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The Disbelievers ... 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists Are Building Their Case Against the Government
The Washington Post ^ | September 8, 2006 | By Michael Powell, Washington Post Staff Writer

Posted on 09/08/2006 8:02:07 AM PDT by aculeus

He watched the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and assumed al-Qaeda had wreaked terrible vengeance. He listened to anchors and military experts and assumed the facts of Sept. 11, 2001, were as stated on the screen.

It was a year before David Ray Griffin, an eminent liberal theologian and philosopher, began his stroll down the path of disbelief. He wondered why Bush listened to a child's story while the nation was attacked and how Osama bin Laden, America's Public Enemy No. 1, escaped in the mountains of Tora Bora.

He wondered why 110-story towers crashed and military jets failed to intercept even one airliner. He read the 9/11 Commission report with a swell of anger. Contradictions were ignored and no military or civilian official was reprimanded, much less cashiered.

"To me, the report read as a cartoon." White-haired and courtly, Griffin sits on a couch in a hotel lobby in Manhattan, unspooling words in that reasonable Presbyterian minister's voice. "It's a much greater stretch to accept the official conspiracy story than to consider the alternatives."

Such as?

"There was massive complicity in this attack by U.S. government operatives."

If that feels like a skip off the cliff of established reality, more Americans are in free fall than you might guess. There are few more startling measures of American distrust of leaders than the widespread belief that the Bush administration had a hand in the attacks of Sept. 11 in order to spark an invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

A recent Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll of 1,010 Americans found that 36 percent suspect the U.S. government promoted the attacks or intentionally sat on its hands. Sixteen percent believe explosives brought down the towers. Twelve percent believe a cruise missile hit the Pentagon.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 911conspiracy; abelieverbelieves; fifthanniversary; kooks; moonbats; onefryshort; rovedidit; rovekilledkennedy; screwballs; thejoooosdidit; wackos
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To: aculeus

These people are morons...the whole controlled demolition thing is obviously false just from watching the footage; you can see that they collapse at the weak points where the planes hit. And apparently they just ignore the photos of the plane wreckage outside of the Pentagon. But, what do we expect in our celebrity worshiping and paranoid culture when we have people like Charlie Sheen, who is apparently an eminent physicist and structural engineer in addition to being an actor, saying the government did it.


81 posted on 09/08/2006 9:50:39 AM PDT by anthropos
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To: aculeus
A recent Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll of 1,010 Americans found that 36 percent suspect the U.S. government promoted the attacks or intentionally sat on its hands. Sixteen percent believe explosives brought down the towers. Twelve percent believe a cruise missile hit the Pentagon.

Of course, about fifteen percent of Americans are more than two standard deviations below the median. To put that in concrete terms, that's way too dumb to get in the armed forces, even as a warehouseman, stevedore or ammo loader. It's clinically retarded, and literally too dumb to get executed for murder in our country.

I dare say that a pollster can get 12, or 15, or 40 percent of his respondents to go along with any damn fool thing. Damn fools are widely distributed and all-pervasive, and they have more time for poll taking than the rest of us (what do you do when called for a "survey?" I snarl at them and hang up. Let them talk to doofuses with nothing better to do).

The beauty of conspiracy theories is that they take the complex and tie it up in a neat bundle with a single chain of causation (and therefore, a single bad guy or bad group -- traditionally, of course, the Joooooos). This makes it possible for the simple or lazy mind to process the event.

Can't handle the idea of someone that would kill kids because he thinks it's a way to spread his form of worship? No problem, the conspiracists explain that. Don't understand math or physics or chemistry? No problem, neither do the conspiracy merchants.

I dealt with these guys over and over on TWA 800. I remember one telling me that some backyard experiment proved that Jet A does not burn. "How do they use it as fuel then?" I asked. Deer in headlights look. I mean, we can put it in an airplane or helicopter (and you could put it in a diesel truck if you wanted to throw money away) and run on it. But this guy was trying to tell me the big "Flammable" stickers on my fuel farm were there... for no reason. Or in support of the conspiracy.

Note that the 9/11 conspiracy types are most of the same losers. JimRob did us a very great boon when he tossed the vitriolic and antisemitic ones (anyone else remeber Michael Rivero?) right after 9/11.

If you're so far around the bend that you think nothing's on the level and everything's a conspiracy... maybe it's just you.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

82 posted on 09/08/2006 10:34:56 AM PDT by Criminal Number 18F (In which article of the Constitution is the Press assigned a role in government? Precisely.)
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To: mtairycitizen; All

The bottom line is that "The X-Files" was *not* a reality show.


The tinfoil hatters need to get a grip.


83 posted on 09/08/2006 10:38:06 AM PDT by Salamander (And don't forget my Dog; fixed and consequent.........)
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To: fatnotlazy
"David Ray Griffin, an eminent LIBERAL theologian and philosopher,..."

Is that eminent or enema?

84 posted on 09/08/2006 10:40:20 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY ((((Truth shall set you free))))
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To: mtairycitizen

Too late, he flipped out and hit the eject button.

Hidden trolls can only stay that way for so long. Eventually, they must reveal themselves and what is rotting at their brains.


85 posted on 09/08/2006 10:44:47 AM PDT by LongsforReagan ("I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism."- Ronald Reagan)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Is that eminent or enema?


***

LOL. Good one.

Seriously, did you notice that if the guy has moonbat views, he's an EMINENT whatever? Look at all the so-called experts cited in AlSnore's global warming b-s movie? They're all EMINENT.


86 posted on 09/08/2006 10:48:22 AM PDT by fatnotlazy
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To: aculeus; sgtbono2002; oldleft; mtairycitizen; Not just another dumb blonde
It Must Be a Conspiracy
87 posted on 09/08/2006 10:50:58 AM PDT by Mike Bates (Irish Alzheimer's victim: I only remember the grudges.)
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To: NormB
NormB
Since 2003-07-29

"This account has been banned or suspended."

Calling people "moonbats" and blindly refusing to look at anything that counters the mainstream opinion is ignorance.
Shucks, our own in-house moonbat got shot down.
88 posted on 09/08/2006 10:51:01 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: oldleft
1. If the government wanted people to think Al Qaeda brought the towers down, why would it look like a controlled demolition?

It only looks like a controlled demolition to someone not versed in demolitions. When you implode a building, you begin at the BOTTOM so as to use the max weight of the building to best effect. The WTC collapses (the two towers, at least) begin near the TOP, above the damage from the aircraft impacts and fires.

(Someone may question my knowledge of demolitions. True, I was not a demolition man by MOS, my primary skills were weapons, operations and intelligence. I was only cross-trained in demo, but in 26 years in the service you do pick things up. I daresay I have blown more than fifty times as many charges as all the 9/11 conspiracy buffs put together).

Another fave point for the losers is, what happened to ETC 7? They show pictures of the building's intact facade. In fact the other side was all but hollowed out by damage from the collapse of 1 and 2, and the firemen had to withdraw and let the building go.

A third point they make is that this is the only steel building ever collapsed by fire. It isn't, not by a long chalk.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

89 posted on 09/08/2006 10:52:51 AM PDT by Criminal Number 18F (In which article of the Constitution is the Press assigned a role in government? Precisely.)
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To: oh8eleven

Why was this guy banned?


90 posted on 09/08/2006 11:06:08 AM PDT by mtairycitizen
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To: dennisw
With DVDs, lectures and radio appearances

Yep. The TWA800 thing was the same way. Not just selling stuff, but putting the touch on survivors' families. "I'm the only one fighting for the real truth! Send money."

Disgusting.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

91 posted on 09/08/2006 11:09:21 AM PDT by Criminal Number 18F (In which article of the Constitution is the Press assigned a role in government? Precisely.)
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To: Criminal Number 18F

Some of the 911 loons are giving away "debunking" DVDs. Jimmy Walter does. He has lots of inherited? dough from being in the Walter home builders family


92 posted on 09/08/2006 11:21:23 AM PDT by dennisw (Confucius say man who goTHese through turnstile sideways going to Bangkok)
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To: sandra_789
The commie Washington Post presents its crap.

They actually found some column inches that weren't reserved for Macacagate to supplement the slackening supply of seditious schmierfink screed?

93 posted on 09/08/2006 11:28:47 AM PDT by Dr.Deth
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To: aculeus
A recent Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll of 1,010 Americans found that 36 percent suspect the U.S. government promoted the attacks or intentionally sat on its hands.

That's pretty much the Democrat's electoral base points right there.
94 posted on 09/08/2006 11:59:26 AM PDT by BJClinton (What happens on Free Republic, stays on Google.)
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To: Dr.Deth

"supplement the slackening supply of seditious schmierfink screed?"

How many s's are you going to use in a row?

You must must an old newspaper headline writer.


95 posted on 09/08/2006 12:00:05 PM PDT by sandra_789
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To: BJClinton

And it also what the dems would do to get their power back.

Dems always accuse their opponents of doing just what
the themselves will do.


96 posted on 09/08/2006 12:15:46 PM PDT by mtairycitizen
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To: NormB

MOONBAT!!MOONBAT!!MOONBAT!!MOONBAT!!MOONBAT!!MOONBAT!!


Greetings to you fellow moonbat. Ordinarily I'm not one of these, but apparently by every definition thrown around here........I must be one.

I personally believe there is much more to the 9/11 attacks than the official government story. No, I don't come at this with a partisan point of view.....Clinton/algore should have been arrested and jailed for their utter incompotence in keeping this country safe. Listen to the howling from the democrats and the liberals about the upcoming ABC movie for proof that they KNOW Clinton should be held accountable for a whole lot of the causes that led to 9/11.

I do agree though that the TWC towers didn't just.......fall from airplane fuel fires; I also do not see why WTC7 fell either (Silversteen said the building was "pulled"...but we won't go there.) Lastly, jumbo jets have slammed into mountains and have never just "evaporated". No doubt that some intrepid soul will explain to me how re-inforced concrete is stronger than a mountainside, so I'll wait for that salvo to be fired.

So fellow "moonbat".......you're not alone here. I'll get flamed out of existence for my post, but that matters not one bit to me. I WILL tell you this though......if a democrat were in the White House when this horrible day happened, you can bet your a** every argument or "consipracy theory" flame on this board would be flipped 180 degrees. Remember the good old days when the Clintons were murdering people right and left? Lots of folk here used to post those..........."theories" as fact here.



97 posted on 09/08/2006 12:17:20 PM PDT by Dazedcat (Dear God, please make it stop)
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To: Beth528

Yes, we do have something to worry about. There's alot of ignorant people out there. One example: Clinton was re-elected.


98 posted on 09/08/2006 12:49:16 PM PDT by Not just another dumb blonde
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To: okie01
I agree that the WaPo is making political hay out of this, yet the story doesn't really support the 9/11 researchers. It plays to conservative skepticism by calling Griffin a "liberal" academic (when's the last time you saw the WaPo do that?), and peppers the whole story with the idea that it is all too confusing. It's not. I'm not a fan of David Ray Griffin, but his namesake, G. Edward Griffin is also (in reference to Jones) doing some objective analysis. He debunks the hairbrained "missle hit the Pentagon" theory here.

Freedom is eroding here, just as it is in most of the West. I refuse to give in to despair though. We have an incredible array of tools to communicate with our fellow citizens -- much more potent than Samzidat -- and so long as we use them there is hope.

It seems very likely to me that Muslim desperation was included in the 9/11 attacks. Reason tells me that those planes were commandeered by a small group of programmed Mujadeen warriors, they just had help from unexpected sources to make the acts more dramatic. There is a lot of disinformation floating around in cyberspace designed to discredit any accurate 9/11 research. "9/11 In Plane Sight" is among the disinformation, which the author above does a good job of analysing.

The facts support that a plane flew into the Pentagon, although it was probably aided by explosives and possibly a homing beacon planted in the area that it hit (an area undergoing renovation). Likewise, the hijackers didn't need to know how to pilot the planes, as they were modern jets with the onboard capability to land without pilot intervention at the controls, a capability that also allows them to be flown into GPS coordinates at a specified altitude. I think the downed aircraft was shot down because the passengers did take control (unbeknownst to the fighter pilots) and the evidence onboard and the dupes trying to hijack it needed to be eliminated.

The notion that it would involve hundreds or thousands of people to participate in the coverup was thus avoided because there really were hijackings. The few tens of people with direct information can easily have come from the ranks of the true believers who approve breaking a few eggs to "make the world safe for democracy." Even then, there are some whistleblowers who are studiously ignored by the 9/11 truth "debunkers" at the WaPo, Popular Mechanics, the NYT, Time, etc.

99 posted on 09/08/2006 12:55:51 PM PDT by Anthem (One can not lie their way to the truth.)
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To: srmorton

The really frightening thing is that if the poll is accurate more than a third believe in a conspiracy theory. This is essentiallly a problem of human nature.

We all know that history has in fact been full of conspiracies - even before Cicero denounced the Cataline conspiracy in ancient Rome. I say it's a problem of human nature because when people feel the need to INVENT a conspiracy it's simply a way projecting blame on their real or imagined enemies. Sadly, in the case of 9/11 this enemy is the USA.


100 posted on 09/08/2006 12:58:03 PM PDT by T.L.Sink
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