Kos Diarist Banned for Troofer Post

This is the post that got him banned.

But the greatest failure of Democrats and the progressive left in the last 8 years has been to allow the delusional ravings of a few to inoculate the Bush junta on 911. Just because some think that space beams destroyed the Twin Towers is no reason to believe the depiction of 911 presented by Bush/Cheney or the fraud that is the 911 Commission. There's nothing realistic about believing the Bush administration has lied about everything except 911.

He recommends that steaming pile, 9-11 Press for Troof, and outs himself as a LIHOI fruitcake:

I just want people to understand they let it happen. Because that is the proven truth, so far. Whether they let it happen on purpose is a legitimate line of investigation. But because of the left's phobia with 911, we can't even get the message out that Bushco let 911 happen through incompetence. And that pisses me off.

Now there's a movement to get him reinstated:

In light of Tocquedeville's many contributions to this site, and in light of the fact that the diary he was banned for is actually not a conspiracy theory diary, I am starting a petition to get him unbanned.

Currently the poll over there is running about 2-1 in favor of unbanning. I checked and apparently Tocquedeville is a fairly popular diarist over there, with some of his posts attracting 2500+ comments.

Was it a CT diary? I'd say it comes right up to the line. Press for Truth is a crackpot movie dressed up a bit to seem like it's "Just asking questions". But more important is that the post is advocating more discussion of 9-11 CTs without the nasty label of Conspiracy Theories. It seems obvious that if this post stands, then it's Katie bar the door.

Kos Does It Again

Another Truther Diary, no "Troll Diary" tags yet.

Make no mistake, the 9/11 truth movement holds the future of the United States. We are not subversive "conspiracy theorists" or enablers of foreign terrorism. We are patriotic warriors working to nullify group delusion produced by government propaganda. Dozens of books and websites reveal countless technical contradictions and inconsistencies with the official government 9/11 story and the laws of physics. The weight of the evidence supports one painful verdict: Our federal government played a role, probably through a large "black op." The "why" is obvious: To justify an unjust war to serve corporate interests and greed.

The commenters all seem to sense this is coming, but so far it has not happened. There are many statements that Hirschhorn has been banned, but I see no sign of that; his diary page still exists. Get on the stick, folks!

Daily Kos Allows Crackpot Diary

Perhaps because it is written by David Lindorff, and perhaps because it's seen as tangential to the Blackwater story, but it's 9-11 nuttery being shoehorned in.

What makes this history of particular interest is that Alex Brown was the investment bank that handled most of the suspicious short-selling "puts" that were placed on the stocks of four companies—United Airlines, American Airlines, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Merrill Lynch—that were pummeled by the 9-11 attacks.

As has been reported in Bloomberg Financial News Service reports and in the San Francisco Chronicle, in the several days preceding September 11, 2001, unidentified investors placed an unusual number of "puts" on the stocks of the two airlines whose planes were hijacked that day, as well as on the two investment banks, one of which occupied 22 floors of one of the World Trade Center towers and the other of which owned a building directly across the street which was significantly damaged and forced to close down.

The stocks of those four companies, following the attacks and the collapse of the Twin Towers, subsequently tanked, making the combined puts worth about $16 million.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, no one collected the $2.5 million in profits from the puts placed on United Airlines. The identities of the investors in the put orders have never been disclosed by Alex Brown.

Incredibly, there was never any serious investigation of these peculiar and suspicious investments, though they clearly suggest that someone knew something was going to happen that would make those four companies’ stocks plunge in value.

The US corporate news media has never pursued this story or in many cases even reported it, nor was it seriously investigated by the FBI or the 9-11 commission.

Yes, the US corporate news media has never pursued this story. Well, except for Bloomberg and the SF Chronicle, which is the only reason Lindorff ever heard of it. Hilariously he repeats the silliest claim:

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, no one collected the $2.5 million in profits from the puts placed on United Airlines.

I've gone over this before. The reason the SF Chronicle reported that no one had collected the profits on the United put options is because they had not expired as of the date the Chronicle wrote their story (September 29, 2001).



These were October options, which expired on the third Saturday of that month, or October 20, 2001. And remember, according to the 9-11 Commission (which did investigate the options) the investor who bought put options on United also bought shares of American Airlines a few days before the attacks. If they'd really had warning of 9-11 wouldn't they have been short AA and not long?

More disturbing than that Lindorff repeats the usual crackpot talking points on the put options is that the Daily Kos community apparently tolerated the posting; we see none of the "Troll Diary" tags on this one, even though the first tag is 9-11.

Hat Tip: Reader Michael P.

A Response from a Kossack

Yesterday I put out a call for the Daily Kos to begin getting more forceful in their rejection of the 9-11 Denial crowd. Today, one of the "Truther" Kossacks takes me to task:

Why exactly does the official story need defending? Didn't we have a 9/11 Commission to take care of all the questions? I mean we know Kean and Hamilton admit that it was a whitewash, but still is this really necessary?

It's not that the "official story" needs defending. It's that the conspiracy theory needs to be defeated. Look, I'm a moderate conservative in the Rudy Giuliani/John McCain mold, so I know that what I say isn't going to cut much ice with the Kos crowd. But what about David Corn, George Monbiot, Noam Chomsky and Alexander Cockburn?

And Kean and Hamilton did not claim their commission was a whitewash; that an interpretation by a columnist who thought the report should have been more critical of US support for Israel.

As usual, my concern is misinterpreted (as is my name):

Apparently this new poll which shows 35% of Dems believe Bush Knew has caused a panic of sorts. And with John Edwards recently making a comment about looking into the collapse of World Trade Center 7 there seems to be concern that the Dems could use this as part of their platform. And we've already known about Dennis Kucinich's position on this issue.

Believe me, Republicans are praying that the Democrats embrace 9-11 Denial as part of their platform; it seems likely that would be one of the few ways the Democrats could suffer a humiliating defeat in 2008.

No, the reason why I called for the Kos frontpage diarists to tackle this subject head-on is that I look at 9-11 Trutherism as poisonous to the national debate, and very much more to the liberal side than the conservative side. As I said in my previous post, I don't believe the poll that says 35% of Democrats believe in the 9-11 conspiracy theories.

And I am not opposed to further investigation; for example NIST is still working on their report on WTC-7 and I applaud them for that. But the notion that we need yet another 9-11 Commission is absurd because a) they got it mostly right, and b) the Truthers won't be satisfied with any commission that concludes anything less than "9-11 was an inside job!" which would require a commission made up of kooks like Morgan Reynolds, David Ray Griffin and Dylan Avery.

I can understand that when someone who's part of your political opposition makes a recommendation as to what you should do, you're probably smarter ignoring them. But I am not making a recommendation about politics and anyway, this is an issue about which Kos is on record as agreeing with us. We've applauded the many people on the left who've come out forcefully against the 9-11 crackpots, like those I listed above. They know, as Monbiot wrote:

Why do I bother with these morons? Because they are destroying the movements some of us have spent a long time trying to build.

How To Win Friends and Influence People

I'd guess this guy hasn't read the book. He's upset that Daily Kos Diarists who post on 9-11 Denial get troll-rated and banned over there. But let's let him speak for himself, shall we?

I have even heard the buzz about your particular website, however, I never visited it until today after I heard of more blatant censorship there with regards to important 9-11 related information. I refer specifically to this article posted at 911blogger.com.

Telling somebody who's a big wheel in blogging that you haven't been to his site is not a good way to start. But Mike starts to redeem himself by standing up for Kos' property rights:

Certainly, you have the right to post what you like at your site.

You just know there's a butt-monkey coming, right?

However, at some point, and especially when sites become successful, as you boast about here, you have a duty to protect free speech on an open forum. Unless someone is "flaming" others or otherwise causing trouble, what makes you think that articulate sensible people shouldn't have the right to openly post a forum, which is there exactly for such purposes? You are exactly like those you pretend to loathe so much.

Telling folks they're just like the fascists works every time!

Especially considering the dire circumstances we find ourselves in here in America. When will people like you realize that everything that we despise about the Bush administration sprung forth from 9-11-01....none of it would have been possible if not for 9-11. And yet you continually keep the gate locked. You are either extremely naive, or part of a bought and paid for "controlled opposition".

Suggesting they're on the take will certainly make you new friends.

I urge you to begin by examining the issue of the 9-11 dust and then doing the right thing by giving this issue much needed exposure. Not one person in the country, not even Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, can point to this issue and shout "Conspiracy Theory!" This is conspiracy fact, all laid out in black and white, sometimes in the EPA's own words, and now, 5 1/2 years later, people are starting to die. I refer you to an article published just today in the New York Post.

The dust is a legitimate issue, but of course that's only the thin end of the wedgie that the Truthers have in mind for Kos.