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Al-Qaeda Chief Calls for Attacks on US in 9/11 Speech to Followers

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Photo Credit: AFP/GETTY

Photo Credit: AFP/GETTY

In an audio message released on Friday, two days after the anniversary of September 11th, Ayman al-Zawahiri said America was not a “mythic power” and that it could be defeated even through small-scale strikes by “one brother or a few of the brothers”.

“We should bleed America economically by provoking it to continue in its massive expenditure on its security, for the weak point of America is its economy, which has already begun to stagger due to the military and security expenditure,” he said, according to SITE, a jihadist monitoring group. “America is not a mythic power and the Americans, after all, are humans who can be defeated, felled and punished.”

Zawahiri urged the Islamic world to “abandon the dollar and replace it with a currency of other countries that are not taking part in the aggression against us”. He also said that Muslims should refuse to buy goods from America and its allies, as such spending only helped to fund US military action in Muslim lands.

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Student Destroys 9/11 Memorial Flag Display, Citing US Imperialism

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Photo Credit: Young America's Foundation

Photo Credit: Young America’s Foundation

Protesters at Middlebury College in Vermont uprooted 2,977 flags that were part of a 9/11 memorial display on Wednesday.

The flags symbolize each of the 2,977 people who died in the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. The College Republicans and Democrats have jointly planted the flags in a field on campus every year for the last decade.

But this year, Ben Kinney — president of the College Republicans — happened to be walking by the display as 5 protesters finished removing the last of the flags and placing them in trash bags.

“At first, I thought the group was comprised of College Democrats helping put the flags away before the rain rolled in, but then I realized what they were doing,” said Kinney in a statement to The Middlebury Campus.

The protesters — at least one of whom was a student — explained that they were “confiscating” the flags in order to take a stand against U.S. imperialism.

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‘Allah is a Lie!’ “Muhammad is a Pedophile!’: ‘Million Muslim March’ Met with Counter-Protest (+videos)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

Demonstrators at the “Million Muslim March” in Washington, D.C. Wednesday were met with counter-protesters who shouted “Allah is a lie!” and other charges on the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

“Why is there so much security at the airport? Thank a Muslim. Why are there so many wars in the Middle East? Thank a Muslim,” one counter-protester shouted into a bullhorn.

“Muhammad was a pedophile!” the same counter-protester shouted at the pro-Muslim demonstrators. “Muhammad curse be his name married a seven year old girl. If Muhammad was alive today that prophet Muhammad would be on the Jerry Springer show.”

The counter-protesters also lashed out at individuals participating in the “2 Million Bikers to DC” rally.


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Marines on Alert, Moved Near Libya Ahead of Sept. 11 Anniversary

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The military is ramping up its ability to respond to a potential attack on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Benghazi terror attack that left four Americans dead.

Fox News has confirmed that 250 Marines have moved closer to Libya – from Moron, Spain, to the U.S. naval air station in Sigonella, Italy. Military officials say Marines could move from Italy to Benghazi in under three hours if needed.

Two-hundred and fifty Marines will also remain in Moron, ready to respond in the European theater if needed.

Wednesday marks one year since the Benghazi terror attack, and 12 years since the Al Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

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Atheists Call 9-11 Memorial Cross “Grossly Offensive”

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Photo Credit: The Times of Trenton/NJ.com

Photo Credit: The Times of Trenton/NJ.com

A Jewish firefighter who wants to display a Christian cross as part of a New Jersey 9-11 memorial is facing stiff opposition from a group of atheists who called the religious image “grossly offensive.”

The American Atheists are threatening to sue Princeton, NJ if they proceed with plans to erect the memorial. They took issue with a beam that was salvaged from the ruins of the World Trade Center because a cross had been cut out of one side of the beam.

“This particular beam has a religious symbol on it,” American Atheists president David Silverman told Fox News. “They have a beam with a religious symbol and that makes it a religious icon.”

Silverman said placing the beam on public land would be a “clear violation of the separation of church and state.”

He also said the cross symbol would send a terrible message to non-Christians. He said the city would be giving the “appearance that all of the people who suffered and died on 9-11 and their families are being memorialized by a Christian symbol.”

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Snowden: NSA Targeted Journalists Critical of Government after 9/11

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Photo Credit: Daily Mail By Jonathan Easley

Leaker Edward Snowden accused the National Security Agency of targeting reporters who wrote critically about the government after the 9/11 attacks and warned it was “unforgivably reckless” for journalists to use unencrypted email messages when discussing sensitive matters.

Snowden said in an interview with the New York Times Magazine published Tuesday that he came to trust Laura Poitras, the documentary filmmaker who, along with Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, helped report his disclosure of secret surveillance programs, because she herself had been targeted by the NSA.

“Laura and [Guardian reporter] Glenn [Greenwald] are among the few who reported fearlessly on controversial topics throughout this period, even in the face of withering personal criticism, and resulted in Laura specifically becoming targeted by the very programs involved in the recent disclosures,” Snowden said for the article, a profile of Poitras.

Snowden didn’t detail how Poitras was targeted by the NSA surveillance programs he disclosed, but suggested the agency tracked her emails and cautioned other journalists that they could be under surveillance.

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‘It cost the public dearly’: Snowden says media have failed as government watchdogs in his first interview since NSA leaks

By Joshua Gardner

In his first interview since he outed himself as the source of leaked NSA documents, Edward Snowden said the media has given the government a free pass to grow unchecked power ever since the attacks of September 11.

‘[It] ended up costing the public dearly,’ the 30-year-old newly minted Russia resident told the New York Times in a QandA published Tuesday.
Snowden’s interview focused on journalists and the media, which he said need to wake up to the realities of surveillance. ‘Any unencrypted message sent over the Internet is being delivered to every intelligence service in the world,’ he said.

Snowden’s QandA was, of course, done through encrypted emails. Laura Poitras, the documentary filmmaker who helped Snowden spill his secrets, served as intermediary, having won the former NSA contractor’s trust months ago.

‘Laura was more suspicious of me than I was of her, and I’m famously paranoid,’ Snowden told Times reporter Peter Maass.

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Iconic Ground Zero Photo was Nearly Excluded from Museum for Being Too ‘Rah-Rah’ American

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Photo Credit: NY PostThis iconic picture of firefighters raising the stars and stripes in the rubble of Ground Zero was nearly excluded from the 9/11 Memorial Museum — because it was “rah-rah” American, a new book says.

Michael Shulan, the museum’s creative director, was among staffers who considered the Tom Franklin photograph too kitschy and “rah-rah America,” according to “Battle for Ground Zero” (St. Martin’s Press) by Elizabeth Greenspan, out next month.

“I really believe that the way America will look best, the way we can really do best, is to not be Americans so vigilantly and so vehemently,” Shulan said.

Shulan had worked on a popular post-9/11 photography exhibit called “Here is New York” in Soho when he was hired by Alice Greenwald, director of the museum, for his “unique approach.”

Eventually, chief curator Jan Ramirez proposed a compromise, Greenspan writes. The Franklin shot was minimized in favor of three different photos via three different angles of the flag-raising scene.

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World Trade Center Owners in Court Trying to Collect Billions from Airline Companies

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Photo Credit: cliff1066™One of the last lawsuits tied to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks kicks off in a Manhattan courtroom tomorrow where Massport faces “billions” in potential damages.

The anticipated three-day federal bench trial is being held to decide whether World Trade Center Properties, owner of the World Trade Center towers brought down by terrorists, can seek more compensation from airlines and the Massachusetts Port Authority than the $4.9 billion insurance payouts they’ve already received. The attack destroyed a third building as well.

“You’re talking about billions (of dollars) in this lawsuit,” said retired Federal Aviation Administration Special Agent Brian Sullivan, who pointed out security holes at Logan International Airport prior to the attacks. The two planes that brought down the twin towers left from Logan.

The suit alleges the airlines and other aviation-related companies were negligent, allowing terrorists to board airplanes and overtake their crews before plunging the planes into the trade center complex.

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12 Years Later: Remains of Firefighter Killed in 9/11 Attacks Identified

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Photo Credit: APThe remains of a firefighter killed in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks at the World Trade Center have been identified, the New York City Medical Examiner’s office said Friday.

Lt. Jeffrey P. Walz, 37, was identified after authorities retested remains that were recovered in the months following the attack.

Of the 2,753 people killed in the attack, more than 1,100 people have not had remains identified…

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Bombshell Admission: Special Forces Were Near Benghazi when Ambassador was Murdered

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Photo Credit: WND

In a bombshell admission that has until now gone unreported, Martin Dempsey, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, conceded that highly trained Special Forces were stationed just a few hours away from Benghazi on the night of the attacks but were not told to deploy to Libya.

In comments that may warrant further investigation, Dempsey stated at a Senate hearing Wednesday that on the night of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, command of the Special Forces – known as C-110, or the EUCOM CIF – was transferred from the military’s European command to AFRICOM, or the United States Africa Command.

Dempsey did not state any reason for the strange transfer of command nor could he provide a timeline for the transfer the night of the attack…

His remarks for the first time confirm an exclusive Fox News interview aired April 30 in which a special government operator, speaking on condition of anonymity, contradicted claims by the Obama administration and a State Department review that there wasn’t enough time for military forces to deploy the night of the attack.

“I know for a fact that C-110, the EUCOM CIF, was doing a training exercise in … not in the region of North Africa, but in Europe,” the special operator told Fox News’ Adam Housley. “And they had the ability to act and to respond.”

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