9/11, 25 Years Later

0:00Happy Sunday everyone. Hope you're all doing great this coming week and a few days we will be celebrating that's the wrong word. The 25th anniversary of the September 11th 2001 attacks we will be remembering and we will be, I don't know what the word is, but it is happening. And I wanted to take the occasion to talk a little bit about the conspiracy side of this and some of the events that are typically looked past and dismissed and what my thoughts on them are. I'm going to spend the bulk of our time together reading something that I recently wrote on the topic just because it kind of distills down some of the core ideas that I want to go over and discuss with you. And then we'll talk a little bit about the end. I'm going to share a couple clips from President Hinckley in the, in suing weeks and years talking about this and I think it's worth reflecting on what has changed in our country in our world and our church.

1:08In the past 25 years as a result of what happened and why did it happen? Who stood the game? So let's dive in if you'll indulge me as I read. Marcy Borders rode the elevator up the 81st floor of the North Tower in the World Trade Center heading to her office where she had recently started working as a clerical assistant. Just a few minutes later an airplane crashed into the building just a few stories above her office. My supervisor thought a small jet plane might have nipped us she later said we had no idea what was going on. You felt the building shaking she continued you heard the explosion you saw chairs coming out of the windows office supplies and what I know now or people. She joined countless others rushing for the exit staircase cramming past tired firefighters working their way to the upper floors in search of anyone who might be trapped. Borders finally reached the bottom of the stairs and at that moment the south tower collapsed hitting her with a massive cloud of dust and debris.

2:10Once it caught me it threw me on my hands and knees every time I inhaled my mouth filled up with it she explained I was saying to myself out loud I didn't want to die I didn't want to die. Borders didn't die at least not right away she died 14 years later at age 42 from stomach cancer that she believed was linked to the debris that she breathed on 9-11. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks on that faithful day. There were 2,753 deaths at the World Trade Center site and 343 of these were firefighters trying to rescue others. At the Pentagon which had been struck by another plane 184 people died and 40 people died in Pennsylvania where airplane passengers fought back against their hijackers ultimately crashing the plane and killing everyone on board. Now Americans and people all over the world present company include were glued to their TVs watching horrifying images of the plane attacks and the aftermath.

3:14Understandably the key question lingering in the air was why? Why did these people attack us? It was clear that it was a coordinated effort with multiple planes but it was unclear why anyone would want to hurt us. An answer was soon provided President George W. Bush told the public that these terrorists and their supporters despise quote individual choice and thus they bear a special hatred for America. They quote hate all civilization and culture and progress and they are devious and ruthless and quote or more simply Bush separately said that the terrorists quote hate us because we're free. The 9-11 attack was repeatedly framed by the government as an unprovoked attack of aggression from truly evil people who needed to be eradicated from whatever caves and holes they dwelled in. And I was precisely what soon was proposed just three days after the attack President Bush said that quote our responsibility to history is clear to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.

4:21He said that quote history has called America and our allies to action and it is both our responsibility and our privilege to fight freedoms fight and quote war was the plan not an attack on a country but a fight against the very idea of the terror and anyone who tried to inflict it on others. To convince Americans to go along with war Bush and his allies called to mind another time when America was suddenly attacked quote the events of September the 11th were as decisive as the attack on Pearl Harbor he said just a few weeks after the attacks the deputy secretary of defense said and I quote until two months ago the date most synonymous with surprise was December 7th. But as we mark the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor next month we may also recall that Japan's attack drove us not to fear but to action not into isolation but to accept a greater role in the world not to forsake our friends but to form with them the most powerful alliance against evil in history.

5:25December 7th was a turning point for the world and September 11th should be no less a turning point on 9-11 our generation received one of history's great wake up calls like the greatest generation we must answer that call and quote. And so recalling the attack on Pearl Harbor decades prior America went to war against terror throughout the Middle East in response to the apparently unprovoked attack on American soil on September 11th 2001. As it turns out the 9-11 attacks did not occur because caved-welling terrorists half a world away quote hate us because we're free. The coordinated attack was a response in retaliation to perceived injustices Osama bin Laden the founder of al-Qaeda which was responsible for the attacks published a letter a year later where he explained in detail what motivated him and his associates why are we fighting and opposing you he wrote the answer is very simple because you attacked us and continue to attack us.

6:29He then outlined several examples to justify his position quote you attack us in Palestine which has sunk under military occupation for more than 80 years you attacked us in Somalia you supported the Russian atrocities against us in Chechnya the Indian oppression against us in Kashmir and the Jewish aggression against us in Lebanon under your supervision consent and orders the governments of our countries which act as your agents attack us on a daily basis. You steal our wealth and oil at poultry prices because of your international influence and military threats this theft is indeed the biggest theft ever witnessed by mankind in the history of the world. Your forces occupy our countries you spread your military bases throughout them you corrupt our lands and you besiege our sanctities to protect the security of the Jews and to ensure the continuity of your pillage of our treasures. You have starved the Muslims of Iraq where children die every day it is a wonder that more than 1.5 million Iraqi children have died as a result of your sanctions and you did not show concern yet when 3000 of your people died the entire world rises and has not yet sat down and quote.

7:43He also added is it any is it in any way rational to expect that after America has attacked us for more than half a century that we will then leave her to live in security and peace and quote. Of course these ideas may be off base exaggerated or totally incorrect and regardless these views don't justify killing innocent people as bin Laden's allies in al-Qaeda did but these arguments show he and his associates had specific objections that served as the basis for the war. And the government knew of the likelihood of such an attack happening the CIA had developed a term for it after they secretly overthrew the Iranian government in 1953 that term blowback. It was the recognition that meddling in other people's business would create negative consequences down the road. Chalmers Johnson author of the book titled Blowback observed how government officials made sure that the public didn't understand what was happening so that they could continue their foreign meddling quote.

8:48Actions that generate blowback are normally kept totally secret from the American public and from most of their representatives in Congress. This means that when innocent civilians become victims of a retaliatory strike they are at first unable to put it in context or to understand the sequence of events that led up to it. In its most rigorous definition blowback does not mean mere reactions to historical events but rather to clandestine operations carried out by the US government that are aimed at overthrowing foreign regimes or seeking the execution of people the United States wants eliminated by friendly foreign meddling. Friendly foreign armies or helping launch state terrorist operations against overseas target populations. The American people may not know what is done in their name but those on the receiving end surely do including the people of Iran in 1953 Guadalmala and 54 Cuba 1959 to the present Congo in 1960 Brazil and 64 Indonesia and 65 Vietnam from 61 to 73.

9:51Laos 61 to 73 Cambodia 61 to 73 Greece 67 to 74 Chile in 73 Afghanistan 79 to the present El Salvador Guadamala and Nicaragua in the 1980s and Iraq from 1991 to the present to name only the most obvious cases end quote. While most Americans were shocked by the 9-11 attacks there were some who saw them as an opportunity they had been waiting for. Strangely just a year prior to the 9-11 attacks a group called the project for a new American century advocated for more military intervention abroad and the forcible removal of Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq a quote regime change. They published a lengthy paper in which they lamented that America's overseas interventions and military buildup would be too slow to respond strongly enough and assert continued American dominance across the globe reaching their goal of American imperialism is quote likely to be a long one absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor.

11:04One year later this group had their opportunity a new Pearl Harbor what are the odds that deputy secretary of defense quoted earlier who compared 9-11 to Pearl Harbor his name is Paul Wolfowitz and he was a great leader in the world. One year later this group had their opportunity a new Pearl Harbor what are the odds that deputy secretary of defense quoted earlier who compared 9-11 to Pearl Harbor his name is Paul Wolfowitz and he was a member of this group so were Dick Cheney Donald Rumsfeld and others who became part of president Bush's administration to carry out the very warfare and military involvement that they had long desired and feared. And feared would otherwise be too slow in coming odd right because of circumstances such as this some believe that the attacks on 9-11 were conducted with direct involvement of government officials others believe that the attacks were independently planned and coordinated but that some government officials knew ahead of time what was going to happen and chose not to stop them many others still believe that the attacks were totally unprovoked caught everyone off guard.

12:18And that we were simply attacked because Islamic terrorists hate American freedoms so what's the truth these insiders certainly took advantage of an attack to further their political goals of military domination but there are other odd things that happened involving 9-11 which have led many people to suspect that what they've been told isn't the full picture consider a few examples. Stock market trades just days prior to 9-11 someone placed a huge bet in the stock market against American airlines and United Airlines so that they would make money if the stock price went down after the attack the stock prices for these two companies plummeted making millions of dollars for whoever was doing the unusual trades a government investigation into this insider trading yielded no results and had no arrests I will pause for my reading here just to point out now with prediction markets like polymarket and Colchie use some of the market market and you see again and again how insiders in the government with access to knowledge are trading not only on stocks for affected companies which is also happening but now waging money on the prediction of certain outcomes that insiders know are going to be happening and so if they bet a certain way they can make a bunch of money because they have access to that insider knowledge continuing multiple warnings.

13:39The government officials of what was about to happen but those reports were apparently ignored Italian intelligence warned that al-Qaeda was going to use aircraft to launch an attack the Egyptians warned the CIA that al-Qaeda members were in the United States being trained on how to fly planes and the U.S. intelligence agency warned of 19 terrorists in the United States who were planning to carry out an attack soon just weeks prior to the attack the United Kingdom warned the United States three times of an imminent attack involving airplane hijackings in 1999 the U.S. government launched a classified military intelligence program known as able danger to target al-Qaeda and gather information on the activities of its members this team apparently identified two of the three terrorists cells that later participated in the 9-11 attacks that knowledge was mysteriously not acted upon and when it was later investigated officials of the defense intelligence agency destroyed their data and documents to hide what they were up to.

14:44They also prohibited some of their key personnel from testifying to Congress after initially denying the program even existed standing orders. As the third hijacked plane approached the Pentagon President Bush was airborne in Air Force one vice president Dick Cheney a founding member of the project for a new American century that I mentioned earlier was in a command bunker as the Pentagon bound plane was still in the U.S. was still approaching Cheney was warned of its close proximity the plane is 50 miles out the plane is 30 miles out a junior officer repeatedly reported when he said the plane is 10 miles out the young man asked the vice president do the orders still stand Cheney replied of course the orders still stand have you heard anything to the contrary since Bush later issued an order to shoot down problematic planes it seems that this order was to not shoot these planes down though they had clear warnings Cheney and the command center evidently chose not to respond as the Pentagon was struck Pentagon corruption one day before the 9-11 attacks the secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld also a member founding member of the project for a new American century

16:01held a press conference over quote a matter of life and death as he called it he revealed that 2.3 trillion dollars that's trillion with a T had gone missing and just hours later the Pentagon was struck on the section of the building that contained the accounting offices destroying all the documents needed to trace the missing money World Trade Center Tower number seven few people are aware that a third tower fell at the World Trade Center on 9-11 tower seven which was not hit by a plane and which was a full city block away from the twin towers collapsed that afternoon a government report claimed that WTC seven collapsed because of fires fueled by office furnishings as a result of debris from one of the twin towers Tower seven fell into its own footprint at near free fall speed a remarkable feat for a steel structure after the fires had raged for hours the owner of the building Larry Silverstein said quote the smartest thing to do is to pull it

17:06an apparent reference to control demolition quote and they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse he said this contradicts the official narrative and suggests a possible ulterior motive in the destruction of the tower or the documents and evidence contained in its offices there are certainly more unusual circumstances and unanswered questions to address the public's concerns the government created the National Commission on terrorist acts upon the United States also known as the 9-11 Commission after hearing extensive testimony from key witnesses the Commission produced a 585 page report the official narrative on what happened that fateful day yet the report did not mention tower seven at all able danger was missing from its pages as well the testimony about Dick Cheney's actions in the command center as the plane struck the Pentagon was ignored and the Commission's own members don't even believe the report is accurate the chair and vice chair argue that they were quote set up to fail denied the funding they needed to perform a thorough investigation and given an unreasonably limited timeline to sift through millions of documents and interview hundreds of key witnesses they admit they were denied access to the truth and lied to by high ranking officials

18:30the chief obstacle the chair and vice chair later argued was the White House after initially resisting testifying before the Commission President Bush and Vice President Cheney agreed to be interviewed but only if they were together this of course is a highly unusual way of questioning a key witness during an investigation and was likely done so that the two of them could stay on the same page and not say anything contradictory and the CIA director refused to allow the Commission to interview terrorist detainees the Commission's chair was shocked a few years later when learning that the CIA had actually destroyed the video recordings of their interrogations of these detainees shocked not merely by their destruction of this evidence but more shocked to even learn that these video recordings existed the Commission was never given evidence during their investigations many questions remain unanswered because of the cover up by government officials the destruction of evidence and the refusal to testify and thoroughly investigate what is a clear conspiracy is the coordinated effort to keep the public from understanding why the attack really happened

19:40the militaristic desires of the Bush administration heavily staffed with people who had previously advocated for increasing intervention into Iraq and the Middle East required painting America as a hapless victim of so-called terror without giving the public any context that might show that this attack was an intentional retaliation for the US military's past meddling abroad it was a conspiracy then to take advantage of the fear Americans felt and the revenge they desired in order to kickstart years of warfare to reshape the geopolitical landscape okay that concludes the reading portion of this musing what I just read is part of the chapter on this topic the chapter is titled drum roll please a new Pearl Harbor was the title and that is in my book the Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies this is one of 20 conspiracies fully documented that we include and there's some spicy ones in here so I included 9-11 and as you can see from what I said I didn't go so far as to say you know oh tower seven or you know the thermite that you know Dr. Jones found in the in the you know dust showing that there were explosives you know it being used to demolish the towers etc etc

21:03there are there are many arguments encounter arguments and then you've got you know some engineers writing their papers showing xyz claim and then you've got you know government funded scientists and others with this the whatever the national institute for science and technology and then you got you know popular mechanics magazine and then you got people rebutting that and it's been you know two decades plus of people going back on forth with claims and counter claims in this book in particular I wanted to only focus on fully documented non-disputable conspiracies not conspiracy theories so this book is chock full of like declassified documents and all kinds of things that were legitimately like uncontested conspiracies to show government corruption and so I worded this chapter the way I did in that book because I believe certain things about conspiracies involved in 9-11 but the only thing that I I can defensibly argue is uncontested is the fact that a year prior to 9-11 you had a bunch of neocons who wanted a new Pearl Harbor to further their geopolitical objectives and desires one year later

22:17well like wow all of a sudden what's the coincidence we have a new Pearl Harbor in the weeks and months to follow you have those people being pulled into or who were already part of the Bush administration on foreign matters of foreign policy and military and everything else to go into Iraq and then Afghanistan and everywhere else later who themselves like Paul Wolfowitz are making the connection oh it's like a new Pearl Harbor like the very thing that they advocated for now after the 9-11 attack they're saying oh yeah just like we did in Pearl Harbor we need to you know go fight and rally together and you know band together around this common cause right and and Bush and others making up the most ridiculous things like it wasn't years late it wasn't until years later that I was even aware that bin Laden had written a letter it was published I think in like the BBC and like a couple of the outlets but American media like no one touched this thing and again as I wrote that's not to say everything bin Laden said is like accurate or or reasonable or fair or anything on face value but to not even know to not you know hey guys we attacked you it's like you know a terrorist manifesto or a suicide note or something like you want to know the motives right and yet complicit American media and all the politicians intentionally deprive individuals of this knowledge this is unrelated and I'll go on a brief tangent but well actually it's related in this way Pearl Harbor

23:47I didn't know this until I don't know it's 70 years ago when when Pearl Harbor was attacked when Hawaii was attacked by the Japanese so too was the Philippines now why would the Japanese attack the Philippines well it's because the Philippines was a US territory the US had you know conquered the Philippines and were we're we're ruling it with that you know heavy hand and so the Japanese attack the Philippines not only because of its geographic proximity closeness versus the American mainland but it was an amazing thing American outpost the you know post World War II the streets were named after US generals and presidents and they were using the dollar and they saw themselves as American citizens as as Americans and and so they were also attacked on on December 7th and when when the the president was so he has a speech writer right so the the speech writer prepares the president's

24:47speech the the day which will live in infamy you know you've heard at least that line if not more of the speech and and so the speech writer prepares the speech and the president goes in and starts to make annotations and edits which was very common right basically here's a draft and then the president will go in this that's nothing new but what the president then did is he struck out the words the Philippines I don't I didn't come prepared to talk about this so I don't have the words of exactly verbatim but basically unlike the second or third sentence when he's saying what's happened you know it said in the speech draft the Japanese have attacked the our Pearl Harbor base in Hawaii as well as the Philippines and so the Philippines was struck and the speech was changed to just say Hawaii Pearl Harbor and I bring this up because there was an intentional campaign of depriving Americans of the knowledge of what their government was doing in the Philippines there's a whole lot of sorted history there's a great book on this called How to Hide an Empire which I read a number of years ago and and talks about the Philippines but other American Imperial conquests you know talking about you know Puerto Rico and Alaska and Hawaii right and this campaign to deprive Americans of knowledge of what their government was doing in the Philippines in this case was because those in charge knew that Americans did not understand the language of the Philippines and the Philippines.

26:16They did not want to see themselves as imperialists as conquering other countries as occupying lands far away that was inconsistent with the ethos and the values and the self perception and therefore like the president you know striking that most people in the United States were not aware that the US government owned and operated the Philippines let alone at the Japanese attack there. The Filipinos who for years and years and years would see themselves as Americans and and these there they're fellow Americans didn't even know that they were like part of the country. Anyways a little bit of a tangent that my point is that that is the defensible conspiracy here that there was a campaign of disinformation to deprive Americans of the knowledge of who even attacked. There was a great documentary called why we fight you can find this online for free at this point that was done years ago and it profiles this father whose son died in the and the when the towers were attacked if I recall correctly.

27:19And so this father recounts how he just had this vengeance and this bloodlust and he was even like writing the military commander so and so will you write my name son on a on a bomb that you drop you know in memory of whatever's name was. And so we sharing this whole story of how he was just like go get these you know bastards we got to go fight and then he. And then he shares how like when the war went from Afghanistan to Iraq and we were told you know you need to topple Saddam Hussein and he comes to the realization later when when Bush finally kind of is asked by a reporter and you know boxed into this corner of like where are we going after and bushes I know we you know we never said Saddam was responsible for 9-11 you know and but and so this father who's being interviewed shares how upset he was because. He had been deceived and being had been led that well this is the terror and it's all connected and you're going after the bad guys and they were orchestrating it you were claiming at weapons of mass destruction and that they were going to attack America and so this father being interviewed again the document is called why we fight it's pretty good.

28:30He shares basically have deceived he was and how frustrated he was that he had been led into supporting all these shenanigans so that is the conspiracy to intentionally deprive that is the document it can. I believe there are more there's more conspiracy my own personal belief is that there were elements in the government that had advanced knowledge of what was happening that stood by and allowed it to happen what I don't know is to what degree they were complicit in assisting I mean over and over and over again the FBI will go after and and stop these terrorist plots and then lo and behold it was the FBI that provided the plans provided the financial resources provided the munitions provided everything. And they get some stupid patty to like you know get swept up in it all and then they can go say oh look you know this like what i'm saying is fully documented it happens again and again and again again again the FBI has been doing it therefore I don't think it's at all like shocking for elements in the government whether FBI CIA or others to have been rendering material assistance to some of these individuals covertly in order to further these political objectives to think that that is crazy to think that that is the

29:39conspiracy theory is just bonkers and kuku or whatever is to be intentionally and I think laughably ignorant about history it is to intentionally deceive yourself into believing falsehoods that come on any student of history can see right through and know what's really going on. So can we pinpoint precisely what happened and who was complicit in what now but when you look at motive as any detective investigator will do it is clear that there are a number of people who stood to gain from what was happening and desired for it to happen called out publicly that we need a new pro harbour were ready the moment that it happened to take advantage of it and to extract from this horrible event all of the political benefit that could be achieved in order to further their aims which not only in this pinak like for in實 not reallycomplement the project for a new rememberic in century but elsewhere these guys had just been lets you again and again again again like The John Bolton of the world right now and others who just and Lindsey Graham they foam for war they want it they need it we've got to go fight we've gotta remake the world in ah image dot it rights clear mode of see.

30:53us on that look, we can debate the particulars of whether there's, you know, thermite in the dust and whether the world trade center tower seven can fall from office fires from a collapsing from another tower a block away like and fall in free fall speed and people have gone in with to the videos and like like frame by frame analyze. Well, look, this is free fall speed and can you really do it. And then other scientists come and say, well, yes, we under these particular conditions, the steel rods could have like given out and buckled and allowed like blah, blah, blah, right lots of back and forth. And I just got no time for it. I've gone down all those rabbit holes in years past. But then you can add on top of this like Osama bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian born former CIA asset. Right. He was used as a proxy fighter against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during the Cold War, as was al-Qaeda. They were both beneficiaries of US assistance against the Soviets. The 9-11 hijackers were also largely all Saudi citizens. We didn't go to war in Saudi Arabia. I wonder why like there's so much more happening here right. And you know, it's very clear that the whole fight in Afghanistan was little more than a pretext to just get a foothold in the region to create all these military bases to box Iran in.

32:08Anyways, I could go down, these rabbit holes let's move on. I want to share a couple clips from President Hinkley this first one. Is in the weeks just after the attack in 2001, it's October general conference. Here's what President Hinkley had to say. I have just been handed a note that says that the US missile attack is underway. I need not remind you that we live in perilous times. I desire to speak concerning these times and our circumstances as members of this church. You are acutely aware of the events of September 11th, less than a month ago. Out of that vicious and ugly attack, we are plunged into a state of war. It is the first war of the 21st century. The last century has been described as the most war torn in human history.

33:12Now we are off on another dangerous undertaking, the unfolding of which in the end thereof we do not know. For the first time since we became a nation, the United States has been seriously attacked on its mainland soil. But this was not an attack on the United States alone. It was an attack on many nations of goodwill everywhere. It was well planned, boldly executed, and the results were disastrous. It is estimated that more than 5,000 innocent people died. Among these were many from other nations. It was cruel and cunning and active consummative evil. Recently in company with a few national religious leaders, I was invited to the White House to meet with the president.

34:13In talking to us, he was frank and straightforward. That same evening he spoke to the Congress and the nation. In un-mistakable language concerning the resolve of America and its friends, to hunt down the terrorists who are responsible for the planning of this terrible thing and any who harbored such. Now we are at war. Great forces have been mobilized and will continue to be. Political alliances are being forged. We do not know how long this conflict will last. We do not know what it will cost in lives and treasure. We do not know the manner in which it will be carried out. It could impact the work of the church in various ways. Our national economy has been made to suffer. It was already in trouble and this is compounded at the problem.

35:18Many are losing their employment. Among our own people this could affect welfare needs and also the tithing of the church. It could affect our missionary program. We are now a global organization. We have members in more than 150 nations. Administering this vast worldwide program could conceivably become more difficult. Those of us who are American citizens stand solidly with the president of our nation. The terrible forces of evil must be confronted and held accountable for their actions. Okay, so it's clear that as with most of the nation, President Hinckley is just Rahara President Bush, you're our leader. You look at the unfavorable ratings to favorability ratings, the trust in government ratings. This is why political leaders love false flag events.

36:20They love when attacks happen that they maybe didn't plan or orchestrate, but they can then now take advantage of them. Because when people are attacked, you get everyone rallying around the strong leader. Bush's favorability ratings go through the roof. Trust in government goes through the roof. Trust in media increases. And people fall into this trap of just, oh, well, we are attacked. We should trust whoever's involved and he'll be our leader and provide us safety. So for President Hinckley to call President Bush, he's frank and straightforward, his unmistakable language, the resolve of Americans to hunt down the terrorists. Well, what if the terrorists were President Bush and Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfeowitz and Donald Rumsfeld and all these guys themselves? Like in the scenario where these guys let it to happen, that's at least being complicit. That's at least eating and abetting, if not even worse, because what some cave dwelling guy, okay, fine, you kill some people. The true terrorists would be someone sending even more Americans to die, to kill a bunch of people abroad, to displace even more.

37:21Like that is terrorism, to continue to shame and fear, put Americans in a state of fear, and you know, trot these little boogie man-out and keep people scared to use this overt fear mongering, to terrorize your own citizens in pursuit of political objective. So to say that we're going to hunt down the terrorists, of course, it's always pointed at the enemy, right? It's like in the Book of Mormon, right? It's, oh, the Lamanites, the Lamanites, well, no, it's the former, it's the Nephites, who themselves were disaffected and whipped up the Lamanites to come attack the Nephites. That was what was happening again and again and again. The the terrorists to hunt down were never the the patseys, the Lamanites, the Cable-Wailing terrorists. It was always the inward vessel. It was the the the supposed, you know, great leaders that people were looking to. And so for President Hinckley to say that those of us who are American citizens stand solidly with the president of our nation was in my estimation a massive misstep.

38:28You know, the terrible forces of evil must be confronted and held accountable for the actions. Sure, but I think Dick Cheney was a terrible force of evil, right? And so to say that we stand solidly with the president of our nation, I think it was wrong. I mean, I in in full transparency, I did too. I was a how old was I? 20 year old? 19. I was 19 years old. I didn't know any better. I didn't know anything. And I watched TV that whole day and just the looped video of the same thing. And I, you know, the next day in San Diego that my went with my dad and one of my brothers or someone and we we they did like a big American flag and we wore like red white blusher. It's in the head of standing spots and we were showing our solidarity, right? And of course later, Glend back would turn this into the 912 movement. Recalling that day of like, oh unity, right? Like, again, savvy political leaders understand that that's the way to rally people behind your vision,

39:28which is to and again, I'm not even necessarily saying therefore Bush and Cheney and others orchestrated all of this, but they could have been aware from all this intelligence they were getting that was happening. They could have had orders to say, stand down and allow this to happen. They could have looked the other way like these things aren't hard. So it doesn't necessarily mean that they were, you know, planning the attacks or or planting the thermite in the towers or any of that kind of stuff. Simple knowledge to leverage for their advantage in pursuit of a political objective is in my estimation a terrible force of evil that must be confronted and held accountable for their actions. And yet, President Hingley, tragically, I think just went lockstep behind President Bush. As did I, but I'm just a, you know, Joe Shmoan, not a leader of a, you know, multinational religion and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and that was the first of two major things that President Hingley said on the topic. The next one came in April 2003. So this

40:29is about a year and a half later than general conference as well. And by now the, the war is kind of, you know, broadening out and the Bush team is not just going after, you know, Afghanistan, they're bleeding into Iraq and everything. And here's what President Hingley had to say. And so I venture to say something about the war and the gospel we teach. I spoke of this somewhat in our October conference of 2001. When I came to this pulpit at that time, the war against terrorism had just begun. The present war is really an outgrowth and continuation of that conflict. Hopefully, it is now drawing to a conclusion. In a touching letter I received just this week, a mother, a rote of her marine son, who's serving for the second time in a Middle Eastern war. She says that at the time of his first deployment, he came home on leave

41:36and asked me to go for a walk. He had his arm around me and he told me about going to war. He said, Mom, I have to go so you and the family can be free. Free to worship as you please. And if it cost me my life, then giving my life is worth it. He is now there again and has written to his family recently saying, I am proud to be here serving my nation and our way of life. I feel a lot safer knowing our Heavenly Father is with me. There are other mothers, innocent civilians, who cling to their children with fear and look heavenward with desperate pleadings as the earth shakes beneath their feet and deadly rocket screened through the dark sky. There have been casualties in this terrible conflict

42:40and there likely will be more. Public protests will likely continue. Leaders of other nations have in no uncertain terms condemned the coalition strategy. The question arises, where does the church stand in all of this? First, let it be understood that we have no quarrel with the Muslim people or with those of any other faith. We recognize and teach that all the people of the earth are of the family of God. And as he is our Father, so are we brothers and sisters with family obligations one to another. But as citizens, we are all under the direction of our respective national leaders. They have access to greater political and military intelligence than do the

43:42people generally. Those in the armed services render obligation to their respective governments to execute the will of the sovereign. When they joined the military service, they entered into a contract by which they are presently bound and to which they have dutifully responded. One of our articles of faith which represents an expression of our doctrine states, we believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. But modern revelation states that we are to renounce war and proclaim peace. In a democracy we can renounce war and proclaim peace. There is opportunity for dissent. Many have been speaking out and doing so emphatically. That is their privilege.

44:45That is their right. So long as they do so legally. However, we all must also be mindful of another overriding responsibility, which I may add, governs my personal feelings and dictates my personal loyalties in the present situation. It is interesting to look back at 2003 to see someone say, hopefully it is now drawing to a conclusion. Of course, many leaders were saying as much. Oh, this will be over in just a few months. And of course, every leader says that. Definitely wasn't drawing to a conclusion. Quite the opposite. It was the start of two decades worth of conflict, which continues to this day. Okay. He also said, of course, that we are all under the direction of our respective national leaders. They have access to greater intelligence than the people do generally. People in the military under obligation to their respective government. So this

45:46deference, again, to, oh, well, present-bush and hiss, oh, they say Saddam has weapons of mass destruction. They have more intelligence than we do. And this is a general deference that people throughout society have of political leaders, particularly in times of war. But it's just sad to see, you know, the president, Hinckley, kind of just being a part of that too, just this like deference to like, well, they know better. So we should support him. He, of course, to that end, articulate its article, fate number 12, which I believe is consistently misapplied to just say, well, we're here to support the president. When it really says we support those leaders in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law, which we could get into why so many things happening by the Bush administration during that time and afterwards were unlawful. And therefore, we're under no obligation, I think, under article of faith 12 to stand in support of our president. You know, President Hinckley also said in a democracy, well, we're not a democracy. The founders didn't like democracy.

46:50And then, you know, he then said, of course, that this is governing his personal feelings, his personal loyalties. He then went on to share, you know, part I didn't clip in the video, but he goes on to talk about Captain Maroni fighting for faith and family and freedom. And then President Hinckley concludes by saying it is clear from these and other writings that their times and circumstances when nations are justified. In fact, have an obligation to fight for family, for liberty and against tyranny, threat and oppression. So of course, with all of this President Hinckley, even though he's now qualified this as this governs my personal feelings and opinions, is suggesting that that's what he thought of the war and Iraq he bought into the Neocon claims, which, you know, again, we didn't really get a lot of renouncing of war and proclaiming a piece. I've shared many times one of the more favorable situations that I've felt, which came from President, then Elder Nelson, where he did do about a bit of proclaiming a piece in renouncing of war and the PR disaster that the church bungled was disastrous and massive

47:56missed opportunity. So now 25 years later, here we are, we have this legacy of just overwhelming surveillance and invasion of privacy with TSA and everything. We've got an expanded empire, eight trillion dollars have been spent, and that's just in direct costs. That doesn't include the trillions of dollars unaccounted for by the Pentagon, not only in 2001 when Rubensfeld said it's a matter of life and death, but again and again and again since. So the Pentagon is leaking this massive black ops budget into all kinds of untold covert operations, and Congress doesn't hold them accountable. And so the eight trillion spent on on the wars in the Middle East probably pale in comparison to the total sum being spent as a result of, you know, the Pentagon continues to fail these audits because it just can't account for anything and I came over the last time it passed in on it. It's been a long, long time. A million people have been killed. That's just directly by the violence in these

49:01conflicts. So that's, you know, US troops, allied forces, opposing fighters, civilians, journalists, aid workers, so a million people. And of course these things are hard to analyze. There's been all kinds of organizations and governments that have tried to quantify that and that's kind of the best consensus at this point is about a million people killed again, just directly by violence. Then you've got nearly 40 million people who were forced to flee their homes across effective countries. So what's interesting downstream of this, you know, two and a half decades later, right now the big problem all across Europe in particular is, you know, Muslims and others who are like taking over, you got all these fights, all this racial conflict, you got housing prices go through the roof, all this angst over immigration, and it's all downstream of this massive displacement. Had 9-11 not happened and therefore the war on terror didn't happen and the decades of warfare and all of the carnage and all of the displacement, right, you wouldn't have 40 million people fleeing

50:02their homes and going to different countries. Europe would look so much different right now. So so differently right now. Harvey said it, right, and all of these problems that they're doing, like you got a Paris, it doesn't look like Paris anymore or London or these other places, right, they're dealing with such heavy immigration from Middle Eastern countries. And then of course you have those governments which are just like, oh, we got to take in all the victims and and so you have these, this like pro-immigrant stance, which is just leading to a lot of conflict and a lot of problems. And all of it is, and again, no one's like, no one's really put in the dots together that 40 million people being forced, all that displacement is a direct result of the US governments foreign adventurism, which was the Neocon lead initiative, which was precisely what these guys all documented

51:02in the project for a new American century white paper that they released a year before 9-11 saying this is what we need. We need more empire, we need more geopolitical conquest, we need more projection of American power, we need to occupy the Middle East, we need to do all these things, topple Saddam Hussein, but you know, it's not going to happen unless the American people are galvanized into action and unified by a new Pearl Harbor, which they got just a few months later. Happy 25th anniversary.