Posted on 12/16/2004 9:12:06 AM PST by jmcclain19
Sept. 11 Conspiracy Theorist Offers $100,000 Prize
By Larry Fine
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jimmy Walter has spent more than $3 million promoting a conspiracy theory the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were "an inside job" and he is offering more cash to anyone who proves him wrong.
The millionaire activist is so convinced of a government cover-up he is offering a $100,000 reward to any engineering student who can prove the World Trade Center buildings crashed the way the government says.
"Of course, we expect no winners," Walter, 57, heir to an $11 million fortune from his father's home building business, said in a telephone interview from California on Wednesday.
He said a panel of expert engineers would judge submissions from the students.
Next month, he also launches a nationwide contest seeking alternative theories from college and high school students about why New York's World Trade Center collapsed. The contest offers $10,000 to the best alternative theory, with 100 runner-up awards of $1,000. Winners will be chosen next June.
The World Trade Center's twin towers were destroyed after hijackers slammed two commercial airliners into them. The attack in New York killed 2,749 people.
Various official investigations give no credence to Walter's theory. A Sept. 11 commission spokesman did not return calls seeking comment.
Walter insists there had to be explosives planted in the twin towers to cause them to fall as they did, and also rejects the official explanation for the damage done at the Pentagon (news - web sites).
"We have all the proof," said Walter, citing videotapes and testimony from witnesses.
"It wasn't 19 screw-ups from Saudi Arabia who couldn't pass flight school who defeated the United States with a set of box cutters," he said. He dismissed the official Sept. 11 commission report, saying, "I don't trust any of these 'facts.'"
Walter has spent millions of dollars to bolster support for his case, running full-page ads in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker and Newsweek, as well as alternative newspapers and 30-second TV spots.
He points to a Zogby poll he commissioned last summer that showed 66 percent of New Yorkers wanted the 9/11 investigation reopened.
Walter has spent about 30 percent of his net worth on his efforts.
"I am a patriot fighting the real traitors who are destroying our democracy. I resent it when they call me delusional," he said.
I'll agree with him on that, but only because the United States was not defeated. We were hit, but we are far from defeated.
To my mind, nobody has ever seriously looked at the performance of the fire suppression systems in those buildings. There were a lot of rumors at the time that they had been sabotaged as part of the plan. Of course, such a thing would be relatively easy to do, and is no indicator of a large government-abetted conspiracy.
Surely there is no way that a moving truck full of explosives brought down the federal building in Oklahoma City then.
Weren't there similar conspiracy theories about that too, additional explosions that were allegedly heard? Wasn't Clinton president then?
A quick Google:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/OK/ok.html
But it's SO much more fun to hear of how this guy wastes his money instead.
$3M so far... LOL.
Well, who wouldn't resent it?
By the way, sir, you're delusional.
If my dad had left me 11 million and I was pissing it away like this he'd reach out of the grave and slap me stupid(er)!
Is this nut job the son of THE Jim Walter? Purveyor of fine cardboard castles.
Those hovels were the precursor to the double wide and built even worse.
Brother Dave Gardner used to crack jokes about "them Jim Walter homes."
Cool! Good link to refute these conspiracy theorists.
The one engineer in it should apply for the 100G prize. hehe Say, "Oh yeah, I just came up with this! Yeah, that's the ticket...."
This blowhard should look at the engineering studies that went into the construction of the twin towers. The architects were very up-front about saying that a collision of an airliner (they modeled based on a Boeing 707) would bring the towers down after four hours, as the fire degraded the steel. It was thought at the time that this would leave sufficient time for evacuation using helicopters from the roof.
As it turns out, they were off by a few hours, but a few things changed from their model. For one thing, the fireproofing was replaced with a less effective non-asbestos subsitute. Also, the fuel load of the 757s was considerably more than the fuel load they used in the 707 model. Also each of the two turbofan engines of the 757s were much bigger and heavier than any of the four engines of a 707.
In any case, the original engineering analysis seems pretty close to right on the money to me. Crash airliners into those buildings, and they will burn for a period of time, and eventually fall down. The difference between one and four hours means the analysis was 99% right.
Anybody that uses this basis to collect owes me 20%...
I don't think sprinkler systems are designed to survive the impact of a fully loaded jumbo jet. I've always found that cutting pipes in half limits their ability to pump water or anything else.
You are so cute!
Wouldn't it make more sense for this whack job to spend his daddy's money proving:
1. That TWA800 blew up the way the government says it did.
2. That the middle-eastern looking guy who rented the truck with McVeigh was really just a film anomoly and the guy really doesn't exist.
Why would I take seriesly an article written by one of The Three Stooges?
www.stoogeworld.com/_Biographies/Larry.htm
Wasn't Clinton president then?
Government conspiracies are only possible when a Democrat is President.
For some extra moonbat brownie points, be sure to also throw in that the Mossad was also involved.
Osama says he did it. Does he get the 100K award?
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