Troofers Get a Raging Jew Clue

The Hardley Boys are hard at work on the latest Jew Clue.

The article is a recitation of the usual Troofer talking points about what a terrible pilot Hani Hanjour was. As usual Gaffney mentions Freeway Airport:

During three such flights over two days in a single-engine Cessna 172, instructors Sheri Baxter and Ben Conner observed what others had before them. Hanjour had trouble controlling and landing the aircraft. Afterward, Baxter interviewed Hanjour extensively about his flight training and experience, and also reviewed his flight log, which documented 600 hours of flight time. On this basis she and Conner declined to approve a current license rating until Hanjour returned for more training. On their recommendation, Freeway’s chief instructor Marcel Bernard refused to rent Hanjour a plane.

The Troofers always highlight that Bernard refused to rent Hanjour a plane. But if he was such a terrible pilot, why would they give him three test flights? Wouldn't one have been sufficient? The only reason for the additional test flights is obviously because Hanjour was a borderline candidate, an average to below average pilot, as Bernard put it in Loose Change I and II.

Ah, but the intrepid Gaffney has more for us:

It turns out that just three days after Hani Hanjour failed a flight evaluation in a Cessna 172 at Freeway airport he showed up at Congressional Air Charters, located down the road at Gaithersburg airport, also in the Washington suburbs. Once again Hanjour attempted to rent a plane, and again he was asked to go up with an instructor for a flight evaluation to confirm his flight skills. The plane was the same: a Cessna 172. Yet, on this occasion Hanjour passed with flying colors and, later, this other instructor gave testimony to the commission that turned out to be crucial. The final report mentions the instructor’s name only once in a brief endnote buried at the back of the report. The note states:

Hanjour successfully conducted a challenging certification flight supervised by an instructor at Congressional Air Charter of Gaithersburg, Maryland, landing at a small airport with a difficult approach. The instructor thought Hanjour may have had training from a military pilot because he used a terrain recognition system for navigation. Eddie Shalev interview. (Apr. 9, 2004)[24]

And Eddie Shalev is... dun dun duh! A Jew!

But the shocker is the revelation that Eddie Shalev is an Israeli and served in the Israeli army. The file states that “Mr. Shalev served in the Israeli Defense Forces in a paratroop regiment. He was a jumpmaster on a Boeing C-130. Mr. Shalev moved to the Gaithersburg area in April 2001 and was sponsored for employment by Congressional Air Charters...[which] has subsequently gone out of business.”

The memorandum raises disturbing questions. Consider the staffer’s strange choice of words in describing Shalev’s employment. What did Quinn John Tamm mean when he wrote that Shalev “was sponsored for employment”? Did the commission bother to investigate Congressional Air Charters? It is curious that the charter service subsequently went out of business. But the most important question is: just how thoroughly, if at all, did the commission vet Eddie Shalev? Does his military record include service in the Israeli intelligence community?

Of course, the commission should have dropped its investigation into 9-11 and investigated this Israeli. Seriously, the Troofers have become so invested in their theories that anything that tends to undermine them, like the rental of the plane by Congressional Air Charters (which amazingly, Hani did not crash) is the real crime.

Oh, and get this detail:

Real people have known addresses. But the whereabouts of Eddie Shalev has been unknown for years. As reported by David Griffin, a 2007 search of the national telephone directory, plus Google searches by research librarian Elizabeth Woodworth, turned up no trace of him. A LexisNexis search by Matthew Everett also came up dry.[35] Recent searches by Woodworth and myself indicate that an "Eddy Shalev" resided in Rockville, Maryland as recently as 2007. However, the associated phone number is no longer in service.

Um, is it unkind to point out that if the recent search turned up Shalev in 2007, then that 2007 search of the national telephone directory must have been done poorly.

You know what this reminds me of? The idiotic fascination the Troofers have with the Harley guy, the man on the street who said on 9-11 that the towers collapsed because of fire. Never mind NIST, this is the person who implanted the idea that somehow it was not so surprising that the towers collapsed.

Hani Hanjour a Good Pilot

I've mentioned on several occasions that despite all the talk about Hani Hanjour being a terrible pilot, he rented a plane at a second airport. Here are the details from the interview with the instructor:

On his first certification flight a Cessna 172 was used. This is a single engine aircraft. Mr. Shalev sat next to.Hanjour and had him fly north from the Gaithersburg airport away from Washington, D.C. Mr. Shalev noticed that Hanjour used a landmark or terrain recognition system for navigation and did not use the ''VOR'' or Very High Frequency (VHF) Omni Directional Rangefinder instruments. Mr. Shalev stated that he considered this unusual because basic ainnanship requires knowledge of the operation of the VOR. Mr. Shalev selected Clearview airport in northern Maryland as their designation. The airport is located near Westminster, Maryland. Mr. Shalev said that the runway is small at Clearview and difficult to land. Hanjour landed at the airport without any difficulty. Mr. Shalev stated that based on his observations, Hanjour was a "good" pilot. Mr. Shalev thought that Hanjour may have received training from a military pilot because of his use of terrain recognition for navigation. Hanjour told Mr. Shalev that he (Hanjour) had most recently trained in Florida as a pilot.

After the certification flight, Mr. Shalev approved Hanjour for the rental of the Cessna 172 from Congressional Air Charters. Mr. Shalev said that Hanjour had his own flight bag, headset and aviator's chart for the Washington, D.C. area airspace. On 08/26/2001, Hanjour returned to Congressional Air Charters and rented an aircraft. Hanjour came in and spoke briefly with Mr. Shalev. The conversation related to the air corridor between Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport. The airspace is restricted because of heavy commercial airline traffic. Mr. Shalev said that the Cessna 172 that Hanjour would be flying is not pressurized and that would restrict the altitude. Generally, the air controllers allow small aircraft to fly to an altitude of 5000 feet.

Of course, the Troofers will find another part of that testimony "confirms" one of their theories. It's this: "Mr. Shalev thought that Hanjour may have received training from a military pilot because of his use of terrain recognition for navigation."

Either that or they'll seize on Shalev's name and claim he's Mossad.

Hat Tip: Mike W of 9-11 Myths (at JREF).

The Chic Burlingame Mystery

Just how offensive and idiotic are these lunatic "Truthers" going to get? "Shoestring" comments on what a tough guy Captain Burlingame was, and what wimps the hijackers were, of course concluding that there was no way they could have overpowered him.

Surely it would take a particularly formidable team of terrorists to wrestle control of a plane from a man like this? Yet here is where the official story falls apart at the first hurdle. The supposed hijackers in fact appear to have been a group of weaklings.

Let's see, is there something that might give the weaklings an advantage over Captain Burlingame? Like maybe if he was buckled into a seat, and they were behind him with knives and box-cutters?

Oh, but it gets much worse. The poster actually digs up quotes from the families of the hijackers, talking about what sweet little princes they had been. On Hani Hanjour:

He also liked children. Susan Khalil recalled, "He was very kind and gentle to my son, who was 3 years old."

Yes, and Hitler was apparently very kind and gentle to dogs.

"Truthers" are sick, sad, disturbing people.