Quo Vadis
12/05/02
by Adrian Banks
"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." George W. Bush (December 18, 2000)
I recently read the book "Quo Vadis." The book is over 100 years old and was originally written in Polish by Henryk Sienkiewicz. It is a narrative of the time of Nero, the Roman Caesar who unjustly persecuted and slaughtered thousands of Christians. But what was it that motivated Nero to do such a horrible thing? Did he have a personal hatred for them? Or did he use them as a scapegoat to conceal the truth about something he had done that adversely affected the lives of the people living in Rome during his reign? And could there be a present day parallel to this sort of thing?
Nero had a vision of a new Rome. He hated the old one and wished to build up a new one named after himself. The old Rome, in his view, needed to be destroyed before the new Rome could be built. He had always wanted to see a great fire, so he ordered Tigellinus, the head of the military, to burn the city, thereby causing a great destruction of human lives and property. Nero, and those associated with him in his circle of power, had purposely left Rome prior to the city being burned, and upon hearing of the fire, went to a location overlooking Rome so that he could see the inferno, which lasted 7 days. Nero ascended the Appian aqueduct shortly after midnight accompanied by the Augustians and a choir of singers, bearing citharae, lutes, and other musical instruments. Standing upon his vantage point, Nero stood solemn, silent, in a purple mantle, and a wreath of golden laurels, gazing at the raging might of the flames. There he stood, playing a golden lute and singing, while he watched the city burn down and listened to the sounds of thousands of human beings crying out in the mass confusion.
Nero, however, had a problem. If the people knew that it was he who ordered the burning of Rome, he would have to face the wrath of the mob, and not even his legions could have stopped their wrath. So what was he to do? Tigellinus told Nero about the Christians, and how they were hated by the people already. They did not believe in the gods of Rome and were already viewed as enemies of the State. Cast the blame upon them! And it was so. Nero took the advise and the word was spread throughout Rome that it was the Christians who burned the city, thus resulting the persecution and slaughter of thousands of innocent souls. Those in Nero's power circle all kept the truth hidden from the people, and instead spread this horrendous lie among the people that they all knew would result in a great pogrom against the innocent Christians.
The latin term "Quo Vadis" means "Where are you going?" It is a good question we should ask ourselves today given the fact that war is currently being waged in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Iraq, even though the U.N. weapons inspectors are doing their jobs and reporting no obstructions from Iraqi officials, warplanes are bombing targets in the "no-fly zone" area of the country. Are we being told the truth about things? Or, like Nero around 2000 years ago, are we being deceived with great lies that are costing thousands of innocent souls their lives?
Remember the first time the president addressed the nation after the 9-11-01 attacks which destroyed the twin towers and damaged the Pentagon? I recall he said that information would be made public within a few days proving that Bin Laden and his cohorts were responsible for the attacks. Over a year later, I am still waiting to see this proof. At first I thought that we were being told the truth. Now I question this. Too many things just don't make any sense.
We are told that the hijackers of the commercial jets that crashed into the twin towers used "box cutters" as their weapons to overpower all opposition and take control of the planes. Having worked in construction for over 20 years, I know what a "box cutter" is. It's the same as a utility knife. It has a retractable blade. The blade comes out perhaps an inch or more. I use my utility knife to sharpen my carpenter's pencil, to cut sheetrock, plastic banding straps on lumber packs, and aluminum coil used in vinyl siding. These are a few uses. Being familiar with this tool I have a hard time believing that a jumbo passenger jet could be hijacked with it. In addition, the blades break easily if too much stress is applied to them. To change the blade you need a screwdriver to take the two halves apart to replace the blade. If someone was using the utility knife as a weapon against several people in a life or death struggle, surely the blade would have broken in the struggle, making the utility knife useless.
Let us now turn our attention to the two of the Arab men who are alleged to have taken over the jets - Mohamed Atta and Zacharias Moussaoui. Atta's educational background proves that he had attended a college in Germany and therefore spoke German. Moussaoui's educational background indicated that he spoke French as his first language. Atta was attending a flight school in Florida and Moussaoui attended a flight school in Minnesota. Ironically, the instructors at the flight schools knew German and French, respectively. The instructors also knew the educational backgrounds of their students, and therefore knew that Atta could speak German and Moussaoui could speak French. Both instructors were interviewed by the media and the press. Both instructors, simply trying to converse and get to know their students, tried to converse in German with Atta and French with Moussaoui. However, neither Atta or Moussaoui responded but became agitated with the instructors. Surely if these men were planning to hijack jumbo jets and crash them into the World Trade Center towers, they would not want to arouse suspicion. So why did they not answer in German or French? Use simple logic - they couldn't answer because they didn't know the languages of either German or French. They obviously were impostors. There is little doubt in my mind that the real Atta and Moussaoui had their identities stolen and were murdered. But what organization would do such a terrible thing?
Another book I read recently was "By Way of Deception." This book was written by Victor Ostrovsky with the help of Canadian journalist Claire Hoy.. Ostrovsky is an ex Mossad officer who felt compelled to write the book to try and warn people about the covert activities of this secret Israeli intelligence agency. He entered the Mossad thinking he would be doing his country a great service, only to find that he was wrong. The Mossad is notorious for framing Arabs for terrorist attacks. It is also very good at the art of deception. He also called the Mossad a "whorehouse," since orgies and sexual promiscuity were rampant among its officers. I submit that there is a presumption that impostors Atta and Moussaoui were Mossad agents who were willing to play out the roles of Arabs training in flight schools. The real Atta and Moussaoui had the unfortunate reality of looking like the Mossad agents who were willing to play the roles of impostors.
After the attacks of 9-11-01 were over, the impostors Atta and Moussaoui no doubt received new identities along with all the paperwork to back it up. The Mossad are very good a duplicating passports and other papers. They have scientists who have chemically analyzed the various papers of different countries used for passports and currencies. They have duplicated these types of papers and have them stored for use at any time. Also, there are clinics in Geneva where you can have your face surgically altered. They are, as one intelligence officer stated, "very good, very private, and very discreet." Also, why has there not been any investigative report on either Atta or Moussaoui? Surely it wouldn't be that big of a deal to find who their family and friends were and talk to them. I sure would like to know more about them, wouldn't you? Atta's father has already said in reference to his son's death, "Ask Mossad!" Obviously, the Mossad, the media, or the press have no interest in having any in depth investigation into Atta or Moussaoui made public. The reasons should be obvious.
Then there is the collapse of the towers themselves. What I saw as particularly strange was that the collapse of both towers was straight down. Have you ever worked with a chain saw cutting trees? First you cut a notch in the tree in the direction you want the tree to fall after checking the lean of the tree. Then you make the back cut and the tree falls in the direction you cut the notch. Look at the impact zone of the second plane. It was near the corner of the building. It was not a direct hit. This damage to the skyscraper would, in effect, act as a "notch" in the building. The structural integrity of the other corner of the building was not damaged by the impact. It seemed to me, like a notched tree, that the portion of the building above the impact zone should have fallen in the direction of the "notch." Instead, both buildings collapsed as if they had been demolished by demolition experts. The Mossad, by the way, are very good with explosives and demolition. They do it regularly and most of their explosive devices are detonated by remote control electronics. In addition, they frequently use businesses as fronts for their operations, mostly international operations. It is interesting that an Israeli shipping company called Zim Navigational moved its operations out of the World Trade Centers just one week before the attacks. They are the world's 9th largest shipping company. If explosives were planted, this would have been an excellent front for the operation. It is also strange that not one Israeli died in the attacks.
Then there is the fact that the second plane that struck the WTC was off course for 40 minutes with no communications. This plane actually passed within a few miles of McGuire Air Force base in New Jersey. Where was NORAD?
If I had seen the evidence that the public was promised to see over a year ago, I would not be questioning things and making these conclusions. I recall as a child, president J.F. Kennedy showing the people, on national television, the picture evidence gathered by U2 spy planes of Soviet missile bases being constructed in Cuba. So before military action was taken to remove the missiles, the people were first shown proof. Today, the proof is sorely lacking, but we are at war none-the-less, and polls show that around 70% of the people approve of it. As Adolf Hitler so aptly put it: "How fortunate for leaders, that the masses do not think."
An article I read in a Dec. 1st newspaper tells of the continual military buildup in the Mideast region. The article, which originally appeared in The Dallas Morning News, states: "But the U.S. armed forces have been ordered to prepare for war and are doing so methodically." It doesn't matter if Iraq complies 100% with the U.N. arms inspectors, the war is inevitable. Even back in the summer when the president came to Clemson, S.C. to raise money and campaign for Lindsey Graham in his race for the U.S. Senate, Mr. Graham said that this president would not let Saddam Hussein stay in power. I knew then that war was inevitable.
President Bush wants power. It cannot be denied that the 9-11-01 attacks expanded the power of the executive, and now the congress has given him the power to wage war around the world. He wanted war powers, and the 9-11-01 attacks gave him the pretext he needed to gain those powers. I find Mr. Bush's reaction to the World Trade Center attacks strange also. He was in a Florida elementary school reading to a classroom of students. His aide interrupted him and told him of the attacks. Rather than excuse himself he continued reading for another 15 minutes, and this was after being advised of the second plane crashing into the WTC. I wonder if the aide had told him that Russia or China had launched ICBM's against us if he would have continued to read to the students?
I would like to comment to those who believe that Israel are God's chosen people. You allege that the Bible tells you this. However, as Armageddon approaches, scripture indicates that all nations shall be gathered together and shall war against God (see: Rev. 16:15,16). This means that not one nation is in God's favor as we approach Armageddon. The fact is that Israel has some pretty rotten fruit if we examine it. There was the 1982 Palestinian massacre of around 1500 unarmed civilians by Lebanese militia at the Sabra and Shattila refugee camps. The Lebanese militia at the time was allied with the Israeli army and under the command of Ariel Sharon, Israel's current prime minister. The Lebanese militia did the raping and the killing, while the Israeli troops under Sharon's command blocked the exits. In fact, Israeli forces even set up observation posts on top of several seven story buildings at the Kuwaiti embassy traffic circle, giving them an unobstructed view of the carnage. Then there is the Beirut bombing of 1983 in which over 200 American servicemen were killed by a truck bomb that blew up the Marine barracks. The Mossad have many people on their payroll that give them information about Arab activities, especially the PLO. One of its informants in Beirut had links to a local garage that specialized in refitting vehicles for smuggling purposes. This informant, in the summer of 1983, advised the Mossad that a large Mercedes truck was being fitted by Shi'ite Muslims with spaces that could hold bombs. The informant said that the spaces were even larger than usual spaces for bombs. Admony, the head of the Mossad at that time, refused to give the Americans this specific information, but all Israeli installations were given specific details and warned to watch for this truck. At around 6:20am on Oct. 23, 1983, a large Mercedes truck approached the Beirut airport, passing well within sight of Israeli sentries in their nearby base. The truck gathered speed and ended up crashing through various obstacles in its way and ended up in the lobby of the Aviation Safety Building, where the Marine barracks were. The blast instantly reduced the building to rubble and 241 Marines were dead. This is but the tip of the iceberg. It was Jesus who said that we would recognize things by their fruits. So what do you think of the fruits? If Israel are God's chosen people, then his chosen ones are murderers and rapists.
Where war will lead us only time will tell. Russian president Putin, on Nov. 22, cautioned president Bush not to take military action precipitously against Iraq. President Bush didn't appear surprised at Mr. Putin's lecture, and cut off the press conference at the midway point immediately after Mr. Putin spoke saying, "We've got a plane to catch; don't keep us waiting."
According to a Reuters column on Dec.5th, in an address in Baghdad on Wednesday, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan accused the inspectors of spying for the United States and Israel and helping Washington prepare for war on Baghdad. The same column states that Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz told ABC's ''Nightline'' in the on Wednesday: ''Washington wants the war...The whole issue of weapons of mass destruction is a hoax. When they find that there are no weapons of mass destruction, they would use another pretext to attack.''
The article points out that Iraq has not obstructed the UN weapons inspectors. They have fully complied. The Reuters column also says in reference to president Bush: "President Bush again insisted this week that Iraq does possess weapons of mass destruction, and has said it will not be acceptable for Iraq to deny their existence in its dossier to be delivered by Sunday."
"Indeed there was not one earth any one who ventured to think that that power [Rome] would not endure through all ages, and outlive all nations, or that there was anything in existence that had strength to oppose it." Quo Vadis, page 291
Adrian Banks
www.restoreliberty.com