Until I began researching the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, I had always thought that the luck enjoyed by Timothy Dexter (1748-1806) was unique in American history. Oh, you’ve never heard of Timothy Dexter?
Timothy Dexter was an illiterate, dimwitted businessman who always had astounding success with the most unlikely business ventures. He bought up all the Continental money he could, although it was considered worthless. When Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton chose to back the currency at full value, this measure made Dexter wealthy.
Dexter grew even wealthier by exporting mittens and bed warmers to the West Indies; shipping coal to the coal mining town of Newcastle, England; and sending Bibles and stray cats to the Caribbean Islands, among other unlikely ventures. (See Dexter’s bio here.)
More recently, Larry Silverstein, the last owner of the World Trade Center, was even luckier than Timothy Dexter. Unlike Dexter, Larry Silverstein wasn’t considered the village idiot. He was, in fact, a friend of Benjamin Netanyahu, who reportedly telephoned Silverstein at least once a week.
When Larry Silverstein bought the World Trade Center (WTC) for $125 million in July 2001, he bought a white elephant. WTC’s low occupancy rate was enough to make it a major money-losing investment. Still worse, Silverstein would be saddled with having to remove all the WTC’s asbestos at a cost of about $1 billion. (Click here.)
Silverstein also took out an insurance policy guaranteeing him $3.5 billion in the event that the World Trade Center suffered a terrorist attack. The policy carried a double indemnity in case the World Trade Center was attacked twice. Now, what are the odds of that happening?
As the insurers and Silverstein disagreed over whether 9 11 was one attack or two, they split the difference, and Silverstein pocketed $4.5 billion. Thus, instead of suffering a guaranteed $1 billion loss, Silverstein’s investment in the World Trade Center made a 3,500% profit in less than two months. Timothy Dexter never got that lucky.
Silverstein’s luck went beyond money. He and his two offspring worked at the World Trade Center. Silverstein himself ate breakfast on the top floor of the building every weekday morning without fail. On the morning of September 11, 2001, all three men were somewhere else. (Click here.)
There were other lucky winners that day. Among them were 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in or around the World Trade Center the day the towers fell. Many American Jews were killed that day, but only 5 out of 4,000 Israelis died.
Odigo, an Israeli-owned electronic instant messenger service, admitted that two of its employees (both Israelis then in Israel) had received non-specific warnings that a major terrorist attack was about to take place. This was two hours before the first plane hit the World Trade Center. This warning came some 84 minutes before the Federal Aviation Administration knew about the hijacking. [American Action Note: The non-specific nature of the warning indicates second- or third-hand information. It was, nonetheless, an indication that some kind of warning was going out to Israelis, and that the original source had more specific advance knowledge.] (Click here.)
Goldman Sachs was another lucky winner that day. On September 10, their Tokyo office warned its employees to steer clear of the American buildings. Would this information have been transmitted to the New York office, or did it come from the New York office? (Click here.)
Zim Integrated Shipping Services, which was 49% Israeli owned, had its offices on the 47th floor of the WTC North Tower, leased until the end of 2001. Only a week before the attack, they broke the lease and vacated the building. This move cost them $50,000. As it was with Larry Silverstein, what looked like bad business turned out to be a lucky move. The first plane to hit the World Trade Center struck the 47th floor of the North Tower, dead center. (Click here.)
Clearforest, the sole Israeli company remaining in the building had 19 employees, 16 of whom were somewhere else that day. The remaining 5 employees safely evacuated the building.
The men known as the five dancing Israelis (Click here.) made a very lucky guess that day.
I wish I could take lucky guessers like them horse races. They managed to have videotaping equipment already set up before the first plane hit the World Trade Center. When they were spotted laughing, dancing, and giving one another high fives, they were mistaken for Arabs. The van they’d used belonged to Urban Moving Systems, a front for the Israeli Mossad. When interviewed on an Israeli television program, one of the men said that they “were there to document the event.” What event? At the time they’d set up their equipment, the event had not yet happened. Was that a lucky guess or what? (Click here.)
Probably the luckiest winners of the day were the top officials in the Israeli regime. Haaretz, a moderate Israeli newspaper which is said to be read by Israel’s top leaders, carried an article reporting that Benjamin Netanyahu openly boasted that the mass murder on September 11 was “very good for Israel.” Netanyahu crowed, "We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq." He silkily purred that the mass murder of 3,000 Americans “has swung public opinion in our favor.” The New York Times also reported this news story. (Click here.)
At the time of the attacks, then former Prime Minister Ehud Barak was in London. Barak was astonishingly lucky that day. Only a few minutes after the first plane hit the World Trade Center—four hours before news sources confirmed that investigators were working under the assumption that the events were “part of a terrorist attack”—five hours before Osama bin Laden was named as a suspect, Ehud Barak just happened to appear in the BBC newsroom in London. An hour later, while two of the hijacked planes were still in the air, Ehud Barak, obviously well prepared, gave an interview in which he gave “information” that President Bush wouldn’t know until nine o’clock that night. Was he a really lucky guesser or what? (Click here.)
If you think Ehud Barak was a lucky guesser, Robert J. Loewenberg will really blow you away. He was in Israel at the time of the attacks; that's seven hours ahead of New York time. He managed to produce a well-researched, painstakingly written article about the attacks within hours of their occurrence. Most of the information in the article was unknown to American intelligence agencies until (going by Israeli time) the next morning.
Here is the time line as I wrote it in my comments (Click here.) to the Vatic Project:
"A key word in the article is today's, but left unsaid was the time of day. The author of that article, Robert Loewenberg, is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Israel. Israel, where his bio says he now lives, is in an earlier time zone.
"When the first plane hit the World Trade Center, it was 3:45 P.M. in Israel. Israel evacuated its embassies at 5:54 P.M. Israel time. At 9:00 P.M. Israeli time, an FBI spokesman told CNN that they were "working on the assumption" that the crashes were part of a terrorist attack. At 11:00 P.M. Israeli time, Osama bin Laden was named as a suspect, based on "new and specific information." Earlier suggestions that Muslims or Arabs were involved in the attacks had been reported as "unconfirmed." At 3:30 A.M. September 12 Israeli time, Bush addressed the nation but doesn't identify the attackers. As he speaks, member of Congress tell CNN during "private briefings" that there's "enough evidence" to convince them that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks. At 6:30 A.M. September 12 Israeli time, Bush wrote in his journal 'The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today....We THINK it's Osama bin Laden.' (emphasis added)
Loewenberg's article was obviously well prepared; it had to have taken hours to write. Given the time line, those were hours he didn't have. Prior knowledge? You bet."
Of course, I’m not suggesting that Israel did 9 11. No, our government leaders tell us that Israel’s enemies did it; and of course our government leaders wouldn’t lie to us, now would they? And isn’t it ironic that the big losers from the September 11 terrorist attacks are the very people who are officially blamed for the attacks and who, as a result, have suffered more than anyone else? Or is irony the proper word for it?
Other September 11, 2001, articles in this blog
Timothy Dexter was an illiterate, dimwitted businessman who always had astounding success with the most unlikely business ventures. He bought up all the Continental money he could, although it was considered worthless. When Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton chose to back the currency at full value, this measure made Dexter wealthy.
Dexter grew even wealthier by exporting mittens and bed warmers to the West Indies; shipping coal to the coal mining town of Newcastle, England; and sending Bibles and stray cats to the Caribbean Islands, among other unlikely ventures. (See Dexter’s bio here.)
More recently, Larry Silverstein, the last owner of the World Trade Center, was even luckier than Timothy Dexter. Unlike Dexter, Larry Silverstein wasn’t considered the village idiot. He was, in fact, a friend of Benjamin Netanyahu, who reportedly telephoned Silverstein at least once a week.
When Larry Silverstein bought the World Trade Center (WTC) for $125 million in July 2001, he bought a white elephant. WTC’s low occupancy rate was enough to make it a major money-losing investment. Still worse, Silverstein would be saddled with having to remove all the WTC’s asbestos at a cost of about $1 billion. (Click here.)
Silverstein also took out an insurance policy guaranteeing him $3.5 billion in the event that the World Trade Center suffered a terrorist attack. The policy carried a double indemnity in case the World Trade Center was attacked twice. Now, what are the odds of that happening?
As the insurers and Silverstein disagreed over whether 9 11 was one attack or two, they split the difference, and Silverstein pocketed $4.5 billion. Thus, instead of suffering a guaranteed $1 billion loss, Silverstein’s investment in the World Trade Center made a 3,500% profit in less than two months. Timothy Dexter never got that lucky.
Silverstein’s luck went beyond money. He and his two offspring worked at the World Trade Center. Silverstein himself ate breakfast on the top floor of the building every weekday morning without fail. On the morning of September 11, 2001, all three men were somewhere else. (Click here.)
There were other lucky winners that day. Among them were 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in or around the World Trade Center the day the towers fell. Many American Jews were killed that day, but only 5 out of 4,000 Israelis died.
Odigo, an Israeli-owned electronic instant messenger service, admitted that two of its employees (both Israelis then in Israel) had received non-specific warnings that a major terrorist attack was about to take place. This was two hours before the first plane hit the World Trade Center. This warning came some 84 minutes before the Federal Aviation Administration knew about the hijacking. [American Action Note: The non-specific nature of the warning indicates second- or third-hand information. It was, nonetheless, an indication that some kind of warning was going out to Israelis, and that the original source had more specific advance knowledge.] (Click here.)
Goldman Sachs was another lucky winner that day. On September 10, their Tokyo office warned its employees to steer clear of the American buildings. Would this information have been transmitted to the New York office, or did it come from the New York office? (Click here.)
Zim Integrated Shipping Services, which was 49% Israeli owned, had its offices on the 47th floor of the WTC North Tower, leased until the end of 2001. Only a week before the attack, they broke the lease and vacated the building. This move cost them $50,000. As it was with Larry Silverstein, what looked like bad business turned out to be a lucky move. The first plane to hit the World Trade Center struck the 47th floor of the North Tower, dead center. (Click here.)
Clearforest, the sole Israeli company remaining in the building had 19 employees, 16 of whom were somewhere else that day. The remaining 5 employees safely evacuated the building.
The men known as the five dancing Israelis (Click here.) made a very lucky guess that day.
I wish I could take lucky guessers like them horse races. They managed to have videotaping equipment already set up before the first plane hit the World Trade Center. When they were spotted laughing, dancing, and giving one another high fives, they were mistaken for Arabs. The van they’d used belonged to Urban Moving Systems, a front for the Israeli Mossad. When interviewed on an Israeli television program, one of the men said that they “were there to document the event.” What event? At the time they’d set up their equipment, the event had not yet happened. Was that a lucky guess or what? (Click here.)
Probably the luckiest winners of the day were the top officials in the Israeli regime. Haaretz, a moderate Israeli newspaper which is said to be read by Israel’s top leaders, carried an article reporting that Benjamin Netanyahu openly boasted that the mass murder on September 11 was “very good for Israel.” Netanyahu crowed, "We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq." He silkily purred that the mass murder of 3,000 Americans “has swung public opinion in our favor.” The New York Times also reported this news story. (Click here.)
At the time of the attacks, then former Prime Minister Ehud Barak was in London. Barak was astonishingly lucky that day. Only a few minutes after the first plane hit the World Trade Center—four hours before news sources confirmed that investigators were working under the assumption that the events were “part of a terrorist attack”—five hours before Osama bin Laden was named as a suspect, Ehud Barak just happened to appear in the BBC newsroom in London. An hour later, while two of the hijacked planes were still in the air, Ehud Barak, obviously well prepared, gave an interview in which he gave “information” that President Bush wouldn’t know until nine o’clock that night. Was he a really lucky guesser or what? (Click here.)
If you think Ehud Barak was a lucky guesser, Robert J. Loewenberg will really blow you away. He was in Israel at the time of the attacks; that's seven hours ahead of New York time. He managed to produce a well-researched, painstakingly written article about the attacks within hours of their occurrence. Most of the information in the article was unknown to American intelligence agencies until (going by Israeli time) the next morning.
Here is the time line as I wrote it in my comments (Click here.) to the Vatic Project:
"A key word in the article is today's, but left unsaid was the time of day. The author of that article, Robert Loewenberg, is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Israel. Israel, where his bio says he now lives, is in an earlier time zone.
"When the first plane hit the World Trade Center, it was 3:45 P.M. in Israel. Israel evacuated its embassies at 5:54 P.M. Israel time. At 9:00 P.M. Israeli time, an FBI spokesman told CNN that they were "working on the assumption" that the crashes were part of a terrorist attack. At 11:00 P.M. Israeli time, Osama bin Laden was named as a suspect, based on "new and specific information." Earlier suggestions that Muslims or Arabs were involved in the attacks had been reported as "unconfirmed." At 3:30 A.M. September 12 Israeli time, Bush addressed the nation but doesn't identify the attackers. As he speaks, member of Congress tell CNN during "private briefings" that there's "enough evidence" to convince them that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks. At 6:30 A.M. September 12 Israeli time, Bush wrote in his journal 'The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today....We THINK it's Osama bin Laden.' (emphasis added)
Loewenberg's article was obviously well prepared; it had to have taken hours to write. Given the time line, those were hours he didn't have. Prior knowledge? You bet."
Of course, I’m not suggesting that Israel did 9 11. No, our government leaders tell us that Israel’s enemies did it; and of course our government leaders wouldn’t lie to us, now would they? And isn’t it ironic that the big losers from the September 11 terrorist attacks are the very people who are officially blamed for the attacks and who, as a result, have suffered more than anyone else? Or is irony the proper word for it?
Other September 11, 2001, articles in this blog
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