New Evidence Connecting 9/11 & the CIA, Putin Assassination Attempt?, School Shooting in Serbia Brings New Light to Gun Control, New Electric Vehicle SUV "Bricks" in Snow (The Five for 05/03/2023)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Very busy news day….for important stories not being covered in most outlets.
Let’s dive in.
[one]
Strap in…this one is heavy, but important.
New evidence from a civil lawsuit against Saudia Arabia may bring forth more facts on whether or not Saudi Arabia played some kind of role in 9/11…and whether or not the CIA & FBI hid evidence of this.
From the first weeks after the 9/11 attacks, suspicions about a possible Saudi government role in the plot have focused on a mysterious, 42-year-old graduate student who welcomed the first two Qaida hijackers after they landed in Los Angeles in January 2000.
The Saudi student, Omar al-Bayoumi, claimed to have met the two terrorists entirely by chance; he said he was just being hospitable when he helped them settle in San Diego. Both the FBI and the 9/11 Commission supported Bayoumi’s account, dismissing the suspicions of agents who thought he might be a Saudi spy.
After nearly 20 years, however, the FBI has changed its story. In documents declassified last year, the bureau affirmed that Bayoumi was in fact an agent of the Saudi intelligence service who worked with Saudi religious officials and reported to the kingdom’s powerful ambassador in Washington.
Those revelations have now become a central point of contention in a long-running federal lawsuit in New York, where 9/11 survivors and relatives of the 2,977 people who were killed are seeking to hold the Saudi government responsible for the attacks.
Lawyers for the families argue that the new evidence so contradicts earlier Saudi claims that they should be allowed to seek new information from the country’s intelligence service about Bayoumi and another official who reportedly aided the hijackers, Fahad al-Thumairy.
The Saudi government has always denied playing any role in the 9/11 attacks. A joint CIA-FBI report in 2005 concluded there was “no evidence” that the Saudi government or royal family “knowingly provided support” for the 9/11 plot. It also claimed there was “no information” that Bayoumi was a Saudi “intelligence officer” or that he “wittingly” aided the hijackers.
As I’ve shared on both social media and in The Five, my uncle was in lower Manhattan on 9/11, and we feared the worst when no one could get in touch with him and he didn’t call. (Turns out, both cell phones and land lines were completely down).
I didn’t lose anyone on that day, but I might have, if the timing were just a little off.
For a deeper dive, the Youtube Channel Breaking Points has an excellent interview with a reporter who helped break this story.
[two]
If you’re not familiar with The White House Correspondant’s Dinner, it’s basically the elite and famous clapping for each other in a real life version of this scene from The Hunger Games:
It’s not something I usually pay attention to, but a viral clip of a WaPo reporter’s “award” is worth noting, due to what is says about the state of journalism:
This year, the award goes to Matt Viser of the Washington Post. The judges said Viser’s work went beyond the humbrum of the managed events of the White House.
Viser captured the spirit of Joe Biden, particularly with stories about the President’s brother, and how his Catholic faith influenced his strategic vision of the office.
That is NOT JOURNALISM.
We have a term for people who write favorable, slanted stories about subjects.
Public relations.
I worked in PR, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but the role of a free press is to push against the PR narrative, not reinforce it.
At one point, I subscribed to the Washington Post, which, at one point, was at one point, the finest paper in America, with a legacy dating back to 1933 when financier Eugene Meyer bought the paper, and WaPo pushed back against the official narratives of both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Now, WaPo is winnig awards for winning the shoulders of the current POTUS.
Corporate media doesn’t deserve your dollars.
Go support your favorite Substack, Youtube or podcast creators doing independent journalism.
Doesn’t have to be me, but…
[three]
Tragically, a 14-year old boy killed eight, and wounded seven others in a school shooting in Serbia.
Oddly (due to the facts) the mainstream media jumped on this story to…push for gun control.
Hunting is widespread with over 78,000 of Serbia's 6.6 million people having licensed hunting weapons, and many families have had guns in their households for generations.
Yet mass shootings are comparatively rare in the country.
People over the age 18 may own firearms only with a permit issued after a thorough background check with police. A medical exam is also mandatory and must be repeated every five years.
There must be no history of crime, mental disorder, alcohol or illegal substance use, firearms must be stored locked in a designated gun cabinet, and may be confiscated if the owner is found to be irresponsible.
Gun owners are also required to pass a training course and a questionnaire about gun legislation.
Having a permit to own a firearm does not itself allow the bearer to carry the weapon anywhere outside the home. Concealed carry permits are very difficult to obtain.
In the deadliest shooting in Serbia since the 1990s, Ljubisa Bogdanovic killed 14 people in the central village of Velika Ivanca in 2013 before committing suicide.
Lots to unpack here:
A). Serbia has a population of just over six million, making it roughly the size of these four American cities. It’s entirely possible (probable) that mass shootings are “rare” because it’s a small country, compared to the 330 million in the U.S.
Also, none of these cities have had a significant mass shooting event (four or more killed in a terrorist style attack), with the exception of San Diego in 1984, where a 41 year old man killed 22 at a McDonalds with a pump action shotgun and a couple of pistols.
So, statistically, these four cities are SAFER when it comes to mass shootings than the heavily regulated Serbia.
Note: I just looked at the list of American cities by population and screenshot the first group that added up to 6+/- million.
B). Safe storage laws didn’t prevent this.
C). The lack of an AR-15 didn’t prevent this.
D). Tragically, the presence of a security guard (no word on if he was armed) didn’t prevent this.
None of the laws worked (not even the Republican-proposed mandatory security—unless he wasn’t armed), but Reuters is essentially arguing that we should also be forced under European style laws…that were just proven to not work this week.
[four]
W
Merrill, 24, put down a deposit on an R1S three years ago at the urging of family members who also own Rivians. He was unsure about making the switch from his 2015 Ford Edge to a fully electric SUV, especially since he lives in a relatively remote area in the Adirondack Mountains, New York.
But once he got behind the wheel of the $85,626 car on March 10, those worries melted away.
"I was in a honeymoon phase," Merrill said in an interview with Insider. "It's an incredible car, and it handles unlike anything I've ever driven" — but the honeymoon didn't last long.
Two days later, Merrill drove his R1S to his family's shared property in the mountains. He wanted to put his rugged electric SUV to the test, so he drove it on the unplowed, snow-covered road into the property.
At first, the R1S sliced through the snow. Then, a large snowdrift stymied the car, he said.
"I hit about 2 ½-feet of snow and it just stopped right there," Merrill told Insider. "I had seen all the Rivian marketing campaigns with the cars just eating through the snow so it was kind of like, man this is disappointing."
Merrill said that he's dislodged cars from snowbanks before, and enlisted another vehicle to help pull him out. While he was sitting in the driver's seat, unbuckled, rocking the R1S out of the snowbank, he said that he accidentally triggered a safety feature that got the car stuck between the park and drive gears.
His Rivian was bricked, rendering it completely useless.
The brand-new Rivian ultimately had to be loaded onto a flatbed and driven to a service center in Chelsea, Massachusetts, hundreds of miles away. The towing fee was $2,100.
The ordeal now has Merrill considering trading the R1S for a Toyota Tacoma or a similar gas-powered pickup truck, he said.
In an interview with Insider, Rivian executives said that the car did exactly what it was programmed to do in a dangerous slide-away situation — but in this case, it wasn't sliding away.
"There was an unfortunate cascade of events and edge cases that led to this situation," Wassym Bensaid, Rivian's senior vice president of software development, told Insider. "But we take this feedback as a gift. It's great input for us to improve the product."
Here’s some feedback, Rivian.
I trust my Honda Element with 225,000 miles in the remote places a heck of a lot more than your $85K thingy you made.
[five]
And finally (take this one with a grain of salt) Russia claims Putin survived an assassination attack last night.
Russia says it successfully prevented a drone strike from attacking the Kremlin overnight, as dramatic video footage shows what is claimed to be a “terrorist attack”.
“Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin”, so says the Russian government through the official communication channel Tass on Wednesday morning, releasing a statement alleging they had fended off an attack against the heart of the Russian state by Ukrainian drones.
I say “take this with a grain of salt,” because the only evidence that’s been made public is a distant shot of some white smoke floating over gov buildings.
At press time, Ukraine has denied any involvement in the alleged attack.
Until the next one,
-sth