about the world. That is the theme I do my best to develop in this edition, and with your help will continue next week.

Here is your program in the old player and a downloadable archive.

Thanks for tuning in.



Weekly Horoscope for Friday, Sept. 9, 2011, #874 - BY ERIC FRANCIS

Revised and Updated! Click for Eric's Zodiac Sign Descriptions

Aries (March 20-April 19) -- I suggest you ask yourself just what you've been through the past five or six weeks. It was definitely unusual, and by that, I mean not your typical emotional crisis. It was more like a series of initiations, or an extended ordeal designed to help you figure out who you are. You learned a lot -- and now the question is how not to forget. If outright frustration has tamped down to a sense of mild irritation, allow that irritation to keep reminding you to stay awake and alert. Notice those relationships wherein there is a bit of push and pull, and the sense that things are not quite right but they work anyway. That tension can also remind you to pay attention, and mind the details of your personal associations with others. If you treat others as if they are here to help you, they are more likely to do so. Open up to receiving what they offer and they're likely to give you more of what you need. Aries, your birth sign or rising sign, is getting some of the most potent transits of them all right now. I've recorded an hour of astrology and a tarot card reading for you. Learn more by visiting this page.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) -- You may be feeling like you're out of your element, but I doubt that's true. Where you are, however, is in a situation that's insisting that you update your files in realtime. By that I mean set your mind in manual mode and size up your environment and your mental state every hour or so, or every time you remember. Rather than settling back into the sensation that things are how they are, keep your senses sharp and observe what they are telling you. Keep the conversation going even with the people who annoy you. They are likely to provide useful information that you would have missed ordinarily. Part of why one person in particular may be irritating, by the way, is that he or she is able to discern how much of your mind you're actually using. It's as if someone is lurking around while you're sleeping, waiting for you to wake up. Waking up, at the moment, means living with the sense that you're participating in an experiment. You don't know the outcome, and that is the whole point. I've recorded an hour of astrology and done a tarot reading especially for you. It's information that will help with your relationships, your professional life and your personal growth. Visit this page to find out more.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) -- You now have the awareness and strength to break free from at least one dysfunctional belief of your parents. This would seem to be a lifelong process of healing and growth. It is, yet there are moments of breakthrough, when you make a discovery that works on several levels. First, see what it's like to not be angry when you discover that you've been deceived. Right under the deception is a contact point with your power. It's as if you're clearing the fog on some event or condition of childhood that obscured your ability to see contrasts, and to make coherent decisions based on them. Now that ability is suddenly coming back to you. Remember that the root of feeling and seeing the truth is emotional, as is your ability to act on it. You are making contact with who you were before the paralysis of denial set in, which is another way of saying that the kid who refuses to believe lies is alive and well in your heart. Gemini is one of the most misunderstood signs -- and as someone born under this sign, part of your role is to hold a mirror to the world. I've recorded an hour of audio for you, plus a 20-minute tarot reading. You can get access to these by visiting this page.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) -- You don't need other people as much as you think. Of course it can be challenging to test that belief, but I suggest you give it a try. You'll benefit from proving to yourself that the dependencies you think you have are not so sticky, though to get there you have to confront the situation in some direct way. Do something on your own that you thought you needed help with. Solve a problem that you think is over your head. Challenge your sense of loneliness by diving into your creative talent. The quality of experience you have with others will improve significantly when it's focused on writing, art or a service project rather than merely 'social'. Look for a point of contact with yourself, develop that and then boldly engage in a real exchange with someone you consider smarter or more advanced than you. From that series of contacts you will make an important discovery about yourself. I've recorded an hour of astrology and done a tarot reading especially for you. It's information that will help with your relationships, your professional life and your personal growth. Visit this page to find out more.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) -- Lack of self-esteem is one of the most serious issues of our day. It may be the most damaging problem that humans face, responsible for most of the misery and abuse in the world today. We then take this condition and bring it into our relationships, basically putting our self-worth into the hands of someone else. This is the root of what is commonly called codependency. I don't think anyone is exempt, but Mercury and Chiron are about to align in a way that can clarify this issue for you. Imagine that there are many ways that two people can align; pretend we have hundreds of ways we can connect with others. Among them, there are just a very few alignments where this issue of how we handle, treat and mirror one another's self-esteem can be seen for what it is. And what is that 'what it is'? That's for you to observe over the next few days. I suggest not looking for specifics, but rather treating everything that happens as an expression of this issue -- and seeing where that leads you. Hello Leo! Your birthday report is now available. I've recorded 70 minutes of in-depth astrology plus a 20-minute tarot reading for you, exploring relationships, personal growth and your professional life. Visit this page for additional information.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) -- You've faced some serious challenges this week. You may be considering them emotional in nature, but so far as I can see, the deeper issues are spiritual. Since that's a controversial term, I'll explain what I mean. Primarily, you're being called deeper than the sensory world, and the world of feelings. Those things are the starting point, but you're being invited deeper. You're being called beyond your individual past into what you can think of as the ancestral past. You're going deeper than human connection, into a realm where you meet something akin to a 'cosmic other'. You may discover this entity within you through a process of inner conflict. That conflict may feel like encountering some of the darkest aspects of who you are, but once you make friends with them, you discover the light within the shadow. To get there, it's essential that you suspend judgment about yourself, i.e., not deciding that you're so-and-so kind of person based on a certain experience you've had or feelings you discover within yourself. Observe, listen and keep your sense of humor. Eric is working on your birthday audio -- we plan to have it available shortly -- sorry for the delay. Please stay tuned!
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) -- Relationships are a delicate, sensitive dance. You can take nothing for granted -- and while that may seem like torture to those who desire only stability and consistency, it is the more likely path to healthy interaction. We have all discovered at some point that relationships can be dangerous. We can invest enormous amounts of self-esteem into them, alter the course of our lives and make commitments that may take decades to work out. Often we have to do this working from a blind spot as we assess who people are -- only to find out that additional information would have been useful much earlier on. If you're pondering subject matter such as this, I suggest you consider which fears you were carrying around before you got into your present situation. At the moment you're susceptible to the self-fulfilling prophecy. Keep an open dialog with those you care about, and do your best to avoid making claims on the future. To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Libra, please go to this link.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) -- One of the temptations you're facing now is the idea of purity. You may be obsessed with it, though in a way that's lurking in the background. This may involve themes like wanting to have an absolutely clear conscience, correct intentions, take impeccable care of your health, or absolute focus on your most important purpose in life. You know, that kind of impossible-to-attain stuff that could gradually drive you nuts if you take it too seriously. I suggest you invest your energy soothing your frayed emotions rather than trying to improve yourself. You need rest, you need water, and most of all you need to experiment with fulfilling some of the desires that have been continuously frustrated in recent weeks. I suggest you start modestly, with a sincere desire, particularly of a kind that you fear someone else might be inclined to judge. This is a good time to go out and make some new friends. Look for reasons to say yes. To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Scorpio, please go to this link.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) -- Humans are complex beings. We seem to spend half our lives working out our contradictions, and the rest of the time working out those of the world around us. The good news is that you seem to be making progress. Despite the many intricacies and the maze-like quality of your life, you are actually finding common ground with people -- with one key individual in particular, and also with certain groups that have a family-like quality. If we were to make a list of the most persistent mysteries that have faced humanity for its entire history, they might include questions like, 'Where did we come from and how did we get here?' But on top of the list would be, 'What is the secret to human cooperation?' You seem to be figuring this one out, and I suggest you put the information to work -- especially toward advancing a long-held career goal. To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Sagittarius, please go to this link.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) -- I suggest you connect the idea of professional advancement with fertility. Whatever your condition of employment, you're in a phase of seeding the future. You can think of this as impregnating your own aspirations, which -- when they begin to manifest -- often have the sensation of 'having a life of their own'. This is precisely what you're going for. Be mindful of who you're speaking with at all times. Listen for the ways you can work together, and pay attention for those visionary moments when ideas erupt spontaneously. Please keep a notebook to track both who you're talking with and what you're talking about. Give things a chance to develop, and also do your best to consciously evolve them. Notice when certain themes repeat themselves. Keep in contact with people who share similar ideas. Look for patterns of affinity, such as when you hear of organizations that have values similar to your own. This will work a lot better than sending out resumes. To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Capricorn, please go to this link.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- You seem to be trying to fit yourself through a narrow opening of what you believe is possible. As you are discovering, you won't fit through that passageway; you need a wider concept, and a bigger idea; that means you will need to enlarge your concept of who you are. One typical problem you encounter when you do this is that you can lose any sense of definition, shape or form -- or you fear that you will. That suggests you need to work with structure and with a concept, but that concept needs to be flexible enough to adapt to different situations. But the heart of the matter is not about the concepts -- it's your beliefs about what you're capable of. You seem to be using these beliefs as the basis of setting your goals. I suggest you work the other way, by defining some objectives, then determining how you're going to get there. To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Aquarius, please go to this link.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- Sex is like seawater, in that it contains nearly every element of consciousness. Many have noted the similarities between blood and seawater, both of which are like the ocean that refuses no river. This is more than a metaphor. Notice how your sexual ideas, emotions and experiences contain all of your feelings about yourself. Notice the overlay and exchange between yourself and the people close to you, including in fantasy experiences, dreams and the odd things that people say. Among erotic experiences there are times for blending energies more deeply, and times for sorting out who is who. At the moment, the cosmos is revealing a specific difference between you and someone close to you -- which may translate to a difference between you and everyone else in the world. Yet this is the kind of distinction that can have a way of bringing people closer. True individuality provides the basis for respect and the authentic sharing of common ground much more often than it does the basis for separation. To order Light Bridge, your full-length 2011 reading including written and audio segments for Pisces, please go to this link.