Loose Change 9-11 An American Coup Review: Part I

I obtained a "screener" copy of the new film from a media source who will go unnamed. In general, the film is something of a retreat to LCII, in that it goes back to pushing conspiratorial interpretations of Flight 77 and Flight 93, two aspects of 9-11 nuttery that were downplayed in LCFC. It's a lot to go through in one sitting, although fortunately most of the conspiracy theory stuff we've covered in the past.

Daniel Sunjata's narration is generally an improvement over Dylan's nasal twang, but it does not improve the "skeptical" comments that are sprinkled throughout the film; for those you really do need the snarky, kid-voice.

Here's my basic outline of the film:

Reichstag Fire
Pearl Harbor
Operation Paper Clip
Manhattan Project—Compartmentalization
Nuremberg Trials
JFK Assassination
Gulf of Tonkin
My Lai
WTC Construction
PNAC
9-11 Commission
Bin Laden denies responsibility
Fatty Bin Laden tape
Pre-2004 election video of Bin Laden
2006 Bin Laden tape
Hijackers not devout Muslims—drinking, lap dances, and hookers
Collins information about Hanjour
Able Danger
Atta attempt to get a loan for crop-dusting
Al-Ghamdi had flights scheduled for after 9-11
67 previous intercepts within 10 minutes
No prediction of airplanes into the buildings
Plane into Pentagon Drill too unrealistic
Amalgam Virgo
Haitian AIDS patient to fly airplane into Tindall AFB
OBL on cover of Amalgam Virgo plan
FBI has no records of this game
Wargames on 9-11
Booker Elementary—Bush saw first strike. Stayed at Booker despite being a target
Vigilant Guardian, Inputs into the screens.
Global Guardian?
Northern Vigilance
Pentagon
All Flight 77 hijackers set off metal detectors.
Flight 77 unusually light
Suspicious people on the plane, defense, and other government
Squawk hijack code not given
Hanjour should have dived into the top of the Pentagon.
Flight controllers thought it was a military plane.
Section hit was lightly occupied, recently reinforced. Important budget information lost.
No visible damage from the wings
Titanium engines.
No serial numbers.
No impact damage to the lawn
No videos show 757
The exit hole in C Ring is not explained
Mineta—50,30,10
Collapse of South Tower, 10 Seconds
North Tower collapse 10 seconds
WTC-7 collapse
Other fires
One Meridian Plaza
Lots of stuff in here recycled from earlier versions
Path of greatest resistance
NIST report
Not modelled after initiation
No tests for explosive residue
Jeanette McKinlay—weird music
Jones—red and gray chips
Red=aluminum and iron oxide
Carbon, Oxygen, Silicon, Aluminum and Iron. Carbon is in superthermite. Carbon gives explosive force to thermite.
Says a lot of energy released and explodes.
Nano thermite? Iron microspheres? Wait a minute!
Suddenly they find the iron microspheres.
Freefall speed—10 seconds
Concrete dustified
Molten metal exceeding 2000 F
Fires did not get put out until December
Need to sever core columns
Smoke at base of South Tower
Squibs (similar to earlier versions)
Turner Construction—ties to NIST and Bush
Fireproofing work on the North and South Tower.
Marvin Bush—Securacom
Jones: How did they use nanothermite; I can’t explain everything.
Debris shipped overseas and sold.
Bill Manning Fire Engineering mag complained.
Flight 93 "allegedly" crashes
Debris 6 miles away
Cockpit separated?
No jet fuel found in wells in area
Mint condition bandanna, Driver’s licenses.
WTC-7
OEM
Test status of fire alarm system that morning.
Freefall speed
Steel shipped off
Sulfidation
NIST-WTC-7
105-foot freefall
Barry Jennings and Michael Hess
Death of Barry Jennings
WTC-7 barely damages surrounding buildings
Smedley Butler reveals plot of a coup against FDR. FDR later makes deal with plotters to stay in power.
Appeal for new investigation.

Those are, of course just broad-brush impressions. Under the Reichstag Fire incident, which leads off the film, Dylan claims that historians now believe that the Nazis secretly entered the basement of the building and dowsed it with gasoline, and that Van Der Lubbe ignited the fire with his shirt. But other historians believe that the Nazis were caught by surprise by the Reichstag fire and actually worried that it was the anticipated revolt by the communists. Here's a terrific first-hand account of the blaze by a British reporter:

I am sure that he meant this seriously and was not just putting on an act. Both Hitler and Göring then still feared the possibility of a Communist coup. With six million votes at the last elections and a large number of adherents in the trade unions the Communists were still a formidable power. And they had in the past tried to capture power by coups - just as the Nazis had.

Dylan also claims that Hitler and Goring stopped by the Reichstag fire and executed some communists that same night. This is a new claim on me; Van Der Lubbe was indeed executed months later after a trial, but three other communists who were charged in the case were found not guilty, and I have found no other indication that anybody else was summarily executed.

There are a few claims that I'm going to have to bone up on. One is that there were reports that the cockpit detached from the rest of Flight 93. Steven Jones claims that after they researched the red and grey chips, a fellow scientist suggested that they search for iron microspheres; it's certainly my impression that the iron microspheres came up earlier than the red and grey chips in Jones' "work".

On the need to sever the core columns, I never tire of pointing out that if the core columns were severed at the bottom, then how did the "spire" (those same core columns) remain standing for a few seconds after the rest of the building collapsed.

In a lot of ways, Loose Change 9-11 An American Coup is really Loose Change II Recut Director's Cut. Final Cut seemed to back away from the "No-Big Boeing at the Pentagon" theories, while American Coup highlights them again. Ditto with Flight 93. The Barry Jennings' interview is as bad as John Schroeder's for confused timelines; I'll have to put together a transcript for that.