Box Boy: 9-11 Was an Inside Job

No surprise, Gage lets the mask slip a bit:

We were also honored to speak to many times that many live streaming on the internet and who knows how that message will reverberate throughout the Nation of Islam and into the Black community where we’re hoping to receive more support than we’ve received in the White community. The support I’m referring to is breaking through into the public’s consciousness so that people can understand if the World Trade Center Towers were indeed destroyed with controlled demolition, then this is obviously some sort of an inside job and people here really get that.

(Bolding added for emphasis)

Gage has usually been coy about admitting that he's a conspiracy theorist, preferring to leave open the question of who was behind the attacks. This is the first I can recall him using the term "inside job". Of course, on Chinese TV, he did state that Muslims didn't have anything to do with 9-11, so it's not like he's fooling anybody but his donors.

Ryan and Gage at Nation of Islam Rally

I've seen or listened to most of their presentation and have the following comments:

Ryan's speech is simply a weak version of Loose Change.  Like Dylan, he throws a blizzard of "facts" at you, but unlike Do-Over he doesn't tie it together into any sensible order. He does lead with a phrase that should make most "responsible" Troofers wince: "Muslims did not attack the US on 9-11."  I was surprised that this statement got a very tepid response from the huge crowd, and thought maybe they weren't as gullible as Farrakhan. Big mistake, as we shall see later.

From there he starts the blizzard of nuttery routine.  Atta ate pork, snorted coke and dated a stripper.  Not true, of course, as the stripper was the source for the other allegations about Atta, and she has since admitted that she dated another guy named Mohamed.  Ryan recommends Hopsicker and Griffin.

Did you know that half of the "alleged" hijackers are still alive?  This one has always struck me as quite bizarre.  Let's grant for a moment the Troofer fantasy that the US government was behind the attacks.  Why, exactly, leave 9 or more or your supposed hijackers alive to contradict the official story?  I mean, wouldn't it be relatively easy to, say, kidnap 19 young Muslims from various Middle Eastern countries, kill them, and then execute your plot and announce to the world that these were the guys who did it?

From there we gallop to "set up to fail" to the Afghanistan pipeline (still not built) to Norm Mineta to Sibel Edmonds.  Ryan flat-out lies when he says FBI agent Robert Wright was investigating al Qaeda; in fact his job was investigating Hamas and Hezbollah. Able Danger gets wheeled out.  Again, in the context of the conspiracy theory that Ryan apparently believes (no Muslim hijackers) Able Danger makes no sense.  The Defense Intelligence Agency was tracking a guy who by the way didn't hijack a plane and is still alive!  Inside Job!


Ryan expresses amazement that they knew the names of all the hijackers within 72 hours.  Shall we play the "Hunt the Hijacker" game again?  Ryan closes where he led off: The people accused of carrying out 9-11 were not Muslims.  Poor wording, of course, as even the dullest Troofer would have to admit that the people accused are Muslims.  He gets modest, polite applause, to the point where the junior minister emceeing the affair has to beg for another pity round.

Gage follows.  He does the usual routine where he asks how many believe in the official story?  Very few hands.  How many aren't sure?  Maybe 10 percent.  How many believe the government was behind it?  Almost everybody.  So apparently the tepid reaction to Ryan was not skepticism, but ennui.

Gage's presentation is fairly standard and long and I won't spend much time talking about it.   I did find it interesting that he persists in using segments from Sofia Shafquat's 9-11 Mysteries film during his talk.  As I never tire of pointing out, Sofia credits Holocaust Denier Eric Hufschmid with inspiring her crockumentary, and used to sell the Ernst Zundel Story on her website.

BTW, no sign of Kevin Barrett on that stage so apparently my source inside AE9-11 Truth was wrong on that score; maybe it was just a mix-up as to which loon named Kevin was appearing.

Gage, Barrett and Farrakhan: Together At Last

It's the trifecta of nuttery!  Gage is going to appear at the Nation of Islam's annual convention to tell them that Muslims didn't do 9-11:

The plenary session, hosted by Southwestern Regional Representative of the Nation of Islam Robert Muhammad, will separate fact from fiction answering tough questions such as: “Was 9/11 an inside job?” and “Does America have a history of false flag operations?”

Information will be presented by members of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth as they deliver historical narratives, and technical knowledge to those at Saviours’ Day and watching throughout the world via internet.

Richard Gage, founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth told The Final Call he is looking forward to presenting the fact regarding 9/11 to those gathered.

“We’re excited to bring this information to a group of people who have already been primed for it by in this case the Minister,” said Mr. Gage. “He’s taken some very courageous stands for 9/11 truth and so we’re honored to come and speak to what I understand may be up to three thousand people at one time, which is about five times larger than any group of people we’ve ever spoken to. So we’re delighted that the information will get out all at once to that many people and live streaming as well to many times that many people.”

 BTW, check out the latest craze for Farrakhan, who has dabbled in numerology in the past:

Last year, Minister Farrakhan announced to the world that he found something in the technology of auditing developed by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Many members of the Nation of Islam embarked on the journey to study beneficial aspects of Scientology with hundreds becoming Certified Hubbard Dianetics Auditors.

Sounds like Gage will find a ready audience for his swill, and perhaps some more sustaining members to keep the money flowing into Box Boy's bank account.

And yes, I suspect there will be the requisite Jew-bashing:

Dr. Leonard Jeffries is a panelist for the Feb. 24 Plenary Sesson "Business is Warfare: The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews."

 The book's subtitle is "How Jews Gained Control of the Black American Economy".  Note that it is Volume II; Volume I claims that Jews were behind the slave trade.

Henry Louis Gates Jr, head of the department of Afro-American studies at Harvard University, called the book "the Bible of new anti-Semitism" and added that "the book massively misinterprets the historical record, largely through a process of cunningly selective quotations of often reputable sources"

 I am reliably informed that Barrett will be featured in the 9-11 Denial section.

More Mohr

Discussing the fires in Building 7:

He's far too generous to the Troofers in describing this series as "Not a Debunking"; of course most of what the movement says about 9-11 and particularly Building 7 is a heaping pile of bunkum.

I'm sure Brian will moan about how bored he is. I suppose when you're used to listening to a dynamic presenter like Box Boy Gage, Tony Robbins would seem dull.

Many more videos by Chris here. Excellent job of "rebuttal."

Chris Mohr Begins his Gage Rebuttal

When Chris Mohr debated Richard Gage earlier, Gage's organization promised they were going to make a video presentation of the event, they even filmed it with 3 different cameras. After Gage's embarrassing performance though, they immediately decided against that and won't even release the unedited video of the event. Mohr has decided to release the first in what should be a long series of YouTube videos with his rebuttal though. Don't expect to hear anymore from Gage on this though.

There Is No Santa Claus

A year or so ago my nephew asked his mother if there was a Santa Claus. As the youngster was approaching the age where it is inappropriate to maintain the magic, she broached the subject carefully. Did it really matter to him if there was no Santa Claus? She got a very heated, "Yes it does matter!" in response, and decided that perhaps it was not yet time to let him know the truth.

David Aaronovitch can sympathize:

The author and 9/11 conspiracist, Ian Henshall, announced his departure from the big truther's bash on Monday evening, by thrusting his bald head into my face, twice calling me a "f---g scumbag" and then flapping off into the wet night. It was a typically careless exit.

We had both been part of an audience at the Royal Institute of British Architects for Richard Gage, who is the American front-man for "Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth".

Moron Henshall:

Henshall's book, restating much of this, came to the attention of Mr Martin Webster. In 2009, Webster wrote to Henshall expressing his interest. Henshall, knowing what younger readers may not - that Martin Webster is an unrepentant and briefly famous neo-Nazi - explained why he was not keen to foster that interest. "The main attack on the 911 Truth movement is that we are 'holocaust deniers' ie antisemitic," wrote Henshall, "and it is amazing to note the key media people who have attacked us are Johann Hari, Nick Cohen, David Aaronovitch, George Monbiot, Mathew Rothschild."

He went on: "Although I am always keen to sell my book I think it would be bad tactics to be linked to your networks, because it would give these people more ammunition."

No surprise, Henshall doesn't want to be linked to a neo-Nazi, not because he finds the man odious, but because it would be used against him.

BTW, Gage's appearance at the Royal Institute of British Architects backfired a bit with a terrific article appearing in a UK buildings magazine:

But critics claim his scholarly approach is nothing more than a cover for a “bonkers” conspiracy theory which ultimately points the finger at the US government and allies including the state of Israel.

Director of the American Institute of Architects’ New York chapter Rick Bell, who witnessed 9/11, expressed surprise at the event and said “no amount of money” would persuade him to allow the group to talk at his headquarters.

“The professional community discredits this guy,” he said. “We rent to just about anybody but if this guy came to me I’d say we don’t want your money, we don’t want you in our building.

“You have to draw the line somewhere… Not for any amount of money would we have that talk in our space. It gives it a credibility that it doesn’t deserve.”

KPF chairman Gene Kohn, who was the AIA’s spokesman in the aftermath of the attacks, called Gage’s theories “ridiculous”.

Hat Tip on the Aaronovitch article: Angrysoba in the comments.

Hell No I Ain't Reading No White Paper!

Most of this interview that Richard Gage does for Skeptical Inquirer magazine isn't that interesting, and good deal is completely unintelligible, but I found the bit in the middle about whether he had read Ryan Mackey's comprehensive White Paper interesting. From 4:50 into the second video:

Have you read [Ryan Mackey's] white paper?

Gage: No, but others have. And I understand it is full of nonsense and manipulation that has been exposed very well by Jim Hoffman at the website 911research.com. He has answered all of those assertions. Jim Hoffman's response has not been responded to by Ryan Mackey. I don't have the time to look into every critique of ours, particularly when others have responded to that.

Well yeah, he has to fly to England to speak with Holocaust deniers and anti-vaccine nuts. No time for research!

Some More Guilt By Association

Box Boy, we know. Who is Ian R. Crane?

“Fool me once …” was recorded live at the Glastonbury Symposium in July 2007. Ian R Crane, past Chair of the UK 9/11 Truth Campaign...

Okay, so a Brit Troofer. But what's this about a False Flag Event in 2012?

Ian also introduces Project ZION and presents his startling prediction of what is being planned to accelerate implementation of the One World Government … a False Flag fake Alien Invasion to be staged at 2012 London Olympics.

Yep, the New World Order has a False Flag fake Alien Invasion planned for next year. At the Olympics.

You know what the beauty of these predictions is? Even if you're wrong, you're right, because you turn it into your great success at preventing the false flag attack by alerting the people so the evil schemers had to change their plans. Here's a post by a right-wing kook last year, predicting a false-flag terrorist attack by Obama in order to stave off the lambasting the Democrats took last November:

That party is now being threatened with being thrown out of power. If that party is evil enough and fascist enough to cause an economic catastrophe, it is certainly evil and fascist enough to cause a physical catastrophe, an Ultimate October Surprise, that will frighten and enrage voters enough to preserve its power in November.

What could this be? The most likely would be another 9/11, a massively horrific terrorist attack, perhaps even nuclear. An attack for which no one or no group will claim responsibility, no Al Qaeda, no Osama bin Laden, no Timothy McVeigh - just a plethora of pointed fingers at a multitude of suspects, without any sufficiently hard evidence to implicate one in particular.

And he ends by calling on the people to rise up and let Obama's minions know they won't get away with it:

Millions of such messages delivered ever week from now to November 2nd may convince even Rahm Emanuel to abandon the evil he and his fellow Dems are planning.

And then, on an Election Day that has seen no October Surprise but a Dem Demolition instead, we can all congratulate ourselves and say to each other, This was no accident, Comrades.

And you know what? This is the secret behind Alex Jones' supposed prediction of 9-11:

Get it? He was setting himself up to be the man who prevented a terrorist attack, not the man who predicted a terrorist attack.

Anyway, back to Ian R. Crane and his fantasies of a fake alien invasion at the Olympics. See that part about Project ZION? Well, the organizers of the London Olympics came up with a logo for the games and the kooks went nuts:

Most normal folks would look at that top part and see London Olympics 2012. But the kooks see the bottom part--read down and then across and it looks a little like ZION, if you turn the last 2 90 degrees clockwise.

Oh, and here are the official mascots for the London Olympics:

You see? They look like aliens! The bastards are announcing their plans beforehand!

Now, with all that, you can probably see why Gage is appearing on the stage with this fruitcake: Because the idiots who believe this crap will probably believe his crap. But (you knew there had to be a but, didn't you?) it turns out there's even more. Check out this video of Mr Crane in Wales last year:

About 6:30 in he mentions that he gave a lecture at the Deep Politics conference in May 2010, where he pointed out the number of people in the US government who had two passports (implying American and Israeli). He says Alex Jones can't talk about Zionism in America, because if he does, he'll be shut down. And then he adds:

"The equivalent we've got in this country is to question the Holocaust. You know, it's a non-subject. All you're going to do is bring the whole weight of the Jewish community down on you--you're going to present your head on a platter."

So not only is Gage sharing the stage with a complete nutter, he's sharing it with a Holocaust-Denier. Why am I no longer shocked?

Through the Looking Glass

We highlighted Box Boy Gage's current trip to Ireland and the fact that he was sharing a stage with other flavors of Kook Aid: anti-fluoridation nutbars, anti-vaxxers, and mind-control fruitcakes. Of course, part of the reason we highlighted that was because associating Gage with these other nuts just goes to show what a lunatic he is.

So it was kind of amusing to read this post at a pro-vaccine blog.

It’s official: Wakefield joins the ranks of Truthers, New World Order conspiracists.

Andrew Wakefield is the British doctor whose fraudulent study concluded that vaccinations cause autism.

Anyway it occurred to me that it was a little odd that each of us is using the other's foe to bash our particular opponent. "Look at these crazy people Richard/Andrew is hanging around with now!"

Why is it odd? Well, think about it for a second. I know very little about vaccines and next to nothing about the Wakefield controversy. And I suspect that Seth Mnookin is not an expert on 9-11 Truthers and their claims. We each know in a general sense that the other's opponents are generally discredited, and that's about all we need to know.

So why do we do it? That's the question I pondered last night as I trundled off to bed, and here's what I came up with. Those of us who took logic may remember the Venn Diagram, which is a way of representing groups. For example, here's a very simple Venn Diagram showing Truthers:

As you can see, there is a subset of the overall population who are Truthers. Now let's add the Anti-Vaxxers:

So we have two subsets now of the General Population: Truthers and Anti-Vaxxers. But we really haven't represented things quite correctly here, because now there is a third group: The people who are both Truthers and Anti-Vaxxers. There is overlap between the two groups:

But we're still not done yet. Among the Truthers there is some overlap with the Anti-Vaxxers (light blue area). There are also Truthers who are not Anti-Vaxxers (deeper blue area) but who are not concerned about associating with them. And there's a third group: Truthers who are horrified that their movement is being associated with the Anti-Vaxxer contingent, and realize this discredits them:

As you can see, there is a corresponding contingent of Anti-Vaxxers who are horrified that their cause is being associated with the 9-11 nutjobs.

Of course, we haven't really completed all the possibilities. Rather than Truthers and Anti-Vaxxers, substitute "Potential Truthers" and "Potential Anti-Vaxxers". And you'll then see that there's a subset of Potential Anti-Vaxxers who would be horrified to learn that this cause they're curious about is associated with the blackshirts chanting, "9-11 was an inside job!" Who might pause and realize that it's just another bit of crankery.

And, in essence, that's who Seth's post is aimed at:

Memo to the parents (and the press): The next time someone tells you the MMR vaccine causes autism (or pitches you a story on the “controversy” over the measles vaccine and autism), remember — this is the man whose discredited, debunked research is the source for all of that.

Box Boy on Irish TV

Some excellent skepticism by the two presenters. I was amused to see that Gage included the Box Experiment that Changed the World and Kevin McPadden's ridiculous story in his Blueprint for Morons DVD. Once again we get the "into its own footprint" nonsense combined with "ejected outwards 600 feet," as if there's no contradiction between the two claims. Note as well that Gage talks about the "several other problems" that folks will learn at the conferences, like the kookery about autism and vaccinations.

As you can hear, Box Boy is celebrating the 1500th clown to join his circus. A PR release was sent out, coinciding with his Irish tour. See if you can spot the controversy here:
Websites:

http://www.ae911truth.org - Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth
http://www.militaryofficersfor911truth.org http://www.mo911truth.org - military officers
http://www.pilotsfor911truth.org - pilots
http://firefightersfor911truth.org - fire-fighters
http://io911truth.com - Intelligence Officers for 9/11 Truth
http://www.911independentcommission.org - 911 families
http://www.reinvestigate911.org - UK based

Yep, Balsamo, John (The Martians will be Holograms) Lear, Guy (lives in a van down by the river) Razer and Captain Sherlock from Pilots for 9-11 Truthiness are linked. John Lear:

Here's the concluding portion of "CAPTAIN SHERLOCK SOLVES 911" (you can mute the volume for the first 3 minutes as it's just a piano solo recorded way too loud):

As you can see, he makes Gage look sane by comparison.

IO911Truth.com is abandoned, as is militaryofficersfor911truth.org.

Yes, I'm Amazed Too

Quote of the week, concerning Gage's attendance at the Irish kook festival we spotlighted a few days ago:

Has Gage been doing these kind of events before? He should never have done this. I'm actually amazed that he buys into conspiracy theories, I thought he was a scientist.

(Bolding added for emphasis)

In answer to the question, he appeared at that financial scam conference last year.

Update: James reminded me that Gage spoke at the "Conscious Life Expo" a few months ago. Here's their list of DVDs on "Conspiracy":

Gage was on the 9-11 Panel with such luminaries as Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas, and John Heard, most noted as the dad in Home Alone.

Gage Drops Debate DVD Plans

Well, the 1500th consecutive fiasco has hit the Troof Movement, just as Box Boy Gage was about to celebrate the 1500th architect or engineer or secretary at an architectural firm or subscriber to Architectural Digest to join his group. You may recall that back in March, Richard Gage engaged in a debate in Colorado with Chris Mohr. Mohr basically pretended he was Brian Good and Gage was a mop, and so the result was so bad that even the delusional idiots at Flogger admitted that that Gage was beaten badly.

But Gage and filmmaker Ken Jenkins (the #1 psychologist in 9-11 Truth!) hoped to salvage a DVD out of the experience, as discussed here:

A DVD will be created in the coming months of the event from the high-definition video footage shot by a three-camera film crew led by Ken Jenkins, video director for the AE911Truth DVD’s and the 9/11: Blueprint for Truth and SF Press Conference. We hope to air the WTC 7 show on local PBS-TV stations. Stand by to order your copy from our online store in April or May.

Well, turns out that Gage and Company were so embarrassed by their thorough thrashing by Mohr, that they have cancelled the DVD. Quoting from an email from Mohr:

There has been considerable discussion between me and Richard Gage's AE911 Truth organization about the debate video. As you know, when the debate happened on 3/6/11, they recorded it with three video cameras. The hope was to put out a high-level professional video that could be used on PBS or at least community TV stations and cable outlets.

Ultimately, they decided not to edit and release this debate video after all. They are moving on to other projects.

Of course, this is not terribly surprising given that Mohr was arguing from reason and Gage from his nether regions. Even Gage had to admit that he lost, when he posted his scorecard from the event:

Adding it up, six people moved away from the Troofer position (including one full switch from CD to natural collapse), while only three moved towards Gage's theory (none from natural collapse to CD).

Kay On Gage

A brief extract from Among the Truthers:

Gage will admit that he’s paid a price. Friends who failed to embrace his missionary zeal have drifted away. So has his wife, who he said had difficulty accepting his “dark” vision. Gage now lives by himself in a home office near Berkeley, paying his bills with the modest amounts he earns through donations. Yet when Gage discusses all this, he seems curiously upbeat—almost euphoric—like a Benedictine monk who’s happily renounced the material encumbrances of secular life. Although he doesn’t talk much about his world before 9/11 Truth, he clearly remembers it as empty and unsatisfying.

“I would rather die speaking the truth than live in a police state, which is what 9/11 set the groundwork for,” he tells me in a final, slightly manic flourish. “I can’t have my son—or grandchildren—ask me, ‘What did you do to stop it?’—and I say, ‘I tried to talk to some architects but they wouldn’t listen.’

As a reminder, those "modest amounts" equaled $75,000 in 2009; I'm still waiting for Guidestar to post the 2010 figures.

The part that I still have difficulty believing is this:

But Gage arrived in a calm, friendly mood. After buying himself a soy latte, he sat with me on a bench outside the café for two hours, patiently describing his transformation from workaday commercial architect to 9/11 Truth evangelist. It was in March 2006 that his life changed, Gage tells me. He was in his car just after lunch, fighting traffic en route to a construction meeting. Bored, he flipped on KPFA 94.1 FM, a listener-supported station out of Berkeley—“to hear what the communists were talking about.”

Up to that point in life, Gage recalls, he’d been just your average workaday architect, with a wife, child, and a strong Republican voting record. “I believed strongly in America,” he tells me. “I believed everything was okay. When Colin Powell was giving his Iraq evidence at the United Nations [in March 2003], I was cheering him on. I wanted us to go to war in Iraq. I wanted to find the WMD. I was completely on board. I was the poster child for George W. Bush’s foreign policy.”

It's certainly not unheard of for people to listen to the other side on the radio; I used to listen to Air America. What is unusual is this:

The voice he heard on KPFA’s airwaves belonged to David Ray Griffin, a retired Claremont School of Theology professor who’s since become a full-time 9/11 Truth activist. “Griffin was logical and methodical—almost grandfatherly,” Gage remembers. “He was talking about the 118 [World Trade Center] first-responders—information that had just come out in 2005—who said they’d heard explosions and flashes of light, beams dripping with molten metal, all amid the collapse of 80,000 tons of structural steel. It hit me like a two-by-four. How come I’d never heard of any of this? I was shocked. I had to pull my car off the road to absorb it all. I knew I’d be late for the meeting. But I didn’t care.”

Most liberals, if they listened to Rush Limbaugh, would not be pulling off the road to absorb it all and saying, "You know, he's right!" Ditto with conservatives taking in Ed Schultz.

And when Gage recently hired a publicist for his group, whom did he choose? Ilene Proctor, who bills herself as "The Public Relations Princess of the Political Left".

9/11 Truth for Fun and Profit

From an article on a Richard Gage appearance in Minnesota. Not exactly Charlie Sheen money, but probably more than Gage ever got paid for 2 hours of his time as an architect.

Organizers of the St. Paul meeting said they paid Gage a $500 speaking fee. In return, they got more than two hours of Gage narrating a PowerPoint presentation of nearly 700 slides, which focused on the Twin Towers, as well as a third building nearby, the 47-story World Trade Center Building 7, which collapsed that day after catching fire.

According to Gage, eyewitness accounts, slow-motion video, technical analysis of the dust from the disaster site, suspicious reports from the media and the unlikely collapse of Building 7 all amount to "massive, overwhelming evidence" of a vast, sophisticated conspiracy involving controlled explosions set off inside the buildings.

"This is not America as we used to know it," Gage said. "We're not being told the truth about these events."

He invited audience members to sign his online petition, to give a tax-deductible donation to his organization and to buy his $20 DVD.

But 700 slides? Really? This guy needs to take a class on giving presentations. Guess it works for propaganda.

Kay vs Gage, Zarembka and Zwicker

Journalist Jonathan Kay is on Canadian radio discussing his new book with Richard Gage, Paul Zarembka and Barry Zwicker. Not much came out of it, but it is amusing how polite Kay tries to act towards them, to which they respond with absolute contempt and attack his book constantly for even the smallest perceived transgression, rather ironic for a movement known for its loose intellectual standards.

Richard Gage Cites Holocaust Denier Anthony Lawson

As a follow up to James' last post, here's Box Boy Gage at the recent Hartford confab:


Note the bit starting at 1:30 in where he says, "Ten years ago I watched the towers come down on TV and I was just in a state of shock. And I didn't know what I was looking at. None of us had seen that kind of destruction before, save some very explosive events. But you know, we were told that it was an orange, and yet what we're looking at is an apple."

Well, most of you probably know where Richard Gage picked up that particular metaphor:

Anthony Lawson put that video together, and obviously Gage found his presentation compelling. Will he soon be citing evidence from Lawson's new video?

Holocaust, Hate Speech & Were the Germans so Stupid? from SomberImperil on Vimeo.

Hey, I'm just asking questions.

Gage also mentions that he's getting a five minute video on WTC-7 broadcast on PBS nationwide as a filler. "We're paying a lot of money for that." It's good to hear that PBS is seeking alternative means of funding.

BTW, along the lines of James' last post, watch the end of that video of Gage in Hartford. About 17:00 in, Gage starts talking about the "personal sacrifice" he's made for 9-11 Troof; "losing my house, losing my wife... not everybody can handle 9-11, they can't have it around them. It's separating families, it's separating friends, it's separating colleagues, so as long you're--what are you going to do? As soon as you step forward, yes, you'll take some losses, but what are you going to gain? What I've gained is incredible. When I've spoken to groups like this and people look at me in the eye and they're teared (sic) because they are so grateful that somebody is stepping forward and taking the banner...."

Troofers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains. And your house. And your wife and your kids....

Hat Tip: Guitar Bill

Time to Make Fun of Richard Gage Again

One of my most entertaining moments writing for this blog came when Alex Jones, who was interviewing Richard Gage for his radio show, attacked debunkers for making fun of the fact that Gage split up with his wife over his truther activities. A fact that we didn't know until he announced it live on the radio.

As we have discussed before, much of the allure of the conspiracy theory lifestyle is that one minute you can be a non-descript employee stuck in suburban cubicle hell, the next minute a brave freedom fighter striking out against the New World Order while being adoringly fawned over by other suburban warriors. Jonathan Kay, in a short preview of his upcoming book, amusingly touches on this sad phenomenon in the Washington Post.

There’s no polite way to say this: Many conspiracy theorists I met were paunchy 40- and 50-something men facing disappointment in their personal lives. In interviews, it seemed clear that they were struggling with midlife crises and trying to reinvent themselves for a new audience.

Consider Sept. 11 conspiracy theorist Richard Gage, an architect who abandoned his business to roam the world preaching the notion that “controlled demolition” brought down the twin towers. “I’ve never been happier,” he told me in 2009. “I feel blessed, in fact. This is my destiny, my mission. I’ve lost my career. I’ve lost my marriage. I’ve lost my house. But I’m working with patriots, spreading the truth about what’s happened to their country. What more could I ask?”

That Magical Thermite Stuff

Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth posted an article promoting the recent debate between Richard Gage and Chris Mohr, which Pat and I both covered. One thing stuck out in the article which I missed though. Oddly enough, they consider this a selling point for their whacky theories.

Further along in the debate, after Gage showed the WTC 7 collapse video adjacent to a known controlled demolition Chris Mohr, ignored the visual similarity and noted that “they sound completely different”.

Gage: Well, of course they do. One is using high-energy explosives, and the other thermate, an incendiary. This is, after all, a deceptive, controlled demolition.

Of course Gage fails to mention that he has repeatedly, including in this very debate, referred to massive explosions and explosives at World Trade Center 7. In fact a Google Search for World Trade Center 7 explosives on their site returns an astounding 12,300 hits, including their homepage. Including, but certainly not limited to:

WTC Building #7, a 47-story high-rise not hit by an airplane, exhibited all the characteristics of classic controlled demolition with explosives:

AE911Truth points in particular to the destruction of the third skyscraper, World Trade Center 7, a 47-story building which was not hit by an aircraft, yet came down in pure free-fall acceleration for at least 100 feet according to the official government engineering investigation (NIST), and in the exact manner of a classic controlled demolition. The implications are startling. The group bases its conclusions solely on forensic evidence and does not speculate as to who may have planted the explosives.

David Ray Griffin has provided a comprehensive dismantling of NIST's theory about WTC 7, according to which it suffered global collapse because of ordinary building fires. Besides showing that NIST committed massive scientific fraud, Griffin also points out that NIST was able to complete its theory only by affirming a miracle: a steel-framed high-rise building coming down in free fall even though explosives had not been used to remove its columns.

So the inescapable and disturbing conclusion is that the most scientific theory available for the WTC 7 collapse is that it was a controlled demolition, brought down with explosives.

In yet another key eyewitness testimonial, right before the building [WTC 7] fell, former Air Force medic Kevin McPadden reports hearing one end of a conversation, on a radio being held by a Red Cross worker, that has serious implications: “At the last few seconds he took his hand off [the radio] and you heard, ‘three, two, one…,’”

Do fires bring buildings down to countdowns? Soon after, McPadden described tremendous explosions boomed. He made it clear that these were explosions, that he was not confusing them with other loud sounds such as floors falling.

Of course, when asked about the lack of sounds, Gage always denies this and says that they used silent incendiaries, not explosives. Once again, trutherism is a mythology, not a science.

Richard Gage Opposed to NIST Safety Regulations

Usually I just make fun of these idiots, but the recent debate between Richard Gage and Chris Mohr shows just how scary these people can be. I suppose we should be thankful that Gage is now a full time nutter and not an actual working architect anymore. Based just on this exchange regarding the NIST World Trade Center 7 report, he should have his license pulled. From around 1:52 into the debate.

Mohr: Do you also oppose the fire and safety regulations that NIST has proposed in these reports?

Host: Well we have one minute now for Richard to discuss that, perhaps Richard would like to…

Gage: In fact I do, there are billions of dollars that are spent needlessly as a result of the recommendations that NIST forced, that were forced on several other building codes.

Mohr: That would scare me.

Gage: It is needless, and architects and engineers, 1400 of us are crying for a new investigation.

Debate Between Box Boy Gage and Chris Mohr

Audio here. It is unfortunate that a lot of the debate seems to revolve around video and photographs, which we will have to wait for, but Mohr (a former investigative journalist) does a good job in the part that I have heard so far. I especially appreciated him asking Gage why they apply fireproofing to steel in high-rise construction; Gage's response was that fireproofing made them indestructible (!) in fires.

Box Boy is the usual dope. He denies significant fires in the towers, especially the South Tower. He brings up Chief Orio Palmer. He brings up "set up to fail", Max Cleland and John Farmer; I thought the idea was to discuss the towers collapse and not the freaking commission.

I do love the way he tries to frame things so he's the winner; either Mohr must explain X, Y or Z, or the debate is over. JAQ-off Jon Gold has a similar idea of what a debate consists of:

Here's a good topic for debate... should there be real justice for what happened on 9/11, and have we been denied that? Yes. I win.

Justice has not yet been brought to Osama Bin Laden, but I doubt that's what Gold is nattering on about.