Years of willful deception, the sands of time, and simple neglect all tend to cloud our perception of the reality of history. This is especially true for politically radioactive topics like 9/11. With the debate over 9/11 heating up at the 15th anniversary of that fateful day, it’s a good time to get back up to speed.

There are essential pillars of the 9/11 debate that must be acknowledged by all parties before any healthy discussion of that paradigm-changing topic can take place.
What follows is a refresher list of “known knowns” — select, broad aspects of 9/11 that are at present beyond reasonable doubt:

. The money (financial funding and Fraud) trail was never followed to its logical conclusion. The 9/11 Commission concluded the question of who funded the attacks “was of little practical significance.”

. The Bush Administration pushed back against any independent investigation into 9/11.Once the White House agreed to an investigation, it provided a budget of $3 million, or 27% of the amount requested by 9/11 Commission co-chairs, Thomas Keane and Lee Hamilton.

. The Bush White House’s first choice to lead the 9/11 Commission was the highly controversial Henry Kissinger. Under intense pressure due to conflicts of interest, he resigned a month later. The 9/11 Commission was compromised by having White House policy advisor Philip Zelikow as its executive director. He was alleged to have been in close contact with controversial White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove throughout the investigation.

. Saudi agents — some with ties to the White House — sent financial and logistical support to men who then provided that support to the hijackers. That’s according to the Congressional 2002 Joint Inquiry report, multiple media accounts and at least one FBI agent who worked on 9/11 cases. Efforts to further investigate Saudi nationals were resisted by the White House and CIA over and over again.

. Indian intelligence, corroborated by the FBI, showed a wire transfer of $100,000 from the phone of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Mahmud Ahmad to 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta in 2000. Ahmad was in Washington D.C. on the morning of the attacks, meeting with US lawmakers.(including a Future Director of the C.I.A.)

. The $100,000 transaction was never mentioned in the 9/11 Commission report — and Ahmad was never detained for questioning.

. Multiple, overlapping war game drills created some level of confusion at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) on the morning of the attacks.

. Around noon on 9/11, air traffic controllers who handled some of the hijacked flights made a recording recalling their experiences of the events from a few hours earlier. The tape was later destroyed by an unidentified FAA supervisor without any transcripts taken.(destruction of evidence in a criminal investigation)

. Blaming Iraq was the talking point advanced by the Bush administration within days of the attacks. Later, multiple reports surfaced alleging that the neoconservatives who made up the hawkish Project for a New American Century think tank and the Bush Administration had been planning for and discussing the need to publicly justify an invasion of Iraq (and Afghanistan) long before 9/11.

This is by no means a full list of inadequately-investigated facts surrounding 9/11.
People loyal to the official narrative at first denied the veracity of many of these facts. Later, when the corroborations and confirmations became overwhelming, they shifted gears, insisting these “knowns” didn’t matter.

Via Who What Why