Newly Noted

I had not come across Conspiracy Science before, but I did this afternoon and can recommend it as a good site. He's debunked Zeitgeist, and in particular does a great job with the third section on the Federal Reserve and banking.

How Is the Truth Movement Like "Heroes"?

Aside from having gone in the tank the last few years?

“With great power, comes great responsibility” has become a cliché, but it is still true. It also informs how we see and motivate ourselves. Most people get involved in political activism out of a sense of social responsibility; they have power, they have a responsibility. Most people in 911 truth fit this description. They are heroes in the personal archetypal sense: they will sacrifice their time and energy to reach out and try to make the world a better place. These same people will offer a hand to someone who falls, will call for help when needed, and will not ask or expect anything in return. They will do this in real life. This metaphor inspires something noble in many of us. But we are mistaken if we think it’s universal.

There are others among us. People who secretly enjoy seeing others at their worst. Who take a perverse delight in watching people struggle. Who would trip them if they could get away with it. And lie about it for laughs.

There's a long section in there about cointelpro; of course there is no real need for a counterintelligence program against the unintelligent Troofers; just let their own paranoia do the work.

The Mike Ruppert/Delmart Vreeland Connection

Covered admirably over at Counterknowledge.

I'd add that other Truthers have promoted the Delmart "Mike" Vreeland story, including Sander Hicks, who was recently the subject of one of the fictional "Truth" movies.

Troofers Continue to Wrestle With, And Over, President Obama

Let me make clear that when I point to posts where the Troofers rag on President Obama, it's certainly not going to be over things that I agree with them about. So assume when I link to this stuff, I'm making fun of the kooks, and not of the prez.

Over at Truth Action, which I would remind you is where the supposedly "responsible" wing of the Troofers hang out, the thread on Obama's "Coronation" continues to provide amusement. Several posters make the inevitable comparison to Adolf (Veillifter posted a ridiculous YouTube of a black preacher invoking Hitler), of course in this case focusing on the cheering crowds. A few of the liberal/left troofers object, but Veillifter makes a good point: How many of them objected to comparisons of President Bush to Hitler, which leads to arguments that Bush really did something to deserve the comparisons.

I always say that comparisons of any American politician to Hitler are absurd and overwrought, and that most of the people making the comparisons are not intentionally understating the evil of Hitler or overstating the evil of the American politician they are sliming. What they are doing is trying to compare themselves to those few brave souls who stood up to Hitler. It's a self-congratulatory, risk-free, "I'm noble because I'm resisting the tyranny of this fascist regime."

While Bush was in power, the kooks could tell themselves that he (and Cheney) were keeping a lid on 9-11 to protect themselves. Now that the Democrats are in power, the choices are basically:

1. President Obama is not pursuing 9-11 Truth because he's a pawn of the same New World Order as Bush.

2. President Obama is not pursuing 9-11 Truth because revealing it would be too devastating for the American people.

Think about it as a marketing problem. Which of those alternatives is going to be a more interesting sell? Which would be likely to attract new converts?

Yes, to the sane among us, there is a third option, that Obama's not pursuing 9-11 Troof because it's nutty, but that's never going to be embraced by the kooks.

But I do expect it to be pretty painful to the liberals in Trooferland. Jim Fetzer may be eager to embrace 9-11 nuttery, but don't expect him to agree that OKC was pulled off by the Clintons. Nick Levis is threatening to leave Truth Action, and John Albanese doesn't seem far behind.

WAC-OH: Jimmy's On Their Side

Although you'll note that they're suspicious of Carter because of his association with uber-globalist Zbigniew Brzezinski. I'm inclined to cut him some slack on this one; he was just saying what it took to get rid of the guy, although I do expect him to now be listed at Patriots Question 9-11.

David Ray Griffin Changes Minds In Japan

Although perhaps not in the way he intended. Here's a report from our JREF buddy, Adversity1, who confronted Grifter in Osaka back in November:

Hi JREF,

You may remember from threads such as 'David Ray Griffin in Japan (appearing with anti-semites and UFO believers)' and the ScrewLooseChange post about David Ray Griffin's appearance at the '9/11 Truth Forum in Osaka'. It was at this forum where I, and others skeptical of the truth movements claims, had the chance to confront David Ray Griffin about the lies and deliberate misinterpretations that he has peddled for years with hardly any criticism.

Here's a summary of the day:

http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com...-in-osaka.html

I had not made it down to the "People's Newspaper (Jinmin Shinbun)" afterwards to find out what the aftershocks were to this event, but it was already clear by the end when the Editor of the paper gave a closing address that quoted Chomsky's debunking of conspiracy theories that the "People's Newspaper" was not convinced on 9/11 conspiracy. This despite the fact that they had peddled this line for over three years.

Last weekend I went to pick up some video of the event at their offices and got a copy of the paper they put out directly after the event. The title of the issue reads: "9/11 truth: a Precarious Stack of Hypotheses, and we Cannot Discern the Truth". The issue features my letter to the editor where I spell out the four main points I raised against Griffin: that AA77 did in fact hit the Pentagon, that the inventor 'voice-morphing technology' supposedly used to fake the voices of victims on the plane has specifically rejected that this is even possible, that the vast majority of the families do not support the truth movement and Michael Hess' statement that what he heard was not explosions while escaping WTC7, concluding that the 9/11 truth movement is instead a movement that uses distortions and lies when it feels it needs to. Not only that, the "People's Newspaper" weighs in with a step by step debunking of Griffin's claims which points out the errors and logical fallacies of the so-called "truth movement" and ends with the lead editor concluding that "after putting on this event, I want to make it clear that I can no longer advocate for the truth movement with any confidence".

One section reads:

"Griffin continued: "those who doubt the truth movement don't realize that the government's claims themselves are a conspiracy." However, if the truth movement is suspected of manipulating people's impressions based on incorrect information, then it is unavoidable that people start to see the movement itself as a "conspiracy".

Griffin's claims are not enough at the moment to convince that 9/11 was an inside job. At first glance, these claims look like they have some persuasive power, but in fact aren't they merely claims assembled in a haphazard and patchwork way into a predetermined framework? The overall image reflects an impossible hypothesis, which instantly loses all persuasiveness when confronted with material facts."

The editorial continues, claiming that despite these defects in Griffin's theory, we should not forget that 9/11 was used as a political impetus for war. They go on to suggest some LIHOP scenarios that they consider feasible, and claim that there should still be a push for truth because of the effects 9/11 has had in terms of war. It is unfortunate that the paper here is not able to discern what really has happened: that they have been had by small-time fraudsters. That said, shifting towards LIHOP while dropping Griffin and the MIHOP theories certainly helps the People's Newspaper save face, given that they have been promoting these theories for over three years.

At multiple points the People's Newspaper notes that Griffin supports conspiracy theories about the events of Pearl Harbor, and that this rhetoric is only a reactionary explanation of why the war happened (I know from a personal account that the newspaper editor went to a 'truth conference' in Tokyo and was shocked to find himself surrounded by Japanese fascists).

Despite their concessions to LIHOP theories, the People's Newspaper has effectively given up on the whole mess. If you visit the paper's site here: http://www.jimmin.com/index.html you will find that they are no longer pushing 9/11 truth books or positions. The topic is no longer featured in their articles. It seems they want to wash their hands of the ugly movement that they found themselves a part of. Here, the truth movement has not only lost a community of potential believers; one of the biggest left newspapers in Osaka has partially restored its name by seeing through the lies of Griffin and others like him.

Here is the issue in JPG form:

http://i40.tinypic.com/2py70b7.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/2z8xcfn.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/2j1km0n.jpg

I'm not sure exactly how much my own intervention added to the "People's Newspaper" and conference attendee's rejection of conspiracy mumbo-jumbo. Watching the video, I think I came off a bit arrogant, and I could have been a bit more cordial. I think it is likely that the earlier portion of the conference, in which a member of the 'People's Newspaper' questioned Griffin about obvious evidence of a plane at the Pentagon did a lot more damage, in a more methodical way. This was a powerpoint presentation full of pictures of parts from American Airlines 77. Griffin's absolutely pathetic attempts to refute this evidence was the clincher.

So let's sum up:

What should have been the impetus for "energizing" the "truth movement" in Osaka has instead severed this movement from one of the few left organizations in the country that supported them. Besides another left publication called "Shuukan Kinyoubi", the only ones left are the UFO crackpots like Yumi Kikuchi and obvious anti-semites like Richard Koizumi.

Now hopefully the process of reflection:

Why were we duped?
Why were we so eager to believe that the US government/Israel is omnipotent?
Why did we ignore the existence and intent of fundamentalist and extremist Al Queda?

can begin.

Lessons for skeptics:

Even people that are hardcore into the conspiracy theory, and yet still retain a social understanding of the world, can probably be reasoned with. In this case, my participation was only an opportunity the People's Newspaper needed to free themselves.

It is worth confronting deniers where they appear. Like they do, we must play to the audience and answer THEIR questions, not get distracted by the double talk of paid liars whose only interest is in keeping the game shucking and jiving.

Closing comment by Pat: Great job by Adversity1!

A Seamless Transition

No, not the Obama team's effortless move into the White House; I'm talking the fruitcakes' ability to move him to the center of the conspiracy. Check out this website, where you can learn about comparisons between a book of Obama's pithier sayings and those of Chairman Mao. Or you can discover the ten essential secrets to surviving Obama. Or a rapper who isn't an Obama fan.

The Trouble With Conspiracy Theories

Philosophy teacher Edward Feser has addressed the subject of 9/11 conspiracy theorists before, and now he returns once again to the subject with an essay on the difficulty of massive government conspiracies. Of course the troofers will insist that only a handful of people would have to have been involved, and within minutes return to their narrative that the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, Secret Service, Silverstein Investments, SEC, NYPD, NY Times, Popular Mechanics magazine and others must be in on it.

People who think the U.S. government was complicit in 9/11 or in the JFK assassination sometimes complain that those who dismiss them as “conspiracy theorists” are guilty of inconsistency. For don’t the defenders of the “official story” behind 9/11 themselves believe in a conspiracy, namely one masterminded by Osama bin Laden? Don’t they acknowledge the existence of conspiracies like Watergate, as well as everyday garden variety criminal conspiracies?

Does New AG Have a Connection to pre-9/11 "Wall"?

A bit off topic to the conspiracy theories, but Tim over at 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America has been looking into the release of documents by the 9/11 Commission and has some interesting insights into it. Not a whole lot is really definite yet, but hopefully it will become clearer as more information is released.

I differ slightly. DAG Eric Holder saw far more evidence of the ‘Wall’ than did his predecessor DAG Jamie Gorelick — on his watch and within his lane — just as the lights began blinking al Qaeda blood red on his control panel.

Michelle Malkin reported today that even Arlen Specter, my Senator, has announced that he will support Eric Holder’s nomination for Attorney General.

Yesterday, I was told that the staff looked at questions of the ‘Wall’ while vetting Eric Holder’s nomination but no one seems to have tied the 9/11 Commission Report to the Bellows Report. Lacking that, minority members of the Judiciary Committee instead concentrated on concerns about his involvement in the Marc Rich and FALN pardons.

To date, what has been withheld from public view is the 9/11 Commission’s Staff Monograph on the ‘Wall’ — it exists, as I confirmed on January 15, 2009.

Kudos to the G-Men, and George Martin

Boos to the We Are Change punks trying to piggy-back their cause on the first responders:



Incidentally, there's going to be a new championship team of the football world in another few days:

Can These Morons Get Anything Right?

I can sometimes understand why troofers have such a hard time dealing with 9/11 related issues, given that they are extremely emotional and complex events. What constantly has me shaking my head though is how they manage to get everything wrong. Oftentimes horribly so. An example from 9/11 Blogger, in a post titled rather bizarrely, Look who Barack Obama is surrounding himself with: people who help to oppress all Americans.

Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education

A strong advocate of George Bush's NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND program which has reduced high school graduation rate to less than 50%, and that's only those who make it into high school, then only 3% of those that graduate go on to higher education, that's roughly 1.2% of children. 98.8% do not make it to higher education. Children are being 'trained', brainwashed to not care, not question, and not learn. Who controls our textbooks?

OK. Well, is this correct? Well, no. The poster is only off by about, uhh... a factor of 25:

The percentage of high school completers1 who enroll in college in the fall immediately after high school reflects the accessibility and perceived value of college education. The immediate college (2- or 4-year) enrollment rate for all high school completers increased between 1972 and 1997 from 49 to 67 percent. Then, the enrollment rate declined to 62 percent by 2001, before rising to 69 percent in 2005.

Incidentally the author also gets the high school graduation rate wrong although by not as much, it is around 70-80%, depending on how you measure it.

A New Cause for the Troofers!

Free Zacharias Moussauoui! The Moose is trying to undo his guilty plea:

The attorneys told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that Moussaoui's guilty plea was invalid because he was confused about the charges and didn't know that other al-Qaeda members had given information to interrogators that could have cleared him. Moussaoui pleaded guilty in 2005 to an al-Qaeda conspiracy to crash planes into U.S. buildings that led to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. After a two-month sentencing trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, he was sentenced to life in prison.

They might even get some significant support from the Left on this one. Talk Left, a major liberal law blog writes:

One thing the Government never established was his participation in 9/11, and that's the crime for which he's serving a life sentence. (The jury rejected the death penalty. Here's an account of the defense closing argument.)

It's unlikely Moussaoui will prevail. However, it should be noted he is a bumbling holy warrior serving life not for being a part of the 9/11 attacks, but for being a member of al Qaida, belligerent, stubborn, foolish and wanting to be a martyr.

I agree that Moussaoui was not intended as a pilot for the 9-11 attacks; rather I suspect he was intended to be part of the second wave of attacks that never came. Here's the statement of facts that Moussaoui agreed to:

9. Moussaoui knew of al Qaeda’s plan to fly airplanes into prominent buildings in the United States and he agreed to travel to the United States to participate in the plan. Bin Laden personally selected Moussaoui to participate in the operation to fly planes into American buildings and approved Moussaoui attacking the White House. Bin Laden told Moussaoui: “Sahrawi, remember your dream.”

As you can see, there is nothing there indicating that Moussaoui was part of the 9-11 team, but he was guilty of 9-11 foreknowledge--maybe not specifics but certainly in general. I'm not sure why Jeralyn Merritt, who's a pretty savvy blogger, is siding with him, but this earlier post gives us some indication:

Moussaoui stated today that Osama bin Laden had personally selected him to fly a plane into the White House. Is he telling the truth? Or is he on a death mission and exaggerating his participation in al Qaeda and his role in it to ensure he gets it? Have the oppressive conditions of his incarceration won out?

Help, help, he's being oppressed!

9/11 Family Member on Gitmo Decision

A 9/11 Family member takes on President Obama for his decision to delay the trials of the 5 accused of 9/11 related crimes in the New York Daily News:

With his shameful order to close Guantanamo Bay, President Obama has perfectly filled the stereotype of the classic clueless ultra-Liberal — the one who can generate great passion for the rights of the guilty defendant and none for the innocent victim.

With a single stroke of the pen, Obama has delayed justice for the victims of 9/11, and in essence granted a reprieve for Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the architect of 9/11.

More at 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America. Needless to say the troofers didn't like the editorial.

The Obama Deception

Update by Pat:

Because this film is now getting a lot of attention, including advertising on Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck's radio program, this post has become a big stopping point for this ridiculous movie. As a result, I would like to start our readers by pointing to this post of mine debunking the Obama Deception from a conservative point of view. Here's Part II of my debunking of the Obama Deception.

Update End

As a bit of a follow-up to Pat's last post on the nutjobs in the post-Bush era, head nutjob Alex Jones, who is conveniently not constrained by reality, doesn't let it him slow him down in the least, with a movie on Barack Obama titled "The Obama Deception" coming out in just 2 months.

How's The Obama Thing Working Out?

Back when we started this blog, I would have sworn that the election of a Democrat would just about kill the 9-11 Troof Movement. But I quickly came to realize that while there were a lot of left-wingers in the movement, this was not a left-wing movement. It's a fringe movement, involving the very fringiest of left-wingers, and libertarians as well. It's not Bush Derangement Syndrome but Plain Old Derangement.

Many Troofers have had little problem incorporating Obama into their mix. Folks like Alex Jones can spout their "false left/right paradigm" nonsense.

Some of the liberal troofers are still hopeful that Obama will embrace 9-11 Troof:

Barack Obama must first reveal the truth of our current financial nightmare as well as the abuses of power by the Bush/Cheney administration in order to restore trust in our government. That rapidly unfolding public vetting process will eventually lead to the 9/11 cover- up and Bush and Cheney's active participation or willing countenance of the tragic events of that day.

They are encouraged by his pledge to shut down Guantanamo.

But there are some storm clouds on the horizon as well. Obama has not endorsed the destruction of Israel, and that's causing some heartburn among the "Muslims never hurt anybody" wing of the Troof Brigade:

In a visit to the State Department Thursday, President Obama made his first substantive comments on the Middle East conflict since Israel’s attack on Gaza. Obama first mentioned his commitment to Israel’s security, without affirming his commitment to Palestinian security. He condemned Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns, but didn’t criticize the US-backed Israeli bombings of densely populated Gaza.

And Obama's comment that Al Qaeda remains America's number one enemy did not sit well with the Truth Action folks:

The savior with the pro-war heir-to-Irgun Chief of Staff who in the past week managed to boldly inform us that al Qaeda remains the Number One threat to Americans, that George Bush is a "good man" and that Venezuela is "exporting terrorism" and better beware. Not only am I not in the mood for the bullshit but I simply don't have the time or energy to accomodate that kind of deep sickness - at least not if I am to effectively continue with the work that I feel very strongly must be done - the work of 9/11 truth. It's hard to take watching folks who you think should know better getting caught up in this stuff, but I can certainly empathize with the psychological need to do so after 8 long years of the American Nightmare exposing itself in public and upsetting everyone... instead of dressing up in its friendly fascist finest and making everyone (who matters) feel goood.

My take? The folks who were going to leave the Troof Movement if a Democrat was elected probably already left the movement back during the primaries. The rest are not going anywhere. The good news is that the growth phase of the movement in the US is over. It was a lot easier to sell paranoia about Bush when you could combine it with the conspiracy theories already popular on the left about Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004; it's a harder task when you've got the '08 election as the backdrop.

Say You Want a Revolution...

LOL! What, three doltish students stage micro-protests, and that's going to bring down the New World Order?

Father Fruitcake No Longer Excommunicated

We talked a month or so ago about nutbar extraordinaire Richard Williamson, who combines 9-11 Truth and Holocaust Denial with a leadership position in a schismatic offshoot of Roman Catholicism. Turns out Bishop Batcrap is now back in the good graces of the Holy See, although it remains to be seen if he will be affirmed by the pope as a Bish.

Among the men reinstated Saturday was Richard Williamson, a British-born cleric who in an interview last week said he did not believe that six million Jews died in the Nazi gas chambers. He has also given interviews saying that the United States government staged the Sept. 11 attacks as a pretext to invade Afghanistan.

I'm inclined to cut the pope a little slack for now. All the removal of the excommunication sentence means is that Monsignor Moonbat is not condemned to dance in the flames for eternity. Yet.

But you know, if there really was a Spectre around to dish out ironic punishment, isn't it obvious that Priest Paranoid would be taken back to WTC-1 on the morning of 9-11 and given the good news that the government was not going to do a controlled demolition of the building? Or to Auschwitz in 1944?

What a slimeball.

Good Work by John Brown

There are more parts to this here. The hostess is Christie Czajkowski, who's quite a fruitcake herself (as you will quickly hear). I haven't paid that much attention to her but apparently she got kicked out of the Minutemen organization because she was too extreme even for them. Update: Christie stops by in the comments (Truth Brigade) to tell us that she quit the Minutemen. I don't know the story and am not particularly interested in researching it, so I'll go with her version.

The clip highlights why I'm not terribly interested in appearing on Truther Radio; odds are very strong that I'd be the only sane person involved with the show. But good job by "John"!

Update II: Check out this video of an argument between Christie and former boyfriend and San Diego Minuteman leader Jeff Schwilk. Profanity, definitely NSFW, but wow!

They Made Dylan's Original Film!

And he's in it:

Robert and Alison Logan were married less than a year when Alison boarded American Airlines Flight 77 on the morning of September 11th, 2001. Later that morning, Robert watched in horror as televised news reports told him that Alison's fight had been hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon.

Eight years later, Robert has pulled his life back together and relocated to the Midwest. Still haunted by the memory of Alison, he has married Rachel, a clinical psychiatrist, and they share an idyllic life with Rachel's daughter Carly.

The peaceful calm of Robert and Rachel's life is torn apart when a research project Rachel is working on includes a brain damaged patient at a secure hospital who bears a striking resemblance to Alison. Both Robert and Rachel embark on their own personal investigations, for separate reasons, to discover the truth about the woman in the hospital.

Credits include:

Starring: Nathaniel Ross, Debra Lopez, Carolyn Kanter, R. Michael Gull, Brian Green. Featuring: Dylan Avery, John Waite, Walt Sloan, Jeff Skorik, Ryan Berard, Bruce Spielbauer.

According to the IMDB page, Do-Over plays himself. I assume that he'll be the equivalent of the 911Truth.org guy in the South Park episode.

This is at least the third 9-11 "Truth" film that admits it's fictional; The Reflecting Pool, Able Danger and now New Day. Of course, the rest of the Troofer films are fiction as well; they're just less honest about it.

Quick Hits

The Dallas Morning News gives the kooks at the Dallas MLK-Day parade a bit too much credit:

Along the route, vendors sold T-shirts and caps and conspiracy theorists offered free computer disks explaining what really happened on Sept. 11.

Richard Gage and Steven Jones are apparently dropping all pretense of not saying who did 9-11:

The same weekend (Nov 14) we will be having Dr Steven Jones and Mr Richard Gage for an event called "The Hard Evidence"- "that 9/11 was an inside job!"

Gage has always maintained the fig leaf that while he believes in controlled demolition at the WTC, he makes no claims as to who did it.

Dear Mom and Dad, Please Send Money

Richard Gage shakes the cup:

Last year, the response to our Sustaining Membership drive was less than hoped for. While we did double the number of Sustaining Members, the number still represents less than 4% of our 3,500 petition signers (approx. 100 people). This level of financial support does not allow us to meet our goals. If just HALF of our petition signers and other supporters upgraded to monthly Sustaining Memberships, it would make a HUGE difference in our ability to achieve a highly effective marketing presence in the professional architecture and engineering communities, and with our many other projects. At present we are only able to meet basic operating expenses at the beginning of this year and, in fact, are starting out in the red. Please join us and work with us actively to achieve the many goals set for us by you and the needs of the 9/11 Truth movement. Become a monthly Sustaining Member today!

Apparently he's still hoping to get 1000 Architects & Engineers by September 11. I'm going to predict here and now that they're still under 750 at that point.

The Alex Jones Inauguration Celebration

Alex Jones goes off on the new president. This was just too hilarious not to make a quick clip of it.

Those "Insane No-Planers"

Dylan Avery comments at 911 Blogger in response to an article on a witness to the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center:

No-planers are justifiably insane.
No amount of eyewitness testimony will change their ideas. Every eyewitness is planted, disinfo or lying.
I love how they do it too. They simply do "this". They put quotes around words
like "saw" and "plane"

Watch, I'm Killtown ... "Sure, he says he 'saw' a
'plane' ... but did he ACTUALLY see it?"

Uhh, hello, Dylan. Hundreds of people saw a commercial jetliner crash into the Pentagon. Do you remember what you said in Loose Change 2?

So if a Boeing 757 didn't hit the Pentagon, then what did? Eyewitnesses inside and outside the building were thrown to the ground by what they described as a shockwave. A number of military personnel at the Pentagon specifically mentioned smelling cordite. Cordite and jet fuel have two very distinct smells. Cordite is a compound used in ammunition, which is comprised of nitroguanidine, nitrocellulose, and nitroglycerin. It is cool-burning, produces little smoke and no flash, but produces a strong detonation wave. And, eyewitnesses described a bright, silvery flash. Jet fuel combustion, i.e. the planes that struck the Twin Towers, is bright yellow at best.

And I will be nice and not bring up Karl Schwartz. But for once I agree with you, you no-planers are insane.

Obama Suspends Gitmo Prosecutions

If he was going to break one campaign promise, I would prefer it was this one.

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Jan. 20 -- In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration.

The instruction came in a motion filed with a military court in the case of five defendants accused of organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The motion called for "a continuance of the proceedings" until May 20 so that "the newly inaugurated president and his administration [can] review the military commissions process, generally, and the cases currently pending before military commissions, specifically."

My concern is what they do with figures like KSM and the 20th hijacker, Mohamed al-Qhatani. The article notes:

The legal maneuver appears designed to provide the Obama administration time to refashion the prosecution system and potentially treat detainees as criminal defendants in federal court or have them face war-crimes charges in military courts-martial. It is also possible that the administration could re-form and relocate the military commissions before resuming trials.

You put KSM and al-Qhatani in the federal court system and the possibility exists that a judge will set them free. Indeed, the fruitcakes at the ACLU are essentially asking for that:

"This is a good step in the right direction, although we still think that the unconditional withdrawal of all charges and shutting down this tainted system is warranted," said Jamil Dakwar, director of the human rights program at the American Civil Liberties Union. "The president's order leaves open the option of this discredited system remaining in existence."

Some 9-11 family members are outraged:

"We demand that this camp stay open and that the process continue," said Joe Holland, whose son was among those killed during the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon in Washington.

"Right here, right now, this is a good process, they are getting a fair trial," Mr. Holland told reporters at the U.S. facility in Cuba, referring to the military commissions established by the Bush administration to try "war on terror" detainees held at the facility.

Let me make this clear. I don't care about the process, as long as the outcome is satisfactory. If KSM or al-Qhatani end up walking, then I am going to be quite outraged.

Alex Jones Bullhorn Auction Falls Through

Apparently Alex is going to have to come up with other ways to make cash. No surprise there. Alex claims E-bay is investigating. Yeah, right. Thanks to dwlan in the comments for the tip.

Truth Seekers and Truth Founders

Gregory Urich, who has published a real paper at JONES (on the mass and potential energy of WTC 1), and who qualifies as a "Truth Seeker" in my personal opinion, writes on his experiences at the Scholars for 9-11 Truth and Justice forum.

I have repeatedly called on the steering committee to reign in abuses by the moderator (Victoria Ashley) on the discussion forum only to be ignored. The abuses have ranged from anti-scientific censorship tactics (i.e. moving unwanted arguments to the “Debunker” sub-forum) to the banning of members who actually call others to the mat to support their spurious claims. I have repeatedly asked the steering committee to make a simple statement to the effect that ALL evidence based arguments should be permitted on the “Scientific Analysis” sub-forum.

This certainly caused my eyebrows to raise a bit:

These calls for a commitment to the scientific process have fallen on deaf ears. In all fairness, Steven Jones has supported this, but he is not on the steering committee. Actually, one steering committee member did support this and was subsequently banned from the discussion forum after repeatedly arguing my point of view.

Sounds like Steven Jones has let another organization he helped found get away from any notion of upholding the scientific method by his unwillingness to take a stand. End result: Gregory Urich has been banned from the STJ11 forum (which is not public, by the way).

Oh, and catch this detail on steering committee member Victoria Ashley, who's apparently responsible for Urich's banning:

Victoria Ashley has been researching the attack since 2003, and has contributed unique insights into the modes and methods of misinformation used to marginalize the 9/11 Truth Movement.

Bush Declares Martial Law, Suspends Constitution

Pay no attention to those inauguration ceremonies going on right now, that's just TV Fakery.

Why We Resist Counterknowledge

Nice article here by Antony Beevor.

It should be the duty of not just every scientist and historian, but also of every writer, publisher, movie-maker, TV producer and ordinary citizen to fight all attempts to exploit the ignorance and gullibility of audiences. Today’s silly conspiracy theory in the West can easily become tomorrow’s article of faith in the world at large. Quite simply, we play with facts at our peril. From selling fiction as truth in movies to peddling the big lies of counter-knowledge is not such a very big step after all.

The column notes Loose Change specifically and also mentions Damian Thompson's Counterknowledge.

Not Patrick Swayze!

I was rather amused by this post on the Loose Change blog.

This is from the pilot episode of A&E’s”The Beast,” which aired January 15th, 2009. The movement needs to confront Swayze on this and get him to comment. Someone also needs to confront the writers of the show and get them on camera. I post their names and photos at the end of this blog post.

Hey, why waste your time with Dick Cheney and Phillip Zelikow, when you have Patrick Swayze to confront!

Here is the video, the poor spelling and grammar are bad enough, but these people should be indicted for misusing a Pink Floyd song.

WAC-CO to Release Five (Yes Five) New 9-11 Films

This quintilogy of Truth is entitled "Core of Corruption" and is quite plainly the hottest topic of conversation in the NWO cafeteria.



I just love the juxtaposition of the claim about the films, "Each containing explosive, never before seen footage," with "CBS News has been told this evening...." Never before seen except for that one time on CBS News, I suppose.

Kinda Edgy, Kinda Nutty

That's Barry Taylor, a talk show host in Toronto. He starts out with Zeitgeist, which is an IQ test, and if you think it makes sense, you failed. Entertaining as hell as I commented when I watched the first section (on how Jesus is Osirus), but when they got into our wheelhouse with the 9-11 nuttery it was pretty predictably bad, as Barry will proceed to prove with his post:

“All the World’s A Stage” is the second chapter of Zeitgeist. September 11th. What really happened on September 11th? There are lots of questions surrounding the day that are never seriously addressed in the main stream media. Even if the steel was melted by the jet fuel there are still some glaring omissions. For instance…

The steel was not melted by the fuel. There's a double diversion in there. For starters, the steel does not have to be melted for it to collapse; all it has to do is lose its strength, which it does at a much lower temperature than melting. And the jet fuel only ignites the fire in the towers; very quickly it is the contents--the plastic, the paper, the wood--that is heating up the steel in the building.

* Why was building 7 not included in the 9/11 Report?

Building 7 is mentioned several times in the 9-11 Commission Report. Its collapse is not. So what? The collapse of St. Nick's Cathedral is not mentioned in the 9-11 Commission report, although it, too, was a casualty of the terrorist attacks.

* Why did Bush and Cheney not have to testify under oath?

Because they wanted to be able to lie and get away with murder without committing perjury? I mean, seriously. You think they did this, and yet you quibble about whether or not they were under oath?

* Why was the molten steel not mentioned in the 9/11 Report?

Because it was most likely not molten steel, but other molten metals like aluminum?

* How did the plane that crashed into the Pentagon manage to completely vaporize yet the bodies aboard remained in tact for fingerprinting?

They did not remain "in tact" (sic) for fingerprinting. They were identified from small pieces of flesh and bone via DNA testing.

* Where did the funding for the attacks come from?

Sadly the 9-11 attacks involved only a small fragment of the money that flowed through the Al Qaeda network. The total amount spent on 9-11 by Al Qaeda was somewhere around $500,000.

* Why is the security footage from the nearby hotels, showing the plane crash into the Pentagon not allowed to be released?

Ancient history here. The Doubletree footage has been released.

* Why did the terrorists really attack? Because they don’t like Americans? Why?

No, they love us. Osama listed three reasons in his fatwa against America: the presence of US soldiers in Saudi Arabia (after the first (1990-1991) Persian Gulf war), the sanctions by the US against Iraq after that same war, and US support for Israel.

* There’s absolutely no evidence linking Osama Bin Laden to the attacks. Who is responsible?

This is that old pile about how Osama's FBI Most Wanted Poster doesn't mention 9-11. Again, as we never tire of pointing out, the FBI presented extensive evidence that Zacharias Moussaoui was guilty of foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks, and they're about to present more in the KSM trial, whenever that happens. Bin Laden and KSM have admitted on numerous occasions to have planned the attacks. There are numerous martyrdom videos by the various hijackers.

More evidence:

* Dick Cheney, the man who didn’t have to testify under oath, was running exercises with NORAD during the attacks on September 11th. NORAD is supposed to be the defense for such terrorist attacks.

It's minutiae again, but Cheney was not really running exercises with NORAD that morning. NORAD was ending a three day shadow exercise of Russian forces in Siberia that never got under way on 9-11.

* Dick Cheney was once CEO of Halliburton, a company that made billions off the wars that were justified by the attacks of September 11th.

Dingdingding! Nice to see some actual truth from a Truther!

* No modern steel structures have ever collapsed as a result of fire. Three did on September 11th.

Kader Toy Company Fire. Enigma Business Park Fire. Delft University Fire. Google.

* All three buildings collapsed in the exact same fashion completely into themselves.

False. The Twin Towers collapsed at or about the points of impact of the two planes. Far from collaping "completely into themselves" they caused billions of dollars of damage to surrounding buildings. The Truthers seldom mention WTC-3, a 23-story Marriott hotel that was demolished in the collapse of the towers. The Winter Garden, and World Financial Center 3, which were 500-600 feet away suffered enormous damage.

WTC-7, on the other hand, collapsed largely from the bottom, but also caused enormous damage to the Verizon Building and Fiterman Hall; the Verizon damage was over $1 billion and Fiterman Hall has to be demolished although it is still standing and unoccupied the last I heard.

* No plane has ever vaporized when crashing into the ground yet two did on September 11th: one in Pennsylvania and one into the Pentagon.

Jet Blue?

* There was the original story of the passport flying through fire, and debris and onto the ground and then being found by an American official.

It was found on the ground by a passerby and handed to a policeman. But the FBI knew well before that popped up who had been the hijackers on Flight 11.

Hat Tip: Emailer Dave.

Korey Rowe's DD-214

Apparently in response to inquiries regarding as to whether he deserted the Army or not, Loose Change co-producer Korey Rowe posted a worksheet for his DD-214 on their blog. According to it he was discharged in 2005. Oddly enough though it shows his rank as PFC, while he went by the higher rank of Specialist earlier. Korey says that he is now using his GI Bill to go to college. Good for him, maybe he will learn something.

The Sounds of Silence

The way the troofers are constantly clamoring for more information on 9/11, possibly the most media covered single event in history, and even a new investigation, one would think they would be estatic over the release Wednesday of thousands of pages of documents from the 9/11 Commission. One would expect excited chatter as they poured over every last semicolon.

Unfortunately it seems quite the opposite. The post on this subject on 911 Blogger has received a grand total of 5 comments. The thread at truthaction.org has just 12 comments, none since Thursday so it has since fallen behind half a dozen threads on Gaza. The Loose Change blog has just 2 comments. OK, admittedly the Loose Change blog doesn't get much traffic on any subject these days, so maybe that is not a fair comparison.

MikeW continues to do some serious work going over the documents at the JREF forum though. There is a lot of information to sift through.

Hani Hanjour a Good Pilot

I've mentioned on several occasions that despite all the talk about Hani Hanjour being a terrible pilot, he rented a plane at a second airport. Here are the details from the interview with the instructor:

On his first certification flight a Cessna 172 was used. This is a single engine aircraft. Mr. Shalev sat next to.Hanjour and had him fly north from the Gaithersburg airport away from Washington, D.C. Mr. Shalev noticed that Hanjour used a landmark or terrain recognition system for navigation and did not use the ''VOR'' or Very High Frequency (VHF) Omni Directional Rangefinder instruments. Mr. Shalev stated that he considered this unusual because basic ainnanship requires knowledge of the operation of the VOR. Mr. Shalev selected Clearview airport in northern Maryland as their designation. The airport is located near Westminster, Maryland. Mr. Shalev said that the runway is small at Clearview and difficult to land. Hanjour landed at the airport without any difficulty. Mr. Shalev stated that based on his observations, Hanjour was a "good" pilot. Mr. Shalev thought that Hanjour may have received training from a military pilot because of his use of terrain recognition for navigation. Hanjour told Mr. Shalev that he (Hanjour) had most recently trained in Florida as a pilot.

After the certification flight, Mr. Shalev approved Hanjour for the rental of the Cessna 172 from Congressional Air Charters. Mr. Shalev said that Hanjour had his own flight bag, headset and aviator's chart for the Washington, D.C. area airspace. On 08/26/2001, Hanjour returned to Congressional Air Charters and rented an aircraft. Hanjour came in and spoke briefly with Mr. Shalev. The conversation related to the air corridor between Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport. The airspace is restricted because of heavy commercial airline traffic. Mr. Shalev said that the Cessna 172 that Hanjour would be flying is not pressurized and that would restrict the altitude. Generally, the air controllers allow small aircraft to fly to an altitude of 5000 feet.

Of course, the Troofers will find another part of that testimony "confirms" one of their theories. It's this: "Mr. Shalev thought that Hanjour may have received training from a military pilot because of his use of terrain recognition for navigation."

Either that or they'll seize on Shalev's name and claim he's Mossad.

Hat Tip: Mike W of 9-11 Myths (at JREF).

How They Planned It

A humorous little ditty by the poet laureate of 9-11 Debunkers:

The Republicans came, and the Democrats too,
'cos they're all the same party (I guess that you knew)
and Jew after Jew after Jew after Jew,
and some guys in black suits (CIA).
There were people from Bilderberg, FEMA and NIST,
there were people so secret they barely exist;
the Masons had gatecrashed, they weren't on the list,
but Cheney allowed them to stay.

Great job by Dr A!

Technical Articles at Architects and Nutjobs for 9-11 Troof

Analyzed by Ref at JREF.

Some of these "technical" "articles" are blog posts. Of course, James got a "paper" published in JONES that consisted of an email, so perhaps we shouldn't be too harsh on Gage and his gaggle. As noted by Ref, Gage himself has contributed a nice round number of technical posts to that list. Gage really is no different from David Ray Griffin, a popularizer of other people's "work" who contributes little (beyond that "AIA" after his name).

Educating the Sheeple

Bruno from WAC-LA tries to do the "You don't know anything about the cause you're marching about," routine, and of course reveals that he doesn't know anything. I love that the first woman's response to his claim about the Mossad slogan is "Well, some people will believe anything; like 9-11 was done by the US government." Bingo, she hit on Bruno's wacky beliefs first guess.

According to this site (where you can purchase Mossad shirts) the real slogan is, "Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory."

Sorry, Sibel

An FBI translator doubts her claims:

[Redacted] does not agree with Sybel (sic) Edmond's allegations. Edmonds claimed that supervisors were encouraging her to work slowly. He thinks that there is nothing there and that she is totally wrong. A supervisor would never do this, in his opinion.

Hat Tip: Mike W (at JREF).

More on the 9/11 Put Options

I have always had a personal interest in the 9/11 put option theories, a result of all those finance classes I took in b-school no doubt, so even though this was one of the weaker theories to begin with, most of it had been explained in the 9/11 Commission Report, I was interested to see some additional details in the recent document dump.

First of all, the press misreported much of this. For some reason troofers seem to think the media is infallible, when it benefits them.

When asked if anything initially looked suspicious, Cella said some of the option trading numbers in UAL and AMR looked suspicious at first blush, before the SEC investigated and understood the trading at issue. At the same time, he said the numbers were never as suspicious as reported in the press. Specifically, he said press reports typically doubled the options trading volume over the actual volume. He said the mistake likely resulted from the Options Clearing Corp's (OCC) public web site, which lists both sides of a trade (buy and sell) as separate trades. Thus, a reporter checking the web site for trading volume could easily overstate the trading volume by a factor of two. In addition, Cella said the trading volume on a given day includes both buys and sells. For example, the 2,282 AMR puts traded on 9/10/1, as reflected in the SEC report, includes puts sold by customers as well as puts bought by customers.

As explained before, much of this volume was part of a hedge strategy anyway:

A U.S-based investment advisor registered with the SEC purchased 2,000 UAL puts on September 6, constituting 96% of the volume. The SEC's Eric Ribelin and Andrew Snowden interviewed both the CEO of the advisor and the trader who executed the transaction. They received the innocuous explanation for the trade which is set forth in the SEC report. [See Report at 9 (explaining the advisor manages hedge funds with $5.3 billion under management, was pursuing a bearish strategy with respect to most airlines stocks in response to recent bad news announcements, and had actually purchased 115,000 shares of AMR on September 10, believing the negative information on AMR was already reflected in the price).]

And now we finally find out what newsletter recommended buying puts. Undoubtedly they will now be added to the incredible vastly improbable ranks of the conspirators.

The SEC determined that the unusual volume in AMR puts on September 10 largely resulted from an increase in the October 30 puts series. Investigation revealed that Options Hotline, a California newsletter, edited by Steve Sarnoff, recommended the purchase of this series in the issue emailed and faxed to its 2000 subscribers on September 9, 2001. The SEC interviewed 28 people who bought the October 30 puts, and 26 of them cited the Options Hotline. The SEC saw that 27 additional individual purchasers of the October 30 series of AMR on September 10 were also Options Hotline subscribers. The SEC interviewed Sarnoff, who explained the basis for his recommendation.

Another report also touches on the "mysterious unclaimed put options" which as we have said before, are not mysterious, they just had not expired at the time they were reported on. Thanks to MikeW and Lapman at the JREF forum for pointing these out for me.

More Suckage Ahead

As has been rumored for awhile, the 9-11 Troofer claims are going to be part of this season's Rescue Me.

It’s been a hot-potato even for the most heavyweight of political pundits in recent years, but the fifth season of the FX series “Rescue Me” will intrepidly delve into the controversial theory that the 9/11 attacks were aided or perpetrated by the U.S. government.

Season five will find the men of Engine 62 divided over the polarizing theory after a journalist working on a 10-year-anniversary story delves up painful memories.

Denis Leary notes:

“We’re five years in. You’ve got to have some suck parts, and we got those out of the way.”

Leary's not a kook, so maybe the show will come down on the right side of the issue.

9-11 Commission Records Unsealed

Expect to see lots of new claims from the Troofers as a brand new quote mine gets worked. Debunker Mike W of 9-11 Myths has already noted a report that sheds more light on Atta's luggage not making it onto Flight 11; apparently the tags on his luggage contained "a covert marking that indicated that the suitcases belonged to a passenger 'that was a security issue.'"

Hat tip for "New quote mine" observation to Bell at JREF.

Is Obama the False Flag Anti-Christ?

Inquiring minds--strike that, inquiring balls of mud want to know:

The incoming President, Obama, will come into the office having complete and total control over everything. He will have a dem house and senate. The position of President has been given undisputed dictatorial power over all branches of Government and the American people.

Why would the elites give him so much perceived power when they support racist eugenics programs?

Maybe, there is a chance they plan on making him out to be their Judas...maybe, possibly even their so-called antichrist?

I would not be shocked to see Obama become the "Great Tyrant" of our generation. I would not put it past them to create a false-flag antichrist.

You know, I voted against Obama. But even I never suspected that he was the false-flag antichrist, I swear!

Nafeez: Inquiry is Not Important, Campaigning for It Is

He says it about 2:45 into the video. It's something that several Truthers have admitted to me in private conversation and emails, which is that they don't really expect their theories to be vindicated in a new investigation. They're paranoid enough to accept that despite what they see as abundant evidence, the New World Order will still prevail.

Although he's talking specifically about a 7-7 inquiry and not a 9-11 inquiry, it's still amazingly tone-deaf to admit that the whole goal is agitation and not the supposed goal of the movement.

David Chandler

He's getting some prominence in the moo-vement right now, with several of his videos highlighted by the Architects and Nutjobs for 9-11 Troof. James posted David's breathtakingly stupid video about how the force of the top part of the North Tower on the bottom part was actually less when the building was collapsing than it was when that part was stationary.

So I thought I'd look into Mr Chandler. He's got a 9-11 Website, called 9-11 Speak Out. He thoughtfully has provided a post about the "evidence" (PDF file) that has convinced him that 9-11 was an inside job.

It's the pretty standard routine. We get the squibs. We get the nonsense claim that "The fires in the buildings, beyond the first few minutes, were essentially office fires and not very large ones at that." Yeah, this was just a teeny, tiny fire:



He mentions the picture of Edna Cintron that we're used to seeing the Troofers claim proves that the fire wasn't that hot; apparently he's unaware of the later photo of poor Mrs Cintron.

He brings up the heat sink argument, and I have to admit, I'm starting very much to doubt that he could possibly be a physics teacher as is supposedly claimed. He brings up "pull it" for chrissakes! He expresses astonishment that the collapse of Building 7 wasn't shown as many times as the towers; apparently he believes that a collapse that killed zero people is as newsworthy as collapses that killed thousands of people.

He brings up the false blips claim. Again, the wargames that were planned for that day never got underway. Indeed, the first question asked by NEADS of the FAA cleared that up:

08:37:52
BOSTON CENTER: Hi. Boston Center T.M.U. [Traffic Management Unit], we have a problem here. We have a hijacked aircraft headed towards New York, and we need you guys to, we need someone to scramble some F-16s or something up there, help us out.
POWELL: Is this real-world or exercise?
BOSTON CENTER: No, this is not an exercise, not a test.

He brings up put options, and the passport. He notes that some of the hijackers are still alive. He brings up New Pearl Harbor.

In his claims about Silverstein, Chandler makes a new allegation:



WTF? There's so much wrong in that one paragraph that I almost despair of ever tackling the whole thing. Silverstein did not purchase the buildings; he ground-leased them, which is an entirely different thing. He did not have an escape clause whereby he would owe nothing if they were attacked by terrorists; in fact he owed rent regardless of what happened to the buildings and furthermore was required to rebuild the towers under the terms of his lease. But perhaps Mr Chandler has a source for this amazing claim, which I have never heard before.

Silverstein did not insure the buildings for double against terrorism; that's a complete misreading of the situation. The buildings were insured of course, but Silverstein attempted to get less coverage until his lenders insisted that he obtain more. When the buildings were hit, Silverstein attempted to claim that the attacks constituted two separate incidents, and thus he could collect twice on the insurance. Although this strikes many as unfair, in fact, there is a legitimate argument and Silverstein did win double payouts from several of the insurers, although not from them all.

He did not collect the $4.6 billion claimed in 2004; that's the usual trooferism. The deal was struck in 2007, and prior to that only about 2.55 billion had been released. Obviously lots of the money is not going to Silverstein:

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land at ground zero and built the trade center, will get about $870 million from yesterday’s settlement, which is to go toward the cost of erecting the $3 billion Freedom Tower, the tallest and most symbolic skyscraper planned for ground zero, as well as the retail space at the complex.

Mr. Silverstein will get the remaining $1.13 billion for three large office towers to be built along Church Street, between Vesey and Liberty Streets.

As part of the deal, the Port Authority and Mr. Silverstein had to relinquish their claim that the companies owed more than $500 million in interest resulting from delays in making the payments. The insurers, in turn, abandoned their claim that they did not owe the money until the project was completed, in 2012.

Hilariously, after claiming that Silverstein made lots of dough, Chandler goes on to say, "On the surface, it was a terrible investment." I guess he's transitioning to the next part which is the usual nuttery about how poor the occupancy was in the towers (not true, they were about 95% occupied at the time the ground lease was finalized), and how the asbestos cleanup was going to be terribly expensive (not true, as most highrises constructed around the same time as the towers had asbestos-containing materials, and those buildings have not required expensive removal).

True to the "if he believes one nutty thing, he'll believe another" principle, Chandler closes by tying his 9-11 paranoia to his similar acceptance of JFK conspiracy theories. He also notes his skepticism of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Been awhile for the old Nutbar-O-Meter but if David Chandler doesn't deserve it, who does:



Oh, and let me point out that Chandler is heading rapidly towards Judy Wood's territory. Despite his current golden boy status we'll soon hear claims that he's disinformation, that he's some sort of CIA plant, once he displays enough symptoms that the Truth Action-types start to disown his theories.

The One Thing the Right and the Left Agree On

Is that if anything comes from a Troofer, it's inevitably nutty.

Pravda publishes an article claiming that we're headed towards a new ice age. A couple of conservative blogs have linked it uncritically:

Pravda has more credibility than Al “Oscar, Grammy, Nobel” Gore.

Now several people have criticized the article based on science, but several have gone with the "nuclear" option of destroying the credibility of the writer, Gregory F. Fegel. And how have they done it? You guessed it:

Yet another point made is that the author of the artile in Pravda is also a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. Tim Lambert notes that “this doesn’t bother NewsBusters’ Noel Shepherd one little bit”

How delicious that an America-hating Truther who contributes to Pravda has a firmer grasp of climatology than Nobel Laureate Al Gore, James Hansen, Gavin Schmidt, and most of the folks at the IPCC.

Yes, the right wing denialists don’t care at all why they quote as long as it supports their biases. The rest of us are far more likely to trust the work of scientists at the IPCC rather than a conspiracy theorist writing for Pravda.

I would remind you that many conservatives wrote off Phil Berg's lawsuit on Barack Obama's birth location, the minute they learned that he was a 9-11 Troofer. And Obama's campaign itself successfully used Jerome Corsi's flirtation with Trooferism as a nuclear debunking of his book, Obama Nation.

Yep, if there is one thing both sides agree on, it's that if the information comes from a 9-11 nutbar, it's automatically suspect. I can't tell you how pleased that makes me.

Troofer Physics

After years of "faster than the speed of gravity" the idiots at Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth now argue that the towers could not have collapsed at less than the acceleration due to gravity. No, this doesn't make sense to me either.

Six Hijackers Still Alive

That's how the fruitloops will no doubt spin this story:

Flesh or bone from 13 of the 19 Al Qaeda terrorists who flew passenger jets into the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington have now been identified.

In the most intense crime scene investigation in history, scientists sifted through a mountain of concrete dust, buckled iron and shattered glass to find what was left of the terrorists.

The final tally was 24lb of burnt flesh and shattered bone.

What to do with those 24 pounds does come up in the article. I will refrain from making a suggestion.

1-11-09 is 9-11-01 Backwards!

I'm surprised that nobody (not even Captain Eric May) over in the Troofer camp is remarking on this.

Surf's Up

I have been gone all week responding to the floods here in Western Washington with the National Guard, or as Alex Jones calls it, the Martial Law Shock Troops. It might be a couple of days before I get caught up in my blogging. Stay safe out there!

The Gaza Truth Movement?

Over at the Truth Action Forums, there's little discussion of 9-11 and a whole lot of Gaza chatter. Once you get past the two stickies (which remain at the top regardless of lack of discussion, the next seven most recently discussed topics are all Gaza-related. The next one is about Obama's selection of Leon Panetta to head the CIA. It's not until we get to the ninth thread that 9-11 becomes part of the discussion.

Over at 9-11 Blogger, there's a similar situation. While to the top post as I write is Nafeez Ahmed on 7/7 and 9/11 conspiracy theories, after that we get Ron Paul on how Israel created Hamas, a bit of paranoia on Grover Norquist and Dov Zakheim, Cheney hopes to catch Bin Laden, Gaza Fog, Obama's Neocon, MK-Ultra, the threat of an internet terrorist attack, and Dylan appearing in a new 9-11 conspiracy theory movie.

So there's two posts on 9-11 nuttery, one other 9-11 related post, three on Israel/Gaza (counting the "neocon" post), and three on other conspiracy theories.

The Hijacking Continues

As many of you know, the design for the memorial to Flight 93 attracted quite a bit of attention when it was first unveiled. As many have noted, it appears to be more of a memorial to the terrorist swine like Ziad Jarrah rather than a monument to the heroes like Tom Burnett, Lou Nacke, Jeremy Glick, Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham and Sandy Bradshaw (among others) who prevented that plane from reaching its destination and killing many more people on the ground.

Apparently Tom Burnett's father continues to oppose the redesign of the memorial, and our commenter Alec Rawls has written a book on the topic, called Crescent of Betrayal. I know that this topic is controversial even among 9-11 debunkers in general; some excellent people do not see anything wrong with the design. However, I must confess that I disagree with that stance.

Remember, Arizona's own 9-11 Memorial was similarly hijacked by the PC brigade.

Update: Tim Sumner points us to this comment by David Beamer, father of Todd Beamer and someone I trust:

Excellent plans have been created for a permanent memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The memorial will commemorate the battleground and the burial ground of those who fought back. I am contacting you to ask that you join the many people who have worked, sacrificed, and supported this project. Beyond your personal support, I ask that you contact your entire network of friends, family and associates to seek their support as well. Let us unite a million Americans and complete this memorial.

Five More Questions for the Troofers

Over at Counterknowledge, as a sequel to the 15 questions asked in December.

(3) To those who believe that the airphone calls by passengers to their loved ones were “morphed”: how exactly did the conspirators know how to get voice samples for the 59 crew and passengers aboard AA77, and the 40 aboard UA93? How did they predict which passengers would be aboard - notably Jeremy Glick (scheluded to take a flight the day before he boarded UA93) and Lauren Grandcolas (who was supposed to board a later flight on 11th September, but actually found a seat on UA93)? How did they anticipate (and prepare the appropriate responses for) questions their loved ones would ask once they received the calls? And how is it that their relatives didn’t notice anything untoward about the comments and responses their loved ones made (other than the obvious fact that the latter were due to die in a grotesque terrorist attack)?

Let me add here the case of Linda Gronlund, passenger on Flight 93:

Joseph DeLuca called his Dad; his girlfriend, Linda Gronlund, called her sister, Elsa Strong.

Elsa Strong says, "She said, 'Hi, Else, this is Lin. I just wanted to tell you how much I love you.' And she said, 'Please tell Mom and Dad how much I love them.' And then she got real calm and said, 'Now my will is in my safe and my safe is in my closet. and this is the combination.' And she just told me the combination of her safe. and then she just said, 'I don't know if I'm ever going to get a chance to tell you again in person how much I love you, but I'm really going to miss you.' And she said goodbye."

How did the government know the combination to Linda Gronlund's safe, and where it was located?

Ace Explains

Ace Baker explains his faked suicide on Uncle Fetzer's show.

Why?

Because most of the so-called leaders of the 9/11 “truth” movement are not the least bit interested in truth. Steve Jones, Judy Wood, Morgan Reynolds, Jim Fetzer, Bob Bowman, David Ray Griffin, Webster Tarpley, Rob Balsamo, Dylan Avery, Jim Hoffman, John Lear, Killtown, Webfairy, Nico Haupt . . . every one has staked out a peculiar position, surrounding the truth, protecting the truth, diverting all comers away from the truth with spin, double think, half-truth, bizarre fiction, and a mountain of irrelevancy.

This, of course, is essentially the same conclusion reached by Gerard Holmgren over a year ago. On the Freedom Underground Suicide Show, Fetzer commented on Holmgren’s foul mouth. But I knew Gerard before he went ballistic. Holmgren was intelligent and brave, and laid the correct intellectual groundwork for no planes. He was articulate and polite. Gerard Holmgren was driven over the edge, and down into obscenity by continually confronting the political spin machine that calls itself the “truth movement”.

Interesting point here:

In October 2007 we went to Jerry Leaphart’s house in Connecticut for 2 days, and talked to him, and Morgan Reynolds, and Judy Wood. It was interesting. Reynolds made sure to include a piece about how his wife had him tested for insanity, even though I didn’t ask.

Erm, what was the result of that test?

Own A Piece of "Truther" History

Alex Jones is auctioning off his legendary (in his own mind) bullhorn:

Alex's legendary "Tyranny Crusher 1" bullhorn, veteran of numerous battles against the New World Order, is up for auction. The Radioshack Powerhorn 32-2038A bullhorn was used by Alex in his role as the Street Prophet in Richard Linklater's film, A Scanner Darkly, and was put into action at many other political events around the country. Alex decommissioned the bullhorn after it was damaged by a zealous MSNBC employee outside of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, in 2008. The money generated from the auction will be used to expand the multimedia studio in Austin, Texas. Tyranny Crusher 1 does not currently work, due to the damage inflicted by MSNBC, but it can be repaired and put back into service or it can be kept as Alex Jones memorabilia. It is autographed by Alex and will be shipped to the top bidder with a certificate of authenticity.

A warning, though, history does not come cheap. The bullhorn is currently bid up to $2,550 (after starting at $1,500), and it does not appear to be a spoof bid; the high bidder has a feedback rating of 311. Considering that a working bullhorn of the same model is currently on sale at Radio Shack for $79.99, that seems a bit high, but how much would you pay to put your lips where Alex has put his?

Update: Current high bid is $3,001, from a buyer with even higher feedback. Simply amazing!

Join the Troof Brigade and Be Despised

Some profanity, NSFW. The best part is that the guy who put it together is a Troofer!

De Plane, Boss, De Plane!

Well, the Payne Stewart thread continues to attract attention from the kooks, so I thought I'd look further into the information presented.

First up is a CNN story, where our Troofer commenters point to this passage:

An Air Force spokesman says two U.S. Air Force F-15s from Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, intercepted the plane shortly after it lost contact with aircraft controllers, and followed it to Missouri.

Shortly does not sound like 81 minutes later, says our commenter. But I notice this detail in the story as well:

Air Force Capt. Chris Hamilton said there was nothing he could do when his F-16 caught up with the Learjet over Memphis, Tennessee.

Okay, so Hamilton was the first to intercept the plane. More details on Hamilton's day at this USA Today story:

The 32-year-old Air Force pilot from Newport News, Va., was flying his F-16 Fighting Falcon, nicknamed "Bullet One," on a training mission over the Gulf of Mexico when he was sent to try to find out what was wrong with the jet.

Sports Illustrated has a very detailed story on the doomed flight.

When Jacksonville air traffic control lost contact with the Lear 35 at 9:33, the plane had just been cleared to proceed at 39,000 feet. All subsequent attempts to reach the pilots—"November-four-seven-bravo-alpha, do you read me?"—had been unsuccessful. Also, radar showed that the plane had not made a scheduled left turn to head toward Texas, continuing instead on its previous northern course.

The FAA's call for assistance was received at Cheyenne Mountain at approximately 10 o'clock. Two National Guard F-16 fighters at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Fla., were scrambled at 10:08 and airborne at 10:10 before Mayne realized that an F-16 from Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., already was in the air and could reach the Lear sooner. The Eglin plane was diverted, and the Tyndall jets recalled to their base.

So the FAA had not even called for assistance from the military 21 minutes later, and planes were not airborne from Tyndall until 37 minutes after the plane became unresponsive.

After meeting an Air Force tanker to add fuel in midair, Hamilton flew a course that would bisect the Lear's route. He was traveling at roughly 500 mph. The Lear was traveling at roughly 300 mph. Hamilton was told he would catch the plane somewhere above Memphis.

The chase took approximately 50 minutes. When Hamilton spotted the Lear, he slowed down to match its speed. He flew in formation with the Lear on the left side and then the right, flew underneath the Lear and above it. Visibility was perfect. Hamilton thought, as he stared from the bubble canopy of his fighter, that if he were standing and looking at the plane parked on the ground, he couldn't have a better view than he did now. He hoped to see people in the windows or at least to see some external damage that was causing some problem. He saw neither.

So there you have it. Approximately 30 minutes for the FAA to notify NORAD and approximately 50 minutes to chase down the plane. In other words, approximately 80 minutes. Of course, I am sure that this will not quiet down the nutbars because they have so much invested in the idea that the Payne Stewart story proves that 9-11 was an inside job.

There are numerous errors in media accounts; note that the CNN piece says that two F-15s were sent from Eglin; that appears to be wrong as the planes were F-16s (according to Sports Illustrated), and those planes were launched from Tyndall; the plane from Eglin was already airborne. The Troofers would have us focus on the ones that got the story wrong.

The Year of 9-11 Troof: November

Almost through!

In November the biggest news was that a 9-11 Troofer had finally rung the bell on insanity; We Are Change Colorado (WAC-CO) and 9-11 Visibility member Sean Fitzgerald stabbed his father to death for reasons unknown. Obviously, extremes of behavior like this are not commonplace even in the paranoid world of the Troofers, so lessons from Fitzgerald seem unlikely. However, what was instructive were the efforts by WAC-CO and 9-11 Blogger to coverup the fact that Fitzgerald was a "Truther".

Both websites had run pleas to help Sean, who in a paranoid haze became convinced that Thai police were tailing him and so rode his bicycle the wrong way down a major highway in Thailand, leading to an accident that landed him in a hospital. Sean was interviewed live by Michael Woolsey on his internet radio program, while his father called into Alex Jones' radio show. Eventually his father traveled to Thailand and brought his son back to Colorado Springs, where, a few weeks later, the murder occurred.

This of course fits one of the major themes we explored in 2008, the fact that 9-11 Trutherism destroys families.

Update: A commenter points out this post on Michael Woolsey's blog, in which he acknowledged the situation well before we reported it here. Good for Woolsey. It still highlights that WAC-CO and 9-11 Blogger deleted posts to conceal Fitzgerald's involvement with 9-11 "Truth". I don't think I've criticized Woolsey for his part in this affair; as far as I'm concerned he was just trying to help a friend.

I debated Jon Gold on Justin Martell's campus TV program.

Delmart "Mike" Vreeland who became a brief celebrity among Troofers for his supposed prediction of 9-11 before it occurred, was sentenced to 336 years in prison for his production of child pornography.

Alice Walker, author of the most overrated book of the 20th century (The Color Purple) joined Erica Jong and Gore Vidal as the leading literary lions of Trooferism.

David Ray Grifter continued to make insane and offensive claims:

Griffin: And I realize I didn't respond earlier to the question about the bodies. First there were bodies, there were 125 Pentagon workers who were killed. But we have no evidence that anyone from an airplane died at the Pentagon. At best we know that bodies from the airplane, and bodies from the Pentagon showed up at the Army's pathology institute. But these were transported by the FBI and the military and we know that was irregular. They went from the Pentagon to another building, and then from that building were taken to the pathology institute. So the bodies from the airplane could have been transferred to that middle building from somewhere else and to the people at the pathology institute they would assume they all came from the Pentagon

We learned that Kevin Barrett had a temporary restraining order filed forbidding him contact with his family; yet another Troofer who has alienated those closest to him in his quest for 9-11 "Truth".

Did Ace Baker Just Commit Suicide on Uncle Fetzer's Show?--Update: Suicide Fakery

Update: Fetzer says that he contacted the LAPD who have stated that Ace is still alive.

Update II: The show is currently (6:30 PM Mountain Time) being streamed here.

That is what is being claimed over here.

I can't believe what I just heard ...

I had just tuned in and was hearing this guy going off about how tortured he was by folks in the movement etc.

I thought to myself... "my god, is he about to commit suicide?"

Then he starts saying how he hadn't spent enough time with his daughter and how he missed his mom and dad and that he'd see them soon and was coming home.

Then a gunshot.

Fetzer is calling Ace's wife to check on him.

Yellow light on this one for now. Our condolences to his family if it turns out to be true.

There Are Some Things So Dumb...

Only a Troofer could believe them. In my recent post on David Ray Griffin's lecture in Japan, I mentioned as an aside the 81 minutes it took for the Air Force to intercept Payne Stewart's jet in 1999. Well, the Troofers let me have it with both barrels, but fortunately the shotgun wasn't loaded:

Lie number 2:
We get the familiar claim that intercepts in ten minutes were "routine"; mercifully he does not mention the Payne Stewart 81-minute intercept.
81 minutes??? LOL, gezuz you are a misleading bunch.

"Instead, according to an Air Force timeline, a series of military planes provided an emergency escort to the stricken Lear, beginning with a pair of F-16 Falcons from the Air National Guard at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., about 20 minutes after ground controllers lost contact."
Source:
Loss of Oxygen Cited as Possible Cause of Jet's Wayward Flight, Crash
Lynn Lunsford

The article in question is archived at a Troofer site.

Newspaper articles get things wrong all the time, and this is a clear example of that. The NTSB investigated the crash and wrote:



Gee, plane noticed off course at 9:33 and intercepted at 9:54, looks like 21 minutes, right? But there is that pesky little point about how the first time was 9:33 EDT and the second was 9:54 CDT. Which confuses the heck out of our Troofer commenters:

'time zone change'

ok that's the most retarded thing ever'

physically, the intercept still took 20 minutes, your time zone sh*t doesn't mean anything, than you AGAIN playing with words...

And:

to claim that time zone has anything to do with this, shows the dishonesty you constantly portray.

And:

time zone change... so Pat... if a jet takes 10 seconds to fly 1 mile, passes over a timezone, takes another 10 seconds to fly another mile... because they crossed over a timezone, that took an hour and 20 seconds?

And:

are you saying that because of the time change label 0933:38 EDT and 0952 CDT, that plane flew 1 hour with no activity from the controller at all?

are you dumbunkers seriously this stupid?

And:

Only an idiot would think crossing over a timezone adds an hour to the amount of time it would take to intercept a plane.

The Wikipedia page on the Payne Stewart plane crash notes that time zone changes can cause confusion about how long the intercept took, and so they translate the times:

Note: all times are presented in 24-hour, military format. Because the flight took place in both the Eastern Time zone and the Central Time zone, all times are given in this article in Coordinated Universal Time (which is indicated by the time followed by the letter Z)

At 1327:13Z, the controller from the Jacksonville ARTCC instructed the pilot to climb and maintain flight level (FL) 390 (39,000 feet above sea level). At 1327:18Z (0927:18 EDT), the pilot acknowledged the clearance by stating, "three nine zero bravo alpha." This was the last known radio transmission from the airplane, and occurred while the aircraft was passing through 23,000 feet (7,000 m). The next attempt to contact the aircraft occurred six minutes, 20 seconds later (14 minutes after departure), with the aircraft at 36,500 feet (11,100 m), and the controller's message went unacknowledged. The controller attempted to contact N47BA five more times in the next 4½ minutes, again with no answer.[1]

[edit] First interception

About 1454Z (now 0954 CDT due to the flight's crossing into the Central Time zone), a U.S. Air Force F-16 test pilot from the 40th Flight Test Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, who happened to be in the air nearby, was directed by controllers to intercept N47BA. When the fighter was about 2,000 feet (610 m) from the Learjet, at an altitude of about 46,400 feet (14,100 m), the test pilot made two radio calls to N47BA but did not receive a response.

So the key times are 1327Z plus six minutes, or 1333Z, and 1454Z. And the difference between those is, what? Anybody? Anybody? Beuller? That's right, 1 hour and 21 minutes.

Apparently Troofers don't think any adjustment for time zone change is necessary, which would be pretty cool if it were true. Consider this flight from Indianapolis to Chicago on Southwest Airlines:



Departing Indianapolis at 8:00 AM and arriving in Chicago at 7:55 AM? It must be magic. And since "Only an idiot would think crossing over a timezone adds an hour to the amount of time it would take", we can actually travel backwards in time by five minutes by hopping on a plane from Indy to Chi-town.