Ace Baker is A Nutjob

My effort to get mentioned in his next video:



One bit of profanity. Definitely hang around to the end for the credits; it's amusing to see that there are "Truthers" still praising Judy Wood.

Candidate Sheehan On False Flag Attacks And More

Not a ton of 9-11 in this video but it's interesting nonetheless. She does make some kooky comments about Bush Administration not stepping down constitutionally after the next election. Part I (which contains no 9-11 discussion) is here.

The Korey Saga Continues

Lord only knows what's really going on, but it certainly appears that the notion that this was a simple paperwork error seems to be out the window.

Oneonta film producer Korey Rowe has been returned to his unit, which is gearing up for its third deployment to Iraq since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in March 2003.

I'm going to hazard a guess that he won't be going with them.

Rowe’s colleagues at Louder Than Words said they do not know what will eventually happen but have been in contact with Rowe.

"Every other day (Rowe says) the situation is different," said the group’s administrative assistant Kristy Kissner on Monday.

Army deserters are rarely court-martialed and are usually either returned to their units or discharged from the Army, according to an Associated Press report last month.

Nuke Portland!

A man who claims to be a former Army intelligence officer called Captain Eric May claims that the city of Portland, Oregon might be blown up by a nuclear weapon under the disguise of a publicly announced emergency response exercise. Like the famous Pentagon MASCAL example, he fails to notice the fact that responding to an event is not the same as carrying it out, it involves completely different skills. This would actually be a tragedy, as I have been meaning to visit Powell's.

Kevin "Stalker" Barrett interviews him on one of his paranoid nutjob radio shows (Barrett himself is confused as to which one). May is one of those who believes that every terrorist attack is the work of the US goverment, and that Al Qaeda consists entirely of government operatives. Amazingly, they seem to have convinced much of the Muslim world of the exact opposite. He never explains how they do that.

What people like him and Alex Jones rely on, is the fact that they make so many predictions, that one of them is bound to come true, by sheer chance. As I have said so many times before, there is no falsifiability. In fact May specifically states that if any of his predictions don't come true, it is because he was responsible for stopping it. He can't be wrong!

Barrett adds to this insanity by saying that he calls up the public relations people for NORAD, and other government agencies, and tells whoever picks up the phone not to carry out fake terror attacks, which he claims is actually an effective tactic. I am not kidding, I couldn't make up this stuff if I tried.

Shayler Goes Icke

Well, another prominent Truther has decided he's the son of God:

High on another stunning presentation from Ian Crane, the atmosphere in a packed Glastonbury Town Hall was pregnant with expectation as David Shayler was wired for sound. Already prepared for controversy by host Andy Thomas, nobody could have anticipated what was about to occur. An extremely tolerant and generally sympathetic audience sat in stunned silence as they endured an hour long narcissistic monologue during which a frail-looking David Shayler explained that he was not only the re-incarnation of the Christ but also the re-incarnation of King Arthur, Leonardo Da Vinci and a whole host of other historically significant characters. As the monologue progressed, it would have been obvious to any student of Stanislav Grof that Mr Shayler is in the middle of his very own 'Spiritual Emergency'! When David Shayler concluded his self-obsessed rant by standing centre stage with arms outstretched in mock crucifixion, the raptuous ovation which had followed Ian Crane's presentation was replaced by polite but nervous applause.

How many times have we seen this? Semi-prominent person (Shayler was fairly well-known in Britain) embraces 9-11 Truth, is adopted by the swooning masses of Blackshirts and placed on a pedestal, and then exhibits increasingly bizarre behavior. See Fetzer, James and Reynolds, Morgan. Of course, to the kooks this is a sign that they're being infiltrated by clever people; to us it's a sign that they attract the mentally unbalanced.

Just as amusing are the comments in that thread:

Glastonbury can do strange things to an individual with heightened perceptions. The energies there are not at all what one might call 'healthy'. It is an area that genuine Chinese Feng Shui masters avoid like the plague. Around the Tor lies an ancient sickness. Has no one else here experienced it?

The antidote is fortunately very easy to obtain - go straight from there to Avebury and lean against one of the Southwest stones at sunrise or sundown. All will be healed and for some, all will be revealed.

Wacky? No - this is REALITY - what we live day to day is the fantasy bred into us from birth by priests and others who would wish to control us.

I have a fairly good idea of what David is going through - so sad that more cannot understand that. IT SHOULD BE BROUGHT OUT INTO THE LIGHT - NOT HIDDEN, CONFINED or STRAIGHT-JACKETED!

Yes, indeed, I too have noted the relative absence of Chinese Feng Shui masters around Glastonbury Tor.

By his own admission last night, David's self-reflection appears to be limited to that induced by his usage of mushrooms, ayahuasca & iboga. Last night's performance indicated that the battle for David's Soul is well and truly under way but any suggestion that this process should be exposed to public scrutiny cannot, in any way,be in David's longer term interests ... and one can only question the motivation of anyone who suggests otherwise!

Shut him UP! Stone him! Nail him to the Cross! Do whatever you can to hide this light?

I ask again - Who can claim to have done HALF of what David has done to uncover the truth about our present world situation? What do you think drives him to be so selfless? In return he has received the universal gift of KNOWING. Reward enough? Yes, if you leave him alone to do whatever he thinks fit.

Shayler was featured prominently in Terrorstorm; I have not looked at Alex's latest version of that mockumentary to see if he's been edited out.

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

I Think We Have a Winnah!

In the "Who can come up with the most unbelievable resume in order to back up their claims of being relevant to 9-11 crackpottery" contest.

Meet Torin Wolf, who claims:

Torin is proud of his native Cherokee heritage and his mother is the Band Historian of the White River Band Cherokee from the central United States. Since he received his GED at age 14, saying he is a smart guy is putting it lightly. For over 12 years he worked as a hazardous materials contractor specializing in asbestos abatement and concrete construction sampling. Add to his resume the fact that he designed and implemented well over 100 controlled demolitions. He was not just helping at a lower level in the demolitions - he was the guy responsible for calling the shots. Afterwards, he became a certified structural steel welder and worked in heavy and mega construction for over 5 years in locations around the world including several skyscrapers.

Ironically, Torin signed his papers to join the army on September 11th, 2000. He knew something was wrong with the official 9/11 story when his army handlers took his squad into a room just in time to watch the buildings collapse. With his demolitions experience, he immediately knew those towers could not have fallen like that without explosives. He went on to serve “with honor and distinction” with the 21st Combat Support Hospital in Mosul, Iraq during the first part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and earned the Bronze Star with V device for valor in combat.

Let's tackle that GED at age 14. The article here is a little vague on where Torin grew up (central United States doesn't tell us much), but fortunately he appeared briefly in a NOVA documentary on Iraq (so his claim there certainly seems validated), which includes this passage:

NARRATOR: Private First Class Torin Howling Wolf is a Cherokee who grew up in the White River Tribe, in Kansas.

Okay, what are the requirements for a GED in Kansas?

Who Is Eligible?

You are eligible to take the GED tests, according to the Kansas Board of Regents, www.kansasregents.org, if you meet the following requirements:

* You are a resident of Kansas.

* You are 18 years of age (If you are between 16 and 18 years of age, you can still take the exam under special conditions.)

So it seems unlikely that Torin took the test, let alone that he passed it. Remember that as a Native American he may not be subject to normal state requirements. But still this is the first checkable claim made in the discussion, and it appears highly unlikely to be true.

We've discussed the fact that he does appear in a documentary in Iraq so his service there is genuine. But he does repeat one obviously debunked canard:

Torins insight as a combat nurse reveals that the actual amount of dead troops numbers around 15,000-17,000, not the 3,500 we have been told. “If you get shot in combat – Bam! Clock goes off. If you die in transit [to a hospital out of Iraq such as Ramstein in Germany] you are not an official Iraq casualty.” The same holds true if the troops out of the country die 24 hours after they were hit in Iraq. The official troop death number is just those that have died in action on the ground.

But his claimed credentials prior to enlisting in the military at a claimed age of 30 are eye-opening. Twelve years of asbestos abatement? I can buy that, but doesn't that sort of take us back to age 18? Where does he work in the years of concrete testing, structural welding and demolition? Is this why we get the claim about him getting his GED at age 14?

And there's more BS here:

“Unless you want to be charged as a terrorist, I suggest you leave the room now. This is technically seditious material and you can be charged under section 802 of the Patriot Act just for being here.”

Section 802 of the Patriot Act:

SEC. 802. DEFINITION OF DOMESTIC TERRORISM.

(a) DOMESTIC TERRORISM DEFINED- Section 2331 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--

(1) in paragraph (1)(B)(iii), by striking `by assassination or kidnapping' and inserting `by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping';

(2) in paragraph (3), by striking `and';

(3) in paragraph (4), by striking the period at the end and inserting `; and'; and

(4) by adding at the end the following:

`(5) the term `domestic terrorism' means activities that--

`(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;

`(B) appear to be intended--

`(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

`(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

`(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and

`(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.'.

(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT- Section 3077(1) of title 18, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:

`(1) `act of terrorism' means an act of domestic or international terrorism as defined in section 2331;'.

He comes off like an Alex Jones wannabe:

Then tells us that the patriot act was written prior to 9/11, “This is admitted.” Also admitted is the fact that the patriot act has been used to come after American citizens over eight hundred times.

Also "admitted" in this case is that the link under "eight hundred times" goes to Prison Planet, Alex's fruitcake website.

He makes some basic mistakes which call into question his command of the material:

Next, we are shown an incredible bit of detective work on Torins part. He shows a sequence of 12 different pictures of the collapse initiation of the North tower, WTC 1. Torin explains that the antenna on the top of the world trade center is a perfect guide of measurement for height, as there is a standard of changing the paint color of antennas once per fifty feet. The part of the antenna on the roof of WTC 1 appears black, then white alternated every fifty feet. There is a guide wire in the bottom left of every picture that shows that the camera does not move. Why is this picture so interesting? It shows the antenna, which is held up by the core columns, fall before the rest of the building while the fire line on the 78th floor doesn't move. Torin then goes through the hard physics of the scene we're looking at and explains how it directly contradicts the official story, “This building is not collapsing on the 78th floor. The antenna falls 56 feet before the 78th floor falls.”

Incredible indeed, considering that the North Tower was not hit anywhere near the 78th floor, but actually was hit around the 93rd floor. And it can't be a simple mistake of the writer because the North Tower is the one that has the antenna.

And he makes ludicrous claims:

Much to the surprise of many audience members, we learned from Torin that by far the most dangerous on the list was the pulverized concrete. The pulverized concrete, which was thick in the air around ground zero after the collapses of WTC 1 and 2, had a pH of 12 which is “about the same as drain cleaner.” This pH level, when breathed in and gets wet in your lungs, will cause chemical burns. “Wet concrete can burn you,” Torin adds. The asbestos is bad, but that will kill you over 20 years - the powdered concrete will kill much faster. So its no surprise to learn that all of the 9/11 rescue and recovery dogs are dead.

In fact, a hero dog of 9-11 just died, but the notion that this is the last dog remaining is pretty silly:

Some owners of rescue dogs who worked at ground zero claim their animals have died because of their work there. But scientists who have spent years studying the health of Sept. 11 search-and-rescue dogs have found no sign of major illness in the animals.

At any rate, there are plenty of red flags here.

A Particularly Easy One

But I'm in the mood for a slamdunk right now. Sheila Samples writes a bit on the crackpottery and is clearly too willing to listen to the Deniers:

The day began with CNN's Wolf Blitzer frantically reporting that planes had smashed into Buildings 1 and 2 of the World Trade Center. They stood there, so tall that the smoke billowing from their upper floors could be seen for 20 miles. The scene was shocking, grisly, and the horror was broken only by the further news that a plane had rammed into the Pentagon. Death and destruction everywhere. Happening now -- right before our eyes.

In an amazing "Breaking News" alert, CNN Pentagon reporter Jamie McEntyre shot down Blitzer's "plane hit the Pentagon" report. McEntyre said flatly, "Although it may appear that way, from my close-up inspection, there is NO evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon. The only pieces left are small enough you can pick them up in your hand. There are no pieces lying around that would indicate a plane crashed into the side of the Pentagon."

James B covered this over a year ago, but there's a truther born every minute, so we have to go over the same ground endlessly. What else did Jamie McIntyre (correct spelling) say prior to that quote?

I could see parts of the airplane that crashed into the building, very small pieces of the plane on the heliport outside the building. The biggest piece I saw was about three feet long, it was silver and had been painted green and red, but I could not see any identifying markings on the plane. I also saw a large piece of shattered glass. It appeared to be a cockpit windshield or other window from the plane.

McIntyre is rather annoyed with the way the Deniers use his quote, as he discusses here:

MCINTYRE: The Web sites often take statements out of context, such as this exchange from CNN in which I -- myself -- appear to be questioning whether a plane really hit the building: From my close-up inspection, there's no evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon. In fact, I was answering a question based on a eyewitness account who thought the American Airlines plane landed short of the Pentagon. I was indicated there was no crash site near the pentagon only at the Pentagon.

Back to Samples:

Anyone who had ever seen one -- even one -- controlled demolition knew without a doubt what he had just witnessed. But no time for that -- yet another plane had rammed into a Pennsylvania field with such force there was just a smoking pit at the site with the debris scattered over an eight-mile area...

You know, I'd guess that almost everybody in America has seen one controlled demolition, and only the kooks think what happened with the Twin Towers resembled it.

But wait! Don't ask! Still happening now! We're treated to yet another controlled demolition display when WTC 7, struck by no plane, inexplicably collapsed in exactly the same fashion as the first two buildings.

So inexplicable that all the firemen knew the building was coming down. Oh, wait, I forgot, they're in on it too!

Within hours, CNN had pinned this four-pronged attack on our "homeland" on Saudi billionnaire and former CIA operative Osama Bin Laden, and was parading the photographs of 19 terrorists -- 15 from Saudi Arabia -- non-stop across our TV screens. Never mind that in the ensuing weeks, most of them were found alive and well and minding their own business in various parts of the world.

It. Never. Ends. If I give this up some day, it will be because somebody has claimed for the 10 billionth time that the hijackers are still alive. What a freaking retard!

Hilariously she goes on to report McIntyre's comment about the kooks. But it's okay, because:

It wasn't long until McEntyre, his feet back on the ground and marching orders in hand, responded to Blitzer's question about his earlier comments -- "Web sites often take statements out of context, such as the exchange from CNN, in which I, myself appear to be questioning whether a plane really hit the building. In fact, Wolf," McEntyre continued, while rapidly pulling my trigger, "I was answering a question about an eyewitness account that a plane had crashed short of the Pentagon, and I was making the point that, no, not near the Pentagon. The only plane that crashed was at the Pentagon."

Moron. Nitwit. It wasn't long? McIntyre said those words four and a half freaking years later, you buffoon! There's more, but it's completely demented.

Flights of Fancy

Pretty good title for this mostly good piece in the Seattle Times.

In today's media environment, fueled by user-generated content that is easily accessed on the Internet, conspiracy theories won't simply fade away if we ignore them or dismiss them as "fringe" history. In fact, if you do a Google search on "Flight 77," you will find that the conspiracy Web sites in the first 100 search returns heavily outweigh official news and government accounts. Lies perpetuate lies and gain a life of their own — a principle observed by Joseph Goebbels' propaganda machine for the Third Reich.

But there are a few minor errors that detract from the piece:

For example, a popular conspiracy theory holds that a cruise missile, not American Airlines Flight 77, with 64 passengers aboard, hit the Pentagon complex on 9/11. The "evidence" cited to support the cruise missile is the size of holes inside the Pentagon walls that "could not have been punched" by an aircraft with a 124-foot wingspan.

The claims, promulgated in the film "Loose Change," are a classic example of straw-man rhetoric: Build up a statement of fact that no one has made (that the jet's body made a 16-foot-diameter hole); then tear it down. In fact, the "initial impact" pictures shown in that film are pictures of damage within the interior walls of the Pentagon caused by the landing gear.

Dylan shows both the entry and exit holes at the Pentagon and clearly identifies each, but of course we've got the BS with the foam from the fire engine obscuring the hole in the first floor in one shot and the wrong plane overlay for the hole in the second, and the wrong claim that the landing gear would have to have punched through nine feet of reinforced concrete. In fact there was only one wall it had to go through after smashing into the building as rings C-E are connected on the first two floors, and that wall was brick as can clearly be seen in this still from the film:

Korey Makes Fox News' Website

In a story that raises more questions than it answers:.

Korey Rowe, 24, who served with the 101st Airborne in Afghanistan and Iraq, told FOXNews.com that he was honorably discharged from the military 18 months ago — which he said he explained to sheriffs when they pounded on his door late Monday night.

“When they came to my house, I showed them my paperwork,” Rowe said. “The cops said, 'You’re still in the system.'”

Korey professes bafflement at how they found him:

“A warrant for my arrest came down and showed up on the sheriff’s desk,” Rowe said. “Where it came from and why it showed up all of a sudden is a mystery to me.”

Of course this mystery has been solved; it was Secret Agent Dylan Avery who got caught trying to photograph an Air Force Base:

Air Force Office of Special Investigations personnel notified the Oneonta Police Department there was an outstanding desertion warrant for Rowe, city Police Lt. Cameron Allison said.

"An individual was warned about taking pictures on military property in Rome, N.Y.," Allison said Wednesday. "The vehicle was registered to Korey Rowe."

Dylan Avery, the creator of the original "Loose Change film," said he was in Rome alone to film the base and was driving the car.

(It helps if you hum the Johnny Rivers' tune while reading that part).



But the Fox News story does give us some more comic bits:

There were at least five sheriffs on hand for his arrest, Rowe said. They told him he had an active-duty warrant from the military.

“They pulled a whole operation. They cut my phone lines. They came from the woods. It was crazy — it was ridiculous,” he said.

Otsego County Sheriff Richard Devlin said his understanding was that the arrest was much less dramatic and more routine than Rowe described, though he hadn't confirmed the details with the officers involved.

(You could hum the theme to "X-Files" for that part.)

Alex Jones will be disappointed at this:

“I don’t think there’s any nefarious purpose or political stunt, or that anybody’s trying to shut me up,” Rowe said. “At the same time, I can’t be sure about that.”

Come on, Korey! Your film is going to bring down the Chimpy Shrub McHitler regime! Of course they're trying to shut you up!

How Fringe-y Do You Have to Be

To hit up the 9-11 Denial Movement for help with your own movement?

It is my hope that the seekers for 911 Truth will co-operate with the seekers for Money Truth. It is clear that the design flaw of usury is the fifth column that feeds the globalists bankers and their ilk and starves the common people.

Let me explain. The globalist bankers who are the shadow government behind the so-called elected politicians are the creditors who lend money to the common people who are the debtors. Likewise the various levels of government and the corporations are debtors and also borrow money from the global bankers. In all cases it is the common people who are labouring to earn sufficient income to pay their monthly usury and taxes - and most of taxes goes straight to debt service with is correctly called usury.

I'm sure Tom "How many of you have ever heard of the Federal Reserve?" Foti is on board.

Okay, So Korey Was a Deserter

At least according to the local paper:

A source close to Rowe’s family said the 24-year-old was at the end of his active-duty enlistment in the summer of 2005 and was trying to avoid serving a second tour of duty in Iraq under the Army’s stop-loss policy. That policy, in place since the end of the Vietnam War, authorizes the military in wartime to keep a soldier beyond his or her active-duty enlistment termination date.

More details on the prior arrest that Alex Jones mentioned:

In the summer of 2005 and with just a short time before his four-year enlistment was to expire, Rowe was arrested in the town of Oneonta for driving while intoxicated, the source said.

Oh my gosh, they drink? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.

I am not going to make any judgments about Rowe's desertion issue, although others (especially those who've served their full hitch) may not feel similarly.

Interestingly it is claimed that Dylan's attempt at being a Secret Agent at NEADS resulted in the bust:

A trip last week to film the former Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome led to the arrest of Oneonta resident Korey Rowe for allegedly deserting from the Army in 2005.

Air Force Office of Special Investigations personnel notified the Oneonta Police Department there was an outstanding desertion warrant for Rowe, city Police Lt. Cameron Allison said.

"An individual was warned about taking pictures on military property in Rome, N.Y.," Allison said Wednesday. "The vehicle was registered to Korey Rowe."

:)

You can't make this stuff up, folks!

The Infighting Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Here's a look back at the 9-11 Denial Movement from a long-timer who's bowing out. He (or she) has some interesting perspectives:

Back then, circa 2002-2003, the Truth Movement wasn't like it is today. Most of us were "Liberals" or "progressives". It was rare you found a "conservative" or "republican" Truther. If there were any, they listened to Alex Jones like crazy and usually stuck in that niche.

That's probably accurate, and is probably while people still assume that the 9-11 kooks are all lefties. But, as we've documented, 9-11 Denial is not just for fringe radicals anymore.

The infighting comes in for some discussion:

Then something happened. Different camps of thought started to spread in each direction. People started to form "cliques" and the "truth" became not so "truthy" anymore. The scientific method was replaced with rhetoric. Massive amounts of data was omitted to fit a more "acceptable" version of 9/11 Truth. It became a war of "No Planers" versus "Planers". No planers versus "only pentagon no planers". Demolition theorists versus non demo MIHOP theorists. Zionism theorists versus Neocon theorists. Thermate theorists versus nuke or ALT DEMO theorists. And so on, and so forth.

And the You Tube zombies come in for some criticism:

Then came the advent of YouTube and easily made websites. Everyone and their Mother's dog became part of this Movement. "Experts" sprang up by the thousands, and their objectivity went out the window with their newly found "911 fame". I started seeing a trend develop with a few, a weird bandwagon enigma, as if they were joining us out of some fad, or to quench their rebellious natures. It wasn't about 9/11 so much, as it was a CULT.

The Alex Jones phenomenon pops up as well:

It was a little later that I noticed people in the Movement were starting to mimic Alex, sometimes word for word, which was creepy. The online 9/11 community became this buzz of thousands of Alex Jones parrots. I didn't mind at the time, I thought, "Well this is better than them mimicking the Government".

And the paranoia:

Everyone was and is suspect in the Movement:

Disinfo, shill, spy, paid informant, NWO con man, CIA asset, "Spook", Sock Puppet, Troll, Socialist, Commie, Leftist Apologist, Hippie, "No Planer", Jesus Freak, Gun Grabber, Illegal Lover, Globalist, Fascist, Censoring Control freaks, stupid Repub, Stupid Democrat, Repuke, Demorat, Right Wing Moron, Left Wing Commie, Pinko Libtard, Neocon puke, Fag, Apologist, Illuminati, Masonic One Worlder.

These are just a few of the names, and they are all coming from 9/11 Truthers......to other 9/11 truthers.

Interesting retrospective. Although Ron Paul is not mentioned in this post, I suspect it was this thread over at the Looser Forum on Paul's "absolutely not" response to a question about whether the government was involved in 9-11 that led to Citizen Pawn's retirement from active "Trutherism".

Fred Thompson's Turn

This one leads with the Council on Foreign Relations and how they're turning America into the North American Union. I've come to the conclusion that this NAU crap is the conservative intro to Trutherism. Be sure to watch through to the end; the last minute or so things get really hectic and she becomes hysterical.

Moron the fruitloop protester here.

Here she is in a somewhat calmer mood (who says Thorazine doesn't work?):



She believes in the kooky internet polls that showed Ron Paul winning all the debates, but she's not crazy.

Here's another one where she proves beyond a doubt that she's not crazy, where she reveals that Rudy Giuliani is in Texas with five law firms, selling parts of Texas to Spain:



Hat Tip: Ace of Spades for the original video with Fred Thompson. Hat Tip to Allahpundit for the latter video.

Korey Freed!

At least that's what he indicates in this brief video:



Although he claims to be a political prisoner, he also says that he's been released but he's going down to Fort Campbell to make sure he's completely out of the system. He closes with a thanks to Alex Jones and says "Screw Loose Change, I'm not going anywhere!"

Of course, there are two problems with that last part. He is going to Fort Campbell by his own account. But also, we were not making any dire predictions for his future, Alex Jones was. During today's show Alex predicted that Korey was going to jail for 5-10 years and that we'd never see him again. Jones also indicated that he had known that Korey was a deserter.

"I knew that Korey had left the military and hadn't gone back and it was just kind of a footnote in my mind... this is clear, this is the Pentagon coming after us, there is no debating this... And you know what, he did leave them. He left a government that has been run by deserter, traitorous scum. He left the Nazi military ladies and gentlemen and that's who runs our government... And now he gets to go to prison... This is army intelligence, you can guarantee it! Korey's going to spend 5-10 years in prison folks. You'll never see Korey Rove (sic) again."

He also does a horrible job of pronouncing Oneonta (it's OH-nee-on-ta, not "Oh-toh-nia").

Anyway, like I said earlier I bear Korey no ill will. I disagree with his movie, but I honor his service and I would be happy to learn that he had fulfilled his hitch and this was indeed a bureaucratic snafu. Unlike Alex Jones, who was probably hoping to milk this for more publicity for Loose Change Final Cut.

More Korey Rowe Updates!

Dylan reports that he's talked to Korey:

He's fine. He'll be home safe and sound in a week or so.

According to Alex Jones, he's been busted on these charges before:

Rowe enlisted in the Army in August 2001 and left in June 2005. He has been out of the Army for over two years. He was previously arrested under similar circumstances but was immediately released.

Sorry, James, but somebody's already registered FreeKorey.com

BTW, I don't feel any schadenfreude about this. I oppose their movie but I don't feel any particular animus towards the Loosers, and Korey has given me no reason to dislike him on a personal level.

9-11: It Was All About Carbon Credits!

Now I've seen everything:

DH: Peter, why did Saddam's Oil-for-Food bank, Paribas, join the May 2000 war games pitting Dr. Barnett's Naval War College or Dr. Deutch's CIA agents against traders employed by Cantor Fitzgerald, Espeed and CO2e.com atop the North Tower?

PT: [BNP] Paribas hired agents to infiltrate and surveil Cantor's offices and subsidiaries for two reasons; first, to obtain intelligence about CO2e.com's daily carbon offset and emissions trading operations and its security measures and, second, to learn how to use Espeed's TreasuryConnect software and switch Cantor's $70 trillion per year sovereign debt and CO2 trades to Paribas investors (including OBL and Saddam!). By 9/11, after months of war gaming, the agents had learned how to switch trades to Paribas and the kickback trustees of their own pension funds after a real-staged terror event.

DH: Field, could Dr. John Deutch's Raytheon-Thales and Citigroup-AMEC partnerships have placed incendiary-laden planes or Otis elevators just below Cantor Fitzgerald's offices so that 652 victims would be burnt alive or forced to jump on 9/11 and help Dr. Barnett produce what he claims to be "the first live-broadcast mass snuff film in history"?

FM: Yes, in fact either or both. I opine they did both for two reasons; greater probability of success and greater difficulty for crime scene investigators in the Ground Zero rubble, to determine the method of introduction of the two halves (Otis elevators and Boeing planes) of what are "binary incendiary cluster bombs". Raytheon-Thales modified Boeing war game jets illegally with QRS11 GyroChips embedded in flight guidance hardware. On 9/11, Deutch's backers guided the Boeing drones precisely into targeted floors and used AMEC sabotage tests to conceal the same type of explosives in elevator cars, elevator machinery room and elevator shafts at the floors hit by the Boeings. When private equity, profit and intelligence are mixed the product is treason and public carnage.

FM is Field McConnell who also bills himself as Captain Sherlock. There's an MP3 file here with an interview between David Hawkins (DH above) and Eric Hufschmid. Hawkins traces this back to Arkansas in the 1970s and Bill Clinton.

Do We Have to Endorse Ron Paul Now?

Some interesting reactions over at the Looser Forum. Fair warning; lots of profanity.

Free Korey!

Allahpundit on Hot Air comments:

Via the boys at SLC, who through a herculean effort have managed to suppress their bubbling schadenfreude at the news.

Sorry Allah, I have been on vacation. All those fruity rum drinks have gone to my head....

Dylan Avery adds:

And, as always, JREF is running rampant with insults and immaturity.

These people can pick on Korey all they want, but unless any of them had the courage to pick up a gun and go overseas, they don't have a leg to stand on.

The nerve of these people.

Yeah OK Dylan, you want to compare DD-214s sometime?

I am considering using those entrepreneurial talents I learned in B-school and making up some "Free Korey" black t-shirts. You have to admit, idiots who will buy anything are the ultimate marketing demographic.

Korey Rowe Busted for Desertion

I'll admit, I assumed that he had served his full hitch, but apparently that is not the case.

"We developed information that he was at a county Route 47 residence in Oneonta last night," Devlin said Tuesday.

Rowe was arrested on a "military warrant" that Devlin said was brought to the attention of deputies by the Oneonta Police Department, who received information from a source outside of that department.

The article states that deserters are not often prosecuted, with only about 5% actually getting court-martialed, although I'd guess that goes up with the prominence of the person and the openness of the desertion.

Hat Tip: BJE (over at JREF).

Update: Our buddy SFC B (aka Detailed Recruiter) provides some context in the comments section:

Obviously I know nothing about Rowe's situation specifically, but I'm willing to hazard a guess about what has happened.

Recently the Army did an IRR muster where Soldiers currently in the IRR were ordered to report for a physical.

This is not the first time such a muster has happened, however, unlike previous musters, the Army was, apparently, very serious about this, and actually declared those who failed to report as AWOL.

I'm willing to bet that Rowe received such orders, ignored them, was declared AWOL, and a warrant was filed.

The Real Franklin Coverup Story

If you've been reading the comments section, you know we've been dealing with a nutty troll called Bohemian Grover, who's constantly imploring people to check out a supposed scandal called the Franklin Coverup. Fortunately, our buddy Gravy at the JREF forum managed to locate the Grand Jury Report on its investigation of the charges.

Brief background: In the late 1980s, the feds seized control of a credit union known as the Franklin Credit Union, in Omaha, Nebraska. A man named Lawrence King, who had sung the national anthem at the Republican National Conventions in 1984 and 1988, headed the credit union. It is apparent that King embezzled funds from the credit union to support his lifestyle, which apparently included the use of (male) prostitutes.

That's pretty bad, but later charges surfaced claiming that King had employed underage prostitutes, both male and female to service major figures in the Republican Party. One book claims that George H.W. Bush, the father of the current president, attended sex parties hosted by King. A grand jury was empaneled to investigate these charges and in 1990 they issued their report, which I'll wager Bohemian Grover has never read, because it is a stinging rebuke to his nutty claims.

We spent most time on the allegations contained in the videotaped statements of four individuals taken by the investigator for the legislature’s Franklin Committee. Two of the victims recanted their video statements and testified that a third victim, Alisha Owen, was perpetrating a hoax for personal gain. All witnesses mentioned by her were sought for corroboration or contradiction. We also viewed videotapes, heard audiotapes, and read depositions of other alleged victims of sexual abuse, which we determined to have no relation to Franklin or persons connected therewith.

Finally, we considered evidence relating to a possible adult male prostitution ring operated throughout the country by Franklin principals, and a possible income tax scheme used by an affluent Omahan to finance male homosexual prostitution. All of the above necessitated our studying satanic and pedophile activity in eastern Nebraska, particularly the Omaha metropolitan area.

When we concluded our investigation, we had met for 82 days, reviewed 395 exhibits, issued 136 subpoenas, heard live testimony from 76 witnesses, watched over 30 hours of videotapes and listened to numerous audiotapes.

And their conclusion?

There is no doubt after reviewing all relevant evidence, that the story of sexual abuse, drugs, prostitution, and judicial bribery presented in the legislative videotapes is a carefully crafted hoax, scripted by a person or persons with considerable knowledge of the people and institutions of Omaha, including personal relationships and shortcomings.

Update: In the original post I referred to King as a black man; as Edmund points out in the comments that has nothing to do with the story.

Update II: I would add that while I am would not be surprised at any story involving individuals committing acts of child molestation, I would say that the odds of such stories being true become vanishingly small the more adults are involved.  Say that the story involves 2 adults; I would say that implies a likelihood of 1/2^2 or 1/4 as likely as a story involving one adult.  Three adults = 1/3^3 or 1/27th as likely.  Four adults?  1/256.

When you get to stories like McMartin, or the Franklin case, or Wenatchie, the possibility is almost infinitesimal, for the simple reason that the crime is so horrific that admitting even one more adult to a pedophile "ring" increases the risk of exposure enormously.

The Airfones Issue Redux

(Update: See the bottom of this post)

Well, every now and then we get lucky. My co-blogger James B did a terrific job of debunking David Ray Griffin's claim about the Airfones having been removed from the 757s prior to 9-11; so good a job in fact that it was the first error that Griffin acknowledged making in his new book, at least briefly.

But then Rob Balsamo and the crackpots over at Pilots for 9-11 Denial got into the act. They posted a revision to the American Airlines 757 repair manual which seemed to indicate that the Airfones had been disabled prior to 9-11.

And here's where the luck comes in. At some point, we attracted the attention of a person who was in position to know a little more about the maintenance of American Airlines planes. He was mostly annoyed at the "Truthers" but when it came to this issue he really got ticked, so he did some digging.

He backtracked from ECO F0878 and came across ECO F0871 and F0874. F0874 tells the mechanics to put the airphone switch to the off position and pull the associated circuit breakers. F0871 requires installation of a placard on all the Airfones in the plane informing the passengers that the phones would no longer work. Both are dated March 2002.

Which means what, sports fans? Yep, that the Airfones on American's fleet of 757s still worked as of 9/11/01, and in fact were not turned off until a good six months later. Thanks greatly to our anonymous source on this! So now it's up to Rob Balsamo and David Ray Griffin to retract their claim that the phone systems were uninstalled prior to 9-11. Surely their source can check out ECO F0871 and ECO F0874 and tell them the dates those were issued?

Update: Rob Balsamo, obviously not the most trustworthy of sources, claims in the comments to have hoaxed me with this series of emails. So let's put up the red light on this one. I still think the JREF crew are right, that the PfT post is a phony. But unlike Rob, I'm not going to leave my post up without a disclaimer. I am no longer confident in this story, and in retrospect it should not have been posted.

Update II: I had a long phone conversation with Rob Balsamo last night. He stated eventually that he had not hoaxed me with the emails. I do feel that I jumped the gun a little with this post. On the larger issue (whether Airfones worked on Flight 77 on 9/11/01), I am confident that they did. Our buddy Pomeroo checked with American Airlines and this was their response:

Ron, I am doublechecking with my maintenance folks so I give you accurate data.

(June 29, 2007)

Ron, engineers at our primary Maintenance & Engineering base in Tulsa tell me that they cannot find any record that the 757 aircraft flown into the Pentagon on 9/11 had had its seatback phones deactivated by that date. An Engineering Change Order to deactivate the seatback phone system on the 757 fleet had been issued by that time.

It is our contention that the seatback phones on Flight 77 were working because there is no entry in that aircraft’s records to indicate when the phones were disconnected.

So this appears to be a validation of both sides on the issue. AA says that there had been an ECO to deactivate the phones prior to 9-11, but that change had not been made on the plane that turned out to be AA77. Note as well that in the Moussaoui trial, the government did not claim that phone calls had been made from Airfones; the phone calls that are listed in the flash animation do not list the row they were made from. This may be an issue with American Airlines as compared to United Airlines as I note that the only call from an AA flight that day that is identified by location on the plane called from is the call from Betty Ong, and that location may have been identified because she stated that she was in her jumpseat at 3R during the call.

The Latest Nuttery

The 9-11 Truthers have made peace with some forces of the antiwar movement, the impeachment movement and the anti-globalization movement to try to get rid of Bush. Now, I know that might sound attractive to some of you, but it's going to happen anyway come January 2009. And aligning yourself with the Truthers is a guaranteed method of marginalizing yourselves, as this statement of sheer fruitcake reveals:

We appeal to leftists, progressives, conservatives, libertarians, independents, and those entering or re-entering politics to transcend the artificial divisions that have diminished their impact. The antiwar, impeachment, anti-globalization, labor, civil rights, veterans, anti-tax, civil liberties, honest election, and 9/11 truth movements—along with civic and progressive religious groups and other issue groups—have been weakened too long by single issues and narrow focus. It is time for these movements to unite as a national coalition on a common platform for independent action. We call for a united front of all organizations and persons of good will based on the following:

1. Impeach, remove, and indict Bush, Cheney and their henchmen.

2. End all wars. All U.S. troops must be brought home at once from Afghanistan and Iraq by any means necessary, including the immediate cutoff of funding.

3. No Bush police-state dictatorship. Repeal the Patriot Act, restore full habeas corpus, respect the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Convention.

4. Government by the People, not by cliques of bankers and financiers.

5. 9/11 truth. Publish the full 9/11 documentation, and re-open the investigation.

I know that #2 looks attractive to a lot of people, but face the facts. If the Democrats couldn't get it done with the control of the House and the Senate, then what good is running a bunch of crackpot candidates in 2008 (one of their proposals) going to do? And any candidate who adopts #5 as part of his or her platform is going to be marginalized. Heck even the "Truthers" don't demand that Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich come out more explicitly for them.

They've got a radio ad that's probably just going to confuse anybody who hasn't been listening to Alex Jones for the last couple of months:

"Are we on the verge of a third world war? Dick Cheney's neocon war party is running the White House again...."

Gee, that's funny I didn't even notice that they'd left. Of course this refers to the fact that the president is undergoing surgery and will be anesthetized and as a result Cheney will temporarily assume the responsibility of the Presidency for a couple of hours.

"....a Canadian NATO officer says that a new 9-11 is needed to stay the course in Iraq and Afghanistan..."

And only a kook would think that means they're planning one....

"A Massachusetts congressman talks about an attack on Iran, followed by martial law in the United States".

He's John Olver and despite these unique ideas and others (he also believes Bush will suspend the 2008 elections) he does not support impeachment which leads one to question just how sincere those beliefs are. They come second-hand:

He is deeply concerned whether we will actually have an election in Nov. '08, as he believes this administration will likely strike Iran from the air, declare a national emergency, and cancel the '08 elections. He sees ending the war as his primary goal, and he believes the brilliant Nancy Pelosi has a strategy more potent than impeachment. He thinks impeachment is a futile waste of legislative energy, will be harmful of democratic '08 victories, and further tighten the "gridlock" he has complained of for the past few decades.

"Peace activist Cindy Sheehan foresees a staged incident to trigger martial law under Bush's new executive orders."

The orders that the ACLU yawns at?

“These presidential directives on the continuity of government have existed for a long time,” says Mike German, ACLU policy counsel. “All it does is establish that they should have a policy and coordinate that policy with legislative and judiciary. It doesn’t change the order of succession, or anything like that.”

Plus, he praised the Bush Administration for making the document public, since previous ones have remained classified.

“I’m glad they made it public,” he says. “The fact that this was done in an open and transparent manner should be applauded.”

There's more, including the Gulf of Tonkin and "another fake 9-11". Because, we've already had one.

NY Press on the Kooks

I am glad to see this proposal by Alarming News is catching on.

Political consultant Karol Sheinin will go one further, arguing instead that the government is retarded and could never get its act together to pull off such a grand scheme unnoticed. “I know enough about the government to know that they are generally incompetent, that they can’t keep a secret” said Sheinin. “All these things are way too complicated, there’s no way our government is that powerful.”

But Sheinin worries that the 9/11 “truth” movement might pick up steam and could eventually become part of our national memory. So in September, on the anniversary of the attacks, Sheinin and others will stand at Ground Zero and hand out pamphlets, titled “The Truth About 9/11.” The inside will not be filled with the rants of crazed pseudo-scientists about the inability of fire to melt steel (then why do we fireproof steel?) or the claim that Donald Rumsfeld tipped his hand regarding the impending attacks in Parade magazine. No, Sheinin’s pamphlets will contain actual truths about 9/11, especially the truth that so many “truthers” cannot seem to grasp: that 19 Muslim men of Middle Eastern descent hijacked four planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Original project post here.

The only thing I would caution them on is that they should not try to debate the "Truthers" directly because they'll not be able to school themselves on the proper debunking of all the "evidence" that the kooks have in the month and a half before 9-11-07. We've been doing this for over a year now so we've pretty much seen it all. For example, the response to "Fire can't melt steel," is not "Yes it can, look at this blacksmith," it's "Nobody says the steel melted."

The Return of Richard Andrew Grove

We debunkers all have our favorite wackos in the 9-11 Denial Movement. James enjoys Karl Schwarz, the CEO of that internationally renowned company, Patmos Nanotechnologies, and Ambassador Leo Wanta, the richest man in the world. Others might prefer Luke "You are scum, sir!" Rudkowski. Teenyboppers no doubt swoon for the Incredible Hunk, Matt Lepacek.

But one of my personal faves is undoubtedly Richard Andrew Grove, who embodies the old maxim that if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS.

An aside here. Back in the early 1990s, I worked as a commercial mortgage banker, arranging loans on apartment complexes. A new type of lender was appearing back then, called conduit lenders. They would make a bunch of loans, then take them over to Wall Street and securitize the package and sell off the securities, generally at a profit.

We had one conduit lender who wanted our business, but every time I tried to nail the guy down on the details he'd start talking smoke and mirrors, driving me crazy with fancy big picture jargon that didn't even make sense, when I wanted nuts and bolts. I've always considered myself a pretty bright guy and by then I'd worked in the business for 15 years with no difficulty, so it wasn't long before I realized that this guy didn't know what he was talking about and was making it up as he went along.

That's sort of how I feel about Grove after listening to him on several occasions. He's certainly entertaining, and you always get the feeling that he's leading up to something profound, but he never quite gets there. It's smoke and mirrors and when it's time to get down to the nitty gritty, he's talking abstract impressionism.

Some of the Deniers claim he's some sort of whistle-blower, but as best I can make out he worked for a software company that did some accounting software package for Marsh & McClennan that siphoned off the money from M&M, and when he tried to report this to M&M they set up a meeting with him. For the morning of 9-11. Dundundunnn! So actually 9-11 was all a plot to kill Richard Andrew Grove, since the executive who was going to be confronted that day called in from home rather than attending that meeting. And all the people confronting the manager were killed except for Richard, who was running late that day.

Of course, how this all fits into the larger picture that the 9-11 kooks have in mind is beyond me. I mean, did Cheney call up the head of Marsh & McClennan to tell him that they had a big false flag attacked planned for the next week and if they wanted to get rid of any pesky whistle-blowers, just have them in the Towers that morning?

Anyway, Grove has decided to put out a movie, or at least what passes for a movie in the 9-11 Denial Movement. It's very typical of the genre; a bit of railing about how the mainstream media doesn't cover this stuff, followed by a whole lot of examples of the mainstream media covering this stuff. There is a long segment of Steven Colbert, but nobody could argue that Colbert's comedy somehow has been silenced.

I'll add some updates as I watch further. Grove's clearly a lefty; lots of talk about poverty, and even a brief audio clip from Mumia Abu Jamal.

If the Shoe Fits

(Click to see full-size)

I am Away From My Desk at the Moment

The last time I said I was off travelling, to China, Alex Jones started claiming that Pat and I had a falling out, so I am curious what will happen this time, but regardless I am off at the beach fighting off sunburns, so go easy on Pat now.

Newt Gingrich Shows How It's Done

If he were running for President (as was rumored at one point earlier in the year), we'd endorse him for being the first political candidate getting it right. Asked what he thinks of Bob Bowman and another military guy who say 9-11 was an inside job, he does not mince words:

"They're insane."

"Anybody who believes that 9-11 was not an enemy attack, is insane."

None of this pussy-footing around about "Send me your information and I'll get back to you." Kudos to Newt, the first politician confronted by the kooks to get an "A"!

Matt Lepacek Harasses Alan Colmes

The new poster boy for the We are Changers follows Alan Colmes around for awhile haranguing him for being part of the New World Order or something. The sound is horrific and does not get better; surely Alex Jones can spring for some better equipment for these kids?

Not All 9-11 Kooks Are Liberal

Here's a video of a self-described "conservative" (actually I'd classify him more as a survivalist a la Alex Jones) who's bought into the whole "no law says I have to pay taxes and the Federal Reserve is a conspiracy and 9-11 was an inside job" fruitcakery.





His CT musings are a cornucopia of the dumbest stuff out there, from "speed of gravity" to "where are the two holes from the titanium engines" to "the Lusitania was sunk to get us into World War I" (amazing how it only took the US two years after the sinking to enter the war). Amusingly, he claims to have a "beautiful wife" and two boys, but when you go to his MySpace page, he describes his status as "single".

And yes, he is a Ron Paul supporter.

Let's Start a Poll to See How Popular We Are!

The numbnuts at 911Truth.org are talking about commissioning another poll, when you think they'd be commissioning somebody to go Saudi Arabia and find the hijackers who are still alive.

"It is definitely time for a new national poll, and 911truth.org is preparing questions now to begin negotiations with a legitimate, respected polling organization. If you can contribute to this effort, which costs $1,000 per question plus $500-1000 for their professional analysis, please contribute ASAP. Please earmark your donation for the poll." -- 911Truth newsletter (7/18/07)

"We're working on the questions and will plan to be negotiating with them tomorrow!!" (7/18/07)

You know why they're commissioning another poll? Because they can't get any publicity any other way. So put together 10 questions and spend $11,000 (including the analysis) on an effort that does nothing other than create a little headline. Instead of using it to, you know, gather evidence?

Ellison Comments Continue to Draw Fire

Watch that one through to the end where the lawyer says that Bush may be worse than Hitler!

The Anti-Defamation League has called upon Ellison to apologize.

Congressman Keith Ellison's comments comparing the rise of Nazism in the aftermath of the burning of the Reichstag to the War on Terror in the aftermath of 9/11 is outrageous and offensive to all Americans. Whatever his views may be on the Administration's response to 9/11 and the conduct of the War on Terrorism, likening it to Hitler's rise to power and Nazism is odious and demeans the victims of 9/11 and the brave American men and women engaged in the War on Terror. Furthermore, it demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about the horrors that Hitler and his Nazi regime perpetrated.

Candidate Stalking Continues

WeAreChange and the Infowars guys continue harassing John McCain on the campaign trail. You know, telling him that WTC7 "fell at the speed of gravity" and yelling through a megaphone that he will be tried for treason, really helps your cause guys.

Ron Paul Will Finish Second At Ames Straw Poll

So says Patrick Ruffini, one of the brightest young minds in politics. I respect his opinion and a straw poll like the one in Ames is made for Paul's type of committed people. More interesting is Ruffini's speculation as to whether the bigger names, like McCain and Giuliani (who aren't officially competing in Ames) will urge their supporters to vote for Paul in order to make Mitt Romney's inevitable win have an air of buffoonery about it.

I see that Ron Paul is up to 3% in the Gallup poll, above Huckabee and Brownback. He won’t come close to winning, but can he aggregate whatever Bilderburger and Trilateral Commission-phobic votes there are in his corner, in the same way that Lyndon LaRouche could get 15% in a Democratic primary against Bill Clinton?

Alfons and Guy Redux

As if they could not get any more self-absorbed these two nutters continue posting their phone conversations. In this episode Guy is all excited because he e-mailed NIST (which I discussed previously) what he calls "evidence", but which everyone else would just refer to as a bunch of 9/11 conspiracy talking points, and NIST sent him back an e-mail acknowledging that they had received it. Both of these guys think this is so monumental that they think NIST should issue a press release on the issue, and they manage to spend the next 45 minutes or so discussing it, although neither one of them seems to have much respect for NIST with Razer referring to them as both "faggots" and "f**kers". Geez, you could use this stuff to torture prisoners at Gitmo, it is so stupid.

Update: Also, is it just me, or is this guy (no pun intended) drunk?

If This Is the Winner....

I don't want to see the second place video. The Dallas Deniers put together a video chock full of 9-11 crankery, starting with the obligatory "9-11 was an inside job!" chant, through signs, through teach-ins which are replete with misinformation, like "Three buildings fell on 9-11." In fact, at least five buildings collapsed on 9-11 (they always forget St. Nick's Cathedral and the Marriot), and several others were effectively destroyed as well. I do like the SC fan at the end who insists that it's more important whether Reggie Bush's family knew about the payments he was receiving to play at Southern Cal.

This won $1000 for the Dallas group of fruitcakes from Alex Jones' Prison Planet site. Yes, low standards indeed.

The K Stands for Kook

A.K. Dewdney recorded a video for the recent Vancouver "Truther"-Fest. He claims that an employee of Canada's air security agency told him that he was placed on a "no-fly" list and didn't care to test that by attending the conference. Of course, it is far more likely that the conference organizers didn't want to pay his expenses and provide an appearance fee for the man who orchestrated "Project Achilles" even if he did provide a Canadian flavor to 9-11 crackpottery.

Dewdney continues to claim that the "cellphone calls" could not have been made from the hijacked planes. At about 1:26 he shows a poster with the "Official Story", the Flight #s, the calls made from that Flight, and the altitude the plane was at when the calls were made. But, as you probably guessed, Dewdney is wrong when he claims that the official story says these were all cellphone calls.



Among the items of evidence presented at the Moussaoui trial was a Flash presentation showing the various flights, the seat assignments, and the phone calls. They even have audio for two of the calls (Cee Cee Lyles first phone call to her husband, picked up by the answering machine, and Betty Ong's phone call to American Airlines).

If we look at the portion of the Flash presentation for Flight 175 we can see the problem with Dewdney's analysis. Here are the phone calls made by Peter Hanson from the Flash presentation.

As you can see, the Hanson's seat assignments were in Row 19, but the phone calls were made from Row 30. How does the prosecution know this?

Because the phone calls were not made from a cellphone, but from an Airfone installed on the seatback of Row 29. If we look at the phone calls made by a flight attendant, we see the same thing except these calls were made from Row 31. Ditto with the Garnet (Ace) Bailey phone calls, from Row 32.

The Flight 77 calls are more problematic; the Flash presentation does not indicate they were made with Airfones. However, you can see that the phone calls on that flight were made at a much lower altitude (Dewdney estimates 7,000 feet), and thus are more likely to connect.

And the Flight 93 calls? The only ones made by cellphone were Cee Cee Lyles' second call to her husband and Edward Felt's call from the rear lavatory, both of which were again made at low altitude.

We'll have more on Airfones later in the day.

Yet Another Celebrity Truther

Now this is the funniest thing I've seen all week:

Janeane Garofalo, Truther?

Yeah, yeah, she did it so that she can maintain some plausible deniability, but this is the exact same way Rosie started expressing her "Trutherism".

We Don't Usually Applaud the Kooks

But this was pretty entertaining:



Smart idea, well-executed with the cuts back and forth between cameras, and even the moment of high drama with the motorcycle cop showing up at the key moment.

San Diego Kooks Pester Local Congresswoman

In this amusing little video. None are willing to let her answer their questions; check how many times they interrupt her in the middle of a sentence. They are so hot for impeachment, apparently failing to recognize that the Democrats realize that their only risk at this point for the 2008 elections is if they seem to be going too far.

They get into this Directive 51 nonsense, which Alex Jones and the fruitloops have been hyperventilating about for weeks. I did a quick search for information on this. The Progressive is concerned, but they checked elsewhere and found disagreement from a rather surprising source:

I decided to see what the American Civil Liberties Union thought of the May 9 release of the National Security Presidential Directive, and to my surprise, the ACLU did not seem that concerned about it.

“These presidential directives on the continuity of government have existed for a long time,” says Mike German, ACLU policy counsel. “All it does is establish that they should have a policy and coordinate that policy with legislative and judiciary. It doesn’t change the order of succession, or anything like that.”

Plus, he praised the Bush Administration for making the document public, since previous ones have remained classified.

Note that she has been to Iraq, but these activists have no interest in her knowledge of the situation; they know better than somebody who's actually been there. She definitely seems to be humoring the crackpots; you can see how hard she tries to keep from smiling as they ramble on about how the US is just as much a terrorist as Bin Laden (to grumbles from those who think Bin Laden isn't a terrorist).

Susan Davis is certainly no conservative; the liberal Americans for Democratic Action gave her a 90% rating in 2006, while the American Conservative Union gave her an 8%.

The 9-11 crackpottery really gets going about 8 minutes in. We hear the crap about how Thom Hartmann can't get anybody to defend the official position.

Thom Hartmann, Truther

Okay, I'm calling BS on this Thom Hartmann challenge.

Thom Hartmann of Air America radio is trying to organize a debate on his show between CT's and debunkers. Unfortunately he can't find anyone to defend the official conspiracy theory. The debunkers are obviously scared.

I saw this mentioned over at 9-11 Blogger something like a month ago. I dropped Thom a line, saying that I would be available and noted my credentials, including being cited in minor regional publications like Time, US News & World Report and Vanity Fair, as well as being interviewed by podunk radio shows like the BBC, Mancow, Rob Breakenridge and Andrea Shea-King.

No response to date. Now, it's funny but that's sort of how things go. I'm not Mark Roberts, but I'm certainly prominent in the debunking movement. Rob Bishop invited me on his show against Dylan Avery; as it happened Dylan was out that evening and so I debated Jason Bermas.

Rob mentioned several times during the show that they were getting record ratings and adding servers to handle the demand.

And I have never been invited on Truther Radio again. Record ratings, and nobody wants to debate me? I'm assuming this is something of a compliment.

Last summer I was baffled when I offered to come on the Mike Newcomb show on the local Air America affiliate to debate the Loosers. But I made the mistake of sending the offer to the "Truther" producer of the show, Jeff Farias, so somehow they never contacted me to get my side of the Loose Change story.

So perhaps I need to look harder at Thom Hartmann. And lo and behold, Thom Hartmann is already on record as a 9-11 crackpot. He signed this nutty 2004 declaration that endorses lots of 9-11 Denial, including James' favorite:

Why were the extensive missile batteries and air defenses reportedly deployed around the Pentagon not activated during the attack?

This one never ends, no matter how many times we remind them that there's a major airport only a couple miles away.

So, Thom, you're a kook, and we don't blame you for not responding to us. The 9-11 Denial movement wins all your listeners because none of the top Debunkers was willing to come on your show. Good, you win.

And your listeners lose.

Join Your Local 9-11 Denial Club and Meet People Like These!

I can't understand why this movement isn't more popular!

The New Engineer

Richard Gage is trumpeting the latest engineering addition to his A&E for 9-11 Denial, J. Marx Ayres. Unfortunately, even a cursory review of his credentials reveals that he's a) 85 years old, and b) a specialist in HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning). Nothing wrong with that specialty, but it's hardly relevant to 9-11 in any way shape or form that I'm aware.

Update: Not sure that this means anything, but his middle name is after Karl, as his father was a communist (according to JMA's bio).

More Mutating Claims

I have always found the "Anti-Missle Defenses at the Pentagon" argument to be an interesting example of truther logic, that something must be true based entirely on their emphatic belief in it. So much that I actually wrote a short paper on the subject. Now it becomes a perfect example of the way their claims mutate, start out in one form and are repeated until things are added. This is from a letter to the BBC from John A. Blacker, a member of the "Scholars" for 9/11 "Truth", who is supposedly suing the Beeb for... I am not quite sure what his legal basis is, but he wants to sue them regardless. Anyway, he attacks the BBC for leaving out this important piece of "information":

No mention the Pentagon had missile batteries which should shoot down any aircraft that is unauthorised entering its airspace, and that both the outer and inner systems failed to activate – yet you interviewed the actual transport plane pilot who knew full well the Pentagon was missile armed and mentioned nothing of this when referring to what he claimed he observed.

Outer and inner systems? There is no evidence whatsoever that these defenses exist, and now he has magically found out that there are two levels of non-existent defenses. And how does he know that the pilot knows about the defenses? Hundreds of planes fly into DC every day, and yet they have never produced a single pilot with any knowledge of air defenses at the Pentagon, not even from the nutter group "Pilots for 9/11 Truth". Are we to believe that they are keeping silent about this too?

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.

Hat Tip to Jon Gold

Who pointed out the flaw in the usual 9-11 Denier claim that the Bush Administration used the anthrax scare to ram through the Patriot Act. Of course, Jon thinks he did something else, but check out his post:

Oct 2, 2001: The Patriot Act is introduced in Congress. The next day, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D) accuses the Bush administration of reneging on an agreement on this anti-terrorist bill. [Washington Post, 10/4/01] Anthrax letters are sent to Leahy and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D) on October 9. [CNN, 11/18/01]

Okay, so we've got the timeline here. Oct 2, Patriot Act introduced. Oct 3 Pat Leahy grumbles about an agreement that he felt he had. Oct 9, anthrax letters sent to Leahy and Daschle. Anything else in there?

Oh, yeah, that Washington Post article dated 10/4/01, which is headlined:

Senate Democrats, White House Reach a Deal on Anti-Terror Bill

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a statement issued at 9:30 p.m.: "These have been complex and difficult negotiations, but after much hard effort we have completed work on this bipartisan agreement."

So in other words, Leahy had already agreed to the Patriot Act by 10/3/01, well before the anthrax letters. Thanks for the assist, Jon!

The Trifecta of Nuttery

If you have an hour and a couple of hundred brain cells to kill, then you can't do better than listening to Kevin "Stalker" Barrett interview no-plane gurus Morgan Reynolds and Rick Rajter on his radio show. It is a regular troika of woo. Barrett tries to avoid taking a stand on the no-plane nonsense while still emphatically coming out for the right of the no-planers to conduct their "research" in a friendly and accepting environment. Reynolds spends most of his time attacking Steven Jones and the rest of the 9/11 truth movement for being mean to him.

Ironically Reynolds makes the (absolutely correct) observation that has somehow been missed by most of the 9/11 truth movement, that thermite has never been used in building demolitions. Of course he misses the fact that neither have Star Wars death beams. In a particular bizarre bit both Reynolds and Rajter argue that the SWDB theory, in keeping with Occam's Razor, is actually the simpler of the theories, because there is less that could go wrong, for example they would not need to steal 4 jetliners from United and American Airlines. Hello, both of the airlines and their employees, not to mention the insurance companies, and crash investigators believe that those planes are missing, they would have to be stolen regardless of whether they were crashed into the towers or not.

In a particularly amusing bit Reynolds even accuses Katie Couric of being in on it. I knew she was just too damn perky for her own good...

What Sort of Man Listens to Alex Jones?

I listened some more to Alex's 7/11/07 show (the one with Cindy Sheehan expounding on false-flag attacks), and this part gave me quite a chuckle. Larry in Idaho gets on the phone to give two points. First, the West Wing of the White has has recently been renovated; Larry fears that's where the attack will come (because the part of the Pentagon that was hit was recently renovated).

But better is the second point. Larry says:

"I've got an inheritance coming, and I've almost got it. But I've been--these oil people are so against what I'm going to do, that they've threatened me and I've had the FBI pick a couple of them up, stuff like that, but I need to send you some documents to prove what I'm saying.

Jones:

"Haven't you faxed those to me? I've gotten a bunch of stuff from you. What is it, fourteen million dollars or something?

No, no, it's $18.5 million, my uncle was killed in a plane wreck."

By this point, a little bell was going off in my head. A wealthy relative killed in a plane wreck? Let me guess, a kindly bank auditor had contacted Larry by email to notify him of his good fortune?

Sure enough, Jones blows him off the line and when they come back from break, he says:

"You know, I just talked to that nice fellow, Larry in Idaho, he called back in and got back in, and it was what I thought, he's going to tell me about Nigeria and he didn't believe me that the emails you get from Nigeria and you send them a couple thousand bucks and you're going to get $18.5 million and you call them back and they say send more and you're going to get it and if people won't listen, I just can't help it anymore."

84% Watch

A protester video with a local flavor, as a Seattle truther group videos themselves hanging banners over I-5 and harassing customers at the Starbucks at the Pike Place Market, to an obnoxious soundtrack. The thing that cracks me up about these is I have watched maybe 20 of them, and I have never seen any with more than 4-5 people, plus whoever is running the camera. This is Seattle, you can get 500 people to protest anything if you try hard enough...

Construction Worker Reports WTC-7 Was "47-Story Fire"

I've got a hunch this guy isn't going to be interviewed in LCFC. Charlie Vitchers, a construction worker who made his way down to the pile on 9-11, discusses his recollection of Building 7 in a 2006 book entitled Nine Months at Ground Zero (Page 15):

"So I said, okay, and started heading east where I ran into more MPs. By about 5 o'clock, I was about a quarter mile away from the Trade Center. I had a clear view down Washington Street of Building Seven, which was on the north edge of the site. All forty-seven stories were on fire. It was wild. The MPs said the building was going to collapse. I said, "Nah, I don't know." And then, all of a sudden, I watched the building shake like an earthquake had hit it, and the building came down."

Oh, the MPs knew the building was coming down? Who gave them the script?