Having spent the better part of my life in media, I am always interested in the big stories of the day. I’m always looking for something to talk about on the air. September 11th, 2013 was no exception. I’ve also always loved riding motorcycles, so when I heard about two million of my compadres lining up in our nation’s capital, I became intrigued.
I was sitting at work when I heard just how many bikers were in DC. My office is within a stone’s throw of the city, so I decided to check out the big news by searching for some great footage on the day’s activities. Since I work in the media, the first places I look for footage are always the traffic cams. I wanted to see just how much congestion was really being caused. I heard from many that the bikers were circling the beltway (I-495) and that they were on Constitution Ave., Pennsylvania Ave., 14th Street Bridge and I-395, as well. If that were the case, the bulk of the biker traffic would be mixed in with the normal congestion we deal with every day. I knew a couple of the bikers who would be coming down from the New York and New Jersey area, my old stomping grounds. I thought it would have been kind of fun to see them show up on the news, in Facebook postings, on blogs or perhaps even on one of the traffic cameras which are running 24/7. At my company, we rely on those cameras. We use them every day to compile hundreds of traffic reports weekly to keep our millions of listeners informed about the countless bottlenecks they could expect to encounter during their commutes.
It was 11 AM when I first looked at the traffic cam site. I saw no congestion anywhere. I thought perhaps they had yet to arrive. I finished up my work for the day around 4 PM and decided to go to trafficland.com to see if the reality lived up to the hype. It was peak rush hour time, so I was anticipating seeing quite a bit of normal traffic as well as wall-to-wall bikers. I have to say, I was shocked and surprised when I not only did not see any bikers anywhere, but to no trace of normal congestion either. The video feeds made no sense.
Then I noticed something even more odd on one of the cameras at a specific location. The image I observed looked eerily similar to one I saw that morning. In fact, it was exactly the same picture. Despite the website’s statements that images were updated every two seconds, there was no update at all. This prompted me to click around to some of the main cameras. I simply could not believe what I saw next! SNOW! Yes, snow. On the ground, in September, in Washington DC. The feeds from two Washington DC traffic cameras showed snow on one of the busiest routes, I-66. I could see tire tracks and the camera also was pointing towards a ramp. The camera was nominally updating every two seconds or so. I periodically observed an individual car moving up the ramp. There was – however – no traffic on the main road and very few vehicles on the normally busy ramp, which was especially unusual at 4:00 PM.
The next camera I looked at was aimed at a major thoroughfare. The image again showed snow. Not only was I able I see wet roads but there was clearly snow on the grassy areas which looked like very much like wintertime. I could clearly see snow on parts of the sidewalks. As with the previous camera, traffic itself was quiet on this camera. There were no bikers anywhere to be seen.
It makes sense that there were no bikers to be seen on camera, doesn’t it? After all, who rides a motorcycle in Washington DC in the dead of winter? Never mind the fact that not a drop of rain fell on September 11 and that it was almost 99 degrees in Washington DC. My eyes were telling me that it was winter. At least on a few traffic cams. In some other camera shots I saw people wearing heavy coats, jeans and sweaters. In 99 degree weather??? Right.
I next cycled through cameras on Constitution Avenue, 19th Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, 12th Street, K Street and several others, all of which not only failed to show any motorcycles but which also showed a disturbing lack of traffic, as well.
The next thing I saws was so blatant and so wrong that I became completely convinced that something undeniably shady was taking place. I saw pictures of the Washington Monument in a state of calm quiet and perfect structural health. Now, that’s rather interesting given the fact that on September 11th, 2013, the monument was not only completely surrounded by scaffolding but was also surrounded by construction cranes hovering nearby. The image I saw had absolutely nothing around the monument – including people – and certainly no construction. At this point, I knew at that point I had to share what I had stumbled across. I was feeling pretty angry that the traffic cam website was being used to hide a major event involving millions of people!
I asked a co-worker for his opinion. He went to some of the “other” traffic sites. When he went to click on some of the camera icons, they suddenly came up as “unavailable” or stated that there were problems with the camera feed. Of course there were.
In addition to my background in radio/television. I am also an Audiovisual Engineer. For quite some time, I was a contractor with the Department of Defense until I switched gears. I had recently decided to flip-flop my two careers and go full time in the private sector. I remained a part time contractor for the DoD. Accordingly, I have quite a few “friends” and contacts in all aspects of the Government as well as in the military and intelligence communities.
What did I do next? I dug deeper and asked a “friend” of mine who is close to an organization which could have control over something like this for his views. Lo and behold, he was able to give me some insight. He informed me that he was in the NOC (network operations command) center that day and saw what was going on. He went on to explain that they were “told” to pretty much “fake-out” all of the camera feeds.
That’s all I can say about it but I immediately began to silently analyze just who might have told them to do that. Being in the media, I see quite a bit of exploitation. I’m proud to say that I have never contributed to that. However, censorship is something with which I do I have a personal problem. This was a clear attempt at hiding and censoring what we as Americans should have easily been able to see. We were denied not only live information but the opportunity to support those Americans who actually went to DC, as well.
My career in the media makes me especially sensitive to such abuses of power. 
Freedom of the Press is about both the public’s “Right to Know” and the Right of the Press to tell what we uncover. Both those Rights are short circuited when information is intentionally withheld from both the media and the American People. This abusive situation cannot be permitted to stand. It must be brought out into the light of day. After all, the people who cut off our flow of information work for us, not the other way around.
