Round and Round We Go

Cockpit Door Sensor Proves "Truthers" Were Right All Along

I'm not going to be able to debunk this story:

Newly decoded data provided by an independent researcher and computer programmer from Australia exposes alarming evidence that the reported hijacking aboard American Airlines Flight 77 was impossible to have existed. A data parameter labeled "FLT DECK DOOR", cross checks with previously decoded data obtained by Pilots For 9/11 Truth from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) through the Freedom Of Information Act.

I kept telling our bosses at the New World Order that they had to be careful, because the Troofers only have to be right once, whereas Moloch has to be right all the time. How the heck could they release data that proved that nobody opened the cockpit door on Flight 77 at all? Worse still, the data show that nobody opened the cockpit door on the prior 11 or so flights. Apparently the flight crew never brought in a meal to the pilots, and the pilots never had to take a leak.

Yep, I'm convinced now that Occam's Razor tells us that there was no hijacking of Flight 77. Perhaps it is time now for the 9-11 Truth Movement to acknowledge that their best evidence is not superdupernanothermitate, but the Pentacon.

My Thoughts on the CBC Special

Good lord, what a mess. Let's see, the announcer says that WTC-2 came down at "freefall speed" (sic) (even Gage the goose remembers to say "freefall acceleration"). He says that it came down in 9 seconds (wrong). Tower 1 comes down in its own footprint (wrong) in 11 seconds (wrong).

BTW, one interesting thing is that at times I have heard Richard Gage described as a lifelong Republican. And yet if you'll notice, he heard David Ray Griffin on the radio show Guns and Butter. Guns and Butter is carried on Pacifica Radio, which I'd describe as a far left version of Air America. Oh, that kind of lifelong Republican.

Grifter remembered to put some books on his library shelves this time around. He nonchalantly suggests that Flight 175 could have been shot out of the air (from 180 kilometers away? Cranky Ranke makes an appearance in the second segment; as usual he comes off as a maniac on speed. Kee Dewdney pops in to say that cellphone calls don't work at altitude, and if the cellphone calls were faked, it makes sense to assume that the airfone calls were. I agree with James here, he comes off as a thoroughly repulsive asshole. Oh, and "Hello, Mom, this is Bob Brigham"? Sterling job of research, you toad. Good to see some pushback from the interviewer on that point.

But aside from that and the Brent Blanchard segment, the show mostly seems to be taking the tack that "The 9-11 Truth Movement has a lot of interesting questions, and don't appear to be conspiracy nuts."

Our Friends From the North Take on the Truthers

The CBC is running a show on the truthers called "The Unofficial Story" tonight. It is on here in Seattle at 9 PST, but it is also supposed to be on their website tonight too. Should be interesting, eh.

Update: Bleh. For the most part a pretty lame show. Mostly they just ran stupid troofer claims combined with some ominous sounding narration and say that nobody really knows. Mr Cellphone, AK Dewney comes off as a complete asshole. Sorry, I don't swear very often, but there is no other way to say it.

Richard Gage keeps up his every shifting position on the properties of nanothermite. He now claims that it has none of the "loud bangs and bright flashes" of conventional explosives. First of all, how the hell would he know? Exactly how many nanothermite explosions has he witnessed? And if that is true, then why have the truthers, Richard Gage included, been going on about all the accounts of loud bangs and bright flashes at the World Trade Centers? In fact if you look on their homepage, they list those very things as signs of controlled demolition.

Kevin Barrett Doesn't Like Me Much

After responding to his post on how I was calling for truthers to defend KSM as some sort of reverse psychology ploy, Barrett immediately continued insulting me, and then getting all indignant when I wasn't chomping at the bit to go on his radio show. Apparently Kev lost his copy of "How to Win Friends and Influence People". Now I get an entire post dedicated to what an "embarassing representative of the species" I am.

Yet some parasitic nobody who calls himself "James B." pretends to be either too busy, or too ungenerous with his time, to debate me on the radio. For the full record of our correspondence, go to the comments here and scroll down. Below is my disgusted goodbye to this embarrassing representative of his species.

Kevin Barrett has left a new comment on your post "Why KSM's Innocence Matters":


..."James B.," afraid to use his last name, takes cyber-cowardice to a new level. Hiding behind a monitor somewhere, he spends his life puking out scurrilous & vacuous attacks on the leaders of a movement he pretends to despise -- yet his whole identity depends on his parasitic relationship with that movement! Like all the other cyber-phonies and cyber-stalkers out there, he's afraid to even confront his targets voice-to-voice, much less face-to-face. He's just another celebrity stalker -- the pathetic nobodies who spend their lives writing angry letters to the famous people they have a secret crush on -- except that unlike them, "James B." is too cowardly to use his real name, or to even speak with his targets when they stoop to offer him the opportunity. As abject avatars of sheer feckless cowardice go, this guy is pretty impressive. This will be the last you hear from "James B." on
this blog.

You know, this guy sounds familiar.

Mackey Vs Szamboti Part III

This mostly just makes the rubble bounce, in Mackey's continuing controlled demolition of truther engineer Tony Szamboti, but educational never the less.

Going for the Kiddies

Looks like they know the only market that hasn't tuned out their nonsense.

Hat Tip: JREF forum member scissorhands.

Update: A response here. Some profanity, but it's hilarious! Hat tip to M7 in the comments.

Wikileaks Text Messages Released

Fascinating stuff. Although I have no doubt the kooks will be incorporating some of the information into their nutbar theories, I applaud the release.

Lorie Van Auken Still A 9-11 "Truther"

In this article on the KSM trial, she indulges herself a bit:

“Perhaps they’re trying to protect her father’s role in torturing these detainees,” said Lorie Van Auken, who lost her husband on 9/11. “And that’s actually what could keep us from seeing justice, is this torture that was done to these people because that evidence is not really evidence. It won’t be admissible anywhere.”

Auken was speaking on a conference call organized by the liberal Human Rights First.

Later, she declined to back off her statement. “You start to wonder why Liz Cheney would be organizing the 9/11 families,” she said. “It’s just a funny connection.”

Bolding added for emphasis. Connect the dots! Well, this is not the first time that Van Auken has voiced support for 9-11 kookery. Let's remember that she was one of the proposed commissioners for the NYC 9-11 Troofer Commission. She was also quoted voicing support for Loose Change, the crockumentary that this blog was originally formed to debunk:

“There are just so many unanswered questions,” says Van Auken. “I would say you need roughly 400 hours of research to graduate from 9/11 kindergarten class. That’s why it’s so hard to keep people on the same page, because they’re coming at this issue from a million different angles. A friend might tell them about building 7, or they might watch Loose Change on the internet, or they’ll say, ‘Hold it a second, you can’t make cell phone calls from an airplane.’ And then suddenly a little alarm bell goes off in their brain, and they say, ‘Wow, we don’t know the whole story about this.’ That’s all it takes, the little alarm bell, and then, bam, welcome to the place we’ve been living in for the last six years.”

Note: I am not criticizing Van Auken for her comments about torture. I'm criticizing her for the comments I bolded above. She's playing the same game she did in the Press For Truth Movie:



Note the bit about 1:00 in there, where Van Auken says "We felt the country was at risk from terrorism, and incompetence, and, um, maybe worse." Maybe worse, nudge nudge, wink wink.

Update: Moron Van Auken:

"When the smoke finally cleared from the pile of rubble on September 11, 2001, we were left with a host of burning questions. The 9/11 Commission did not provide the answers, despite their extensive mandate. 9/11 Contradictions is a work that needed to be written. With characteristic clarity and focus, David Ray Griffin masterfully lays out the most critical of these questions. Now the challenge is to finally get real answers."
-- Lorie Van Auken

And she also signed Richard Gage's petition:

We are pleased that Patty, Lorie and Monica have signed our petition. We have also received signatures from Josef Princiotta, Manny Badillo, Bob McIlvaine, Ellen Mariani. Let us know if there are any of them we are not listing here!

Quick Shots

Another stupid truther tries modeling the towers:






Moe, Larry & Squirrelly?


We Are Changing Diapers announces its 200th chapter. Of course, we remember that Student Scholars for 9-11 Truthiness had 85 chapters at one point, and about 86 members. But one thing I do have to laugh at is that CHANGE is apparently an acronym for "Coalition for Halting the Agenda of the Nefarious Global Elite". Seriously.

Blunder Down Under Tour Losing Buckets of Bucks

According to John Bursill:

As I was being politely ushered out of Jones's Sydney Lecture by one of the organisers (John Bursill I think) we had a little chat that went something like this:
Him- I'm sorry, but if you don't pay for a ticket, you can't stay. You can buy the lecture on DVD when it comes out...

Me- I'm not going to pay $60 to listen to this rubbish. These guys are making enough money already, without me adding to it.

Him-Yeah right. A loss of $20,000 so far on this tour...

Well, we did cover before how poorly the ticket sales were going for the two days in Sydney before. However, Box Boy did a little better in New Zealand according to nutcase Clare Swinney:

The Hard Evidence Tour Down Under hit a high note on Saturday afternoon at the Te Papa Museum in Wellington, when over 650 turned up to hear Richard Gage, the spokesperson for Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, (AE911Truth), talk about what really happened to World Trade Centre (WTC) 1, 2, and 7 on 9/11. It was the largest crowd the architect and founder of AE911Truth has ever spoken to since he began spreading the truth – what he calls the Blueprint For Truth, about the evidence of 9/11, and revealing the buildings were brought down by controlled demolition, not by jet fuel and fires.

According to Clare (who memorably spent a few weeks in a mental institution for her 9-11 Truth zanineess), ticket sales were helped by a sympathetic piece in a local arts and entertainment magazine. However, get this amazing bit at the end of the post:

Richard Gage will be speaking in Auckland on the 30th of November, at the Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn, from 6pm. To book for the event, please e-mail: Will Ryan at nz911truth@hotmail.com. A gold coin donation would be appreciated, to give to Richard.

They're paying him in gold coins now?

My Response to Kevin Barrett

I was rather amused as to how Kevin Barrett quoted me (without identification of course) in his rant about the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that Pat cited below.

The traitor doth protest too much! Anybody with the faintest understanding of psychology can see that these lines are intended to PREVENT truth-seekers from supporting KSM's obvious and demonstrable innocence, by ridiculing the idea in a manner designed to play on truther insecurities and foster inaction. Anybody who thinks that this anti-truth propagandist really wants us to join Constitutionalists and anti-torture activists in a free KSM movement, and thus impede the sanctifying of the 9/11 big lie in the history books, is of questionable intentions and/or intelligence.

I posted the following response to his statement, although I do not know whether he will post it, since in typical truther fashion, he does not have open comments.

A salam alikom Kev. Sorry to disappoint you, but that quote you cited of mine, was not part of some reverse psychology secret gambit, it was my actual opinion. Sorry, it is not that complicated and nefarious. I am simply not that clever. As I have argued for years, I find the disingenuous nature of the self-styled ”9/11 truth movement” to be rather bizarre. I obviously don’t believe the US government carried out the 9/11 attacks, but if I did, I would be raising bloody hell over the issue. I and my comrades would be out in the streets. To the contrary, the vast majority of this movement seems to treat this matter with all the seriousness of a minor policy disagreement like the health insurance debate, content with an occasional post on a forum or the ubiquitous YouTube videos. This actually somewhat understates the matter, in that the recent healthcare debate has resulted in hundreds of angry protests involving tens of thousands of people, as opposed to the events of the truth movement, who have trouble breaking into the double digits in attendance with bored advocates rambling incoherently about put options.

Now Mr. Barrett, I would have to except from this comment. He actually seems to behave the way most people should behave if they actually seriously believed this stuff. Now I still think he is a complete
nutcase, but at least he is an honest nutcase who stands by what he believes. Jon Gold seems somewhat saner, although this is a rather low bar to clear, but he rather cowardly refuses to take a stand on virtually anything, taking this whole “just asking questions” game to an extreme in a movement hardly noted for its courage in the first place. I find the accusation that Gold is somehow working for us to be hilarious, especially given the outright scorn I have treated him with for years. But hey, I guess in a world where you believe even hobbyist blogger software engineers from Seattle are covert CIA operatives, anything is possible.

So to summarize, yes, I really do feel that if the “truth movement” really believes in what it says it believes, it should publically defend Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Anything else would be hypocritical.
You guys have been demanding an investigation and a public forum for years, insisting that the truth should come out in the courts. Now that there will be a public court hearing, filled with scores of top-notch Ivy League educated lawyers on both sides, retreating from backing up your public statements because somebody might call you names would be pathetic. Not that such a response would be much of a surprise from this movement.

KSM Trial Hilarity

The Troofers can't figure out what to do about the trial of Khalid Sheikh Muhammed. Should they protest his innocence? Should they stay away for fear that Homeland Security will brand them all a bunch of terrorist sympathizers?

Taking the latter approach is "BoneZ" at 9-11 Flogger.

I see many people calling for action at the KSM trial. But has anyone really thought about the ramifications of showing up at the KSM trial with "9/11 Was an Inside Job" signs? The Department of Homeland Security has been trying to label 9/11 truthers as terrorists for a couple years now. What will happen if a single 9/11 truth sign shows up at the trial and even hints that KSM is innocent?

It doesn't matter if KSM is really innocent or not. The government has labeled him a terrorist and is putting that terrorist on trial in a public court for the whole world to see. If any 9/11 truth signs show up at that trial, that will be the final nail in the coffin for 9/11 truth. We will be labeled as terrorist sympathizers, terrorist supporters, or homegrown terrorists. DHS would love nothing more than to see 9/11 truth signs flying around at that trial so that they can finally start rounding up the only real voice that threatens whatever agenda the criminals in our government are trying to attain.

Kevin "Hang 'Em High" Barrett takes the opposite approach:

If they win their bet and the KSM trial ends in a guilty verdict, with no visible protest from the 9/11 truth movement, the history books will record that "confessed 9/11 mastermind KSM was convicted by a jury and sentenced to death." For most Americans, that will mean "case closed." The official story will stand in the history books. "Finally, we have closure."

If, on the other hand, 9/11 truth-seekers--joined by Constitution supporters, anti-torture advocates, and honest journalists who understand that KSM was tortured into demonstrably false confessions--make a hugely visible stink about this grotesque miscarriage of justice, history's verdict will not be so cut-and-dried. And if KSM is found innocent, as he clearly will be if the jury follows the law and uses logic and evidence to arrive at their decision, the 9/11 case will suddenly be wide-open again.

Predictably, Jon Gold favors a more nuanced approach. Troofers should not be pushing the inside job story, but they should be highlighting "other" suspects:

There's nothing wrong with promoting more suspects for the crime of 9/11... bringing up the connections between the ISI and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Osama Bin Laden, Saeed Sheikh, etc... and the United States connection to terrorism over the last 30 years by use of a proxy between the CIA/ISI and "terrorists." It would also be a good place to promote the September Eleventh Advocate Letters, the Families report card on the 9/11 Commission Report, etc... I do agree with you that we should do everything within our power not to come across as "terrorist sympathizers." There are certain individuals who would like to go to the trials promoting Zionist this, Zionist that, 9/11 was an inside job, etc... I've made the point before... because of U.S. and Israeli policies in the Middle East, there is a MASSIVE resentment against Americans and the "Zionists." The people who use the word "Zionist" the most are those most affected that happen to have brown skin, and live in the Middle East (Ahmadinejad springs to mind). Those people painted as "terrorists" etc... So if we go around saying "Zionist this, Zionist that" how hard will it be to paint us as "terrorist sympathizers?" That makes sense to me. Apparently it doesn't to other people.

Ahmadinejad has brown skin? Who knew?

My take? They have to protest, or acknowledge that they are a bunch of conspiracy nutjobs with lots of theories and no conviction.

Why Argument from Authority is a Logical Fallacy

While it is nice to have people with specialized education, that doesn't change the fact that you are still an idiot. Another Richard Gage groupie pops up promoting a showing of Loose Change v 4.0.

I have been a registered architect in Tucson for 36 years, and was also licensed for general building and heavy construction at approximately the same time. My formal education consisted of an undergraduate education in modern history from Yale, and a graduate education in architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Yale Graduate School of Art and Architecture. I have practiced in Arizona and other states and abroad. I am listed as an “expert in building technology, housing, and human settlements” by the United Nations Habitat Program. In mid-career I was honored with a Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. I have lectured at many Architecture Schools, and for six years was an adjunct faculty member of the graduate program of Architecture at MIT.

Impressive resume, now what does he claim?

Video analysis of the World Trade Center collapses and forensic examination of the debris show that the buildings’ concrete and glass and all contents were reduced to dust of less than 100 microns in mid air.

All the contents? Nothing survived?

Aviation fuel burns at approximately 1700 degrees, steel gives way at approximately 3000 degrees.

3000 degrees? God I hope this guy is not in charge of fireproofing buildings.

All three of the World Trade Center buildings which collapsed (Buildings 1, 2, and 7) fell neatly into their own footprints with all of the characteristics of a controlled demolition destruction.

OK, hold that thought...

All three buildings at the World Trade Center (Buildings 1, 2 and 7) collapsed at free fall speed. This is only possible if the vertical structure had been removed. Fifty ton columns were hurled laterally for hundreds of yards.
Gravity forces are vertical, not horizontal.

But you just said it fell into its own footprint! Nice to know gravity works vertically, considering these geniuses have been telling us that the building should not have fallen straight down "through the path of greatest resistance" for years.

At the Pentagon it has not been explained how an aircraft with a 140 foot wingspan, a 40 foot high tail, and 2 five ton titanium engines could disappear into a 20 foot diameter hole without leaving any other damage to the exterior of the building.

No other damage? Has he ever seen a photo of the Pentagon after the crash?

The Pentagon is the most secure military location in the world. The Pentagon is surrounded by hundreds of security cameras, and by missiles that deploy automatically if an aircraft enters the Pentagon’s restricted air space without the correct transponder in the aircraft. Yet the government even under court order could produce no photo of a plane hitting the Pentagon and no missiles ever fired.

Oh God, missiles at the Pentagon. The last bastion of the moronic.

But Whether It's LIHOP, or Whether It's ZIHOP...

As I've often said, we cannot parody these morons, just point out their idiocy.

ZIHOP as Limited Hangout by Danse

In 1982, the Israeli strategic planner Oded Yinon penned a policy report calling for the balkanization of the entire middle east. He wrote:

"Iraq is first. Rich in oil, and internally torn, it is guaranteed as the
initial target. Its dissolution is even more important than of Syria. Egypt will then be torn apart, like a second Lebanon. ...The entire Arabian peninsula is a natural for dissolution. The matter is inevitable, especially in Saudi Arabia."

If you can really figure out the point of that post, let me know. For starters, let's remember that LIHOP stands for Let It Happen On Purpose, while MIHOP stands for Made It Happen On Purpose. Both phrases were created by Notorious Nico, but I doubt he would have made up ZIHOP, because it apparently stands for Zionists It Happen On Purpose. I mean, ZMIHOP makes more sense, no? Or even ZLIHOP, but ZIHOP doesn't parse at all.

Apparently we are to understand that this is not some rash bit of anti-Semitism from 9-11 Blogger, but... what? It goes on forever and concludes with this, no kidding:

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that I’ll be viewed as an Israeli apologist for writing this thread. But you’d be wrong to think I’m trying to shield Israel from the wrath of the 911 truth movement. Quite the contrary, those familiar with my posts know that I have long tried to highlight the Israeli role in 911, both in my writing and my video work. The problem I see is that the pendulum appears to be swinging so far in the other direction that the arguments are no longer rational. Atta’s pork chops – meet the wandering Jew. If you don’t agree with the premise that Israel and alleged “dual-loyalty” Jewish people are responsible for nine-tenths of the world’s ills you’re a “disinfo shill”.

Hey, Danse, I'll be the first to say that this bizarre post should not be construed as an Israel apology, especially when you say that Israel had some freaking roll in 9-11. What role, conveniently, is not spelled out.

The Hazards of Google's Context-Sensitive Ads

If you want to know why we don't have Google Ads around here, this is one major reason why. I opened up my G-mailbox this morning and saw this:



Yep, good old Russia Today, with an article extolling the virtues of that piece of Italian dreck, Zero.

Background on KSM

NPR has an interesting look back at Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's first trip to the US. Remember, he is one of the troofer's "Arabs living in a cave".

The professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is expected to arrive in New York for trial by the end of the year. But it won't be his first trip to America. He has been here before, as a college student in the early 1980s.

Mohammed's first real taste of America came at a small two-year Baptist school called Chowan College in 1983. Nestled among the cotton fields of Murfreesboro, N.C., Mohammed arrived hoping his time at Chowan would become a springboard to an American education.

ADL Warns About Alex Jones

Pretty good article on old leatherlungs here:

Though popular among anti-government circles in the 1990s, Jones reached prominence in the years after the 9/11 terror attacks, as he became one of the most energetic of the “truthers,” the conspiracy theorists who believe that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” by the U.S. government. He has also collaborated with “celebrity truthers” such as actor Charlie Sheen, and far-right icon Ron Paul, a U.S. Representative from Texas, has often been a guest on his show. In March 2008, media figure Lou Dobbs was a guest on Jones’ show.

Justin Raimondo Flirts with Truthers

In regards to the trial of KSM and others:

Furthermore, we have to ask the question: what else will the defendants reveal about how they managed to down the twin towers and devastate the Pentagon armed only with some box-cutters?

No surprise, Raimondo speculates that perhaps they had help from the Israelis:

I, for one, fail to understand how the hijackers, with minimal technical skill and arms, managed to take over four airliners and – with superb timing and pinpoint accuracy – ram them into such high-value targets with absolutely no outside help. Not that there haven’t been intimations of such help. Was the Bush administration aware of some form of outside assistance (perhaps indirect, albeit intentional), possibly from state actors, and determined to keep it under wraps?

Our Man in Sydney

JREF Forum member Brainache covers the Troofers Blunder Down Under Tour:



Part II, Featuring Cosmos:



Part III:



Part V with Luke Rudkowski and Inside Footage:



Terrific Job!

I'd Like To Think They're Kidding

But I know they're not. In the midst of a discussion of the famed "beam weapons" imagined by Judy Wood and how ridiculous that speculation is, the supposedly responsible wing of the Troofers goes off the rails:

It could be that a lot of people come to DEW because they're already free energy believers. If you accept the latter then the former is obvious.

Another factor is probably that the pulverization of the concrete is poorly explained by conventional theories.

And while there seems to be general agreement that pushing the Death Star notion is not good politics, it cannot be ruled out.

Did it ever occur to you that it might be Judy Wood's job to incompetently advocate the advanced weaponry thesis so that the whole notion is discredited and never gets any serious research?

I am not satisfied by any of the explanations for the pulverized concrete. The notion that explosive nano-thermite could have done it has not to my knowledge been advanced in any rigorous way.

If the DEW people could provide adequate evidence, that's a different story entirely.

Agree. No one denies that Directed Energy Weapons are a lively, developing and horrific new field in unconventional warfare, nor that the Pentagon may well be 10-plus years ahead in terms of what is known to the public, nor indeed that DEW's may well be coming to a riot near you as a means of crowd control or as a new weapon to be used overseas (some reports indicate that DEW's are already being used in locales such as Iraq, but I have no hard evidence to indicate such), but there is ZERO evidence that they were employed on 911.

I do however find it interesting that both video morphology and directed energy weapons -- arguably two of the most significant (developing) means of unconventional warfare -- are being employed as disinformation tactics against the 911 truth movement.

There will come a time when both weapons will be used with some frequency, I suspect. Both audio and video morphing may have already been used in the various "Bin Laden" tapes.

One of the guys who refuses to rule out the beam weapons idea completely also decries using arguments from incredulity. But of course the whole "pulverized concrete" discussion is an argument from incredulity. "I don't believe it would look like that," is a classic argument from incredulity. Box Boy Richard Gage uses this in his presentations. He points out the pulverized concrete and claims that if explosives were not used, we would expect to see 110 floors of the World Trade Center stacked atop each other at the bottom of the pile. Since we don't see that, it must have been controlled demolition.

What a moron! Look, this is really simple. Even if the NWO had done controlled demolition with supernanothermitate, there would be no value to pulverizing the concrete. So we are left with two options: a) the concrete was (mostly) pulverized due to falling (on average) 55 stories, or b) the concrete was not mostly pulverized and claims that it was are largely a myth.

The website 9-11 Myths has a pretty good article on the pulverized concrete. Note in particular that Steven Jones himself has emphasized that describing the concrete as pulverized to a fine powder is an exaggeration:

As we examined the WTC-debris sample, we found large chunks of concrete (irregular in shape and size, one was approximately 5cm X 3 cm X 3cm) as well as medium-sized pieces of wall-board (with the binding paper still attached). Thus, the pulverization was in fact NOT to fine dust, and it is a false premise to start with near-complete pulverization to fine powder (as might be expected from a mini-nuke or a “star-wars” beam destroying the Towers). Indeed, much of the mass of the MacKinlay sample was clearly in substantial pieces of concrete and wall-board rather than in fine-dust form...

It seems that the 9/11 truth community likewise “has been slow to understand” that the WTC dust particles in greatest abundance are the “supercoarse” variety rather than “fine” particles, and that significant chunks of concrete were also found in the WTC rubble.

My take? I suspect a fair amount of the WTC concrete was pulverized from the collapse, but not all of it. I am thoroughly unsurprised by the notion that four-inch thick concrete floors falling from a great height were turned into dust by the collapse.

KSM, 4 Others Coming to New York for Trial

I am a few days late getting to this, but it bears mentioning in case anyone missed it. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 4 of his comrades are now going to be tried in civilian courts in New York City, which predictably has brought criticism from Rudy Giuliani and others.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani accused the Obama administration of "repeating the mistake of history" by bringing the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and his accomplices to New York for a civilian trial, saying the administration has definitively reverted to a "pre-9/11 approach."

The mayor who oversaw rescue and recovery efforts in the wake of the attacks on lower Manhattan told "Fox News Sunday" the president is only granting the "wish" of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad at the expense of the American people and that the conspirators should be tried in a military tribunal.

I'll avoid the political aspects for now, but if you look at any of the troofer hangouts it is just amusing how they are all hoping for some dramatic Perry Mason moment where the "truth" is unveiled. Of course they ignore the fact that there is considerable evidence involved, without even getting into controversial subjects such as interrogation.

I just hope the troofers finally put their money where their mouth is. I want to see a free KSM movement, just as powerful as the free Mumia nuts. If they really believe what they say they believe, they have no excuse not to do something. Perhaps Richard Gage and David Ray Griffin can appear as expert witnesses or something?

Ryan Mackey Vs. Tony Szamboti Part II

Unfortunately the audio quality was poor, but worth it for entertainment value to hear Szamboti's creative speculation. At one point he argues that the twin towers may have been brought down through hydraulics and cables.

The Last Word

Here's a terrific post on the conspiracy crackpots:

Conspiracist Crackpots are oblivious to the fact that their conspiracy of choice tends to relate directly to their political views. Not only that but their embrace of the conspiracy actually flows out of their political ideology. Every single Birther is opposed to Barack Obama on policy grounds. Truthers who think 9/11 was an “inside job” done by the government are almost always politically opposed to the government. Leftist Truthers hate America and Right-wing Truthers hate the federal government. Holocaust deniers hate Jews. Afrocentric leftists who think the government engineered AIDS and crack also think America is fundamentally racist. You can do this with virtually every conspiracy.

Great job!

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me!

The Troofers are having a big confab in Sydney, Australia this weekend, with Richard Gage and Steven Jones as the draws. The conference is dubbed "The Hard Evidence" tour (there are a couple more stops down under before it ends), and from the title, you might expect that Jones would be focusing on supernanothermatite, the material he claims to have found in the WTC dust, with perhaps a short digression into iron microspheres.

You would be wrong. In fact, according to one attendee:

Steven Jones is speaking right now. (He's going into great detail about the put options, btw)

Seriously. What's next, Jonesy? Eight of the hijackers are still alive according to the BBC?

Spot the Mentally Ill People In this Video

The Troofers posting this (including the inimitable Matt Naus) think it's the guy harassing them, but most of us will recognize that it's actually the dolts asking "Who got NORAD to stand down?"

Here's Matt from about a year ago making a memorable presentation to Senator Russ Feingold:



Hat tip: Shadow Effect (in the comments).

Caption Contest!

This photo of Luke Rudkowski in Sydney, Australia, just begs for a good caption. Go to work!

Goldwag of Boing Boing Notes the Paranoid Style

Having stirred up the kooks last week, he kicks them in the face with another well-written article.

Of course he's furious! He's educated, articulate, and politically committed. He's not some disreputable, anti-social obsessive--he's a veritable exegete of 9/11 anomalies, as fluent in the jargon of physics as he is in political dialectics. It's bad enough that he has to endure the studied neutrality or outright hostility of the really big guns of the left--Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein--but then an arrant nobody like me comes along with, as one of his fellow posters put it, "a metric tonne of standard issue boilerplate" and presumes that he can conjure away the whole edifice of 9/11 Truth with a couple of wisecracks. Not only am I smug and ignorant and intellectually dishonest --- it's as if I don't even care about the subtle distinctions between one brand of Truthery and another, as if I can't be bothered to acknowledge the museum's-worth of evidence that he and his colleagues have so assiduously curated.

As usual, the kooks come out in the comments; "50-ton hydraulic press," and "Pull it," are highlighted. My favorite is the guy who says:

To go along with the last link, here is an Appendix of the FEMA report showing unexplained, aberrant molecular changes in the steel, that weakened them dramatically. A "liquid eutectic mixture" is found that is high in iron, oxygen, and sulfur.

But isn't FEMA a part of the federal government? What happened, didn't they get the memo reading "ix-nay on the iquid-lay tectic-euay ixture-may?"

The 9-11 Controlled Demolition Movement It Is

One of the Troofers posts this video with the note that "The 9-11 Controlled Demolition Movement cutting edge: Announcing the truth to the officialdom. The politicians."



As you can see, it's the usual fruitcake stuff. Note that when Gage gets off onto the other "evidence" presented, he actually mentions the put options. Seriously.

In the comments at the post on Flogger, someone asks about the new term, 9-11 Controlled Demolition Movement. The poster replies:

Now, the 2009 Nanothermite report of Dr. Jones and Prof. Harrit proves beyond any doubt that 9/11 is a controlled demolition, therefore an inside job. The invaluable scientific research of Richard Gage and his foundation only confirms this. And this is also being presented in their public education campaigns and their attempts to initiate a new investigation.

So, 9/11 Controlled Demolition Movement is a group of people who understand that 9/11 is a controlled demolition. The intellectual potential required for making this deliberate conclusion, in my view, must be around IQ70 and higher.

About half of the Troofers qualify under that standard.

Chandler's Smoking Gun Debunked

Great job by JREF forum member Alienentity! I'll put up part II as soon as he finishes it.

Mackey Vs Szamboti Part I

The first part of the Hardfire debate between NASA engineer Ryan Mackey and truther mechanical engineer Tony Szamboti is up. Another good faceoff between reality and fantasy.

Supermagico-Nano-Thermitate

Box Boy is Australia this weekend and still selling the same line of bull. But I had to laugh at his latest interview with Truth News Australia, because as usual, the Troofers want to have it both ways. Starting about 17:00 in, Gage gets off onto thermite/thermate, which he explains is a high-tech incendiary. Now we can quibble about how high-tech it is when you can buy it on ebay, but note that about 17:50 he specifies that thermite "doesn't have the large 'bang' of C4 or RDX, high energy explosives."

But at about 29:50, Gage is back onto the "explosions described by over 100 first responders." It's like the whole bit about how thermite doesn't have the large bang is completely forgotten. And it probably is, for about 90% of the kooks.

Even Dumber Ft. Hood Theories

These conspiracy idiots are getting even more inane. I swear, do they even live on the same planet as us?

The attack happened at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center in Ft. Hood, where troops wait to see doctors before being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, conveniently giving the wars more credence. Furthermore, the zone where the attack took place was a gun-free zone. Now how on Earth did a foreign firearm get into a gun-free zone in the biggest and one of the most important military bases in the U.S.?

Published in Sweden

No, it's not one of those books that comes in a plain brown wrapper; it's my article on why the Truthers are wrong, and why their theories are dangerous. The English version is here.

The Truthers start with the assumption that the official story is wrong, and grab for any inconsistency in the official story as evidence that they are right. But the sensible way to investigate any incident is to examine the evidence and see where it leads.

And let me say right here and now that I would be willing to debate the two gals in the accompanying picture for hours on the topic of 9-11 Conspiracies. :)

Update: Arcterus at Truth Action:

However, I chuckled a bit when he said that Truthers ignore facts which don't fit their beliefs. How many extraordinary holes in the official story do we point out only for them to be twisted as irrelevant or inconsequential. Like I said earlier, you do not twist facts to suit your theories, you twist theories to suit your facts. And whenever something damning comes up, they simply ignore it. Even in that article, Pat tries to build a case for the Muslims but doesn't bother mentioning how some of them, including Atta, were seen at a strip club engaging in sacrilegious activities including eating pork and even leaving their Korans behind. Debunkers block out information all the time, even if they don't realize it.

This is a fair point, although the examples Arcterus chooses are not the best. For example, the story of Atta and others being seen at a strip club and leaving their Korans behind is dubious at best. It's mentioned in this newspaper article:

He said he told FBI investigators the men in his bar spent $200 to $300 apiece on lap dances and drinks, paying with credit cards. Kap said he gave the FBI credit card receipts and a business card left by one man and a copy of the Quran that was left at the bar.

But note this detail:

The night before terrorists struck New York and Washington, three men spewed anti-American sentiments in a bar and talked of impending bloodshed, according to a strip club manager interviewed by the FBI. John Kap, manager of the Pink Pony and Red Eyed Jack's Sports Bar in Daytona Beach, said the men made the claims to a bartender and a patron.

That would put Atta and other hijackers in Florida on the night of September 10, 2001. So how does Atta get to Portland, Maine, in time to catch his 6:00 AM flight the next morning to Boston? We know he did, because there is videotape of him going through the security checkpoint there.

The claim about Atta eating pork? It comes from Amanda Keller, who has since admitted that the Mohamed she met and talked about to Daniel Hopsicker, was not Mohamed Atta.

But the former Venice stripper now says her boyfriend was another flight student not connected to 9/11. And, for the first time, federal investigators say she's right.

"There's nothing there to corroborate the relationship between the two," a New York-based FBI counterterrorism agent said recently after reviewing 9/11 case files.

Now that is not entirely to say that the hijackers were all a bunch of Islamic choirboys. The 9-11 Commission report notes that some of the muscle hijackers did use prostitutes, and rent pornographic videos. But so did Jimmy Swaggart.

Ticket Sales for the Blunder Down Under Sluggish

John Bursill writes that the response to a few of the sessions at the "Hard Evidence" tour has been tepid:

We still have 135 (out of 292) Tickets to sell for Saturday the 14th event and 210 (out of 292) for Sunday the 15th event.

Tickets for Sunday are priced at $32.50 in Australian dollars which is roughly $29 US at the current exchange rates. And it seems like a bargain, since you'll get to see the following major league troofers:

Luke Rudkowski (Head of WeAreChange NY and founder of WAC), Janice Matthews (Head of 911Truth.org), Cosmos (Head of TruthAction.org), Ken Jenkins (911 Truth's #1 Psychologist), Dr Frank Legge (Co-ed of the Journal of 9/11 Studies) and Hereward Fenton (Australia's top 9/11 Journalist)!

I can't imagine how those tix are not selling like hotcakes. I mean, 911 Truth's #1 Psychologist!

The Saturday event is the biggie; Richard Gage and Steven Jones, together again for the first time. But if you want to attend that session, it's $60 Australian, or about $54 US. Forget about asking the tough questions, however, as the Q&A session is going to be moderated by Bursill himself.

Truthers Hit Bottom, Keep Digging

I have spent the last 3 days in the field for the Guard, so of course the recent incident at Ft. Hood was one of the main topics of conversation. I can't say I am surprised, but I at least hoped that the truthers would show enough tact to stay clear of this topic for their idiotic theories. I was once again disappointed. From 911 Blogger in a post titled "Fort Hood Shooting 'Oddities' "

I saw a comment over on BradBlog that said this was a traditional case of mutiny on the base. After they got things settled, they didn't want that fact to come out because it might encourage others who are feeling the same way to act out the same way, so they framed this psychiatrist who may have just been injured in the incident. Of course this is all speculation, but with the initial reports it kind of makes sense. We'll see what comes of it if anything.

An MIT PhD Takes On Rob Balsamo

I confess that I can't follow the math, but I'm going to link this debunking of Balsamo's claim that the g-forces required of AA-77 given the flight path are too high for the plane to withstand for those who can.

Balsamo came up with a radius of 2085 feet, which is less than 10% of the radius I calculated for a genuinely circular arc that connects the top of the VDOT antenna to level flight at the base of the Pentagon. My calculations are correct, so Balsamo either made a mistake in his measurement, or chose a flight path whose acceleration is ten times the acceleration required for a genuinely circular arc.

After adding 1 g for earth's gravity, Balsamo gets a total of 10.14 g. As shown above, the correct value for a circular arc that passes above the VDOT antenna and ends in level flight at the base of the Pentagon is 1.9 g. Balsamo's "corrected" calculation is off by a factor of 5.

And this certainly sounds accurate:

The video amounts to an argument from authority. The self-assuredness of Balsamo's video monologue, combined with his sneering contempt for critics, is designed to convince viewers that he really does understand the physics and mathematics, while his detractors do not. In reality, Rob Balsamo is a former airline pilot with no discernible skills in mathematics or physics and a history of making outrageous mistakes in his calculations.

Hat Tip: Paul W in the comments.

Rosie the Ribbiter

Rosie O'Donnell picks up where she left off (mp3 file, right click and choose save as to download), with 9-11 Truthiness.

Listening to it now. The bulk of the show is an interview with Willie Rodriguez, whom Mark (Gravy) Roberts took apart masterfully. It leads with a claim I had not heard before, about people in an elevator in Tower 2 being on fire prior to the second plane hitting. I'll see if I can find any reference to that one.

Box Cutters? Haha!

The debate over whether the "Truth" is Controlled Demolition continues to rage over at 9-11 Flogger. In a thread purportedly about Noam Chomsky not entirely (but mostly) ruling out the LIHOP scenario, some particularly stupid and offensive comments are left by Bruno Bruhwiler and one of his compadres who goes by the nick of AllendeAdmirer.

Bruno first:

LOL

"I see water, I see buildings! Oh my god!"

Doesn't Sweeney see buildings and water everyday on the job? LOL

Yep, laughing at one of the women who gave us our first warning of the horror to come, just like Do-Over did in at least one of his movies.

But perhaps this is not surprising, Bruno's such a dolt that he still insists that no Islamic terrorists were on the planes:

I know some things that happened or didn't happen on 9-11. Hijackers flying airplanes - 99% sure that didn't happen. Hijackers lining the towers with explosives - 99% sure that didn't happen.

AllendeAdmirer chips in with his own bit of hilarity:

The caller says, "Mom? This is Mark Bingham."

What a pair of scum-suckers. At any rate, the whole thread is amazing reading.

Troofer Wars

Now personally I think both Jon Gold and Kevin Barrett are one taco short of a combination plate, but Barrett has got to be one of the most arrogant and obnoxious people on the planet. In any case Gold posts an exchange that he had with the former part-time professor turned full-time quack radio host. I swear, these guys hate each other more than they hate us.

Jon,

The problem isn't that you're pugnacious. Nor is that intellectually, you're utterly mediocre, and that's being charitable. Nor is it that you're pro-Zionist. Lots of my friends and colleagues support a Jewish
state in Palestine, and that's their business.

The problem is that the combination of your stupidity, Zionism, and pugnaciousness makes you a huge waste of time, and a drain on the resources of the 9/11 truth movement.

I have never once in my life attacked anyone in the 9/11 truth movement if they didn't attack me first. Why not? Because it just leads to a time-wasting flame war.

But you...all you DO, besides posting moronic home movies that even your dog wouldn't want to watch, and idiotically predictable commentary that even your mom wouldn't want to read, is attack people (mostly people who are at least 50 IQ points and oodles of education ahead of you) and start flame wars. The internet, which puts everyone--morons like you and erudite geniuses like Tarpley--on the same level, has contributed to your developing a wildly inflated opinion of yourself. Like the F student who protests the hardest against not getting an A, you're too dumb to realize how dumb you are.

If you aren't an op, you might as well be. My best guess is that you're just an intellectually-mediocre pugnacious Zionist lihopper who has somehow come into enough money to spend your whole life wasting the 9/11 truth movement's time. You and Brian Good are each other's evil twins. Maybe you two should get together and wank each other while you fantasize about the 9/11 truth leaders you love to hate.

Over and out.

Kevin

Northwest Airlines was an Inside Job!

David Ray Griffin, and other truthers have been insisting for years that any plane which is off course will be intercepted by the Air Force in a matter of minutes.

In the first few days, military officials said that no fighter jets were sent up by NORAD until after the strike on the Pentagon at 9:38, even though signs that Flight 11 was in trouble had been observed at 8:15. That would mean that although interceptions usually occur within 15 minutes, in this case over 80 minutes had elapsed before any fighters were even airborne. This story suggested that a “stand-down” order had been issued.

Well, unfortunately they aren't always this efficient, even 8 years later.

The Northwest Airlines plane that flew 150 miles past the Minneapolis airport was out of contact with air traffic control for longer than the hour-plus originally reported, military sources told Fox News.

But the Federal Aviation Administration denies that was the case, standing by earlier reports that the wayward jet was out of contact for about 77 minutes.

Military sources confirmed to Fox that there were three "non-contacts" — or NORDOs — when air traffic controllers tried to call Flight 188, the first when it reached its cruising altitude after taking off from San Diego.


The military wasn't notified about the out-of-touch plane until after the third non-contact incident, which occurred as the jet approached Minneapolis, the sources said.

Boing Boing On the "Truthers"

Nice, sensible article here:

I'm sure I'm not the first to say this, but Yeats's words in "The Second Coming" seem strangely apt when it comes to 9/11 Truth: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." Which isn't to say that 9/11 Truthers are all "bad." Many of them -- Daniel Edd Bland III, for one -- are absolutely sincere and well-intentioned. Part of the reason I try to avoid getting into arguments with them is because I don't want to seem to be impugning their intelligence or their characters. What's "worst" in them is their critical methodology-their emotionally-colored, conspiratorial, often magically deterministic view of the world.

As usual, the real hilarity comes in the comments. One particularly dense Troofer starts yammering about "and my personal favourite: How many of you here have ever read or heard or seen any kind of stories from the Arab world where a father or mother was interviewed about their missing hijacker son? Not one of those 19 hijackers families ever came forward to claim that, "yes it was my son, he did it". When links to a couple of such interviews are posted, he does the usual jump to another topic. Never mind that this was supposedly his "favourite" piece of evidence.

Yet Another Chart

One thing paranoids can do better than anybody else is create charts that illustrate their delusions (a la John Nash in A Beautiful Mind). This one is apparently based on Jon Gold's fantasy world. Who knew the Family Steering Committee had ties to Saudi Arabia?

Doltish Nevada Troofer Gets Himself Shot

Jim Duensing, a 9-11 Fruitcake and former Nevada Libertarian congressional candidate attempted suicide by cop the other day:

He added that he was surprised Duensing was shot by police Thursday afternoon after a routine traffic stop near Cheyenne Avenue and Jones Boulevard.

"I've known Jim for years. He's not a nut. He's not the kind of guy who's going to flee from police."

Police said the officer fired his weapon after Duensing was asked to get out of his Pontiac rental car because a records check indicated he had a misdemeanor warrant for his arrest.

Police said Duensing then fled and was unsuccessfully Tased and shot several times after he reached in his front pocket for a .45-caliber handgun. Police also said Duensing reached for a large folding knife.

Piecing the story together, the fruitcake was driving in a right turn only lane and cut over into the other lane so he could continue going straight when he was pulled over. In a bit of terrific irony, it turns out that the outstanding warrant was for failing to appear for a traffic ticket where he was driving in the HOV lane without any passengers. Apparently he refused the cops' orders to put his hands on the vehicle and got tased as a result. He pulled the taser wires from his body and started to flee, grabbing for his gun as well. And got his sorry ass shot.

Here's Duensing's version of events:

With my hands raised above my head, the cop shot me with a taser in the chest. As I have had heart problems since my premature birth, I believe a Taser to be a lethal weapon. Several people without heart conditions have been killed by this weapon.

When the taser began electrocuting me, instinct took over. I have been shocked by standard 120 volt electricity, which is what is used in your home. That was bad enough. Metro’s tasers contain “50,000 volts of pain compliance” according to one of the cops at the family law court who was operating the checkpoint.

Let me tell you, it is quite painful.

I immediately turned to my left and began moving away from the source of the electrocution. By the time I got to the back of the vehicle, I had reached up with both hands, grabbed the electrodes, and pulled them away from my chest. The juice then flowed through my arms - not my heart. As I lay here in my hospital bed, I firmly believe this instinct saved my life.

A more sensible conclusion is that this "instinct" almost got him killed. Note this discussion of his wounds:

The shots to my midsection missed all vital organs. Three shots were fired from behind me and to my right. The doctors believe that two of the shots made contact. It appears that one entered my right pec, bounced off my sternum, went through my left pec, then shattered my humerous just above my left elbow. The second shot went in my lower right abdomen and exited my left abdomen without hitting any vital organs.

My god, it's the magic bullet!

Duensing's the assistant organizer for the Las Vegas 9-11 "Truth" Meetup group. Beth, the lead organizer, is apparently his wife (Correction: His mommy). Here's his picture:



One of the dolts over at Lew Rockwell's site laments that the Libertarians seem to be throwing him under the bus:

Before talking to Duensing or trying to verify any information, the local Libertarian Party issued the following in a press release:

The Libertarian Party of Clark County has no information, other than what the local media has reported, regarding the officer involved shooting of Raymond “Jim” Duensing. Until the events surrounding this incident are fully investigated, we will refrain from making any further statements.

The Libertarian Party of Clark County does not advocate fleeing the police as a means of peaceful conflict resolution. Raymond “Jim” Duensing, although a past officer of the party, holds no official standing within our party as an elected officer. Our thoughts go out to Jim Duensing, his family, and the officer involved in this incident (emphasis added).

Yep, Eric Garris, the writer, got his panties in a bunch because the LP dared to actually express some sympathy for the officer involved.

Update: Here's another picture of Duensing with Do-Over:

Troofer Candidate Celebrates Big Victory in Montreal

The big victory? He came in third in the mayoral election:

Richard Bergeron lives only a few blocks from Montreal city hall. Last night, he and his party took a step closer to moving in.

At his victory party in the Gay Village, the 54-year-old Projet Montréal leader celebrated the rise of his marginal party to a solid standing as No. 3 in city politics.

With chants of, "We're number three!" no doubt. His Troofer statements raised some eyebrows, although he claims to have changed his little mind:

But Bergeron was also dogged by questions about his judgment, such as having written (and not recanted) that he believes the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were "an act of state banditry" that profited "the mafias surrounding George W. Bush," and justifying his smoking habit as "good for my health" because it makes him run slower when he jogs, lowering his risk of injury.

Turns out the guy has a Moroccan wife, and converted to Islam; another Kevin Barrett?

You Can't Go Back, Jon

There's a long and interesting argument over at Truth Action about whether Controlled Demolition arguments are hurting or helping the 9-11 "Truth" Movement. In general the Truth Action folks try to avoid "evidence-based" arguments in favor of "warnings" and "the families' questions" and "air quality" arguments. However, no less an eminence than David Ray Griffin has recently pronounced LIHOP dead and only MIHOP as acceptable, now that the presence of nanothermite in the WTC dust has been "proven".

Jon Gold writes:

It's not a prerequisite. It would be nice if the movement came to terms with the fact that focusing solely on Controlled Demolition, when the masses have been saturated with hit pieces, documentaries, and media pundits saying how crazy the idea is, is not the best course of action in my opinion. It is STILL the #1 roadblock I come across with people. "You're one of those nuts who think there were explosives in the buildings." Just happened to me yesterday.

I have some sympathy for Jon on this point, but you can't put the genie back in the bottle. The fact is that almost all "Truthers" push controlled demolition as a major part of their argument. Steven Jones and Richard Gage have no other focus. If you read that post, you'll see that even the people who are defending Jon on this point almost all agree with the CD hypothesis.

Victronix:

To me, the movement seems to be growing right now because of the scientists, engineers, etc who are behind demolition and have risked or lost their careers to do so.

Arcterus:

I endorse controlled demolition but I do find it best to, at the least, refrain from mentioning it until I've hit the more solid and documented evidence.

Zombie Bill Hicks:

Ok, be careful there, because I've never spoken out against CD or said that I don't believe in it. Ever.

I'm particularly amused by the CD true believers, like Pavlovian Dogcatcher, who thinks it's truth inviolate:

You don't need anything but a high school level understanding of Newtonian physics to accept the fact that the official story in regard to the buildings coming down contradicts long understood and consistently demonstrable laws of physics. You really don't even need any formal understanding of the physics, particularly in the case of WTC7, just a reasonable grasp on reality.

So denying that "Truth" is synonymous with Controlled Demolition is a lost cause. It's nutty, but then everything the "Truthers" believe is nutty.

Paranoid about Droids

The Troofers' newest superstar is Dwain Deets, one of the geese in Gage's gaggle, who has been giving lectures, including a recent one in San Diego. Deets is a former NASA engineer, giving him some added credibility. Not, of course, that he actually uses his engineering skills; he does pretty much the same lecture as Gage, although I assume he's smart enough to say "freefall acceleration" rather than "freefall speed" like Box Boy.

But the paranoids who insist that the Pentagon was hit by a drone aircraft, or a missile, or anything other than Flight 77, have done some looking into his background, and in turns out that Deets worked a lot on unmanned vehicles:

What we see here is some of the earliest work on the remote piloting systems for airplanes.

Detailed as you can see, is a jumbo jet.

This image is found in a paper written by Dwain Deets in 1985, just prior to the Controlled Crash Test of the remote piloted jumbo jet at Dryden Research facility.

I think it would be fair to say that Dwain Deets is probably considered an expert on the remotely piloted flight control systems as well as a pioneer in the drone aircraft technology. There are probably more connects that I just have not found… yet, but he has been intimately involved in the development of this technology since 1974.

Of course, it's just the usual "connect the dots" argument from the kooks about other kooks. I am sure that Deets had nothing to do with the attack on the Pentagon. Honestly.