Dylan Avery and April Gallop on the Pentagon Defenses

Apparently April Gallop will be appearing in Loose Change version 4, as Dylan is quoting interviews with her over at his forum, and using her to attack me:

Going through our interview with April Gallop, and a few lines immediately jumped out.

Btw, this is a rush transcript. Don't hate on the grammar.

---

APRIL DAWN GALLOP

I was quite surprised. You have to know that you know then you get integrated at the Pentagon you repeatedly told that this is one of safest buildings in all of the United States of America. So you know, I was in a location were I believe that if anything was gonna happen, you know nothing was ever gonna happened there. You know so you have that extra sense of security while working there that whatever you were doing that you were safe.

APRIL DAWN GALLOP

So again, I’m thinking you know, here we are believed that this was one of the safest places in all United States of America…and not one mechanism was working on that day. I mean what is the probability that nothing was working on that particular day. What about, you know, the defense system that was surrounding the building. What about the satellites that surrounded the building were supposed to be able to zoom in on particular places if it’s necessary and how all of a sudden on this particular day, this was able to happen. We were able to be attacked, so it led me to ask particular questions and to really try to get an understanding of what happened. You know, why did it happen and then those questions led to more questions.

APRIL DAWN GALLOP

We go to this briefing when you’re integrated. It is called reception integration when you come to the Pentagon and you do get a tour. And, you know, one of the most common statement is “This is one of the safest buildings in this world.” And so you wonder how on one particular day no mechanism, safety mechanism, alert mechanism, was functioning on one particular day in a building that you believe is one of the safest buildings in the United States. How in the world, you know, they said it was a plane I wasn’t outside, I didn’t see it but you wonder with the nature of the safety mechanisms, the things that they have to protect the building, how in the world that it get close enough to hit the building and we not be alerted, not warned. You know, the World Trade Center had already been hit, no get on stand by, nothing. Nothing.

---

And then I stumble upon this article...There Are No Missile Defenses at the Pentagon by James Bennett, a person who, as far as I can tell, has never set foot in the building, and is relying upon Google.

Here's a good one:

"no reliable source has ever reported the existence of any type of anti-aircraft defenses at the Pentagon on 9/11, and those claiming that they exist can provide no proof, or even anything beyond vague speculation as to what and where they are."

--

-So, now the question I pose to James Bennett, Mark Roberts et al is:April Gallop. Honest 9/11 victim, or woman with an agenda? Remember, you laud the importance of the victims and how much you care about them.

The logical fallacy employed in arguing that there were weapons at the Pentagon is commonly known known as "argument from incredulity". People cannot understand how there could not be anti-aircraft weapons at the Pentagon, "It is the safest building in the world" and therefore that somehow proves they are there. Note that Dylan does not address a single argument that I make in a rather detailed 11 page paper, other than to express mocking disbelief.

To answer Dylan's question, no I don't believe Ms. Gallop has "an agenda". I do believe, however, that she has been quite traumatized by the horrible events she has had to witness, and is searching hard for a way to explain how this could have happened. She cannot emotionally accept that she has been a random victim of this tragedy. She is not, however, a military expert with secret inside knowledge. Her answers on this subject, both here, and in the interview I cite in my paper are inconsistent and bizarre, especially the comment about "satellites that surround the building". My heart goes out to her, but being a victim does not somehow embue someone with infallibility or omniscience.

Notice that other than vague comments about how it is the "safest building in the world" (would you expect them to tell new employees something else) she still has not specifically said that there are anti-aircraft missiles at the Pentagon, nor described them in any manner, so the quote from my paper that Dylan cites is still 100% accurate.

As for Dylan's quip about whether I have visited the Pentagon, no, I have not had the opportunity to be that close to the flagpole. I am not sure what difference this makes though, as hundreds of thousands of people have visited the Pentagon, and nobody has ever described seeing any anti-aircraft weapons of any kind. Would my visit be the one that somehow reveals this carefully hidden secret? I am willing to bet that I know a lot more about the military than Dylan does, or even SPC Rowe, the guy who claimed that the Pentagon attack could have been carried out by a shoulder launched anti-tank missile.