Hey guys, welcome back to the Conspiracy Podcast. My name is Eric, Jorge, and Sean. Hope you guys are doing well. Welcome to August. Yeah, crushing it. Hope you’re just loving life. M yeah we have got a big runway for you guys folks a massive runway this is the beginning of the end the beginning [laughter] the beginning of we have a a ramp for you basically it’s a ramp to the 25th anniversary of 911 yes so the first two episodes are going to be pre 911 yes then there’s going to be four on the 911 four to five on 911 itself and then we have two post episodes which is the war on terror and the hunt for bin Laden.

Bin Laden. So, um there you go. So, before we whole Yeah. Before we do though, yeah, we got a huge influx of of Patreons. We love you guys. You guys are the [bleep] greatest. Uh like I said, we we’ve made uh we made some some broad sweeping changes to to the Patreon format. Um obviously the founding crews are dwindling fast. I think we’ve got about you guys now. So, yeah, if you go on there and check it out, um it’s purely laid out in terms of what the tiers are, what you get with the tiers. Um and we we did we added a little extra [bleep] juice for for the rich guys, and it just it’s just really great.

So, uh as we do, I’m going to rattle off some of the new Patreons. Hell yeah. So, I might have already said you last time, but if I didn’t Well, if I did, [bleep] it. You’re getting another one. Nikki with a yearly founding crew membership. Love you. Love the glasses, dude. Those are nice. Uh then we got Rachel S with another yearly founding crew. I mean, these see this guy’s got the right idea. Like when I see like that’s how I am. When I see a discount, I can’t help myself. I [bleep] got to do it. Then we got Christina G with a a yearly founding crew.

We got Zach with a yearly founding crew. I’m pretty sure Zach is up in the patron up in the Discord quite a bit. Mhm. We got Molly S with a founding crew membership. Then we’ve got Nick with a founding conspirators yearly. Hello. Look at this [bleep] guy. Hello. Then we got Gunc with a yearly founding crew. Mhm. We’ve got uh Kim O with a yearly inner circle. You [bleep] legend, you. Holy [bleep] [snorts] Then we got uh Cameron F with an inner circle. Got Ash said your last name. Oopsy daisy. We got Ash K with a founding conspirators. And maybe we should take a poll.

Like, do you guys want us to say your last name? I know. I just feel like I’m not trying to like because [bleep] conspiracy podcast. I’m not like the NSA like hearing your [laughter] name. Oh, this person believes in this [bleep] Remember, a couple of them would put they would be like, “Say my last name, John. Say my last name.” [laughter] Exactly. Yeah. Um, and then we’ve got, uh, it’s Guapo with a rich guy. Guapo. Is he Spanish? He’s got to be Mexican. It’s got to be mixed cuz Guapo the one of mine. He’s one is like that’s my cousin. [laughter] He’s in. It’s a Jorge fan.

Then we got Yaya with another annual. And what a cool [bleep] dog. What kind of dog is that? Yaya. Love you. And then last but certainly not least, we’ve got Mina J with a yearly founding crew. And I said it cuz it’s in one word. So I don’t know if that’s her last name, but if it is, sorry, Mina. But that one’s on you. So good. But once again, guys, check out the Patreon. Get in the Discord. Like, take take advantage of of the perks of the membership. Like, the Discord’s growing exponentially. Uh Jorge is never in there, but maybe we’ll be able to summon him to the [bleep] to the realm soon, but me and Eric always in there, and there’s a there’s a little over 200 people um just vibing in there.

They’re [bleep] homies. Like, it’s it’s actually a great community. And if you didn’t know, the whole point of what we’re doing is there’s a founding crew status and it is only 250 people and it is only two bucks a month and it will go away forever. There’s only 60 left. There’s only about 60 left. And so once that is full, it will be gone forever. And you’re priced in. Yeah. And then inflation happens. [laughter] Yeah. And then we’re like 75. So, if you wanted to support the show, go to patreon.com/theconspiracyodcast. Enough about us. Yes. Let’s talk about the juice. So, now here we go. This episode is the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Mhm. Now, and a lot of you might have been babies. I know. Absolutely. When this when this occurred. True. To be honest, um I mean, I was I was four. So this is a story that kind of gets um not told a lot because you know when you for example when you Google World Trade Center what what comes up it’s 9/11 right so but in 1993 was the first major terrorist attack on US soil so that’s the episode that we’re going to start with um and here we go let’s do it so February 26th 1993 at 12:18 in the afternoon, lunchtime in lower Manhattan, which means the World Trade Center is doing what it always does at that hour.

It’s buzzing. Hell yeah. Two towers, 110 stories each. Over 50,000 people working inside on any given day. And another 80,000 people or so passing as tourists, as delivery drivers, as lawyers, grabbing a sandwich. Yeah. Just like [bleep] pedest Yeah. pedestrians just walking. [laughter] Beneath all of it, four levels down, sits a public parking garage. Mhm. And at 12:18 p.m., a Ford Econolo line van parked on level B2. It detonated. The bomb inside that van is a homemade device. Uria nitrate boosted with compressed hydrogen gas. Somewhere north of a half of a ton of raw explosive power. It’s big. Damn. It tears a crater through four sub levels of reinforced concrete.

It knocks out the main electrical line to both towers. It kills the emergency lighting. Smoke goes up through stairwells and elevator shafts that were never built to be sealed against it, climbing as high. The smoke climbed as high as the 93rd floor. Wow. Six people died. Oh, thank God it was not more. Yeah. And in in reflection or whatever, we go, “Oh, that’s not a lot.” But we got to remember 911 didn’t happen. No, of course. Like at the time, I mean, I’m not I’m not trying to discount I’m not trying to I’m just saying like with a bomb that big, it’s a it’s a miracle that it wasn’t more people and the numbers you just mentioned like how many people work there or even passing by.

That’s a [bleep] miracle. So more than a thousand people were hurt, mostly from the smoke in what becomes at that point the largest evacuation in American history. Oh, you’re evacuating both towers. You’re evacuating anyone in the in the in the vicinity like anyone probably within like two blocks is getting evacuated from their buildings. Yeah. And this is actually the miracle of the 1993 bombing is that so little people were hurt or killed. You know what I mean? Yeah. Something like 50,000 people walk down into the dark, not knowing if the building is about to come down on top of them. And here’s the part almost nobody remembers because it gets buried under everything that came 17 years later.

This wasn’t supposed to be a sixperson tragedy. The man who built that bomb didn’t fail because he didn’t have any ambition. He failed because he didn’t have money. Oh, he didn’t have enough like to buy like the He didn’t have the materials. Oh, yeah. Like to really do it big. Yeah, good. [bleep] that guy. [bleep] [snorts] [bleep] So, he failed because he just simply didn’t have the financial support. Yeah, the plan. And this comes straight from his own mouth later from his like memory when he was interrogated by by the FBI. Oh, I thought he thought he was in the van, but No. No. Okay.

No. No. Yeah. You’re a coward. I mean, these guys are cowards. So, so his plan Well, you know why? cuz I kept thinking about the um Oklahoma City bombing. Oh yeah. That’s kind of what I was like, you know what’s really strange is this has a lot of similarities to it. And you’ll find out in a little bit in the story like some of the weird similarities to Oklahoma City. Okay. Yeah. Uh so his plan was for the North Tower to get bombed. Uh-huh. Then fall Oh. into the other one. into the south tower. Okay. So, that was his plan. Like a domino. Yeah. He would just like do pure chaos.

Yes. Bring them bring down both buildings at lunch. Probably the busiest time, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At lunch with everybody inside. He told investigators he was hoping for something in the neighborhood of 250,000 killed. Jesus. Jeez. But did he say why? Like what? Wow. Yeah. We’re going to we’re Yeah. An FBI explosive expert later said that if he had had maybe 500 more pounds of material or place the van a little closer to the support walls or columns, the tower would come down right there in 93. Wow. And there’s one detail I want to flag right up front. Uh, and this one is disputed and you’ll hear it stated as fact around the internet or some other places and it’s not necessarily quite that clean.

So, at sentencing, the federal judge on the case told the bomber, “Point Blake in open court, you had sodium cyanide packed into that device, and thank God it burned instead of vaporizing.” Oh, he was trying to create like a gas effect, too. That’s right. There you go. M because if it had vaporized, it would have been pulled straight up into the north tower through the HVAC system and killed everyone inside. Holy [bleep] What the [bleep] That would be [bleep] crazy, man. And that’s a sitting federal judge saying that on the record. It’s also, how do you like how did he get this like material? True.

But senior FBI officials who worked the case have said there was no forensic evidence of cyanide actually found at the scene. Well, they said it burned up. So, yeah. Well, I don’t know where the judge is. Maybe. But that’s why I’m bringing this up is because it’s a disputed fact. The judge said it. Okay. So, maybe the judge was just like misinformed or maybe he at some point released like how he made it or I don’t know. Yeah. So somewhere in between a bomb maker who at minimum considered turning his device into a chemical weapon and who later according to one writer expressed regret he said that he expressed regret that he hadn’t gone through with it.

Oh of of making it a chemical weapon. Chemical weapon. Okay. Yeah. [sighs] So who was capable of thinking at that scale? Who sits down and does the actual math of killing a quarter million people? His name, at least the name history knows him by is Ramsey Ysef. And even that in itself is a little bit of a mystery. There’s real dispute about his actual birth name. Even his exact birth year. Well, shouldn’t there be records? I mean, if he changed his name? Yeah, but we’re talking about Kuwait. Okay, there’s no records. Yeah. So the most likely story is that he was born around 1967 or ‘ 68 in Kuwait to a family of Bolo origin and that’s an ethnic group spanning parts of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

Okay. Even the 9/11 commission written Yeah. years later hedges on exactly who this man was before he even became who he became. So he’s in the 9/11 commission. That’s wa That’s interesting. Yeah, maybe they thought it was like relevant to like go into that. Yeah, it is relevant. And I’m going to tell you, we don’t find out until the end of this episode, but I’m not going to spoil it for you. So, don’t tell us. You’re like, I’m going to tell [laughter] you. I’m going to tell you a spoiler without spoiling it. This [snorts] was not some cavedwelling extremist with no contact to the West.

In 1986, Ramsey traveled to Wales. Okay. specifically and studied electrical and electronic engineering at what’s now known as the Swansa Institute. Okay, sounds legit. He is by every account smart. Well, obviously. Yeah. Multilingual and technically excellent at at that knowledge. I mean the multilingual thing I I feel like everyone except for America is a multilingual [laughter] well cuz like English is I feel like every other country they’re like well you have to learn English because it’s such a universal tongue. So like every other country it’s like they’re they’re brought up and it’s like okay you learn your native tongue and you learn English. Especially like Europe cuz they’re all so close together.

Exactly. And they’re like they and they’ll learn the other European dialects and it’s just it’s so it’s such a normal thing for them. But for us, we’re like, “Wow, I’m learn only.” Uh, one profile of him put it about as bluntly as you can. In many ways, they said he’s a perfect terrorist. Not because he was a fanatic first and a planner second, cuz he was like an engineer. Like, he had engineering chops to actually execute what other people could only fantasize about. And you can also like you can get like it’s a lot easier to get a visa when you have an actual trade.

True. So it’s like you go to apply for a visa to get in it’s like hey I want to work and they’re like oh like oh this guy’s an engineer like okay sure like we need those. [bleep] yeah. Somewhere around 1991 he trained at a militant camp along the Afghani Pakistan border. And on September 1st, 1992, less than six months before the bombing, he flew into JFK airport on a passport whose authenticity is itself disputed. Yeah, this Hey, it’s Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint’s offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back.

So, I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that’s very illegal. Uh, so there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at midmobile.com/switch. Upront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12 month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. C terms just like before like they had like high high-end passport verification systems. No, but even back then the CIA had high-end. Really? No, but I’m I’m saying like Well, even I was saying the CIA because he’s not is not in in the US, but also the FBI.

I just don’t think we were likewe trying to verify just like they knew in the other get into those. But like for example, like my passport now and like my daughter’s passport cuz like she hers got renewed. It’s in [bleep] there’s like the the plastic placard that’s in there and there’s like 800 [bleep] holograms on it. It’s like Jesus. In order to like fake these things, it’s impossible. Yeah. Mhm. So, [snorts] he when he entered JFK airport, he claimed political asylum. Okay. Right. Um he is but but he came on a visa. Yeah. Like a political asylum visa. Yeah. Like Yeah. You get an asylum visa.

Yeah. But I didn’t I thought that you wouldn’t just claim that when you get here like you would process that. He got a visa. Well, he was at the gate. He claimed it. [laughter] Well, he probably had a Well, he had to have a visa to get in. Yeah. Like you don’t you just fly here and you’re like, I need asylum. No, I’m sure he got You don’t get a You don’t get a visa when you have political asylum. You don’t? No, because you’re literally No, I know. But you don’t need it because you’re literally escaping your country because of Well, don’t they have to have proof?

He’s on a flight. No, he’s getting on a flight, though. There has to be some sort of like So, here’s here’s He’s not just like walking across the border like I’m [bleep] So, here’s the pro here’s the mess up is that he was released into the country pending a hearing. Oh, of course. And then he never showed up to the hearing. And they’re like, “Well, we don’t have no idea where he is.” Yeah. Yeah. So, his motive when he finally explained it wasn’t wrapped in complicated theology. He told investigators that it was retaliation for American support of Israel. God, how is Israel’s always tied to something?

Like there’s always something for US policy across the Middle East more broadly. It’s like why do see but like look see how they attack us though? They don’t attack Israel. They attack us. [laughter] The [bleep] That’s [bleep] What do like I’m just a dude. I’m like working in a job. Like what the [bleep] When interrogation and people tried to draw out of out of him his personal religious views, he was always slippery about it. This back then when they would ask nicely. I mean it’s okay before sending you off to to Guantanam black sites. It matters because it complicates the easy version of the story that you might know or expect like Muslim extremists.

Exactly right. This wasn’t a man driven purely by religious fanaticism. This was first and foremost political. Oh, so it wasn’t Yeah. It wasn’t like for a lot. It was like it was like I’m pissed off at you because like you guys are supporting someone who I don’t like. Yeah, that’s right. So within 5 months of landing in New York, he has a cell, a target, and a plan. And that the first step was to build a bomb. How big was his cell? No, he has a like a cell phone. No, like a a unit. That’s what I’m saying. How big was his cell? Like how big how many people were in his unit?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s what you said. I know. I was tracking. [laughter] A prison cell. No. See, Sean, a cell. You’re like, “How big is a cell?” No. I’m like, “No, no, he wasn’t in prison.” No, like a cell of people. Yeah. God [laughter] damn it, Eric. You’re making me look dumb. No. No. And we’re going to get into the crew. Okay. Next. The crew. That’s what I meant. Man, the cell has so many definitions. [laughter] It really does. Holy [bleep] It’s like a [bleep] blood cell. A [bleep] group of How big is his cell? [laughter] I was like, “Fuck, you know, there was no cell phones, son.

I [laughter] thought you researched this [bleep] It’s 93. We don’t have cell phones.” No, he did in the car. [laughter] Oh, Jesus. [clears throat] One more thing. No. And just back to the point about uh how he got in. He landed at a major American airport on a commercial flight. JFK. Yeah. Commercial flight. Walked up to an immigration officer, said the word asylum. They’re like, “Fuck it.” and was released into the country to wait for a court date that was about 3 months away. I mean, [bleep] was super loosey goosey like back in the Oh, dude. They were like major loophole. Yeah. What? Like, you know what to do, Bob.

They’re like, “Nope. [bleep] let him on through. [bleep] it.” He said the magic word. Let him through. Asylum. Yeah. So, here’s the thing about Ramsey. Yseph, brilliant as he was, he didn’t do it alone. And he didn’t do it quietly either. He needed money, storage, chemicals, muscle, and a driver. And the men he pulled in to help him are frankly a mixed bag of competent and incompetent. Always. There’s Mahmud Abul Halem, a New York City cab driver, an Afghan war veteran. Oh [bleep] Nicknamed by most people who knew him as the Red as he had dyed red hair and beard. Oh, interesting. [clears throat] That’s interesting choice.

I don’t know why you would do go for that. Okay. So, he handled logistics, storage, and scouting. Yeah. Okay. Then there’s Naidal Aid, the one legitimate professional in the bunch, a Ruters educated chemical engineer with a real corporate job at Allied Signal in New Jersey. So, that’s how they got the that’s how they got the supplies. He used his own company account in order to to order the compressed hydrogen gas that boosted the bomb. Okay. Okay. Then there’s Ahmed Aish, who actually flew into a JFK on the same flight, but he got arrested on arrival because he had a suitcase full of bomb materials. Oh my god.

Bro, it was asylum. Then there’s Aid isol, a friend from Yoseph’s engineering days at school, who ends up being behind the wheel on the day itself. Okay. Then there’s Abdul Yasin. And hold on to that name because we’re going to go back to him because what happens to Abdul Yasin is one of the strangest things in this that’s unresolved to this day. Oh, okay. Well, tell us. Yeah. And then there’s Muhammad Salama, a Palestinian 25-year-old. And Muhammad is without exaggeration one of the worst operational security failures in the history of American terrorism. and hold on to that that note as well. Okay. More than someone to pack in here.

No, he’s more just the idiot that got them caught. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like he just I thought you were like he like walked through like with a gun in his hand and they’re like, “You’re good, bro.” Yeah. To in. Okay. So, the group rents storage space and mixes chemicals in a rundown space in Jersey City in the early weeks of 93 with the nitrate. We talked about the hydrogen tanks, all of it assembled by hand in an apartment by men with no formal explosives training beyond Yoseseph. Yeah, cuz he’s the chem he’s a chemical engineer. At one point, Salame crashes their car, not once, but multiple times in the months leading up to the bombing.

This guy is desperately trying to stop this from happening. It’s almost like a really smart guy with a bunch of [bleep] idiots in their crew. But like but but when you think like you’re assembling this crew, it’s like yeah, they have to be idiots to want to do this cuz it’s insane. It’s so psycho. So it forced Yseph to work parts of the plan from a hospital bed because he was in the accident. He kept [laughter] crashing. He was phoning in chemical orders because he couldn’t move around freely himself. So this was you get the like vibe. This is not a slick professional operation. No, this is like this sounds like an Oceans movie, but like not not cool.

Not Oceans. Yeah, like but the idiots. It was improvised, chaotic, and it held together mostly by Yseph’s own competence. On February 23rd, 1993, 3 days before the bombing, Salame walks into a rider truck rental. Oh, so this is where you’re talking about Oklahoma. Yeah. Yeah. And rents a yellow econoline van under a fake name. Okay. Kevin Spacy. [laughter] He puts down a cash deposit, $400. Okay. The morning of the 26th, the van is loaded and driven into lower Manhattan. It descends into the World Trade Center’s public parking garage and is parked on level B 2, positioned deliberately as they as close as they can manage to the support structure of the north tower.

A time fused is set and at 12:18 p.m. with the garage and the towers above it full of ordinary Friday lunchtime traffic, it explodes. What follows is chaos of a kind that the World Trade Center has never really planned for or never really even knew existed because there were no attacks on America. No, there were no terrorism wasn’t it wasn’t a thing that we always foreign. Yeah, because obviously America is the biggest [bleep] dick and like no one’s going to try to [bleep] with us. Like Yeah, true. Yeah. Uh the power went out, emergency lighting is out. Stairwells that were never designed to be smoketight are filled with black smoke and somewhere around 50,000 people start walking down the stairs.

Oh [bleep] Floor by floor. Yeah, cuz there’s no elevators. Pitch black. Imagine you’re on like theund [bleep] fourth floor. Oh my god. And imagine walking down those stairs in pitch black to where you don’t know if where you’re walking to. And there’s Yeah. You’re just trying to like around. Yeah. There’s 40,000 other people walking down. People getting Sean down and people are getting trampled for sure. Everybody shouting. But again, only six people died. And they died in the blast. They didn’t die and nobody was trampled. I can’t even believe that. Like because just in the parking garage alone Yeah. This [bleep] New York. You ever in a parking garage where you in New York where you haven’t seen like 60 [bleep] other [bleep] just sitting there like Yeah.

I have a story about that actually. I was in uh um Jersey, not New York, but same [bleep] Same. Same. Yeah. Yeah. And I had a van actually and it was What do you want to tell us? Was it a RE? It was like one of those cargo vans. Were you doing Were you doing road siding back then? Okay. At that time [laughter] I was like, “Why would you be in this van?” Dude, it was so funny cuz I go into a garage. It was like the morning. It was like a Monday morning right around like 9:00. I go into the garage, but those garages are not meant for like a big ass truck.

Everything’s super small in the city. And I get stuck like going up. Yeah. And it’s like scratching. It’s like stuck and everybody’s just like typical New York. What the [bleep] [bleep] You [bleep] It was like rush hour in the morning. Oh man, it was it was bad. So some of these descents down the stairs took hours. One Caner Fitzgerald broker takes over 5 hours to walk down 101 flights. I didn’t know Caner Fitzgerald was in there. Yeah. Do you know who Caner Fitzgerald is? The broker, right? Like a Yeah. They’re a broker dealer. Yeah. So they’re investment bank. to the Yeah. They’re so the the previous CEO of of Caner Fitzgerald is the current treasury secretary.

Oh, really? Yeah. And so he stepped down and his sons run the company now. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um so it took So there’s a witness of somebody saying it took five hours to walk the hundred flights. Oh, I mean I can imagine I mean imagine being at like Universal peak hours. You’re trying to ride like [bleep] Hagrid’s ride. [laughter] You’re [bleep] welcome to waiting. A group of 17 kindergarteners on a school field trip get trapped in an elevator between the 35th floor. 5 hours. Oh my god. You know how many Oh, they were [bleep] their Oh, dude. And this is the part which is interesting and it differs from 911.

So helicopters, NYPD helicopters begin airlifting people from the roof. From the roof. Oh wow. [bleep] And it they got out a lot of people from Makes sense. Especially if you’re in theund 90th. I’m not going to I’m not walking down. Yeah. Um I mean they got dozens of people out. Eight disabled workers are the very last people out of the building after nine hours trapped on the I wonder if they did that on 911. I mean I know it’s different. No. And so I looked into this. Um I don’t know if it’s in the script though. Yeah. It might not be but so after this happened they sealed off the roof.

Oh wow. Oh, they’re like, “No, they’re So, if you go and in the research, I was watching some of these videos of like unknown footage of 9/11 and the Twin Towers, and there was a helicopter after they were hit on on 911.” Oh, 911. 911. A helicopter went and they have video of it and they were like, “We’re going to rescue people.” Yeah. On the roof. Yeah. Nobody’s up there. Oh, cuz they sealed it. Damn. It could have saved so many more people, man. That’s so [bleep] And there’s video of them. They’re like, “Okay, let’s make another pass.” And they’re like, “Nobody’s here.” Yeah. Can’t.

And the smoke was so much. They’re like, “Yeah, we don’t even we’re not even going to land because there’s nobody there.” Yeah. You’re going to like You’re not going to risk it because there’s nobody [bleep] there. It was horrible horrible part of that story. So, six people didn’t make it out of the 93 World Trade Center bombings. Um, and being that it’s six, I do want to say their names because true crime storytelling has a way of making the perpetrator the star and the victims a footnote. Exactly. Um, and I’m just going to list them really quickly. Okay. Uh, John D. Giovani, 45. He was parking his car in the garage.

Oh, no. Worse. Robert Kurpatre, Steven Knap, and Bill Macko, 61,47, and 57, were maintenance supervisors eating lunch in the sub basement. Well, Fredo Marcado, 37, worked receiving for the windows on the World Restaurant, checking in a delivery. Um, so he was downstairs. Yeah. Checking in a delivery, you know, for it. Monica Rodriguez, 35 years old. 35 years old. She was 7 months pregnant. Oh my god. She was She had an office in B2. Oh, in that she was in the parking in the garage. Yeah. [bleep] Uh she and her her unborn child both died. That’s so tragic, dude. [bleep] Yeah. Pays Checkout is offered by your banks and credit unions.

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Uh, so there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. Upfront payment of $45 for 3 months, $90 for 6 months or $180 for 12 month plan required, $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. C terms. So then the question becomes after this carnage, how do you catch the people who did this? Yeah. Like how the [bleep] do you in the wreckage of the parking garage? And we can we’re going to post some photos on Patreon of that wreckage and not a lot of people see this stuff because not a lot of people know this story.

Most of it is 9/11. We we just right now in this recording we talked to my wife and her friend and both of them did not know. And my one my wife’s friend is from New York. Yeah. True. [laughter] Yeah. So, uh, in the wreckage of the parking garage, FBI investigators f found a mangled, twisted piece of metal. Oh, is this almost like Oklahoma City where they found the [bleep] They were like, “We found that like the the drive shaft or whatever the fuck.” It was a fragment of the van’s rear axle. It’s damaged. The same. Yes. But not so damaged that it doesn’t still have the VIN stamped on it.

Serial number [bleep] stamped on it. Yeah. So they trace. How come like the one the VIN number never gets erased ever? Ever? Everything else melts. But not the VIN, baby. And passport. Imperable. And when was OKC? 96. 96. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [clears throat and cough] Weird, huh? It is. It is weird. It’s just a weird coincidence. But if it happens more than it happens again, it’s [laughter] now that it’s on the foot. So they trace that vin back to a rider rental location in Jersey City and the paperwork on file tells them that the van was reported stolen. Oh, cuz they never like maybe like they took it they we rent it for one day and they never brought it back type thing.

But they it turns out the man who rented it days before the bombing used a different name to report it stolen. Oh. Oh. So he reported it stolen. Oh, cuz he was like, I don’t want to get No, it’s it’s more unbelievable than that. Hold on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is back to the incompetence thing. He had no money. He wanted his $400 deposit back. Oh my god. Are you serious? I’m going to need the cash. He goes back in like, “Give me the cash.” So, Muhammad Salama wanted to escape the country and have no more money, so he needed to buy a plane ticket.

So he goes back and so he reported it under a false identity that it was stolen, but then goes back and the name he went back to the rental office and said it was stolen. I need my $400 back. He also rented it under a false identity. So [laughter] it’s like this guy’s like five different people. I know. Like damn. Yes, it’s me. Trust me. Also, it’s the most idiotic thing on the planet. Yeah. Well, so like we’re not Well, they got stolen from you. This is a deposit. Like [bleep] off. It’s like It’s like saying like, “I want the deposit back. My apartment burned down.” Did he get it back?

But by this time, no, by this time the FBI was there and they’re like, “Come with us, you [bleep] idiot.” Cuz they had already traced the the VIN and they were there. They were like, “Okay.” They’re like, “I can’t believe you came back. What if an undercover agent posing as a rider loss prevention employee hands Muhammad $400 back on March 4th, arrest them on the spot?” One law enforcement veteran later said essentially that that kind of sloppiness wouldn’t even happen in the mob. No, [laughter] they’re not that like not even at all. Yeah. Well, the mob also has funding, which is what you mentioned. The mob’s like, “We don’t care about $400.” It’s considered the single worst decision made by anyone in any history of the world.

Terrorism. [laughter] That’s so smart. [bleep] this guy. I know. True, right? Um, and honestly or I mean if you believed the official story then it unraveled everything within seven days because of this this dumb person this arrest. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So after they arrested Muhammad investigators move fast. Um the red was arrested. Aid the chemist gets tied to the plot through his own saliva. He licked an envelope on a letter claiming responsibility for the bombing that was sent to the Times, the New York Times, and the DNA on the flap matched him directly. And one by one, the cell is falling, except for two men left.

Ramsey Ysef did not stick around New York to see if his plan worked. Meaning he executed the plan, departed almost like taking, you know, taking a shot and not even looking, running. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Courage. Cur turn back. Run down run down the other side of the court. Within literally within about two hours, he was on a plane back to Pakistan. Oh, okay. You know what I mean? Like [clears throat] execute, depart. Yeah, he’s going back to the [bleep] goolog. He’s the only smart one. Yeah, [snorts] he is at that point one of the most wanted men on earth and he stayed free for exactly 2 years.

H he resurfaced in the Philippines where and this is the piece of the story we’re going to pick up properly in a future episode. Yeah. He starts and the al-Qaeda Yeah. Oh yeah. episode. He starts working on something significantly more ambitious than a truck bomb. But his luck runs out on February 7th, 95 in Islamabad, Pakistan. He’s staying in room 16 of a guest house called the Sucasa. An associate of his, a man named uh Istak Parker turns him in reportedly after seeing a notice from the State Department reward like the basically you know we’re about to be rich. Yeah, it was like 30 grand, dude.

For him he’s like balling. It’s one of the biggest tips ever paid out by the American government. Oh, they actually paid out $2 million. Damn. And they paid. They paid. I know, right? Surprised they didn’t take him, too. I’m surprised. Yeah, they didn’t ghost his ass. They’re like, I’m sure. I mean, I don’t know the exact details of it, but I’m sure he’s like, I need the money now before you before I give you the deeds. And somebody made the decision that he’s a worthy, you know what I mean? Like, how do you have to make that decision? No, but no, you know how easy it would be for them to be like if it didn’t pan out just to still like ghost his ass, too.

True. They were like they got a they got like multiple tails on him. They know where his family is and if he didn’t if it wasn’t legit that that he would cease to cease to be. Yeah. So, the US paid the money. Um and then they stormed the room the room. Room 16. It’s my lucky number, by the way. Weird. Very strange. I know. I was four and I [laughter] I orchestrated this. I was [bleep] born in I was born in New York, too. So, when agents storm the room, they find him with chemical burn still healing on his fingers cuz he burned out his fingerprints.

Hidden inside children’s toys, they found bomb making components and airline schedules. A the fact that you have children’s toys is already red flag. True. Yeah, but they were future airline schedules. Oh, so he was like he was like planning. Put that in your little cap promoter. Does that make sense? Oh, it does. Of course, Eric. Yeah. Does that make sense? You need to write that down. Do you want to [laughter] take notes? Email. Yeah. An email. And then there’s the moment that if you only remember one image from this whole episode, it should probably be this. FBI agents flew him, Ramsey Ysef, in a helicopter over Manhattan when they were getting him back into custody.

One of them lifted his blindfold and points down at the Twin Towers, still standing almost as like a point of saying, “You didn’t succeed.” Yeah, [bleep] you. As far as I didn’t like, he didn’t fall out. Oopsy daisy. Oh [bleep] And Yseph, without missing a beat, replied, and I quote, “They wouldn’t be if I had enough money and explosives to do it.” That’s just such a [bleep] up viewpoint. I can’t imagine like I’m going to kill these innocent people to make a point that the government like like you’re not even like see like look I’m I don’t know what’s happening this guy’s or why like really what like the real like his personal reasons but killing innocent people doesn’t solve the problem like if he’s pissed off at the US government like he’s not attacking like the government he’s attacking just random innocent people just trying to live life like [bleep] you.

The agent who was there described him afterwards as cold as ice. Uh, at his sentencing in ’94 for the bombing, he actually was convicted of a separate related plot first. And he stood up and told the courtroom unprompted and unapologetic. And I quote, “Yes, I am a terrorist and I am proud of it.” End quote. Yeah. The judge sentenced him to life plus 240 years. Why did you sentence him with a [bleep] no death sentence? Well, this is this is New York. This is this isn’t Texas. The number was capital. The number was the combined remaining life expecties of the six people who were killed.

So, it’s life plus I never understood why they 240 years. See, I never understood why they do that. It’s just symbolic, right? It’s a symbolic thing. It’s like obviously life means your life. Like what what it doesn’t make anyone feel better that there’s 240 additional years tacked to it. It doesn’t make the victims feel better. It doesn’t make anybody feel better. Yeah. Like just say life. It just So today uh what is this 30 years later give or take? Ramsey Ysef is alive. He he is still incarcerated at Federal Supermax in Colorado. Is he in like [bleep] 24-hour lockdown? Like Well, I’m saying like how how has he not been killed by like the other inmates?

I’m sure he’s isolated. Yeah. Yeah. There’s got to be an ISO for sure. But he’s still there. Um still alive. Even in even in those max like ISO. Yeah, they they like they find a way. The guard once in, you know. Yeah. Whoopsies. But I think I think now he’s pushing 60 give or take. So it’s good time. Take him out. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. [bleep] make him make his life miserable. You see that movie um Shot Caller? Oh, dude. I actually like that movie. It was good. It was Dude, it was it’s with Jamie Lannister from Yeah, the prison one with his beard. I saw the trailer or something.

Dude, it’s actually good. He like He goes to prison cuz he like he was drunk driving and like ends up killing somebody. He goes to prison, but like in order to survive, he like joins like the [bleep] Aryan Brotherhood. Yeah, he had to. Yeah, he had to like to [bleep] survive all the So, he ends up in the max p like the max uh Yeah, it’s like hyper [bleep] ultra max. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. like they’re only let out for like 1 hour a day in a cage or whatever. Anyways, he ends up killing like the guard and like the other guy, the main guy. Anyways, dude is I was surprised.

There’s always a way. Oh, there’s a way. Well, yeah, cuz remember like the guy always had like he the main boss always had like his cell phone and like he was [bleep] it was like the dude was like [bleep] holy [bleep] Yeah, that’s a good movie. So, so in the a aftermath, the port authority, which was the agency who ran the World Trade Center at the time, made real substantial changes. Photo luminescent paint went onto the handrails in every stairwell so that people could find their way with no power. Yeah, exactly. Batterybacked emergency lighting was installed. Fire command stations were added throughout. evacuation drills, which had basically never happened before 93, became routine.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um years later, officials who lived through both events would credit those specific changes and upgrades to actually saving hundreds if not thousands of lives on 91 during 911. That’s good because people evacuated. Yeah, of course. You know what I mean? There was a lot of people that evacuated. Yeah. But as we mentioned before, there’s a cruel, horrible piece of irony sitting right next to the success story of it, which is that in 93, NYPD helicopters were able to land on the roof of the World Trade Center and physically airlift people to safety. I don’t know why they why they sealed it. It doesn’t make sense.

Afterward, for security reasons, the roof access that made those rescues possible were permanently sealed. But who’s who’s it’s [bleep] 20 sto like who’s security? Do you think who’s [bleep] going up there? Like do you think do you think they were worried that people would land terrorists? No, terrorists would land on the roof. No, but I’m saying it’s like when a helicopter comes, it’s not really incognito. It’s pretty [bleep] obvious what’s happening. So I Yeah. Again. Yeah. So now this is the conspiracy podcast. So, so we got to have some let’s talk about actual conspiracies in regards to this. Uh, with this case, unlike a lot of the stuff we cover, some of them are backed by real on there sworn material, and not all of them hold up, but some genuinely don’t have a clean answer.

First, could the FBI have stopped this? There was an informant, a former Egyptian army officer named Ahmad Salm who who had actually infiltrated the orbit of this cell before the bombing happened. Oh [bleep] And he was working for the bureau. Okay. Afterwards, the after the bombing, Salam Salem, it’s the same same came forward with secretly recorded tapes of his conversations with his FBI handlers. He had [bleep] tapes with the FBI handlers and on those tapes he claims that federal agents discussed a sting operation building a fake version of the bomb to swap in for the real one. Are you [bleep] kidding me? And that a supervisor called the whole plan off.

See this is See this is this is like See, they’re like maybe we need a little [bleep] maybe we need a little something something. M we need a little more we need a little more pull. I’m sick of this bureaucracy. We need a little something to happen. Like [bleep] these guys. So if that’s true, then that’s about as damning as it gets because that means the FBI knew. I mean there’s tapes. [bleep] [bleep] had tapes. It’s not like he’s like here. And even if there’s not tapes like Oh, I mean we just went over this in the [bleep] in the last episode with the [bleep] uh the last one or the the in Benghazi.

Oh, where they were like he was like hold just hold you know like Bob [bleep] Bob the the [bleep] CIA guy. Yeah. Like this [bleep] So the honest answer and usually I give you guys like the non-conspiratorial answer. Unresolved. They they can’t even I I don’t have I don’t have an answer. The New York they can’t even give you an answer. Yeah. The New York Times reviewed those tapes and concluded they don’t clearly establish that they knew of a date relevant bombing that was going to happen, but they knew about a bombing. A cell. Yeah. That was wanting to bomb cell that was wanting to bomb.

Exactly. Like, isn’t that enough? Isn’t that like enough juice to be like probable cause? Like, come on. And it is worth noting that Salem had stopped working with the FBI 6 months before the bombing and he refused to wear a wire 6 months before the bombing. So it’s possible that the informant turned back to not being an Yeah. Like you’re like, “Oh, [bleep] I’m not an informant anymore.” You know? I don’t I didn’t think you I didn’t think you had a choice. I thought it was just like Exactly. Like you do this, you’re [bleep] in jail. Like [bleep] you. There’s no like let me go here, you know?

flip flip-floppy sides. No, no. I thought it was like you do this or Yeah, you walk into supermax. He was brought back afterwards by the FBI to be a witness on the trial. Mhm. But he was paid by the FBI to be a witness. A paid w Okay. What isn’t that already like doesn’t that already like invalidate? It’s kind of like like you’re putting a case together and you’ve got this witness and he’s like, I don’t want to be part of this. And then he’s like, “I’ll give you 10 grand. I’ll give you 50 grand.” And they’re like, “Yeah, okay. I’ll be a witness.” Or it’s kind of like the FBI knew.

And it’s like, “No, here’s the other way, doesn’t it?” But isn’t that counterintuitive to the judicial system? Like it’s cool. It’s fine. Isn’t there a word for it? Like like a prejudice? No. Uh uh you’re you’re a tainted witness or you’re For sure. You’re being paid. It’s called bribery. There’s a word. Yeah. Yeah. What is it called? Paradox. [laughter] It’s cool if you’re a paid witness only if it’s us paying you. Anyway, so that’s all I got on that part of it. That’s [bleep] weird. Make that. Well, you will on that one. Second, was Iraq behind this? In the years after the bombing, an American academic named Lorie Mroy put forward a theory that Ramsey Ysef wasn’t who he said he was at all.

Because remember, we had nonclear birth early days. That he was actually an Iraqi intelligence operative who had stolen the identity of a dead Pakistani engineering student and that Saddam Hussein’s government was secretly behind the operation. Now, this is wild because this is the Bush one day. Oh yeah, baby. And you remember and this almost created the hate of Saddam Hussein. Well, yeah. Iraq. Yeah. And this is when we went to Iraq and this was with Desert Storm. Desert Storm because we went into Kuwait and then like, you know, Saddam was like trying to go in there trying to get all the oil from the Kuwaitis and like Yeah.

And this theory got real traction in Washington and it apparently it influenced thinking inside the Bush administration, the second Bush. Yeah, as we went into the 2003 Iraq war and it has been thoroughly comprehensively reviewed, etc. Some people consider this one debunked because fingerprint evidence ties Yseph conclusively to the identity that he used at the beginning, but we don’t know that. Well, there are documents later that were released showing Saddam Hussein himself speculating that he didn’t know who was behind the B bombing. No, see, so later there was transcripts of his of Saddam going, I wonder who did it. You know, I also I also of course he’s going to say that.

See, but no, but like where my mind goes is that we wanted to be there. Like we need an excuse. We need an excuse. We needed to give them freedom. first time in. So, how do we get them freedom? Like, well, Saddam’s going to be the bad guy. It’s It’s super It’s super good to to put a put a to put a name that you want to get in as the bad guy. And we [bleep] wanted that [bleep] True. True. Same playbook that we saw. Classic playbook. [laughter] Classic playbook, dude. I mean, it’s it’s pretty basic playbook. Yeah. Okay. And then the third one, and this one has never been resolved.

Um, like it feels like all of these have never been resolved this. So, remember Abdul Yasin? He was the man who helped physically mix the chemicals for the bomb, who had acid burns on his own legs from the process. The FBI picked him up right after the bombing. He was cooperative. He even walked agents through how the device was built. And then the FBI let him go. Wait, what? Wait, what? Excuse me. I can’t believe. So the FBI picked him up right after the bombing. He told him how it was made operative and he even walked agents through how the device was built by the cell or by the team.

Then they let him go. But the next day he flew to Iraq. Oh my god. Then he killed himself. He vanished. Yeah, exactly. There we go. That’s why they let him go. That’s why they [laughter] let him. It’s the playbook. You’re good, baby. You’re good. We don’t want you no more. Over the next couple years, he was placed on the FBI’s most wanted list. Are you [bleep] kidding me? His reward climbed to $25 million. Mhm. Cuz he was already dead. They already [bleep] pay. They’re not going to pay out. They’re already killed. No. In 2002, 60 Minutes did an interview with him in an Iraqi prison in handcuffs, sitting in pajamas.

Are you [bleep] kidding me? And you can pull up and you can see the interview with him. They let him go and then they offered 25 mil. Then in 2003 under the Bush administration, the US invaded Iraq. Yeah. He disappeared. Get the [bleep] out of here. Was he like the He was the agent the whole time. As of today, nobody knows where Abdul Yasin is. I feel like Abdul Yosin was like CIA operative. Whether or not he’s alive, dead, we no honestly to this day, nobody knows, dude. So there’s a reason I know obviously Israel gets brought into this blah blah blah like I think there’s a reason that the US is so like in cahoots with Israel.

Mhm. It’s not because Israel has like we we talked about this numerous times and I I don’t think like Israeli people are bad. They’re great. I’ve been to Israel. It’s beautiful. It’s awesome. Like the people are [bleep] amazing. It’s the government just like I think our government is shady too. Yeah, it’s like it’s just the government. Like the people are [bleep] tight. Like the food’s amazing. It’s awesome. But like MSAD is like notorious for this [bleep] Like they [bleep] they get people and they infiltrate and that’s what they’re that’s what they’re good at. Yeah. And like this guy could have easily been like them in that their infiltrator.

It’s like, “Okay, get get in this group. Get him to [bleep] Yeah. Get on board. [bleep] do this thing. We’ll let you go. Blah blah blah. We’re gonna put you back there. You’re gonna have street cred. Yeah. They’re gonna be like, “Oh, this guy’s the [bleep] Look what he did.” And don’t forget, he’s in an Iraqi prison. What do you do to go to Iraqi prison as a as a dude who bombed America? Come on. You think he’d be like a hero. Do you see what you know what I mean? Like that’s a different thing than like That’s what I’m saying, dude. He Afghanistan or Pakistan prison.

They found out that [bleep] was a double agent. Yeah. But why they would put him in prison though? I bet they was killing him. [snorts] It’s 1938. The twoe pay period is invented. But then the world got faster. Faster travel, faster delivery, faster everything. Except our pay. Until now. With Daily Pay, everyone can access money they’ve earned when they need it. Yes, this is the future of pay. Daily pay. Work with the leader in ondemand pay at dailypay.com. transfer fee may apply. Pays checkout is offered by your banks and credit unions. So when you shop online at participating merchants, your cards appear in one place, ready to use and kept up to date.

And the best part, your actual card number isn’t shared when you check out because boundaries are healthy. Like no work emails after 6. One small step for boundaries, one big leap for checkout. Pays it checks out. Activation required. See pays.com to learn more. Terms and conditions apply. Okay, so that’s the story almost nobody remembers. A truck bomb that was supposed to bring down both towers and take out 250,000 lives with them. An engineer with a Welsh degree and a grudge against American foreign policy. A conspirator who got caught because he wanted his $400 back. [laughter] And I know and loose threads and informants damning tapes, a debunked Iraq theory that shaped a war and a bomb maker who vanished in Baghdad and was never seen again.

But I want to leave you with one more name and one more number because this is where the story stops being self-contained in its own story and it becomes the first chapter of something bigger and the runway that we’re on. Ramsey Yseph had an uncle. Oh god. A man who, according to the 911 Commission’s own final report, wired $660, that’s it. $6 from Qatar into the bank account of one of Yseph’s co-conspirators before the 93 bombing. Oo. So that was their backer. Their very low financial backer. [laughter] the the 911 the 911’s commission’s own language is almost dismissive about it. He doesn’t appear to have contributed any more than just that than $600.

I mean that’s all they had. I mean that that like if you put it in like in terms of like percentage wise it was probably a massive contribution. But his uncle is Khaled Sik Muhammad and Khaled Seek Muhammad also known as KSM is known as the mastermind of 911. In 93, he’s a bit player. I finance here on the margins, sending a few hundred bucks here and there, sending 600 bucks to his nephew’s plot. And then stepping back, he is not yet anybody’s idea of a mastermind. But Ramsey Ysef doesn’t stop after his capture ends. Before that happens, he and his uncle spend time in the Philippines sketching out something far more ambitious than a van full of explosives.

I know the Philippines is like, why? Like the Philippines keep coming up like why there cuz it’s cheap I guess. So far away. I know. It’s so It’s not like it’s like next door. It’s [bleep] very far away. The FBI itself would later describe the 93 bombing as a dress rehearsal for 9/11. I mean that’s it’s it seems pretty apparent. They’re like, “Oh, okay.” and to note that his with his nephew’s help, Khaled Muhammad would eventually come back to finish what Ramsey Ysef started. So next time in the next episode, we follow that thread from a Brooklyn refugee center funded quietly by a wealthy Saudi financier all the way to the organization that would carry the name Al-Qaeda into the 21st century and finish on a Tuesday morning in September 2001.

Damn. See the thing that like you have to look at all like look at how many times this could have been stopped them coming into the country. Mhm. Them the with the FBI informant like it just so many swap fake bomb sting operation the potential potential sting operation like are you [bleep] kidding me? It’s like, how is that not enough to like put a little bit of a little bit of [bleep] manpower into it? Yeah. Concern. We have a guy who’s in this cell and they seem like they want to bomb this [bleep] Yeah. Like this is New York. This is one of the most dense densely populated cities in the entire nation.

Yeah. Maybe we should like throw a little just throw a couple couple heads at it. Let’s take a look see. Like I don’t know what the [bleep] Yeah. No. Well, they had the heads and they had the Lucy Loo. That’s a That’s my thing is like they let they Yeah. They probably like I don’t know. I guess they were like, you know, trying to see what would happen, trying to learn a little bit more before they take him down. Kind of build a case, you know? I don’t know. No, but see, I I view it as like so like as much as like I talk [bleep] about the government and like whatever this [bleep] like they’re calculated.

It’s like it’s all there’s a plan. These guys, like the government has a plan. like they know what they want and they know it. They know it a it’s like they’re they’re able and they’re willing and able to play the long game. Yeah. Because it’s like it’s not like they’re going to run out of money. Like you have you have 370 million Americans who are like [bleep] fueling the [bleep] checkbook. It’s like we’re not you just print more. Exactly. Just print more. [bleep] it. And then we’ll get into this more in the al-Qaeda episodes, but doesn’t this tell you it it I mean, tell me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t it paint the story of that it was a conspiracy, but it was a conspiracy of terrorism?

No, no, no. Well, no, it’s both. You have to think like, yes, do I do I do I believe that terrorists wanted to attack America? Of course. I think they’ve wanted to attack America for [bleep] hundred years. Like, of course they do. Yeah. The conspiracy is that they let it happen. Yeah. And why? And it’s like it’s almost like So you’re Okay. So imagine like So imagine Eric, you’re like, “Hey, Sean, I want to I I want to kill this dude.” Yeah. He like disrespected my wife and my family and blah blah blah, and I want to do it. Yeah. And I know about it, but I don’t do anything about it.

I am an accessory to murder. I’m an accessory. I didn’t commit the murder, but I knew about it and I did nothing. Therefore, I am an accessory to it. Yeah. So, the theory, the the the conspiracy is that they knew the government knew and they just let it happen because it serves the end goal and like for them it’s like, okay, it makes more this it the the ends justify the means. Yeah. So, it’s like the end goal back to what you were saying like the long game the long game. long game. Oil, both. All of it. Money, power, money, power, the region, controlling the region, dude.

Okay, so imagine you’re like, imagine you and your homies, you own [bleep] Loheed Martin [bleep] and like [snorts] you’re like all these big ultimate defense contractors, bajillion fillion dollars, and you’re like [snorts] seem a little stagnant. We could use a little P&L bump [laughter] like stockholders getting a little pissed like ooh like oil. We like that. We like that a lot. Like we want influence and that’s all it is. It’s not it’s not about actually like m it’s not about maintaining the oil. It’s not like oh we like we take the oil for oursel. It’s influence. You influence that [bleep] or you’re worried about losing it too.

Yeah. Control, right? Maybe maybe there’s some threat to the region that you’re pumping out all that oil. Mhm. And then you’re like, we need to do something in order to like we need to take over that government. That’s the justification and that’s a but it’s it’s gone it’s happened so many times that it’s become this SOP standard operating procedure is like well a bad guy could be getting this soil so it’s only right that we should make sure and why do they hide behind that to uh to control or like to prop up the dollar. No, it’s not even about that. And then you maintain the the power currency.

M well I mean just take it down the what’s what’s like what’s the basic like I always say like how do you like reduce it down to the most simple what’s the most simple possible thing wars make so much money it’s insane amounts of money like ridiculous amounts of money I mean [bleep] if you really want to think about it what made America as prosperous and flourishing as it’s ever been ever in the history of America World War II World War II we were [bleep] making everything we were [bleep] out every [bleep] Ford plant was building [bleep] the lend lease program. We were when we were not even in the war, dude.

We were killing the game and they’ve I think like they get you get confused and like well how do we get back to this? Like how do we get back to it’s like a [bleep] plumber can can have his wife [bleep] raise four kids and he can buy a house and a car and live a [bleep] great life, go on vacations for making 40k a year. Yeah. Yeah. Like it was it was great back then, but I think they’re trying to like recreate the scenario and they’re like, “Well, maybe we need more war.” Yeah. Like get back to this [bleep] thing, you know? And I think that’s part of the justification process is like, well, look what happened back then.

Like we were doing great. Like what’s the problem? But see, now it’s not like we’re benefiting. Well, there’s only, you know, a handful of people benefiting. But guess what? We made it We made it legal to bribe politicians. We made it legal. It’s called lobbying. Yeah. So, it’s like if I’m a bajillionaire and I want a little bit more. Well, hey, you want to get elected? Can you pay for that? No. No one can. Are you [bleep] crazy? A billionaire president can’t pay for it. Trump couldn’t pay for it. He had to take money. Like, nobody can pay for it. Who’s the last one? Ross Perau tried to do it and he [bleep] lost like $700 million and dropped out cuz he was like, “Fuck this.” Bloomberg tried to do it, too.

He [bleep] dropped out. He He spent half a billion and he was like, “This is crazy. I can’t can’t [bleep] do this [bleep] Nobody likes me.” [laughter] So, it’s like you have to take that. See that like if you look at the system in order to get elected, you have to take money. In order you take money, you have to do what they say. Yeah. M. And in order for those people to re recoup their investment, guess what you got to do? Interesting. You got to do you got to [bleep] do it. Sounds like a lot of financial power, but nothing political. It’s all political, too.

If you want a country to do something, okay, let’s say like you’re in with the Iraq war. Mhm. Right. You know, Kuwait is like [bleep] out oil, [bleep] oil coming out the gills. Yeah. American can be like, “Oh, yeah. And you know, please, you know, you try to influence that oil trade, but you can’t. But what’s a good way? Oh, Iraq. And now we have Yeah. Do you do you want this platoon of [bleep] Rangers coming to your [bleep] house? Of course you don’t. Then you’re like, they’re like, yeah, you know, I think you shouldn’t do that. Well, they’re like, oh, [bleep] you. They’re like, oh, weird.

We happen to have 28,000 troops at this base that we built right next door to your [bleep] house. Like, you’re gonna do what we say. And they were like, okay. Yeah. Cuz guess what? You get one call from the higherups. They’re like, “We think there’s a terrorist in this house.” Yeah. I think you should bomb it. And they’re going to be like, “Fuck yeah, bro.” Like, “Fuck these guys. Let’s bomb the [bleep] out of this place.” Yeah. Mhm. So, on this story, do you think there was nefarious activities aside from the terrorism? Right. Like, we know there was nefarious activities. Yeah. I think there’s more.

Yeah. You know, negligence. Negligence. Negligence. Negligence. purpose purposely omitted. Also at this moment in time, if you go back to 93, we’ve never been attacked, right? There were terrorist there’s terrorist activity across the world, but it was always across the world. It was always like in Africa and you know, everywhere, Middle East, South Africa, like [bleep] even in Europe, too. Like there so maybe it was a still though like that’s not really an excuse because that’s your job. You’re literally supposed to be gathering this intelligence complacent. Yeah, you get complacent and you go I think it was a bit of both. I think it was a bit of complacency, but I I I truly believe that someone had a great they they probably heard about him and they’re like, but wait, what if like we play the long game here, you know?

What if we just watch him? Let’s Yeah, just watch it. Let’s see what happens. And that gives us an excuse to [bleep] do [bleep] Yeah. You know, because like look, Eurion, there’s a big part of our population that believes like obviously the military-industrial complex is like the [bleep] the worst. Mhm. And don’t get me wrong, it’s it’s I also agree that it’s bad. Granted, I still think that we need a very strong military because you have to if you’re a major superpower, you have to. So, it’s like, you know, like what’s what’s the greatest good? Like dismantle the military? No, cuz we’re going to get [bleep] right?

But I do believe that the military-industrial complex is a big driving force in a lot of these decisions. Yeah. I mean, there’s a reason that we have our military budgets like 10 times that of in the next biggest country. Like it’s just we spend so much money on on it and it’s like how do you justify the money? And also, how do you keep the money coming? Cuz like if you just keep if you keep building [bleep] F22 Raptors eventually going to be like we don’t need anymore. [laughter] Like we’re we’re good. We’re [bleep] good. Like we don’t need any more of these $50 million planes.

Like stop it. Like you need a purpose. [clears throat] And just an extra piece of information is that Clinton became president about a month earlier. So he inherited all this. Well, it’s also it’s like it’s you know in January you do the [clears throat] inauguration or whatever. Isn’t it always weird though like how everything always happens around these these cycles like around these like voting of election cycles. Always weird shit’s happening around election cycles. 100% [bleep] every [bleep] time. It’s like um not pre not pre-election. What do they call it? No, midterms. Midterms. Yeah. See, it’s always around and it’s always like you It’s all manipulation.

Like I’m terrified of what’s going to happen three years from now. Jeez. I know, dude. It’s gh. But see, that’s that’s like you it’s it’s now at a point where like we don’t actually. No. No. No. But like as as citizens like we just we can’t really What are we going to do? Like that’s what you you feel so like useless like you can’t do [bleep] Infuriating. Yeah. You know what can you do? I can’t do [bleep] nothing. We’re going to actually save the rest of we’re going to continue this conversation on the after hours cuz now we’re getting off we’re getting a little off offkilter.

So we’re going to save this for the after hours. Yeah, but a little side. Yeah. So, that’s the episode on 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Uh, I hope you guys learned a little bit. Um, especially because now that we know that not a lot of people know this story, but it’s important to know that it’s it is obviously a precursor Oh, for sure. to what we’re talking about and to the the ramp that we’re on, you know. And so, next up on the on the docket is the rise of al-Qaeda. Um, and it’s going to be a bigger episode and that’s going to be next week.

So, definitely subscribe and tune in. But for Patreons, as we’re going to do now for every episode is there’s going to be an after hours. And so, if you It’s only for Patreons. So, you know, so if you’re not What is the after hours? Tell them. It’s just we just uh it’s just a little probably 15 20 minute Yeah. [bleep] [bleep] takarooi. We let [laughter] our we let our hair down a little bit and uh Eric lets his mustache down. We let Eric’s got a um a daily joke or a joke of the week for the joke of his dad joke of the week. Come hear it.

Nobody likes it. I get zero feedback. [laughter] Negative feedback. Anyways, we’ll catch you next time, but for Patreon, stay tuned for after hours. All right, night. What’s up, guys? I hope you enjoyed this episode. I want to invite you to join us for our Patreon. So, what that is is an exclusive membership. We’re gonna be able to get exclusive discounts like 15% off on all our merch and you won’t have to listen to these ads ever again. Ads ever again. Plus, you’re going to be able to access our minis episodes. So, that’s something that nobody else is going to get access to. They’re just short podcast episodes where about 15 minutes long or so.

So, cool, you know, extra content that you’re going to get access to. I know. And all those other suckers are waiting for next Tuesday that you’re going to hit some minis up, you know, fill the void. That’s right. instead of, you know, having to wait the rest of the peasants for the [laughter] next episode. All you got to do is go to patreon.com/theconspiracy podcast and you’ll find us. There are many different levels there, all giving different amounts of content. That’s right. All right, ladies and gentlemen. Night night. [laughter]