David Rockefeller and his brother, Nelson, originally conceived the twin towers as an urban renewal project to revitalize Lower Manhattan. In 1966, 164 buildings, including many electonics stores in seedy radio row, were demolished to create the WTC construction site.

But, with the realization of the Rockefellers’ urban renewal dream came a nightmare: by the time the first tenants moved into the North Tower in December 1970, the World Trade Center was rife with asbestos…asbestos that 31 years later covered all of Lower Manhattan.

Exactly How Much Asbestos Did the WTC Contain?

Nobody seems to know exactly how much asbestos was in the WTC, but click on the image to the right and you’ll get a pretty good idea: a lot!

The New York Port Authority originally planned to use 5,000 tons of asbestos fireproofing. The fireproofing, trademarked Blade-Shield, was manufactured by United States Mineral Products of Stanhope, N.J. It was 20% asbestos mixed with mineral wool — a concrete-like substance made from melted rock.

By 1971, medical studies began to show the cancerous effects of asbestos, and New York City banned its use in construction — but not before asbestos-containing Blade-Shield was sprayed on the beams and supports of the first 40 floors of the Twin Towers.

The Port Authority claims that over half of the applied asbestos-containing fireproofing had been removed by September 11, 2001.

So, how much asbestos remained in the Twin Towers?

Estimates vary from 400 tons all the way up to 2000 tons.

Getting Rid of 400 Tons of Asbestos

By the 1990s, the twenty-year-old Twin Towers — like any other twenty-year-old office buildings — were due for some major upgrades.

Writes John Perkins in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man:

…in recent years the complex…had the reputation of being A financial misfit, unsuited to modern fiber-optic and Internet technologies, and burdened with an inefficient and costly elevator system.

Unfortunately, due to the danger of spreading asbestos dust, building codes required any remodeling work be preceded by removing the asbestos.

So, in 1991, with two gigantic out-of-date office buildings on its hands, the Port Authority tried to garner the immense funds required to remove the asbestos: it filed suit against its insurers. The case, Port Authority of NY vs. Affiliated FM Insurance Co., sought between 500 million and 1 billion dollars for asbestos abatement.

The case dragged on for years, and then finally, on May 14, 2001, the judge ruled against the Port Authority; there would be no insurance money for asbestos removal.

Because of the asbestos health risks, and their size, the Twin Towers couldn’t be demolished. And because of the asbestos, they couldn’t be upgraded. And disassembling them floor by floor would have run into the double-digit billions of dollars.

So, that’s how, by May 2001, the Port Authority found itself between several rocks and the hard bedrock 70 feet beneath the WTC.

The Bright Catastrophe at the End of the Tunnel

Lucky for the Port Authority, a gullible guy named Larry Silverstein showed up (actually, Silverstein was no stranger to the Port Authority — he’d developed and constructed Building 7 on the WTC site), and he wanted to lease the out-of-date no-future Twin Tower money pits. On July 24, 2001, Silverstein purchased the lease for 99 years in a deal worth over $3.2 billion. He then took out insurance policies that covered terrorist attacks. Just seven weeks later, we’re told the terrorists did indeed attack. That’s what we’re told…but one can never be sure of a story worth $3.2 billion.

To date, Silverstein has received almost $5 billion from nine different insurance companies.

Meanwhile, mesotheliomasos, a rare lung cancer, has already begun to kill some of the hundreds of thousands of Manhattan residents and 9/11 first responders. Doctors and scientists agree that an increasing number of cases will appear due to the tons of WTC asbestos that rained down on Manhattan.

Read More: wtc asbestos, 9/11, 9/11 conspiracy, 9/11 truth, Larry Silverstein, New York Port Authority

During the 1980s, the CIA was known as the Cocaine Import Agency for good reason: the Civilian Intelligence Agency that was chartered to collect and analyze information about foreign governments to protect America was instead collecting tons of cocaine and importing it to America.

Just as many people still refuse to believe the CIA killed JFK despite the confessions of those involved, many die-hard patriots still refuse to believe their own government — while it advised our children to “Just Say No” and fought for stiffer sentences for cocaine traffickers — was the biggest cocaine trafficker of all, despite the fact that it’s in the public record.

Before delving further in to the hypocrisy, let’s put the rumor to rest that the CIA did NOT import cocaine. Here’s a quick 60 Minutes video from 1993 of Ex-DEA head, Robert C. Bonner, flat out admitting that the CIA imported a ton of cocaine: Ex-DEA Head Admits CIA Imported a ton of Cocaine.

Why Did the CIA Import Cocaine?

During the 1980s, the Reagan administration was hell-bent on funding insurgents — I mean freedom fighters — to help them overthrow the Republic of Nicaragua. This involved working through Israel to sell weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages, despite Reagan’s public claim that, as a matter of principle, the U.S. didn’t deal with terrorist countries like Iran.

Then, the National Security Agency’s own Lieutenant Colonel Oliver “Ollie” North got involved and started diverting some of the weapons sale profits to the insurgents (Contras, freedom fighters, whatever…) in Nicaragua.

But the U.S. Government soon discovered that selling anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Iran just didn’t produce enough cold hard cash to fund its favorite insurgents. And, when Congress wouldn’t send them a bigger slice of Americans’ tax payments, the CIA decided to get the money from Americans another way: they’d sell them cocaine!

1980s Crack Epidemic

Before long, the State Department was paying over $800,000 to four companies owned and operated by narcotics traffickers, which were assuring the Contras had all the cash, weapons, planes, pilots, and air supply services they needed to supply an exploding American demand for cocaine. And soon, the coke and weapons were flowing into L.A. via super dealers like “Freeway” Ricky Ross.

Between 1984 and 1986, crack houses popped up in every major U.S. city, and America saw a huge surge in crack addiction, homelessness, murder, theft, and robbery.

But, the upshot was that all that CIA cocaine combined with new get-tough, long-term prison sentencing laws created a boom time for the Prison-Industrial Complex.

And the rest of America got to watch Miami Vice.

God bless the CIA.

Read More: war on drugs, CIA, Iran Contra Affair, Prison-Industrial Complex, 1980s, crack epidemic, Miami Vice

Wal-Mart recently announced its store brand milk would no longer come from cows treated with artificial growth hormones.

If you’re unfamiliar with growth hormones in your milk, here’s a brief introduction…

This Is Your Milk On Drugs

Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) is secreted naturally by a cow’s pituitary gland, boosting the cow’s energy and preventing the death of mammary cells.

In 1937, two Russian scientists named Asimov and Krouze discovered that BVH also made lactating cows produce more milk. But, BVH was only available from dead cows in small quantities, so it wasn’t a very profitable option.

Then, along came Monsanto, the multinational biotechnology corporation that has gifted the world with Agent Orange, DDT, Aspartame, and terminator seed technology.

The good folks at Monsanto figured out how to artificially produce BVH — they genetically engineered E. coli!

And thus, dairy farmers began injecting their cows with modified E. coli, and the cows began to produce 10-20% more milk, and because the extra milking caused cow teats to have sores, the farmers started giving all their cows antibiotics to try to prevent the sores, and that’s how greed for profits put a gallon of white pus-filled chemical-laden animal secretion on your grocery’s refrigerator shelf.

Why Drink Milk Anyway?

So, now that Wal-Mart has turned the tide against Monsanto, it looks like BGH tainted milk may be a thing of the past, like cocaine-laced Coca-Cola, or New Coke, or clear Crystal Pepsi for that matter.

But, before we rush to get a cold tall glass of old-fashioned organic milk, should we not ask if organic animal secretion is much healthier than animal secretion from a cow injected with modified E. coli?

Sure, it’s got calcium and vitamin D. But, for crying out loud, it’s also loaded with calories! Do these kids look like they need more calories? Tell them to drink fortified orange juice, or just pop a TUMS if it’s calcium they need.

Yes, I’ll be the first to admit I love cheese, and ice cream, and even the gazillion calorie tall glass of milk flavored with Nestle’s Strawberry Quick. But, I also like potato chips. And the dairy industry’s Got Milk ads make it sound like our lives depend on gulping regular large quantities of white animal secretion. And it’s just not so, anymore than your health depends on munching a tall can of Pringles potato chips with each meal.

The fact is, that until refrigerators were invented, the vast majority of humans in the world didn’t drink much milk. Billions of Asians, Africans, and other cultures STILL drink very little milk. And their health is fine, if not better than the average American. But, another fact is that there’s about 65,000 dairy farmers in the United States, selling $27 billion worth of milk. And spending a few hundred million dollars on generic brainwashing is worth it to keep the gravy train rolling.

But, at least the tide is turning on the hormones.

So, good riddance Monsanto. And good riddance Dairy industry.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I think I’ll grab an ice cream sandwich…

* * *
“The amazingly successful and expensive advertising campaigns of the dairy industry not only got our mothers to feed us formula instead of breast milk, but seem to have convinced us that it is “natural” for people to drink cows’ milk. Nothing could be less natural. No species drinks milk beyond infancy and none consumes the milk of other species.” ~Neal Barnard, M.D.

Read More: milk, bovine growth hormone, Monsanto, Wal-Mart

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. People hated him for trying to end all forms of discrimination in America. But that hate was nothing compared to the hate shown when he began questioning the war in Vietnam.

Exactly one year before he was killed, he delivered his Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence speech in New York City’s Riverside Church.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

It’s pretty amazing — and it’s also a shame — that this speech is over forty freakin’ years old, and yet it’s still so relevant today…

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message — of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.

At the time of this speech, the war had dragged on for 8 years. It would drag on for another 8 years, and an additional 38,000 US soldiers would be killed before the American people persuaded the military-industrial complex to call it quits.

Read and listen to the entire speech: A Time to Break Silence.

Read More: Martin Luther King, Jr., Vietnam War, Iraq War

This post from the files of Hard-boiled Dreams originally appeared on 14 November 2006.

In 1951, Iran elected it’s first Prime Minister, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh. He was Time Magazine’s 1951 Man of the Year.

Mossadegh was popular, and, to stop Britain from taking 85% of the profits from his country’s oil, he nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Unfortunately for democracy, this pissed off Britain and the US.

The British and US complained to the International Court of Justice, but were told to get over it. Still seeking their unfair share of Iran’s natural resources, Britain and the US launched Operation Ajax.

Operation Ajax was a CIA operation that killed over 300 demonstrators in the streets, triggered a military coup, and the Iranian democracy was overthrown. So much for spreading democracy in the Middle East.

What did the US replace democracy with? A dictatorship under the Shah. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was renamed British Petroleum (yep, BP) and the company resumed operations in Iran.

Meanwhile, a religious leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, became an active critic of the Shah. He started a grassroots campaign against the US-installed police state. It took years, but public anger against the Shah grew until, in 1979, the people of Iran overthrew the Shah in the Iranian Revolution.

After running the Shah out of the country, Khomeini let the people decide what kind of government they wanted. All males and females over 16 were allowed to vote, and 98% voted to replace the old US-installed monarchy with an Islamic Republic.

Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, seeing Iran’s military temporarily disbanded after the revolution, launched a surprise invasion.

Did the US defend Iran, as it defended Kuwait when Iraq invaded?

Nope, the United States and Britain, still thinking about oil profits and control of the country, provided Saddam with chemical weapons and intelligence that helped kill over 500,000 Iranians.

Iran ratified the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1970. Under the treaty, Iran has an unambiguous right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Since 1992, Iran has allowed the IAEA to inspect its nuclear facilities.

Despite frequent rumors perpetuated by the Bush administration and the Main Stream Media, no proof has ever been presented that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

While most Americans have forgotten Operation Ajax, most people in Iran have not.

Just stating facts…

Read More: Iran, nuclear, Mossadegh, Shah, Khomeini, Hussein, Bush, Operation Ajax, CIA, coup, Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, British Petroleum, BP, oil