Did the Bush Administration Lie to Congress and the 9/11 Commission?:

9/11: Missing Black Boxes in World Trade Center Attacks
Found by Firefighters, Analyzed by NTSB, Concealed by FBI

"Why would the main intelligence and law enforcement arm of the U.S. government want to hide from the public not just the available information about the two hijacked flights that provided the motivation and justification for the nation's "War on Terror" and for its two wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, but even the fact that it has the devices which could contain that information?"

http://www.counterpunch.com/lindorff12202005.html

Yes, but under what circumstances was it concealed by the FBI?  What was there rationale behind concealing them?

There has always been some skepticism about this assertion, particularly as two N.Y. City firefighters, Mike Bellone and Nicholas De Masi, claimed in 2004 that they had found three of the four boxes, and that Federal agents took them and told the two men not to mention having found them.

"I can tell you this, though, it was all very strange. I worked on the spaceship Columbia clean-up and you know when something important is found and when something is not" he recalled, saying the day the 'black boxes' were secretly carted away agents acted like "something big was going down."

CASEY(CNN CORRESPONDENT): And also here to help are two people who know quite a bit about exhaustive searches and embattled and not quitting, two FDNY, they are firefighters who got -- Bob Barrett here and Mike Bellone, two guys who I know from down in lower Manhattan. They were working an exhaustive effort down at the World Trade Center. You guys didn't go home for a year. You're here to offer some moral support. What are you going to tell them?

MIKE BELLONE, NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, we wanted not only to give them some physical support, but also some emotional support, just like the support that we received during the 9/11 recovery effort. I mean, the support that they gave us was phenomenal, and the least we can do is just return that support back to them.

Honorary firefighter Mike Bellone claims he was approached by unknown bureau agents a short time after he and his partner Nicholas DeMasi, a retired New York firefighter, found three of the four "black boxes" among the WTC rubble before January 2002.

Bellone has encounted some unrelated problems in connection with the TRAC group, however. In April, the New York Post reported (story not available online) that TRAC owned money to a number of creditors, including the company that published the book. Fire officials also told Bellone, who was made an honorary firefighter by a New York engine company, that he couldn’t wear an official uniform on school visits.

"Two years ago, when we started doing this, there was no rulebook telling us what we could or couldn't use," said Bellone, who was named an "honorary" firefighter by FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 27, 2005

FIRE MARSHALS ARREST BROOKLYN MAN FOR POSSESSION OF STOLEN FDNY PROPERTY


Today, Fire Marshals from the New York City Fire Department’s Bureau of Fire Investigation announced the arrest of Michael Bellone, age 51 of 2473 65 th Street in Brooklyn , N.Y. Mr. Bellone was arrested at Fire Department Headquarters in downtown Brooklyn after being interviewed by Fire Marshals regarding an FDNY Scott air tank, harness, regulator and mask that were in his possession. The items were reported missing from the Fire Department’s Mask Service Unit on October 1, 2001.

Mr. Bellone is being charged with grand larceny, criminal impersonation and possession of stolen property.

Mr. Bellone was brought to the attention of the Fire Department last year after several complaints were made from across the country regarding the activities of the TRAC Team, a non-profit organization of which he is the CEO. Mr. Bellone travels around the country selling his book and displaying artifacts that he maintains to be from the World Trade Center site.

“The department commends the outstanding investigative efforts of the Fire Marshals for their diligence in apprehending Mr. Bellone,” said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.

October 19, 2005

MEQUON - Michael Bellone, the self-proclaimed "honorary New York firefighter," who spoke to 100-200 people at Concordia University about the events of 9-11 is a "fraud," according to New York Fire Marshal Conrad Tinney.

Tinney was one of the fire marshals who arrested Bellone, 51, of Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sept. 27, for having an FDNY Scott air tank, harness, regulator and mask. He was charged with grand larceny, criminal impersonation and possession of stolen property, but the charges were later dropped after Bellone returned the items.

Bellone told FDNY investigators the equipment was given to his charity - Trauma Response Assistance for Children (TRAC) Team - but didn’t tell FDNY fire marshals who donated the items.

  advertisement


"The charges may have been dropped, but the investigation is continuing," Tinney said. "We know he has a door off one of our engines destroyed in the attacks and some tools as well."

Bellone spoke Sept. 22 at a Concordia event organized by Student Life after an alum was in Oconomowoc during the week of Sept. 11 where Bellone spoke. It is unknown how much Concordia officials paid Bellone for his presentation.

"Concordia is very disappointed to learn that this presentation might not have been legitimate. Our students were very interested in the subject matter and obviously had we known what we know now about Michael Bellone we would not have allowed him to speak on campus," said Heidi Fendos, a spokesman for the university.

Tinney said he couldn’t elaborate any more on the investigation, but said Bellone volunteered at Ground Zero as a "citizen" and as a "volunteer" and collaborated on a book about the experience, and later, displayed some of the equipment at speeches to schoolchildren and adults across the country.

"It wasn’t until two years later that we began getting complaints about him," Tinney said. "We have one honorary firefighter and that is a child from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Aside from the child, it is normally the chiefs and those above who are made honorary firefighters and he (Bellone) isn’t one. He’s saying he was made an honorary firefighter by New York Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta. That’s a fallacy."

After taking complaints, FDNY investigators questioned Bellone and discovered the breathing apparatus and other gear were missing from the fire department’s Mask Service Unit since Oct. 1, 2001.

Three years later, Tinney said Bellone was warned to return all of the FDNY equipment he had in his possession.

"We figured common sense would prevail and he would stop on his own," Tinney said. "There were times when he would show up at different events wearing New York Fire Department gear."

Tinney said investigations revealed Bellone has given more than 700 presentations across the country.

"The bottom line is that I have a problem with individuals who prey on the emotions of the general public based on a tragedy," Tinney said.

This story appeared in the Ozaukee County News Graphic on October 18, 2005.

Talking to Kids About Terrorism — the New Post-9/11 Norms

Meryl Feiner
September 2002
“Why did God let such a bad thing happen?”

This was the first question asked of New York City firefighter Bob Barrett and Fire Safety Director Mike Bellone when they visited a Woodside, Queens day camp this summer. Many parents might be at a loss for words if asked this question by their own children; but these men, who were at Ground Zero throughout the entire recovery effort, are quick to turn such questions around and look at the situation from a positive perspective.

Barrett, a 30-year New York City firefighter, was at home the day 14 fellow firefighters in his fire station - 343 in the entire department and about 2,800 people in all - died at the World Trade Center. But he worked tirelessly in the recovery effort, alongside Mike Bellone, a civilian fire safety director who was on the same recovery team.

Firefighters Mike Bellone and Bob Barrett, who worked 257 consecutive days recovering bodies and body parts from the debris, presented the flag to Willman at the end of a four-hour event Sunday in which they shared their experiences of the tragedy with the audience in Room 10-250.

World Trade Center Task Force Fire Safety Director Mike Bellone

From left, Cornell Police Deputy Director Curtis Ostrander and Director William Boice receive an American flag that was used as a memorial flag at Ground Zero, from Bob Barrett and Mike Bellone of the New York City Fire Department. Barrett and Bellone, who were at Ground Zero 30 minutes after the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks, are on a tour around the country to thank agencies, such as Cornell Police, that sent volunteers to help in the rescue efforts for victims.

Bob Barrett, a retired fire chief from Ladder 20, Engine 1, lost almost his entire crew in the World Trade Center

Clarification, 4/29/04 - The four attendees, including Michael Bellone, mentioned in this story as members of the New York City Fire Department, are, in fact, not members of the New York City Fire Department.

There has always been some skepticism about this assertion, particularly as two N.Y. City firefighters, Mike Bellone and Nicholas De Masi, claimed in 2004 that they had found three of the four boxes, and that Federal agents took them and told the two men not to mention having found them.

The principle contributors, Mike Bellone and Robert Barrett,

One of the workers, New York City firefighter Nicholas DeMasi, has self-published a book with other Ground Zero workers in which he describes the recovery of the devices. 4  The book, Behind the Scenes: GROUND ZERO, A Collection of Personal Accounts, can be ordered through SummerOfTruth.org.

On page 108 comes the revelation:

"At one point I was assigned to take Federal Agents around the site to search for the black boxes from the planes. We were getting ready to go out. My ATV was parked at the top of the stairs at the Brooks Brothers entrance area. We loaded up about a million dollars worth of equipment and strapped it into the ATV. When we got into the ATV to take off, the agent accidentally pushed me forward. The ATV was already in reverse, and my foot went down on the gas pedal. We went down the stairs in reverse. Fortunately, everything was okay. There were a total of four black boxes. We found three."

Of course, trying to find stuff on someone who is a whistleblower in the age of Bush and then calling them crazy or a theif or this or that, is par for the course.

Remember Bushie tried to say Scott Ritter was a perve, yet 100 percent of everything Scott Ritter said about Iraq was proven true
Same with the nutjob Richard Clarke they described him at first.

And all the others.

I really don't care about this firefighter(s)

What I know is, in my mind, George Bush has lied about 9-11.

Too many discrepencies, coincidences, and the knowledge that Bush knew and stayed in the classroom so he had an alibi. Nothing will convince me it went down like it said.
Its just silly.

Everything else is diversion.One way or another.

Wrote an e-mail containing most of the info I found about Mr. Bellone to Dave Lindorff, author of the article published at CounterPunch, and I'll post his reply here if I get one.

There has always been some skepticism about this assertion, particularly as two N.Y. City firefighters, Mike Bellone and Nicholas De Masi, claimed in 2004 that they had found three of the four boxes, and that Federal agents took them and told the two men not to mention having found them. (The FBI denies the whole story.)

A source at the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency that has the task of deciphering the date from the black boxes retrieved from crash sites-including those that are being handled as crimes and fall under the jurisdiction of the FBI-says the boxes were in fact recovered and were analyzed by the NTSB.

"Off the record, we had the boxes," the source says. "You'd have to get the official word from the FBI as to where they are, but we worked on them here."

For its part, the FBI is still denying everything, though with curious bit of linguistic wiggle room. "To the best of my knowledge, the flight recording devices from the World Trade Center crashes were never recovered. At least we never had them," says FBI spokesman Stephen Kodak.

But Lindorff's article is not based on Mike Bellone's and Nicholas De Masi's testimony, he only mentions them in passing...
....It is based on an anonymous source at the NTSB, so I assume he will simply point that out.....
And he points out the FBI is rather vague...

Why would the main intelligence and law enforcement arm of the U.S. government want to hide from the public not just the available information about the two hijacked flights that provided the motivation and justification for the nation's "War on Terror" and for its two wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, but even the fact that it has the devices which could contain that information?

In the article, the author asks this question:
He hasn't shown that the government has the black boxes and he is going by the word of one unnamed source and the previous comments made by two men of who one of which is apparently a fraud.

Nothing I have posted proves the blacks boxes were not retrieved but I think there's enough there to cause people to pause and think.

But his source was that un-named source, and that source was the basis for this article. The two firefighters were only mentioned as background and as a means of corroboration. Reporters often use un-nmaed sources, and as you point out we have to be skeptical, but if the source is reliable it could be a valid finding.

I still find it hard to believe that NORAD would allow any flying object to strike the pentagon. :xmas:

IMHO, there were no real planes used on 9/11-- it was a great hoax (much like the moon landing). They certainly did a good job making it look like planes crashed, and they made some great movies showing the second WTC hit. But there were no planes used, and that's why there no black boxes found and that is why this story of boxes being found is a distraction.

Flight 93 wasn't shot down either. Look at the neat little crater in Shanksville with not one plane part visible. Planes do not cash like that. It was a hoax, just like the Pentagon hit and the WTC hit. It was all done with bombs and planted pane parts.

This whole story is highly suspect.

Bellone is clearly not the most reliable of witnesses, which makes his version of events suspect.

More likely, this whole thing is disinformation. It is designed to confirm the myth about the three passenger jets hitting the WTC and the Pentagon. If the flight recorders were found, then that confirms that they were passenger planes. If the FBI destroyed them, that confirms that they have something to hide.

The net effect is that everyone goes off at a tangent and forgets all the evidence to the contrary. Mission Accomplished!

If flight recorders were genuinely found, they would have been pre-programmed and planted at the same time as the explosives. In this case, of course, there would be no reason for the results not to be published.

This story just does not make sense - which is probably the intention.

Curiouser and curiouser!

Award-winning investigative reporter Dave Lindorff has been working as a journalist for 30 years. A regular columnist for CounterPunch (www.counterpunch.org), he also writes frequently for In These Times (www.InTheseTimes.org) and Salon magazine (www.salon.com), as well as for Businessweek, the Nation and Treasury&Risk Management Magazine. In the late 1970s, he ran the Daily News bureau covering Los Angeles County government, and in the mid-'90s, spent several years as a correspondent in Hong Kong and China for Businessweek. Over the years he has written for such publications as Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Village Voice, Forbes, The London Observer and the Australian National Times.

A couple of observations....

1. Lindorff source was someone inside the NTSB, not Bellone or De Masi.
   
2. I have not heard anyone here say anything about De-Masi, only Bellone, I assume that is because they could not find any dirt on him.

The source at the NTSB was the most important thing though, if Lindorff is reliable he should not be ignored. Here is a little of his Bio...

http://www.freemarketnews.com/Writers-Bio-...sis.asp?wid=154

9/11: Missing Black Boxes in World Trade Center Attacks Found by Firefighters, Analyzed by NTSB, Concealed by FBI

At one point I was assigned to take Federal Agents around the site to search for the black boxes from the planes. We were getting ready to go out. My ATV was parked at the top of the stairs at the Brooks Brothers entrance area. We loaded up about a million dollars worth of equipment and strapped it into the ATV. When we got into the ATV to take off, the agent accidentally pushed me forward. The ATV was already in reverse, and my foot went down on the gas pedal. We went down the stairs in reverse. Fortunately, everything was okay. There were a total of four black boxes. We found three.

If you read the title of Lindroff's article, you'll see that it says this:
Which firefighters is he talking about? Why, that would be Bellone and DeMasi. Lundroff doesn't say that NTSB or the FBI found them.

Off the record, we had the boxes," the source says. "You'd have to get the official word from the FBI as to where they are, but we worked on them here."

"To the best of my knowledge, the flight recording devices from the World Trade Center crashes were never recovered. At least we never had them," says FBI spokesman Stephen Kodak

Its not the title of the article that matters, it is its contents...

Bellone and DeMasi said they found them a long time ago, but Lindroff only wrote the article because a source at the NTSB said they had them. It would have made no sense at all to simply report again what Ballone DeMasi said just out the blue. It would also have made no sense for Lindorff to report the new information he had without mentioning previous reports of the existence of the boxes.

The article quotes an un-named NTSB source as having the boxes.
The article quotes an named FBI source giving much less than an outright denial they exist.

Those two pieces of information are what make the story relevent. Any story about those boxes would also have to refer to Ballone and DeMasi, or else be called incomplete.

There has always been some skepticism about this assertion, particularly as two N.Y. City firefighters, Mike Bellone and Nicholas De Masi, claimed in 2004 that they had found three of the four boxes.