The Twin Towers and Fidel Castro's lucidity: A comment by Nelson Valdes, September 23, 2007

The Twin Towers and Fidel Castro's Lucidity.
A comment by Nelson Valdes, Director, Cuba-L

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Fidel Castro's commentary and related documents:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/fc-09-18-2007.html
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE CORRECTION, Oct. 13, 2007:
* A Sept. 22 story from Cuba called into question Cuban President
Fidel Castro's assertion that gold bars were buried under the
World Trade Center at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks. In fact, gold and silver were buried under the buildings at the time.

The Tribune regrets the errors.
www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/saturday/chi-claris_10-13oct13,0,4222058.story

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COMMENT FROM Nelson Valdes, Director, Cuba-L
September 23, 2007

Dear reader,

As you know I distribute news on Cuba, on a daily basis.

On 09/23/07 the Chicago Tribune published an article "Lucid Castro talks on Cuba television" by Michael Martinez Tribune correspondent. The reporter wrote,

"The interview also comes on the heels of an earlier column Castro wrote for Cuba's daily newspaper that had raised concerns in the international community about his lucidity. In that column, Castro advanced an extremist theory that a U.S. conspiracy was concealing the truth behind the Sept. 11 attacks, including the presence of gold bars in the basement of the World Trade Center." The full article is posted below.

Apparently the reporter never heard that there were gold and silver bars in TWC No. 7.

This only shows that:

a) reporters do not read

b) reporters read but don't remember

c) reporters, read and remember but don't tell us

d) reporters do not know how to research Lexis/Nexis

e) copy editors do not know how to research either

Thus, it appears that Fidel Castro reads, remembers what he reads, tells us about it, knows how to use Lexis/Nexis and have copy editors that help along. Whose lucidity should we question?

As to the "extremist theory" about a conspiracy "concealing the truth behind the Sept. 11 attacks" a number of points can be made.

First, a "theory" happens to be a hypothesis that has been corroborated to be correct. Thus, the journalist should mean thesis or hypothesis.

Second, Fidel Castro does not happen to be alone on such "extremist" assessment. In fact the leading opinion poll company Angus Reid Global Monitor reported on October 14, 2006 that 53% of Americans believe that the administration is hiding something about 9/11. And another 28% believes the government is lying. Thus, the Cuban who apparently is not lucid happens to think like 81% of Americans!

Nelson Valdes Cuba-L Direct

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The New York Times

September 15, 2001 Saturday Correction Appended Late Edition - Final

AFTER THE ATTACKS: THE COMMODITIES; Hoard of Metals Sits Under Ruins Of Trade Center

By JONATHAN FUERBRINGER

Buried under 4 World Trade Center, near ground zero of the terrorist attack, is 379,036 ounces, or 11.8 metric tons, of gold.

There is also 30.2 million ounces of silver.

At current prices, the gold is worth $110.3 million, while the silver is valued at $120.7 million.

The gold and silver belong to people or firms trading futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange, although they rarely take actual possession of the metal.

The value of this buried metal rose yesterday after the exchange set up an alternative Internet trading system in an effort to resume business. The new system was immediately overwhelmed with orders when it opened for business at 2:30 p.m.

But Nymex officials, working from temporary headquarters in Midtown Manhattan and using computer systems set up in New Jersey, had the system working by 4 p.m., and the response was pretty brisk, with 69,790 contracts for gold, silver, oil and many other commodities changing hands by the time trading stopped at 6 p.m.

The price of gold jumped almost 7 percent, to $290.90 an ounce, from $272.30 on Monday, raising the value of the buried gold by $7 million. The trades done before the exchange was closed after the attack on Tuesday were incorporated into yesterday's trading.

The price of an ounce of silver rose 14 cents, to $4.33, while the price of a barrel of crude oil climbed $1.89, to $29.74.

The terrorist attack drove Nymex out of its home in the World Financial Center, where it does its trading in the traditional way for the commodities markets -- open outcry. That means traders for each contract, from gold and silver to crude oil and home heating oil, gather in a pit and the buyers and sellers make their trades with a series of hand signals that are a language in themselves.

Officials at Nymex insist that their operations at the World Financial Center are intact and that trading there could be resumed. In fact, they had to have some employees at their World Financial headquarters yesterday to flip the switch needed to start the alternative trading system. But there are still problems with access and other issues, said Nachamah Jacobovits, the Nymex spokeswoman.

J. Robert Collins Jr., the president of Nymex, said "the world is anxiously waiting for us to resume open outcry trading with all the advantages it provides, and in the interim we're doing everything we can to at least provide access to our markets."

So the Internet trading alternative was devised. It is based on the Nymex Access system, which the exchange uses for after-hours trading of its contracts. But this system accounts for only about 8,000 to 10,000 trades a day, which is a small part of the average of about 450,000 in the regular sessions.

Ms. Jacobovits said after the trading session ended yesterday that it would be decided tomorrow whether trading would resume on Monday, and if it did, whether it would be electronic or open outcry in the Nymex pits.

But the report that there were tons of gold buried in the wreckage has garnered more attention than the efforts by the exchange to let investors trade their commodities again.

Analysts, however, said the impact on trading should be minimal. The acting chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, James Newsome, said in an interview that "because the metal is secure and because there is ample supply, this is no concern to us."

Philip Klapwijk, managing director of Gold Fields Mineral Services, a leading precious metals research firm, said: "It is not as if there will be an unexpected gold shortage if the 12 tons buried under the World Trade Center cannot be recovered. There is plenty of gold in London and Switzerland." The 12 tons was 0.3 percent of the total gold supply in 2000, according to Gold Fields.

The gold and silver in the storage center are used to settle trading in futures contracts. A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a predetermined amount of a commodity on a specified date. There are also designated sites for exchanging other commodities traded with futures contracts.

In most cases, investors who buy gold for future delivery through a futures contract do not want the actual gold. Instead, they are buying the contract to speculate on the price movements or to hedge against price movement, as in the case of a gold producer. But if an investor or a gold producer actually wants the gold, it has to be delivered from depositories approved by the Comex division of Nymex and be in the required form. That is a 100-ounce bar, or three one-kilogram bars, each with a serial number and a refiner's identifying stamp approved by the exchange.

But Ms. Jacobovits, the Nymex spokeswoman, said that fewer than 1 percent of the gold contracts traded on the exchange involved the exchange of the metal.

Mr. Klapwijk said that if gold was needed, refiners would make it in the right size and with the approved serial numbers. The biggest impact, he said, might be a slight premium on the price of gold contracts near their delivery time on Nymex compared with the ones traded in London, where the gold depositories have not been buried under tons of rubble.

There are two depositories for gold and silver approved by Comex. The one that is buried under the ruins of 4 World Trade Center is the ScotiaMocotta depository, which is owned by Scotiabank in Toronto. But a spokeswoman, Pam Agnew, would not confirm the existence of the depository. "For safety and security reasons, we do not comment on our vaults, their contents or locations," she said. Ms. Jacobovits confirmed the existence of the site, and the exchange publishes how much gold and silver is in the depositories.

The other local commodity exchange, the New York Board of Trade, which was in one of the twin towers, is planning to reopen on Monday in a backup site in Long Island City, Queens. This exchange, which trades, coffee, cocoa, sugar, orange juice and other commodities, will continue to use the open outcry method.

But because there are a limited number of trading pits at the temporary site, it will have to rotate the commodities contracts that are traded, giving each a limited period and then switching to another one.

The other exchanges in the country, including the Chicago Board of Trade and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, reopened on Thursday, when trading in the bond market began again.

Mr. Newsome of the C.F.T.C. said in an interview yesterday that all these exchanges "opened very orderly and had fairly typical trading volume despite the circumstances."

----

The Globe and Mail (Canada)

November 1, 2001 Thursday

Gold, silver recovered at attack site

Reuters News Agency. With files from staff

Some $375-million (U.S.) in gold and silver buried beneath the World Trade Center since the Sept. 11 attacks has been found and is being relocated, Bank of Nova Scotia, the custodian for the metals, said yesterday.

"We are relocating contents of a vault and the reason that we're moving the contents now is because authorities need to demolish the building," said Pam Agnew, spokeswoman for Scotiabank,the parent of bullion dealer and depository ScotiaMocatta, the bank's metals trading arm.

"The gold is in pristine condition," she said.

The vault is located at 4 World Trade Center. The building is adjacent to the twin towers, which collapsed as a result of the terrorist attacks.

The building where the gold and silver was stored was reduced to mostly rubble, just like the twin towers, the Associated Press reported.

The eight vault employees, who kept watch over the gold and silver before the attacks, escaped unharmed.

The bank declined to elaborate for security reasons, but said it was working closely with authorities to ensure a "safe and secure relocation effort" for the underground hoard.

The disaster prevented access to 12 tonnes of gold and almost 30 million ounces of silver that were stored in the facility on behalf of the COMEX metals trading division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The metal was used to guarantee delivery against futures contracts traded at the COMEX.

It is believed that other valuables were kept in the vaults, but there was no information on whether additional precious metals, jewels or securities might have been recovered or lost in the disaster.

The New York Daily News reported yesterday that emergency crews in lower Manhattan found the gold Tuesday. Workers loaded at least two Brink's Inc. armored trucks with metal.

At an afternoon news conference yesterday, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani confirmed that Brink's armored cars were at the location and that "most" of the gold had been found.

The Daily News said that a small army of heavily armed federal agents stood guard as policemen and firefighters packed the trucks.

----------------

November 1, 2001 The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec)

Gold strike at Ground Zero: ScotiaBank's cache dug out of WTC

NICHOLAS WAPSHOTT

NEW YORK

Recovery workers at Ground Zero have discovered hundreds of gold ingots, part of a billion-dollar cache that was lost when the twin towers fell.

Workers clearing rubble in a service tunnel underneath one of the collapsed World Trade Centre buildings found themselves surrounded by more than 100 armed FBI and Secret Service personnel, who were tipped off by the owners about where the gold was.

The collapsed buildings contained a number of vaults and strongrooms, but the police were not saying who owned the gold.

The Comex metals-trading division of the New York Mercantile Exchange kept 3,800 gold bars - weighing 12 tonnes and worth more than $100 million - in vaults in the building's basement. Comex also held almost 800,000 ounces of gold there on behalf of others, with a value of about $220 million.

Scotiabank's Share

The Bank of Nova Scotia, which kept gold in the Comex vault, reported $200 million of gold was lost in the wreckage. Comex also held precious metals for Chase Manhattan Bank, the Bank of New York and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking.

The vaults higher up the towers became burial chambers on Sept. 11 as some workers tried in vain to protect themselves from the fire and smoke by taking refuge inside them.

The gold, which was discovered on Tuesday, was being transported through the basement of the building on the morning of Sept. 11. Recovery workers reached a service tunnel and discovered a 10-wheel truck and a number of cars that had been crushed by falling steel.

A temporary ramp was built to gain access to the tunnel and a small bulldozer was used to break through a wall. Then a team of police and firefighters arrived to put the gold into an armoured bullion truck. Other workers were told to make themselves scarce.

"If I tried to go down there they would have shot me," one said.

Eight years ago, when the World Trade Centre was bombed by terrorists, more than $1 billion in gold was being kept in the basement vaults, the property of the Kuwaiti government.

At first, police believed the terrorist attack was an attempted gold robbery. Since then the amount of gold kept under the World Trade Centre has been a carefully guarded secret. --------------

The Times (London)

November 1, 2001, Thursday

Crushed towers give up cache of gold ingots

Nicholas Wapshott in New York

RECOVERY workers at Ground Zero have discovered hundreds of gold ingots, part of a billion dollar cache which was lost when the twin towers fell.

Workers clearing rubble in a service tunnel underneath one of the collapsed World Trade Centre buildings found themselves surrounded by more than 100 armed FBI and secret service personnel, who had been tipped off by the owners where the gold was buried.

The collapsed buildings contained a number of vaults and strongrooms, but the police were not saying who owned the gold.

The Comex metals trading division of the New York Mercantile Exchange kept 3,800 gold bars -weighing 12 tonnes and worth more than $ 100 million (Pounds 70 million) -in vaults in the building's basement. Comex also held almost 800,000 ounces of gold there on behalf of others with a value of about $ 220 million. It also held more than 102 million ounces of silver, worth $ 430 million.

The Bank of Nova Scotia, which kept gold in the Comex vault, reported $ 200 million of gold lost in the wreckage. Comex also held precious metals for Chase Manhattan Bank, the Bank of New York and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking.

The vaults higher up the towers became burial chambers on September 11 as some workers tried in vain to protect themselves from the fire and smoke by taking refuge inside them.

The gold, which was discovered on Tuesday, was being transported through the basement of the building on the morning of September 11. Recovery workers reached a service tunnel and discovered a ten-wheel lorry and a number of cars which had been crushed by falling steel.

A temporary ramp was built to gain access to the tunnel and a small bulldozer was used to break through a wall. Then a team of police and firefighters arrived to put the gold into an armoured bullion lorry. Other workers were told to make themselves scarce. "If I tried to go down there they would have shot me," one said.

Eight years ago, when the World Trade Centre was bombed by terrorists, more than $ 1 billion in gold was being kept in the basement vaults, the property of the Kuwaiti Government. The vaults withstood the blast.

At first police believed the terrorist attack was an attempted gold robbery. Since then the amount of gold kept under the World Trade Centre has been a carefully guarded secret.

-------------- he Statesman (India)

November 2, 2001

DUST TO GOLD, BUT WILL THE WORKERS STRIKE POT LUCK?

WTC BASEMENTS HID MILLIONS IN BULLION NICHOLAS WAPSHOTT THE TIMES, LONDON NEW YORK, Nov. 1. Recovery workers at Ground Zero have discovered hundreds of gold ingots, part of a billion dollar cache which was lost when the twin towers fell. Workers clearing rubble in a service tunnel underneath one of the collapsed World Trade Center buildings found themselves surrounded by more than 100 armed FBI and secret service personnel, who had been tipped off by the owners where the gold was buried.

The collapsed buildings contained a number of vaults and strongrooms, but the police were not saying who owned the gold. The Comex metals trading division of the New York Mercantile Exchange kept 3,800 gold bars weighing 12tonnes and worth more than GBP100million (pounds 70 million) in vaults in the buildings basement. Comex also held almost 800,000 ounces of gold there on behalf of others, worth GBP220 million. It held more than 102 million ounces of silver, worth GBP430 million. The Bank of Nova Scotia, which kept gold in the Comex vault, reported GBP200 million of gold lost in the wreckage. Comex also held precious metals for Chase Manhattan Bank, the Bank of New York and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking.

The vaults higher up the towers became burial chambers on 11 September as some workers tried in vain to protect themselves from the fire and smoke by taking refuge inside them. The gold, which was discovered on Tuesday, was being transported through the basement of the building on 11 September morning. Workers reached a service tunnel and discovered a ten-wheel lorry and many cars which had been crushed by falling steel. A temporary ramp was built to gain access to the tunnel and a small bulldozer was used to break a wall. A team of police and firefighters arrived to put the gold into an armoured bullion lorry. Other workers were told to make themselves scarce. If I tried to go down there they would have shot me, a worker said. Eight years ago, when the World Trade Centre was bombed by terrorists, more than GBP1 billion in gold was being kept in the basement vaults, the property of the government of Kuwait. The vaults withstood the blast. At first police believed the terrorist attack was an attempted gold robbery. Since then, the amount of gold kept under the World Trade Centre has been a carefully-guarded secret.

---------------- The Australian

November 2, 2001, Friday

WTC workers dig up huge gold cache - WAR ON TERROR

Nicholas Wapshott

* New York

RECOVERY workers at the collapsed World Trade Centre have discovered hundreds of gold ingots, part of a billion-dollar cache that was lost when the twin towers fell.

Workers clearing rubble in a service tunnel underneath one of the collapsed World Trade Centre buildings found themselves surrounded by more than 100 armed FBI and Secret Service personnel, who had been tipped off by the owners where the gold was buried.

The buildings contained a number of vaults and strongrooms, but the police were not saying who owned the gold.

The Comex metals trading division of the New York Mercantile Exchange kept 3800 gold bars -- weighing 12 tonnes and worth more than $US100 million ($197.8million) -- in vaults in the building's basement. Comex also held almost 800,000 ounces of gold there on behalf of others, with a value of about $US220 million. It also held more than 102 million ounces of silver, worth $US430 million.

The Bank of Nova Scotia, which kept gold in the Comex vault, reported $US200 million of gold lost in the wreckage. Comex also held precious metals for Chase Manhattan Bank, the Bank of New York and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking.

The vaults higher up the towers became burial chambers on September 11 as some workers took refuge inside them.

The gold, which was discovered on Tuesday, was being transported through the basement of the building on the morning of September 11. Recovery workers reached a service tunnel and discovered a 10-wheel truck and a number of cars that had been crushed by falling steel.

"If I tried to go down there, they would have shot me," one said.

Eight years ago, when the World Trade Centre was bombed by terrorists, more than $US1 billion in gold was being kept in the basement vaults, the property of the Kuwaiti Government. The vaults withstood the blast.

At first, police believed the terrorist attack was an attempted gold robbery.

------------------ Birmingham Post

November 1, 2001, Thursday

LORRYLOADS OF GOLD AND SILVER FOUND IN WORLD TRADE CENTRE RUBBLE

Hugh Dougherty

Recovery workers at the World Trade Centre have found a cache of gold which has already filled two lorries.

The precious metal find may be part of the vault containing more than pounds 137 million in gold and silver which was buried under the twin towers when they collapsed. The vault was owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia, which held the gold and silver as security for trading international currencies in New York.

Today work was continuing to get at the gold, after the first two loads of the metal left under tight security last night.

Workers had toiled for two days to clear a delivery tunnel under the World Trade Centre, taking out tons of debris, a ten-wheeled lorry and several crushed cars. Watched by hundreds of heavily-armed Secret Service agents, FBI and police, they built a ramp into the tunnel to allow an armoured truck to drive in late last night. Workers were moved away from the area while the operation to recover the cache was under way. One said: 'If I tried to go down there, they would have shot me.'

The gold was being taken to a location guarded by security firm Brinks and the search was underway for its owners. The Bank of Nova Scotia said it did not know if its gold had been found last night and other firms are believed to have had gold and other valuables buried in the debris.

The find came as New York city bosses ordered police and firefighters to scale back their presence at the site.

Just 24 police and 24 firefighters will be left sorting through the rubble in the search for the bodies of the more than 4,000 still missing. But the plan has met opposition from uniformed services unions, who said the fact that bodies of police and firefighters were still being found meant they should be allowed to stay at the site.

Matty James, of the Uniformed Firefighters' Association, said: 'The city may be ready to turn this into a construction job but we're not. We want our brothers back. By doing this the city is taking away from these families, these widows, these mothers and fathers, any chance for closure.

'What are we supposed to do? Go to the Fresh Kills Landfill to look for our people.' Fresh Kills is the 3,000-acre site on Staten Island where the rubble is being sorted.

In the last week, 12 firefighters' bodies have been recovered and identified, allowing their families to have funerals.

One mother who lost her son, whose body was found hours before a scheduled memorial service, said she wanted to see the rescue effort continue.

Ronnie Roberts, whose son Mike was a firefighter, said: 'To me, to find the body I got such solace, such a feeling of peace. Our memorial mass became a funeral. It's just awful what they are trying to do - to deprive other women of that wonderful feeling.'

But one senior fire official defended the move, saying firefighters were undertaking risky operations in the search for bodies.

'We don't need to be going to any more funerals,' he said.

'The fact is, we need the group to be more tightly controlled and we need to put less people at risk.'

--------------- Yorkshire Post

October 31, 2001

SECRECY AS CACHE OF GOLD RECOVERED AT WORLD TRADE CENTRE

Recovery workers at the World Trade Centre in New York have found a cache of gold which has already filled two lorries, it was revealed yesterday.

The precious metal find may be part of the vault containing more than GBP137m in gold and silver which was buried under the twin towers when they collapsed on September 11. The vault was owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia, which held the gold and silver as security for trading international currencies in New York.

Yesterday work was continuing to get at the gold, after the first two loads of the precious metal left under tight security on Tuesday night.

Workers had toiled for two days to clear a delivery tunnel under 5 World Trade Centre, taking out tonnes of debris, a 10-wheeled lorry and several crushed cars.

Watched by hundreds of heavily-armed Secret Service agents, FBI and police, they built a ramp into the tunnel to allow an armoured truck to drive in late on Tuesday.

Workers were moved away from the area while the operation to recover the cache was under way.

One construction worker told the New York Daily News: "If I tried to go down there, they would have shot me." The gold was taken to a location guarded by security firm Brinks and the search was under way for its owners.

The Bank of Nova Scotia said it did not know if its gold had been found and other firms are believed to have had gold and other valuables buried in debris following the terrorist strikes on the United States.

The find came as New York city bosses ordered police and firefighters to scale down their presence at the site.

Just 24 police and 24 firefighters will be left sorting through the rubble in the search for the bodies of more than 4,000 still missing at the site.

But the plan has met with opposition from uniformed service unions, who said the fact that the bodies of police and firefighters were still being found meant they should be allowed to stay at the site.

Matty James, of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, told the New York Daily News: "The city may be ready to turn this into a construction job but were not. We want our brothers back.

"By doing this the city is taking away from these families, these widows, these mothers and fathers, any chance for closure.

"What are we supposed to do? Go to the Fresh Kills Landfill to look for our people?" Fresh Kills is the 3,000-acre site on Staten Island where the rubble is being sorted.

In the past week 12 firefighters bodies have been recovered and identified, allowing their families to have funerals.

One mother who lost her son, whose body was found hours before a scheduled memorial service, said she wanted to see the rescue effort continue.

Ronnie Roberts, whose son Mike was a firefighter, said: "To me, to find the body I got such solace, such a feeling of peace.

"Our memorial Mass became a funeral. Its just awful what they are trying to do - to deprive other women of that wonderful feeling." But one senior fire official defended the move, saying firefighters were undertaking risky operations in the search for bodies. "We dont need to be going to any more funerals," he said.

---------- The Mirror

November 2, 2001, Friday

WAR ON TERROR: NEW TARGETS: FAILED GOLD HEIST AT TWIN TOWERS

Steve Atkinson

BUNGLING thieves tried to steal pounds 264million in gold and silver from the rubble of the World Trade Center, it was revealed last night.

The criminals posed as rescuers to get at the untouched strongroom deep beneath the twins towers.

Armed guards who were ordered to remove the haul owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia found signs intruders had already been there.

Crowbar scratches and blowtorch scorch marks all over the room revealed a failed bid to get at the gold.

The Bank of Nova Scotia said last night: "The contents remain safe and intact." Within days of September 11, thieves had ransacked the WTC's underground shopping mall. And when a stock of watches went missing, armed guards were posted to stop the loss of any more valuables.

But many areas were hidden by tons of uncleared rubble which is only now being exposed.

The Nova Scotia raiders should have tried next door instead where the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter safe in an adjacent basement was left open in the rush to evacuate.

The pounds 1.9billion in stocks and bonds certificates contained within was recovered in full two weeks ago.

-----------------------------

The New Zealand Herald

October 6, 2001 Saturday

Secrets, guns and drugs lie under rubble

By GEOFF CUMMING

Vital evidence in the fight against organised crime and terrorism may be lost forever in the rubble of the World Trade Center.

And with millions of dollars in gold bars and art treasures also buried in the wreckage, New York City officials are worried about the foothold gained by organised crime in the cleanup.

Beneath the haunting presence of thousands presumed dead, Ground Zero is rich with documents, guns and other evidence collected by the CIA and US Secret Service.

Both agencies had offices in the twin towers destroyed by suicide plane attacks on September 11.

US Customs and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms suffered similar losses.

Somewhere in the rubble are safes containing guns, heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy - evidence from crimes that now may never be prosecuted.

The CIA ordered the World Trade Center Seven building surrounded by FBI agents shortly after it collapsed.

Since then, they have been searching for computers and a safe filled with classified documents.

Rescue workers have found weapons belonging to the Secret Service. Still buried are detailed contingency plans for presidential motorcades in New York and files on investigations that include the closely guarded names of informants in organised crime and terrorism.

Tax investigators based in World Trade Center building Six have lost countless confidential documents.

The Securities and Exchange Commission lost files on several hundred cases.

Government agents are watching construction workers employed in the removal through binoculars as they search.

Meanwhile, a steel "cross" found in the rubble has been adopted by rescue workers as a symbol of faith.

The 6m cross, which fell intact from one of the twin towers, was found early in the search for survivors.

Rescue workers have since made pilgrimages to pray or meditate near it, some etching messages on the metal.

This week, workers hoisted the cross atop a 12m-high foundation and stood quietly as it was blessed with holy water.

Few other identifiable items have been recovered from the wreckage. But with such valuable and sensitive items buried, ABC News reported growing concern at the presence of trucking firms and cleanup workers with organised crime connections. Authorities are investigating claims that Mob-connected truckers stole tonnes of scrap metal instead of taking it to a landfill site for inspection.

Most workers at the site are provided by the Carpenters' Union Local 608, which has longstanding ties to the Genovese crime family.

Some workers have allegedly been forced to pay kickbacks to Mob-connected union officials in order to keep working.

Investigators say the Mob slipped in quickly in the early, frantic days. To the Mafia, the scene of devastation and worldwide shock instantly spelled "money."

www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/saturday/chi-castro_martinez1sep22,0,3709356.story
chicagotribune.com
WORLD
Lucid Castro talks on Cuba television
He seems largely alert, criticizes U.S.

By Michael Martinez

Tribune correspondent

September 22, 2007

HAVANA

Largely alert and lucid, Fidel Castro made a surprise appearance on a television news program Friday evening in a prerecorded hourlong interview, speaking about an essay he wrote earlier this week accusing the U.S. of threatening the global economy.

His appearance was unusual because Castro has mostly been out of the public eye since he underwent emergency intestinal surgery 14 months ago. The government has at times shown photographs and video of Castro, but his exact illness and prognosis are secrets. Castro's only other long television interview was in early June.

During Friday's interview, Castro's voice remained weak. But he maintained his signature ability for rambling discourse, as well as animated gestures, including once slapping an object that was off screen.

On a few occasions, the interviewer had to coach and prompt Castro, including correcting Castro on the number of "Reflections" columns -- 45 -- he has written during his illness. He seemed to be at a loss for words at points but became energized as time went along.

Castro's appearance comes as rumors about his demise have reached a fever pitch in the Cuban exile community in South Florida, but his appearance Friday suggested he is slowly gaining strength during a more than yearlong convalescence.

"They say I was dying and 'if I die' and I will die the day after tomorrow," Castro said. "Who knows what they know?"

The interview also comes on the heels of an earlier column Castro wrote for Cuba's daily newspaper that had raised concerns in the international community about his lucidity.

In that column, Castro advanced an extremist theory that a U.S. conspiracy was concealing the truth behind the Sept. 11 attacks, including the presence of gold bars in the basement of the World Trade Center.

In the most recent essay, which served as the basis for Friday's interview, Castro acknowledged that controversy in the first sentence but then went on to write more than 5,300 words about how "the world is threatened by devastating economic crisis," for which the United States is to blame.

Displaying no sign of his trademark green fatigues, Castro wore a red Adidas athletic jacket, trimmed with blue and white, with "Castro" written over the left breast. Castro noted that the euro was trading at $1.41 and that the price of petroleum is $84 a barrel, proof that the interview was recorded earlier Friday.

During the interview, Castro displayed several thick books that he indicated he had been reading, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's just-published "The Age of Turbulence" and a book about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

He also waved a copy of "The Reagan Diaries" up to his shoulder in a show of fitness and joked, "This book is heavy. It has to be weighed in tons."

Castro opened the book, and inside the cover were handwritten notes, apparently Castro's.

In another show of ability, Castro also read lengthy passages aloud from the Greenspan book, but he didn't use the actual book. Instead, he read from a separately prepared printout with easier-to-read type.

Castro also spoke of how America's creation of the atomic bomb during World War II caused hundreds of thousands of deaths of defenseless Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, another theme he had addressed in his latest column.

"It was an act of terror," Castro said.

----------

mjmartinez@tribune.com