Bill Whitehouse - Framing 9/11

Although I awoke to a voice from my alarm-clock radio stating that a plane, of some kind, had struck the World Trade Center, and although I viewed a bit more of the horror when I got out of bed and turned on the television set to try to learn what it was all about, I soon was forced to withdraw from those events since I had to go to work. From that point onward and for much of the next four years I was relatively out of touch with all the reports, stories, conclusions, and questions concerning 9/11.

Much of the aforementioned relative isolation was a direct result of a whole slew of life problems that, like a prolonged tsunami, overwhelmed my being. Among other things, this involved being out or work for most of the next four to five years, but, as well, there were a variety of other personal problems that populated my life at that time, and trying to sort all of this out, took a great deal of effort, resources, and energy.

Because of my age, the economically challenged character of my locality, lack of a vehicle, and a few other considerations, obtaining paid employment became a very difficult task. I tried to create my own Internet business, but this proved to be difficult to do in the absence of money.

For a relatively short time, I received unemployment insurance. I also managed to get a few temporary jobs here and there.

Even when I had been working full-time, I was just barely skimming by. When I lost my job, it wasnt long before my credit went into the dumpster and, soon, the very real possibility loomed on the horizon that the rest of my life including dining arrangements -- might have to follow my credit into that repository as well.

In the interim period, one ramification from 9/11 did cross my path. A person I knew reported me to the FBI because they knew I was Muslim and felt that the circumstances of my life were rather suspicious (I was out of work, had a computer, and kept to myself go figure).

As far as I know, the FBI never visited me as a result of the foregoing report. Whether my phone was tapped or whether I went on a no-fly list, I am not sure. However, since I havent flown in more than a decade and since I very rarely use the phone, then in some ways, it doesnt matter whether they did, or they didnt do, either of the foregoing things to me although they did perform such acts in relation to many other individuals.

I found out about the FBI-reporting incident from a mutual friend who told me what the individual in question had done. This latter person confirmed the report at a later time.

During the subsequent confessional, the individual talked about a relative who worked at the Pentagon. During a post-9/11 phone call to that relative, the suspicions of the person who was confessing to me were related to the person the Pentagon, and the individual from the military indicated that if I had done nothing wrong, then I had nothing to worry about and, so, why not go ahead and report me.

Interestingly enough, when I was informed about all of this sometime later, the person who had reported me to the FBI said that the relative in the military had a sort of strange experience while at the Pentagon on 9/11. More specifically, someone had given an order for personnel to assemble in the inner, open center-area of the Pentagon.

The relative in the military disregarded the directive and, instead, went somewhere outside of the Pentagon building. When that individual reported what had transpired to that persons commanding officer a general of some kind the general said that the person had done well not to follow the directive.

At what point in the chaos of 9/11 the order was given, or what the identity was of the person making the announcement, or on whose authority the directive was announced I do not know. However, the nature of the order bears an eerie similarity to the character of the directive heard over the loudspeaker system in the South Tower indicating that people should now return to their offices just prior to the building coming down.

Later, I learned that the individual employed at the Pentagon went to Iraq and came back alluding to some terrible things that were going on in that country. Among other things, this included financial malfeasance of incredible proportions.

Because the person was afraid for career and family, specifics were absent in relation to such accounts. This is the same person who, with such courage, was willing to toss me to the federal wolves for no more reason other than that I was a Muslim who was out of work and asserted that if I had done nothing wrong, then, I had nothing to fear. Unfortunately, all too many people tend to be fearless when it comes to putting other lives at risk but very cautious when it comes to their own lives.

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Around the time of the 9/11 Commission hearings, I did manage to catch some of the testimony of Condoleezza Rice and Richard Clarke. In addition, on several occasions, I viewed the interaction between Chris Mathews and the four Jersey girls (Kristen Breitweiser, Mindy Kleinberg, Lorie Van Auken, and Patty Casazza) who each had lost a husband on 9/11 and who each had been instrumental in helping to create the sort of political pressure out of which the 9/11 Commission arose. However, this was about as far as my knowledge and understanding of 9/11 went.

I was impressed and intrigued with what the Jersey girls had to say and the sorts of critical questions they were raising. Although Chris Mathews was sufficiently media-savvy to invite the four women on to his program a number of times during the hearings, he later came to the conclusion that the Jersey girls were caught up in a sort of unresolved grief and that this prevented them from letting go of the issue since they continued to be dissatisfied with the official conspiracy theory: -- namely, that on 9/11, 19 Arab Muslims hijacked four planes and flew them into: two buildings in New York, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a field in Pennsylvania a conspiracy theory which Chris, along with millions of others came to accept.

By accepting such a conspiracy theory, people like Chris Mathews, along with most other representatives of the media, helped to push America further into the darkness of oppression as well as further away from anything which, reasonably, could be referred to as democracy. The stalwart media types have boldly protected their own egos, reputations, and jobs, while placing everyone else in America at risk sort of like the brave soldier at the Pentagon who was prepared to sacrifice my life but was very cautious about placing himself or his family at risk.

Aside from the foregoing few juncture points, I had very little information, knowledge, or understanding of 9/11 for four, or so, years following the events of that fateful September. For a while, I slept on an office floor my new home and, as a result, I had no television and rarely listened to the radio. Furthermore, because I had little money, I didnt read any magazine accounts of 9/11.