The Darkened Hour

An Interview With Ben Howard (The Intelligence Community Involvement In Malfeasance And Coverup Pre-9/11)

Ben Howard is an independent researcher. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and daughter. You can follow Ben on Twitter: @housetrotter. Howard has been an ardent, often anonymous, 9/11 and geopolitical writer and student. Just last year he would so-author a 3 part series entitled "The Twenty Year Shadow of 9/11" along with Aaron Good and Peter Dale Scott. In this episode, Ben and i discuss the NSA monitor of Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, the Yemen Hub, CIA operations involving surveillance of the Yemen Hub, the high level terrorist summit in Malaysia, the intentional withholding of pertinent information from the FBI concerning al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi entry into the United States while possessing US Visas, the CIA "phishing" the FBI in 2001 concerning al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi, Richard Blee and Tom Wilshire's roles in the coverup and hoarding of information. This is part 1 of a series concerning the domestic and foreign intelligence involvement with Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, along with the greater geopolitical goals involved. 
The Twenty Year Shadow of 9/11:
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/09/11/the-twenty-year-shadow-of-9-11-u-s-complicity-in-the-terror-spectacle-and-the-urgent-need-to-end-it/American Exception: Empire and the Deep State:
https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781510769137/american-exception/
 

Dying One Thousand Deaths: The Assassination Of Ayman al-Zawahiri

21 years after the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC, the United States government had announced it assassinated the elusive Egyptian radical cleric and emir of Al Qaeda, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, on July 31st 2022. According to a senior administration official who said "The United States conducted a counterterrorism operation against a significant Al Qaeda target in Afghanistan." That target was living in Kabul City, Afghanistan. However, just how definitive is this report? And what evidence does the US government have to share with the public that it indeed killed the elder statements of the Salafist terrorist orgznaition. Will we ever be privy to such  evidence or will we be left to speculate his death just as we have with the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in 2011. Ayman al-Zawahiri had a very illuminating background both in Egypt and in the United States., His influence regarding radical fundamentalism in both countries cannot be understated. In this episode, Richard Cox and Adam Fitzgerald talk about the man, the myth and the legend behind al-Zawahiri. His background into the forming the Egyptian radical group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, what political motivations they had and what his influence was on Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. We also talk about the history of terrorist attacks after al-Zawahiri had joined Al Qaeda and what this meant for both al-Zawahiri and Al Qaeda's direction into war with the West in the future. We also discuss the myth that al-Zawahiri had also died in 2015, and also a report just last year which announced he died by poisoning. Were the stories fact or fiction. Wether or not they were true, one thing is certain. Al Qaeda as an international threat can no longer be used as justification for the "war on terror", will the United States go looking for a new enemy? We discuss all this and more!

Al Qaeda In Yemen (The USS Cole Bombing Operation)

In 1996, Osama Bin Laden's brother in law, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, has started funding a militant group in Yemen called "The Islamic Army Of Aden", named after the port city Aden. By mid 1998, the group starts operations and making political statements and carries about kidnappings and assaults on local law enforcement, similar to what was transpiring in the Philippines, in which Khalifa also runs small businesses and funds the Islamic militant group affiliated with Bin Laden, Abu Sayyaf. US Intelligence however, are quite familiarized with what is happening in Yemen, as the NSA and CIA have begun monitoring an Al Qaeda safehouse located in the Yemen capitol, Sana'a. The house owned by a Bin Laden associate, Ahmed al-Hada, is also sometimes frequented by the son-in-law and future 9/11 hijacker, Khalid al-Mihdhar, whom is married to his daughter.The US monitors the house through bugs planted inside and through spy satellites to monitor people leaving and entering it. A high ranking Al Qaeda facilitator and financial courier, Walid bin Attash (Khallad), travels to Yemen and meets with Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri as they begin preparations to attack US naval ships in the port of Aden. The plan is to attack the USS Sullivans which is part of an Al Qaeda international terrorist plot known as the "Millenium Bombing Plot", but the operation fails. On October 12, 2000 the USS Cole is bombed by martyrs from the Islamic Army Of Aden. Meanwhile, US intelligence services such as NSA had begun signals operations on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda back in 1992 or 1996 (depending on who you ask), while CIA had begun human intelligence operations in Yemen in 1996. How is it certain terrorist operations were stopped, according to them, yet certain terrorist operations were successful.

An Interview With John Kiriakou (CIA Whistleblower On The White House Torture Program)

John Kiriakou is a former CIA officer, former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former counterterrorism consultant for ABC News. He was responsible for the capture in Pakistan in 2002 of Abu Zubaydah, then believed to be the third-ranking official in al-Qaeda. In 2007, Kiriakou blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program, telling ABC News that the CIA tortured prisoners, that torture was official U.S. government policy, and that the policy had been approved by then-President George W. Bush. He became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act. In 2012, Kiriakou was honored with the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage, an award given to individuals who “advance truth and justice despite the personal risk it creates,” and by the inclusion of his portrait in artist Robert Shetterly’s series Americans Who Tell the Truth, which features notable truth-tellers throughout American history.He was later named “Peacemaker of the Year” by the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County, California. He won the PEN Center USA’s prestigious First Amendment Award in 2015 and is the author of The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror. While also authoring other books such as "The Convenient Terrorist: Two Whistleblowers' Stories of Torture, Terror, Secret Wars, and CIA Lies" "Surveillance and Surveillance Detection: A CIA Insider's Guide" and "Doing Time Like a Spy: How the CIA Taught Me to Survive and Thrive in Prison". Kiriakou spoke about how his college professor, Jerrold Post, was actually a CIA case officer and recruited him into the agency. How Kiriakou became involved with the CIA's arab fundamentalist squad, his time at the Bin Laden Issue Station, the raid and capture of Abu Zubaydah, his whistleblowing of CIA's torture program and his subsequent arrest and release. Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror:https://www.amazon.com/Reluctant-Spy-Secret-Life-Terror/dp/1616086289/ref=sr_1_6?qid=1658452695&refinements=p_27%3AJohn+Kiriakou&s=books&sr=1-6&text=John+KiriakouJohn Kiriakou (Consortium News Articles):https://consortiumnews.com/tag/john-kiriakou/

The Case Of Shayna Steinger: How The 9/11 Hijackers Got Inside The United States

Shayna Steinger, was a US visa official working in the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia US consular office, who issued visas to 12 of the 19 hijackers blamed for the attacks of September 11th 2001. The 9/11 Commission Report does not mention her by name, but states that a single official gave visas to 11 of the hijackers - though other information included in the report suggests that the correct number should be 12, a figure Steinger herself has reportedly confirmed. However, Steinger gave verbal testimony to the State Department Inspector General in 2002, in which she stated that it did not matter that all the hijackers’ visa applications were incomplete, because Saudis were eligible for visas anyway thru the "Visa Express Program". She also stated that she did not interview most of the hijackers she issued visas to and, even if she had interviewed them, she would probably have issued them with visas regardless. She also claims that the Jeddah office was understaffed and overwhelmed with applicants. 
Yet she was met with criticisms from inside the consular office by her coworkers who said she was irresoluble in allowing many of the applications, which went without review, that shouldn't have been approved. There were even rumors that Steinger herself was affiliated with the Central Intelligence Agency at some level. This incident is similar to what happened during the Afghan-Soviet war where a former US consular official, J,Michael Springmann, denied applications that were incomplete but overruled and approved by another consular official, Stephanie Smith, who happened to also be a CIA official. In this episode i explore the months leading up to the 9/11 attacks and what was happening inside the Jeddah consular office. 
Shayna Steinger interview with State Department Inspector General report:
file:///C:/Users/adamf/Downloads/18074784-Memo-of-State-Department-IG-Interview-of-Consular-Officer-Who-Issued-11-Visas-to-9-11-Hijackers.pdf
Visas for Al Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked The World – An Insider’s View:
http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2016/02/02/visas-for-al-qaeda-cia-handouts-that-rocked-the-world-and-8211-an-insider-s-view.html
 

An Interview With Adam Taylor (Questioning The WTC Collapses)

Adam Taylor has been researching the events of September 11th since August of 2007. From 2010 to 2014 he contributed to the blog "Debunking the Debunkers of the 9/11 Truth Movement". He has also contributed technical articles to sites such as AE911Truth.org and ScientificMethod911.org. He is the author of the AE911Truth multi-part essay "Debunking the Real 9/11 Myths: Why Popular Mechanics Can't Face Up to Reality." More recently he's published a paper on the collapse of the Twin Towers in the April edition of the International Journal of Engineering and Techniques. We spoke on the scientific anomalies surrounding World Trade Center Towers 1, 2 and 7, and what he thinks, along with the scientific data from various engineers and scientists have come up with, happened at Ground Zero on September 11th 2001. We also talk about the past, present and future of the 9/11 Truth Movement and the fringe conspiracy theorists have done to hurt it's public image.Adam Taylor's Blog: 
http://adamtaylor42.blogspot.com/
Debunking the Real 9/11 Myths: Why Popular Mechanics Can't Face Up to Reality:
https://www.ae911truth.org/evidence/technical-articles/articles-by-ae911truth/436-debunking-the-real-9-11-myths-series
Scientific Method 9/11:
http://www.scientificmethod911.org/authors/taylor_author.html
 

An Interview With Richard Cox (Energy Of Empire)

The Energy of Empire series by Richard Cox touches on the history of imperialism and questions wether we live in the age of empire still, or have we "evolved" past this age? Yet the United States currently the world empire, seemingly have not "evolved". Richard Cox questions the American political motivations, under the administrations of William McKinley to Theodore Roosevelt, where he suggests the age of the American empire came to fruition. In this episode, my first returning guest, and co-host of The Darkened Hour, Richard Cox, goes into full detail behind the US imperialist machine and how it extended from the Pacific Island to Southeast Asia.  Many specifics were covered which included,  Lorrin Thurston, who also led the Annexation Club, US President Theodore Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" contingent invasion of Cuba, Roosevelt's invasion of Puerto Rico, US President Carter using the CIA to arm the "Contras" battle against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua which led to the Iran-Contra Affair under US President Reagan and Cecil Rhodes being funded by the Rothschild family to purchase diamond mines in South Africa.Energy Of Empire Series (Odysee):
https://odysee.com/TheEnergyofEmpire1TheBlackIronPrison:f845b0ed41360c6570b3614129cc912c3185ee25?lid=c914573393afcaef760d13b848b19224a5f4ee57Energy Of Empire Series (YouTube):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0YH74POth8&list=PLpISWTfiuVAoqV0IprwzMD4CzWhTdYElhDeep Space Consciousness Website:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-state-consciousness-podcast/id1338867921

An Interview With Ed Brotherton (The Constitutional Militia)

Ed Brotherton served in the United States Air Force in the mid 90's. He served with the 60th Security Police Squadron at Travis AFB. He was a member of the Travis Air Face base Emergency Services Team and participated in Operation Sea Signal Joint Task Force 160 providing humanitarian relief for thousands of Haitian and Cuban Refugees.  Since leaving the military Ed has taken an interest in legislative history with an emphasis on the two great political philosophies... The Power of the Purse and The Power of the Sword. Today we will be talking about the Power of the Sword.
We spoke about the the general misconception of the Constitutional militia, the actual definitions of what the Constitutional militia actually is and also how the 9/11 Truth Movement faces a conundrum over their belief that a "new investigation" can happen, but with who? We spoke about a multitude of other areas including how there is a current erosion of the Constitution by the US Federal government and why it is happening. 

An Interview With Mark Fallon (Unjustifiable Means:The Inside Story Of How The CIA, Pentagon And US Government Conspired To Torture)

Mark Fallon government service spans more than three decades, and includes serving as the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism, NCIS Chief of Counterintelligence Operations for the Europe, Africa and Middle East Division, and as a Senior Executive in the Department of Homeland Security, as the Assistant Director for Training of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). Following the attacks of September 11th, Mark was the Deputy Commander of the military task force established to bring terrorists to justice before Military Commissions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  He previously served as the NCIS Commander of the USS Cole (DDG-67) Task Force, overseeing the investigation of the terrorist attack on the ship in Aden, Yemen, and worked on the investigation and prosecution of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman (“the Blind Sheik”). Mark is the author of “Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon and US Government Conspired to Torture,” and a contributing author and co-editor of “Interrogation and Torture: Integrating Efficacy with Law and Morality.” 
In this today's episode, Mark Fallon, former tactical commander of the USS Cole bombing, who also helped to prosecute the radical Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahman (Blind Sheikh) for his role in the Landmarks Bombing Plot. He also was Deputy Commander of the military task force where he assisted in bringing Al Qaeda and their affiliates to face the military commissions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Fallon was an ardent opponent of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" which were employed by CIA contractors James Mitchell and Bruce Jessens, which was authorized by the Bush White House, especially Department of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Fallon speaks about his involvement with prosecuting known radical arab fundamnetlist and how he became embroiled in a heated controversy at Guantanamo Bay as he was one of the first people to speak out against the US government approved torture methods. 
Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon and US Government Conspired to Torture:
https://www.amazon.com/Unjustifiable-Means-Pentagon-Government-Conspired/dp/1942872798

The 1997 Luxor Massacre (Gamma Islamiyah’s Revenge)

After years of Egyptian state repression on it's most fervent Islamist sects such as Gamma Islamiyyah and Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the followers of one notable Gamma Islamiyah leader, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, saw fit to exact revenge on the Hosni Mubarak led Egyptian government in attacking it's tourism industry. The Luxor massacre was the killing of 62 people, mostly tourists, on 17 November 1997, at Deir el-Bahari, an archaeological site and major tourist attraction across the Nile from Luxor, Egypt. The massacre would end up having a reverberating effects, not just on Egyptian society, but for the world over. As many countries leaders were outraged over the barbaric terrorist attack, which saw mass arrests and torture of those affiliated with the group involved. This however would be a revisitation of what took place during many decades prior, as the Egyptian State Security Investigation Services (SSI) also arrested and torture many of those who were involved with the assassination of Anwar Sadat, the country's president in 1980. Out from the torturous experiences came many of those who were involved in some of the most notable terrorist attacks the world had ever seen, such as the 1993 WTC Bombing and the 1995 Landmarks Plot as well as the Luxor Massacre.