10. What next ?

The last eight years have certainly been depressing for anyone expecting justice for 9/11, but there are reasons for optimism. I think the Naudet film is one of the keys that will expose the true perpetrators : it is not just a documentary record of the crime, but an integral part of it, and those most involved in producing it must be aware of that fact. They know they are accessories, and one way forward is to simply carry on asking questions about them, and putting questions to them. What does David Friend of Vanity Fair magazine, for example, know about this film ? He is said to have known their father, Jean-Jacques, for years, and the brothers since childhood. What exactly was his role as one of 13 credited producers ? What exactly was his role as author of "Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11" (September 2006) ? Needless to say, the Flight 11 shot qualifies for inclusion. When did he get the idea for the book ? "I decided before 9/11," he says, the twinkle in the eye not visible in print.

How involved is former Battalion Chief Pfeifer, after 9/11 promoted to Deputy Assistant Chief of the Department ? Or is that a totally unthinkable accusation because his brother Kevin was one of the 343 FDNY fatalities — as unthinkable as the idea that the Pentagon could have been involved in 9/11 when it was one of the targets ? As unthinkable as the idea that a businessman would ever burn down his own property for the insurance, or a murderer would ever shoot himself in the foot to make it look like self-defence : never happens. Pfeifer appears to have retired from the Department some time between July 2007 and April 2008, since his name no longer appears in the FDNY's organisation charts : his job, with the Counterterrorism Emergency Preparedness Unit, has now been taken over by DC Mike Puzziferri, the star and presenter of Paul Berriff's film "9/11 : the Firefighters' Story" (see Appendix 2).

How involved are the other firemen from Duane Street seen in the film ? Do they still work at Duane Street ? Were at least some of the firemen who used to work there transferred elsewhere in the months leading up to 9/11 ? Was Duane Street gradually infiltrated, pre-9/11, by intelligence agents or assets masquerading as firemen, who could then themselves be "transferred" out again after the event ? Transfers are nothing unusual: neither Pfeifer nor Benetatos (the 21-year-old "boy" who became a man on 9/11) still works at Duane Street, and in September 2005 it was reported (Carl Glassman, Tribeca Tribune) that, of the 50 men who had worked there four years before, only 14 still did. Not included (see Appendix 3): James Hanlon, actor-fireman, now reduced to just actor, although last seen on screen in "Raising Helen" (2004), until six years later. He is said in his biographies — such as they are — to speak French (and to have a French wife, Sophie Comet, also an actor): so why, throughout the film, does he refer to "Jools" and "Gideon" ? Did he learn French for the brothers or for his wife ? "9/11" has no scenes of Hanlon speaking in French with his "old friends" : that doesn't prove he can't — but one scene would prove he could.

James Hanlon in his brief speaking (but uncredited) appearance as a maitre d' in "Raising Helen"

Hanlon, incidentally, is not the only actor-fireman in the business : the "Third Watch" TV series includes Derek Kelly, a real-life New York fireman with Engine 258/Ladder 115, and Bill Walsh, who works with Squad 252 (also appeared in the film "United 93"; not the Bill Walsh from Duane Street); Steve Buscemi is a former fireman and Denis Leary (who also appeared in "Wag the Dog" with Robert De Niro, q.v. in this essay) is almost an honorary member of FDNY, having given them millions of dollars through his foundations, and plays a member in the "Rescue Me" series — but there are very few others, to my knowledge. It is far from unusual for firemen to have more than one job, but not many are part-time actors.

And what about the brothers themselves — Jules Clément Naudet (allegedly born Paris, 26 April 1973) and Thomas Gédéon Naudet (allegedly born Paris, 27 March 1970) : where are they, and what have they been doing since 2001 ? What happened to the "Seamus" project ? Why was "In God's Name" still only their third film, six years after their last one was shot and twelve years after Gédéon graduated from New York University film school in 1995 ? What were they living on for six years ? Barring expenses, the proceeds from "9/11" were meant to go to the UFA Scholarship Fund: how much has been raised so far ? A figure of $6 million has been mentioned — like the figure of 100 million viewers of the film. If these are accurate, why have the brothers such a low profile when they should be American, if not international, celebrities ? Was their first film made solely to establish a fake career for themselves as film-makers, as a front for their real occupation ? Did they ever in fact attend New York University ? Did they ever in fact work for Canal + TV in France (since 2000, part of Vivendi : see below) ? Does anyone there remember them ? Can anyone name one single programme they worked on, or produce any evidence of it ? Can we even believe the above dates of birth — or the place ? The Mayor's Office in Paris has no trace of birth certificates relating to the above names for any date between 1960 and 1980; that means that they were not born in that city, and the claim that they are Parisians is false. [It should be mentioned, for the record, that the Jules Naudet of the "Sciences-Po" institute in Paris, born in 1981, email addresses julesnaudet@hotmail.com and jules.naudet@sciences-po.org, address 38 avenue Félix Faure, phone 1 44 26 16 97, is not the Jules Naudet of "9/11."]

Their father, Jean-Jacques, has a profile just as low as the brothers', for someone who "has personally known most of the great photographers of our time" (David Schonauer, American Photo, November/December 2006). Even lower, if anything, in that it was only in 2007 that I first came across a photograph, by then 15 years old, of this photojournalist (below) : his picture does not even appear in his own books.

He is said to work for the Hachette Filipacchi agency in the USA, to have been Editor-in-Chief of French Photo magazine 1976—1988 and to be currently Editor-at-large of American Photo, but I can find only two articles by him on the Internet, a review of film director Wim Wenders' book "Once" in American Photo, November/December 2001, and a piece on the highest-priced photograph in the world in Paris Match, 23 February 2006. Only three books: "Icons of the 20th Century: 200 Men and Women who have Made a Difference" (originally "Portraits du XXème Siècle : 200 Personnalités qui ont Marqué leur Époque"), with Barbara Cady, 1998/1999/2003; "Marilyn," 1999/2003 ; and "Marlene Dietrich: Photographs and Memories," with Maria Riva, 2001. Two articles and three books : like Goldfish Films, based at his Upper East Side home in New York (see picture, below, and the red inset showing tenants' names), with its grand total of two, not a lot of product to explain the Naudet lifestyle or the circles they move in.

38 East 73rd Street : the Naudets' father rents floors 4 and 5 for $4,500 a month
from the Hop Chong Trading Company, based at Suite 1529 of One Penn Plaza.

Jules Naudet lives with his wife Jacqueline, née Longa, whose parents are Juan and Mercedes, suggesting Hispanic, rather than French, lineage (possibly Venezuelan, if her full name is Janette Jacqueline Longa Muñoz), at 5 Hickory Road, Stamford CT 06903, shown in the photograph below. This property was bought in 2004 for $685,000; he also owns a condo, bought the same year, in Zephyrhills, Florida, where his mother-in-law lives. When the Naudets wed in 2002, Jacqueline was a human resources manager for Vivendi Universal, to whom, ironically, her husband had failed to sell his 9/11 film the previous year. Where Gédéon lives, I have yet to ascertain, but his own marriage to Monique in 2000 lasted only five months. Their father's permanent residence appears to be on West Shoreham Drive in West Hollywood, California; Jules and Monique also once had West Hollywood addresses.