Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 52 - 9/11: Looking Back at the Day That Changed America Forever

Episode Date: September 11, 2017

The Department of Homeland Security. The enduring military occupation of Afghanistan that began as Operation Enduring Freedom and the Global War on Terror. The Transportation Security Administration. The Patriot Act giving law enforcement agencies unprecedented search and surveillance powers over US citizens without a warrant. The second gulf war in Iraq. All the legacy of September 11th, 2001. Terrorism and heroism, tyranny and patriotism, facts and conspiracies; all get sucked today, on Timesuck. This edition of Timesuck is brought to you by Chubbies! Go to www.chubbies.com/TIMESUCK to get free two day shipping on your order of the best beachwear out there! Want to help Hurricane Irma recovery efforts? Donate to the American Red Cross by clicking HERE. Want to donate to the victims of Hurricane Harvey? To donate to JJ Watt's Hurricane relief fund click HERE Please rate and subscribe and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG, @timesuckpodcast on Twitter, and www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Want to try out Discord!?! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact

The Department of Homeland Security, the enduring military occupation of Afghanistan, the began its operation during freedom. And the Global War on Terror, TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, the Patriot Act, giving law enforcement agencies unprecedented search and surveillance powers over U.S. citizens without a warrant. The Second Gulf War in Iraq, the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, all the legacy of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and the 19 terrorists who hijacked four US planes on September 11, 2001, toppling the

Twin Towers of Manhattan's World Trade Center, burning down more of the World Trade Center complex, seriously damaging the Pentagon and possibly destroying the White House itself, if not for the brave and courageous actions of some of the US citizens who died that day. 9-11 changed the world forever, and since today is 9-11, we look back at what happened, leading up to that fateful day. What happened on September 11, 2001, and the legacy it left? Terrorism and heroism, tyranny and patriotism get sucked today on TimeSuck. Welcome to the Suck, diehard TimeSuckers and fresh suck head faces looking to pop that time so cherry.

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link in episode description and if you're going to donate somewhere else just be careful there are scams running for both because there's pieces of shit always looking to exploit tragedy for their own personal game. Also, time suck hats are now in the shop. I couldn't be a prouder of how they came out. First and second generation hats hidden in the shop at time suck podcast dot com with the same damn time. Today they're in there and dear God do I love them. Two different styles and two different color combinations each to choose from. All hats have been made out of 97% Komodo Dragon toenails, 3% sea turtle weiner, making them

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and it shipped out from Florida. Hope all of those Tom and Dan, BDMs, and Florida TimeSuckers are staying safe right now. Two or dates I met I messed up last week. Those of you who looked at the Columbus funny bone website, no. I met the Columbus funny bone this week, September 14th through 17th live podcast recording in Hollywood at the improv, October 5th, stand up show at the Hollywood improv, October 7th with the guys from small town murder and crime and sports.

Oh, Jimmy and James going to be a blast. Helium in Portland, Oregon, October 12 through 14, the part of live in Bellevue, Washington, just outside Seattle on October 15th. Banana's comedy club and Hasbrook to Heights, New Jersey, just outside Manhattan. Come on, New York time suckers. Hit over their October 20th, 21st, more days coming up on the website soon. And now 900 review bonus episode is out this Friday. You got to pick between Mothman, the Zodiac Killer,

and the Salem Witch Trials on TimeSuck social media, Instagram and Twitter, and after getting hundreds of votes, the winner won by less than 10 votes. Third place was Mothman, enough votes to stand the topic list, you know, for down the road, not getting booted off, and winning just barely was the Salem Witch Trials. but Zodiac fans, don't get said, you know, you got enough votes to jump to the top of the coming soon category won't be long before the Zodiac. It sucked as well. So excited. Salem was my choice. That's hoping for as well

to be totally honest and excited to suck on some piratonicle paranoia this Friday, September 15th. Time sucker updates at the end of the episode now time to get sucked on 9-11. Little disclaimer, there's gonna be some irreverent comedy in this episode, like there is in every other time suck episode. If you lost someone, you know, due to 9-11, or were involved in some way that is an emotional trigger for you or has made an emotional trigger for you out of this day. You might want to bail, totally get it

and talk to you Friday, time sucker. I do hope you stay though. Proud of this episode, a lot of good 9-11 info in here, I believe. Also, if you have zero emotional connection to this event, but you just don't feel like it's okay to joke about in any way, any possible way, stop listening to the podcast

and if you're the person, if you're that person, and you've enjoyed any of the other episodes I want you to grab your head firmly, both hands. Try your best to pull it out of your hypocritical ass where it apparently is firmly latched. I mean, come on. I just, I know you used for people who can joke about horrific events and tragedies that affect

other people all day long, but then when that same humor is applied to an event, they feel as off limits for whatever personal reason. The comedy comes to grinding halt and suddenly it's all just hate speech. Suddenly this person has the audacity to find everything said terribly offensive. On philosophical level, I feel like it's either okay

to joke around about everything or it's not okay to joke about anything at all. For me, when it comes to dark and or irreverent humor, it's all about how it's done. I like to think I do a pretty good job when it comes not shaming victims, but instead just mocking perpetrators. You know, sometimes comedy can be found in the actions

of victims and like, what are they thinking of? What were they thinking there, kind of stuff? Like a recent example being the smoked nuts dude from the ice man episode. What the hell was he thinking not tapping out before his balls got melted? But anyway, if you feel okay with how I've treated past subjects, listen on, you know,

and if you just, if you don't think you'd enjoy my sense of humor, apply to this subject, what, why are you still listening? Go find something safe, something sanitize, something utterly lacking in balls, utterly lacking in desire to examine life in an unfiltered way. God knows there's a lot of that stuff out there.

But I doubt any of you would turn it off the podcast right now because you're fucking time suckers. Unless you're new and you're like, what the hell has he been talking about? Turtle weeners? Nimrod? I thought this was edutainment. Okay. Anyway, 9-11. Man, what a dark day for the United States. 9-11-2001 has to be the most shocking day in American history or had to have been since Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was long before my time, so I can only imagine when Americans felt that day when they heard we were under attack

or God, the people actually sought, experienced it. I can't imagine. With 9-11, I actually can remember, I was asleep when the first tower struck and when my wife at the time. She just got into work and she called me and she woke me up. She told me a plane, had just had a skyscraper in New York. And I thought she was joking. It was just such an absurd notion to me. She convinced me that she was not joking. I ran in, I turned on the news and I realized this

actually was happening. It was so surreal. Hard to even explain or articulate how surreal I felt watching it was ABC News that I watched and I actually saw the second plane hit live on TV. They're on YouTube, you know, the broadcasts are up there for everyone to see forever. And this is what I remember watching. What we're seeing, it appears that there is more and more fire and smoke enveloping the very top of the building and as you look at the proofs, you're just watching this. The smoke plume off the top of the, it doesn't look real. It does not appear that there's any kind of a...

And then you see the second plane and then... Oh my god. Wow. Oh my god. That looks like a plane. Still gives me chills. Actually a plane going that that's if exploded, we just saw another plane

coming in from the side. Oh, yeah, that was out of the ship. Yeah, second explosion you can see. Now, you can hear the shock and their voices on that. And I mean, I remember feeling it. Again, man, I got goosebumps right now. It's just.

Ah, it's just so sick to watch, you know, just over 30 minutes later, the remember feeling it. Again, man, I got goosebumps right now. It's just, it's just so sickening to watch, just over 30 minutes later, the Pentagon has hit, and suddenly Americans like myself, we just lost forever that feeling that, as long as you were in America, as long as you're on American soil, you were safe from shit like that. I mean, you knew if you've paid attention

to world events at all, that traged you know, tragedies affect other countries. Every day, horrific tragedies, actually tragedies that in scale as far as loss of life are far more destructive than what happened on 9-11, you know, there's genocides going on. There's terrible things that have gone on, but it just, it hadn't happened to us here. And it hadn't happened in such a sudden, just out of nowhere way, where you know, on September 10th, everything seems fucking great. And then all of a sudden, just the world changed.

It's like the world just went upside down. You know, and I don't remember feeling scared that something would happen where I was. I was living in Spokane, Washington at the time. I felt like, you know, that had to be a low priority for any kind of, you know, in any kind of military target type way, but I remember thinking about friends in Chicago or LA,

like what about those places? What next? And then I ended up flying on the one-year anniversary of 9-11 later, and man, I was eyeballing the shit out of other passengers. I was eyeballing other passengers for several years, but especially on certain dates, because it felt like something horrible could happen again,

because now there was a precedent. Who gets attacked next? Another tragedy in the near future in the early years of the odds, it felt almost inevitable. But now 17 years later, it just seems like a long time ago. And for better or for worse,

I didn't stop kind of thinking about it. And then I realized, I didn't remember the details that day, which led to what details led to that day, and the legacy it left. So I thought, let's re-examine it. So let's dig in and suck on some 9-11 facts, let's educate ourselves first with the lengthy time-suck timeline.

Shrap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a time-sub-time line. Okay, so we're leading up to the events 9-11. Early spring, 2001, the CIA repeatedly and urgently begins to warn the White House that a domestic terrorist attack is coming. May 2001, a co-fer black chief of the CIA's counter terrorism center, is warns that it was very evident that we were going to be struck. We were going to be struck hard and lots of Americans were going to die.

There were real plots being manifested. Coford's former boss, former director of the CIA, George Tennant said in an interview with journalist Chris Whipple. He said, the world felt like it was on the edge of eruption. In this time period of June and July, the threat continues to rise. Terrorists were disappearing as in hiding in preparation for an attack. Camps were closing. Threat reports were on the rise.

June 29, 2001 CIA continues to repeat warnings. Operatives connected to Bin Laden, one reported on June 29th expected the planned near-term attacks to have dramatic consequences, including major casualties. July 1st, 2001. July 1st, the brief stated that the operation had been delayed, but will occur soon as the briefed the White House. Some of the briefs again reminded Mr. Bush that the attack timing was flexible and that despite any perceived delay, the planned assault was on track. Then on July 10th, on the morning of July 10th, the head of the CIA's Al-Qaeda

unit, Richard Blee burst into co-fer Black's office, and he says Chief, this is it, recounts Black. The information that we had compiled was absolutely compelling. It was multi-sourced, and it was sort of the last straw, Black and his deputy rushed to the director's office to brief tenant. All agreed an urgent meeting at the White House was needed. Tenant picked up the phone to Bush's national security advisor Condoleezza Rice. I said, Condi, I have to come see you, tenant remembers. It was one of the rare times in my seven years a CIA director where I said, I have to come see you. We're coming right now. We have to get there. Tenet vividly recalls the White House meeting with Rice and her team. President Bush was on a trip to Boston this day. This day, Richard Blee started by saying there will be significant terrorist

attacks against United States in the coming weeks or months. The attacks will be spectacular. They may be multiple. Al-Qaeda's intention is the destruction of the United States. And, Kondi said, what do you think we need to do? Black responded allegedly by slamming his fist on the table and saying, we need to go on a wartime footing. Now August 6, 2001 on the morning of August 6, 2001, President George W. Bush receives a classified review of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al-Qaeda.

That morning's presidential daily brief, the top secret document prepared by America's intelligence agencies features the heading Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S. Now, if you're listening, you're thinking, how the hell could Bush just keep ignoring these warnings? I want you to cool your gest for a second. I am not a Bush apologist. I didn't even really like the guy on the gut level. He always seems super phony to me with his, you know, I'm just a good old boy.

Just, you know, kind of, I'm just a regular Texan, you know, just, you know, that typical, I'm a common man. And I just never bought that because he was raised in wealth and privileged and he grew up completely insulated from the trials and tribulations of the common man. Which is fine, if you've grown up that way. But then, but then don't pretend you're, you know,

some kind of ranch hand, you know, or pretend you're more ranch hand than Yale grad. You hand, you know, represent your, your more ranch hand than Yale grad. I, you know, I didn't vote for him, but I will defend him here. I don't think Bush ignoring CIA warnings is definitely outrageous and just recklessly irresponsible. You know, I don't think this behavior made him a shitty president. I'll tell you why. They do had a lot of other shit on his plate.

Presidents are busy in a way. I'm sure I will never fully comprehend. Right, like even on vacation, they have to be getting just bombarded with decisions. All the goddamn time. So many decisions, really important decisions. No president is ever just wandering around the White House, just looking for something to do.

Just say, is anyone want to play Pinkfong or something? And then maybe, maybe watch all the episodes of Breaking Bad tonight, you know, why not, man? I got, I got nothing to do. How's being president going, buddy? Ugh, boring. It's pretty boring, you know. It's been most of my time building model airplanes, actually. I've got, got damn it, so sick of model airplanes, you know, just day in and day out.

Nothing but glue and model airplanes have been president. Now, come on, every president from George Washington Donald Trump has been constantly been barred. You know, it's shit to do. You know, even Trump, you know, and he's not in the dispent to me, they're not, you know, but it's like, people get all outraged about his tweeting, that's a discussion for another podcast.

But it's not like he's doing that all day. Even he has a lot of shit to do, you know? He's making decisions all the time. And so how many, so I just wonder how many other threats were being presented to Bush and the White House around that time? You know, we'll just, we'll never know. I just highly doubt that, you know,

and Alcada terrorist attack is the only one. And remember the CAA isn't even the only intelligence agency. There's, you know, there's army intelligence terrorist attacks is the only one. And remember, the CIA isn't even the only intelligence agency. There's, you know, there's army intelligence, there's other intelligence agencies talking to bush, and just so many other things, you know. Well, you know, I, Will Farrell used to do a whole area's impression of Bush as a bumbling idiot. My favorite was at the Nelsketsch,

where Bush was batting around like a cat toy or some, or some yarn. But that actually wasn't the truth. You know, it's not like the CIA burst into the oval office to warn the White House about bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and Bush, Cheney and Condoleezza Rice were just in the middle of a monopoly game. You know, just got out of here, detective, tenet.

I just put hotels on the orange ones. I just did that. Condi hits New York Avenue and she's done. Yes, $1,000. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. She only has 200 left. You know and she's done. Yes, $1,000. Ha ha ha ha ha. She only has 200 left. You know, she's got everything but two railroads mortgage. She's got all this is good time.

But Mr. President, we need to talk about bin Laden right now. I can wait, poop-o-face, okay? Did she just buy some new Nerf cannons? He just buy some new Nerf cannon blasters. All we damned if I don't get to hide and link his bedroom this afternoon Kind of indigo never find me there. They never they never they never got. Oh shit You just made me give away my hideaway the director tenet look what you made me do God man, how am I supposed to play Nerf today look?

I'm I'm also not saying Bush was right to ignore the warnings either But I just think some benefit of doubt is in order. It's always easy to look at hindsight and point figures, like, hey, man, how could you ignore this? How could you ignore this one warning in the sea of 1,000 warnings you got that week? And, again, maybe he was truly negligent and not heating the CIA director's advice, but oftentimes politicians are put historically and lose, lose situations, you know? Follow up on every warning that comes across your desk and you're just a fool who waste taxpayer money.

Don't follow up on the one warning in a thousand that actually turns out to be something legitimate and then you're extremely negligent, or even somehow complicit. Always important to think about context with these. Even though, man, as a research, so many journalists don't seem to give a shit about context, I guess it's not sexy.

So what do we know? We know that the Bush administration did receive numerous warnings about an impending Al Qaeda attack. We know that they did not act on those warnings. We don't know how many other situations they were dealing with at this time. So moving along.

August 13, 2001, soon to be hijackers, Muhammad, Atta, and two other Al Qaeda recruits have a planned meeting in Las Vegas. Marwan, Al-Shahi, Al-Shahi, another Al-Qaeda recruit purchases two 4-inch pocket knives in Florida. August 16, 2001, Zikarius Musawi is arrested, Minnesota by the FBI, and charged with an immigration violation after the flight school he was taking lessons at,

and Egan, Minnesota, becomes suspicious of him. Now, Musawi would never be completely, conclusively linked with 9-11, but he was linked to Al-Qaeda and admitted to planning a separate terrorist attack of his own involving planes. That dude currently serving life without the possibility of parole and the ad max maximum security federal prison in Fremont County, Colorado.

After the arrest, the FBI sends a memo to the White House saying that they are concerned that Mazawi is involved in a plot to commit a terrorist attack. Attack. In early August, many of the 19 hijackers who would be involved in 9-11 sign up for gym memberships. If they haven't done so already, they are physically preparing themselves to overtake flight crews on September 11th. Late August 2001. Five of the 19 hijackers, the ones who would take over American Airlines Flight 77, check into the Valencia hotel, just a few miles from the National Security Administration offices. They continue with flight training that they've been taking for months. They work at a gold gym, money is wired into their counts to purchase airline tickets.

August 27, 2001, ringleader, Muhammad Atta, the man who would pilot American Airlines flight 11 in the into the North Tower of the World Trade Towers, flies to DC, has a final meeting in the Valencia hotel with Haneh Hajur, a man from Saudi Arabia who would be training as a pilot and Nawaf al-Hazmi, Salim al-Hazmi, Halid al-Midhar and Majid Mugid. He purchased his utility toolkit feature in the night he'd used to help overpower the crew on flight 11. At the end of August, the hijackers are preparing for their deaths, closing bank accounts, ending leases, sending spare money to other al-Qaeda accounts. All of the airline tickets have been obtained all one way.

The hijackers will use cash from purchases from here on out. The four hijacker pilots have all completed their FAA training, including test flights and all have their licenses. September 6, 2011 Abdul Aziz al-Aumari and Satam al-Squami, two of the American Airlines flight 11 hijackers, checking to the park in in Boston. The United Airlines flight 93 hijackers Saeed al-Ghambi, Ahmad Al-Haznawi, Ziyad Jarrah, and Ahmed Al-Nami checking to the Marriott hotel at the Newark Airport. The plot leaders, Ziyad Jarrah, pilot of the United Flight 93 hijackers, and Muhammadat a pilot of the American Airlines flight 11 hijackers, meet up for a meal at the Food Factory,

a Pakistani restaurant and buffet in Maryland. And I gotta wonder if there was any discussion about the disparity in hotel accommodations. That's just stuck out to me, comedically. I mean, the park in was a motor lodge. Torn down in 2005 after closing in 2004, the Newark Airport Marriott is a four star hotel. I don't know if you've ever stayed in Motor Lodge,

but I've stayed in a ton after over 15 years as a touring comic. I've stayed in every type of hotel imaginable. I stayed in five star hotels in the US and abroad, and I've also stayed in places that make a basic Motel 6 room. Look, I got them honeymoon suite. And I can personally vouch for motor lodges

by and large being super shitty. Like, probably not going to get room service in a motor lodge, maybe pick up a rash. Probably not going to have a fitness center or spa in a motor lodge, make it into a fight with a junkie crashing in the coin operated washer and dryer room. Not going to have a high thread pillow cases, you know, high thread count pillow cases in the motor lodge. Probably going to get blood stains on the carpet, you know, you get the idea. I'm gonna have a high thread pillow cases, high thread count pillow cases in a motor ludge. Probably gonna get blood stains on the carpet. You get the idea.

And so I just think it's odd that one group of terrorists looking to sacrifice themselves for some bullshit spend their final days in luxury while some other assholes about to die for the same cause hang out in a dump. Now I just wish I could have just, hey, move, how about, can we talk for a second about the rooms?

Can we talk for a second about the hotels? Oh, no problem. How's it married out? Marry out's great, but, it's just that the guys at the park end are, they're literally rotated. What's wrong with the park end? Are you kidding me?

Muhammad, come on, dude. They don't have room service. Like the guys at the marry out, they have a candy machine that doesn't kick out candy. Just takes your quarters. Front desk doesn't care. Most time, the guy's not even there. They don't have an indoor pool.

They have an outdoor pool. It looks like it's been closed since before the motel ever opened. They can't watch pay-per-view hotel movies. They've been watching old in the heat of the night reruns. TNT is the only channel that comes in. Just, you know, heat, oh, the night. I know that sounds horrible, but that's what we hear. That's what that that's just going to be in their heads when they blow themselves a fuck up. Don't get me wrong. Happy to be part of the mission. They are happy. Praise

me, how about all that jazz. They're looking forward to the virgins and all that shit. But it would be nice if the guys could walk around in a room and doesn't smell like be on campus. A room they can walk around without having to leave their shoes on for the last few days on Earth. I don't know. I just know if someone had convinced me to be part of some suicide mission with a bunch of other dudes

and in the other dudes are living it up at the Marriott, while I'm laying on semen stained sheets and listening to two meth heads by the next room, I'd be upset. Anyway, September 9th, 2001, two days before 9.11, the New York Times published this article on their website, examining the possibility of an al-Qaeda attack on the US.

The article focuses on a videotape made by Ben Lawden, which was released in June of 2001. This article, curiously, was quickly removed after the 9.11 attack. Ben Lawden, Taun's the US in the article, which I heard about on a YouTube video, and had to almost kind of gable trying to find, tried about 50 different Google searchers

looking for this article. Very, very, very tricky to find. Finally, I found a site, history commas.org, that references it, includes a link to another site. That link was dead, but then they also had just wrote out the HTML article address separately in the article. I cut and pasted that and actually found it in the New York Times website database.

And it really was their website navigated around to some other articles, you know, title America the vulnerable meets a ruthless enemy It's written by John F. Burns Who knows why it's hard to find maybe a few people look for it? Maybe someone doesn't want you to read it. I don't know. I feel like it was if it was truly meant to never be read It would just be permanently removed from the Times archives. Anyway, it states, Mr. Bin Laden seemed to gloat as he spoke in Arabic of future attacks on American targets that he said would dwarf those he had directed in the past. With small capabilities and with our faith, we can defeat the greatest military power of modern times he said at one point.

America is much weaker than it appears. At one point, the Saudi Arabian born Mr. Ben Laden seemed to hint at a suicide attack in the United States. Over pictures of Sheikh Omar Abdallah Rahman, or Rahman, the Egyptian born Muslim cleric who was serving a life sentence in the US for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Mr. Ben Laden described the cleric as a hostage in an American jail. He added, we hear he is sick and that the Americans are treating him badly. Then addressing

his followers, he shifted straight into an exhortation to martyrdom. You will not die needlessly, he said, your lives are in the hands of God. It is interesting that the same complex was attacked. I feel like that can't be a coincidence. I feel like that, you know, Al Qaeda had to have directed the attack against the World Trade Center because of it trying to be blown up before and then not completing it. It's symbolic, I'm sure. September 10, 2001, Muhammad Atta and Abdul Aziz al-Omari, two of the American Airlines flight 11 hijackers, either to Pizza Hut on their way to Portland, Maine, where they will catch

your connecting flight to Boston the following morning. Again, thought that was odd, really? Fucking pizza hut? That's it, you're getting your last full day on Earth, you're getting fucking pizza. Nothing gets pizza, I actually like pizza hut. I like almost all pizza and eat it despite being lactose intolerant.

Pizza Hut stuff crust, pizza annihilates my colon, just full jihad against my butt but if i knew i was dying the next day uh... fuck it fuck pizza hot and every other fast food chain uh... i'm gonna eat something you know uh... a little more scale i guess you guys figured that once they were you know up in the heaven having

sex with all the virgins who cares another weird thing to wish for but i never understood that uh... why would you want to have virgins in heaven like seriously like if there was a heaven out there where you got to go and have a crazy amount of sex I would not want I would not want virgins at all that would be the that would be the bottom of the list Top of the list porn stars top of the list professionals Who know what they're doing maybe continue continue to do some stuff. Anyway, also on September 10th, National Security Agency agents intercepted conversation between two suspected al-Qaeda operatives,

one saying the match begins tomorrow. The other says tomorrow is zero day. However, the speakers spoke in Arabic and these conversations were not translated until September 12th. So that's unfortunate. All right, did any of you just freak out a little bit though about the NSA tapping someone not yet convicted of anything just tapping their phone?

It did me. Maybe stop with my research in Google. Does the NSA tap our phones, which led me to an article in the Washington Post and it says the following. Documents obtained by the Washington Post indicate that the national security agency is collecting billions of records a day to track the location of mobile phone users around the world. This bulk collection performed under the NSA's International Surveillance Authority taps into the telephone links of major telecommunications providers, including some here in the US. The NSA collects this location and travel habit data to do, quote, target development. To find unknown associates of targets it already knows about, to accomplish this, the NSA compiles compiles information on a vast database of devices

in their locations. Most of those collected by definition are suspected of no wrongdoing. Officials say that they do not purposely collect US phone locations in bulk, but a large number are swept up incidentally. Using these vast location databases, the NSA applies sophisticated analytics techniques to identify what it calls co-travelers, unknown associates who might be traveling with or meeting up with a known target. And then the article just kind of goes on to say that it's totally legal for the NSA to do this, so apparently they can legally track the location travel patterns of any of us. But can they listen? After some more googling in a word, yep. Under justification of national security, the national security agency can theory to listen to any conversation

it wants. Odds are, it's probably not listening to any of our conversations. They'll you have to have millions of employees to keep an eye on everyone. But it scares a shit out of me that they can do this. And I think with tech advancement, think about this. With tech advancement, eventually some voice recognition program will be able to record and transcribe every conversation, every single one of us has. And with advancements and cloud storage, eventually an agency like the NSA in theory

will be able to analyze every conversation, with computers, and store every conversation indefinitely. And then with advancements and processing speeds, you know, you could just quickly look up anybody by their name and get a full history of anything they've ever said over the phone, anything they've ever typed on a computer. It's fucking terrifying. Great for security, really bad for privacy. You know, it makes the possibility of our lives turning into a version of George Orwell's dystopian vision

in his famous novel, 1984, very real, right? Thought police here, we come. This is something we really need to think about as a society going forward. Reminds me of the dark web episode. How important is your privacy? Truly, you know, how much of it are you willing to trade for safety?

And if you do trade privacy for safety, how likely is it that a future to Tolitarian regime, one that, you know, we may not know about, one that the people who eventually run it don't even know about yet, will end up controlling all of us in a way humanity has never been controlled before, thanks to this technology. I feel like I'm starting to appreciate the Matrix movies in a whole new way. I get it, Nero. Get it. Also, hi, Jacker. It's Yad Jara writes a letter to his girlfriend in Germany on the 10th. It says, amongst other things, I have done what I had to do. You should be very proud because it is an

honor. And in the end, you will see that everyone will be happy. Such a strange rationalization. These guys weren't, you know, these guys weren't able to the core cartoonish villains. These guys weren't, you know, these guys weren't able to the core cartoonish villains. I'd argue that they were far more delusional than evil. They just thought they were on submission from God, right? Like I'm learning to have more tolerance for religions as podcasts goes on, but when you're religion asked you to kill for it and to kill innocent civilians, can we all agree? You need to find a new church. That's a real fucking bad one that you're going to.

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Okay, 9-11, 2001. Here we go. 6.50 a.m. Muhammad Atta in Abdul Aziz, Alamari's flight from Portland, Maine arrives on time at Boston's Logan Airport 7.45 a.m. Muhammad Atta in Abdul Aziz Alamari's flight from Portland, Maine arrives on time at Boston's Logan airport 7.45 a.m. Muhammad Atta an Abdul board American Airlines flight 11 759 a.m. American Airlines flight 11 Boeing 7.67 with 92 people on board 81 passengers 9 flight attendants 2 pilots takes off from Boston's Logan International airport in route to LA. Well, I was angeless.

It's a number of people on board doesn't seem right to you. It's because various websites, books, documentaries, et cetera, report a very in amount of passengers. The general consensus, and most likely number seems to be 92 on this flight. I've done my best to use the most often quoted and reliable number for the other flights as well. 814 AM, United Airlines flight 175, a Boeing 767, was 65 people aboard, takes off from Boston, also headed to Los Angeles.

819 AM flight attendance aboard onboard flight 11 alert, ground personnel to the Planes of the High Jacked. American Airlines notifies the FBI can't imagine how scary that must have been. 820 AM American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Dole's International Airport just outside of Washington DC. The Boeing 757 is headed to Los Angeles with 64 people aboard. 824 AM hijacker Mohammed Atta makes the first of two accidental transmissions from flight 11 to ground control, apparently in an attempt to communicate with the planes cabin. 8.40am, the federal aviation administration, FAA, alerts North American

aerospace defense command, NORAN's Northeast Air Defense sector needs about the suspected hijacking of flight 11. In response, needs cramble to fighter planes, located at Cape Cod's Otis Air National Guard Base to locate and tail flight 11. Everything happened so fast that they are still not yet in the air when flight 11 crashes into the North Tower. 8.41am flight 93 took off from Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, later renamed Liberty International Airport at 8.41am. The flight left from terminal A, gate 17, the scheduled departure time from gate was 8 AM, flight 93 was scheduled to land at San Francisco International Airport at 1114 AM, Pacific time. There were 44 people on board, two pilots,

five flight attendants, 33 passengers, four hijackers. There were six passengers and four hijackers in first class and 27 passengers in coach 846 AM, Muhammad Atta and the other hijackers aboard American Airlines flight 11 crashed a plane into floors 93 through 99 of the North Tower in the World Trade Center killing everyone on board and hundreds inside the building immediately. 847 AM within seconds NYPD and Fire Department New York FD and Y forces the Spass units to the World Trade Center will port authority police department officers on site began immediate evacuation to the North Tower. 850 AM White House chief of staff Andrew Card alerts president George W. Bush that a plane has hit the World Trade Center.

The president is visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida, at the time. Now, Bush's reaction to getting this information will be ridiculed and judged by people like Michael Moore, who made a big deal out of it in his documentary, Fahrenheit 9.11, the highest grossing documentary of all time, by the way, grossing anywhere from 250 million to 500 million, depending on who you ask. And look, I like some of what Michael Moore does, but sometimes he sensationalizes the shit out of his arguments to the point that I feel like he de-legitimizes the solid underlying point he may have these trying to make. And this is an example. I didn't like how he handled this. Bush was informed of the initial attack during a school visit in

Florida, but he kept reading the kid's story about a pet goat before he was eventually escorted to Air Force One. Bush calmly continued chatting with the children after being informed, showing no sign that anything was amiss, and then several minutes later he excused himself and he left. Conspiracy theorist Michael Moore took his calm reaction and delayed a few minutes to the sign that somehow like he knew the attacks were common, like it was all kind of part of some plan, so give me a fucking break. He's reading a book to kids, and he doesn't want to tip his hand to the rest of the world, you know, as it being filmed until he gets a better understanding what's happening? What did people want him to do in that moment?

Just run around the room screaming. Oh god kids. Oh god. We're all gonna die. We're all gonna die Oh, I don't even know who's attacking us. Tell Dictipusher Red Buttons. Push all the red buttons Oh, we're gonna kill everybody before they kill us go to the basement kids grab some knives Oh, protect yourselves from the inevitable moment when your parents decide they're gonna have to eat you in a post-nuclear Apocalyptic world robots we live in oh god How is panicking helping right and And he finishes really quickly and he leaves to me. He did a great job here That that's me. I don't know what would be the ideal way to, I mean, again, it was a few minutes and they're

just figuring out. And it's not like nobody else can do anything in those few minutes, right? There are other people in government, other people in military who can kind of move things along in these situations. 902 AM, after initially instructing tenants at the WCTC's South Tower to remain in the building port authority officials broadcast orders to evacuate both towers via the public address system. An estimated 10,000 to 14,000 people are already in the process of evacuating.

903 AM, hijackers crash United Airlines flight 175 into floor 75 through 85 of the south tower. That's what we heard at the beginning of this episode killing everyone on board and hundreds again inside the building, 908 AM. The FAA bands all take off some fly ins going to New York City through, or through the airspace around the city, 921 AM. The port authority closes all bridges and tunnels

in the New York City area, 924 AM. The FAA notifies needs of the suspected hijacking of flight 77 after some pastors and crew aboard are able to alert family members on the ground 931 am speaking from Florida President Bush calls the events in New York City in a parent terrorist attack on our country This is less than an hour from when he when he found out about it by the way I don't think that's a crazy long time to have to wait for an official reaction You want to take in all the information 937 a.m. High Jackers aboard flight 77 crashed a plane into the Western facade of the Pentagon of Washington, DC killing 59 aboard the plane and 125 military and civilian personnel inside

the building. 9.42 a.m. For the first time in history, the FAA grounds all flights over or bound for the continental U.S. Some 3,300 commercial flights, additional 1200 private planes or guided to various airports over the next two and a half hours. You know that some jaded travel weary businessmen were losing their shit when this happened.

At least one dude in some airport bar, had to have said something to the effective. Look, I'm cool risking it. I'm cool risking it. I need to make it to that goddamn meeting. 9.45 AM, amid escalating rumors of other attacks to White House and US Capitol buildings are evacuated along with numerous other high profile

buildings landmarks and public spaces. 9.59 AM, the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses, 10.07 AM. After pastors and crew members aboard the hijack flight 93 contact friends and family and learn about the attacks in New York and Washington, they mount an attempt to retake the plane in response hijackers deliberately crashed the plane into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, killing all 40 pastors and crew aboard.

High ranking al-Kaded Taney thought to be Abdul Abou Zubadaya would tell investigators the attended target for Flight 93 was the White House. Imagine that. As horrific as the towers attack was, the symbolism of someone destroying the White House, I mean, like a plane crashing into and just obliterating the White House,

that would have been even, I think, much more damaging to the collective psyche of the nation. Wack, I think, much more damaging to the collective psyche of the nation. Wack, I mean, that seems unimaginable. 1028 AM, the World Trade Center's North Tower collapse is 102 minutes after being struck by flight 11. 11 AM, Mayor Rudolph Gulliani. Gulliani, there we go, calls for the evacuation of lower Manhattan, south of Canal Street, including more than 1 million residents, workers and tourists as efforts continue throughout the afternoon to search for survivors of the World Trade Center site. One PM from a US Air Force based in Louisiana, President Bush

announces US military forces are on high alert worldwide. Two 51 PM, US Navy dispatches missile destroyers to New York and Washington DC, 520 PM, 47 story, uh, uh, building seven of the world trade center collapses after burning for hours. The building had been evacuated in the morning. There are no casualties, though the collapse forces rescue workers to flee for their lives. 6.58 PM, President Bush returns to the White House after stops military bases in Louisiana in Nebraska. 8.30 PM less than 12 hours after first hearing of the attacks. President Bush addresses a nation calling the attacks evil, despicable acts of terror and declaring that America its friends and allies would stand together to win the war against terrorism.

Before we move on to the aftermath, some quick facts about the magnitude of 9 11 at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, 2,753 people were killed when hijacked American Airlines flight 11 and United Airlines flight 175 were intentionally crashed into the towers. Of those two parrors during the initial attacks and the subsequent collapses of the towers, 343 were New York City firefighters. That's a crazy number. 343 firefighters. 23 were New York City police officers and 37 were officers at the port authority. The victims ranged in age from two to 85 years approximately

75 to 80 80 percent of the victims were male at the Pentagon and in Washington 184 additional people were killed when hijacked American Airlines flight 77 crashed in the building and then their shank still Pennsylvania the 40 past years and crew of American or of United Airlines Flight 93, died when the plane crashed into the field. As of August 2017, 1,641 or 60% of the 2,753 World Trade Center victims remains have been positively identified. Okay, so now, before we hop out of the timeline

to address the specific causalities, our casualties, and heroics of rescuers kind of involved in the 9-11 attacks themselves. Let's look at some key dates in the aftermath. September 13, 2001, the White House announces that there is overwhelming evidence that Osama bin Laden is behind the attacks. September 14, Congress authorizes President Bush to use all necessary inappropriate force against

those nations, organizations or persons. He determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11th. September 16th. Osama bin Laden denies any involvement in the 9-11 attacks in a statement on Al-Jazeera television saying, I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons. I feel like Ben Laden must have had a moment here when he like the reality hit him and he truly understood the consequences of his actions.

Like before 9-11, talking mad shit about how he's going to tear the US in new asshole. And then as the US be instant mobilized for war and he's their primary target, the primary target of the most powerful military organization in the world, there had to have been a little bit of just, oh shit, oh shit. Well, this is not going to bode well for me. I may have underestimated how hard it would be to bring America to its knees.

How many active military personnel does he always have today? Around 1.5 million. 1.5 million, okay. With far more in reserves and many, many, many more expected to sign up almost immediately. Oh, okay, okay, okay. How many properly trained you hottest do we have ready to fight right now?

Two to three hundred. What if we include old men and young boys? Maybe 500. Motherfucker. What if we include old men and young boys? Maybe 500. Mother fucker. What if we can't all the guys who we willing to throw rocks on our behalf to fight infidels? Brings it up to about 1,000. Fuck.

Is it too late to say I am very sorry? September 18, 2001, just a department publishes an interim regulation allowing non-citizen suspected of terrorism to be detained without charge for 48 hours or an additional reasonable period of time in the event of an emergency or other extraordinary circumstance. The new rule is used to hold hundreds indefinitely until the U.S. Patriot Act passes in October. So, to November 20, 2001, President Bush announces the new cabinet-level office of the Homeland Security is going to be led by Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge. Ridge later becomes secretary of the new homeland security department.

In an address to a joint session of Congress, President Bush declares every nation in every region now has a decision to make either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime. British Prime Minister Tony Blair meets with President George Bush at the White House, according to former British ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer, who also intended the dinner,

Bush indicates that he is determined to remove Saddam Hussein from power. When we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq. Now I've never had a big problem with your withers or against this rhetoric. I interpreted that as either you're okay with terrorists attacking the US, against this, or you are okay with us attacking terrorists who attack us and you're not going to help

those specific people out for us. I did use to have a huge problem with the, why did they hate us? They hate our freedom kind of rhetoric that was being thrown around at this time. Looking back though, I realized that that quote was actually wildly taken out of context. Bush was mocked for being an idiot who mispoked a lot, but the dude did go to Yale. And the hate our freedom was a sound bite pulled from a much larger speech.

He delivered on September 20th. That was excellent actually when you look back at it. Here's an expert. Americans are asking why did they hate us? They hate what they it, here's an expert. Americans are asking, why do they hate us? They hate what they see right here in this chamber, a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other. They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.

They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa. These terrorists kill not merely to end lives but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us because we stand in their way. We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We've seen their kind before. They're the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century by sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions by abandoning every value except the will to power. They follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism.

And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies. Hey, push if you want, that's a great speech. All right, that's a great speech. Not saying we didn't have additional motives to go and die rack other than fighting for freedom and to liberate people, but solid

speech. Yeah, really solid speech. October 4, 2001, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking before an emergency session of parliament, says that three of the 19 9 11 hijackers have been positively identified as known associates of Osama bin Laden. October 5, 2001, a photographer for the tabloid newspaper, The Sun, dies of inhalation anthrax, of inhaling anthrax, excuse me, in Boca Raton, Florida, over the next several weeks, along with several false alarms. Four other letters containing anthrax are received by NBC News,

the New York Post, Senate Majority Leader Tom Dashel, Senate and Senator Patrick Leahy. Eleven people are infected. Five people died. God, I remember those anthrax murders, man. That added such a new level of fear to the whole situation, killing people by putting powder in an envelope. And maybe you think just like, what next? Is someone gonna poison our water supply? Just kill thousands of us at once or millions?

Biological warfare. Man, think about the possibilities of biological warfare if you feel like you're sleeping too well right now. If you're like, you know what? I've been sleeping really sound at night. I just the second my head hits the pillow just not a care in the world and just out I go just just lay there and just think about the biological and chemical warfare Possibilities and maybe that'll help keep you up. October 5th 2001 1000 soldiers from the US Army's 10th Mountain Division are sent to central to the central Asian nation of Uzbekistan

Tenth Mountain Division are sent to Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan and rhymes with Kazakhstan. And for some reason, just maybe think of Soundgarden Spoonman. Spoonman come together with your hands, save me out together with your plan. But you know what I think of it. Never understood that song at all. Right, what kind of plan does a dude who uses spoons as musical instrument half? The guy seems like someone was super shitty plants. He couldn't even form a plan to get to a music store He couldn't even plan ahead to get a proper instrument Anyway, I know that was a weird detour October 7th

2001 US and British forces began airstrikes in Afghanistan after the Taliban refuses to hand over al-Qaeda leader or some have been logged Blame for the 9-11 attacks. The operation was named Operation During Freedom. Troops have remained in Afghanistan ever since. There are currently roughly 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan, down from a peak of about 100,000 in 2010 and 2011. Over 2000 US military personnel have died in Afghanistan since 2001. Operation during freedom would technically end in 2014, but troops remain, and according to the balance.com, the conflicts in Afghanistan have cost over a trillion dollars so far. October 26, 2001, President Bush signs the US Patriot Act into law. The Patriot Act was the first of many changes to surveillance laws that made it easier

for the government to spine ordinary Americans by expanding the authority to monitor phone and email communications, collect bank and credit reporting records, track the activity of innocent Americans on the internet. While most Americans think it was created to catch terrorists, the Patriot Act actually turns regular citizens into suspects. You know, and it was. It may very well have been created to catch terrorists. But you know, according to the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, between 2003 and 2006, the FBI used the Patriot Act to issue national

security letters authorizing unlimited access to 192,499 American's emails, cell phone, banking, and internet browsing history, the result of one conviction. So does that one arrest justify the incredible invasion to the privacy of all the other people? Do you all think everybody's going to look, you know, and do exactly whatever you're looking at online, just whenever they feel like it, if it might lead to somebody's arrest? No wrong answer to that. Just something to think about. A side note, those FBI agents must have come across so much porn, right? Like so much, like an insane amount.

It must have had a lot of moments right like so much like an insane amount. Must have had a lot of moments of just like Tom Tom Tom Tom come look at this one come is that is that legal? Oh damn it Dale. What even is that? Is that three Dicks? Is that three Dicks? How do they all fit in there? Who's looking at that? November 5th 2001. The Justice Department announces as it put a 1,182 people in the secret custody since 911 I do remember hearing a lot of lock them up talk around the time of 911 regarding middle eastern people We've locked up man people so many times just for any people We locked up 120,000 Japanese citizens during World War two. Did that make it safer? Maybe maybe not Did it fuck up the lives of you know tens of thousands citizens' families. Oh, yeah, 100% for sure.

I've talked to people whose families were devastated by that. I met some Persian musicians recently doing a podcast, awesome podcast. Actually, by the way, call it's going to be out after a little while called nomad land. The guys run in there. Fantastic. An ear fan, he told him about him and how he and his family were sent to a prison in Lancaster, California back in 2001, just thrown right in amongst violent offenders and just left there for weeks. And why?

Because they were from my rent. That's it. That's literally the only reason. He's not even a religious guy, neither is his family, but they were questioned for hours about what mosque did you go to? What's going on there? He didn't even go to one. And if you're of the mindset that you have to do things like that sometimes, that it's

justified. Maybe it is, but I also want you to ask yourself, what if it was you and your lineage? Would it be cool then? Truly? You know, like if you're a basic Caucasian mutt like me, what if Ireland did something? What if England did? Maybe Sweden? Should every American of Swedish or English or Irish descent be sent to prison?

To me, what they did was so obviously racist. That's why it bothered me. It bothered me because it felt super racist. And here's why I think that. In a fair skinned country, or I'm sorry, if a fair skinned country suddenly went terrorist, we absolutely would handle it differently than we do when a brown skinned country does it.

And as I've said before, this isn't liberal white guilt speaking. I don't have that, right? I don't feel guilty about the sins of my ancestors, whatever, that's not how I think. It's me, it's just logic, right? America is an amazing nation, amazing nation, but unfortunately, like all nations is run by people.

Sometimes people behave in illogical ways. And I just think like if the IRA started blowing up planes tomorrow, no fucking way, is every red head with freckles and a last name of Murphy or O'Sullivan being tossed in a prison. It's gonna be handled differently. November 19, 2001, TSA is formed.

Man, the Tried to TSA. I say that as someone who flies way too much. If you work for TSA, I get it, man, this is a job. Happy that you have it. I'm sure you are keeping it safe and I do appreciate that. That being said, man, such a fucking thorn in the side of the traveler. I've almost missed so many flights over long security lines. Before 9-11, man, such a fucking thorn in the side of the traveler. I've almost missed so many flights over long security lines.

Before 9.11, airlines did have security, but it was so relaxed. There was X-ray machines, metal detectors mandated by the institution of universal passengers, screenings in 1973. Before 1973, it was really was like Wild West, you know. For TSA, you could always, you know, you could leave shoes on, you could bring small knives, bat scissors, fucking brass knuckles, whatever, on flights, you could, you could bring whatever liquids you wanted, you could go right to the gate without a ticket, and then bin Laden shit on all that. His shoe bomber made it worse later, you know, some assholes in 2006, some liquid explosives on,

now we all get hassled every time we try and sneak water under the flight. And I don't see it ever going back, damn it. Okay, November 21, 2001. Speaking of Thanksgiving dinner for troops and their families at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, President Bush states Afghanistan is just the beginning of the war against terror. There are other terrorists who threaten America and our friends and there are other nations

willing to sponsor them. We will not be secure as a nation until all of these threats are defeated. Across the world and across the years we will fight these evil ones and we will win. All right. December 17, 2001. The Northern Alliance defeats Taliban forces in the Battle of Torah Borah, eliminating the last major pocket of Taliban resistance and effectively ending the Afghan war. January 29, 2002, in the state of a union address, President Bush describes an axis of evil between Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.

Salma bin Laden is not mentioned in this speech. July 30, 2002, Richard Butler, former UN's weapons inspector from Australia, tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I have seen no evidence of Iraq providing weapons of mass destruction to non-Iraqi terrorist groups. September 8, 2002, appearing on CNN National Security Advisor, Connellese Rice charges that there have been shipments of high-quality aluminum tubes that are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, center-fuge programs. The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly it can

acquire wet nuclear weapons, but we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. Vice President Cheney says on NBC's Meet the Press, we do know with absolute certainty that Saddam Hussein is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon. In a front page story, the New York Times reports that Iraq has attempted to obtain aluminum tubes, which US intelligence believes are intended for use in a nuclear weapons program. September 17th, 2002. The US military releases a national security strategy, making the Bush doctrine of preemptive military action official policy. Very similar to a draft defense planning guidance written 10 years earlier by Paul Wolfowitz, now Deputy Secretary of Defense.

The White House releases a detailed timeline depicting past Iraqi attempts to obstruct UN efforts, including Saddam's repeated refusal to provide inspectors access to sites they wanted to visit. So September 19, 2002, Iraqi foreign minister Najee Sabri tells the UN, I hear by declare before you that Iraq is totally clear of all nuclear chemical and biological weapons. The White House delivers a draft of strongly worded resolution to Congress authorizing the president to use it all appropriate means against

Iraq. UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix tells the security council that he intends to position in advance weapons inspection team and Iraq by October 15th. September 23rd, 2002, three retired four star generals testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee warning that a unilateral strike against Iraq without you and approval might limit aid from allies, create more recruits for Al-Qaeda, and subvert long-term U.S. diplomatic and economic interests. A fourth general urges the committee to support the use of military force against Iraq. September 28, 2002, the U, the US and Britain present a jointly

drafted resolution to the other permanent members of the UN Security Council that seeks to authorize the use of military action against Iraq. In the event, the Saddam's regime fails to comply with new demands outlined in the resolution. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered and landed to protest that military action in Iraq, by the way. October 11, 2002, Congress passed a joint resolution authorizing Bush to use military force against Iraq, November 18, team of 26 UN weapons inspectors arriving back dead.

November 25th, President Bush, science legislation, creating the Department of Homeland Security, 18 international arms monitors, including 12 inspectors from the UN monitoring verification and inspection commission, and eight from the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrive in Baghdad, December 6th, UN Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix calls the US to share its secret intelligence. It says, of course, we would like to have as much information from any member state as

to evidence they may have on weapons of mass destruction and particular sites. January 8, 2003, Britain urges the Bush Administration to hold off its planned invasion of Iraq. A senior source in the British government tells the London telegraph, the Prime Minister has made it clear that unless there is a smoking gun, the inspectors have to be given time to keep searching. January 29, Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfield, charges that Saddam's regime has designed for a nuclear weapon. February 28, 2003, in a report to UN Security Council members chief, okay, Hans Blix says there is no evidence

to support the US and British claim that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction or that has any programs to develop such weapons. So the chief weapons inspector says didn't find anything. But then March 18, 2003, President Bush gives Saddam Hussein in a national televised speech 48 hours to leave Iraq or the US will begin military action. Man, we have some serious balls. Can you imagine if some other nation was like, hey, we think you had something to do with Canada, fucking with us a couple months ago. So here is the deal. Trump has 48 hours to get out. And he has to take pants with him. And hey, Hillary doesn't get to take his place either, okay?

Well, I like any of it. We're gonna tell you how to handle the new election. And if you don't like that, if you don't like any of this, what I'm saying, another alternative is to bomb you into fucking oblivion. Got another smell in the napalm one in the morning. I mean, really think about that. Look, I'm not saying we're wrong to do stuff like that

sometimes, I don't have access to classified military intelligence. Don't truly know what we're up against. I'm just saying, man, no wonder a lot of the world hates us. You know, when you push people around like that, right or wrong, you're going to get people being like, did that's not fucking cool? You know, like say you're the biggest patriot who's ever lived. No one could love America more than you,

but then say you happen to have been born in another country. You know, and our country is telling your later, he can get out or you guys can get fucking hammered. You know, if you happen to like your leader, you know, you're probably not going to, probably not going to love us, probably going to see this as a giant bully. And again, side note, as an American, how cool is it that we have that much power? I mean, seriously, this is one of the great, great things about being an American. Sometimes I think my criticism comes across as anti-patriotic. Now, I'm a huge patriot, love America. You know, I think we should always strive to be better than it's part of patriotism, it's striving to be better.

One of the things that makes this great, you know, as a great nation we have responsibility to treat others and ourselves as justly as possible. And, but also I do like that we are so powerful. As someone who's not a hero himself, like I'm never like the baddest dude on the block. You know, I love being the baddest through association. So quick big thanks to all my military suckers out there

for letting me feel that. Thanks to you, Brave and Women, I get to be part of the toughest nation in the world. Seriously, everyone is afraid of us, and they should be, because we could fucking destroy any other country in the world if we want it. That is intense, if you really think about it.

I don't think we should, do that. But again, nice, internationally speaking, to be able to swing the biggest dick in whatever room we happen to be in. Okay, also for my international listeners, I don't doubt that your nation is also amazing in its own way. I do not, but when it comes to might, you know that I'm right. We would destroy you if we needed to. Insert evil villain laugh there. March 19, 2003 Bush orders military action against Iraq. And then on March 20, 90 minutes after the 48 hour deadline

expires, 5.30 AM local time explosions are heard in Baghdad. President Bush announces that he has ordered the coalition to launch an attack of opportunity against specified targets in Iraq. Troops in the US, Britain, Australia, Poland, invade Iraq, other countries as well. Bush sends a letter to Congress saying that he has determined that further diplomacy will not protect the US and that the US is continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations or persons who planned to authorize, committed, or aided the

terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11th. The conflict that I racked with last over eight years, right, until Sunday, December 18th, 2011. The second Gulf War far too big and messy to properly dig into this suck, it deserves a suck on its own, possibly even a two-parter. First Gulf War could be an entirely seconds additional suck. Stats on the war, very wildly from source to source, the most even handed source I could find on it was 2013 article from business insider.com. I like this side, you know, they seem to, they don't seem to do a tremendous amount of editorializing. And here's some of the stats they gave on this war. 108,000 direct war deaths, which does include the hundreds of thousands more that

died due to war related hardships. 4,488 US service personnel killed directly. 32,223 troops injured, not including PTSD. 134,000 civilians killed directly. Other sources such as Brown University's Watts Institute suggest that number is at least as high as 165,000. 655,000 people died in Iraq since the evasion that would not have died if the invasion had not occurred. 150 reporters killed. 2.8 million people remain either internally displaced or have fled the nation. 1.7 trillion in war expenses that have been spent by the U.S. Treasury Department as through

the fiscal year 2013. Again, this number's highly debated. Some sources think well over three trillion is a real number. 490 billion amount in war benefits, owed to war veterans, seven trillion, projected interest payments due by 20, 53, 20 billion, amount paid to KBR, a contractor responsible for equipment and services, three billion, amount of KBR payments,

Pentagon auditors consider questionable. 60 billion amount paid for reconstruction, which was largely and ruled to be just a complete waste of money due to corruption and shoddy work. That's fucking terrible, just throwing away $60 billion. Missing 546 million in spare parts, including 190,000 guns. That's terrifying.

40 so a lot of shit won on the black market. 40% increase in a racquet oil production, 5 billion revenue from a racquet oil in 2003, 85 billion revenue from a racquet oil in 2011. 150 billion amount oil companies are expected to invest in oil development over the next decade, 75 billion, approximate amount expected to go to American subcontracting

companies, largest of all is Haliburton, and zero weapons of mass destruction found. Though a bunch of chemical weapons were discovered. Okay, so clearly big oil had a lot to gain from the Iraq invasion, more on that later. That's the timeline. Now let's pop out and take a look at 9-11 specifically a little more closely. Good job soldier, you've made it back. Barely. Alright so that's 9-11. What led up to it in his aftermath? I just felt was important to kind of address the Gulf War. The second one since that came you know a direct result of 9-11. Yeah. So who was Okita? translate it as the base or the foundation?

Now, OK to is now, according to Mark Sigmund, or Sajman, a psychiatrist and former Central Intelligence Agency officer, a loose label for a movement that seems to target the West. There is no umbrella organization. We like to create a mythical entity called OK to our minds, but it's in reality, it's not a true organization that we're dealing with. Ben Laden himself said the same thing about the organization back in the fall of 2001. They're just a shadow organization of various jihadists who frankly just hate a lot of

shit. Jihadists are to Muslims what snake charmers are to Christians, what polygamists are to Mormons, an extreme version of an otherwise moderate religion. Unfortunately, jihadists are much more violent than other religions extremists. I've talked to many Muslims about jihadists, and I can assure you, no one hates jihadists more than moderate Muslims,

especially moderate Muslims from Middle Eastern countries, because every time those fucking assholes do something, then there's other innocent people get a lot more concerned, stares out, and public and backlash. Jihadists are extremely misguided Muslims who may have a legitimate reason to be angry at the West, like for example, you know, you hate us too if your family desires result of collateral damage from a US air strike.

I mean, give me a fucking break who wouldn't, you know, hate us in that situation. But to think that blowing up a bunch of innocent civilians is somehow some ethically justified revenge for, you know for your innocent family members. That's insane. Now you're just becoming the person that you claim to hate. And look, well, I think America does do shitty things to other countries sometimes. I don't think that makes us a bad nation.

I wanna say that. America does more than any other nation in the world to kind of keep the citizens safe. And you don't get to do that and not get your hands dirty. I understand both sides, man. I understand why some people hate us. I also understand why we have to kill those people. Despite how valid their reasons may be to keep ourselves safe, the world is fucking bloody and brutal. Always has been probably always, you know, always will at least will be for

the foreseeable future until we become post human robots. No, no, actually, they won't probably still fight each other. We'll have robot fights, which sounds awesome. Or eventually maybe robot versus alien fights, even more awesome. Terminator meets predator. Okay, I'm spiraling out. Time to refocus on jihadists. From what I've read most of jihadists are just dumb kids, misled, manipulated into some religious death mission by a violent sociopath like Ben Laden, a guy who's never going to

go on a suicide mission by a violent sociopath like Ben Laden, a guy who's never gonna, you know, go on a suicide mission by himself. And who was Ben Laden? Well, you know, first off, before being killed by Navy SEALs on May 2nd, in 2011, he was an extremely wealthy man. He was the son of a billionaire born in Saudi Arabia on March 10, 1957, family made their money in construction, close friends of the royal family in Saudi Arabia. He had multiple wives, father to least 20 kids, and was a religious zealot who called upon Americans to convert to Islam, and to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality and toxicance, gambling and usually,

in a letter published in late 2002. I always love the religious dude, who's fucking multiple women. There's the blatant misogynists casting harsh judgment on the sexual morals of others. The hypocrisy. Ben Laden was a piece of shit who I hope suffered when those seals shot him. He was a guy who embraced civilian murder openly as a method of legitimate warfare.

He was a man who did hate America for having a secular government and not a religious-based government. He truly, when Bush was saying that stuff about it, they hate our freedom. Actually, Ben Laden actually did. He actually did hate our freedom. He was a passionately anti-American, anti-Semitic dude who delusional, who originally believed he could help, you know, bring Americans to its knees by starting some religious crusade. And, okay, so that's been a lot. Maybe someday I'll do a Ben Laden suck to explore his life in more depth. For now, all I want to address with him is that rumor of a CIA connection.

That's the only additional thing. It was bin Laden trained by the CIA. Yeah, kind of. But listen, the more I learn about the CIA, the more I understand their motives. And frankly, I'm not bothered by a lot of them. You know, like we talked a lot on this suck about the Cold War and America's obsession with Soviet expansion during World War II, post-World War II.

And the obsession does have merit. You know, Soviet expand far enough in America's obsession with Soviet expansion during World War II, post-World War II. And the obsession does have merit. Soviet expand far enough in America's democratic way of life will be threatened. And the Soviets did invade Afghanistan in 1979. They were trying to push into Afghanistan, bin Laden left Saudi Arabia to fight the Soviet army. By 934, he's running a front organization known as Maktaq al-Qudamar, the MAK, which

funneled money, arms, and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan war. And the MAK was nurtured by Pakistan State Security Services, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency. ISI and ISI was the CIA's primary conduit for conducting the covert war against Moscow's occupation of Afghanistan. So did he receive CIA assistance? Technically, he did. The CIA did not want the Soviets to take over Afghanistan and I don't blame them. So they helped whoever was fighting the Soviets and Bin Laden happened to be on that team.

And that's it. That's the connection. Yeah. So sometimes, you know, when you're helping one bad guy, kill another bad guy, and you have to train that bad guy and give them weapons to get the job done, then you end up creating another monster that's going to create more blowback on the US and more problems. I think that's just kind of, you know, the way the cookie crumbles and possibly just a necessary reality.

Okay, so now, before we remember the heroics of Americans on 9-11, I want to end on that note, let's look at 9-11 conspiracies. I know that's why a lot of you wanted to hear this episode. Christopher Bader, a sociologist at Chappin University in California, led and completed his study in late 2016 about various conspiracy theories. 1500 11 Americans, ages 18 and over, took part in a national survey of fears. And 54.3% of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that the government was hiding an important information about 9.11. However, to put this fear in context,

nearly one third of respondents also believed that the government is concealing information about the North Dakota crash. A theory that the researchers just made up for the study. That is so funny to me that they did that. God, they must have laughed hard about that. You know, just listening to people say stuff, you know. Hell yeah, they're not telling us everything they know

about the North Dakota crash. North Dakota crash is, you know, just never seen right to me. There was always just something, something fishy about it. I mean, why would something crash in North Dakota? Why, you know, why would it just, why wouldn't it not crash? You know, I think it's because I think it's because the government didn't want it to do.

Wait, hold up. Wait, what, what crashed in North Dakota again? I just can't quite remember. So what are the 9-11 conspiracies? Well, essentially, all the common ones are varying to the same conspiracy and that that's the one that says 9.11 was an inside job used to justify the Iraq invasion. You know, so Chini could make his halibut money and Bush could make his oil money. Now, did Bush have a lot of connections to the oil industry? Yes, and he does, and then they still did the Bush family has had connections with a variety of petroleum companies and have made a

lot of money in oil for decades. All right, that is true. And yes, a variety of US oil connected companies did make billions because of the Iraq war. And yes, Dick Cheney was the president of Haliburton before he became vice president. One of the world's largest oil field service companies with operations in more than 70 countries that own hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands, divisions worldwide.

And Haliburton made over $40 billion. And I rack contracts. And the second girl, that's a lot of fucking money. And many contracts were given to haliburton without bidding from competing firms, such as $568 million contract renewal in 2010 to provide housing meals, water, and bathroom services to soldiers, a deal that led to a justice department lawsuit over alleged kickbacks. That's documented financial history, but that does not mean the government killed people

to kick this off. See, that's the jump in logic I'm very unsure about, right? Just because, I mean, if an opportunity comes out for these people to use their connections to make a lot of money, of course, they're going to take it. Maybe the whole thing about weapons of mass destruction, I'm not going to say that they were outright just lying and making that up. Were they probably strongly forcing themselves to believe that narrative? Because of the money they would make? That's very possible to me. But let's look at, okay, what do conspiracy theorists believe about 9-11 being inside

job? Here's the questions that come up. Why did the world's most powerful air force fail to intercept any of the four hijack planes? Conspiracy theorists say that US Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the military to stand down and not intercept the planes. Here's what official reports say. This was a highly unusual multiple hijacking with violence on board and where the transponder,

which identifies the plane, was turned off or changed. What is more, a routine military training exercise happened to be taking place this day at the US Air Defense Command. Air traffic controller Colin Skoggins was in constant contact with the military, did not see a lack of response from the military. There was confusion and a lack of communication

between the civilian air traffic control and the military. The military's equipment was outdated in design till it'd be looking in a different direction, looking across the ocean to deal with a cold-worth threat, not domestically. So there's that. And remember, this has all happened very fast with no real precedent for this type of thing happening. Even the world's best military can't prepare for absolutely everything.

Or another question, why did the Twin Towers collapse so quickly within their own footprint after fires on a few floors that lasts only for an hour or two. Conspiracy theorists say the twin towers were destroyed by controlled demolitions. Theories relate to the rapid collapse, about 10 seconds, the relatively short-lived fires, 56 minutes in World Trade Center II, or 102 minutes in the World Trade Center I, reports of the sounds of explosions shortly before the collapse and the violent ejections that could be seen in some windows many floors before the collapse and the violent ejections that could be seen, some windows, many floors below the collapse. Official reports say an extensive inquiry by the National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded that the planes severed and damaged

support columns and dislodged fireproofing. Around 10,000 gallons of jet fuel was spewed over many floors starting widespread fires, temperatures of up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit caused the floors to sag and the perimeter columns to bend causing the sounds of explosions. The massive weight of the floors dropped creating a dynamic load far in excess of what the columns were designed to hold. Debris was forced out of the windows as the floors collapsed, controlled demolition is nearly always carried out from the bottom floors up, yet this collapse started at the top. No evidence has ever been found of explosive charges despite the extensive hand searches and there is no evidence of any precutting of columns or walls which is routinely carried

out in a controlled demolition. Next question. How could an amateur pilot fly commercial plane in a complicated maneuver and crash into the Pentagon? The headquarters of the world's most powerful military, 78 minutes after the first report of a possible hijack and leave no trace. Well conspiracy theorists will say a commercial Boeing 757 did not hit the building, but instead it was a missile, a small aircraft, or an unmanned drone.

But since evidence has increasingly shown that American Airlines Flight 77 did hit the building, the emphasis in conspiracies has shifted to questioning the difficult approach maneuver. It's argued that it was not under the control of Al-Kate about the Pentagon itself. Okay, official reports say airplane wreckage, including the black box as we're recovered from the scene, we're cataloged by the FBI. Although some early video did not show much wreckage, there is a good deal of video and still photography which shows plane wreckage and evidence of the flight path, such as broken land posts. The remains of video and still photography would show his plane wreckage and evidence of the flight path, such as broken land posts. The remains of crew and pastures on the plane were found and positively identified by DNA. Witnesses also saw the plane strike the Pentagon.

Next question. Why was the crash site at Shanksville, Pennsylvania so small and why was the aircraft debris not visible? Conspiracy theorists argue it was because United Airlines Flight 93 was shot down by a missile in disintegrated mid-air Official reports say there are clear photographs showing aircraft wreckage and the cockpit voice recorder Which showed there had been a passenger revolt and the hijackers had delivered a crash to crash the plane Initial theories that heavy debris was scattered many miles from the main crash site turned out to be false

In fact, the wind had blown light debris such such as paper and insulation, just over a mile. Final question, how could a skyscraper, which was not hit by a plane, collapsed so quickly and symmetrically when no other steel frame skyscraper has collapsed because of fire? Conspiracy theorists say the World Trade Center Building 7 was destroyed by a controlled demolition

using both explosives and incendiaries. Initially, the focus is on the phrase, pull it, used by the owner of the building Larry Silverstein in a TV interview. But in fact, he was talking about pulling firefighters back. Demolition experts do not use the term pull it as slang for setting off explosives. Now, the focus has shifted to the speed of the collapse

which reach near freefall for 2.25 seconds. It's argued that only explosives can make a collapse so quickly. Some scientists who are skeptical of the official account have examined four dust samples from ground zero and claim to have found a thermitic material, which reacts violently when heated up. They claim tons of thermite and conventional explosives were rigged inside, not just WTC7, but also the twin towers. Here's what official reports say. A three-year investigation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded that the building collapsed because of uncontrolled fires, started by the collapse of the nearby

North Tower, which made it burn for seven hours. The main water lines feed the emergency sprinkler systems were severed. No evidence has ever been found of explosive charges, and there are no recordings of a series of virulat explosions that would have been expected with controlled demolition. Furthermore, there is an alternative explanation for the thermitic material the skeptical scientists found in the dust. It's just a type of primer paint. It's calculated 1,200,000 tons of building materials were pulverized at the World Trade Center and most minerals are present in that dust. More extensive sampling of the dust has not found any evidence of thermite or explosives

says a report from the US Geological Survey and another from RJ Lee. So that's the best analysis I can find, make it what you will. So much focus on being a controlled demolition. Why do the towers need to fall? Think about that. You can see planes hitting them. Why after the planes hit them to the towers need to actually fall for this conspiracy to work? That's what I think about it.

I think about that logic. It's like you're saying that the US could justify attacking Islamic terrorists if the towers need to actually fall for this conspiracy to work. That's what I think about. Like, think about that logic. It's like you're saying that the US could justify attacking Islamic terrorists if the towers fell, but they couldn't justify it as a towers just got hit by planes and people died that way. Or my missiles would ever believe. That's craziness to me, right? Like they're going, so are we gonna attack terrorists

in Afghanistan and then invade Iraq, Mr. President? No, no, we're not. Look, I'm not. Look, I'm not happy about terrorists flying planes into those towers in the Pentagon, but it's not like the towers actually fell, you know what I mean? So, you know, no big what? No. So take the control demolitions argument and shove off your ass. That's, that's, it's not valid. It doesn't matter. That's probably a little strong. You don't shove them up your ass. I just don't believe it. You can take them back out of your ass.

That was too much. You take them back down. Get in there. I'll give you a second. Reach in your butt. I apologize. Pull them back down. I just don't think that matters.

I don't think it's an inside job. I wanna tell you why. If America really wanted to go to Iraq and make that oil money, make that halibut money, which I'm not saying they didn't, I just don't think they needed 9-11 to make that happen. They could just make up some bullshit intelligence report regarding weapons and mass destruction, which they may have done.

You know, if the US says, hey man, we have strong reason to believe that so and so is developing nuclear weapons, and we'll attack us with them, and we're not going to let that happen. And the UN's like, I don't think that's true, which is what happened in the second Gulf War. And then we just go into, anyways, you know, which we did. No one fucking does anything to us, you know? No one else really wanted to attack Iraq other than we did. You know, Britain kind of went along with it. You know, maybe Australia, but no one was like gun hole like we were. It's kind of like North Korea. Like we don't need another 9-11 type to justify an attack in North Korea. If we really want to fuck North Korea, we're just going to do it.

Whether the UN agrees with it, not there's not gonna be significant blowback because we're the US. We can just make up some reasons, and we can just do, to me, that's just reality. Now, there was a covert plan for the US military drafted by members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the 1960s called Operation North Woods. I know if I don't mention this,

I'm gonna get emails about it. It did include plans to sync boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, high jack US planes, blow up a US ship, and orchestrate other violent terrorism on the US, to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war against Cuba. It was also immediately rejected by the White House, by Kennedy, and then declassified 40 years later.

And it's disgusting that that was ever proposed. And I know you can argue that, well, if they were gonna do it in the 60s, they could have done it with 9-11. and declassified 40 years later. And it's disgusting that that was ever proposed. And I know you can argue that, well, if they were gonna do it in the 60s, they could have done it with 9.11. And I guess they could have. I just doesn't feel right to me. It doesn't feel like they would risk getting caught.

And something like that when it's unnecessary. If the goal is just to go into Afghanistan, if the goal is just to go in Iraq for oil reasons, if that is the goal, to me, 9-11 doesn't need to happen. They can just make up intelligence. That's way easier, I feel. But that's just what I think. And I also think that because of the money

there was to be made in big oil by, and I racked that Bush and Chini were probably dying for semi-valid reason to go over there. The realist of me believes that. I do think if I rack didn't have vast quantities of oil that we were interested in, I don't think we would have went there. I think terrorism was the moral justification for that war, and I think oil was the financial incentive to actually go through with it. And by the way, if you're a veteran who fought over there, I don't think morally speaking, it matters if oil was the real reason we went there or not. I think you risk in your life to topple a sadistic, totalitarian regime more than justifies

your involvement. And you're a goddamn hero for doing what you did, so much respect. Yeah. So, let's see what the true conspiracy theories think before we close out with some heroics by checking in with some idiots of the internet. [♪ music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music all big celebrities and big shots who are supposed to be in the building that day and canceled. This is so good. This is so dumb. So, Evan Ash, let me get this straight. You think that the US government blew up its own buildings, killed its own citizens,

and evil deed that have discovered we're not only get the president in peach, but several White House members literally executed from mass murder and treason. You believe that to be true, but also believe the government was willing to risk exposing themselves to get big shots and celebrities out of there. Right? Like, how do you think that went down? Okay, Mr. President, everything's set.

We're ready to go full-level. We're ready to detonate the Twin Towers. And you have the fake hijackers on the planes. Okay, good. And those are ready to fly into the buildings. Okay, good. Pylated by excellent US pilots, we somehow talked to any killing themselves and killing thousands of fellow citizens so we can make oil money

Yes, mr. President everything's working out great all set. No one's ever gonna find out Awesome, let's go ahead. Oh wait mr. President We just got word that robber didn't euro stepped into one of the towers to have breakfast. Oh, no, no, no Do not detonate do not detonate the buildings. We cannot risk killing the guy from Godfather Mr. President that's that's Al Pacino. That is Pacino. De Niro is actually the guy from K-Fear Taxi Casino. Oh, okay.

Those movies are great. That's even more important. We cannot blow up buildings that may have De Niro and then get him out of there, get De Niro out. Kind of wonder if anyone else is important is in the building. Hold on, are there any big shots in the buildings? Warren McKinley is in the North Tower, Mr. President.

Who's that? Total big shot, sir. Ones of yacht, drives a fancy car, has a young model for a mistress and smokester cars. Son of a bitch, he really is a big shot. Well, get him out too then. Then we'll blow it up after the big shot and the celebrities are up.

So idiotic. Idiot Nathan Bales has his own moronic twist to the 9-11 theories, typing 9 months ago. I think the North Tower was a controlled demolition, but the South Tower was taken down in a simultaneous and unrelated terrorist attack. Building 7 was a structural malfunction caused by an accidental incident involving the subway station underneath the building and a dog. What the hell are you talking about?

How did you bring it to that place that you think a dog is what the hell are you talking about? How do you, how does your brain get to that place that you think a dog is what caused the one of the buildings to go down? I'd love to hear this guy do conspiracy convention. Does anyone else have anything to add? Yes, I do. What about the dog in a subway? Dog in a subway, the dog, the exploding dog in a subway

set the building on fire, set the building on fire set building seven on fire Sir, this is a serious convention. We're here to talk about legitimate conspiracies like how Katy Perry is an illuminati puppet This is serious stuff sir. This is real. I don't remember other details, but basically German Shepherd or mount or maybe malmue or wait, no doverman. No, wait, delmation, yes, delmation. Trying to get on subway afternoon 9-11, slid them fell on tracks instead. Oh, okay. And then what do you think happened?

I, I exploded, it exploded. Where did you, where did you hear that? I read it in a book, I saw in a dream. Get that guy the hell out of here. We're trying to run a serious conspiracy not convention. And then the guy just screams is the dragon boy, the dog's bullet, dog's bullet. All right, one more idiot.

A year ago Jesus Gonzalez, hey, Zeus, I realize it's a part, hey, Zeus, hey, Zeus, Gonzalez posted videos like this that make me wonder why the government has taken down that hasn't taken down this channel yet. It may not be illegal what they post, but when has technically not a legal ever stopped them. I can answer that, Jesus,

it's because these videos are dumb and the government doesn't have time to deal with this dumb shit. All right. The powers that be love it when you focus on this stuff as opposed to wage inequality, the crippling financial actions of morally bankrupt pharmaceutical and health insurance, corporate leaders and corporate lobbyists fattening their pockets. Keep fighting imaginary monsters so that the real ones can go stronger and unstoppable. Don't focus on the skyrocketing cost of higher education and the fact that less and less college graduates and middle-class Americans will ever be able to afford a home because

of the crippling amount of debt they enter the workforce with. Don't focus on credit companies squeezing the goddamn life at an entire generation in Americans. While these companies that they owe money to are bailed out time and time again by taxes, taking from the same customers the companies are squeezing when the companies can't pay their own debts because they're too big to fail. What about the common citizenry? Shouldn't we be too big to fail?

Stay distracted man. Stay focused on lunacy. Remain a true idiot of the internet. [♪ music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, real life, he wrote, stepped up on 9-11 and that their tails should never be forgotten. Before we get into today's top 5 takeaways, let's look at a few of their unbelievably inspiring stories. NYPD officer Mora Smith was the first officer to report the terrorist attacks of September 11th when she saw the first plane strike the first tower of the World Trade Center. She was a 13-year veteran, ran into the towers, began assisting others in evacuation, or

coolness under pressure was remembered by a survivor, Martin Glyn. He said the mass of people exiting the building felt the calm assurance that they were being directed by someone in the authority who was in control of the situation. Her actions even seemed ordinary, even commonplace. She insulated the evacuees from the awareness of the dangerous situation they were in with the result that everything preceded smoothly. Well, Officer Smith is credited with saving hundreds of lives that day, giving her own life in the process. She was the only female NYPD officer to die on 9-11,

and she was survived by a two-year-old daughter and her husband. Well's Crowther was an investment banker working for Sandler O'Neill and Partners on the 104th floor of two World Trade Center, the South Tower. When you a flight 175 struck the South Tower, Krauth remained calm. Just minutes after the plane hit, he called his mother to let her know he was okay. He then began assisting others in evacuating. At one point, carrying a woman down 17 flights of stairs, only to return to the 78th floor to continue helping others.

Krauth heard made it out of the building and was running back into it with a jaws of life tool when the towers collapsed. He died at 24 years old. 31 year old Mark Bingham was a CEO of the Bingham Group, a San Francisco based PR firm. On September 11, 2001, Bingham was seated in first class in United Flight 93 and route from New York to New San Francisco

when hijackers rushed the cockpit in an effort to crash to plane into the capital building. And Washington DC, in addition to the White House, which I mentioned earlier, there was also speculation that the capital building was a target, and that's what some people believed. Being in the six foot five inch rugby player who had once disarmed a man who attempted to rob him, a gunpoint is thought to be one of a group of passengers

who successfully thwarted the terrorist plot. Senator John McCain delivered his eulogy, saying, it is now believed that the terrorist on flight 93 intended to crash the airplane in the United States Capitol where I work. The great house of democracy where I was that day. It is very possible that I would have been in the building with a great many other people when that fateful terrible moment occurred and a beautiful symbol of our freedom was destroyed along with hundreds, if not thousands of lives. I may very well owe my life to Mark and the others who summoned the enormous courage and love necessary to deny those depraved, hateful men, their terrible triumph.

Such a debt you incur in curfew life. Bingham who is openly gay was honored in a documentary about his life and titled The Rugby Player. Ronald Paul Bucca was a fire marshal with 23 years experience with the fire department in New York City. An army special forces reservist Bucka was known as the flying fireman after spectacular fall from a tenement fire escape years before. He was also a marathon runner who died responding to the 78th floor of the South Tower moments

before he collapsed. 62 year old Rick Raskorio was the veteran of both the British and American army working in corporate security from Morgan Stanley on the 44th floor of the South Tower. When the tower was struck, he ignored intercom instructions for workers to remain at their desks, and immediately began assisting people to leave the building. As he directed people out, he boosted spirits by singing songs from his native Cornwall, England. He also called his wife Susan, who had been watching the attacks on TV. The New Yorker recounted some of his last words to her where stop crying.

I have to get these people out safely. If something should happen to me, I want you to know. I've been, I've never been happier. You made my life. Wow, Jesus. Rescore, then contact a friend, then he'll and ask him to call his wife to calm her down. He is credited for saving most of the lives

of Morgan Stanley's workers that day. Whew. Man. His remains were never found day. Whew, man. His remains were never found. Holy shit, man. That one almost made me start crying in the little starbucks when I read it. The colonist wife part, man, just telling her about Jesus, you made my life. God dang, man, these people.

These are the kind of people I think we should remember when we remember 9-11. Just fucking heroes. And to all you heroes out there who fought in the war since 9-11, thank you, man, for the sacrifices you made to keep the rest of us safe. This is kind of shit that makes me proud to be American. Proud to be a human, really. Other nations have their heroes too. So easy to get bogged down in the stories of bad people out there.

It's easy to forget people like risk, risk, or you know, Ronald, Paul Buka, Mark Bingham, Wells, Crowther, and Mara Smith. And actually his name is Rick Riskourla. My eyes, my eyes are a little, a little foggy from all of the smoke. And I had a holey, no jokes side note, there has been incredible, air, uh, horrible air quality. My eyes have been burning for like a week. And I thought that was an eyes Rick Riskourla. All right, let's take one more look back with some top five takeaways.

with some top five takeaways. Time, suck, top five takeaways. Number one, on September 11th, 2001, 2,753 people were killed when a hijacked American Airlines flight 11. United Airlines flight 175 were intentionally crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center. 184 people were killed when a hijacked American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. And 40 pastors and crew members aboard United Airlines flight 93 died when they're playing crash into a field.

They're Shang-Slo, Pennsylvania. Number two, seven, seven trillion and projected interest payments for loans taken out by the US government to pay for the second Gulf War due by 2053. And you thought you were carrying an enormous amount of credit card debt. Number three, Navy Seals took out bin piece of shit laden on Osama bin piece of shit laden on May 2, 2011. But thanks to TSA, that son of a bitch

is still tortured Americans every day. Sorry, TSA agents, TSA time suckers. But you know that while we appreciate you keeping us safe, God, we want to punch you in your smug face sometimes. When you treat us like prison inmates instead of paying airline customers. Number four, October 26, 2001, President Bush signed the US Patriot Act into law. And because of that, the government might be legally going through your phone right now.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Number five, new info, 911 heroes who sacrificed their lives to save others didn't all die on 9 11. As last week, 159 New York Fire Department members have died of illnesses from working at Ground Zero since 9-11, cancer being the main culprit. Also by the end of 2016, 132 additional city cops have died of illnesses that can be linked back to their time spent at Ground Zero.

As of last month, the federal September 11th victim compensation fund has given out 2.8 billion to nearly 17,000 victims suffering from cancer or injury sustained during the terror attacks. If you were in lower Manhattan, fresh kills landfill, barges, morgues, or anywhere else along roots debris removal from 9-11, 2001 to May 30, 2002, you may be eligible for free healthcare and financial compensation. Go to www.vcf.gov to learn more. Link in the episode description. Time suck. Top five takeaway. All right. So that's it for the 9-11 suck. Special thanks to time sucker and member of the Bojangles research team Josh DeCru, for kicking off the research on today's episode and pointing me in a lot of good directions.

Thanks to time suckers Jesse Colton, Ethan N, Jordan Kasusik, Jason Whitman, Guy Green, Richard Sands, Austin Olson, Sean Davis, Ashley Switzer, Tim Epps, Adam Lombardo, at Jordy, 1989 on Instagram, and many others I'm sure I've missed for requesting today's episode. Also, I had a blast on the fabulous podcast of Crapp Feast with Ryan Sickler and Jay Larson and I had an awesome time on another phenomenal podcast of View from the Cheap Seats.

That's a view from the Cheap Seats with the Sklar Brothers. Both episodes out now. The Crapp Feast is great storytelling podcast hosted by two very funny storytellers and comics, Jay Larson and Ryan Sikler. Jay Larson has some of the best bits I've ever heard. He's so imaginative and out there I just especially love his style of stand-up. Truly one of my favorite comics and has been for many, many years. A view from the cheap seats is a fantastic sports podcast hosted by the incomparable Sklar Brothers podcast royalty. They've had numerous comedy specials also as well.

One is on Netflix now called, what are we talking about? And they're exactly who they seem to be. Just funny good dudes. Always really had a lot of respect for those guys that admire their comedy as well. Thanks to those of you who support the show by using the Amazon button on timesockpodcast.com

to do your shopping. You can also check out those tour dates on the site. And of course, the new hats, make Nimrod happy. He's very pleased with how the hats turned out. Got a sneak peek of the Time Suck app this past Friday. God dang, that was so awesome. And really amazing to see the first screenshots of what the Time Suck app is going to look like. And had a meeting with the Time Suck app team, the Bit elixir guys,

and they are just working their asses off to make this thing phenomenal. So putting a lot of fun little touches, a lot of due dads in there to make it fun and make it very user friendly, easy to use. So that way once we get that thing out, you don't have to worry about, you know, Google, Android, iOS, whatever you're using, just get the app and it's going to play perfectly right there. And very pumped for that.

If you take it's still on sale for the first ever live taping of Time Suck at the Melrose Improv on Thursday, October 5th and in the stand-up show October 7th at the same venue, ticket links in the episode description. And this Friday, man, the Salem Witch Trials between 1692 and 1693, more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft, the devil's magic, and 20 were executed in colonial Massachusetts. By May 1693, the governor had partened all involved, which didn't do any favors for the 19 people who were already hanged. They're not caring much about a pardon at that point.

Neither is the elderly man who died as a result of being pressed to death with heavy stones. What does that mean? I don't know yet. I'm going to find out. Sounds horrible. In 1711, restitution was given to the families of the witches that were killed. Strange times in America's early puritanical history, and I can't wait to have some dark fun with it this Friday. And now it's those time-sucker updates. her updates. User at meme underscore four underscore the underscore many on Instagram sent me a KKK

episode update saying hello Mr. Cummins. I would like to add that some of the people at Charlottesville were not KKK and not these. Some of them were concerned citizens. Scared the history good or bad was being destroyed and taken away. I'm not defending the evil acts of the car driver. All I'm saying is that we need our history. And I believe that statue shouldn't be there, but it should be in a museum. So can remember and not do it again.

Thank you for reading this. Well, thank you for sending it in. Hail Nimrod. Several interesting points to consider here. First, I think it's important to recognize that not all white people protest on behalf of Robert of a Robert Lee statue, not being taken down a racist. Robert Lee wasn't just a racist. That's a simplistic way to look at him.

He's a war hero in the Mexican-American war. He's president of Washington Lee University University. And he's a product of his time. And here's something else to think about kind of going off on that. If we tear down the Robert Lee statue for its association with slavery, then shouldn't we detonate Mount Rushmore? Two of its faces were slave owners, Jefferson and Washington, if you want to reduce them to just that.

Another Teddy Roosevelt, who is next Monday's cell, actually, actually once said, the only good Indians are dead Indians. Should we get rid of any of all references and statues of him? You know, Alexander Hamilton, dude on the $10 bills, believe I meant most historians to purchase slaves. Should we immediately get rid of that? The sad truth is that America's history is extremely intertwined with slavery,

and we can't ever change it. So maybe instead of trying to erase it, what if we acknowledge and condemn slavery in the actions of slave owners while also being able to honor the separate actions of some of those same men? I'm not sure what the answer is. I am sure that Taren Downe statues of men

associated with slavery or racism is going to kick off a real slippery slope and where does it end. And I'm sure that these statues are a very painful reminder of a hateful legacy that to a lot of African Americans, you know, to what happened to their families. You know, and so I don't want to treat that lightly either. It's tricky, man. If you have a good solution, send in an email, bowjangles at timesluckpodcast.com. Okay. Another update from time sucker, Liam Collier, who wrote in to say that he found out during

a recent genealogy search, he's actually a descendant of the man who first brought slaves to America. Dr. John Woodson, now he's appalled by this. Well, I will say Liam can't help where he come from. No reason to feel bad. No one picks who the parents are and what they look like. Always get to remember that. Liam and others also pointed out that in the Iceman episode, I referred to Bucks County,

which is in Pennsylvania, by the way, as Buck County, singular. The county where the Iceman allegedly hit his bodies and capes. Let me explain why I did this. I said Buck County instead of Bucks County because I fucking hate Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I mean, I, more than you can understand. I hate Bucks County. Let it be known. I hate Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and anyone who's ever been there. Anyone who's ever even been there is a stupid piece of shit. Scientists once did a study to determine

where the ugliest, dumbest, and least talented losers on the planet are from. Bucks County, Pennsylvania. People born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, statistically smallest smallest, limpest dicks, stinkiest balls, least symmetrical boobs, biggest vaginas, biggest foreheads. Not one person from Bucks County, Pennsylvania will ever accomplish anything, ever, not ever. Okay. Moving on to the final update, time sucker Andrew, uh, Miggly O, Rhett O, Miggly O Rhett O rode in and, yeah, just wait. How messed up would it be if I just never dressed as shit?

I just said about bucks, candy Pennsylvania. That was all nonsense. If you didn't fear that already, uh, I just wrote the word down wrong. I wrote a buck instead of bucks. So I started about that. Uh, and I do appreciate you pointed out, like to be accurate. I, I, I actually have driven through bucks, county Pennsylvania, and it is beautiful. Okay, I sure, part of me wants to,

wishes I would have just never addressed that and just left what I said about it and just had a certain portion of you be like, God, why does he fucking hate it so much? Okay, back to Andrew, he rode in with the great subject line. I swear to fucking Christ, you motherfucker. They got my attention, got my attention. And they said time sucker greetings Reverend Dr. Sucker, Dan Cummins. First off, let me say that subject line is about something that drives

me crazy, something that I'm surprised no one has pointed out before because it's come up in a few episodes. Byzantine is pronounced Byzantine, not Byzantine. I don't know why this bugs is shit on me, but it just does. Also, if you ever talk about ancient Rome again, please try to remember that general Pompeii is pronounced Pompeii. Pompeii is a city that was destroyed by a volcano in ancient times, fucking idiot. That being said, I don't actually think you're an idiot. I think you're your inherent need to learn new things and your desire to share that knowledge makes you the exact opposite of an idiot.

The smartest people in the world are the first to admit that they don't know everything. The true idiots are the people who refuse to learn or just don't care enough to not be, oh, how true is that? And Andrew goes on to say a lot of cool other cool things. And I just wanted to read this. And just so I can have a reason to thank all of you for putting out with my mispronunciations

and variety of mistakes here. And understanding that the true essence of time suckers is about being able to make mistakes and then being able to admit when you're wrong when you make them. It's about being curious, which I love, you know, because, you know, a curious intellectual doesn't need, doesn't need a degree.

You can have a PhD or you can be a high school dropout and it's this suck that's strong in you and my eyes, you're an equal intellectual, man. You're someone who wants to learn and that's beautiful. It makes me feel better about the world knowing that you are in it. Seriously, the world does have open mind to wonderful people. And knowing your list of makes me work that much harder to be the best version myself

and not let you down. So thanks for reminding me to not everyone out there is a piece of shit. Thanks for sucking with me each week. Thanks, time suckers. I need a net. We all did. So that's all we have until Friday until then, keep spreading the stock stock, you know.

Stay curious. Don't go to a church or meeting where someone's telling you to, you got to blow some shit up to get the world back in a good place. And keep on sucking so hard, you might accidentally punch a suckhole clear through the back of your mind.