Fahrenheit 2777: 9/11 has generated the mother of all conspiracy theories

Scientific American ^ | June 05, 2005 | Michael Shermer

[demlosers]

Noted French left-wing activist Thierry Meyssan's 9/11 conspiracy book, L'Effroyable Imposture, became a best-seller in 2002.

But I never imagined such an "appalling deception" would ever find a voice in America. At a recent public lecture I was buttonholed by a Michael Moore–wannabe filmmaker who breathlessly explained that 9/11 was orchestrated by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the Central Intelligence Agency as part of their plan for global domination and a New World Order. That goal was to be financed by G.O.D. (Gold, Oil, Drugs) and launched by a Pearl Harbor–like attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, thereby providing the justification for war.

The evidence was there in the details, he explained, handing me a faux dollar bill (with "9-11" replacing the "1," a picture of Bush supplanting that of Washington) chockablock with Web sites.

In fact, if you type "World Trade Center" and "conspiracy" into Google, you'll get more than 250,000 hits. From these sites, you will discover that some people think the Pentagon was hit by a missile; that U.S. Air Force jets were ordered to "stand down" and not intercept Flights 11 and 175, the ones that struck the twin towers; that the towers themselves were razed by demolition explosives timed to go off soon after the impact of the planes; that a mysterious white jet shot down Flight 93 over Pennsylvania; and that New York Jews were ordered to stay home that day (Zionists and other pro-Israeli factions, of course, were involved). Books also abound, including Inside Job, by Jim Marrs; The New Pearl Harbor, by David Ray Griffin; and 9/11: The Great Illusion, by George Humphrey. The single best debunking of this conspiratorial codswallop is in the March issue of Popular Mechanics, which provides an exhaustive point-by-point analysis of the most prevalent claims.

The mistaken belief that a handful of unexplained anomalies can undermine a well-established theory lies at the heart of all conspiratorial thinking (as well as creationism, Holocaust denial and the various crank theories of physics). All the "evidence" for a 9/11 conspiracy falls under the rubric of this fallacy. Such notions are easily refuted by noting that scientific theories are not built on single facts alone but on a convergence of evidence assembled from multiple lines of inquiry.

No melted steel, no collapsed towers.

For example, according to www.911research.wtc7.net, steel melts at a temperature of 2,777 degrees Fahrenheit, but jet fuel burns at only 1,517 degrees F. No melted steel, no collapsed towers. "The planes did not bring those towers down; bombs did," says www.abovetopsecret.com. Wrong.

In an article in the Journal of the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society and in subsequent interviews, Thomas Eagar, an engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explains why: steel loses 50 percent of its strength at 1,200 degrees F; 90,000 liters of jet fuel ignited other combustible materials such as rugs, curtains, furniture and paper, which continued burning after the jet fuel was exhausted, raising temperatures above 1,400 degrees F and spreading the inferno throughout each building. Temperature differentials of hundreds of degrees across single steel horizontal trusses caused them to sag--straining and then breaking the angle clips that held the beams to the vertical columns. Once one truss failed, others followed. When one floor collapsed onto the next floor below, that floor subsequently gave way, creating a pancaking effect that triggered each 500,000-ton structure to crumble. Conspiricists argue that the buildings should have fallen over on their sides, but with 95 percent of each building consisting of air, they could only have collapsed straight down.

All the 9/11 conspiracy claims are this easily refuted. On the Pentagon "missile strike," for example, I queried the would-be filmmaker about what happened to Flight 77, which disappeared at the same time. "The plane was destroyed, and the passengers were murdered by Bush operatives," he solemnly revealed. "Do you mean to tell me that not one of the thousands of conspirators needed to pull all this off," I retorted, "is a whistle-blower who would go on TV or write a tell-all book?"

My rejoinder was met with the same grim response I get from UFOlogists when I ask them for concrete evidence: Men in Black silence witnesses, and dead men tell no tales.

[stands2reason]

Nope...according to the government, the supposed 757 hit at over 500 MPH...at just above ground level at near 2 to 3 feet above the ground due to the hole in the pentagon which started at 2 feet above the ground thus destroying the aircraft almost instantaneously by the massive almost sun like fire that erupted that vaporized the aircraft and everything it was made of except the people and their clothing and uniforms.

Source, please?

[dirtbiker]

Look at the photos of the pentagon after the strike.There is no damage to the grass just in front of the pentagon or anywhere near it.

Well, I'm looking at an aerial photo now, and there IS grass torn up at the site of the hit, where there is grass....Most of the area is a concrete parking lot....

The popular Mechanics story was full of innacuracies and errors and was put out by the cousin of Michael Chertoff, the head of the National Homeland security Department

The PM article list 7 other names, along with Benjamin's. They are David Corburn, Michael Connery, David Enders, Kenin Haynes, Kristin Roth, Tracy Saelinger, Erik Sofge, AND the editors of PM.

I don't think this story has much value except to make you think that nothing was wrong with what happend.

You got the first 3 words right.....

you continue to claim this almost magicial 530 mph figure, the 2 feet altitude, and all sorts of other "facts" as you state them. What's YOUR source?

[stands2reason]

I can't believe that Radioactive has yet to site one source.

Are you going to even bother to back up your assertions? Not one link to one official FEDGOV quote that you claim to cite?

FR has gotten soft. No one should have bothered to begin a debate with you unless you provided a link to one of these "the federal government told us" assertions.

And don't do the "I don't have time" dance. It shouldn't take you 5 minutes to find just one. I would expect you have them at your fingertips -- certainly you saved the links to your facts.

The one I quoted in the previous post should do fine.

[stands2reason]

So, where DO you find this "Official Government Storybook" that Radio keeps indirectly quoting anyway?

[dirtbiker]

Official government story is that the missing engine was vaporized by fire.

Official government story? So, you come here spouting the official government story, declare how we cannot trust the government, that the government lies, THEN, when the official government story is refuted, you CONTINUE to spout the government story!

Have I got it right so far?

[TAdams8591]

WOW!!!!! Your evidence leaves no doubt. Good work!

[Radioactive]

Your logic is convoluted.

I'm saying that the government says that one of the engines was vaporized by the fire. They also say that they found body parts and clothing.

The government story does not compute. It is flawed logic.

I use the government story to illustrate how bad the propoganda got on the 9/11 issue and how so many people have been duped by the propoganda machine that is the government.

You totaly misunderstand my point. I use their story to show that they lied on several points in regard to the pentagon strike along with the NYC twin tower strikes and the WTC building #7 takedown.

If you look into it, the airlines had massive speculation just prior to 9/11...stocks were being sold short....on a massive scale.

After 9/11...the airlines almost went broke. To this ay there are financial probems with the airlines due to 9/11.

And don't forget the VIP's that were warned not to fly on 9/11.

Lots of mis-information on both sides...but a lot of what is being said about a cover up seems to be true.

[Swordmaker]

So, where DO you find this "Official Government Storybook" that Radio keeps indirectly quoting anyway?

I wear a black suit.... oh, I forgot, I don't have a suit anymore... oh, well... I guess it must be because I can think and know how to research and how to sift facts with discrimination... or something like that.

[FourtySeven]

What a great thread! :) I'm going to bookmark this one!

I would like to ask Radioactive though, could you provide ONE source to back up your claims? I'd like to know where you're getting all this. ;)

[Swordmaker]

A mass of itty-bitty pieces weighing tons at 500mph will go through a building.

Using just rough estimates of speed, mass of the aircraft, and assuming a 13 foot cylinder fuselage and a presenting surface of 68 feet by 6 inches for each wing, I calculated the kinetic energy per forward square inch being carried by the 757.

Assuming 500 mph (733 feet per second) and an aircraft weight of 250,000 lbs, using the formula KE=1/2(M*V²), gives us:

KE = 1/2 (250,000Lbs * (733 Ft / 1 sec * 733 Ft / 1 Sec)

KE = 1/2 (250,000Lbs * 537,289 Ft / 1 Sec²)

KE = 1/2 * 134,322,250,000 Ft Lbs / 1 sec²

KE = 67,161,125,000 ft Lbs / 1 sec²!

KE = 67,161,125,000 Ft Lbs!

The fuselage plus wings plus engines presents a gross cross section of ~158,000 square inches. The total kinetic energy per square inch is ~425,000 foot pounds! However, the aircraft was travelling at 733 feet per second... assuming the wall thickness of the Pentagon was only 4 feet, the aircraft punched through that distance in ~5/1000^th of a second, which multiplies the kinetic energy being applied to the wall to ~82,000,000 foot pounds per square inch per ~5/1000^th second. (See note)

According to the ACPA (American Concrete Pavement Association):

...High-strength concrete has a compressive strength of at least 6000 psi and compressive strengths of 20,000 psi have been used in building applications.

Therefore, the force applied to the building COULD have been as much as 4100 times the design strength of the concrete where the plane impacted.

(Note: this calculation assumes all parts of the plane impacting at the same moment and at the same velocity AND all parts of the plane stopped in ~5/1000^th of a second having travelled only 4 feet. In actuality, the nose impacted first... and after a certain amount of crumple, all of the aircraft's kinetic energy could (theoretically, but not practically) be applied only by a small fraction of the 13 foot diameter of the fuselage to the concrete / limestone wall of the pentagon... and the rest of the plane followed at slower and slower velocities.

However, it can safely be said that all 67 BIllion foot pounds of energy carried by the aircraft WERE expended by the time the nose wheel crashed through the C Ring wall.

In other words, one hell of a lot of kinetic energy... more than enough for itty-bitty pieces to travel a long way and do lots of damage to themselves and anything in the way.

[Swordmaker]

If you look into it, the airlines had massive speculation just prior to 9/11...stocks were being sold short....on a massive scale.

You are right... but again you don't tell the rest of the story. Exactly WHO profited? It was people who could reasonably know that certain stocks would be impacted negatively... people like Osama Bin Laden:

San Francisco Chronicle, 9/21/2001 - BIN LADEN'S FINANCES

. . . issued a report on Osama bin Laden's finances ("Black Tuesday: The World's Largest Insider Trading Scam?") saying insiders profited by nearly $16 million.

The money was made on Sept. 6, 7 and 10 in transactions involving United, American, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co., the center said. Morgan Stanley occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center; Merrill Lynch's headquarters offices were nearby.

The figure excluded other unusual trades involving insurance companies with significant exposure to damage claims resulting from the attacks. These include Munich Re of Germany, which expects to pay out more than $1.5 billion, and the AXA Group, a French firm, which could be on the hook for $550 million.

A spokesman for the Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment on a New York Times report yesterday that the SEC had found "benign" explanations for the trading activity.

I think it should be noted that your "massive" short selling was not massive. American Airlines had an increase of 500,000 shares sold short in the month preceding 9-11... but that was only an increase of 20% on the normal risk-takers short sales. To us, $!6 million is a lot of money... to traders at the level of shorting 500,000 shares, it's chicken feed.

Apparently, the potential profiteers were wealthy Arabs... hmmmmm... do you think we might have uncovered a conspiracy???? Yup.

[eyespysomething]

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/pentagon.htm

[Figment]

" No where anywhere has anyone said there were thousands........"

Yes, thousands. It was rush hour and there were thousands of eyewitnesses. Even Art Bell calls people like yourself conspiacy nuts

[Figment]

"who described seeing a missile heading through the sky just before TWA 800 exploded."


Nice try at changing the subject. This is not a flight 800 thread and has nothing in common with it. The Pentagon was hit in broad daylight by a plane and witnessed by thousands of commuters, there is nothing in dispute on this one

[darbymcgill]

In the first place, calling someone "stupid" does nothing to advance your argument.

Secondly, it's the same government that tells us that eye witnesses can't be trusted when hundreds (only 154 interviewed by the FBI) reported they saw a missile strike flight 800. You either believe multiple eye witnesses or you don't.

[Radioactive]

Yes, thousands.

If it was thousands, then if there were thousands on the freeway, surely one of them would have he been hit by a Jet flying at 530 MPH at 2 to 3 feet above the gound.It was after 9:00 am and it was not rush hour. The BS detector has gone off the scale with you.

Even Art Bell calls people like yourself conspiracy nuts

Oh cripes. Art Bell. Art Bell is just like the National Enquirer...full of crap and not one to cast dispersions.

[Radioactive]

Snopes has been discredited on may points in the past.

No where do I say that there was not any damage to the inside of the pentagon.

This is a red herring.

There are more important issues in regard to the pentagon issue.

How can an aircraft flown by poor pilots hit the pentagon two feet above the ground without hitting the lawn in front of the pentagon. It is sort of like driving a Mack truck at over 500 MPH so precisely that at that speed you drove that truck between two cars with only 1/8 inch to spare. Try it. Impossible isn't it?

The maneuvers of that supposed 757 was watched by air traffic control at Reagan international airport and traffic controllers thought it was a military aircraft because of the moves that aircraft made.

The video of the hit that was mistakenly released shows some type of craft hitting the pentagon, but it was not a 757.

And ask yourself this very important question......

ready?.....

Ask yourself this.......how could an aircraft be missing for almost 1.5 hours after being hijacked and fly so far out of the flight plan in the most defended airspace in the world?

That one question...yes that question....which has never been answered by the government is the one question that is driving my skepticism on this subject.

[Figment]

"surely one of them would have he been hit by a Jet flying at 530 MPH at 2 to 3 feet above the gound"

Cars were hit, light poles sheared etc. There is not a single credible source for the missle conspiracy theory

[goldstategop]

Its the X-Files. 9/11 was the work of the secret alien invasion. The ultimate mother of all conspiracy theories.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Swordmaker]

If it was thousands, then if there were thousands on the freeway, surely one of them would have he been hit by a Jet flying at 530 MPH at 2 to 3 feet above the gound.It was after 9:00 am and it was not rush hour. The BS detector has gone off the scale with you.

I said you were an idiot and you have proved it. I posted pictures of the damage done on the freeway including the clipped of light stanchions and smashed windshield of a Mercury Taxi cab... but you STILL claim no damage on the freeway.

It is obvious why your BS detector has been pegged... it is its close proximity to you. You claimed in your first post on this thread that "nothing could change your mind" and it is obvious that your mind is so fixated on the nonsense you have read, that facts, photos, and testimony WILL NOT change your belief in the stories you have heard from people who have not looked at the facts and were not there. You prefer to believe their wacko theories over the facts.