... And Then There is Sander Hicks and THE BIG WEDDING

As an author and reader, books mean almost as much to me as my closest relationships do. While living in Dublin, Ireland, years ago, subsisting on a deli sandwich and can of soup a day, I remember earning a little money doing some teaching. Rather than going out and having a decent meal in a pub, I went to a bookstore and bought a copy of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.

Here I am, years later, still broke -- so broke that, in fact, when I purchased a book in July my wife was so insensed that she left me for three days. However, none of this held me back from purchasing the most important book -- in my opinion -- of 2005: The Big Wedding: 9/11, The Whistle-blowers, & the Cover-up by Sander Hicks.

Mainstream media is useful -- to some -- for only two things: filling time between commercials and muddying investigative waters by trumpeting the old saw, conspiracy theory, any time uncomfortable details surface regarding major events. Documentary-maker, Barry Zwicker, rightly refers to terms like conspiracy theory as "thought stoppers." Establishment spokesmen, such as Mike Wallace, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, and Tom Brokaw, have made excellent careers from reassuring the Great Unwashed that "conspiracies happen elsewhere." Peter Jennings' will was recently read out in court and it was learned the man was worth $50 million. That's a hell of a lot of incentive to "tow the line."

Since I first saw footage of the Zapruder film in a documentary about Nostradamus, The Man Who Could See Tomorrow, I've been suspect of "official stories." Persident John F. Kennedy was clearly shot from the front in Dallas in November 1963. All anyone need do to realize how ridiculous and phony the Warren Commission Report is is to read it.

It's always been equally difficult believing that Sirhan Sirhan murdered Robert Kennedy, considering that Sirhan was eight feet in front of Kennedy, and Kennedy died from a point-blank gunshot to the rear of his skull; just behind his right ear.

The "official" story of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is likewise rife with inconsistencies, as proven in the work and research of Dick Gregory, Mark Lane, and in the book An Act of State by William F. Pepper.

I remember years ago hearing some scientist's theory behind the creation of crop circles: that they were created by complex wind patterns. I'm more likely to believe crop circles are made by duck-footed aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, than that insultingly stupid theory. After seeing film footage of geometry-gifted hoaxsters creating crop circles in the span of a few hours one night, the mystery was forever solved in my mind.

So, the official story of the 9/11 attacks have always struck me as similarly ridiculous and intellectually insulting -- to wit: 19 men armed with boxcutters eluded the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus and defeated NORAD. Moreover, that the 9/11 attacks came as a complete and utter suprise to everyone from the Bush White on down the chain of command. The 9/11 Commission Report surpasses the Warren Commission Report in cynicism and depth of cover-up. It's conclusion being: "Everyone's to blame [for 9/11], therefore no one's to blame."

Bullshit.

Investigative journalist Sander Hicks has recently published a book called The Big Wedding: 9/11, The Whistle-blowers, & the Cover-up that goes a long way toward putting faces and names behind the true history of the 9/11 attacks.

Hicks brings us Randy Glass, who, while working undercover for the U.S. government, met with members of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) at the Tribeca Grill, within view of the World Trade Center buildings in 1999. At one point during their meeting, one of the Pakistani men pointed in the direction of the World Trade Center buildings and said, "Those buildings are coming down."

(Do a Google search on Pakistan's ISI and see what you come up with.)

And there is Mike Vreeland, a quirky, shadowy figure who clearly had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks.

There is Daniel Hopsicker, an indomitable investigative journalist who discovered the real Mohammed Atta -- who ate steak, snorted cocaine, slept with white women, and may well have been an Egyptian double-agent -- behind the 9/11 Commission's convenient one-dimensional jihadist.

The Big Wedding: 9/11, The Whistle-blowers, & the Cover-up by Sander Hicks is an extraordinarily important book, and I urge all readers of this blog to pick up a copy. The book is not only vital and relevant to the dark times in which we now find ourselves, it's a highly readable, accessible work that does not attempt to solve all mysteries relating to the 9/11 attacks, but does a commendable job of pointing the way for further inquiry.
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Check out:

• Sander Hicks' Official Web Site


• Daniel Hopsicker's Official Web site


• INN's special edition with highlights from the McKinney's 9/11 hearings (under the "Don't Miss" heading on the home page)


• Cynthia McKinney: Live in Brooklyn

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Other important books: