Rick Siegel Files Suit Against Sofia Shafquat

Well, well, this one's been a long time coming, but it is a welcome development nonetheless that requires some explanation.

Rick Siegel filmed video of the collapses of the Twin Towers on 9-11 from across the Hudson in Hoboken, New Jersey. His footage is compelling and he had on his radio tuned to 1010 WINS (NY news radio station) at the same time to provide a soundtrack. The effect, quite plainly is a historical document of some significance.

Siegel's footage was used in the crackpot film 9-11 Eyewitness, apparently with permission and a rights' fee, although Siegel reportedly was not pleased with the final product. In late 2006, Sofia Shafquat released 9-11 Mysteries: Demolitions, which borrowed chunks of Siegel's footage apparently without permission or a rights' fee. Worse, Siegel discovered that Shaquat had edited his footage, erasing sounds and adding her own background noises (explosions, most egregiously) in places. And of course there was the ridiculous mistake that Sofia made where she shows the "South Tower record" (times of supposed explosions just before the collapse), and then says "Then the building fell," and she shows the North Tower collapse.

There was a flurry of activity in 2007, and Siegel bumped 9-11 Mysteries off Google Video and YouTube for awhile for copyright infringement, while John Albanese managed to push Siegel's website offline for awhile. The dustup even reached the MSM, with the NY Post covering some of the antics on both sides.

Siegel himself is something of an enigma; IIRC he claims not to be a Truther himself but at the same time, he provided websites for the no-planer contingent, at least one of which is still standing (although it's basically a ghost town, with the last post in May of 2008).

I hadn't heard anything about this story in a long time, and given that 9-11 Mysteries and Sofia have pretty much vanished into the mists, I didn't expect any new developments. But apparently Siegel has gone ahead with his lawsuit.

Nico & Siegel Hit The Post

For their (Correction: See update below) research into Ellen Mariani and her husband, who was one of the passengers on Flight 175. Or should I say "alleged" passengers on "alleged" Flight 175?

How could a retired, 58-year-old deliveryman help plan the destruction of the Twin Towers? The proof, presented as a kind of "gotcha!" smoking gun, is strikingly shallow.

Linked to the Web site is a copy of a deed transferring her husband's real property to Ellen. He took it out on July 26, 2001, 47 days before the trade center was destroyed.

As further "proof" that Louis Mariani - who went by his middle name, Neil - was involved, the Web site posts the lease transferring management rights of the World Trade Center to Larry Silverstein. The lease was taken out two days before Louis Mariani put his property in Ellen's name. Aha!

Yes, I certainly agree that's rather thin "proof" of anything. But I can't feel too sorry for Mrs Mariani; she's a 9-11 "Truther" herself:

The odd thing is that the loonies are picking on Ellen. She has been outspoken in insisting that the government knows more about the attacks than it is admitting. But a source familiar with the groups says they tend to target people who fall short of their extreme anti-Semitic, anti-everything views.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but Haupt and Siegel (who are mentioned by name in the piece) have never displayed any anti-Semitism that I can recall. Indeed, Siegel's name sounds Jewish, although I don't know or care whether he was raised in that faith.

Since it's come up again in the comments, let me reiterate my thoughts on the no-planers. I disagree with them entirely on their views on 9-11. Where I agree with them is that their theories are no more wacky than those of Webster Tarpley, David Ray Griffin, and Dylan Avery. There seems to be this oddball notion among the "mainstream" 9-11 Denial Movement that no planes at the WTC is going to discredit the "roboplanes at the WTC" and "no plane at the Pentagon or Shanksville" theories. As I've said before, that strikes me as quite similar to the man dressed up as Napoleon at the loony bin telling you that the guy pretending to be George Washington over there is off his rocker.

Hat Tip (in the comments): BJ Edwards.

Update: BG (posting as Woo Woo) informs us that neither Siegel nor Haupt wrote the post in question; he's got a copy of the post here. Nico states that the article incorrectly claims that he's been contacting 9-11 victims.

Siegel Sends C&D to Sofia

I realize that Sofia's considered one of the great filmmakers of 9-11 Denial and Siegel's considered one of the disinfo no-planers, but he's right here:

I see you still do not understand there is no license in this world for the corruption of evidence you have made. The complete wanton editing of sound, inserting explosions that you have done not only dilutes real evidence but also has caused confusion in the ranks of people researching truth. Your fictions have fooled too many people.

Truther Wars Continue As Albanese Shuts Down 9-11 Researcher

This may be a little too "inside baseball" but I found it interesting. Rick Siegel put up a site a number of months ago called 9-11 Researchers that is basically a group blog for the no-planers. Uncle Fetzer posts over there, as does Nico, Coffinman, Peggy Carter (usually in the comments) and others.

The people over there do not have much use for John Albanese, who created the LIHOP movie Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime, and apparently the feeling is mutual. I remember seeing a clip of Nico marching with some Truthers at Ground Zero, and giving Albanese the finger.

Anyway, Albanese has apparently gotten some revenge by shutting down the 9-11 Researchers site:

911Researchers has accused a great many people of a great many things. IN recent days they accused me of being a member of Al Qaeda and a homicidal lunatic planning murder. The FBI and police are aware of this. The tags associated with these stories included 'gas chamber' - 'torture' - 'hanging' - 'murder' etc etc. All of this I quietly tolerated. But after a lengthy conversation with 911 widow Ellen Mariani last night I decided the time to act was now, and I decided to pull the plug on Mr. Siegel's operation. It is my hope that Mr. Siegel and the 'researchers' who support him will reevaluate their lives and consider the pain and suffering they have brought into so many people's lives with their irresponsible accusations and harassment campaigns. Simply put, attacking witnesses, first responders and 911 widows is off limits and is does not occur in a vacuum. People are indeed watching and prepared to act when that sacred line is crossed."

I suspect that Siegel will simply remove some of the stuff from the server if it really is as bad as Albanese claims, and have the site back up on another server in a couple days.

Note as well this claim apparently from Alex Floum:

911Researchers.com was Rick Siegel and Nico Haupt's site, and promoted theories such as holograms. Rick Siegel recently sued the makers of the movie "911 Mysteries" for copyright infringement, and has allegedly made death threats against several prominent 9/11 truth activists (some of them in were purportedly made in email form).

Two obvious points; as far as I know, 9-11 Researchers did not promote holograms; Nico's "TV Fakery" is not the same thing (although it is equally insane).

I'm not sure if Siegel has actually sued Sofia, and I'd be very surprised if he personally was making death threats; he doesn't strike me as that kind of nut.

Note as well that in the comments on that post, everybody manages to avoid talking about the very real criticisms that Siegel has leveled about 9-11 Mysteries; the sounds Sofia added to cover up her removal of the WINS radio in the background, and the ridiculous identification of the North Tower collapse as that of the South Tower.

Anyway, score one for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Judea.

Hat Tip: Nico's 9-11 Bloglines

Copyright Infringement is a Bee-Yatch!

As Sofia, director of 9-11 Mysteries, can attest.

On or about May 25, 2007, Google Video and YouTube removed links to the video (and to segments from the video) entitled “911 Mysteries,” produced by Avatar, LLC, as a result of a DMCA Takedown Demand filed by Richard A. Siegel, an individual associated with a work entitled “9/11 Eyewitness,” for reasons of copyright infringement.

Mr. Siegel’s claim of infringement is false. First, well before the release of “911 Mysteries,” Avatar obtained express permission from both Blue Star Media Group (co-owner of the copyright in the “Eyewitness” work) through its managing partner Jim Brewster, and from Mr. Siegel’s partner David Shaw, to incorporate limited segments of “Eyewitness” in “911 Mysteries.” Mr. Siegel’s two partners were fully cooperative with Avatar in licensing this material. Second, even if Avatar had not obtained express permission from the creators of “9/11 Eyewitness” to use their material in “911 Mysteries,” the 38 seconds of incorporated footage that Mr. Siegel has taken issue with is fully protected by the copyright Doctrine of Fair Use.

My attitude on this is simple; I hope both sides end up spending a lot of money on lawyers!

9-11 Eyewitness Review Part 1

(Note important correction at the bottom.)

Our guest poster, BG, suggested that we all watch 9-11 Eyewitness.

I watched the first thirty minutes this morning. The first 16 minutes or so is pretty much historical footage that the filmmaker, Rick Siegel, shot with a video camera from across the Hudson River, in Hoboken, New Jersey. He also had the radio tuned to 1010 WINS, so you get the live news at the same time as the video footage. This is extremely effective and as history it's pretty good. Unfortunately he's on the wrong side to view the collapse of the south tower, and he gets chased from his spot by a cop so he missed the collapse of the north tower.

And it's not long before we wander into tinfoil hat land. Siegel (obviously in the editing room after filming) highlights every helicopter that flies into the area (see correction at bottom). Chopper #4 comes in for special attention at 5:49:



Mission accomplished, eh? Well, you can guess what happens next, the South Tower collapses.

Later we hear about "flashes" of light apparently where the helicopter is flying, although there's an obvious problem; you can't see the helicopter, and what is described as flashes looks a little phony to me.

At 22:30 he goes into how the helicopter was black, and I'm starting to think we've got a live one here. At 24:30 he remarks on how the building started to topple, but somehow it did not fall over, but instead crumbled to pieces. This is occasionally brought up by the CT crowd, as if controlled demolition could somehow have prevented the building from falling over once it started.

The film does highlight what certainly appear to be periodic explosions. This constitutes evidence (not necessarily evidence of controlled demolition, of course). But the focus on the helicopters seems bizarre. At 29:55, the film gets into some weird stuff:

Narrator: As chopper four emerges from the smoke above the north tower its white belly becomes visible from another camera angle near the church on the other side of the building. Is this a genuine New York Police Department Air/Sea Rescue chopper that simply decided not to rescue anyone? Or is it participating in the Tripod emergency war game exercise FEMA started running September 10th at the World Trade Center from the Port Authority headquarters Pier 92 and being ordered not to rescue anybody?

I'll take Door Number 3, Monty, that the helicopters couldn't get close enough to the building to rescue anybody. Note as well that now this is a black helicopter with a white belly.

I stopped the movie there; I may watch the rest of it at some later point. One thing with these 9-11 films is that you can appreciate the historical nature of the footage they provide while finding the conspiracy theory they propose completely loopy. That's definitely how I feel about 9-11 Eyewitness. The historical value of the first 16 minutes I'd rate a B plus. It's not the best angle but it's still memorable footage. I haven't figured out his conspiracy theory, but it seems pretty flaky from what I've seen so far. On the Screw Loose Change Nutbar-o-Meter I give it a:



Important Correction: I have been advised by Rick Siegel that his only involvement with this film was taping the initial historical footage and the brief interview bits which were filmed much later. Rick did not do the analysis that accompanies his historical footage. My apologies for assuming otherwise.