I wrote this in 2007[1] after hearing about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's "confessions,"[2] which were of questionable value since he had been tortured in various CIA prisons before and after ending up in Guantanamo, where he remains. Recently, after 21 years in prison without being tried, he agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence rather than a death-penalty trial, only to have the plea deal revoked two days later by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.[3] This led me to rewrite the poem and add some footnotes.
Rockin', rollin', rattlin', movin', shakin'
Incredible breathtaking, belief-defying mastermind
Perp of Perps, Mother of All Crimes
'Tis I, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
The most powerful terrorist of all time[4]
Faster than the FAA and NORAD[5]
More powerful than the US Air Force
Able to pulverize tall buildings with a single plane
And another one with no plane at all.[6]
Look to the skies!
Is It a bird? Is It a plane?
Is it video fakery?[7]
No, it's me, you dummies.
Super Mo!
Forget those outrageous conspiracy theories[8]
I'm the only one you need.
I did it all and more.[9]
You can waterboard me, beat me, keep me
Standing naked and sleepless for days on end
Reduce me to a gibbering idiot[10]
Locked up for decades without a trial
Fry me, shoot me, gas me, poison me
Or just let me rot in your Guantanamo hell[11]
But I will never tell.
And you will never know.
The families you paid off will never know[12]
How jet fuel burns at 2770 degrees[13]
And cuts through steel like butter
Collapsing hundred-story buildings
At free-fall speed into their own footprints
How a hundred tons of airplane can vaporize
Inside the Pentagon and in Shanksville[14]
Vanish into thin earth.
Nothing beside remains.
And look what I did to you and your red white and blue.
Did I not bring you the Burning Bush
Preemptive war hero and fearless filler[15]
Of body bags and concentration camps[16]
The New Pearl Harbor and the New American Century[17]
The Patriot Act, Total Information Awareness[18]
And the Bush/Wolfowitz Doctrine of Forever Wars?[19]
That have unmasked you even to your own people
As "American imperialism that no other nation
Can or should accept."[20]
With such enemies, who needs friends?
You will never get your country back.
My genius is boundless.
I killed three thousand people in one day
And so much more, just to confuse you.
I kept my boys' names off the flight manifests[21]
Put the puts, told Giuliani in advance[22]
And two people at Odigo.[23]
Told Ashcroft not to fly[24]
Willie Brown of San Francisco not to fly[25]
Larry Silverstein to say he'd "pull it"[26]
The FBI to ignore their field agents[27]
The BBC to say Building 7 had collapsed
23 minutes before it happened.[28]
Who could have accomplished all of this
But me?
I am the Man.
I yam who I yam.
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair.
[1] Published March 20, 2007 on 911blogger.com and Nov. 14, 2009 on OpEdNews.com. Cf. also "Ozymandias" and Superman.
[2] "Verbatim Transcript of Combatant Status Review Tribunal Hearing for ISN 10024," GobalSecurity.org. Retrieved July 18, 2024.
[3] "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," Wikipedia. Retrieved Aug. 17, 2024.
[4] "The attack on the World Trade Center's North Tower alone made the September 11 attacks the deadliest act of terrorism in human history." See "Casualties of the September 11 attacks," Wikipedia, retrieved Aug. 21, 2024.
[5] David Ray Griffin, The New Pearl Harbor (NPH), Arris Books, 2004, revised 2007, Epub ed., passim and The New Pearl Harbor Revisited (NPHR), Olive Branch Press, 2008, Epub ed., passim.
[6] Griffin, NPH and NPHR and The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7, Olive Branch Press, 2010.
[7] See Morgan Reynolds, "The 9/11 Airplane Magic Show," NoMoreGames.net, March 10, 2023, retrieved Aug. 21, 2024.
[8] George W. Bush, "Remarks to the UN General Assembly," georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov, Nov. 10, 2001. Retrieved Aug. 19, 2024.
[9] "Verbatim Transcript," op. cit. and Griffin, NPHR, Ch. 8, 15.52-58: "...KSM had reportedly confessed to an unbelievable number of acts, at least one of which could not possibly have been true-- namely, his purported claim that he had been responsible for planning an attack on the Plaza Bank in the state of Washington. This bank was not built until 2006-- three years after KSM had been incarcerated."
[10] E.g., see "Verbatim Transcript," op. cit.
[11] See Chris McGreal, "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: former military prosecutor denounces trial," TheGuardian.com, May 4, 2012 and Daniel DeFraia, "Harrowing Cables Detail How the CIA Tortured Accused 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Jeopardizing the Case Against Him," TheIntercept.com, Sept. 11, 2019. Both retrieved Aug. 18, 2024.
[12] "9-11/Compensation fund," Wikispooks.com, retrieved Aug. 22, 2024 and Ray McGinnis, Unanswered Questions: What the September Eleventh Families Asked and the 9/11 Commission Ignored, NorthernStar Publications, 2021.
[13] Jet fuel burns at a maximum of 1,700 degrees F. See Griffin, NPH, 8.107-113.
[14] For these and many other magic acts see Griffin, NPH and NPHR, "9-11," Wikispooks, retrieved Aug. 22, 2024, and many other sources.
[15] "Preemptive war," Wikipedia, retrieved Aug. 18, 2024.
[16] See "Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse" and "Guantanamo Bay detention camp," Wikipedia. Retrieved Aug. 18, 2024.
[17] Griffin, NPH, Ch. 7, 20.70-76 and "Project for the New American Century," Wikipedia, retrieved Aug. 22, 2024.
[18] Cf. "Surveillance Under the USA/PATRIOT Act," aclu.org, Oct. 23, 2001; "Myths and Realities About the Patriot Act," aclu.org, June 22, 2005; Sam Adler-Bell, "Why the Hell Did Democrats Just Extend the Patriot Act?" NewRepublic.com, Nov. 20, 2019; Russ Feingold, "Why I Opposed the Patriot Act," TheNation.com, Oct. 26, 2021.; "Total Information Awareness," Wikipedia. All retrieved Aug. 18, 2024
[19] See "Wolfowitz Doctrine," "Bush Doctrine," Wikipedia; "US 'plans to attack seven Muslim states,'" Aljazeera.com, Sept. 22, 2003; and "Costs of the 20-year war on terror: $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths," Brown.edu, Sept.1, 2021. All retrieved Aug. 18, 2024.
[20] The quote is from Edward Kennedy, see "Wolfowitz Doctrine," op. cit. retrieved Aug. 22, 2024.
[21] Griffin, NPHR, Ch. 6, 13.141-158.
[22] On the put options see Griffin NPHR, Ch. 5, 12.17-25 and "9-11/Insider Trading," Wikispooks, retrieved Aug. 22, 2024; on Giuliani's foreknowledge Griffin NPHR, Ch. 1, 8.197.
[23] Griffin, NPHR, Ch. 1, 8.197 and "Odigo Messenger," Wikipedia, retrieved Aug. 22, 2024.
[24] Griffin, NPH, Ch. 5, 16.40.
[25] Philip Matier and Andrew Ross, "Willie Brown got low-key early warning about air travel," SFGate.com, Sept. 12, 2001. Retrieved Aug. 13, 2024.
[26] Griffin, NPHR, Ch. 1, 8.266-269.
[27] Griffin, NPHR, Ch. 6, 13.19-23.
[28] Griffin, NPHR, Ch. 1, 8.256-265.
