Killtown's

9/11 coincidences and oddities page!

(and other note worthy tidbits.)

Pre 2001 • 2001 • 9/11 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006

Coincidence - A sequence of events that although accidental seems to have been planned or arranged.

Oddity - The state or quality of being odd; strangeness.

Last updated:  11/16/2007

(Try using the Wayback Machine for expired links.)

• February 27, 1933 - The German parliament's Reichstag building is set ablaze allegedly by a "crazed" young Dutch Communist in which afterwards the Nazis would claimed the fire was part of a "Communist conspiracy" to seize power in Germany and the Nazis would use the incident as their launching pad to dissolve civil liberties, ban opposition political parties, and create a dictatorship in order to "resist" a Communist takeover when evidence later pointed that the fire was really perpetrated by leaders in the Nazi Party.

"The Reichstag fire, a pivotal event in the establishment of Nazi Germany, began at 9:14 PM on the night of February 27, 1933, when a Berlin fire station received an alarm that the Reichstag building, assembly location of the German Parliament, was ablaze. The fire seemed to have been started in several places, and by the time the police and firemen arrived a huge explosion had set the main Chamber of Deputies in flames. Looking for clues, the police quickly found Marinus van der Lubbe, naked, cowering behind the building. Van der Lubbe was a Dutch insurrectionary council communist and unemployed bricklayer who had recently arrived in Germany.
Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring arrived soon after, and, when they were shown van der Lubbe, Göring immediately declared the fire was set by the Communists and had the party leaders arrested. Hitler took advantage of the situation to declare a state of emergency and encouraged aging president Paul von Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree, abolishing most of the human rights provisions of the 1919 Weimar Republic constitution.
...the Nazis had run on a platform of hysterical anti-communism, insisting that Germany was on the verge of a Communist revolution, and that the only way to stop the revolution was to pass the Enabling Act. Hitler's platform in the campaign comprised little more than demands that voters increase the Nazi share of seats so that the Enabling Act could be passed. In order to decrease the number of opposition members who could vote against the Enabling Act, Hitler had planned to ban the KPD, which at the time held 17% of the parliament's seats, after the elections and before the new Reichstag convened. The Reichstag Fire allowed Hitler to accelerate the banning of the Communist Party and was used to confirm Nazi claims of a pending Communist revolution. The Nazis argued the Reichstag fire was meant to serve as a signal to launch the revolution, and warned the German public about the grisly fate they would suffer under Communist rule.

The Nazis alleged that Van der Lubbe was part of the Communist conspiracy to burn down the Reichstag and seize power, while the Communists alleged that Van der Lubbe was part of the Nazi conspiracy to blame the crime on them.

The Leipzig Trial was widely publicized and was broadcast on the radio. It was expected the court would find the Communists guilty on all counts and approve the repression and terror exercised by the Nazis against all opposition forces in the country. It was clear the first time Georgi Dimitrov spoke that would not happen. Dimitrov had given up his right to a court appointed lawyer and defended himself successfully. He proved his innocence and the innocence of his Communist comrades and was set free. In addition, he presented evidence that the organizers of the fire were senior members of the Nazi Party.
Hitler was furious with the outcome of this trial. He decreed that henceforth treason – among many other offenses – would only be tried by a newly established Volksgerichtshof (People's Court) which later became infamous for the enormous number of death sentences it handed down while led by Roland Freisler.

Historians generally agree that van der Lubbe was involved in the Reichstag fire. The extent of the damage, however, has led to considerable debate over whether he acted alone. Considering the speed with which the fire engulfed the building, van der Lubbe's reputation as a mentally disturbed arsonist hungry for fame, and cryptic comments by leading Nazi officials, it is generally believed the Nazi hierarchy was involved in order to reap political gain — and it obviously did.

At Nuremberg, General Franz Halder stated in an affadavit that Göring had joked about setting the fire." - Wikipedia

"The Enabling Act was passed by the Reichstag on March 23, 1933. It was the second major step after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which the Nazis legally established Nazi Germany by providing the government with legislative powers, effectively handing dictatorial powers to then Chancellor Adolf Hitler." - Wikipedia

• September 11, 1941 - Construction on the Pentagon begins.

"The Pentagon—a building, institution, and symbol—was conceived at the request of Brigadier General Brehon B. Sommervell, Chief of the Construction Division of the Office of the Quartermaster General, on a weekend in mid-July 1941. The purpose was to provide a temporary solution to the War Department’s critical shortage of space.  The groundbreaking ceremony took place on September 11, 1941. The building was dedicated on January 15, 1943, nearly 16 months to the day after the groundbreaking." - Defense Link

• October 25, 1944 - The first use of airplanes in suicide attacks are preformed by the Japanese "Kamikaze's".

"By extension, during World War II the word came to be used for desperate suicide attacks, particularly by aircraft assigned to destroy US and Allied ships by flying directly into them. Japan had lost any pretext of having competitive fighters by 1944, and were hardly able to service them, so expending them as bombs was suggested by Admiral Takijiro Onishi in October 1944.  The first kamikaze strike came on October 25, 1944, off the Philippine island of Leyte." - Wikipedia

(See also:  February 22, 1974 - Samuel Byck attempts to hijack a commercial plane and crash it into the White House)

• July 28, 1945 - The only previous time a plane has crashed into a U.S. skyscraper was a military plane during the night through heavy fog.

"The last time a plane crashed into a New York City skyscraper was July 28, 1945. A U.S. bomber flying through thick fog at about 200 mph crashed into the Empire State Building, one of the most recognized structures in the world." - ABC (09/11/01)

(See also:  9/11 - The North WTC tower is allegedly hit by Flight 11)

• 1954 - Operation Suzannah, known as the "Lavon Affair," was a covert operation by the Mossad to bomb U.S. installations in Egypt and blame Arabs for it to harm Egyptian-American relations.

"The aim of the Israeli Operation Suzannah was to bomb United States installations in Egypt, such as cinemas, and blame Arabs, hoping it would harm Egyptian-American ties. It is also known as the Lavon affair or Faulty Business (esek bish), after the Israeli defence minister who was forced to resign because of the incident, then deeply shocked the Israeli political system by asking to review his case.
The operation was carried out by an Israeli military intelligence unit ("Unit 131" [1]) in 1954, but supposedly not backed by civilian Israeli leadership of that time. The operation, which was commenced in an amateurish fashion, led to the almost immediate identification and capture of the Mossad agents before any lives were taken.
Israeli agents working in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings, including a United States diplomatic facility, and left evidence behind implicating Arabs as the culprits. The ruse would have worked, had not one of the bombs detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to capture and identify one of the bombers, which in turn led to the round up of an Israeli spy ring. Some of the spies were from Israel, while others were recruited from the local Jewish population in Egypt.
The capture of the agents caused outrage among Egyptian authorities. However, there was also great concern among the Israeli public and lead to Israel's first major political scandal." - Wikipedia

(See also:  March 13, 1962 - America's top military leaders drafted "Operation Northwoods" which were secret plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba; 9/11 - The most devastating and unprecedented terrorist attack in history happens against the United States of America allegedly committed by 19 radical Arab Muslims; 9/11 - A New Jersey homemaker witnesses a group of young men kneeling on a white van.)

• 1962 to 1970 - U.S. military secretly tests WMD's on over 5,800 soldiers, many of whom were unwitting guinea pigs.

"The Defense Department released the final findings of an investigation into Project 112 and Project SHAD, which were conducted from 1962 to 1973 to test the combat capabilities of biological and chemical agents and ways to protect U.S. troops from such attacks.
Monday's report raised the number of U.S. troops identified as having been present for one or more of the tests to 5,842, many of whom were not informed of their participation.
Headquartered at Deseret Test Center at Fort Douglas, Utah, tests were conducted in Hawaii, Alaska, Maryland, Florida, Utah, Georgia, Panama, Canada, Britain and aboard ships in the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales first reported in May 2000 on the more than 100 secret biological warfare tests conducted at sea, including two — code-named "Autumn Gold" and "Copper Head" — more than 1,000 U.S. sailors were sprayed with materials thought to be harmless.
Some of the tests Project 112 tests, which had names like Flower Drum or Fearless Johnny, involved sarin or VX nerve gas. At least one used a simulant that was thought to be harmless but is now considered hazardous." - CBS/AP (07/01/03)

(See also:  July 1, 2003 - U.S. military releases their final findings into the testing of WMD's on thousands of unsuspecting soldiers; January 16, 2004 - The U.S. military is continuing to withhold documents over Cold War WMD tests it conducted on over 5,800 soldiers)

• March 13, 1962 - America's top military leaders, who were staunchly right-wing, drafted "Operation Northwoods" which were secret plans to kill innocent people, commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities, hijack airplanes, plant evidence, among other things, and blame it on Cubans to create public indignation and support for a war against Cuba.

Friendly Fire; Book: U.S. Military Drafted Plans to Terrorize U.S. Cities to Provoke War With Cuba

"In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.
Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.
The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.
America's top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."
Details of the plans are described in Body of Secrets (Doubleday), a new book by investigative reporter James Bamford about the history of America's largest spy agency, the National Security Agency. However, the plans were not connected to the agency, he notes.
The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they apparently were rejected by the civilian leadership and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.
The Joint Chiefs even proposed using the potential death of astronaut John Glenn during the first attempt to put an American into orbit as a false pretext for war with Cuba, the documents show.
Should the rocket explode and kill Glenn, they wrote, "the objective is to provide irrevocable proof … that the fault lies with the Communists et all Cuba [sic]."
The plans were motivated by an intense desire among senior military leaders to depose Castro, who seized power in 1959 to become the first communist leader in the Western Hemisphere — only 90 miles from U.S. shores.
The earlier CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles had been a disastrous failure, in which the military was not allowed to provide firepower.  The military leaders now wanted a shot at it.
Reflecting this, the U.S. plan called for establishing prolonged military — not democratic — control over the island nation after the invasion.
The Joint Chiefs at the time were headed by Eisenhower appointee Army Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer, who, with the signed plans in hand made a pitch to McNamara on March 13, 1962, recommending Operation Northwoods be run by the military.
Whether the Joint Chiefs' plans were rejected by McNamara in the meeting is not clear. But three days later, President Kennedy told Lemnitzer directly there was virtually no possibility of ever using overt force to take Cuba, Bamford reports. Within months, Lemnitzer would be denied another term as chairman and transferred to another job.
The secret plans came at a time when there was distrust in the military leadership about their civilian leadership, with leaders in the Kennedy administration viewed as too liberal, insufficiently experienced and soft on communism. At the same time, however, there real were concerns in American society about their military overstepping its bounds.
There were reports U.S. military leaders had encouraged their subordinates to vote conservative during the election.
And at least two popular books were published focusing on a right-wing military leadership pushing the limits against government policy of the day. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee published its own report on right-wing extremism in the military, warning a "considerable danger" in the "education and propaganda activities of military personnel" had been uncovered. The committee even called for an examination of any ties between Lemnitzer and right-wing groups. But Congress didn't get wind of Northwoods, says Bamford.
Even after Lemnitzer was gone, he writes, the Joint Chiefs continued to plan "pretext" operations at least through 1963.
One idea was to create a war between Cuba and another Latin American country so that the United States could intervene. Another was to pay someone in the Castro government to attack U.S. forces at the Guantanamo naval base — an act, which Bamford notes, would have amounted to treason. And another was to fly low level U-2 flights over Cuba, with the intention of having one shot down as a pretext for a war.
Afraid of a congressional investigation, Lemnitzer had ordered all Joint Chiefs documents related to the Bay of Pigs destroyed, says Bamford. But somehow, these remained." - ABC (05/01/01)

- Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962 - National Security Archive (actual documents; local) [Printed at:  killtown.blogspot.com]

(See also:  1954 - Operation Suzannah, known as the "Lavon Affair", was a covert operation by the Mossad to bomb U.S. installations in Egypt and blame Arabs for it to harm Egyptian-American relations; August 4, 1964 - US agency concludes the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was used to escalate the Vietnam war, never happened; 9/11 - The most devastating and unprecedented terrorist attack in history happens against the United States of America allegedly committed by 19 radical Arab Muslims)

• May 22, 1962 - Continental Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 707, becomes the first known commercial airliner to be sabotaged when a bomb explodes onboard in mid-flight killing 45 people aboard.

"A bomb exploded aboard this Continental Boeing 707, killing all 45 people aboard. This was the first known case of sabotage aboard a commercial jet airliner. The bomb was believed to have been carried aboard by a passenger in a suicide-for-insurance plot." - Plane Crash Info

"The aircraft crashed due to a bomb explosion at 39,000 feet. This was the first known bombing of a commercial jet airliner. Date: 22 May 1962; Airline: Continental Airlines; Flight No.: 11; Aircraft: B707-124; Location: Unionville, Missouri; Fatalities: 45:45" - AirDisaster.Com

(See also:  9/11 - The North WTC tower is allegedly hit by Flight 11)

• 1963 - The Milgram experiment was an "obedience to authority" psychological experiment (which was trying to find out if millions of accomplices in the holocaust were merely following orders) demonstrated that the majority of participants in the study were willing to inflict harm to another person in the study at the orders of the authority figure (experimenter), especially if the authority figure demeaned the participant thought to be receiving pain in front of the participant who thought they were really inflicted pain to them.

"The Milgram experiment was a famous scientific experiment of social psychology. The experiment was first described by Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University in an article titled Behavioral Study of Obedience published in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology in 1963, and later discussed at book length in his 1974 Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. It was intended to measure the willingness of a participant to obey an authority who instructs the participant to do something that may conflict with the participant's personal conscience.
The experiments began in July 1961, a year after the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Milgram devised the experiment to answer the question "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?"

Before the experiment was conducted Milgram polled fellow psychologists as to what the results would be. They unanimously believed that only a few sadists would be prepared to give the maximum voltage.

The experimenter (E) persuades the participant (S) to give what the participant believes are painful electric shocks to another participant (A), who is actually an actor. Many participants continued to give shocks despite pleas for mercy from the actor.
In Milgram's first set of experiments, 65 percent (27 out of 40) of experimental participants administered the experiment's final 450-volt shock, though many were quite uncomfortable in doing so; everyone paused at some point and questioned the experiment, some even saying they would return the cheque for the money they were paid. No participant steadfastly refused to give further shocks before the 300-volt level. Variants of the experiment were later performed by Milgram himself and other psychologists around the world with similar results.
Thomas Blass of the University of Maryland performed a meta-analysis on the results of repeated performances of the experiment (done at various times since, in the US and elsewhere). He found that the percentage of participants who are prepared to inflict fatal voltages remains remarkably constant, between 61% and 66%, regardless of time or location. - Wikipedia

"Milgram’s obedience to authority experiment countered the participant’s moral beliefs against the demands of authority. Participants were told that the study would look at the relationship of punishment in learning, and that one person would be the teacher, and the other would be the learner (a confederate), and that these roles would be determined by a random drawing. The learner was then strapped into a chair, and electrodes are attached to their arm. It was explained to both the teacher and the learner that the electrodes were attached to an electric shock generator, and that shocks would serve as punishment for incorrect answers. The experimenter then states that the shocks will be painful, but that they will not cause any permanent tissue damage, while in reality no shocks would actually be received. The teacher and learner are then divided into separate rooms.
Milgram found that 65% of participants would render shock levels of 450 volts, and that these were everyday normal people. These interviews confirmed that everyday normal people can cause pain and suffering to another person, under the right set of circumstances. Milgram also found the tendency of the teacher to devalue the learner, by saying such phrases as, “he is so dumb he deserves to get shocked,” which helped to interally justify the teachers behavior of continuing to administer the shocks." - Northern Illinois University

• November 22, 1963 - President John F. Kennedy (D-Mass) is assassinated allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald.

"United States President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Friday November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 PM Central time. He was on a campaign and support trip through the Southern United States in anticipation of the upcoming 1964 presidential election. Kennedy was fatally wounded by multiple gunshot wounds while riding in an open-top automobile. Texas Governor John B Connally was also severely injured in the same assassination attempt. Later that afternoon, U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States aboard Air Force One.
At 12:30 PM, with the presidential limo traveling an average of 11.2 miles per hour through the plaza, at least two shots are known to have struck the occupants of the car. The Warren commission believed three were fired, all by Lee Harvey Oswald from the Depository. Two of them hit, one missed the car and its occupants. The first bullet that hit, called the 'magic bullet' by critics of the Warren report, was believed to have struck Kennedy in the back to exit at his throat, then to bounce to hit Governor Connally in the back and wrist. The subsequent bullet that hit, the shot fatal to Kennedy, struck him in the back of the head. From the evidence it is unclear whether it was the first, second, or third shot that missed.
Immediately after the shots were fired and the gravity of the situation became clear to the limo driver and the Secret Service, the limo sped off out of Dealey Plaza on its way to Parkland Hospital." - Wikipedia

- Click here for ZToon slideshow of that Zapruder film.  (Recommended read:  The Kennedy Assassination: The Nixon-Bush Connection)

(See also:  June 5, 1968 - JFK's younger brother Robert is assassinated; June 23, 1972 - Nixon uses the expression "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" in a recorded White House meeting with Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman which is revealed later that Nixon's references to the Bay of Pigs was code for the Kennedy assassination; March 6, 1975 - The Abraham Zapruder film is first shown on TV; 1976 - James R. Bath, a friend of George W. Bush from the Texas Air National Guard, opens an aircraft brokerage firm in which one of his investors is Gov. John Connally; March 29, 1979 - House Select Committee on Assassinations JFK assassination report)

• November 22, 1963 - An hour after JFK's shooting, police arrest 24 yr. old Lee Harvey Oswald who vehemently denies shooting the President and says he's just a "patsy."

"News of the president's shooting had Dallas residents on high alert, and several people noticed a suspicious man duck into a doorway eight blocks from the shooting scene as cop cars passed.
One such witness was Johnny Brewer, a shoe store manager, who saw the man slip into the Texas Theater.
More than a dozen officers converged on the theater. They ordered the house lights turned up, and Brewer pointed out the suspicious character. As cops moved in, the man brandished his pistol but was subdued before firing a shot, although some officers said they heard the "click" of a misfire.
The suspect was 24 years old, 5-foot-9 and 150 pounds. His name was Lee Harvey Oswald.
A misfit Marine Corps vet, the native of New Orleans had been hired as a $1.25-an-hour order-filler at the Texas School Book Depository six weeks earlier.
En route to the police station, Oswald asked over and over, "Why am I being arrested?"
Oswald was taken to the Dallas Police and Courts Building downtown.
At 7:10 that evening, a justice of the peace visited to arraign Oswald on charges that he killed Patrolman Tippit. Six hours later, at 1:30 a.m. November 23, he was arraigned by the same justice in the murder of Kennedy.
Oswald was questioned at Dallas police headquarters for some 12 cumulative hours over the two days following his arrest. Capt. J.W. Fritz of the Dallas police homicide bureau conducted most of the interrogation.
FBI and Secret Service agents often were present and sometimes asked questions of Oswald.
The Warren Commission said, "Throughout this interrogation he denied that he had anything to do either with the assassination of President Kennedy or the murder of Patrolman Tippit." - Crime Library

"Mr Oswald was arrested about an hour after the assassination of John F Kennedy, carried out as the President's motorcade passed through the Dealey Plaza in Dallas.
He was initially taken into custody for the murder of a policeman, JD Tippit, who appears to have recognised him and approached him just 45 minutes after the killing of the President.
Soon after, Mr Oswald was also charged with the President's assassination.
He strongly denied that he carried out the assassination, saying to reporters, "I'm just a patsy." - BBC, On This Day

• November 24, 1963 - Two days after Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest, Jack Ruby (who had many friends in the Dallas police department, links to organized crime, and owed the government $45,000) shoots and kills Oswald live on national TV when an estimated 75 cops were assembled waiting for Oswald's transfer.  Ruby would later make a statement to reporters saying that the people in "very high positions" who had "so much to gain" put him in the position he was in and will "never let the true facts come out."

"Jack Ruby:  Everything pertaining to what's happening has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts, of what occurred, my motives. The people had, that had so much to gain and had such an ulterior motive for putting me in the position I'm in, will never let the true facts come above board to the world.
Reporter:  Are these people in very high positions Jack?
Jack:  Yes." - (Video of Jack Ruby press conference)

"At about 11 a.m. Sunday, November 24, Oswald was to be transferred from the Police and Courts Building to the Dallas County Jail—standard procedure once a crime suspect had been charged with a felony.
Curry decided to make the move of Oswald a media event by staging a photo opportunity in the basement of police headquarters.
He indicated to reporters that the transfer would happen after 10 a.m. Sunday, November 24.
After the basement was secure, cops allowed journalists to re-enter.
By 11:20 a.m., an estimated 50 newsmen and 75 cops were assembled waiting for Oswald.
On live national television, Oswald walked through the doors surrounded by lawmen. After he had walked perhaps 10 feet, a stout man stepped between newsman at the edge of the crowd. He extended his right hand, which gripped a Colt .38-caliber revolver, and fired "a single fatal bullet into Oswald's abdomen," as the Warren Commission report put it.
The man was soon identified as Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner who had many friends in the city's police department.
He told the Warren Commission he was overwhelmed by "the emotional feeling...that someone owed this debt to our beloved President to save her the ordeal of coming back. I don't know why that came through my mind." Ruby swore he was not part of a conspiracy to silence Oswald.
Ruby was charged with murder and stood trial in February and March 1964. His attorney, Melvin Belli, argued for an insanity verdict, but the jury convicted Ruby and condemned him to die.
He was drafted into the Army Air Forces in 1943 and spent three uneventful years at military bases in the south.
The Warren Commission reported, "Ruby's police friendships were far more widespread than those of the average citizen."
The government also hounded Ruby for delinquent taxes, including about $5,000 in income tax and $40,000 in federal excise taxes he had neglected to charge patrons because he claimed his establishments were restaurants, not cabarets.
As a strip club owner, Ruby became acquainted with many of the more unsavory individuals of the Dallas underworld.
The Warren Commission report said that while he was "friendly with numerous underworld figures," "evidence does not establish a significant link between Ruby and organized crime. "
Ruby probably was allowed to stay in business by paying off the Dallas mob, then led by Joseph Civello. Among his closest friends was Civello's No. 2 lieutenant, and Ruby also was tight with three brothers who led another Dallas Mafia unit." - Crime Library

• August 4, 1964 - Based on intercepted communications, U.S. military intelligence claims there has been a second attack on the USS Maddox by Vietnamese naval ships (the "Gulf of Tonkin incident") which propels an outraged U.S. Congress to overwhelmingly pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution three days later that enables President Lyndon Johnson to employ military force in Vietnam as he saw fit and becomes the crucial turning point in escalating the war.  However after 40 years later, analysis from the U.S.'s own intelligence agency concluded that this second attack on the Maddox never actually took place.

Doubts cast on Vietnam War buildup

"A just-released spy-agency analysis contends a second attack on U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin never happened, which casts further doubt on the main rationale for escalation of the Vietnam War.
Much as faulty U.S. intelligence preceded the invasion of Iraq, the mishandling of intercepted communications 40 years earlier is blamed in a National Security Agency paper released Thursday for giving President Lyndon B. Johnson carte blanche to wage war in Vietnam.
The agency put out more than 140 long-secret documents in response to requests from researchers trying to get to the bottom of an episode that unfolded in the South China Sea on August 4, 1964, and has been disputed since.
Among the documents is an article written by one of the agency's historians for its classified publication, Cryptologic Quarterly, which declared that his review of the complete intelligence shows beyond doubt "no attack happened that night."
Claims that North Vietnamese boats attacked two warships that August 4, just two days after an initial assault on one of the ships, rallied Congress behind Johnson's buildup of the war. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which passed three days later, empowered Johnson to take "all necessary steps" in the region and opened the way for large-scale commitment of U.S. forces.
"In truth, Hanoi's navy was engaged in nothing that night but the salvage of two of the boats damaged on 2 August," Hanyok wrote.
The Maddox had come under fire from North Vietnamese patrol boats August 2 and took only superficial damage." - CNN (12/01/05) [Cached]

Summary of the Tonkin Gulf Crisis of August 1964

"A clash between naval forces of the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) in August 1964 marked a significant turning point in the Cold War struggle for Southeast Asia.

In early August of 1964, destroyer USS Maddox (DD 731), under the operational control of Captain John J. Herrick, USN, steamed along the coast of North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin gathering various types of intelligence.

On the afternoon of 2 August, the Communists dispatched three Soviet-built P-4 motor torpedo boats against Maddox. Torpedoes launched from the P-4s missed their mark. Only one round from enemy deck guns hit the destroyer; it lodged in the ship's superstructure.

On the night of 4 August, the warships reported making contact and then being attacked by several fast craft far out to sea. Officers in the naval chain of command and U.S. leaders in Washington were persuaded by interpretation of special intelligence and reports from the ships that North Vietnamese naval forces had attacked the two destroyers. More recent analysis of that data and additional information gathered on the 4 August episode now makes it clear that North Vietnamese naval forces did not attack Maddox and Turner Joy that night in the summer of 1964.
In response to the actual attack of 2 August and the suspected attack of 4 August, the President ordered Seventh Fleet carrier forces to launch retaliatory strikes against North Vietnam. Of greater significance, on 7 August the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passed the so-called Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which enabled Johnson to employ military force as he saw fit against the Vietnamese Communists. In the first months of 1965, the President ordered the deployment to South Vietnam of major U.S. ground, air, and naval forces. Thus began a new phase in America's long, costly Vietnam War." - Navy

Tonkin Gulf Intelligence "Skewed" According to Official History and Intercepts
- Newly Declassified National Security Agency Documents Show Analysts Made "SIGINT fit the claim" of North Vietnamese Attack

"The largest U.S. intelligence agency, the National Security Agency, today declassified over 140 formerly top secret documents -- histories, chronologies, signals intelligence [SIGINT] reports, and oral history interviews -- on the August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident. Included in the release is a controversial article by Agency historian Robert J. Hanyok on SIGINT and the Tonkin Gulf which confirms what historians have long argued: that there was no second attack on U.S. ships in Tonkin on August 4, 1964." - National Security Archive

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 40 Years Later
- Flawed Intelligence and the Decision for War in Vietnam
- Signals Intercepts, Cited at Time, Prove Only August 2nd Battle, Not August 4; Purported Second Attack Prompted Congressional Blank Check for War  - National Security Archive

(See also:  March 13, 1962 - America's top military leaders, who were staunchly right-wing, drafted "Operation Northwoods" which were secret plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba)

• January 3, 1967 - Jack Ruby dies of cancer in prison.

"Ruby was charged with murder and stood trial in February and March 1964. His attorney, Melvin Belli, argued for an insanity verdict, but the jury convicted Ruby and condemned him to die.
Ruby won an appeal on grounds of fairness because he had been denied a change of venue. A Texas court ordered a new trial, but Ruby died of cancer on January 3, 1967, before it could be held." - Crime Library

• June 5, 1968 - Senator Robert Kennedy, the favored Democratic candidate in the next Presidential election, is shot by 24 yr. old Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan who allegedly shoots him with a .22 cal gun, but conspiracy theories emerge when more bullet holes were counted than Sirhan's gun had bullets, the fatal bullet that hit RFK hit the back of his neck at very close range yet Sirhan shot at him from the front, Sirhan was seen whispering to a lady in a polka dotted dress who smiled right before he began shooting and then the lady in the dress was seen running away from the scene exuberantly crying, "We shot Kennedy!", no formal security people were hired to protect RFK at his event, and Sirhan's lawyer claims he was "hypnotized" and didn't even shoot RFK.

"Senator Robert Kennedy has been shot and seriously wounded shortly after giving a victory speech to celebrate his win in the California Primary in a Los Angeles hotel.
The 42-year-old senator was greeting hotel workers while being escorted through the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel when a gunman, named as Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan, fired shots from a .22 calibre gun.
The 24-year-old was immediately set upon by Mr Kennedy's body guards and then arrested and taken away by police.
It is thought Mr Kennedy's well documented support for Israel led to the attack.
Mr Kennedy is favourite in the running to be named as the Democrat candidate in the next election.
(In Context)
Robert Kennedy's death was announced the following day.
There are many theories about the death of Robert Kenndy disputing the conviction of Sirhan Sirhan.
Conflicting reports of events, the trajectory of the bullets and the number of bullet holes found compared with the round of bullets in the fired gun have all led people to suggest possible conspiracy theories." - BBC 'On This Day'

"Odd as it seems, no formal security measurements were in effect during the event...
A Gallup Poll showed that Americans believed "by a margin of 4 to 3 that the attack was a product of a conspiracy."
...the gunman was not hostile, nor impolite; he held friendly discourse...and answered the detective courteously. But, he seemed confused as if he really didn’t understand the seriousness of his crime.
The autopsy...also created a controversy. Sirhan Sirhan had carried an Iver-Johnson eight-cylinder handgun...Four of those had been fired at RFK...but there were five others who had been wounded in the pantry. Because there were more victims than accounted-for bullets, a "second gunman" theory was born.
The shot that...killed Kennedy – the one that entered the back of his neck,... was fired so close that it left thick powder burns on the skin...the shot was fired at a range no more distant than one-and-a-half inches. Yet, according to all witnesses, Sirhan Sirhan shot in front of Kennedy...
...a college kid and part-time waiter at the Ambassador Hotel, who said he had spotted Sirhan Sirhan before the shooting, standing near the tray table. What had drawn his attention to the would-be assassin was the woman to whom he was whispering...She...wore a "white dress with black or purple polka dots". Moments before Sirhan leaped forward to shoot, he murmured in her ear and she smiled.
That same night at the police station a 21-year-old campaign worker named Sandra Serrano also told the investigators about a mysterious polka dot-wearing lady...she said, a trio comprised of a young...male who looked like Sirhan Sirhan...entered the ballroom.  Not long after, claimed Serrano, the couple, minus the third party, came bolting down the steps, exuberantly crying, "We shot Kennedy!"
The polka-dot lady had also been seen by a police sergeant named Paul Sharaga...he overheard a giggling couple pass by him, mumbling, "We shot Kennedy!" The female wore polka dots.
Within weeks after the trial, the Los Angeles Free Press ran a story by reporters Lillian Castellano and Floyd Nelson that resurrected the possibility of another gunman at the crime scene. They had photographic "proof" of two extra bullet holes in the wooden divider...
There was a catch. The police had removed the door jamb...When the Los Angeles City Council, under pressure, demanded an answer...Assistant Police Chief Daryl Gates responded...yes, the police thought they might have been bullet holes.
Confounding the issue was the incessant question as to how Kennedy was shot in the back by a man who approached him from the front.
Stranger, all records of the trial proceedings referring to the testimony of seven forensic experts about the crime scene have disappeared.
"Attorney Lawrence Teeter, representing Sirhan Sirhan, believes that his client was hypnotized that evening and made to serve as someone’s puppet. "An unconscious perpetrator does not commit a crime," Teeter expanded. "He was not aware of what happened…(He) was out of position, out of range and could not have shot Senator Kennedy."
Meanwhile, Sirhan Sirhan remains in prison, having been denied his latest parole attempt in 1997, awaiting his next hearing in the year 2000. He is a model prisoner who continues to claim his innocence." - Court TV

(See also:  November 22, 1963 - Democratic President John F. Kennedy is assassinated)

• March 16, 1970 - Propane Blasts Hit Trade Center; 4 Explosions Are Described as an Industrial Accident

"Propane gas explosions, described by the Fire Department as accidental, shook the skeletal south tower of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan yesterday, injured six workmen and caused a suspension of operations for 2,000 other construction men and employees of nearby businesses." - New York Times (03/17/70)

(See also:  February 14, 1975 - Trade Center Hit By 6-Floor Fire)

• September 6-12, 1970 - Four New York-bound airliners are hijacked over western Europe by a militant Palestinian group and later three of the planes are blown up on an airfield in Jordan.

"Four New York-bound airliners have been hijacked over western Europe in an unprecedented operation carried out by a militant Palestinian group.
Three of the planes taken over by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) have been flown to two different locations in the Middle East.
The TWA and Swissair planes were flown to an airfield in Jordan and the Pan American airliner to Beirut." - BBC

"Palestinian militants have blown up the three planes they have been holding at an airfield in the Jordanian desert.
Two of the planes had been captured by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) six days ago.
The last plane was seized on 9 September on a flight from Bombay to London and forced to join the others at Dawson's Field airstrip - a former RAF base." - BBC

(See also:  9/11 - The most devastating and unprecedented terrorist attack in history happens in the United States of America allegedly committed by 19 radical Arab Muslims who hijacked four commercial airliners)

• 1971 - Asbestos insulating material had only been sprayed up to the 64th floor of the World Trade Center towers.

"Until 30 years ago, asbestos was added to flame-retardant sprays used to insulate steel building materials, particularly floor supports. The insulation was intended to delay the steel from melting in the case of fire by up to four hours.
In the case of the World Trade Center, emergency plans called for this four-hour window to be used to evacuate the building while helicopters sprayed to put out the fire and evacuated persons from the roof.
The use of asbestos ceased in the 1970s following reports of asbestos workers becoming ill from high exposures to asbestos fibers.
In 1971, New York City banned the use of asbestos in spray fireproofing. At that time, asbestos insulating material had only been sprayed up to the 64th floor of the World Trade Center towers.
Levine’s company, Asbestospray, was familiar with the World Trade Center construction, but failed to get the contract for spraying insulation in the World Trade Center. Levine frequently would say that "if a fire breaks out above the 64th floor, that building will fall down." - FOX News (09/14/01)

• June 17, 1972 - Five men, one of whom says he used to work for the CIA, are arrested trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel.

"Five men, one of whom said he is a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, were arrested at 2:30 a.m. yesterday in what authorities described as an elaborate plot to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee here.
Three of the men were native-born Cubans and another was said to have trained Cuban exiles for guerrilla activity after the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
They were surprised at gunpoint by three plain-clothes officers of the metropolitan police department in a sixth floor office at the plush Watergate, 2600 Virginia Ave., NW, where the Democratic National Committee occupies the entire floor.
All wearing rubber surgical gloves, the five suspects were captured inside a small office within the committee's headquarters suite.
Near where they were captured were two open file drawers, and one national committee source conjectured that the men were preparing to photograph the contents.
The five men were identified as:
• Edward Martin, alias James W. McCord, of New York City and perhaps the Washington metropolitan area. Martin said in court yesterday that he retired from the CIA two years ago. He said he presently is employed as a "security consultant."
• Frank Sturgis of 2515 NW 122d St., Miami. Prosecutors said that an FBI check on Sturgis showed that he had served in the Cuban Military army intelligence in 1958, recently traveled to Honduras in Central America, and presently is the agent for a Havana salvage agency.
• Eugenio R. Martinez of 4044 North Meridian Ave., Miami. Prosecutors said that Martinez violated the immigration laws in 1958 by flying in a private plane to Cuba. He is a licensed real estate agent and a notary public in Florida.
• Virgilio R. Gonzales [Editor's Note: Spelling was corrected in subsequent stories to Gonzalez] of 930 NW 23d Ave., Miami. In Miami yesterday, his wife told a Washington Post reporter that her husband works as a locksmith at the Missing Link Key Shop.
• Bernard L. Barker of 5229 NW 4th St., Miami. Douglas Caddy, one of the attorneys for the five men, told a reporter that shortly after 3 a.m. yesterday, he received a call from Barker's wife. "She said that her husband told her to call me if he hadn't called her by 3 a.m.: that it might mean he was in trouble."
Silbert called the men professionals with a "clandestine" purpose." - Washington Post (06/18/72)

- Watergate Chronology - Washington Post

(See also:  August 9, 1974 - President Nixon resigns)

• June 23, 1972 - In a recorded meeting between President Nixon and Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman in the Oval Office about the Watergate scandal, Nixon uses the expression "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" in which Haldeman years later in his 1978 book, The Ends of Power, revealed that Nixon's references to the Bay of Pigs was "code" for the Kennedy assassination.

"Nixon: When you get in these people when you...get these people in, say: "Look, the problem is that this will open the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the President just feels that" ah, without going into the details... don't, don't lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it, "the President believes that it is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again. And, ah because these people are plugging for, for keeps and that they should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don't go any further into this case", period!
Haldeman: OK" - Watergate.info

"Years later, former C.B.S. correspondent Dan Schorr called me. He was seeking information concerning the F.B.I. investigation Nixon had mounted against him in August, 1971.
Schorr later sent me his fascinating book Clearing the Air. In it I was interested to find that evidence he had gleaned while investigating the C.I.A. finally cleared up for me the mystery of the Bay of Pigs connection in those dealings between Nixon and Helms. 'It's intriguing when I put Schorr's facts together with mine. It seems that in all of those Nixon references to the Bay of Pigs, he was actually referring to the Kennedy assassination." - The Ends of Power, by H.R. Haldeman, Joseph Dimona; 1978 [Reprinted at: Spartacus Educational]

- Watch video clip of Haldeman interview - JFK Assassination Video Resources

(See also:  November 22, 1963 - Democratic President John F. Kennedy is assassinated; August 9, 1974 - President Nixon resigns)

• September 1972 - President Nixon forms a high-level government panel to develop plans to protect the nation against terrorist acts ranging from "dirty bombs" to airline missile attacks and the panel included such people as the first future 9/11 Commission head Henry Kissinger and future NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani who had suggested relaxing intelligence collection guidelines on this panel which would eventually happen after 9/11 with the passage of the Patriot Act.

Nixon foresaw terrorist attacks

"Nearly three decades before the September 11 attacks, a high-level government panel developed plans to protect the nation against terrorist acts ranging from radiological "dirty bombs" to airline missile attacks, according to declassified documents.
"Unless governments take basic precautions, we will continue to stand at the edge of an awful abyss," Robert Kupperman, chief scientist for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, wrote in a 1977 report that summarized nearly five years of work by the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism.

The group was formed in September 1972 by President Nixon after Palestinian commandos slaughtered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. The committee involved people as diverse as Henry Kissinger to a young Rudolph W. Giuliani, the once-secret documents show.
Eventually, the group's influence waned as competing priorities, a change of presidents ushered in by Watergate, bureaucratic turf battles and a lack of spectacular domestic attacks took their toll.
But before that happened, the panel identified many of the same threats that would confront President Bush at the dawn of the 21st century.
Committee members identified commercial jets as a particular vulnerability, but raised concerns that airlines would not pay for security improvements such as tighter screening procedures and routine baggage inspections.
"The trouble with the plans is that airlines and airports will have to absorb the costs and so they will scream bloody murder should this be required of them," according to a White House memo from 1972.
Thousands of pages of heavily blacked-out records and memos obtained by the Associated Press from government archives and under the Freedom of Information Act show the task force also discussed defending commercial aircraft against being shot down by portable missile systems.
Though the CIA routinely updated the committee on potential terrorist threats and plots, task force members learned quickly that intelligence gathering and coordination was a weak spot, just as Mr. Bush would discover three decades later.
Long before he was mayor and helped New York recover from the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Mr. Giuliani told the committee in May 1976 that he feared legal restrictions were thwarting federal agents from collecting intelligence unless there had been a violation of the law.
Mr. Giuliani, who at that time was the associate deputy attorney general in President Ford's Justice Department, suggested relaxing intelligence-collection guidelines — something that occurred with the Patriot Act three decades later." - Washington Times (01/24/05)

(See also:  9/11 - Mayor Rudy Giuliani thinks the first crash into the WTC was an attack and not an accident; October 26, 2001 - Only a month and a half after 9/11, the 342 page USA PATRIOT ACT is signed into law; November 29, 2002 - Bush names Henry Kissinger to head 9/11 investigations)

• September 11, 1973 - Chilean armed forces headed by General Augusto Pinochet and allegedly backed by the U.S. CIA take control of the country in a coup d'etat against President Salvador Allende.

"In 1973, when high inflation and economic shortages had plunged the country into near chaos, the Chilean military led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, staged a coup against President Allende.
Following the coup many Allende supporters began to allege that the president's overthrow had been the result of an American orchestrated scheme. Although the CIA denies actively supporting in the coup and claims that it was merely informed of it, recently declassified documents have raised the possibility that the CIA was much more actively involved in the coup than it has previously admitted." - Wikipedia

(See also:  September 11, 1990 - President George H. W. Bush twice references the phrase "new world order" in an address before congress)

• December 12, 1973 - British spy chiefs secretly warned that the United States would be prepared to invade Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to seize their oilfields following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

"British spy chiefs secretly warned that the United States would be prepared to invade Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to seize their oilfields following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, documents released today disclose.
Files released to the British National Archives under the 30-year rule for classified documents show the intelligence agencies believed the US was ready to take military action to prevent further disruption to oil supplies.
It followed the decision in October 1973 by the Arab nations to slash oil production, and send prices rocketing, while imposing a complete embargo on the Americans over their support for Israel.
Although the war in the Middle East was over after three weeks, a secret assessment drawn up for government ministers by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), including the heads of MI5 and MI6, concluded the US would rather risk military action than be held to ransom again by the Arabs.
The report, dated December 12, 1973 and marked "UK Eyes Alpha", described the seizure of the oil-producing areas in the region as "the possibility uppermost in American thinking".
The JIC calculated the US could guarantee sufficient oil supplies for themselves and their allies by taking the oilfields in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf state of Abu Dhabi, with total reserves of more than 28 billion tons.
However, it said the Republican administration of President Richard Nixon could be prepared to take the risks, if it was faced with the "dark scenario" of renewed Arab-Israeli conflict and further protracted oil restrictions.
It said that the United States would even consider pre-emptive action if Arab governments, "elated by the success of the oil weapon," began imposing new demands." - Australian Broadcasting Corp (01/01/04)

• February 17, 1974 - Army Pvt. Robert Preston steals an Army helicopter from Fort Meade, MD, and flies it to the White House where he touches down briefly, then leaves back toward Fort Meade, then flies back to the White House after being chased by two Maryland State Police helicopters and lands on the grounds after being shot at by EPS officers.

Air Incursions and Attempted Air Incursions
"Robert K. Preston (February 1974). On February 17, 1974, Robert Preston, a private in the Army, stole an Army helicopter from Fort Meade, Maryland, and flew it to the White House Complex. He passed over the Executive Mansion and then returned to the south grounds, where he hovered for about 6 minutes and touched down briefly approximately 150 feet from the West Wing. Members of the EPS did not know who was piloting the aircraft and were not aware that it had been stolen from Fort Meade. They made no attempt to shoot down the helicopter.
Preston left the area of the White House and flew the helicopter back toward Fort Meade. He was chased by two Maryland State Police helicopters, one of which he forced down through his erratic maneuvers. Preston then returned to the White House Complex. As he lowered himself to about 30 feet above the south grounds, EPS officers barraged the helicopter with shotgun and submachine gunfire. Preston immediately set the riddled aircraft down. He was injured slightly." - Federation of American Scientists.  See also:  Wikipedia

White House has been scene of attacks, violence many times

"Army Pvt. Robert Preston got further with a similar plan that year. He stole a helicopter from Fort Meade, Md., flew to the White House, touched down briefly near the West Wing, then flew back toward Fort Meade with Maryland State Police helicopters in pursuit, returned to the White House and was shot down on the South Lawn." - Post-Gazette (02/08/01)

• February 22, 1974 - Samuel Byck attempts to hijack a commercial plane and crash it into the White House in order to kill Richard Nixon.

"In 1974, a psychotic celebrity stalker named Samuel Byck ended his not-illustrious non-career as a homicidal maniac by attempting to storm a parked aircraft and hijack it, with the intent of crashing it into the White House in order to kill Richard M. Nixon. The plan was not well thought out. Rather than buy a ticket and hijack a plane in flight, he chose to shoot his way onto the plane at the airport with the predictable result that he was gunned down by the police. Wounded, he committed suicide rather than surrender." - Rotten.com

"...Samuel Byck, an unemployed salesman from Philadelphia who on Feb. 22, 1974 attempted to hijack an Atlanta-bound jet leaving Baltimore-Washington International Airport -- murdering a police officer and being shot to death himself. It was days before authorities discovered, via tape recordings left behind by the 44-year-old killer, that he had planned to fly the hijacked plane into the Nixon White House." - Newsday (12/19/04)

White House has been scene of attacks, violence many times

"In one, an unemployed Philadelphia salesman, Samuel Byck, got into a shootout with airports guards at Baltimore-Washington International Airport when he tried to hijack a Delta commercial airliner. After he committed suicide, officials learned that he had planned to crash the plane into the White House." - Post-Gazette (02/08/01)

(See also:  October 25, 1944 - The first use of airplanes in suicide attacks are preformed by the Japanese "Kamikaze's"; 1978 - 'The Medusa Touch' is about a man who uses his telekinetic powers to cause a jumbo jet to crash into a building; December 29, 2004 - "The Assassination of Richard Nixon", a movie based on the real-life of Samuel Byck who tried to hijack a commercial jet and crash it into the White House in order to kill Richard Nixon)

• August 9, 1974 - President Nixon resigns because of the Watergate scandal, becoming the first President in U.S. history to resign from office.

"Richard Milhous Nixon announced last night that he will resign as the 37th President of the United States at noon today.
Vice President Gerald R. Ford of Michigan will take the oath as the new President at noon to complete the remaining 2 1/2 years of Mr. Nixon's term.
After two years of bitter public debate over the Watergate scandals, President Nixon bowed to pressures from the public and leaders of his party to become the first President in American history to resign.
Vice President Ford, who spoke a short time later in front of his Alexandria home, announced that Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger will remain in his Cabinet.
Mr. Nixon said he decided he must resign when he concluded that he no longer had "a strong enough political base in the Congress" to make it possible for him to complete his term of office.
While the President acknowledged that some of his judgments "were wrong," he made no confession of the "high crimes and misdemeanors" with which the House Judiciary Committee charged him in its bill of impeachment.
Alexander M. Haig Jr., the former Army vice chief of staff who was brought into the White House as staff chief following the resignation of H.R. (Bob) Haldeman on April 30, 1973, has been asked by Mr. Ford to remain in his present position.
The march of events that brought about the President's downfall turned its last corner Monday when Mr. Nixon released the partial transcripts of three taped conversations he held on June 23, 1972 with Haldeman." - Washington Post (08/09/74)

-  Nixon's Resignation Speech, Nixon's Resignation Letter - Watergate.info

(See also:  June 17, 1972 - Watergate hotel burglarized)

• September 8, 1974 - President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon of any wrongdoings in the Watergate scandal.

"On September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon of any wrongdoings in the Watergate scandal. The pardon actually came out less than a month after Nixon resigned the presidency. Quoting his official pardon: "It is believed that a trial of Richard Nixon, if it became necessary, could not fairly begin until a year or more has elapsed. In the meantime, the tranquility to which this nation has been restored by the events of recent weeks could be irreparably lost by the prospects of bringing to trial a former President of the United States." - About.com

- President Ford's Pardon of Richard Nixon - Watergate.info

• 1975 - In the movie "Three Days of the Condor", Robert Redford plays Joseph Turner (aka Condor) who works for the CIA reading books to find information of plots and scenarios to check against actual CIA Plans and Operations for leaks or new ideas.

"A man named Turner works for the CIA reading books and postulating possible scenarios that could be applied to intelligence work. He goes out to get lunch but when he returns everyone at the center has been killed. He calls his superior and asks for someone to bring him in, he tells him that his section chief will get him but when he arrives, the man tries to shoot him, he manages to shoot back and escape. In an act of desperation, the abducts a woman and forces her to shelter him until he can figure out what is going on. When someone goes to the woman's house and tries to kill him, he kills the man and discovers that he has a connection to the CIA, which means that someone in the CIA is behind the attempt on him." - Internet Movie Database Inc.

"TURNER:  Listen.  I work for the CIA.  I'm not a spy.  I read mystery novels, adventures, journals, everything published all over the world.  We feed the plots -- dirty tricks, codes, anything -- into a computer, to check against actual CIA Plans and Operations.  We look for leaks.  Or new ideas." - ScreenTalk.biz (Page 55 in the pdf.)

• February 14, 1975 - Trade Center Hit By 6-Floor Fire; Blaze Starts on the 11th 16 Men Are Injured

"A three-alarm fire broke out in the 11th-floor offices of the B.F. Goodrich Company in the north tower of the World Trade Center just before midnight last night, and spread through an inner-service core to the ninth and 14th floors." - New York Times (02/15/75) [Reprinted at:  PrisonPlanet.com]

(See also:  March 16, 1970 - Propane Blasts Hit Trade Center; May 19, 1975 - 7 Suspicious Fires Hit Trade Center)

• March 6, 1975 - The Abraham Zapruder film is first shown on TV, more than 11 years after JFK's assassination.

March 6, 1975

"ABC News reporter Geraldo Rivera convinced network executives to show Groden’s version of the film on his weekly Good Night America talk show. It was the first time the public saw the film in motion. Many believed the backward movement of the president’s head and upper body "proved" the fatal shot came from the front, not from behind in the Book Depository." - jfk.org

"In March 1975, on the ABC late-night television show Good Night America (hosted by Geraldo Rivera), assassination researchers Robert Groden and Dick Gregory presented the first-ever network television showing of the Zapruder home movie. The public's response and outrage to that first television showing quickly led to the forming of the Hart-Schweiker investigation, contributed to the Church Committee Investigation on Intelligence Activities by the United States, and resulted in the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation." - wikipedia

(See also: November 22, 1963 - John F. Kennedy is assassinated allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald)

• May 19, 1975 - 7 Suspicious Fires Hit Trade Center; One Causes Wide Damage to 32d-Floor Lobby

"A series of seven suspicious fires, including an extensive two-alarm blaze, struck the World Trade Center in quick succession last night, keeping harried firemen scurrying from floor to floor and tower to tower for more than two hours." - New York Times (05/20/75)

(See also:  February 14, 1975 - Trade Center Hit By 6-Floor Fire; February 26, 1993 - The WTC is bombed)

• November 20, 1975 - Donald H. Rumsfeld becomes the 13th U.S. Secretary of Defense under the Ford Administration.

"To replace Schlesinger, President Ford chose Donald H. Rumsfeld. Born on 9 July 1932 in Chicago, Rumsfeld graduated from Princeton University in 1954 and then spent three years in the U.S. Navy as an aviator and flight instructor. Following naval service, Rumsfeld worked in Washington as an assistant to two different congressmen and then, between 1960 and 1962, at a Chicago investment banking firm. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1962, he was reelected for three more terms. In 1969 he resigned from Congress to join the Nixon administration as an assistant to the president and director of the Office Of Economic Opportunity; later he served as counselor to the president and director of the Cost of Living Council. In February 1973 he became U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, returning to Washington in August 1974 to head Gerald Ford's transition team and then became assistant to the president, directing the White House Office of Operations and serving as coordinator of the White House Staff. At the time of his designation as secretary of defense, Rumsfeld was one of President Ford's closest associates and advisers.
Sworn in on 20 November 1975, at age 43 the youngest secretary of defense to date, Rumsfeld served exactly 14 months in the office. Although he instituted some organizational changes at the Pentagon, including appointment of a second deputy secretary of defense (a position created in 1972 but never previously filled) and consolidation of several offices in OSD, Rumsfeld concentrated more on the political aspects of his job. More than any of his predecessors, he served as a roving ambassador for the Defense Department, traveling widely in the United States and abroad and discussing defense issues through numerous speeches, press conferences, and interviews.
Although he supported the Ford administration's efforts at detente, Rumsfeld, like Schlesinger, sought to reverse the gradual decline in the Defense budget and to build up U.S. strategic and conventional forces. He made clear his agreement with Schlesinger's strategic and budget initiatives and that he would press forward with them." - DoD

(See also:  March 21, 1989 - Dick Cheney becomes 17th U.S. Secretary of Defense; January 20, 2001 - Rumsfeld becomes U.S. Secretary of Defense for the second time)

• January 30, 1976 - George Bush Sr. becomes director of the CIA.

"George Herbert Walker Bush
TENURE AS DIRECTOR 30 January 1976–20 January 1977
APPOINTED 3 November 1975 by President Gerald R. Ford; confirmed by Senate, 27 January 1976; sworn in, 30 January 1976
EARLIER CAREER Served in World War II as naval aviator in the Pacific; Member of Congress, 7th District, Texas, 1967-71; Ambassador to the United Nations, 1971-72; Chairman, Republican National Committee, 1973-74; Chief, US Liaison Office, People’s Republic of China, 1974-75" - CIA

"William Colby led the Central Intelligence Agency through some of its most turbulent days during the 1970s.
But some people in the Ford administration had a problem with how often Colby cooperated with Congress. For example, he gave Congress a list of past CIA actions that were unethical, unauthorized, or immoral. They included plans to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro and other international leaders; unauthorized perusal of Americans' mail, and psychedelic drug experiments conducted without the consent of the Americans being tested. In late 1975, President Ford announced that George Bush would replace him." - CNN (05/06/96)

(See also:  April 28, 1996 - Former CIA Director William Colby is reported missing after a Marine Colonel's wife came to him to whistle blow military corruption; April 26, 1999 - Bush Sr. gets the CIA's headquarters compound in Langley, Virginia named after him)

• 1976 - James R. Bath, a friend of George W. Bush from the Texas Air National Guard, opens an aircraft brokerage firm in which some of his investors are former Texas Gov. John Connally (who was shot riding with JFK), Saudi financier Ghaith Pharaon (an alleged B.C.C.I. front man), and Saudi banker Khaled bin Mahfouz (a major BCCI shareholder and husband to one of Osama bin Laden's sisters).

"The Harken Energy folks are not the only Texas-based colleagues of George W. Bush with fortuitous, if not extraordinary, Arab connections. Another is the mysterious Houston businessman James R. Bath, a deal broker whose alleged associations run from the CIA to a major shareholder and director of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International. The President's son has denied that he ever had business dealings with Bath, but early 1980s tax records reviewed by TIME show that Bath invested $50,000 in Bush's energy ventures and remained a stockholder until Bush sold his company to Harken in 1986.
Bath's penchant for secrecy has been frustrated by a feud with a former business partner, Bill White, who claims that Bath was a front man for CIA business operations. White contends that Bath has used his connections to the Bush family and Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen to cloak the development of a lucrative array of offshore companies designed to move money and airplanes between the Middle East and Texas. White, an Annapolis graduate and former Navy fighter pilot, claims it was Bentsen's son Lan who suggested that White go into the real estate development business with Bath, a former Air Force fighter pilot.
Bath, 55, acknowledges a friendship with George W. Bush that stems from their service together in the Texas Air National Guard, and says he is "slightly" acquainted with the President. But Bath vehemently denies White's accusations. "I am not a member of the CIA or any other intelligence agency," he says, describing White's portrayal as a "fantasy." Even so, Bath, while insisting he is nothing more than a "small, obscure businessman," is associated with some of the most powerful figures in the U.S. and Middle East. Private records show, and associates confirm, that Bath is a "representative" for several immensely wealthy Saudi families, an unusual position for any small-time Texas businessman.
Bath got his start in real estate in 1973 by forming a partnership with Lan Bentsen. One purpose, sources tell TIME, was to find investments for the Senator's blind trust.
Bath opened his own aircraft brokerage firm in 1976, but his Middle East connections first surfaced two years later, when he became a shareholder and director of Houston's Main Bank. His fellow investors were former U.S. Treasury Secretary John Connally; Saudi financier Ghaith Pharaon, an alleged B.C.C.I. front man; and Saudi banker Khaled bin Mahfouz, who subsequently became a major B.C.C.I. shareholder.
The firm that incorporated Bath's companies in the Cayman Islands is the same one that set up a money-collecting front company for Oliver North in the Iran-contra affair.
Even if Bath is a clandestine public servant, the U.S. may not always get a bargain. The Houston Post reported last year that the U.S. had spent millions of dollars more than necessary by fueling military aircraft, including Air Force One, at privately owned Southwest Airport Services at Ellington Field rather than using a government fuel station there. Bath operates and holds a majority ownership stake in Southwest Airport Services, which the Post said was charging a markup of as much as 60% on the fuel. So far, the paper's charges have prompted no official investigations." - Time (10/28/91) [Reprinted at:  krigskronikan.com]

"The 147th has been dubbed the "champagne unit" by critics because many sons of powerful Texans got assigned there during the Vietnam War, including the late Gov. John Connally's son and both of Sen. Lloyd Bentsen's. Bush's father was a U.S. congressman from Houston at the time. The politically connected James R. Bath, who has Middle Eastern ties, also served in the unit as a pilot. He and Bush went into the oil business together after their Guard duty. Bath has also done business with Lan Bentsen. The late Gov. Connally, moreover, had invested in Bath's aircraft brokerage firm." - WorldNetDaily (02/18/04)

"Here's how the dots connect: Kean is a director of petroleum giant Amerada Hess, which in 1998 formed a joint venture--known as Delta Hess--with Delta Oil, a Saudi Arabian company, to develop oil fields in Azerbaijan. One of Delta's backers is Khalid bin Mahfouz, a shadowy Saudi patriarch married to one of Osama bin Laden's sisters." - Fortune (01/22/03)

"As Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Connally became one of the most influential members of the Cabinet, and was designated chief spokesman of the Nixon Administration in matters relating to the economic program to halt inflation and spur industrial productivity, a program he helped design and present to the Congress.
A long-time associate of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, whom he served first as secretary in 1939 in the House of Representatives and later as Administrative Assistant in 1949 in the United States Senate, Mr. Connally earned a distinguished World War II record between those assignments. Upon his return from naval service in 1946, he became president, general manager and attorney for radio station KVET in Austin, Texas, a business he helped organize.
President Kennedy appointed Mr. Connally Secretary of the Navy on December 27, 1961. He later successfully ran for Governor of Texas. Governor Connally was critically wounded while riding with President Kennedy when the President was assassinated in Dallas, Texas in November 1963.
Long active in Democratic Party affairs, Mr. Connally rose above partisan politics to serve on President Nixon's Advisory Council on Executive Organization in 1969-1970, and subsequently was appointed by the President to be a member of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in 1970.
Mr. Connally died on June 15, 1993." - US Treasury

(See also:  November 22, 1963 - Democratic President John F. Kennedy is assassinated; January 22, 2003 - 9/11 Commission chairman, Thomas Kean, has a business link to Khalid bin Mahfouz, husband to one of Osama Bin Laden's sisters)

• 1977 - George Bush received $50,000 for his oil start up company, Arbusto Energy, from a fellow National Guard pilot Maj. James Bath who funneled money for one of Osama Bin Laden's brothers.

"Eldest son George W. Bush made his first Middle East connection in the late 1970s with James Bath, a Texas businessmen who served as the North American representative for two rich Saudis (and Osama bin Laden relatives) — billionaire Salem bin Laden and banker and BCCI insider Khalid bin Mahfouz. Bath put $50,000 into Bush's 1979 Arbusto oil partnership, probably using Bin Laden-Bin Mahfouz funds." - LA Times (01/11/04)

"Interestingly, Maj. James Bath also was suspended from flying in 1972 – one month after Bush, who would become his oil partner not long after they stopped flying. Reason: "Failure to accomplish annual medical examination," according to a report then by Maj. Gen. Fancis S. Greenlief of the National Guard Bureau here.
Bath, who invested $50,000 in Bush's Arbusto firm, became a front man for Saudi investors, including Osama bin Laden's brother, and at one time last decade came under federal investigation for allegedly conspiring to secretly funnel Saudi dollars as part of a Saudi scheme to influence U.S. policy. Among other investments, the fighter pilot bought up airport-related property in Houston for his Saudi clients, securing a 5 percent cut for himself. He also owns a fuel station at Ellington Field, which has been accused of overcharging military aircraft, including Air Force One, millions of dollars." - WorldNetDaily (02/18/04)

"President Bush and the bin Laden family have been connected through dubious business deals since 1977, when Salem, the head of the bin Laden family business, one of the biggest construction companies in the world, invested in Bush's start-up oil company, Arbusto Energy, Inc.
James R. Bath, a friend and neighbor, was used to funnel money from Osama bin Laden's brother, Salem bin Laden, to set up George W. Bush in the oil business, according to The Wall Street Journal and other reputable sources." - American Free Press (10/07/01)

"Bush organized his first company, Arbusto Energy Inc. ("Ar-boo-stow" is Spanish for Bush) in 1977 on the eve of a run for Congress and quickly put it to use as a credential for the political contest. But according to records on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Arbusto didn't start active operations until March 1979..." - Washington Post (07/30/99)

- Click photo to see a notarized trust agreement between Salem bin Laden and James Bath.

(See also:  November 7, 2001 - US agents told to back off bin Ladens)

• 1978 - In the movie 'The Medusa Touch', Richard Burton plays Robert Morlar who uses his telekinetic powers to cause all sorts of mayhem including causing a jumbo jet to crash into a building.

"Set in a parallel universe in which Shaw Taylor reads the news, Richard Burton plays Robert Morlar - "the man with the power to create catastrophe", a writer of terrible yet inexplicably popular books.
Morlar uses his telekinetic (now there's a 70s phrase) powers to cause all sorts of mayhem - He sends his parents over a cliff in a car, sets his school on fire, gets his next-door neighbour to jump out the window because of some bad fish, sends a jumbo jet into a tower block and causes the death of some American astronauts.
The climax comes when "Minster Cathedral" collapses on live TV - "I will bring the whole crumbling edifice down on top of their heads! I tell you!" - as Morlar lies in a hospital bed after a murder attempt (it was Remick).
French bloke rushes to the bedside, pulls out all those wires and stuff, and Morlar is dead. Except - aha . . . he's not!" - Nostalgia Central

(See also:  February 22, 1974 - Samuel Byck attempts to hijack a commercial plane and crash it into the White House; 1981 - 'Escape from New York', a movie that showed a terrorist hijacked Air Force One and crashes it into a NYC building just a few buildings away from the WTC)

• March 29, 1979 - The report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigating the shooting of JFK concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald killed the President and exonerates the Secret Service, FBI and CIA from being part of a conspiracy, but does conclude that there was a "high probability" that there were two gunmen, that the President was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy, rips the Secret Service for inadequately protecting the President, and rips the departments and the Warren Commission for failing to adequately investigate the possibility of a conspiracy.

"I. Findings of the Select Committee on Assassinations in the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Tex., November 22, 1963
A. Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots at President John F. Kennedy. The second and third shots he fired struck the President. The third shot he fired killed the President.
B. Scientific acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy. Other scientific evidence does not preclude the possibility of two gunmen firing at the President.
C. The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The committee is unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy.
5. The Secret Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency were not involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.
D. Agencies and departments of the U.S. Government performed with varying degrees of competency in the fulfillment of their duties. President John F. Kennedy did not receive adequate protection. The investigation into the possibility of conspiracy in the assassination was inadequate.
a. The Secret Service was deficient in the performance of its duties.
3. The Department of Justice failed to exercise initiative in supervising and directing the investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the assassination.
c. The Federal Bureau of Investigation failed to investigate adequately the possibility of a conspiracy to assassinate the President.
d. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was deficient in its sharing of information with other agencies and departments.
4. The Central Intelligence Agency was deficient in its collection and sharing of information both prior to and subsequent to the assassination.
b. The Warren Commission failed to investigate adequately the possibility of a conspiracy to assassinate the President. This deficiency was attributable in part to the failure of the Commission to receive all the relevant information that was in the possession of other agencies and departments of the Government." - NARA

(See also:  November 22, 1963 - JFK assassinated; November 22, 2000 - The Orville Nix film is made public exactly 37 years after JFK was killed; August 2, 2004 - Archivists to preserve recording of JFK assassination.)

• November 4, 1980 - Ronald Reagan is elected President of the United States with ex-CIA Director George H. W. Bush as his Vice President.

"The former Hollywood actor and Republican governor of California Ronald Reagan is to be the next president of the United States.
He has defeated Democrat Jimmy Carter in the US presidential elections by a huge majority.
At the age of 69, Mr Reagan will be America's oldest president. His running mate, former head of the CIA George Bush, will be his vice-president." - BBC

• 1980's - U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, played a leading role in building up Iraq's military when Iraq was using chemical weapons.

"Newly released documents show that U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, played a leading role in building up Iraq's military in the 1980s when Iraq was using chemical weapons, a newspaper reports.
It was Rumsfeld, now defense secretary and then a special presidential envoy, whose December 1983 meeting with Saddam Hussein led to the normalization of ties between Washington and Baghdad, according to the Washington Post.
The cozy relationship was an effort to build a regional bulwark against America's enemies in Iran.
The newspaper says a review of a large tranche of government documents reveals that the administrations of President Reagan and the first President Bush both authorized providing Iraq with intelligence and logistical support, and okayed the sale of dual use items — those with military and civilian applications — that included chemicals and germs, even anthrax and bubonic plague.
The U.S. removed Iraq from its list of states that sponsor terrorism in 1982, and as Iran made gains on the battlefield, the Reagan administration decided to pass intelligence to Iraq.
The policy to do this was captured in a November 1983 National Security Directive that is still classified, but apparently stated that U.S. policy was to do "whatever was necessary and legal" to stop Iran from winning.
At the same time, there were multiple reports Iraq was using chemical weapons to repulse the Iranian advance; one State Department official told Secretary of State George Shultz that Iraq was engaging in "almost daily use of (chemical weapons)" against Iranian troops.
This policy led to several Rumsfeld visits to Baghdad, as a private citizen working as a presidential envoy.
According to State Department report, at his first meeting with Saddam, Rumsfeld told Hussein the U.S. wanted a full resumption of relations. While the defense secretary has since said he warned Iraq about the use of chemical weapons, notes of the meeting do not show this. Rumseld apparently did mention the chemical weapons concern in a meeting with an aide to Saddam.
Congressional investigations after the Gulf War revealed that the Commerce Department had licensed sales of biological agents, including anthrax, and insecticides, which could be used in chemical weapons, to Iraq.
When Iraq used chemical weapons against the Kurds in 1987, there was anger in Congress and the White House. But a memo in 1988 from Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy stated that "The U.S.-Iraqi relationship is … important to our long-term political and economic objectives." - CBS (12/31/02)

• December 8, 1980 - Former Beatle John Lennon, arguably the most powerful left-wing and anti-war activist in the U.S. at the time and who was being harassed by the FBI, is shot dead by 25 yr. old Mark Chapman who later said that "voices" in his head had told him to kill the world-famous musician.

"Former Beatle John Lennon has been shot dead by an unknown gunman who opened fire outside the musician's New York apartment. The 40-year-old was shot several times as he entered the Dakota, his luxury apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side, opposite Central Park, at 2300 local time.
A police spokesman said a suspect was in custody, but he had no other details of the shooting.
"This was no robbery," the spokesman said, adding that Mr Lennon was probably shot by a "deranged" person.
Witness reports say at least three shots were fired and others have claimed they heard six.
(In Context)
John Lennon was shot four times in the back by Mark Chapman who had asked the former Beatle for his autograph only hours before he laid in wait and killed him.  Chapman pleaded guilty to gunning down Mr Lennon and is currently serving life in Attica prison near New York.  He said he had heard voices in his head telling him to kill the world-famous musician." - BBC

"Of all Lennon's legacies, one of the most enduring, and perhaps the most impressive, is who his enemies were. The true measure of his greatness was that in the 1970s he terrified the most powerful man in the world.
Shortly before the release of his powerful "Imagine" album in October 1971, Lennon and Yoko Ono decamped England and moved to New York. The album and the "Imagine" single immediately topped the charts and solidified Lennon's position as the world's most influential rock star. Lennon was at the height of his political involvement at this time, railing against the war in Vietnam and many other injustices. Within weeks of arriving in the U.S. he was meeting with Jerry Rubin and other members of the New Left.
Lennon expressed interest in partaking in fund-raising, voter-registration anti-war rallies and concerts, which would take place in many of the 1972 primary states. With the full p