In the week prior to 9/11, an “extraordinary” amount of put options were placed on United Airlines and American Airlines stocks. If you are unfamiliar with the stock market, a put option is financial contract between two parties that will offer the buyer insurance against a company’s excessive loss. Someone who purchases a put option is expecting a stock to drop or they are protecting their assets. Between September 6 and 7, 4,744 put options were purchased on United Airlines stock, compared to 396 call options. On September 10, 4,516 put options were purchased on American Airlines, as compared to 748 call options. The trading activity was 600% above the normal level. United and American Airlines were the only two companies who had planes hijacked on 9/11. There were also an abnormal number of put options purchased in companies who had a stake in the World Trade Centers.
The majority of the suspicious trading was linked to Deutsche Bank Alex Brown. On September 12, 2001, the head of the bank, Mayo A. Shattuck III, resigned from office. The previous director of the bank was A. B. Krongard, who is the former head of the CIA. Citigroup Inc and Morgan Stanley also received an abnormal number of put options, and both companies held offices in the World Trade Centers, and saw a decrease in stock price after the attacks. On September 10, 2001, Raytheon, a defense contractor, had an anomalously high number of call options traded. The Securities and Exchange Commission launched an insider trading investigation, in which Osama Bin Laden was a suspect, but no action was taken. The trading was traced to areas all over the world, with most activity occurring in the UK, Italy, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, France and the US.
In the days prior to 9/11, the Chicago Exchange saw the highest number of United and American Airlines options traded in history. The names of the investors remain a mystery, because they never claimed their money. After it was discovered that a single U.S.-based institutional investor, with no conceivable ties to al Qaeda, purchased a large amount of these options, the 9/11 Commission dismissed the importance of the events. Unfortunately, the abnormal trading did not tip off law enforcement, as intelligence agencies constantly monitor the stock exchange and the sudden rise in activity could have allowed analysts to “connect the dots” and see that a major event was about to take place involving American Airlines, United Airlines and The World Trade Centers. However, nobody could have imagined the scale of the tragedy.
In 1979, the Soviet Union began their ten year long conflict with Afghanistan. Ahmad Shah Massoud was a military leader who played a leading role in driving the Soviet army out of Afghanistan in the late 1980s. His military prowess made him a hero in Afghanistan, earning him the nickname Lion of Panjshir. During the war, Massoud was known for his strategic mass ambushes against Soviet and Afghan convoys. In 1983, the Soviets offered Massoud a truce, which he accepted. He then turned his attention to expanding the Afghan resistance movement, and liberating the northern provinces of Afghanistan. Massoud’s military forces were considered the most effective of all the various Afghan resistance movements.
In the middle of the 1990s, the Taliban took control of approximately 90 percent of Afghanistan. In response, Massoud formed an alliance to fight the Taliban, and provided shelter for people fleeing Afghan cities. However, on September 9, 2001, two days prior to 9/11, Ahmad Shah Massoud was killed by a suicide bomber at Khwaja Bahauddin, in Takhar Province, northeastern Afghanistan. The assassins may have intended to attack several Northern Alliance council members simultaneously, because others were also killed. Prior to his death, Massoud had warned the European Parliament that a terrorist attack was evident. The timing of the assassination is considered significant by people who believe Osama bin Laden ordered the murder, and wanted Massoud dead before staging the 9/11 attacks. Ahmad Shah Massoud died a national hero, and hundreds of thousands of people attended his funeral. The date of his death, September 9, is observed as a national holiday in Afghanistan, known as Massoud Day.
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