Nexus - 1501 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

16. No Hard Evidence Connecting Bin Laden to 9/11 December 2004 over 62 per cent of industrial and municipal Osama bin Laden's role in the events of September 11, 2001 is facilities discharged pollution into US waterways at rates above not mentioned on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" poster. On June limits established by the Clean Water Act. The average facility 5, 2006, author Ed Haas contacted the Federal Bureau of discharged pollutants in excess of its permitted limit by over 275 Investigation headquarters to ask why the poster, while claiming per cent—nearly four times the legal limit. Nationally, 436 major that bin Laden is wanted in connection with the August 1998 facilities exceeded their limits at least half of the time during the bombings of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, does not study's timeframe. Thirty-five facilities exceeded their permits indicate that he is wanted in connection with the events of 9/11. during every reporting period. Seven states allowed more than Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI, 100 violations of at least 500 per cent. responded: "The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Osama bin Today, more than 40 per cent of US waterways are unsafe for Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard swimming and fishing, and, as shown by the PIRG study, evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11. Bin Laden has not been industrial pollution of the nation's waters persists. One reason for formally charged in connection to 9/11... In the case of the 1998 these ongoing failures is the Bush administration's consistent United States embassies being bombed, bin Laden has been efforts to shortchange the Environmental Protection Agency's formally indicted and charged by a grand jury. He has not been budget and to gut the 1972 Clean Water Act. formally indicted and charged in connection However, opposition to environmental with 9/11 because the FBI has no hard protection for clean waterways stems from evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11." not only the Bush administration but also the Haas asks: "If the US government does US military, whose pollution poisons the very not have enough hard evidence connecting citizens it is supposed to protect in the name bin Laden to 9/11, how is it possible that it of national security. Weapons production by had enough evidence to invade Afghanistan "If the US government the US military and its private contractors to 'smoke him out of his cave'?" generates more hazardous waste annually Though the world was to have been does not have enough than the five largest international chemical convinced by the December 2001 release of hard evidence companies combined, accounting for one- a bin Laden "confession video", the . . L third of the nation's toxic waste. Furthermore, Department of Defense issued a press release connecting bin aden the US military is among the most frequent 10 accompany it in which Secretary of to 9/1 1, how is it olators of environmental laws. (DoD) h efense Donald Rumsfeld said: ere was . . e Department of Defense (Do as no doubt of bin Laden's responsibility possible that it had sought and received exemptions from was discovered.” Haas atempted to SWE EAE neo 9 laws, Dramatic increases, in the secure a reference to US government invade Afghanistan amounts of trichloroethylene (TCE) in authentication of the video, to no avail. to "smoke him out public aquifers have been one fatal Haas strongly suggests that we begin of his cave’?" consequence of these exemptions. asking questions. "Why has the US : TCE, a known carcinogen, is the most media blindly read the government- widespread industrial contaminant in provided 9/11 scripts, rather than US drinking water and is especially investigate without passion, prejudice common around military facilities. The or bias, the events of September 11, Pentagon is responsible for TCE 2001? Why has the US media contamination at over 1,400 properties. blacklisted any guest that might speak In 2001, the EPA sought to force the of a government-sponsored 9/11 cover- government to require more thorough up, rather than seeking out those people clean-ups at military sites by lowering who have something to say about 9/11 that is contrary to the the acceptable limits on TCE from five parts per billion to one government's account? Who is controlling the media message, part per billion. and how is it that the FBI has no ‘hard evidence’ connecting In response, the DoD joined the Department of Energy and Osama bin Laden to the events of September 11, 2001, while the NASA in blocking the EPA's proposed action. The Bush US media has played the bin Laden-9/11 connection story for administration charged the EPA with inflating TCE's risks and [six] years now as if it has conclusive evidence that bin Laden is called on the National Academy of Sciences to evaluate the EPA's responsible for the collapse of the twin towers, the Pentagon claims. The Academy's 2003 report confirmed the EPA's attack, and the demise of United Flight 93?" assessment, linking TCE to kidney cancer, impaired neurological (Source: Ed Haas, "FBI says, 'No Hard Evidence Connecting function, reproductive and developmental damage, autoimmune Bin Laden to 9/11'", The Muckraker Report, June 6, 2006, disease and other human ailments. The Bush administration and http://www.teamliberty.net/id267.html) the DoD have ignored these inconvenient findings. As a result, citizens who pay for the military budget with their tax dollars are 17. Water Contaminated by Military and Corporations also paying with their health and sometimes their lives. Reliably pure water is growing scarce, even in the United (Sources: Sunny Lewis, "Factories, Cities Across USA Exceed States, where corporations, municipalities and the military pollute Water Pollution Limits", Environment News Service, March 24, waters—often with little or no accountability. "Troubled Waters: 2006, http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2006/2006-03-24- An Analysis of Clean Water Act Compliance", released in March 05.asp; Sunaura Taylor and Astor Taylor, "Military Waste in Our 2006 by US PIRG, the national lobby office for state Public Drinking Water", AlterNet, August 4, 2006, http://www.alternet. Interest Research Groups, shows that between July 2003 and org/envirohealth/39723/) "If the US government does not have enough connecting bin Laden to 9/11, how is it Possible that it had Patan avs =P eee BO enough evidence to invade Afghanistan to ‘smoke him out of his cave'?" 17. Water Contaminated by Military and Corporations Reliably pure water is growing scarce, even in the United States, where corporations, municipalities and the military pollute waters—often with little or no accountability. "Troubled Waters: An Analysis of Clean Water Act Compliance", released in March 2006 by US PIRG, the national lobby office for state Public Interest Research Groups, shows that between July 2003 and 16 = NEXUS hard evidence ; www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2007 — JANUARY 2008