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Reporting on the Shadowy Multigenerational Serial Killer Families' Disease Industry®™ one post at a time from Washington, DeCeit.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
dc911truth Past Film Event: Zero and Kangaroo Court
Past Event here>>
Deconstructing the 9/11 Pentagon Attack
Think or Be Eaten #57 08-26-10
A 101 on 9-11- Part 2
With Herb Smith from the Uticans for 9-11 Truth
- http://vyzygothraw.com/audio/rankecon.mp3
- http://vyzygothraw.com/audio/ranke.mp3
- http://vyzygothraw.com/audio/10177.mp3
- http://vyzygothraw.com/audio/ranke2010.mp3
Past Event page here>>
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| Citizen Investigation Team To whom it concerns, i.e., everyone: In 2006 Citizen Investigation Team launched an independent investigation into the act of terrorism which took place at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. This exhaustive three-year inquest involved multiple trips to the scene of the crime in Arlington, Virginia, close scrutiny of all official and unofficial data related to the event, and, most importantly, first-person interviews with dozens of eyewitnesses, many of which were conducted and filmed in the exact locations from which they witnessed the plane that allegedly struck the building that day. Be forewarned: Our findings are extraordinarily shocking and frightening. They are also deadly serious, and deserving of your immediate attention. This is not about a conspiracy theory or any theory at all. This is about independent, verifiable evidence which unfortunately happens to conclusively establish as a historical fact that the violence which took place in Arlington that day was not the result of a surprise attack by suicide hijackers, but rather a false flag "black operation" involving a carefully planned and skillfully executed deception. If you are skeptical of (or even incensed by) this statement we do not blame you. We are not asking you to take our word for it, nor do we want you to do that. We want you to view the evidence and see with your own eyes that this is the case. We want you to hear it directly from the eyewitnesses who were there, just as we did. Please understand that this information is not being brought to your attention simply for educational purposes. It is presented within the context of a “call to action” accompanied by a detailed step-by-step strategy intended to inspire and empower you to do something about it. But first, please familiarize yourself with the evidence by viewing and paying close attention to the 81-minute video presentation, National Security Alert. Thank you for your concern and thank you for your action.  Sincerely, Craig Ranke and Aldo Marquis Citizen Investigation Team Presenters
Shelton F. Lankford: Lt. Col. USMC (ret.), fighter pilot with 300+ combat missions and 10,000+ hours flight time. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and 32 Air Medals.
Aldo Marquis: Co-founder, Citizen Investigation Team, independent researcher, concerned citizen and father.
Enver Masud: Engineer; Director, Operations Review Division (State of Iowa); Acting Chief, Strategic and Emergency Planning (U.S. Dept. of Energy); consultant to USAID and the World Bank.
Craig Ranke: Co-founder, Citizen Investigation Team, independent researcher, concerned citizen and activist.
Researchers Release 9/11 Pentagon Attack Report By Sheila Casey / RCFPAmong 9/11 truth activists, there is little disagreement about what happened at the World Trade Center and at Shanksville. Although it’s not possible to know all the details of what transpired until there is an independent, impartial investigation, there is wide agreement among 9/11 researchers that World Trade Center buildings 1, 2 and 7 were brought down by controlled demolition and that the hole in the ground that was presented to us as the crash site of flight 93 in Shanksville does not contain the remnants of an airplane. But when it comes to the Pentagon, the truth community has yet to reach a consensus, and 9/11 forums are filled with bitter arguments from proponents of one view or another. It is assumed by most savvy 9/11 activists that the truth movement has been infiltrated by intelligence agents tasked with crippling activists in any way possible, and that many of the most strident arguments come, not from sincere researchers, but from disinformation agents intent on spreading confusion and discord. These agents are in a position to know the truth about what happened and can be expected to mount vigorous arguments against that truth, the better to keep the movement divided and to prevent a clear, cogent message about the false flag attack at the Pentagon from reaching the masses. To many activists, the Pentagon attack stands as the single most incriminating feature of 9/11. The official conspiracy theory (OCT) would have us believe that the world’s only superpower, with the most powerful military that has ever existed, was unable to defend its own headquarters 51 minutes after the north WTC tower had been hit, 34 minutes after the south WTC tower had been hit, and 41 minutes after the FAA knew that there was an emergency aboard flight 77 (the plane that supposedly hit the Pentagon). Regarding flight 77, Wikipedia states: “By 08:56, the flight was turned around, and the transponder had been disabled. The FAA was aware at this point that there was an emergency aboard the plane. By this time, American Airlines Flight 11 had already crashed into the World Trade Center, and United Airlines Flight 175 was known to have been hijacked and within minutes of also striking the World Trade center.” Where was America’s air defense during the 41 minutes after it was known that flight 77 was hijacked and before the Pentagon was attacked? In highly incriminating testimony given to the 9/11 Commission, then Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta stated that while he was in the bunker with Dick Cheney: “There was a young man who had come in and said to the vice president, ‘The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out.’ And when it got down to, ‘The plane is 10 miles out,’ the young man also said to the vice president, ‘Do the orders still stand?’ And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, ‘Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?’” A few minutes later, the Pentagon exploded in flames, killing 125 unsuspecting workers in the building. No evacuation order had been given. Norman Mineta’s testimony was not included in the 9/11 Commission Report. Given these facts, plus many other anomalies about the OCT, it is no surprise that millions of people have concluded that the government is lying about what happened at the Pentagon. With the scene of attack completely controlled by the military, and with all video of the attack confiscated from nearby businesses by the FBI within minutes of the attack, for years 9/11 researchers speculated about what had actually transpired at the Pentagon, with little hard evidence to guide them. Frustrated with idle conjecture, two men from southern California, Craig Ranke and Aldo Marquis, joined forces to form Citizen Investigation Team (CIT). They traveled to the Pentagon and sought out eyewitnesses who saw the plane approach the Pentagon. They interviewed each eyewitness, on camera, at the exact location where he had been standing on the morning of 9/11 when he saw the plane, and had each eyewitness draw the plane’s flight path on a map and sign it. A pattern began to emerge, and the more witnesses CIT interviewed, the clearer the pattern became: the plane had not taken the path claimed by the government, and the path that it did take proves that the plane did not hit the building. CIT interviewed three Pentagon police officers (Officer William Lagasse, Officer Chadwick Brooks and Officer Roosevelt Roberts Jr.); five Arlington National Cemetery workers (Darrell Stafford, Darius Prather, Donald Carter, William Middleton Sr. and George Aman); auto mechanic Edward Paik; Citgo gas station attendant Robert Turcios; air traffic controller Sean Boger (who was at the Pentagon Heliport at the time of the attack); Terry Morin, a project manager for Sparta (saw the plane from the Navy Annex); courier Levi Stephens (saw the plane from the Pentagon’s south parking lot); and Maria de La Cerda, a career musician with the Army band, who saw the plane from Arlington National Cemetery. Every one of these people clearly recalls seeing the plane take a path that disagrees with the government’s story. None of them report seeing the plane fly south of the Citgo station, where it would have had to have been to have caused the damage at the Pentagon. One witness, Roosevelt Roberts Jr., saw the plane after the explosion, banking low over the parking lot. There is a zone of destruction heading towards the Pentagon, and into the building, that corresponds with a south side flight path. Five light poles were destroyed, and the damage in the building lines up perfectly with those five light poles. Under most circumstances, physical evidence would trump eyewitness testimony. But in this case, the crime scene was controlled by the primary suspect, tainting the credibility of the evidence under their control. In addition, there are many anomalies with the physical evidence. Right from the beginning, questions arose. Where was the plane debris? Photos taken immediately after the attack show no wings, tail or fuselage. No luggage or bodies. No damage to the pristine green lawn, even though the Boeing 757 was supposedly piloted into the first floor of the Pentagon at 530 mph by rookie pilot Hani Hanjour, who could barely fly a small Cessna. The damage to the building is inconsistent with the crash of an airliner with a 44 foot tall tail and 125 foot wingspan, with unbroken panes of glass where the tail section should have hit. Even the downed light poles are suspicious. Compared to a light pole that was knocked down by wind, and has a jagged edge where it broke at the base, the five downed light poles on 9/11 appear to have been cut, neatly and cleanly. On top of this suspicious crash scene, we now have 14 eyewitnesses who have stated unequivocally on camera that the plane was not where it would have needed to be to down the light poles and hit the Pentagon. CIT is not the only group concluding that the plane didn’t hit the Pentagon. Pilots for 9/11 Truth is a group of 200 aviation professionals who all agree that, according to the data released by the government, the government story is not correct. In August 2006, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released the Flight Data Recorder data for flight 77. According to Rob Balsamo, founder of Pilots for 9/11 Truth, the last recorded altitude for the plane (one second before the alleged impact) shows an altitude of 480 feet above sea level. The top of the Pentagon is 112 feet above sea level. Given this data, the plane cleared the building with 368 feet to spare. The NTSB has repeatedly refused to comment on this. For the contingent within the 9/11 truth movement that is convinced that a plane did hit the Pentagon, the most compelling evidence comes from the dozens of witnesses who believe they saw the plane hit the building. Six of these witnesses are editors or reporters for USA Today, and all claim to have been on the same quarter mile stretch of Rt. 27, heading the same way at the moment of the attack, late to work at the USA Today building in Rosslyn, three miles away. In a ten minute clip available on Google video called “The USA Today Parade,” CIT has demonstrated that the Pentagon is not visible for most of that quarter mile stretch of Rt. 27. With video taken in a car driving that same route, it is clear that the Pentagon only becomes visible at the point at which the plane would have been over or behind the car. For much of the route, the Pentagon is obscured by large, bushy trees. CIT interviewed alleged witness to the Pentagon impact and USA Today editor Joel Sucherman on camera in his office. Sucherman insists that he saw the Pentagon at a location which CIT’s video clearly shows does not have a view of the Pentagon. USA Today is owned by the Gannett company, which also owns Army Times, Air Force Times, Marine Corps Times and Navy Times. In the 9/11 truth movement, CIT’s work has been controversial. They are banned from posting on the largest 9/11 truth forum, 911blogger.com. Recent threads demonstrate that 911blogger has a pronounced preference for the “yes, a plane hit the Pentagon” version of events, with frequent anonymous contributors angrily defending that point of view. The primary criticism of CIT’s work is that all of their witnesses believe the plane impacted the building. As I wrote in my story about CIT in the April 2009 Rock Creek Free Press: “All of CIT’s witnesses also believe that the plane they saw hit the Pentagon, although this cannot be possible. This fact has been used to dismiss CIT’s work as irrelevant, but it’s not a compelling argument. “Less than an hour earlier, America had been treated to the sight of the south tower of the World Trade Center being hit by a plane and exploding into a huge fireball. Most people were aware that an attack was underway. If they saw a jet heading directly towards the Pentagon, and next saw a massive fireball, it is doubtful that one person in a thousand would question whether the plane had crashed and caused the fireball. To conclude that the fireball was caused by explosives pre-planted in one of the most heavily guarded buildings on the planet, in an intentional false flag attack to justify war, would require observers to have a degree of perspicacity that was extremely rare in the pre 9/11 world, and only slightly less rare now.” For those who actually saw the plane fly over the building, there was a convenient cover story: media reports of a second plane that came along 30 seconds after the first. Anyone who saw a plane still flying after the fireball would most likely conclude that they had seen that second plane. The attack at the Pentagon is best understood as a gigantic magic show. How many of us have ever seen a fireball exploding hundreds of feet in diameter? I am sure that if I were to see one, my eyes would be riveted on it and for at least a few moments I’d be completely unaware of anything else in my environment. This is the essence of the magician’s trade – with flourishes and fanfare, he makes you look where he wants you to look, so you never see him slip the card behind his ear or up his sleeve. With the news media batting clean-up, only witnesses that confirmed the OCT were given airtime, and any doubters who were interviewed were simply edited out of the evening newscast. In an effort to hold media and government officials responsible for their evidence, CIT has produced a new film, National Security Alert, which is available as a free download at citizeninvestigationteam.com. This video compresses all of the CIT interviews into a concise 80 minutes (sans music) that summarizes their evidence clearly and soberly. Their site will also contain a section where citizens can record which officials have received a copy of the DVD, and their response (or lack thereof). CIT will be showing excerpts of National Security Alert and addressing the implications of their findings at a free conference in Arlington, VA called Deconstructing the Pentagon Attack. The conference will also feature Shelton Lankford, Lt. Col. USMC (retired), a fighter pilot with over 300 combat missions, 10,000 hours of flight time, and a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross. As of publication, attendance by Rob Balsamo of Pilots for 9/11 Truth is unconfirmed. Held at the NRECA Conference Center at 4301 Wilson Blvd, in Arlington, the event will run from 10 am to 2:30 pm on Saturday, July 11, and is sponsored by The Wisdom Fund. Both the conference and parking are free. Sheila Casey is a DC based journalist. Her work has appeared in The Denver Post, Reuters, Chicago Sun-Times, Dissident Voice and Common Dreams. She blogs at http://www.sheilacasey.com |
Nine Years of War Based on a Lie!
Revised Brochure Appeals to Antiwar Movement
The somber cover of this updated brochure appeals directly to antiwar groups by showing that 9/11 is the foundation for the unending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now in their ninth year, the wars have cost hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of dollars, yet President Obama continues to use 9/11 as the reason for fighting in the region—this despite the disturbing questions about the official account of the tragedy, now confirmed as being based on lies. Many of these questions are grounded in science and can no longer be ignored or dismissed as so-called “conspiracy theories.”
View/Print brochure PDF (2 pages)
Available from DC 9/11 Truth in bulk. Order a batch of 200 professionally printed brochures for $15 (7.5 cents each, at cost), plus $5 S&H. Contact brochures@dc911truth.org
The somber cover of this updated brochure appeals directly to antiwar groups by showing that 9/11 is the foundation for the unending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now in their ninth year, the wars have cost hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of dollars, yet President Obama continues to use 9/11 as the reason for fighting in the region—this despite the disturbing questions about the official account of the tragedy, now confirmed as being based on lies. Many of these questions are grounded in science and can no longer be ignored or dismissed as so-called “conspiracy theories.”
View/Print brochure PDF (2 pages)
Available from DC 9/11 Truth in bulk. Order a batch of 200 professionally printed brochures for $15 (7.5 cents each, at cost), plus $5 S&H. Contact brochures@dc911truth.org
Past events:
dc911truth film screenings
Richard Gage/AE911Truth.org at Busboys and Poets
National Security Alert with CIT: Deconstructing the 9/11 Pentagon Attack
>
First International Terrorists of the Modern Era: Historian Revisits Israel's Violent Inception
This was on NPR. No way that this would have been aired 20 years ago, the attacks on the genocidal political movement of Zionism are increasing, there is progress happening.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111630824&ft=1&f=2
Historian Revisits Israel's Violent Inception
August 8, 2009
4:45 Cesarani: "The Jewish terrorists operating out of Palestine, it
has to be said, were probably the first international terrorists of
the modern era, and they pioneered many of the same techniques; letter
bombs, improvised explosive devices. They terrified the British,
because they managed to get bomb makers into the United Kingdom, they
penetrated what we would now call Homeland Security."
British historian David Cesarani's new book, Major Farran's Hat, tells
a familiar tale of militants in Palestine carrying out acts of
terrorism while making claims for an independent homeland. We've heard
similar stories before, but this one takes place in 1947, and the
terrorists described are fighting against British rule for a Jewish
state.
The book, a nonfiction account of the final days of the British
mandate in Palestine, revisits a long-forgotten murder that, Cesarani
argues, helped lay the groundwork for creation of the state of Israel.
Cesarani is also the author of Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life,
Crimes, and Trial of a "Desk Murderer."
Listen to the Story: All Things Considered
Transcript
-----------------------------------------------
Excerpt: 'Major Farran's Hat'
by David Cesarani
Prologue Abduction in Jerusalem
At six-thirty on the evening of Tuesday 6 May 1947, Alexander Rubowitz
left his home at 22 David Yellin Street in Mea Shearim, a Jewish
suburb on the northern edge of Jerusalem. Although he was only sixteen
years old, Alexander was setting out on a mission for the Lohamei
HaHerut b'Yisrael, the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel. Known by
their Hebrew acronym as LEHI they were more familiar, not to say
notorious, to the rest of the world as the Stern Gang — a ferociously
effective and murderous terrorist group fighting to end British rule
in Palestine and establish a Jewish state. Alexander was tall and
slim, with dark hair and dark eyes that gave him a rather dreamy look.
He was a quiet boy, but his placid demeanour concealed a fanatical
temperament that fitted him perfectly for the war that the Jewish
underground was waging against the British.
Alexander lived at home with his parents, two older brothers and a
younger sister. The family were Orthodox Jews and, rather unusually,
could trace their roots in Jerusalem back at least one generation.
Alexander's father, Yedidya, was the son of a rabbi who had emigrated
from Eastern Europe to Palestine in the 1850s. At that time it took
pioneering spirit as well as religious fervour for a Jew to settle in
Jerusalem. Yedidya was also something of a pioneer. He became a
pharmacist at the Rothschild Hospital in Jerusalem and opened a
chemist's shop that was one of the first of its kind in Palestine.
Alexander's mother, Miriam, was a sickly woman and was housebound for
much of the time. But she was a fierce Zionist and though she knew
that Alexander was putting himself in danger she declined to play the
part of an ailing matriarch reining in her children.
For the past year and a half Alexander had belonged to the Brit
Hashmonaim, the Covenant of the Hasmoneans, a religious youth group
that was also a front organisation for LEHI. It had about 150 members
in Jerusalem, of whom some thirty were engaged in covert activity.
LEHI routinely used teenagers for distributing propaganda, as
couriers, and even for moving arms around the city. They were more
expendable than experienced fighters and faced less severe punishment
if they were caught. Youths were especially useful for putting up wall
posters. This was important work because LEHI had lost its clandestine
radio station in a police raid in February 1946 and had no regular
party newspaper to trumpet its ideology. Wall posters were essential
for getting its message across and telling the Jewish public what it
was doing. Every few days bundles of the crudely produced news poster
called HaMa'as (the Deed) and the news-sheet HeChazit (the Front) were
sent up from Tel Aviv by taxi and stashed in secret locations by
militants. They passed them on to the youthful volunteers for
distribution, but it was risky work. The teenagers were vulnerable to
police patrols and were frequently caught.
Although the Rubowitz family sympathised with militant Jewish
nationalism they apparently had little idea of what Alexander was up
to until his parents were summoned to Ma'aleh High School, where
Alexander was a student, to see the headmaster. Because Miriam was ill
and Yedidya was looking after her, Alexander's elder brother Ya'acov
went. He was taken aback when the headmaster told him that Alexander
had been seen putting up posters for the Jewish underground. Ya'acov
tried to defend his kid brother by pointing out that he was
hard-working and smart, while what he did outside of school hours was
his own business. But the head-master complained that Alexander was
working for the underground inside the school, too, recruiting
youngsters for the cause. Although there was no proof that he was
engaged in violence, he had written an essay entitled 'Our Path to
Independence' which justified the use of terrorist methods. 'And,'
said the headmaster, 'that's enough for me.' Alexander was brought
into the head's office and asked if it was true that he had joined the
'dissidents', the Jewish underground groups that refused to accept the
authority of the official Jewish leadership in Palestine. Alexander
admitted that it was true. When the headmaster asked him to give up
this activity Alexander said he had sworn an oath of loyalty and
refused. So he was expelled.
Alexander enrolled in a second school, but it was not long before his
militancy came to the notice of the authorities there as well. The
official leadership of the Jewish community in Palestine, the Jewish
Agency, was so afraid that terrorism would provoke a severe backlash
from the British that it periodically co-operated with the security
forces or used its own militia to suppress the 'dissidents'.
Consequently, Alexander's avowed membership of LEHI painted him as a
'traitor'. He was harassed by students and teachers until, finally, he
was again thrown out. Afraid of the strain that Alexander's
misadventures might place on their mother's health, his brothers tried
to talk him into leaving LEHI. Ya'acov even contacted the leader of
the Brit Hashmonaim, Yael Ben-Dov, and pleaded with her to cut him
loose. As a last throw Yedidya told Miriam what was going on, but she
would not lend herself to emotional blackmail. Instead, according to
Ya'acov, she told her sons 'he has to go. They're all going now. Do
you want him to lie under a bed? Does it matter where he goes? They're
all going now. He has to go and succeed.'
With this blessing from his mother Alexander abandoned any thought of
schooling and looked for work that would allow him to continue his
underground activity. After a while he found a job at the Jerusalem
office of the Ha'aretz newspaper, Palestine's leading Hebrew daily.
But Ha'aretz firmly supported the Jewish Agency and when someone
snitched to the management about Alexander's allegiances he was
promptly sacked. Undeterred he continued to get up before dawn day
after day, met with the nine other boys in his group, and set out to
plaster messages from LEHI all over town. When the struggle between
the British and the Jewish resistance intensified during spring 1947
the work became all-consuming. Ezra Yakim, one of Alexander's
companions in the underground, recalled that the boys 'gave up any
ideas of a life of ease and tranquillity'.
They were surrounded by 'constant danger'. Like true militants they
gradually slipped out of the ambit of friends and family, and
eventually detached from society as a whole. 'The cell was now their
family.' The intensity of comradeship compensated for their alienation
and the nerve-wracking possibility of capture. In Yakim's vivid words
they lived in a 'blur of anonymity'.
Under the nom de guerre Haim, Alexander emerged as the leader in his
ten-strong cell. 'Whenever we met', Yakim remembered many years later,
'he would speak of his desire to confront the enemy of his people with
gun in hand. His attitude to the British, a combin ation of derision
and fury, was contagious.' Alexander envied Yakim for being older
because this meant that if the British caught him, he might be
sentenced to death. According to Yakim, Alexander announced that 'To
go to the gallows is a very great privilege, for every hanging brings
us closer to salvation. Every hanging widens the chasm between them
and our people. They have always hated us and always will, but if it
will make our nation rise up against them, then we must suffer,
sacrifice our lives, go to the gallows . . .' Whether the
sixteen-year-old Alexander Rubowitz really said this, or whether these
patriotic sentiments were attributed to him in the light of what
subsequently happened, it was not long before wishful thinking became
a gruesome reality.
Having left his home in the Mea Shearim district, Alexander headed
south and crossed the busy Jaffa Road. The sun was setting on a hot
and humid day as he threaded his way through the crowded streets of
the Mahane Yehuda quarter, home to a sprawling food market, and
entered the spacious and leafy suburb of Rehavia. En route he may have
picked up some clandestine material because he was not noticed in
Rehavia until around 8 p.m. It was then that a young woman standing on
the balcony of her flat noticed a teenage boy running down Haran
(today Aharon) Street. Despite the twilight gloom Mrs Sherlin had a
good view from her vantage point and clearly saw a youth, who she
later identified as Alexander Rubowitz, being chased by a burly,
fair-haired man wearing tennis shoes, slacks and 'an army-style
shirt'. Alexander fled from Haran Street into Ussishkin Street, but
his pursuer was more powerful and athletic. Near the junction of
Ussishkin Street and Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael Street he grabbed
Alexander and wrestled him to a standstill. Two thirteen-year-old
boys, Moshe Khesin and Jacob Jacobson, who were on some waste ground
collecting wood for a bonfire party to mark the minor Jewish festival
of Lag B'omer, then saw the man force Alexander into a waiting motor
car. He struggled so furiously that it took the assistance of a second
man, who emerged from the six-seater saloon, to finally bundle him
into the back.
At this point Meir Cohen, a fifteen-year-old who had also been
observing the struggle, plucked up the courage to intervene. Meir went
over to the car and asked who they were and what they were doing. The
man who was still outside replied in perfect English that he was a
police officer. To underline his words he produced a document that
Cohen recognised as a Police Identification Certificate. He then
brandished a revolver and threatened to shoot the lad if he didn't
clear off. But Meir, stood his ground long enough to hear a
Hebrew-speaker shouting from inside the car, 'I'm from the Rubowitz
family.' He also glimpsed the unwilling occupant of the back seat
being hit repeatedly across the head. The doors slammed shut and Cohen
watched helplessly as the big saloon began to pull away from the kerb.
As it accelerated up the long, straight road heading north several of
the onlookers were able to read the number plate: 993. Some later
claimed they heard shouts from inside the car as it disappeared down a
dip in the road and was finally lost from sight.
However, scenes like this were not unfamiliar on the streets of
Jerusalem at this time. The Jewish underground frequently kidnapped
British civilians, policemen and soldiers to use as hostages against
the lives of captured terrorists. During the episodic struggles
between the official Jewish militia, the Hagana, and the 'dissidents',
it was not unknown for one faction to seize dozens of activists from
another. Samuel Katz, an activist in the 'dissident' underground group
Irgun Zvai Leumi, recalled that during the periodic 'hunting seasons'
when the Jewish Agency and its paramilitary arms co-operated with the
British, or for their own purposes tried to suppress the 'dissidents',
'kidnappings, beatings, torture, direct denunciations to the British
became the sole occupation of the action-hungry soldiers of the
Hagana'. The Palestine Post reported four unsolved kidnappings, three
involving teenagers, in May 1947 alone. In one instance, a fourteen
year-old-boy was abducted from the hospital where he was being treated
for a bullet wound inflicted while he was fleeing a police patrol
which discovered him putting up Stern Gang posters.
Excerpted from Major Farran's Hat by David Cesarani. Copyright 2009 by
David Cesarani. Published by Heinemann. Used by permission of the
publisher. All rights reserved.
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