PCG Says "Iran Helped Plan 9/11"

PCG has now promoted on their front page an article by Joel Hilliker, entitled "Iran Helped Plan 9/11", which accuses Iran of contributing to make 9/11 happen. It was originally posted September 14, 2011. It is also available as a reprint article.

Let's see what Joel Hilliker has to say about this.

Iran Helped Plan 9/11

And America isn't going to do a thing about it.

The US and Iran has had very bitter relations ever since 1979. How is that not doing anything about Iran?

It’s been 10 years. America has waged two wars at a cost of 7,500 soldiers lives and more than a trillion dollars. And as the nation remembered and grieved over 9/11 this past weekend [in 2011], perhaps the saddest part—after a decade of such extraordinary expense and effort—is just how extraordinarily diminished this great country is.

PCG and their predecessors in HWA's WCG have constantly made the same clanging message that America is falling apart and just about ready to be conquered by ruthless evil Catholics from Europe since the 1930s. Hilliker is just rehashing this terribly old idea for modern times.

This year [2011], families of 9/11 victims have filed two unique and extremely important lawsuits—one back in May, the other last week—against an unusual defendant: the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Hilliker then talks about the 9/11 Commission and says they came upon evidence near the end of their allotted time indicating that Iran and Hezbollah helped Al Qaeda commit 9/11. But the 9/11 Commission was near the end of their time limit so they only briefly mentioned this and called for further investigation.

But, Hilliker says, this investigation was not done.

It isn’t hard to figure why, with America already neck deep in Afghanistan and Iraq at the time. As the Trumpet had been writing for years by that point, Washington simply didn’t have the will to go after the “head of the snake”—the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.

Back in 1994 Gerald Flurry dogmatically proclaimed that Iran was the King of the South. According to him Iran is fated to grow into a great power which will eventually goad the Europeans to wage war upon Iran and be crushed by the European juggernaut. Acting on this prediction PCG has ever since constantly demonized Iran, whether the facts warrant such words or not. When 9/11 occurred Joel Hilliker denounced Iran as "the head of the snake". PCG immediately exploited that horrific tragedy to demonize Iran in order to "prove" that Gerald Flurry is a prophet. Saying al Qaeda did 9/11 does not help to prove Gerald Flurry is a prophet so PCG is less inclined to say this.

Hilliker then quotes a co-worker letter by Gerald Flurry discussing this.

Here is what Gerald Flurry wrote in a co-worker letter in August 2004, after this revelation by the 9/11 Commission: “We and the world have now seen that Iran allowed 10 of the 9/11 terrorists to pass through their country on their way to attack America. Their passports were not stamped. Having their passports stamped in Iran would have aroused suspicion! The Iranian leaders didn’t want the world to see their tie to al Qaeda. That was an act of war. But America is too weak to fight Iran, and Iran is exploiting that deadly weakness.” That analysis was deadly accurate. Seven years of subsequent federal inaction prove it all the more.

So after "proving" that Iran was partly behind 9/11 Hilliker brings up the lawsuit mentioned at the start of the article.

But that’s not the end of the story. Though Washington never conducted the investigation the 9/11 Commission called for, remarkably, some of the 9/11 victims’ families took it upon themselves to do so.
 
“We had no governmental authority, hardly any budget, and no access to classified intelligence or intelligence assets,” wrote Kenneth Timmerman, who helped in the effort. “But what we found and made public starting this May is enough to hang a fish.”

What they found forms the basis of their lawsuits against Iran. This legal team is convinced—based on years of research interviewing intelligence officials, CIA agents, Iranian defectors and others—it can prove that the terrorists who plotted and carried out the 9/11 attacks were backed by Iran. ...

As Mr. Flurry said, 9/11 was a clear act of war. America answered the call—but all this evidence proves just what the Trumpet said right after that tragedy: It aimed at the wrong target.

Outside of the PCG bubble many would say Iraq was the wrong target. But PCG says that Iran was the correct target.

Then Hilliker gets to the point and use this lawsuit to say that America is weak and helpless. 

“The case has far-reaching implications, which explain why the U.S. government is not eager” to examine the evidence, Bergman wrote (emphasis added throughout). “A ruling that Iran is linked to the attacks would pose a tough test to administration officials: On the one hand, they would not be able to ignore such [a] verdict. Yet on the other hand, what exactly will they do with it? Will they attack Iran, just as they invaded Afghanistan and Iraq?”

The answer to that question simply could not be more obvious. ... Clearly, there is nary a soul with a mind to actually attack Iran—are you kidding?

So Hilliker says America is weak. America lacks the will to solve its problems because it is unwilling to invade Iran.

America lacks the will to confront its enemies? Maybe Hilliker should ask Osama bin Laden that question. He can't!? That's right, US soldiers shot that mass murderer in the head, took his body with him and buried him at sea, avenging the victims of 9/11. Even they do not know where his remains lie. Putting him on trial and convicting him would have been even better but at least he was not allowed to live his life in peace. Clearly Hilliker's accusation is just demagogic nonsense.

Iran is a far larger and more populous country then Iraq. The Iraqi state's ability to rule Iraq had been severely degraded due to years of UN sanctions. Iran's state and society are well functioning. The US suffered terribly fighting in Iraq. War in Iran would be even worse. No wonder the US does not want to go to war with Iran.

Also PCG ministers and members do not serve in the armed forces in conformity with HWA's dogma that church members are not allowed to go to war. Hilliker does not have to worry about going to war. But he seems quite happy to say America should to war just to make his paymaster appear to be a prophet.

Iran has been waging war against America for ten years! (Or we could go back much further—1979.) It helped kill 3,000 Americans on 9/11. It has helped in killing thousands more on the battlefield since. It is bloodying America’s nose, trashing its reputation, burning its honor, and draining its treasury. And America does nothing. Like a whipped dog.

America is far from a whipped dog.

Try saying that to Al Shabaab in Somalia. Recently their leader was killed in a drone strike. Tell them America is a whipped dog.

Try saying that to that murderous dictator, Bashar al Assad. He gave up all his chemical weapons to be destroyed because he was so scared that President Obama just might intervene in Syria and kick his blood stained hide out of power. (And Hezbollah and Iran can no longer access those chemical weapons as well.) It is probably not much solace for those who are suffering in Syria but Assad's capitulation shows America is far from being a whipped dog.

There is no need to go to war with Iran. Frankly that is a stupid idea. Even the Iranians who hope to change Iran's governmental system do not want America to go to war with Iran. They know should America do such a thing the Iranians will rally around the government. It will be impossible to make positive changes in Iran while such a situation exists. Such a move would only strengthen the hands of America's rivals. America is wise not to go to war with Iran. There are other ways to deal with them. There is no need to go to war with Iran.

There are also other suspects regarding who aided the terrorists. What is not mentioned in this article is that currently there is another lawsuit regarding who helped the terrorists, but this lawsuit is about Saudi Arabia. Here is what one of the men involved in this lawsuit had to say about this recently on Daily Kos.

The Supreme Court has kept 9/11 victims' hopes for accountability alive. Since the attacks, a small group of lawyers representing the victims of the 9/11 attacks (a group of which I was a part from 2005-11) has been seeking to hold accountable the nation's so-called "charities," financial institutions and individuals which knowingly financed and provided logistical support to Al-Qaeda in the years before the attacks. It's a hell of a story, which I can spend days discussing. ...

But let's jump forward. As part of the litigation, which began in 2003, last December the Second Circuit reinstated claims against the Kingdom itself, which had previously been found immune from suit. The Kingdom sought relief from this order from the Supreme Court, and yesterday [June 30, 2014], it was denied: (Supremes keep Saudis on the hook for potential 9/11 liability, July 1, 2014, Daily Kos.)

I do not for one moment claim to know the truth behind these assertions but this lawsuit regarding Saudi Arabia shows the situation is much more complicated then Hilliker lets on.

As for this particular lawsuit Hilliker promotes: the judge in the lawsuit later ruled in July 2012 that Iran was liable for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and passed a judgment ordering the accused, including the Iranian government (as well as al Qaeda and the Taliban), to pay $6 billion to the victims. If any of those affected by 9/11 are comforted by this judgment then I am happy for them.

Curiously PCG did not report on this development, as far as I can tell. If PCG did mention that judgment I would be happy to discuss that, but as they did not do so I cannot. Shows how much they actually cared about this story.

But Hilliker has no worries about these things as he continues to live on the money given to PCG by PCG members required to pay three tithes and extra offerings and by co-workers duped into thinking PCG is an organization worthy of their financial support. In 2012 PCG had an annual income of about $19.5 million.

Actually the article's title is misleading. Reading this article I do not see how Iran supposedly planned 9/11. Hilliker repeats some assertions that Iranian officials collaborated with al Qaeda but does not even offer evidence that Iran planned 9/11, even only in part. 

Now I do not for one moment claim to know the truth of this matter regarding alleged Saudi or Iranian involvement in those terrorist attacks. I simply present this information to point out how one sided and slanted The Trumpet's stance on this issue is. They would have you believe that Iran is the source of all evil within the Islamic world. This is viciously manipulative nonsense designed to dupe people into giving PCG's leaders money and to convince them Gerald Flurry is a prophet can predict the future, which is also total nonsense.