9-11 Truth: In the first half of Wednesday's show, Italian filmmaker and investigative journalist Massimo Mazzucco talked about his ongoing research into the 9-11 attacks, and why he's concluded that the official version of the events is false. In recent years, the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth ( AE911Truth) have brought forward a solid scientific argument that Mazzucco believes both confirms the theory of controlled demolition of the Towers, and disproves the official theory that the collapse was due to gravity.
"When they tell you that four people who had never flown a jet before (they only flew little airplanes), suddenly jump into the cockpit of planes...and perform maneuvers that are described as never seen before by air traffic controllers, and practically impossible by military pilots with 30 years of experience," you don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to doubt the official explanation for 9-11, he remarked. Mazzucco pointed out that it was unlikely that none of the four black boxes were ever found, as well inconsistencies in the official story regarding the collapse of Building 7, which they blamed on fire. He also revealed the little known fact that by the year 2000, the Port Authority, which owned the Twin Towers, was facing an asbestos removal bill of about $1 billion-- the cost of building new towers.
Spying on Democracy:
Appearing in the second half, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild and host of the "Law and Disorder" radio show in New York, Heidi Boghosian, addressed the extent to which the US government is actively acquiring personal information on Americans through their phone calls, emails, and Internet usage. She warned that the government now has the means to suppress the most essential tools of democracy. For instance, they have spied on some reporters, and threatened them with charges of espionage and conspiracy. We really have "an affront, not only to the Constitution, but for an open society where we can keep the government in check rather than having them control us," she stated.
She cited how multinational corporations have sometimes partnered with the government in their surveillance efforts. For example, a secret program called the Hemisphere Project actually paid AT&T employees to work alongside DEA agents, sharing phone records dating back to 1987, without a judicial warrant. "It's a simplistic argument to say that if we don't have anything to hide, we have nothing to worry about," she said. "Because the more we allow spying on various aspects of our lives" (via such technology as drones, RFID, video cameras, and biometrics), our rights are whittled down, and "we have virtually no privacy left." Yet, Boghosian remains hopeful that there's a sea change taking place, among both US citizens and lawmakers, and that the current surveillance overreach will be scaled back.