Daniels’ statement also including claims that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and former Iranian President Rafsanjani both “materially aided and supported” al-Qaeda in carrying out the attack, and continue to do so today.

The ruling is particularly shocking because nobody has ever really seriously claimed that Iran had anything to do with 9/11, and the allegations seem to be based entirely on claims by a few defectors that Iran’s pro-terrorist sentiments led them to somehow establish ties with al-Qaeda.

The allegation is not particularly credible since al-Qaeda has repeatedly targeted Iran for terrorist attacks in the past, and was directly supporting Jundallah, one of the most active anti-Iran terrorist groups, in their operations up to and beyond 9/11.

The decision to board the plane and capture the airsick man, along with another Indian on the plane whom he didn’t know, and also along with a half-Arabic, half-Jewish woman who was sitting next to him, were “a precautionary measure.”

Shoshana Hebshi, the woman in question, is particularly irked about the fact that she and the other brown-looking people on the plane were hauled off in handcuffs and strip-searched, which she’s pretty sure was racial profiling.

Experts quoted in the mainstream articles about her captivity agree that it probably was racial profiling, but as one of the FBI agents involved declared “the public would rather us err on the side of caution.” And by caution of course he means strip-searches without probable cause.

Former CIA official Robert Grenier confirmed the offers, but said the US was not interested because they considered the offers “a ploy.”

Click here to read more on the pre-9/11 ambivalence at al-Jazeera

Admiral Michael Mullen, the outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, cheered the past decade as “America’s military ventured forth as the long arm and clenched fist of an angry nation at war,” celebrating the “vengeance” visited upon assorted enemies over that period.

The “all’s well and ends well” sentiment was shared by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who declared that the terrorist attacks had changed America “mostly in good ways.”

For those hoping to look past the gushing, the various self-congratulatory interviews also afforded ample time to shill for more wars going forward, with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisting a terrorist attack was “imminent” if Congress dared to cut the record military budget, which dwarfs even the massive budgets Rumsfeld had to work with.

Rumsfeld’s old deputy Paul Wolfowitz, also keen to keep the warfare state up and running, declared that America would be at risk of being attacked if the US “withdraws too soon from Iraq.” No worries there, it seems, because despite President Obama’s repeated promises to the contrary the administration seems set to keep troops in Iraq for years to come.

“There should be no doubt: today, America is stronger and al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat,” Obama declared, adding that it was “clear for all to see” that the terrorists are no match for the US military.

The remainder of the address was spent hyping the enormous virtues of the “9/11 generation” which has spent the last decade fighting America’s wars. Obama had previously praised them for an “extraordinary decade of service” in conquering Iraq and Afghanistan.

Interestingly, however, one of Obama’s talking points was that the terrorists “want to draw us into endless wars,” an incredible acknowledgement as he works to negotiate a plan to keep US troops occupying Afghanistan, nominally over the “threat of al-Qaeda,” through 2024 and beyond. He also declared the Iraq War to be “ending,” despite reports that he intends to miss the December deadline and keep troops in that nation for years to come.

Click here to see an ugly decade laid out before you at Wired.

Untold numbers are dead, the violence is still well above pre-war levels. While US politicians spin it as a case of “all’s well that ends well,” Iraq is far from well in September 2011, and may be decades from being well again.

Click here to read more from Reuters

In response to somewhat vague warnings of a tenth-anniversary terror plot on the United States, security is up in target cities like New York and Washington, DC — and so is official rhetoric.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, in the courtyard of the Pentagon, touted the recent murder of Osama bin Laden as a coup for the CIA, of which he was director until last week. For Panetta, known for making factless, bombastic declarations, the operation made a “very clear point… nobody attacks this country and gets away with it.” He did not comment on the many years, thousands of American lives, and trillions of dollars spent looking for one man.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also rattled her saber, vowing the United States would “always” claim the right to use force against those who attack or are deemed to threaten the country. She gave a speech at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, standing next to a rusted piece of the destroyed World Trade Center.

The recent terror alert is “a continuing reminder of the stakes in our struggle against violent extremism,” Clinton said.

As the clock ticks closer to the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the hysteria meter rises as well. But there are mixed signals from officials eager not to overplay what may be a nonevent.

The New York Police Dept., a militarized force larger than many nations, is buzzing the city’s skies with helicopters and randomly stopping cars on its bridges. Offices above the Lincoln Tunnel, which connects New York with Jersey City, are considering staying closed Monday in the shadow of the “credible but unspecific” threat allegedly passed to US officials via an informant in the region of Afghanistan or Pakistan, according to one news report. Another report says the plot was discovered in an intercepted al-Qaeda communication.

Top officials including Secretary of State Clinton and VP Joe Biden are doing the media rounds hyping the threat, but the New York Times quotes an anonymous official emitting a verbal shrug. “It’s 9/11, baby,” the official told the Times. “We have to have something to get spun up about.” Another nameless official told the Times the warning, which has authorities on alert for two men of “middle-eastern descent,” doesn’t seem to hold water. “This could all be one big fabrication… but no one wants to take any chances.”

Homeland Security officials have noted “lots of chatter” on “jihadi websites about an impending attack, but nothing credible enough to issue a threat advisory. “Lots of chatter” doesn’t elicit lots of confidence that the spy centers monitoring millions of communications can efficiently gather intelligence.

Concern about another attack this weekend surfaced months ago, partly due to the heightened awareness of the possibility of an attack because of the rather arbitrary importance people place on anniversaries, and partly due to unspecified reports that evidence seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound contained ideas about a tenth-anniversary attack.

The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, seemed nonchalant about the warning, himself taking the subway to work on Friday and telling people to continue to go about their business. Many other officials — including normally over-the-top Rep. Peter King — said people should be aware, but not alter their plans. Washington, DC, mayor Vincent Gray also announced hightened security measures in the district, mostly consisting of more police patrols.

The NYPD has also practiced what they call “surge” maneuvers, which see police from many precincts converge on a trouble spot. It’s not clear how this will help in the aftermath of a catastrophic attack. In addition, many thousands of officers will be patrolling New York, especially the Financial District, the city’s train stations, and the waters surrounding the island of Manhattan.

The suspects are thought to be US citizens. This is unlikely to protect them in the event they are caught by law enforcement, as the Obama Administration has claimed the right to order anyone, including Americans, to be extrajudicially executed.

Anonymous officials have told the press that Obama ordered the counterterrorism community to redouble its efforts in response to the threat, which was said to be “very, very specific.”

Separately, Homeland Security officials have noted “lots of chatter” on “jihadi websites about an impending attack, but nothing credible enough to issue a threat advisory. “Lots of chatter” doesn’t elicit lots of confidence that the spy centers monitoring millions of communications can efficiently gather intelligence.

Concern about another attack this weekend surfaced months ago, partly due to the heightened awareness of the possibility of an attack because of the rather arbitrary importance people place on anniversaries, and partly due to unspecified reports that evidence seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound contained ideas about a tenth anniversary attack.

New York is said to be the probable high value target, where thousands of extra police are on duty and where Obama is scheduled to visit the ground zero site. Three times a day “surges” take place across New York in an emergency exercise in which dozens of police vehicles from every precinct converge on a designated location at high speed. This is reported to be in part a show of strength.

Indeed, its possible the anonymous leaking to the press of the White House’s receipt of a specific, credible, but unconfirmed threat serves the same purpose as the NYPD “surges” – to let on that they’re aware of it in the hopes that such an attack might be called off. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly says the city has its own army, navy, and even tanks.

For now, Americans won’t know the truth. They will be told, as Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said, to ignore it: “There were very, very specific facts that were made known in this threat. I would tell people right now to go about their lives. There’s no need to panic. We don’t know if this threat is real yet. It’s being tracked down.”