What Norm Mineta Said

Norm Mineta has just become a casualty of the "Truthers"; he's going to spend the rest of his days hounded by these idiots.

James Fetzer mentioned Mineta in his interview on the Alan Colmes show:

Colmes: But what you’re saying is Dick Cheney, who served in other administrations, you’re saying he was complicit—

Fetzer: Absolutely.

Colmes:--in the bringing down of the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon, and he in fact, knew what was going on, was at the command center at the time it took place.

Fetzer: Yes. We have testimony from Norman Mineta to that effect, and did you know this, Alan, the night before, on Thursday night, I explained that on your show and the next morning he resigns.

Colmes: Well, are you suggesting that Norm Mineta resigned because of your appearance on Hannity and Colmes?

Fetzer: I’m suggesting Norman Mineta resigned because the administration didn’t want him in a public position where he’d have to respond to questions from reporters. By having him resign he becomes a private citizen and he’s no longer obligated to respond to public inquiries.

Colmes: What are you claiming Norm Mineta did? What was his involvement?

Fetzer: He was there as a witness. You remember what I explained, he was there in this underground bunker, and observed a young aide coming up to Cheney and saying, “Sir, it’s 50 miles out; sir, it’s 30 miles out; sir, it’s 10 miles out; sir, do the orders still stand?” Cheney turned on him, nearly bit off his head, said, “Of course the orders still stand, have you heard anything different?” The order can only have been to not to be not shoot the plane down. The obvious thing to do would be to shoot the plane down, cause then you use a—

Colmes: Well, what evidence do you have though that this conversation took place?

Fetzer: We got it recorded, Alan. Go on down to st911dotorg, you can find several versions of Mineta’s testimony, it’s recorded, it’s a matter of public record. He presented it to the 9-11 Commission, but it was so startling and so undermined their themes that they didn’t even publish it in their 9-11 Commission Report.

This is typical snake oil from Fetzer. The WMV file can be downloaded from here (right click and choose "Save link as", then open the file).

First of all, note the idiotic reasoning behind Mineta's resignation. It's because public officials have to respond to questions from reporters

Mineta does indeed recount the anecdote attributed to him, but here's the context:

Former Congressman Lee Hamilton: I wanted to focus just a moment on the presidential emergency operating center. You were there for a good part of the day. I think you were there with the vice president. We had that order given, I think it was by the President, that authorized the shooting down of commercial aircraft that were suspected to be controlled by terrorists. Were you there when that order was given?

Mineta: No I was not. I was made aware of it during the time that the airplane was coming into the Pentagon. There was a young man who'd come in and say to the vice president, the plane is 50 miles out, the plane is 30 miles out and when it got down to the plane is 10 miles out the young man also said to the vice president, "Do the orders still stand?" And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?

Now, in the fevered brain of Jim Fetzer, a question about the order to shoot down the plane becomes a question about the order not to shoot down the plane. Why? Here's what Fetzer claims:

The order can only have been to not to be not shoot the plane down. The obvious thing to do would be to shoot the plane down....

This is such a consistent fallacy among the Truthers that there has to be a term for it. They all seem to believe that everybody woke up the morning of September 11, 2001 with a September 12th attitude. But think about it from the standpoint of that young man, relaying orders to shoot down a passenger plane with potentially a hundred or more civilian deaths as a result. Is it any surprise that he wanted confirmation of that order?

Other examples of this fallacy include Fetzer's claim that if somebody had threatened him with a boxcutter, he would have beaten them to death with his luggage, and the frequent claim by other Truthers (mostly LIHOPs) that all three planes that hit the buildings should have been shot down before they even came close to their targets.