Monday, June 30, 2008

Equus: The Outing of Margaret Falk

Lynn Spencer, author of a non-fiction book examining America's air defense and flight control response to the disaster of September 11th, 2001, Touching History, which was recently released, acknowledges her indebtedness to a score or more names for help in writing the book, including assistance from four fellow authors--one of whom, Rick Newmann, co-wrote a second history of the events of 9-11, Firefight, which was also just recently released. I began to question why authors would share help with the production of competing publishers and I wondered who the other three names were.

I Googled a first because of its pretentious construction, J. Carson Black, and quickly realized the name was a pseudonym for a Tucson-area writer named Margaret Falk. Why, for Heaven's sakes, I wondered, does the author of a critically important examination of the events of 9-11 thank a pseudonym? Not only does Spencer pay credit to a pseudonymous writer, but it is to one who specializes in a sub-genre of mystery and suspense writing known as "police procedural," where a focus on the technical minutia and believable details that create an authentic crime scene background is placed.

That J. Carson Black is the pseudonym of Margaret Falk is not exactly a state secret. Put both names in parentheses into Google and 20 hits return. In a handful of references, including a Tuscon Weekly book review, the pen name is established as that of Falk.

The web site for "J.Carson Black," is deeply offensive to my sensibilities, starting with the home page graphic, where Ms. Black appears to be wearing the Muslim hajib across her face, but upon closer inspection, turns out to have a graphic train track, stockade fence, or perhaps a segment of the Appian Way twisting obscurely as a veil.

In her dumbed down persona, Black's blog postings are nothing short of ridiculous. In one, where she seems deathly afraid that Mitch McConnell is a secret communist, she says:
"That’s the oldest ploy in the book. He’s just saying it to muddy the waters and avert suspicion, the way Barack Hussein Obama went to a Christian church for twenty years to throw us all off track.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Be terrified, in fact. If ever there was a time to devolve into an abject, babbling, terrorized lump of blithering alarm, this is it!

The Red Scare isn’t just a saying anymore. It’s real. And it’s coming for us!"
I have often been called paranoid, delusional, and an alarmist, and I am loath to cast the same aspersions onto another, but here I must and do. At least, I don't expect to base a moneymaking franchise out of my shortcomings, so add avarice to her list.

On edit: May 12, 2009, Somebody, I'm not sure if it was Margaret, Lynn, J. Carson, Maggie Kao, (her non-publicist at NAL/Signet, part of The Penguin Group,) or maybe the law firm of Whipple, Loamy & Foo, has objected to three images in this blog, content which I downloaded off of the web sites linked to here, and then reupped. As a fellow writer I felt sure she would have looked favorably on any publicity or traffic I might send her way, but, alas---this is why we are told never to assume!

Blogger very nicely tells me that:
The notice that we received from Margaret Falk, with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling Effects at http://www.chillingeffects.org.
Either her name or this blog's IP address will locate her complaint there.

Only one of the three images is essential to my message, and I should be within my artistic rights to paint a "word picture" of the censored photograph in lieu of it, in order to convey the meaning as intended:
It is a period black-and-white image of Ms. Falk's father, we are told, standing in an exterior scene in a paddock next to a barn, but posed in such a way that he is mostly hidden behind an already saddled horse. They both look directly at the camera. The relationship between the two is odd, as well as are their expressions...
I don't think I'd be at fault if I directed my audience to the former cached version of this blog, if they are curious. No one is responsible for this ether detritus shadowing our online existence---and I'm not sidestepping any rule by pointing it out. (Shhh. Click here.) We continue on now with our story...



Some of the references to Margaret Falk/J. Carson Black are exceedingly strange. One, in a mystery-demimonde site, WhoDunnit, seems fraught with subtle directional clues:
"Ms. Black wrote from an early age, and her first attempt at a novel was a horror story, which evidently got sort of lost... J. Carson Black grew up with a pony and trips into the desert, then traveled around the country with her family."
"Trips into the desert?" Did Ms. Falk have a pony as a girl? The distinguishability or overlap between the real author and the imagined persona seems meant to be perceived as a spiral-twist.

A reference which appears more than once seems of special significance. It is that of a competing New York Times bestselling author, Michael Prescott, a self-described, "conservative (and one-time libertarian)," whose AboutMe page lists his interests as,
"Fiction, Shakespeare, philosophy, evolution, Intelligent Design, origin of life, critiques of Ayn Rand, critiques of Objectivism, spirituality, religion, parapsychology, afterlife studies, anthropic principle in cosmology, synchronicities, crime history, thrillers, historical novels, Joss Whedon, writing, moral intuitionism, ethics, meta-ethics, dualism, critiques of philosophical materialism, tennis, cellular biology, quantum physics, historical Jesus, the Bible."
That should keep him busy. Mr. Prescott, who previously wrote suspense novels under the pen name Brian Harper, says he's "written nine thrillers, the most recent of which is Final Sins." Somehow, combining conservative ideology with titles like Final Sins, leaves me cold, although otherwise, Mr. Prescott sounds fascinating--especially given he has a degree in Film Studies. Is he sure he really wouldn't rather direct?

When I was 17 years old and should have been in school, I drove from Tennessee to New York City, put my car in a garage, took a room at the Upper West Side YMCA, and went to a week of theater and musicals. One particularly memorable night I saw Peter Shaffer's Equus. Going to the theater alone, and then not sharing my impressions with anybody, I didn't form, can't imagine, let alone articulate in words, the effect the experience had on my consciousness. It was about adults who cared about a mad boy, remember? Can one even experience catharsis at 17? Had I already experienced the necessary predicate for one?

But I can say one thing: where the first row meets the thrust of the stage created spaces to either side that held a row of three seats, then two, then one, and I sat in that one seat, all alone, with my knees held up tight against the stage, and something too powerful for words gripped me. And that's why I called this piece Equus.

I must Google Peter Shaffer. I seem to remember something about his being a company man.




Saturday, June 28, 2008

Blind Sean Boger's Parking Privileges

A caption in a little known Pentagram article from November 16, 2001, found only at archive.org, tells us that in this photograph, Spc. Jacqueline Kidd, an air-traffic controller and training supervisor, along with Sean Boger, air-traffic controller and Pentagon "tower chief," are watching a helicopter land at the Pentagon heliport. However, if you're the least bit familiar with the layout of the flight tower, you'd know that the helipad is behind them and to the left of their shoulders. Why have they been depicted staring at a blank wall, with the eyewitness Boger wearing dark eyeglasses?

In hierarchical organizations like the one in the Pentagon, a parking space is the supreme perk. So who would get to park their cars just steps away from their workstations, and right under the nose of the soon-to-arrive President Bush? The answer was two very low-level employees: an air traffic controller and his training supervisor (was this yet another first-day-on-the-job employee?)

In "The Story of Ebony & Ivory in the Tower, the Kidd says she, "knew that the Pentagon would immediately heighten security after the attack in New York, so she decided to get her lunch out of her car while she still could," so I guess she used her car as her locker.

This paragraph takes the cake:
Kidd was on her way out to her car when the plane hit. Luckily, Kidd stopped by the restroom before going to her car. "They got us," Kidd said her first thought was. "The lights went out and the ceiling fell in on me," she said. Kidd returned to the bottom of the tower and tried to get to Boger. The stairs were covered with debris and the ceiling had fallen in around him. "I don't know how I got out, but I got out," Boger said. Boger got to the bottom of the tower and was still not sure what was going on. "I grabbed [Kidd] and we both fell to the ground," he said. "We looked back." "What happened?" Kidd asked. "A plane just flew into the Pentagon," Boger responded.
(Isn't that a wonderful James Cagney moment? Kidd is sitting on the can and the lights go out and the ceiling tiles fall and she goes, "You got me copper!")

I suspect the cars were parked there to serve as an exhibition of the destructive power of exotic new weaponry, an inference I glean from anomalies in the record. For instance, the article states, "The first thing the two noticed was that both of their cars were on fire," which we can know is an untruth--the cars are never seen burning at the same time. The well-known Will Morris image centers on the burning 3000GT, (interestingly, Russell Pickering calls the car a Nissan 300SX, although his pages are one of the sole sources for the Pentagram article with an alternate identification for the automobile. Russell doesn't explain the discrepancy.) with the pristine green Jeep alongside.
When the Jeep goes up, it does so in a flash, and for urban-myth-type anomaly, the article references the Jeep seems to change shape into a station wagon!) This odd destruction pattern, plus the otherwise inexplicable damage consisting of circularly shaped holes in the window glass, are similar to what was seen in NYC that morning.

After recreating Russell Pickering's Car Fire Chronology page here--sans his proprietary technology--I've decided to move most of it over to a holding pen at Progressive Independent. I'm going to hire someone over there to do my dirty work for me.

http://www.pentagonresearch.com/116.html


Russell's caption for the following image reads,
"This is the jeep free-burning during the evacuation from a different angle."

If you stare at this photograph for a full nine minutes while listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Burn at a very loud volume, and if you build slowly, being careful not to get too excited before you're at least four-and-a-half minutes into it, but eventually, you'll start bouncing up and down in your chair, and then, if you begin to wildly wave your arms in circles all about your head during the good parts--you will, and I guarantee you this--you will, if you really stress the word "BURN" hard enough every time it comes up--you will begin to understand what I know about the word "truth." I double dare ya.



Is "Free Burning"anything like "Free Basing" Russell? Or is more like Burninating? Where is the male jogger in the red shirt with the giant arms and the goody bag, Russell? Where is he, huh?

Russell says, "I talked to the MWAA Captain on the phone about this. He had the trucks pulled back to the guardrail and his crews stood by on Washington Blvd."

Well why did the Captain take the trouble to turn the equipment 90 degrees? Why didn't he just back them up to the guardrail? Are firetrucks like sailboats? Is the Captain tacking into the wind? Or is he blocking the view?

Hey Russell, why are the firemen playing with crime scene tape here when there is a fire to put out? It's not a big one, surely five men could tackle it. Don't they want too? Why is that Russell?
"The evacuation is over now. The MWAA apparatus have repositioned themselves in different locations. Compare this to the photo above to see how much further the jeep fire has progressed between the two photos." Who cares Russell? Who the fuck cares? It's one big joke Russell--one big joke.

I like this picture. There has never been anything else like it in the record. I'd like to hit up that pharmacy that DiLorenzo Tri-Care has got going on in the center lanes. And hey, you got only one firetruck working there man. You should get some guys up on that roof--you've got a chance! Use it or lose it!

"The time stamp on this photo is reported to be accurate. It makes sense because the fires near the tower are out. DCFD Truck 10 was brought in around 11:30 to fight those with the aerial. You can see the tire tracks from all the moving around. Go back up 6 photos and it is obvious that the trucks are now in different positions than they were originally."

Friday, June 27, 2008

Hey! Lynn Spencer Got Married and Moved to Michigan!

I was so excited when I heard the news! I found out when I visited her Girls With Wings web page and suddenly realized the text said she and her husband moved to Michigan!

But I started to get a little confused. I first met Lynn on this Girls-with-Wings web page, where she was a single mom of three kids who put herself through flight school to became a pilot, then penned a just-published book called Touching History. Since the two versions of Spencer's life story have only minor differences--I'm not calling a husband minor, mind you Lynn!--I wondered if that one was an update that superseded the other. But what if the other one came first? I started to get more confused. Had I made a faux pas? Glancing quickly over the texts, I couldn't tell with assurance which was which: the happy authoress Fed-Ex-ing her husband-buttressed paragraphs eastward, or the recent divorcée, her gay Michigan years now a fast dimming memory as she flung herself around the Virginia countryside spending book royalties like a drunken sailor?

Several obvious clues seemed contradictory. I quickly made cached, cached, versions so I could avoid any monkey business later on, then I decided to do a textual analysis.

I highlighted in red all the deletions and insertions--even the most minor-- occurring between the two, using "my" original text as foundational, with the enhusbanded text as the variant. Then I posted them side-by-side in two table columns on a Google web document, accessible here: http://docs.google.com

Deciding which version was the a priori, and which, a posteriori, has become an intriguing passion. I suspect the text I came across later is latterly in conception, which biases me to place it later in the timeline. And this version has the horribly obvious manipulation of using an early working title for Spencer's tome in the body of the text, then appending a "progress update" at the end. Har, har.

But could I find the smoking gun, the "Dan Rather mushroom cloud," which would prove this version to be fraudulent--the elegant and inarguable point which would humble even a JREFer?

Would goodness triumph over evil? It's getting heavy folks.


I shall dally no longer here--to it forthwith. Draw a line and be on.

________________________________________________


Retouching History: Running the Alternate Lynn Spencer Persona


As arbitrary and capricious as Lynn Spencer's personal flygirl webpage found at girlswithwings.com is, it gets weirder in context with an alternate Lynn Spencer personality expressed in a stand-alone web effort promoting the 9-11 book, "Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama that Unfolded in the Skies over America on 9-11." The site's name, cleartheskies.com, has the echo of a working title to it. In it, the author's profile comes with all the professsional trappings one could ever possibly ask to be verified: an agent, Jane Dystel; her literary agency, Dystel & Goderich; some author contact info: aviatress@cleartheskies.com; and much else. (In the email address, Spencer self-identifies as an aviatress--not an aviatrix or aviatrice, so I feel a certain affini-symmetry in having unwittingly titled yesterday's blog "Lynn Spencer: Authoress and Pilotess!")

Today, Lynn Spencer is a Duke University grad who "completed her high altitude training at the Johnson Space Center," little details NPR never got around to mentioning.

But lets take a look at Spencer's acknowledgment's page:

"I am especially indebted to Paul Worcester and Don Shepperd, who graciously opened the doors of the aviation and military communities. Their encouragement, guidance, and tireless introductions made this book possible. I am deeply grateful for their “you can do it and you’ll do it right” attitudes, which motivated me to reach deeper within myself to achieve more than I thought I could.

"Several individuals deserve special thanks, including Colin Scoggins, Larry Arnold, Ben Sliney and Joe McCain for their prompt replies to my myriads of e-mail and phone questions that arrived at all hours of the day and night asking for information and explanations. Thanks also to Paul Olechowski, Harvey Siegel, Sandy Niedzwiecki and Kerri Cole of the 102nd FW, James Hambrick at the FBI, Thomas Territt at NEADS and authors Loree Lough, Rick Newmann, Carol Jose and J. Carson Black. Your input, advice and guidance were much appreciated. Thank you Gen. Richard Myers for the time you gave me over cups of coffee at Starbucks.

"I knew I could fly, but I was not as sure about writing, and I owe a debt to those who helped with reading and editing the manuscript: Paul Worcester, Rose Shepperd, Ann Levy and Jordan Genest. Your assistance enabled me to pull everything together and produce a readable manuscript for my wonderful editor, Emily Loose. I was awed by Emily’s quick grasp of the intricacies and complexities of this project, her patience and, above all, her insightful and creative editing. It was a delight to work with her. My heartfelt thanks to everyone at Simon & Schuster for helping me make this dream a reality.

"I could not have accomplished this project without the assistance of the Air Line Pilots Association, the Allied Pilots Association, and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, who spread the word to their memberships. Heartfelt thanks to all their members who generously shared their stories.

"It has been a pleasure and an honor to work with NORAD and the Air National Guard, whose units and members were tirelessly forthcoming with information and personal accounts. Thank you to the men and women of NEADS, the 177th Fighter Wing, the 113th Wing, the 119th Fighter Wing and the 180th Fighter Wing, and to Lt. Col. Roberta Neidt of the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs who was kind enough to make my first military introductions. A special thanks to the 102nd Fighter Wing, whose members not only shared their stories, but also gave me the opportunity to fly in an F-15. In doing so – and retracing the flights paths of the Otis fighters as well as American 11 on that fateful day – I gained an invaluable understanding and perspective. You all are the best!

"And finally, a huge thank you to my agent, Jane Dystel, who took a chance on a pilot who had no writing experience. She believed in the stories and my ability to share them, and offered invaluable guidance and assistance every step of the way, never once making me feel foolish for my ignorance of the publishing business. I will always be grateful for the opportunity and her faith in me."

"Oh, it has been such a pleasure and such an honor to work with you." Here we have some real flesh and blood to subpoena, indict and leverage. The professionals mentioned were utilized to provide legitimacy to a historical cover-up. However, that effort failed before its publication date in the rapidly shifting environment of 9-11 truth consciousness. THEY THEN NEEDED TO COVER-UP THE COVER-UP, throwing the book under the bus by attributing it to a synthetic bimbo persona (Compare the two author's photographs for the public relations intent.) While the personalities expressed between the two web sites aren't entirely irreconcilable, they're highly unlikely to march well in tandem.

I had been on a long search, using variations on search terms, trying to find a cache or copy of an earlier Simon & Schuster press release, which I remember reading but couldn't relocate. It contained an heroic anecdote of such absurdity I must have blacked it out the first time around. It would have to be a quote from the book, so suppressing a press release would mean reprinting the book, but, be that as it may, in the reported detail, an American fighter pilot is aloft and within effective striking range, but he is unarmed at the time--without any missiles or other offensive capabilities. Powerless, but knowing full well the hijacker's intent, the fighter pilot volunteers to crash his own jet into the errant American airliner to stay its course, thus prevent the successful completion of the terrorist attack. Conceptually, this would effectively co-opt the theme of using airplanes as missiles, while melding it to a valorous "throwing oneself on a grenade," in sacrifice for the country, but it is implausible beyond an adolescent's fantasy.

Of course, I may have simply imagined all this--in which case the joke's on me--but at least I found cleartheskies.com out of it and I shall keep looking. (The New York Times sides with me on September 13th, 2008.)


A good history of NORAD that day.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Lynn Spencer: Authoress and Pilotess


(Oh Papi Cita Pinch! My Cita Espacial Sweet Pea!)

Hi! My name is Lynn Spencer! And I am a professional airline pilot! I live in Virginia with my three children (Caroline, Brigitte and Chase) and our cat, Felicity. Chase is only three! He'd be no competition for you!

My greatest passion Ah. is airplanes! And it has been since I was a small girl! Growing up, I had always loved airports and airplanes...but I also assumed that everyone else did, too. It just seemed a very obvious and natural thing to be passionate um...didn't I just use that...about. I first realized that my passion what! for airplanes was not typical was when I was in elementary school and visited Washington, D.C. with my family. We visited all kinds of museums and monuments, but what I remember being the most excited about was walking the national mall (where all the monuments are) and watching all the planes flying low overhead as they came in to land at Washington's National Airport. It was awesome! It didn't matter where we were or what we were looking at, I would have to stop and watch every single plane...and identify it for my family. This may have been amusing to them at first...but after the first dozen or so planes, it quickly became annoying. Eventually, my brother Gregg threatened to tape my mouth if I said another word about a plane. But I was in heaven and I could have just sat there all day watching those planes fly right over my head. pun intended!

But, the moment when I knew that I had to be a pilot came several years later when my father took me to an EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Air Show in Osh Kosh, by Gosh! Wisconsin, when I was in 6th grade (I'm a big girl now with pig tails!) I liked all the planes . . . but the jets really got my attention, and when I watched the demonstration flight for the F-14 Tomcat, Meow Sweet Pea! I was hooked. I wanted to fly jets . . . military ones preferably. I pestered my father I know! Bad choice of word! endlessly about flying lessons after that air show, and finally he relented, and told me that I could take flying lessons when I turned 16. That was enough for me and I just waited for that lucky birthday and said no more. Unfortunately, when I turned 16, my father did not seem to remember ever having had such a conversation. He had little interest in paying for flying lessons and thought that flying airplanes was not an appropriate career choice for his daughter. I was disappointed, and have carried the resentment to this very day, but I tend toward Dispensationalism, I mean, determination, and I figured I would just have to go to the Air Force Academy with all the other uber-Christians. They would teach me to fly fighters. When it came time to apply to colleges, my hard work had paid off. I had earned all A's in high school and stood an excellent chance at acceptance into the Air Force Academy. Oh silly me! I forgot I would need to secure a nomination from my member of Congress! Dang!

But, times were different in the early 80's. When I applied to the Air Force Academy, they told me straight up that as a female--and a female that wore (corsets) contacts--would never fly their fighters. The best I could hope for (if I got lucky) would be to navigate reconnaissance. I was so disappointed. I knew that I would never be satisfied working the radios in some pilot's back seat (Calling Dr. Freud. Calling Dr. Sigmund Freud.) It seemed that I was never going to be a pilot.

My high school counselor did not seem to know of other options for becoming an airline pilot, Resentment List #2038. so (I figured that I would just have to settle for flying small private p)lanes at some point in my life, and I turned toward a more realistic plan: pre-med studies. (?) It was not until age 28 that I realized that I had let a big part of myself die when I gave up my dream of becoming an airline pilot. (That's it! Nothing to do with med school.) One day, I met an airline pilot and shared with him my dashed dreams of flying airplanes and attending the Air Force Academy. He told me that I could still be an airline pilot even though I had not pulled a train, I mean, gone with the military. There were flight schools to teach people how to be professional pilots to be found on the backs of match books. Two weeks later, I was enrolled in Private Pilot Ground School. The week after my first ground school ended, I started flight school full time.???????? This was no easy task because I was a single mom by this time read: available. I was so nervous, but so excited. I need a clause here. "I almost peed myself?" In eighteen months, I got my Private Pilot Certificate, my Instrument Rating, my Multi-Engine Rating, my Commercial Certificate, and then my Certified Pole Dancing Instructor Certificates. I was now a professional pilot! It was such a joy to be earning a living teaching others how to fly planes. Well, that's what 250 hours buys you!

I spent three years flight instructing and flying corporately [text alert] until I was hired by "an airline" in 1999. Airline flying is wonderful! I work for a great company and I have been able to combine my flying with my children ("pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"). During times it was too difficult to be away from home, my airline allowed me to work in the training department. There, I was home every night, but around planes and pilots all day. Can't beat that! So why the fuck would I want to write a book, you may ask?

As an airline pilot, I fly 3 days per week. I am away from home 2 nights per week. To be honest, those two nights are a nice break to my week. I come home refreshed and renewed reverse double-entendre cowgirl with a backflip. I fly all over Mexico, Canada and the United States. Some of my favorite lay[over]s, are Boston, Charleston, Palm Springs, Ontario and Colorado Springs. Sometimes passengers think I am their flight attendant, but that is getting less frequent as they grow more accustomed to women pilots.

One time, an elderly couple started to argue about whether I was the pilot or the flight attendant. The man had asked me for some coffee when I had come into the cabin. His wife and nudged him in the arm and said, "She is our pilot!" He responded, "Of course she is not our pilot! She is our flight attendant!" I was standing right there happy to clarify this for them, but they just kept on. She was showing him the stripes on my shoulders and my wings. Finally, he said to me, "Would you explain to my wife that you are NOT our pilot just because you have wings and stripes?" I had to apologize to him as I told him that I was indeed the pilot. I quickly returned to the cockpit after that!

It is at this point you will have concluded that I am just a mass of unhealed resentments and passive/aggressive codependency. Did I say I wasn't going to be high maintenance pooky? You want me to work on my personality?

The Captain and the First Officer trade off flying every other flight. The Captain sits in the left seat and the First Officer in the right seat. It's really no wonder the Muslims hate us. When I am not flying, I am working the radios. It might sound funny, but I enjoy both. I have always enjoyed the "pilot talk" on the radio. It's like its own language and I always thought it was pretty cool to know the lingo. Tell me about your "call signs" again, Sweetest Pea. A good memory helps, because you get some long clearances that you have to read back. (For example, "Jetlink 4348, turn 300, maintain 180, cleared for the ILS 27, contact tower at 118.7.") You have to repeat that back. Taxi instructions sometimes get really crazy . . . so I will have a pen handy!

My favorite part of flying is bringing the thrust levers forward on the take-off roll and feeling the airplane accelerate down the runway. (You catch my drift, don't you, race horse?) It's a great feeling! There are a lot of benefits to being an airline pilot. First, I am getting paid to do what I love, so it really does not seem like work. Second, I do not have to be in an office at a desk every day from 8 to 5. Instead, I travel all over and only work 11-12 days per month. That's a lot of time off!!! Ummm...are we going to start talking about non-fiction writing any time soon? Lastly, as an airline pilot, my family (and my parents) get free passes to fly anywhere in the world for just about free. I think I love this the best, since I love to travel and explore. My parents thoroughly enjoy the travel benefits and so do I.

I am a big believer in following your dreams and making them yours, and another of my dreams has always been to write a book. So in 2005, I took time off from flying to write a book called Touching History: The untold story of Bangkok Massage Parlors, I mean, the drama that unfolded in the skies over America on 9/11. I have traveled around the country talking to airline pilots and fighter pilots and FAA managers and military commanders about this tragic day in nation's history, but a very incredible and heroic day in aviation. It is both an honor and a privilege to be sharing their stories, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of writing a book. Yet, I miss my flying tremendously and look forward to returning to the cockpit soon. I bet you do sugar.

To all the girls out there, if you love airplanes and flying, then DO IT! Don't let anyone turn you away from this dream. Flying airplanes is an incredible and rewarding career, and it can and does work with having a family. My kids say that I inspire them to follow their own dreams and I can only hope that is true. Find your dreams and make them yours! ??????? Is it me? Have the courage to take a chance and make a change and choose your destiny. You will never regret it.

(This has been reprinted from MyPage at www.girlswithwings.com) [with a little help from my reds]

Lynn Spencer
Pilot/Author
Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama that Unfolded in the
Skies over America on 9/11
www.inspirationalchristiannonsense.com

Monday, June 23, 2008

Barbara Honegger Reveals the Secret Bunker Under the Pentagon

The Secretary of Defense’s fortified basement Counter-Terrorism Center (CTC) which lies directly under the spot Hani Hanjor crashed into the Pentagon on September 11th 2001. What are the chances?

There always was something fishy about the Pentagon ground-floor deck slab following the attack of 9-11; where evidently, a 757-jetliner was flown absolutely level into the first floor of the building without so much as nicking the poured concrete foundation. Even after journeying 300 feet in, with enough explosive energy to punch holes through thick masonry walls (while also deflecting the second-floor slab upward along the way,) the deck was left immaculate enough to roller skate on.





In an effort to make sense of what brought down the World Trade Towers on September 11th, some researchers have theorized the U.S. government has developed secret New-Age weaponry that can disrupt the molecular basis for matter (along with a discovery for a source of free, unlimited energy needed to power it.) Might this indestructible foundation be evidence of some other new invention--perhaps a kind of molecularly resistant super-matter meant to contradict the threat?

We are told that only a partial basement exists under the Pentagon. One official page, says "the Mall and River sides of the building have a Basement area which includes a partial Mezzanine." A page from the Pentagon Renovation & Construction Program Office Project says, "Basement and Mezzanine levels exist under three fifths of the Pentagon," although in a graphic published on another page, I'd say it looks more like two-fifths.


And it would seem odd that on a sloping site, "...situated between a large man-made lagoon...[and] the highlands of Arlington National Cemetery," planners would have chosen to build a partial basement on the low, boggy side, especially since a history of its original construction tells us, "[t]he decision to move the Pentagon downstream from its planned location placed it within the flood plain of the Potomac River."


Well, we can thank the military historian, Barbara Honegger, for clearing up the space-planning mystery at least. In a piece she published in September 2006 called, The Pentagon Attack Papers: Seven Hours in September: The Clocks that Broke the Lie, she informs us of a previously undisclosed underground facility:

"Immediately after the second WTC tower was struck at 9:03 am, Andrews and his aide left his office and ran as fast as they could down to the Secretary of Defense’s West section basement Counter-Terrorism Center (CTC), beneath the ground-level location of the violent event in the building."

So in another of the endless string of ironies that mark the official story as an absurdity, the inexperienced pilot who was consumed by his suicidal Muslim ideology, crashed his hijacked craft onto the very epicenter of any putative American response to his terrorist act.

Since the crash of Flight 93 was nothing but a hole; and in New York City, it was key the bathtub remain hole free, the absence of any evidence for a downward angle of attack at the Pentagon must be forgiven. Perhaps 9-11 was meant to serve as an exhibition of both total offensive and defensive supremacy.

Supposedly, the following graphic was suppressed from the ASCE report as being too revealing of state secrets. It is in such a low resolution we can only infer the relevant information anyway--I'm guessing it reads that the second floor slab was 14-feet, one-inch above the first. That is the narrow gate between which all the passenger's bodies are said to have passed--if not the contents of their overhead compartments.


The following two historical images of Pentagon construction reveal a truth about a matter where lies have always been omnipresent. The Pentagon's Svengali, the War Department’s Chief of Construction, Brigadier General Brehon B. Somervell, doubled the size of his edifice against a resistant FDR, going from three stories above ground, to four, and eventually to five. God only knows what lies beneath it.





What I have spotted is yet more signs of Pentagon Renovation thievery. This page and this one, have an extensive discussion on the basements and their utilizations.
"The second phase of the Program involves the renovation of the Basement and Mezzanine, which started in September 1994. One third of the Basement has been renovated with many areas now occupied. The original basement slab was lowered in order to accommodate an entirely new level between the basement and the first floor. When completed, this new Mezzanine level will add close to 320,000 square feet of office space to the Pentagon."
By March 2000, Segment 1 has been renovated and was occupied by 1,200 Air Force personnel along with a new DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic. Segments 2 and 3 had been demolished and abated of all hazardous materials by October 2000. But is lowering the concrete slab and doing such fundamental structural and waterproofing work considered part of demolition?

Apparently not. In a page called Navy Build-out 2A1 devoted to the relocation of the destroyed Navy Command Center, which is variously described as being 25,000 or 30,000-square-feet in size, the company that was awarded the contract on September 25, 2001,

"Gilford is currently saw cutting the floor slab for installation of helical piers, a new ductbank and plumbing for future build-out. To date they have installed approximately 200 piles within the Navy space's concrete slab. Piles are placed in preparation for a new concrete slab that is to be poured on top of the existing slab. A new structural slab must be poured due to settlement of the existing slab over the years."
"Over 200 Helical screwed piles being installed through the existing slab on grade to support a new structural floor slab."
The completion date was scheduled to be March 2003, with tenant move in expected in April 2003.

The entire Phoenix Project rebuilding was expected to be completed by November 2003, only seven months later!

19 months to relocate the Navy Command Center?!?!

Piers and slabs left undone for spaces the size of 25,000 square feet when the basement and underground areas had been the focus of the renovations for almost ten years?!?!


Not only that, but the illustration for the basement segment 2A1 looks like a very major reconstruction job. An earlier Pentagon Renovation Project release had stated that the Navy Command Center was moving into renovated basement space that had not been allocated or outfitted. It could have and should have been up and running within two weeks. What we have here is grotesque padding and inflating of the the job and, I'd imagine, the bill.

Add Gilford to the list of criminals who will have to pay the price for tyranny.


I'm starting to believe that what's buried in the clover-leaf is a giant magnet. Does that make any sense to physicists out there?

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Well, Pinch my Flickr!

How interesting.

On May 28th, I received this notice concerning my Flickr account

From: Flickr Customer Care

Subject: Flickr Terms of Service

Hello, stevenwarran!

This is an automatically generated copy of a warning we sent to your primary email address:

-------------------------
Hi stevenwarran,

Please read the Flickr Community Guidelines concerning
uploading images to your photostream that were not taken by
you.

http://www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne

# Don’t upload anything that isn't yours.
This includes other people's photographs and/or stuff that
you've collected from around the Internet. Accounts that
consist primarily of such collections may be terminated at
any time.

You need to delete from your photostream all content not
taken by you immediately or your Flickr account will be
deactivated.

-Terrence

-------------------------
If you'd like to respond to this warning, please send the email to case762561@support.flickr.com to ensure a timely response.

You can change your primary email address at any time via your account page: http://www.flickr.com/account/prefs/email/



How sad, I thought. I wish I had read the terms of service. Apparently, some of my web collecting raised hackles somewhere. I became resigned to the loss of all that delicious commentary I utilized Flickr for (the images themselves were all safely downloaded in duplicate on my hard drive and elsewhere.

But so far, nothing seemed to be amiss. That is, until my dear friend Pinch visited me, and I backtracked into a link he posts on his page directed to my Flickr account concerning the following picture.



There we find a deletion has occurred.

The photo you were looking for has been deleted. You might like to ask stevenwarran about it! Here's a link back to your home page


Flickr hasn't sent me any notice about this deletion, so I have to thank Pinch and Company for pointing it out to me.

(Screw Flickr: They gone and deleted my account of over 3000 pictures. Flickr Has Earned My Undying Enmity.)

Now if Pinch had been really smart I don't think he would have drawn all this attention to this particular photograph. He could have simply approached me as a gentleman and said, "You know what Steven? You are right and that photograph is actionable and the U.S. government would kindly like your cooperation in taking down the image, before any of the 12 people who visit your blog recognize and exploit the leak, as it does compromise national security, in a fashion.

It is obvious how the mistake was made even. That photograph was released by the Directorate of Mighty Flying Pingas, without adequate consultation with the Directorate of Secret Buried Installations, and you can understand how sometimes inter-Directorate communication can be a problem.

So yin and yang. I suppose it's all water under the bridge now.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Fires Burn the DoD, the IRS, and the CIA in Building 7

In addition to the evidence seen in a half-dozen photographs depicting fire on the east face of World Trade Center Building 7, emitted out windows on floors 11 and 12 (the floors occupied by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,) other photographic and video evidence showing the west facade of Building 7 indicates fire and damage on the 24th and 25th floors. Those floors were occupied by three tenants: the United States Department of Defense, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and the Central Intelligence Agency.

It would also appear that some of the evidence that would support this conclusion was doctored and suppressed in order to hide the fact.

I've thought that the following photograph released by the New York City Police Department appeared doctored to make it look as if an improbably large chunk had been taken out of the southwest corner. Any supporting evidence, like a clear and unambiguous photograph from the south, is strangely missing from the record. But equally relevant is an apparent dissembling concerning the two floors of burnt out windows we see at the top of the image. What floors are they?

There are no photographs in the record taken from a slightly southwestern vantage point equal to this image taken from a slightly southeastern one. But here we can establish the form of the structure and the belt courses of fenestration. We see 41 courses of windows sitting on top of a five-story base, with an unseen mechanical floor at the top counted as floor 47.

Applying that knowledge to this image with a clear view of the western facade but a completely obscured view of the southern facade of Building 7, we can count down from the top window course, number 46, to arrive at two fire-damaged floors, counting them as floors 28 and 29, which were leased to the brokerage Solomon Smith Barney. But, I believe this image has been deliberately tampered with to defeat such a purpose. It has been photoshopped in order to remove four entire window courses between the burned area and the top of the building.

My evidence for this comes from an official source: the first attempt at a study or review of Building 7, the FEMA report from May of 2002, Chapter 5 WTC7 (Ramon Gilsanz, Edward M. Depaola, Christopher Marrion, Harold "Bud" Nelson,) where it says:

"It does not appear that the collapse of WTC 1 affected the roof, or the east, west, and north elevations of WTC 7 in any significant way. However, there was damage to the southwest corner of WTC 7 at approximately floors 8 to 20, 24, 25, and 39 to 46, as shown in Figure 5-16, a photograph taken from West Street."

Photograph 5-16, unreproducible here, taken by the fire department insider Steve Spak, shows the southwestern corner of the building from about floor 11 to floor 27. Below floor 11, the supposedly chewed off corner of the building is completely obscured by obdurate smoke. But what is most clear and unambiguous are the pair of floors isolated from other damage by several unaffected floors. There is no other choice but to attribute these as floors 24 and 25, both of which were leased to three federal government agencies; the Central Intelligence Agency, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Defense.

The following is a YouTube video depicting active fire coming out these windows on the western face of Building 7. I'd found the video posted at the web site debunking911.com--our gateway to respectable authority.



Debunking911 says that:
"This video shows a large rip in the south side of building 7 before it collapsed. Evidence the building was far more damaged than conspiracy theorists suggest. Note the smoke coming directly from the rip and not building 6 as conspiracy theorists suggest. At 1:33 Min into the video someone says (Firefighters and police were the only ones allowed in the area so it is most likely a firefighter or policeman) "Look at the hole in that building... 7 world... that might come down". Anyone seeing this and suggesting no one knew the building was going to come down is lying."


The videographer plants himself squarely on West Street and doesn't stray an iota to break into a view of the south plane of the building. That an official (like Steve Spak?) took the video is assured, but the chance commentary debunking911 quotes, which also likely came from a semi-official, is off a bit. What I heard said is "there's a hole in that building. There's something wrong with it. That building is coming down."

However, this recent mysticalgrove video compiles the smoke-photoshopped footage from the ABC network, but it pans up and down the gash like debunking911 will only wet dream about.


Read the following blog and take a look at the south face of Building 7 as seen through a broken window in an image by James Nachwey. I think there's a hole in that story, there's something wrong with it, and this conspiracy is coming down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVahuOpOJYE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKtU01qcZBM

Sunday, June 01, 2008

James Nachtwey and Thomas E. Franklin: Or Jesus Christ: How Much Evidence of Foreknowledge Will It Take?

Applying the Lessons of Arlington to the World Trade Center Disaster.

How does an award-winning, internationally recognized, war-and-humanitarian photographer do it? What is it about a successful career that continually guides a man to just the right spot, at the fortuitous moment, to capture such an expressive narrative zircon as the one above? Let's ask Time Magazine's James Nachtwey--he'll tell us.

Because the truth is never what it appears to be. What vile mind could ever have imagined Nachtwey would be given advanced notice of the destruction of the World Trade towers? Would have been steered over from his apartment in the South Street Seaport, or have anticipated and planned this very moment, to take a synthetic shot like this? The consequent affirms the antecedent, but that is not the whole proof.

A proof is revealed in his allowing his images to be doctored with pesky obscuring smoke, which is a journalistic sin everybody can understand.

And if we need still more proof then, his being paired with another photographer, the icon-maker Thomas E. Franklin will do the trick. The meaning of the symbolism behind the twin towers is--we can know a thing in its duality.

Thomas Franklin was the New Jersey newspaperman who took the central iconic image of heroism on 9-11. Depicting three firefighters raising an American flag amidst the rubble of the trade center towers, it shamelessly piggybacks a meaning off of an earlier war-ravaged Marine flag raising, which was itself actually a contrived affair. Within six months the hero's image was made into a 45-cent stamp.


Firefighters and photographer are reunited at the stamp unveiling on 11 March 2002, six months after the Trade Center attack. Standing (from left) are Postmaster General Jack Potter, Firefighters William "Billy" Eisengrein and George Johnson, President George W. Bush, US Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), Firefighter Dan McWilliams, and Thomas E. Franklin. (White House photo)

Mr. Franklin's story is told primarily in three places--on an Arlington National Cemetery web page, and secondly, as a page in a special public-relations effort explicating 9-11, which unfortunately has another page belonging to "the tourist guy,"--a prank snapshot taken on top of the trade center building, with an approaching 757 jetliner photoshopped in--so the choice here is between death and poor taste.

And thirdly, in an article he wrote for the May/June 2003 issue of the Columbia Journalism Review, http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc52kcvf_279hprmcbd2
where he said,
"Much of what happened to me on September 11 is a blur, but this moment I clearly remember: It was 4:45 p.m., and all the firemen and rescue workers were evacuating Ground Zero after word came that a third building -- WTC 7 -- was ready to fall. I had only a few frames left, and an entire day's worth of pictures to develop, so I prepared to head back to New Jersey."
Here was a clue that Mr. Franklin was so blinded by his briefings that he didn't perceive how illogical such a statement might sound in the real world of professional news photojournalism, where people would die to get a chance to record the demise of Building 7.

Franklin's story began:
"By noon the ferries began to taper off. Another photographer, John Wheeler, convinced the police to let himself and Franklin take a tugboat to New York. He first arrived at WTC 7, a 47-story structure that would collapse that night. As Franklin further penetrated Ground Zero, police threatened to arrest him about a half dozen times.
Franklin was traveling with James Nachtwey, a Pulitzer-prize winning photojournalist who told him he had just narrowly escaped death at Ground Zero.
Around 4 or 5 p.m., Franklin and Nachtwey were taking a break and drinking water and juice. A trio of firefighters caught his eye.
"I would I say was 150 yards away when I saw the firefighters raising the flag. They were standing on a structure about 20 feet above the ground. This was a long lens picture: there was about 100 yards between the foreground and background, and the long lens would capture the enormity of the rubble behind them," Franklin said.
The three firefighters, William Eisengrein, George Johnson and Daniel McWilliams, had discovered a US flag on the back of a yacht inside a boat slip at the World Financial Center. They took the banner and decided to raise it as a statement of loyalty and resilience.
Franklin recalled, "I made the picture standing underneath what may have been one of the elevated walkways, possibly the one that had connected the World Trade plaza and the World Financial Center. As soon as I shot it, I realized the similarity to the famous image of the Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima.
"This was an important shot. It told more than just death and destruction. It said something to me about the strength of the American people and of these firemen having to battle the unimaginable."
There is a grammatical glitch here, when Franklin crosses the river with a photographer named John Wheeler (Google result zero,) to "arrive" at Building 7, only to announce that he then was "traveling" with James Nachtwey, a Pulitzer-prize winning [sic] photojournalist. How did he become paired with Nachtwey?

His story that the firemen were raised up twenty-feet higher then he was seems improbable given the angle of the view. And the idea that the firemen would steal a flag off a yacht, find a flagpole in the rubble, build a ramp up to a ledge, climb up, and raise the flag in an effort to lift compatriot's spirits--all without knowing they were under the watchful eye of the media--is, well, poorly written.

On edit, Sept. 28, 2008: Actually, the angle of the Franklin shot becomes even more suspect when compared with the following three images. The first, shows the remains of the Marriott hotel, beside which, to the right in the photo, lies the "elevated walkway" Franklin said he was standing under when he shot the picture, followed by a FEMA image from the same likely POV, with a longer version third. The flag in the early FEMA image is the same scale as in the Franklin shot. It is probable that Franklin's image has had the intact but leaning flag pole, with its functioning pulley, photoshopped in




But how nice of Mr. Nachtwey to give Mr. Franklin the money shot!

Because now we can get back to Mr. Nachtwey, whose story is found on his own site http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/, at Time Magazine, Nachtwey Time Essay, and on a page by Peter Howe James Nachtwey by Peter Howe.
My problem with Nachtwey is I believe these absurd photos of smoke electro-statically clinging to the south face of Building 7 are faked. The first two are marked Magnum Photos, Nachtwey's agent, and I assume they are by him. We need to trace the history of when and how all of these pictures emerged. It is unlikely that such "in-your-face" effort would have been undertaken to seed the record with examples of a Judy-Wood's-esque type fuming--more likely it was meant to hide the lack of damage to Building 7, and provide a plausible destruction scenario.

The following two are off Nachtwey's home page and they give oblique views of Building 7 with photoshopped emanating smoke wisps and swirls.

The next image is from New Jersey and if my theory holds true, then other photographers had to have their images of Building 7 fumed too. Was this location controlled by this time in the day? Might there be any images of Building 7 from this location, which are smoke free?


But my cracked sixth sense rides to the rescue in a non-fuming Building 7 image by Nachtwey! Of course, the rest of lower Manhattan seems to have disappeared too!

The remains of the Marriott Hotel are to the right, with Building 7 to the left.

And I found another non-fuming Building 7 photo from a different perspective. I think they indicate the earlier smoke was a cover up for the controlled demolition of Building 7.


Lastly, a Nachtwey art shot of a Building 7, demolished.


It is hard for me to judge whether or not I have made my case that Nachtwey and Franklin are revealed to be conspirators by dint of foreknowledge. Both were "handled"--tasked to provide specific narrative output. Something so obvious to me can elude others I have learned. But the lesson of Arlington is the photographers were too important not to be involved in the conspiracy. All of them.

The only other point I might make is to refer back to that opening Christological image, but in a version taken off Mr. Nachtwey's own web site, where I think he tried to minimize the cross by using some left-over blackout, because I think he realizes that it was beneath him. The body of his work is outstanding, a very moving assemblage. How he ever got involved in 9-11 I don't know. He is bigger than that. I think he should confess his sins and be forgiven for them.

Someone named Ronald Weick, in a videotaped argument with Alex Jones posted to a blog named Suzie-Q, shuts everybody up by getting in the last word:

“The fire department was not told anything about a controlled demolition. 343 firefighters lost their lives on that day. they were not complicit in this terrible terrible catastrophe.To argue that they were is simply insane.”
Well then, let me be the first to state on the record that it is not insane at all to believe it is very well within the nature of a trillion-dollar-economic putsch conspiracy that some of the missing New York City firemen would be alive, rendered somewhere anonymous, their families fattened by seven-figure payoffs, while some surviving firemen may even be complicit in some other brother's [legitimate] demise. You gotta do what you gotta do. Firemen are definitely complicit in the little old arson and CD of Building 7. It's on the record.

At least, this is what the lessons of Arlington would indicate to me. The blending of profound personal and collective tragedy with manipulative individual synthetic activity is meant to be unfathomable, but we must give it a try nonetheless.

Thomas Franklin posted this photograph to the web, perhaps to allay criticisms that he wasn't even there at all that day. I believe he was there, although his shit looks pretty damn clean for late afternoon. He says this was taken just moments before he took his famous shot. I'd like to know where the ledge is supposed to be. That corner of a World Financial Center building appears at the left of his shot. Also, is that a James Nachtwey image?