by Saab Lofton
Vol 6 Issue 63 - Feb 2008

In an attempt to emulate the superheroes I grew up with, I got into activism and journalism to be there for those in need. A case in point, Tim McNiven is a man who e-mailed me the following on December, 28th, 2007:

“Recently in The Seattle Sinner’s Piper’s Pit you had an article called ‘A Common Reality’ about the group, We Are Change Seattle. Not many people write about the 9-11-01 Attacks. It was good to see some media coverage. I have been trying for the past six years to get the firsthand, personal information I have about the 9-11-01 Attacks into the media and to the American People, but have only met censorship.”

Knowing firsthand what it means to constantly deal with being censored, I decided to give McNiven the benefit of the doubt and read further. In the same e-mail, McNiven also stated:

“In 2003, I was part of the Ellen Mariani RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] lawsuit that was filed against the Bush administration by Phil Berg... In retaliation for my testimony, the Bush administration sent the F.B.I. to my home to harass and threaten me. On July 6th, 2005, four F.B.I. Agents came to my home in Bellingham, WA under the guise of wanting to talk to me about an information request I sent them over a year before. At first they were civil and then they became belligerent and demanded my Department of Defense ID card. When I balked at this, one of the agents who said he was from the Seattle F.B.I. Office yelled in my face that if I did not give them my ID card that they were going to go to the Bellingham Police for reinforcements, come back and ‘tear my apartment apart’! When they did this, I knew they were trying to escalate the situation into a physical confrontation with me since it was a four to one advantage to the FBI with all of the agents being in their twenties or thirties in weightlifter condition and me in my fifties with heart disease. I knew that if I wrestled them for my ID Card that they would stress out my heart and cause another heart attack, so I decided to get a lawyer to take the F.B.I. to court over this illegal confiscation of my D.O.D. ID Card... I have continued to look for a lawyer to represent me with this D.O.D./F.B.I. legal problem, but none will.”

According to McNiven, he was a United States Defense Department Intelligence Operative (hence him having a Department of Defense ID card), who in 1976, was part of a bi-partisan congressional study to improve air traffic security. While stationed in Germany and assigned to C-Battery 2/81st Field Artillery, U.S. Army, McNiven bore witness to a mock attack scenario which looked an awful lot like what happened on 9-11. McNiven even passed a lie detector test in June of 2002.

Lieutenant Michael Teague of Long Island was McNiven’s superior during the 1976 air traffic security study/mock attack scenario, and according to McNiven: “I remember Lt. Teague changed the scenario of the supposed study from a 100 story building to the Twin Towers ... [Teague] then said he thought it was very strange to be asked to devise a plan to blow up your own home town. But as I watched the Twin Towers really collapse on the morning of September 11th, I realized I was watching the very same thing we devised.”

Note McNiven said “supposed study,” because it’s his contention that 9-11 was planned as far back as the mid 1970s. Granted, the government could just as soon say it’s all a tragic coincidence; that the reason for such studies, war games and mock attack scenarios is to better fend off threats from terrorists. However, even the government has to admit this is one hell of a coincidence.

As I said, I gave McNiven the benefit of the doubt and arranged to interview him.

Have you found Lt. Teague and/or his superiors who ordered him to change the mock attack scenario from a 100 story building to the Twin Towers?

In 2004, I tracked him down to the U.S. Army Rangers Association, but I think he is afraid to come forward. Donald Rumsfeld was the Secretary of Defense at the time. The study took place in 1976, then 25 years later, he is Secretary of Defense again when the study’s attack scenario happened for real... I re-contacted the U.S. Army Rangers Association about a year later to ask Lt. Teague again to come forward, but got no reply.

How do you feel about the term “conspiracy theorist”?

It is used to discredit people who know something is wrong and want to find out what it is.

Since the Gulf of Tonkin incident has been proven to be as fake as pro-wrestling, why are Americans so susceptible to such cons?

In school, some teachers taught us to do everything we were told to do by the government, but some told us to never trust the government. These were the ones I listened to.

So that’s America’s problem – listening to the wrong teachers.